Takeoff workbenches
Estimateria vs STACK for door, hardware and finish takeoffs
STACK is a broad cloud takeoff and estimating platform covering many trades, with items, assemblies, regional cost data and proposals — the right shape for a contractor who wants one system for everything. Estimateria is deliberately narrow. It goes deep on the door, hardware and finish schedules, reads them off the drawing rather than asking you to measure them, prices the hardware, and keeps every row tied to its page. If your bid is won or lost on those schedules, narrow and deep beats broad.
What STACK is
A cloud platform for commercial contractors and subcontractors. Upload plans and it names the sheets and flags revisions; measure linear, area, count and volume; apply items and assemblies from trade catalogs; price on a worksheet-style estimate with regional cost data; overlay drawing versions; produce proposals; connect to ERP and Excel. Viewer seats are unlimited. STACK IQ, added in September 2026, exposes the product over MCP so an assistant like Claude or ChatGPT can drive it.
What Estimateria is
A specialist workspace for door, hardware and finish work. It reads the schedules off the sheets instead of having you measure them, keeps one row per door mark, breaks hardware sets into items it prices from suppliers, and keeps the trail from every quantity back to the page and the region it was read from. Its measurements now carry conditions and assemblies into a running bid, supplier quotes and a recap with a scope letter, on a smaller set of trades than STACK.
How the same job goes
One door schedule on a set of architectural PDFs, from the drawings to a priced, exportable list.
In STACK
- 1Upload the plans; sheets are named automatically and revisions are flagged as they land.
- 2Calibrate and measure the conditions for the trade — linear, area, count, volume.
- 3Apply items and assemblies from a trade catalog so quantities carry costs.
- 4Price on the worksheet estimate, with regional material and labor data.
- 5For the door schedule itself, read the table on the sheet and enter the openings.
- 6Produce the proposal, or push the estimate to your ERP.
In Estimateria
- 1Upload the set. Pages are classified locally, so the schedules and floor plans are already located.
- 2Select the schedule on the page; the rows land in the grid keyed by door mark.
- 3Review the flagged rows against the drawing, one click to the source page.
- 4Hardware sets break into items, matched and priced from supplier listings.
- 5Measure millwork on a calibrated plan where there is no schedule to read, and give each measurement a condition and assembly.
- 6Level supplier quotes, run the recap and write the scope letter.
- 7Export the estimating package to Excel, or the marked-up sheets to PDF, and take it into your main system.
1 · On the sheet
The schedule table on page 3 of A-601, found on the sheet and selected.
2 · In the grid
| Mark | Type | Size | HW |
|---|---|---|---|
| 101 | Hollow metal | 3'0" × 7'0" | HW-01 |
| 102 | Solid core wood | 3'0" × 6'8" | HW-04 |
| 103 | Hollow metal | 3'0" × 7'0" | HW-01 |
| 104 | Storefront pair | 6'0" × 8'0" | HW-07 |
One row per door mark, editable like a spreadsheet. Sample data.
3 · Back to the page
Door 102
Solid core wood · HW-04
A-601 · p.3Opens the page at the row it was read from
A reviewer checks the number against the drawing in one click.
Stay with STACK when
- You need one platform across many trades, with items, assemblies and cost data.
- Your estimating team is already trained on it and the historical data lives there.
- ERP connectors, regional cost data and trade catalogs across many trades are part of the job.
- You need revision overlay and automatic sheet naming today.
- Unlimited viewer seats matter because reviewers outnumber estimators.
Choose Estimateria when
- Door, hardware and finish schedules are the core of your bid, not one condition among twenty.
- You want the schedule read off the sheet rather than measured or typed.
- You want hardware broken into priced items in the same grid as the openings.
- You want to ask where a number came from and get the page, the region and the producer.
- You want something light beside a general platform rather than a replacement for it.
Side by side
| Feature | Estimateria | STACK |
|---|---|---|
| Breadth of trades | No Door, hardware, finish and millwork measure. |
Yes Broad multi-trade coverage with trade catalogs. |
| Measurement on plans | Yes Calibrated area, length, perimeter, count, cutouts and volume (an area times a depth you enter), with per-region scales. |
Yes Linear, area, count and volume; a core capability. |
| Schedule table extracted to rows by door mark | Yes Purpose-built door, hardware and finish modules read the table off the page. |
No Built around measuring conditions on the plan, not reading schedule tables. |
| Hardware set breakdown and pricing | Yes Sets split into items, linked, priced from suppliers and a price library, and selected in the grid. |
Partly Items and assemblies with regional cost data, but not a door hardware set workflow. |
| Items, assemblies and cost data | Partly Conditions, assemblies with waste and labor rates, cost items and a price library you fill. No regional cost data or prebuilt trade catalogs. |
Yes Items and assemblies from trade catalogs, priced on a worksheet estimate with regional cost data. |
| Proposal, quotes and recap | Partly Supplier quote levelling, alternates, allowances, unit prices, a recap and a scope letter. Soliciting quotes and full bid management are not built. |
Yes Proposals from the estimate, with ERP and Excel connectors. |
| Symbol counting on the plan | Partly Doors, rooms and count-by-exemplar as suggestions you review. Accuracy measured on synthetic drawings only. |
Yes Auto-count of symbols and measurement suggestions, shipped since 2024. |
| Sheet naming and revision flagging on upload | Partly Pages are classified and sheet numbers read off; no revision detection. |
Yes Sheets named and revisions flagged automatically. |
| Revision overlay | Partly Sheets of a reissued set are paired by sheet number, with your takeoff cost inside each changed area. It reads text, not lines, and there is no visual overlay. |
Yes Overlay of drawing versions. Some reviewers report replacing whole sheets when addenda arrive. |
| Where a quantity came from | Yes Every row and accepted detection carries its page, its region and its producer. |
Partly Quantities tie to the condition that made them; no documented re-linking across revisions. |
| Free viewer seats for reviewers | No No seat model published yet. |
Yes Unlimited viewer seats on the platform. |
| Drive it from your own assistant | No Not built. The assistant lives inside the app. |
Yes STACK IQ exposes the product over MCP at no extra cost on every plan. |
| Company-wide estimating and bid management | Partly The takeoff, the running bid and the recap. There are no bid invitations or bid packages, and the Procore connection only signs in; nothing is imported from it yet. |
Yes Positioned as a full estimating platform. |
Reviewed September 2026, from public information. Products change. Spot something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.
What Estimateria does not do
If one of these decides the job for you, STACK is the better answer and we would rather you knew now.
- No regional cost data or prebuilt trade catalogs. Assemblies and the price library are ones you build and fill.
- No visual revision overlay; reissued sheets are compared by number and text only.
- No 3D and no BIM.
- No bid management and no ERP connectors. A Procore connection exists, but it only signs in for now.
- The assistant lives inside the app: there is no MCP server to drive it from your own assistant.
- No published seat model, so nothing to compare on unlimited viewers yet.
What it costs
- STACK
- The vendor page shows Takeoff and Estimate from $249 per user per month, Build and Operate from $49, the full platform from $298, and a free version of Takeoff and Estimate. A competitor's article shows $2,999 a year for a single seat; the two conflict, so check directly.
- Estimateria
- Sign-up is open and free while the product is being built, so there is no published price yet. The free calculators need no account at all.
Prices are what the vendor published when this page was reviewed, and they move. Check with STACK before you budget.
Common questions
Can Estimateria sit alongside a general takeoff platform?
Yes, and that is the common case. Use it for the schedules and hardware pricing, then take the exported result into STACK or whatever your estimating system is.
Why are some rows marked as partly?
We only state what we can verify from public information, and we mark our own half-built features honestly too. Where a capability is real but narrower than the other product's, the row says so rather than claiming a tie.
STACK counts symbols automatically. Do you?
Doors, rooms and count-by-exemplar run as suggestions an estimator accepts or rejects. Every accuracy figure we have is from drawings we generated ourselves; no real plan set has been measured. STACK's counting has been in customers' hands since 2024.
What about the complaints about speed on large sets?
That is a recurring theme in STACK's public reviews, along with annual price rises and paying for modules you do not use. We have no comparable body of reviews — the product is new — so treat that as a genuine unknown rather than a point in our favour.
Other comparisons
- Takeoff workbenches vs PlanSwift The long-standing desktop takeoff tool with drag-and-drop assemblies, and what changes in a browser.
- Takeoff workbenches vs On-Screen Takeoff The Windows estimating standard with multi-condition takeoff, and what a browser-native tool trades for it.
- Spreadsheets and general tools vs Excel The spreadsheet most estimates end up in, and how retyping schedules into it compares with extracting them.
See it on your own set
The fastest way to compare is with your drawings. Create an account and put a set through it.