Electrical contractor estimating software: which kind you need
Two products, one search term
Commercial electrical estimating means takeoff: you load drawings, count receptacles, switches and fixtures, measure conduit and wire runs, apply labour units from a database, and produce a bid for a building. Accubid, ConEst, McCormick and Trimble own that category. If that is your business, this page is not for you — go and price them directly. We have not verified their pricing and will not guess.
Residential and light commercial service estimating is a different job entirely. Nobody hands you drawings for a panel upgrade. You price from a book, present options, and win on trust. That is field service software.
The high advertised click price on this term comes from the first group. It is not a signal about the second.
What service estimating actually needs
Two things. A price book, so a dedicated circuit costs the same whoever quotes it. And option presentation, because electrical work — panel upgrades, EV chargers, generator installs — is where a good-better-best quote reliably raises the ticket over a single number.
| Tool | Starts at | Users included | Best for | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Housecall Pro | $79/mo | 1 | Five to eight electricians | Price book + proposal tool |
| Jobber | $49/mo | 1 | One to four people | Optional line items, cheap seats |
| ServiceTitan | Quote only | Unlimited | Ten vans and up | Best service estimating; quote-only |
| QuoteIQ | $29.99/mo | 1 | Solo electricians | Cheapest; financing on every tier |
Housecall Pro — best service estimating under enterprise
$79/mo · Five to eight electriciansJobber’s closest competitor, priced for teams rather than solos, with stronger dispatch and marketing tooling.
The flat-rate price book from Essentials at $189/mo with five seats gives you consistency, and the sales proposal tool on Max at $329 presents tiered options — which suits EV and panel work particularly well.
What it does well
- Five seats included on Essentials is the best seat-per-dollar deal of the three once you are past two people.
- Dispatch and routing are stronger than Jobber’s at the equivalent tier.
- Recurring service plans on Max are genuinely good if you sell maintenance contracts.
What it does badly
- Worst entry price in the category: $79/mo for a single user, 60% more than Jobber Core for less.
- Extra seats on Essentials are $100/mo — the most expensive seat of any tool here.
- Add-on pricing is not published. You will get those numbers on a sales call, not off the website.
Who it fits: Two to eight people. The seat maths only starts working in your favour once you have a crew.
Jobber — best value for a small shop
$49/mo · One to four electriciansThe default field service platform for small home service businesses, and the one most operators compare everything else against.
Optional line items on the Grow plan at $199 let the homeowner tick the surge protector or the load-managed EV install themselves. That mechanism raises average job size more reliably than any amount of sales training.
Core is $49/mo plus $29 per seat for the basics. No takeoff.
What it does well
- The most polished product in the category. Onboarding is fast and the mobile app is the one crews complain about least.
- Client-facing experience — booking page, quote approvals, payment — is a step above everything cheaper.
- Deepest integration list, so it fits whatever you already run the books in.
What it does badly
- The advertised entry price is one user. Seats are $29/mo each on every tier, so a three-person crew on Core is $107/mo, not $49.
- Automation that most operators consider essential — reminders, follow-ups — is Connect and up, a 2.8x jump from Core.
- Prepaid annual pricing is what the marketing quotes; the no-commitment monthly number is meaningfully higher.
Who it fits: One person to a mid-size crew. The Core tier is genuinely usable solo; the useful automation starts at Connect.
QuoteIQ — cheapest option
$29.99/mo · Solo electriciansField service software built for exterior cleaning and outdoor home service crews, with property measurement baked into the quote.
$29.99/mo, with consumer financing on every tier — genuinely relevant for a $4,000 panel upgrade quoted to a homeowner thinking in monthly payments.
Built for exterior trades, and it is not a takeoff tool.
What it does well
- Cheapest real entry point of anything in this category — $29.99 gets a working quote-to-invoice loop, not a crippled trial tier.
- MapMeasure Pro measures a property off satellite imagery, which is the actual job on a lawn, driveway or roof quote.
- Every tier includes the features. No add-on menu bolted on at checkout.
What it does badly
- Smaller company than the incumbents. Fewer integrations, and you will occasionally be the person filing the bug.
- Built around exterior and outdoor trades. If you run commercial mechanical, this is the wrong shape.
- Seat counts are tight below Elite — a four-person crew is already on the $149.99 tier.
Who it fits: Solo operator to a four-person crew, mostly exterior cleaning and outdoor work.
ServiceTitan is the strongest service estimating platform here for a large shop, with the usual quote-only pricing, annual contract and paid implementation.
How we picked
Prices read off each vendor’s pricing page on 31 August 2026, no-commitment monthly rate with seats added. We scored service estimating — price book consistency, option presentation, financing — and deliberately did not score takeoff, which none of these do.
We earn nothing from Jobber or ServiceTitan.
What we would do
Bidding commercial off drawings: Accubid, ConEst or McCormick. None of these.
Solo: QuoteIQ at $29.99 or Jobber Core at $49.
Two to four: Jobber Grow at $199 for optional line items.
Five or more: Housecall Pro Essentials at $189.
Questions operators actually ask
What is electrical estimating software?
Two different products. Commercial estimating and takeoff — Accubid, ConEst, McCormick, Trimble — counts devices and measures conduit runs off drawings, applies labour units and produces a bid. Field service software quotes a homeowner for a panel upgrade or an EV charger. They serve different businesses.
Do I need takeoff software for residential work?
Almost never. Residential and light commercial service is priced from a book and from experience, not measured off a plan set. Takeoff tools are built for contractors bidding schools, warehouses and office fit-outs, and they carry pricing to match.
How should I estimate a panel upgrade or EV charger?
From a flat-rate price book, presented with options. EV and panel work is option-selling — a basic install versus a load-managed one — and presenting two or three choices raises the average job compared with quoting a single number.
Why does this keyword have such a high advertised click price?
Commercial electrical contractors are bidding on it and estimating licences are expensive. A high cost per click reflects the market advertising against the term, not whether the product suits your business.
Which commercial estimating tools should I look at?
Accubid, ConEst, McCormick and Trimble are the names that come up most for electrical takeoff. We have not verified their pricing so there are no figures here — every price on this site is read off the vendor's own page and dated.