Aug 7, 2026

Fence Cloud Review 2026: Pricing, Pros, Cons, Alternatives

Fence Cloud starts at $220/month. What each tier gates, the 8 limitations reviewers name, and 4 alternatives with published prices.

Fence Cloud pricing page as published on the vendor's own site

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Page at a glance

Fence Cloud is A fence-only estimating engine with a CRM bolted on, priced by seat band rather than per user, from a vendor that has been selling fence estimating software since 1981. It starts at $220/month per account, 1-3 users and 2 company profiles included. Seat bands, not per-seat pricing. Every plan carries the identical feature set and the only difference between tiers is the user cap and the company-profile cap. The pricing page states it plainly: "No matter the size of your business or Fence Cloud package, you get access to every great feature we have to offer." Adding a 4th user pushes an Essential account onto Professional at $345/month, a jump of $125/month for one seat. It fits Fence contractors running 2 to 16 office and estimating seats on residential and commercial fence installation, where the bid is won or lost on how fast and how accurately somebody can produce a material breakdown and a shop drawing. It's the wrong buy for A landscaping contractor looking for a design, scheduling and crew-routing platform, because Fence Cloud has no landscape design, no route optimization, no crew time tracking and no maintenance-contract billing. And the vendor is explicit that the scope is fencing only: "Fence Cloud serves the fencing industry and only the fencing industry." The estimating engines are chain link, wood, vinyl, ornamental and a miscellaneous engine built for agricultural and split-rail fence. So a landscaper who also builds fence would be buying a fence estimator, not a landscaping system. Alternatives that publish their prices are Jobber from $24/month, Werx from $49/month, Visual Fence Pro from $150/month. Three priced tiers, eight evidenced gaps and four alternatives, three of which publish a figure.

The short verdict on Fence Cloud

Fence Cloud earns its money with Fence contractors running 2 to 16 office and estimating seats on residential and commercial fence installation, where the bid is won or lost on how fast and how accurately somebody can produce a material breakdown and a shop drawing. If that's you, it does the job. The sections below are the parts worth checking before you sign. But the fit is narrower than the marketing suggests, and the price isn't the whole cost.

It starts at $220/month. And pricing was verified on 7 August 2026, so you can check every figure below in a browser tab.

Quick facts, verified 7 August 2026. Sources are linked where each figure is discussed.
Pricing model	Published tiers
Entry price	$220/month
Users	Seat bands, not per-seat pricing. Every plan carries the identical feature set and the onl
Ownership	CJR Ventures, Inc. d/b/a Software Design Associates
Best fit	Fence contractors running 2 to 16 office and estimating seats on residential and commercial fence installation, where the bid is won or lost on how fast and how accurately somebody can produce a material breakdown and a shop drawing.
Accounting sync	QuickBooks (from Fence Cloud) (none), QuickBooks Premier / Enterprise (from CFS, the legacy desktop product) (one-way)

What works

Material takeoff is the whole point, and it runs off 117 pre-loaded supplier catalogs
Shop drawings cover chain link, vinyl and ornamental, which is unusual at this price
Lead capture is a website embed plus an optional $99/month map-draw widget
Invoicing, ordering and inventory exist, but the money stops at the invoice
E-signature and appointment reminders ship on every tier

What does not

There's no independent review record anywhere, so every quote you'll read about Fence Cloud is one the vendor chose
Six of the ten published testimonials praise CFS, the legacy Windows desktop product, not Fence Cloud
The refund policy and the Terms of Service say opposite things about cancellation
Fence Cloud publishes no integrations at all, and the QuickBooks bridge belongs to the legacy desktop product
Your data comes back on the vendor's terms, and only for 60 days

Fence Cloud is A fence-only estimating engine with a CRM bolted on, priced by seat band rather than per user, from a vendor that has been selling fence estimating software since 1981. It sells to Fencing and Landscaping and Pools contractors, and the shape of the product follows from that: You enter fence type, height and run and the engine returns a full material breakdown down to fittings and tie wire, priced against a supplier's own catalog. The suppliers page carries 117 counted material catalogs: 34 ornamental, 31 vinyl, 22 chain link, 16 miscellaneous or hardware, 12 wood and 2 composite. And the vendor lets you combine manufacturers into what it calls "super estimating engines" and save the result as a template. Six FSG branches additionally feed live branch-level costs with quantity discounts applied.

Ownership matters here more than it usually does. Fence Cloud is owned by CJR Ventures, Inc. d/b/a Software Design Associates, so weigh roadmap risk alongside the feature list. An independent product can be bought and folded into somebody else's plan two years after you sign.

Who should be shortlisting Fence Cloud

It fits Fence contractors running 2 to 16 office and estimating seats on residential and commercial fence installation, where the bid is won or lost on how fast and how accurately somebody can produce a material breakdown and a shop drawing. That's the half most reviews print. Here's the other half, which is the one worth your time.

Don't buy it if you're A landscaping contractor looking for a design, scheduling and crew-routing platform. Fence Cloud has no landscape design, no route optimization, no crew time tracking and no maintenance-contract billing. And the vendor is explicit that the scope is fencing only: "Fence Cloud serves the fencing industry and only the fencing industry." The estimating engines are chain link, wood, vinyl, ornamental and a miscellaneous engine built for agricultural and split-rail fence. So a landscaper who also builds fence would be buying a fence estimator, not a landscaping system. Look at Jobber instead.

Don't buy it if you're A pool builder or any contractor running long multi-phase builds with subcontractor scheduling and progress billing. There's no phase scheduling, no subcontractor management, no progress or draw billing and no selection tracking anywhere in the published feature set. Invoicing exists but it's generated from an estimate or a retail sale, which is a one-shot transactional model. So pool construction, with its inspection gates and staged payments, has no home in this product. Look at JobNimbus instead.

Don't buy it if you're A fence company that wants one system for quoting, taking payment and syncing to accounting. Fence Cloud publishes no payment processor and no accounting integration. The only QuickBooks bridge Software Design Associates documents is a CFS desktop interface for QuickBooks Premier or Enterprise 2008 or later, not a Fence Cloud connector, and the directory listing for the product reads "No Integrations at this time." So you'll be re-keying invoices by hand. Look at Jobber instead.

Don't buy it if you're A buyer who needs verifiable third-party proof before signing a $2,200 to $5,450 annual commitment. There's no independent review corpus to check. Capterra, Software Advice, GetApp, G2 and AlternativeTo have no Fence Cloud profile; SourceForge and Slashdot have a profile with zero reviews. And every testimonial in circulation is vendor-selected, undated and mostly about the predecessor desktop product. Look at Jobber instead.

What Fence Cloud costs

So Fence Cloud shows what it charges. Below is each tier, what it gates, and the costs that sit outside the subscription entirely.

Fence Cloud plan tiers, read off the vendor's own pricing page on 7 August 2026. The gated column is the one that matters, because it's what you're buying when you move up.
Tier	Price	Billing unit	What it unlocks
Essential	$220/month	per account, 1-3 users and 2 company profiles included	Nothing beyond the tier below
Professional	$345/month	per account, 4-10 users and 5 company profiles included	Nothing beyond the tier below
Ultimate	$545/month	per account, 11-16 users and 10 company profiles included	Nothing beyond the tier below
Enterprise	Quote only	per account, 17+ users and 11+ company profiles, quoted by phone	phone call to (800) 544-2536

Seat bands, not per-seat pricing. Every plan carries the identical feature set and the only difference between tiers is the user cap and the company-profile cap. The pricing page states it plainly: "No matter the size of your business or Fence Cloud package, you get access to every great feature we have to offer." Adding a 4th user pushes an Essential account onto Professional at $345/month, a jump of $125/month for one seat.

There is a discount for paying annually up front: Annual billing costs 10 months instead of 12. Essential is $2,200 billed annually against a struck-through $2,640, Professional is $3,450 against $4,140, and Ultimate is $5,450 against $6,540. The page labels this "2 Months Savings". Annual buyers should read Terms of Service section 9 first, because the cancellation mechanics on an annual Selected Plan are materially worse than on a monthly one. And an annual prepay discount tells you an annual commitment exists, which is worth knowing before anyone mentions a term length out loud.

What isn't in the Fence Cloud number you get quoted

Payment processing. Fence Cloud shipped invoicing and ordering ("Invoicing and ordering can be created from estimates and retail sales, and generate their own purchase orders") but names no card processor, no merchant account and no rate anywhere on the site. So ask sales directly: can a customer pay a Fence Cloud invoice online, and if so who processes the card and at what rate?

Implementation and onboarding. No setup, onboarding or data-migration fee appears on the pricing page or in the FAQ. The vendor's stated implementation model is self-serve: "Every account comes with access to a manufacturer/supplier library ready for estimating. Estimating engines are preset with industry standards... you can start estimating on day one, and save the menu customization for your slow season."

Minimum term. The minimum term is whatever Selected Plan you clicked on signup. Terms of Service section 8: "The initial term of this Agreement is specified in the Selected Plan (“Initial Term”)." A monthly plan is a one-month term and an annual plan is a one-year term, and section 9's worked examples confirm the annual term behaves as a genuine 12-month commitment.

Getting out. There is no separate termination penalty, because the contract simply keeps billing you. Terms of Service section 11: "You will remain liable for all Fees to be paid to SDA until the last date of Term even if you terminate this Agreement early." Section 10 adds that termination "shall not relieve Customer of the obligation to pay any fees accrued or payable to SDA prior to the effective date of termination."

Auto-renewal. Automatic, on the same plan, for the same length as the initial term. Terms of Service section 8: "Unless you notify SDA either online or in writing that you wish to cancel this Agreement before the end of the Initial Term or a Renewal Term, then this Agreement will keep automatically renewing under the same Selected Plan for the same period of time as the Initial Term." Fees are "due on the 1st day of the Initial Term or Renewal Term" and are auto-charged to the card on file.

Modules sold separately. . So price the Fence Cloud configuration you'll really run rather than the entry tier, because an add-on you need on day one is part of the price.

Small thing that turns out to matter. The refund policy and the Terms of Service make opposite promises about cancellation, and the binding one is the worse one. And on an annual plan, giving notice two weeks before your renewal date buys you a whole extra year. A contractor who reads the marketing page and buys annual can be on the hook for up to 24 months of fees from the day they decide to leave, with no refund available. So diarize the cancellation date 45 days before renewal, in writing, the week you sign.

The Fence Cloud line items nobody mentions

The subscription is the part everyone quotes. These are the lines that land afterwards, and the ones we could not find are named as unpublished rather than left blank.

Sold separately. . Price the configuration you'll really run, because an add-on you need on day one is part of the price.

"Fence Cloud Essential is $220/month, per account, 1-3 users and 2 company profiles included."
Fence Cloud pricing page (2026)

"Fence Cloud Professional is $345/month, per account, 4-10 users and 5 company profiles included."
Fence Cloud pricing page (2026)

"Seat bands, not per-seat pricing. Every plan carries the identical feature set and the only difference between tiers is the user cap and the company-profile cap. The pricing page states it plainly: "No matter the size of your business or Fence Cloud package, you get access to every great feature we have to offer." Adding a 4th user pushes an Essential account onto Professional at $345/month, a jump of $125/month for one seat."
Fence Cloud pricing page (2026)

The six workflows you pay for

Feature totals are noise. So a shop in this category lives or dies on six things, and those are the six to grade, and each one below carries the evidence it's graded on.

Material takeoff is the whole point, and it runs off 117 pre-loaded supplier catalogs You enter fence type, height and run and the engine returns a full material breakdown down to fittings and tie wire, priced against a supplier's own catalog. The suppliers page carries 117 counted material catalogs: 34 ornamental, 31 vinyl, 22 chain link, 16 miscellaneous or hardware, 12 wood and 2 composite. And the vendor lets you combine manufacturers into what it calls "super estimating engines" and save the result as a template. Six FSG branches additionally feed live branch-level costs with quantity discounts applied.

Shop drawings cover chain link, vinyl and ornamental, which is unusual at this price The shop drawing tool generates submittal packages, gate cut sheets and spec sheets from the estimate rather than from a separate CAD step. The vendor positions it as commercial bid infrastructure: "Designed to streamline commercial submittals, it helps your team work faster and win more bids with professional documentation built right into Fence Cloud." And the pricing page also lists chain link and wood shop drawings on every tier including Essential.

Lead capture is a website embed plus an optional $99/month map-draw widget Leads arrive from a contact form you paste onto your site from the Embed Manager in the admin dashboard, then move onto the leads board and into the estimating process. But the richer front door is GeoDraw, a separate $99/month product that lets a homeowner trace their fence line on Google Maps, receive a budgetary number and hand over contact details, which then lands on the Fence Cloud leads board. And leads and contacts are uncapped on every tier.

Invoicing, ordering and inventory exist, but the money stops at the invoice Invoices and purchase orders generate from estimates and retail sales, inventory management tracks stock and allocation, and advanced reporting breaks down items sold against both estimates and invoices. But what the site never names is a way for the customer to pay. And no processor, no rate, no online payment link appears on any page.

E-signature and appointment reminders ship on every tier E-signature applies to any PDF with sign-now, sign-via-link and sign-via-email options, and PDF Merge lets you assemble a contract, drawings and photos into one signable package. And calendar events can fire customer reminders by email, text or both. File sharing tracks delivery through email, URL or text message.

Self-serve by design, with no published implementation fee The vendor's answer to how long implementation takes is that accounts arrive pre-loaded with supplier libraries and preset industry-standard estimating engines, so estimating can start on day one and menu customization can wait for the slow season. And there's a built-in Training Center with guides, tutorials and a change-management checklist reached from the help icon. Phone support runs through (800) 544-2536.

Fence Cloud per trade, not per company size

Fit differs by trade rather than by company size alone, and a blended paragraph hides that. Here is the split for the trades this one sells to.

Fencing. The workflow that decides it is material takeoff is the whole point, and it runs off 117 pre-loaded supplier catalogs, and the shop profile that gets value is fence contractor, 4 to 16 seats, residential and commercial with submittal work doing residential and commercial work. Where it stops being a fit is A landscaping contractor looking for a design, scheduling and crew-routing platform.

Landscaping. The workflow that decides it is material takeoff is the whole point, and it runs off 117 pre-loaded supplier catalogs, and the shop profile that gets value is fence contractor, 4 to 16 seats, residential and commercial with submittal work doing residential and commercial work. Where it stops being a fit is A landscaping contractor looking for a design, scheduling and crew-routing platform.

Pools. The workflow that decides it is material takeoff is the whole point, and it runs off 117 pre-loaded supplier catalogs, and the shop profile that gets value is fence contractor, 4 to 16 seats, residential and commercial with submittal work doing residential and commercial work. Where it stops being a fit is A landscaping contractor looking for a design, scheduling and crew-routing platform.

Your books, and whether Fence Cloud connects to them

QuickBooks (from Fence Cloud) connects, on every plan. QuickBooks Premier / Enterprise (from CFS, the legacy desktop product) connects one way only, so edits made in your books do not come back, on every plan. Your costs map through cost codes, so test yours against your own chart of accounts before you commit. A code your books don't recognise is how a labour charge quietly lands somewhere useless.

Past those, the road ends. QuickBooks Online, Stripe / card payments, Zapier, Google Calendar / Outlook, CompanyCam, Public API do not connect. So if your books run on an ERP rather than the platforms named above, weigh that before anything else.

Beyond accounting it connects to GeoDraw (Same-vendor website lead-capture widget. A homeowner draws their fence line on Google Maps, gets a budgetary estimate and submits contact details, which flow to the Fence Cloud leads board. And it's sold separately at $99.00/month.), FSG supplier branches (Real Time Pricing) (Live branch-level cost import with quantity discounts applied, limited to six named companies: Merchants Metals, Binford, Capital Wholesale, Fence Supply Inc, Security Fence Wholesale Jacksonville and Atlantic Fence Supply.), Your own website (Embed Manager) (A customizable contact form you copy out of the Fence Cloud admin dashboard and paste onto your site, so form submissions import as leads.), Google Maps (Used as the drawing surface inside GeoDraw for homeowner-drawn fence lines. But it isn't documented as a satellite measurement layer inside the Fence Cloud estimator itself.). A public API exists: No public API, no developer documentation and no integrations directory exist. Fence Cloud's sitemap contains 16 URLs (home, login, help-center, pricing, four materials pages, features, faq, manufacturers, about, contact, request-a-demo, signup form and materials index) with no developer surface among them. The Terms of Service section 12 also forbids automated access: customers agree not to "use any robot, spider, or other automatic device, process, or means to access the Service for any purpose, including monitoring or copying any of the material on the Service."

What happens when Fence Cloud breaks

Support is the line item nobody prices and everybody eventually needs. Onboarding for Fence Cloud: No setup, onboarding or data-migration fee appears on the pricing page or in the FAQ. The vendor's stated implementation model is self-serve: "Every account comes with access to a manufacturer/supplier library ready for estimating. Estimating engines are preset with industry standards... you can start estimating on day one, and save the menu customization for your slow season."

A fence contractor, going on 11 years on the platform, describes it it plainly: "We’ve used CFS going on 11 years and have always been extremely satisfied with the help and support we get from their staff. They are always patient and willing to help us navigate and more importantly teach us about using the software to help improve our business processes and productivity. Great people and great company!"

A fence contractor, writes: "They're the best in the market. The phone support is superb. I like the fact that they answer the phone and they understand what we need."

What happens when you want to leave Fence Cloud

Nobody reads this section before they buy, and it's the one that costs money afterwards. Four terms decide what leaving looks like.

Early termination. There is no separate termination penalty, because the contract simply keeps billing you. Terms of Service section 11: "You will remain liable for all Fees to be paid to SDA until the last date of Term even if you terminate this Agreement early." Section 10 adds that termination "shall not relieve Customer of the obligation to pay any fees accrued or payable to SDA prior to the effective date of termination."

Side note, and it's a useful one: you own your data on paper, but the vendor holds a perpetual irrevocable licence to it, controls the export format, and stops maintaining it 60 days after you leave. Your pricing menus, customer list and estimate history are the switching cost, and the exit path runs through a support request rather than a download button. So get a sample export file during the trial period, not during the cancellation.

"I actually recommend them to everyone because of the support they provide, and how professional it looks. I think we have gotten jobs before just because of the documents being able to generate the shop drawings, the spec sheets, and the quotes."
Fence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/features), J Riggins, R&S Fence Co. (2026)

"Our company has been working with Software Design Associates for more than 2 decades. Our company works in Residential, Light Industrial & Commercial fencing markets. Over the years we have looked at other fence estimating programs and found that Computer Fencing System software by SDA is a program that speaks in terms that we in the fencing industry understand. The software generates customizable specifications and diagrams that support and enhance our communication with our customers, sales & installation staff. The SDA support staff has always been easy to work with & ready to assist whenever I need them."
Fence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/features), Dwayne H., Economy Fence Center (2026)

"I can’t say enough about Software Design. We have been using their CFS program for over 20 years, each year we do a little more with the program and when we venture these new areas we are always on the phone asking for help. Their customer service is outstanding and have the patience of a saint, dealing with non-computer people and helping them through their struggles. They are always just a phone call or an email away. If you're in the fencing industry and want to be a true professional you need to have their program."
Fence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/faq), Tom C., Penn Fencing (2026)

The Fence Cloud gaps worth raising on the call

What follows came from reading the review corpus by complaint type rather than by star rating, which is how you find the disqualifying detail buried in a five-star review.

There's no independent review record anywhere, so every quote you'll read about Fence Cloud is one the vendor chose Fence Cloud carries zero user reviews on SourceForge and Slashdot, which both display "No User Reviews. Be the first to provide a review." And it has no Capterra profile, no Software Advice profile (softwareadvice.com returns a 404 for the product), no GetApp profile, no G2 profile and no AlternativeTo entry. The ten testimonials on fence.cloud are hand-picked by Software Design Associates and carry no date, no star rating and no verification. So for a vendor with a claimed 1,800 to 2,000 customers, that's a striking absence. Don't take the testimonial carousel as social proof. So ask Software Design Associates for three reference customers on Fence Cloud specifically (not CFS) who are within one seat band of your company, and call them.

Six of the ten published testimonials praise CFS, the legacy Windows desktop product, not Fence Cloud The carousel that runs under the Fence Cloud features page and the Fence Cloud FAQ is populated with quotes naming "their CFS program", "Computer Fencing System software by SDA", "CFS since the mid-nineties" and modules that exist only in the desktop product ("Master File, Scratch Builder, Parts Catalog, Misc. Estimator and Cash Register"). And not one of the ten testimonials names Fence Cloud. So the 40-year track record being sold to you belongs to a different piece of software. And a fence contractor and wholesaler, eleven stations, since the mid-nineties on the platform, writes the same thing: "We have been using CFS since the mid-nineties, and added a second version for our wholesale company in 2001. Two versions is a lot of work, but it is well worth the investment. Master File, Scratch Builder, Parts Catalog, Misc. Estimator and Cash Register are used daily on any of our eleven stations. Once set up, this system is very detailed, reliable and saves time and money. SDA are fence people and understand the countless parts and terminology that go into estimating, fabricating and selling a wide variety of fence products. Great customer service. We have known Ray since the days when he actually came out to install the program for us. All of his team are knowledgeable and timely with responses when we have issues. CFS is one of the most important tools in our business." Ask which of the vendor's customers are live on Fence Cloud rather than still on CFS, and ask how many. Because the two products are sold side by side from the same site.

The refund policy and the Terms of Service say opposite things about cancellation The refund policy page reads "Fence Cloud is sold without a contract and you can cancel your subscription at any time." Terms of Service section 9 reads "You may terminate this Agreement at any time by providing SDA with at least 30 days' prior written notice, and any such termination shall not be effective until the end of the then-current Renewal Term after such 30 day period." But those aren't the same promise. And the Terms of Service is the binding instrument: section 16 makes it the entire agreement and supersedes prior representations. If you buy annual, put your cancellation notice in writing at least 30 days plus one renewal cycle before you want out, and get written confirmation of the effective date.

Fence Cloud publishes no integrations at all, and the QuickBooks bridge belongs to the legacy desktop product The Fence Cloud site names no accounting, payment, calendar, telephony, photo or automation integration on any page, and its own sitemap lists 16 URLs with no developer or API page among them. And the directory listing states "No Integrations at this time." Software Design Associates does ship a QuickBooks bridge, but it's a CFS-to-QuickBooks desktop interface documented on fencesoftware.com, compatible with QuickBooks Premier or Enterprise 2008 or later, and it exports jobs out of CFS rather than syncing them. Budget for double entry into your accounting system, or ask sales in writing whether a Fence Cloud to QuickBooks Online path exists yet and what it costs.

Your data comes back on the vendor's terms, and only for 60 days Terms of Service section 6 states "SDA's obligation to maintain any Customer Data obtained in the course of providing the Service shall not extend beyond 60-days after the later of any termination or expiration of this Agreement" and that a customer "may reasonably request a copy of Customer Data prior to the Data Retention Cutoff, delivered in a format determined by SDA." And there's no self-serve export documented anywhere on the site, no stated file format and no stated turnaround. Section 10 kills all access the moment the agreement terminates, so you can't log in and pull it yourself afterwards. Request a sample export file before you sign, and confirm in writing that it includes contacts, estimates and pricing in a machine-readable format such as CSV rather than a stack of PDFs.

Seat bands make one extra hire expensive Pricing moves in steps, not per user. Essential covers up to 3 users at $220/month. The 4th user moves you to Professional at $345/month, a $125/month step for a single seat, which is $1,500 a year. And the 11th user moves you to Ultimate at $545/month, another $200/month step. Then the 17th user takes you off the published price list entirely and into a phone quote. Count the seats you'll need 18 months out, not today. And if you're at 3 or at 10, price the next band before you commit to annual billing.

The contract disclaims the accuracy of the very numbers the product exists to produce Terms of Service section 4 says the estimate output "is an estimate only and none of SDA, its suppliers or its licensors will have any liability whatsoever for the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of the Service Output." And section 15 caps total liability at what you paid over the preceding three months, forces binding arbitration in Billings, Montana under Montana law, waives class actions, and bars any claim brought more than one year after it accrues. That's unremarkable for SaaS, but it matters more here because material breakdowns feed directly into bid prices. Keep your own margin check on the first 20 jobs you estimate in the system. Because the vendor takes no responsibility for a mispriced bid.

Real Time Pricing is limited to six named FSG branches The live supplier cost feed, which is the feature that stops an estimator from waiting on a quote, only works with Merchants Metals, Binford, Capital Wholesale, Fence Supply Inc, Security Fence Wholesale Jacksonville and Atlantic Fence Supply. And every other one of the 117 supplier catalogs is a static dataset that you or the vendor maintain. Check your primary supplier against that list of six before you assume live costing applies to you.

One more thing worth knowing. The testimonial carousel selling the cloud product is stuffed with praise for the desktop product it replaced. Six of ten quotes name CFS by name. And not one names Fence Cloud. The 40-year track record is real, but it belongs to a different codebase. So ask how many customers have migrated from CFS to Fence Cloud and what the migration path for existing pricing menus looks like.

One more thing worth knowing. Three different wrong Fence Cloud prices are in public circulation ($99, $150 and $175 a month) while the vendor's real entry price is $220, and the vendor's page is plain server-rendered HTML that any of those sources could have read. Price a Fence Cloud budget off fence.cloud/pricing and nothing else. And if a comparison article quotes you $99, it has confused the lead-capture widget with the platform, which tells you how carefully the rest of that comparison was researched.

One more thing worth knowing. Live supplier pricing, the single feature that removes the wait-for-a-quote delay from estimating, works with exactly six branches out of 117 catalogs. Check your primary supplier against those six names before you build the business case. And if your supplier isn't on the list, somebody on your team still maintains cost updates by hand, and the productivity claim shrinks accordingly.

Worth a detour here. There's no complaint pattern to find, and that's the finding. A vendor claiming 1,800 to 2,000 fence contractor customers has produced zero third-party reviews on any reachable platform. Every buying signal available on this product is vendor-controlled. So treat the reference call as mandatory rather than optional, and insist the references are on Fence Cloud rather than CFS.

What people running Fence Cloud tell you

Every quote below is transcribed from a published review, named to the platform that carries it and to the reviewer as that platform displays them. We read the corpus by complaint type rather than by star rating, which is how the disqualifying detail buried inside a five-star review gets found.

"I actually recommend them to everyone because of the support they provide, and how professional it looks. I think we have gotten jobs before just because of the documents being able to generate the shop drawings, the spec sheets, and the quotes."
A fence contractor writes on Fence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/features)

"Our company has been working with Software Design Associates for more than 2 decades. Our company works in Residential, Light Industrial & Commercial fencing markets. Over the years we have looked at other fence estimating programs and found that Computer Fencing System software by SDA is a program that speaks in terms that we in the fencing industry understand. The software generates customizable specifications and diagrams that support and enhance our communication with our customers, sales & installation staff. The SDA support staff has always been easy to work with & ready to assist whenever I need them."
But a residential, light industrial and commercial fence contractor, more than 2 decades on the platform, writes it differently on Fence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/features)

"I can’t say enough about Software Design. We have been using their CFS program for over 20 years, each year we do a little more with the program and when we venture these new areas we are always on the phone asking for help. Their customer service is outstanding and have the patience of a saint, dealing with non-computer people and helping them through their struggles. They are always just a phone call or an email away. If you're in the fencing industry and want to be a true professional you need to have their program."
And a fence contractor, over 20 years on the platform, describes it the same thing on Fence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/faq)

"We’ve used CFS going on 11 years and have always been extremely satisfied with the help and support we get from their staff. They are always patient and willing to help us navigate and more importantly teach us about using the software to help improve our business processes and productivity. Great people and great company!"
A fence contractor, going on 11 years on the platform, puts it on Fence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/features)

"There's no other software out there in the fence industry that can do what they can do, as fast as they can do it."
A fence and deck contractor, puts it on Fence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/faq)

"We have been using software design since 1985 (I think) I know our original customer number was 76. I have always recommended your software to anyone in the industry as it has so many tools that help you sell and price jobs. Is there any other software out there with the tools you have? I don’t think so!!"
A fence contractor says on Fence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/features)

"They're the best in the market. The phone support is superb. I like the fact that they answer the phone and they understand what we need."
And a fence contractor, describes it the same thing on Fence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/faq)

"We have been using CFS since the mid-nineties, and added a second version for our wholesale company in 2001. Two versions is a lot of work, but it is well worth the investment. Master File, Scratch Builder, Parts Catalog, Misc. Estimator and Cash Register are used daily on any of our eleven stations. Once set up, this system is very detailed, reliable and saves time and money. SDA are fence people and understand the countless parts and terminology that go into estimating, fabricating and selling a wide variety of fence products. Great customer service. We have known Ray since the days when he actually came out to install the program for us. All of his team are knowledgeable and timely with responses when we have issues. CFS is one of the most important tools in our business."
A fence contractor and wholesaler, eleven stations says on Fence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/features)

"We’ve been working with Software Design Associates for over 20 yrs now and they clearly have the best fence estimating software out there. A lot of our company’s success can be attributed to our ability to properly estimate jobs. Jen and the rest of their tech support staff are reliable and friendly. If you’re in the fence business and don’t take the time to set up and use this software you’re missing out."
A fence contractor, over 20 yrs on the platform, reports it on Fence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/faq)

"I definitely would recommend them to anyone because it's so easy to be able to build a line of fence to run an estimate for the cost."
But a fence contractor, puts it it differently on Fence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/faq)

What Fence Cloud's competition charges

Here's the shortlist Fence Cloud competes against in real deals. Some of these will tell you the price tonight. That difference tells you how the sales conversation is going to go.

Each vendor's own published pricing page, read on 7 August 2026. And prices are the entry tier, so read the billing unit beside them rather than the figure alone.
Tool	Entry price	Billing unit	Users included	Published?
Fence Cloud	$220/month	per account, 1-3 users and 2 company profiles included	Seat bands, not per-seat pricing. Every plan carries the ide	Yes
Jobber	$24/month	per account on the Core plan billed annually, 1 user included, $29/month per additional user	1	Yes
Werx	$49/month	per account on the Essential plan, 10 active projects, additional standard users $6/month each	1	Yes
JobNimbus	Quote only	per account by seat band, Essentials up to 3 users, Pro up to 10, Premium up to 19, Enterprise 20+	3	No
Visual Fence Pro	$150/month	per account on the Starter plan	1	Yes

Jobber. Scheduling, dispatching, online customer payments, two-way QuickBooks sync and a client hub. It's a real field service platform with a large public review record. But It has no fence material takeoff. And there are no supplier catalogs, no post and rail calculations, no gate cut sheets and no shop drawings, so an estimator still builds the fence bid somewhere else.

Werx. Per-user cost at scale is dramatically lower, since extra seats are $6/month rather than a $125 band jump, and it markets a fence estimating and billing workflow directly. But It's a general contractor billing and project tool with a fence landing page, not a fence-specific material engine with 117 supplier catalogs behind it.

JobNimbus. Photo documentation, production boards, an established fence-industry install base and a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. But It publishes no prices at all, so you can't compare before a sales call, and its estimating is line-item based rather than a fence-specific takeoff engine.

Visual Fence Pro. It's $70/month cheaper than Fence Cloud's entry tier and is also fence-specific, so it's the closest direct price comparison in the category. But It carries 0 user reviews on Capterra, so it has the same absent-evidence problem as Fence Cloud, and it has nothing like a 40-year supplier-catalog dataset behind it.

"We’ve used CFS going on 11 years and have always been extremely satisfied with the help and support we get from their staff. They are always patient and willing to help us navigate and more importantly teach us about using the software to help improve our business processes and productivity. Great people and great company!"
Fence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/features), Ted Hall, Builders Fence Company (2026)

"There's no other software out there in the fence industry that can do what they can do, as fast as they can do it."
Fence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/faq), Mike Colwell, M.C. Fence & Deck (2026)

Who should not buy Fence Cloud

Don't buy Fence Cloud if you're A landscaping contractor looking for a design, scheduling and crew-routing platform. Fence Cloud has no landscape design, no route optimization, no crew time tracking and no maintenance-contract billing. And the vendor is explicit that the scope is fencing only: "Fence Cloud serves the fencing industry and only the fencing industry." The estimating engines are chain link, wood, vinyl, ornamental and a miscellaneous engine built for agricultural and split-rail fence. So a landscaper who also builds fence would be buying a fence estimator, not a landscaping system. Look at Jobber instead.

Don't buy Fence Cloud if you're A pool builder or any contractor running long multi-phase builds with subcontractor scheduling and progress billing. There's no phase scheduling, no subcontractor management, no progress or draw billing and no selection tracking anywhere in the published feature set. Invoicing exists but it's generated from an estimate or a retail sale, which is a one-shot transactional model. So pool construction, with its inspection gates and staged payments, has no home in this product. Look at JobNimbus instead.

Don't buy Fence Cloud if you're A fence company that wants one system for quoting, taking payment and syncing to accounting. Fence Cloud publishes no payment processor and no accounting integration. The only QuickBooks bridge Software Design Associates documents is a CFS desktop interface for QuickBooks Premier or Enterprise 2008 or later, not a Fence Cloud connector, and the directory listing for the product reads "No Integrations at this time." So you'll be re-keying invoices by hand. Look at Jobber instead.

Don't buy Fence Cloud if you're A buyer who needs verifiable third-party proof before signing a $2,200 to $5,450 annual commitment. There's no independent review corpus to check. Capterra, Software Advice, GetApp, G2 and AlternativeTo have no Fence Cloud profile; SourceForge and Slashdot have a profile with zero reviews. And every testimonial in circulation is vendor-selected, undated and mostly about the predecessor desktop product. Look at Jobber instead.

The verdict, by shop size

Fence-only contractor, 1 to 3 estimating and office seats, residential

Only under conditions, and they are worth being honest about. At $220/month the material breakdown engine and the 117 supplier catalogs are worth real money to a shop that's currently quoting off spreadsheets. But buy monthly, not annual, until you've run 20 jobs through it. Because the refund policy is explicit that "we do not offer Refunds for the purchase of Fence Cloud subscriptions," and the Terms of Service cancellation mechanics on an annual plan can push your exit out by a full extra year. This band runs 2 to 8 on the crew, doing residential work, and that's the profile the recommendation is written for.

Fence contractor, 4 to 16 seats, residential and commercial with submittal work

Yes, and this is the shape the product is built for. This is the band the product is built for. Shop drawings for chain link, vinyl and ornamental, gate cut sheets, spec sheets and merged PDF submittal packages are the pieces that win commercial fence bids, and they're included on every tier rather than gated. And at $345 to $545/month for 10 to 16 seats the per-seat cost undercuts most general field-service platforms. But accept that you'll re-key invoices into QuickBooks by hand. This band runs 8 to 60 on the crew, doing residential and commercial work, and that's the profile the recommendation is written for.

Landscaping or pool building company that also installs some fence

No. The vendor states its scope in one line: "Fence Cloud serves the fencing industry and only the fencing industry." And there's no landscape design, no crew routing, no maintenance contract billing, no phase scheduling, no subcontractor management and no progress billing. So buying it would mean running a second system for everything that isn't fence, and paying $220/month minimum for the privilege. This band runs 3 or more on the crew, doing residential and commercial work, and that's the profile the recommendation is written for.

Any fence contractor that needs payments collected and books synced inside one system

No. Fence Cloud invoices but doesn't take money, and it has no accounting connector. The only QuickBooks bridge the vendor documents is a one-way CFS desktop interface for QuickBooks Premier or Enterprise. So if closing the loop from quote to cash inside one tool is the requirement, this is the wrong product and no tier fixes it. This band runs 2 or more on the crew, doing residential and commercial and service work, and that's the profile the recommendation is written for.

Enterprise fence contractor, 17+ seats

Only under conditions, and they are worth being honest about. Above 16 users the published price list ends and you're into a phone quote at (800) 544-2536. So get the quote in writing alongside a written answer on data export format, and negotiate the section 9 cancellation mechanics before signing, because the standard annual terms are unusually sticky for a product sold as pay-as-you-go. This band runs 40 or more on the crew, doing commercial work, and that's the profile the recommendation is written for.

A number worth thirty seconds before you buy Fence Cloud

We should say what our stake is here, which is none. Fervor is a web design and conversion studio for contractors. No vendor on this page pays us. But we measured something adjacent that changes what this purchase is worth.

Fence Cloud charges by seat band rather than by estimate, so an Essential account costs the same $220 a month whether the engine prices two hundred fence lines or two, and the only demand-side feature in the product is a contact form you paste onto your own site from the Embed Manager (or GeoDraw at another $99 a month). But neither one collects a lead until the page carrying it has finished rendering, so the fence line a homeowner abandons on a slow phone costs exactly the same seat band as the one that gets signed.

And the number is worse than anyone guesses before they check. Across 380 inspected contractor sites, 82.8% had poor mobile loading performance. And the method is public, because a number you cannot audit is not evidence. The workings are public in the Contractor CRO Index.

"82.8% of the 380 contractor websites inspected had poor mobile loading performance."
Fervor Studio Contractor CRO Index (2026)

So price the platform properly. Then open your own site on a phone and time how long it takes before you could tap a call button. The numbers are all public.

See where your site is losing the jobs Fence Cloud would have managed

So we look at yours the same way we looked at those 380 sites, and tell you what is costing you calls.

Get a Site Inspection

What we read on Fence Cloud, and what we couldn't get to

So what's this built on. Documents rather than a deployment: Fence Cloud was researched, not run. The basis is 21 vendor pages for Fence Cloud, read on 7 August 2026, and every review we could retrieve, sorted by complaint. Prices were checked the same day. Nothing here is carried forward from an older sweep.

So: ten quotes on this page, five from Fence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/features) and five from Fence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/faq).

And https://www.capterra.com/search/?query=fence+cloud (403 to curl; WebFetch returned only the JavaScript loading shell, no results), https://www.softwareadvice.com/search/?q=fence+cloud (403), https://www.getapp.com/search/?q=fence+cloud (403; the /all-software/ search path returns 404), https://www.g2.com/products/fence-cloud/reviews (403), https://www.trustpilot.com/review/fence.cloud (403 to both curl and WebFetch) and Reddit (r/fencing, r/Contractor) not reachable for this vendor refused automated retrieval for Fence Cloud. Forum and social threads are the ones people most want quoted, and they are exactly the ones we cannot verify, so none of them are here.

What that leaves untested: the in-app Training Center and help widget, which sit behind a login at https://fence.cloud/login. And everything above is 21 vendor pages and a review corpus, which is documentary rather than hands-on.

What Fence Cloud users say

I actually recommend them to everyone because of the support they provide, and how professional it looks. I think we have gotten jobs before just because of the documents being able to generate the shop drawings, the spec sheets, and the quotes.

J Riggins, R&S Fence Co.Fence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/features)

Our company has been working with Software Design Associates for more than 2 decades. Our company works in Residential, Light Industrial & Commercial fencing markets. Over the years we have looked at other fence estimating programs and found that Computer Fencing System software by SDA is a program that speaks in terms that we in the fencing industry understand. The software generates customizable specifications and diagrams that support and enhance our communication with our customers, sales & installation staff. The SDA support staff has always been easy to work with & ready to assist whenever I need them.

Dwayne H., Economy Fence CenterFence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/features)

I can’t say enough about Software Design. We have been using their CFS program for over 20 years, each year we do a little more with the program and when we venture these new areas we are always on the phone asking for help. Their customer service is outstanding and have the patience of a saint, dealing with non-computer people and helping them through their struggles. They are always just a phone call or an email away. If you're in the fencing industry and want to be a true professional you need to have their program.

Tom C., Penn FencingFence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/faq)

We’ve used CFS going on 11 years and have always been extremely satisfied with the help and support we get from their staff. They are always patient and willing to help us navigate and more importantly teach us about using the software to help improve our business processes and productivity. Great people and great company!

Ted Hall, Builders Fence CompanyFence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/features)

There's no other software out there in the fence industry that can do what they can do, as fast as they can do it.

Mike Colwell, M.C. Fence & DeckFence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/faq)

We have been using software design since 1985 (I think) I know our original customer number was 76. I have always recommended your software to anyone in the industry as it has so many tools that help you sell and price jobs. Is there any other software out there with the tools you have? I don’t think so!!

Linda C., C&C FenceFence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/features)

They're the best in the market. The phone support is superb. I like the fact that they answer the phone and they understand what we need.

Jeff Van Fleet, Montana FenceFence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/faq)

We have been using CFS since the mid-nineties, and added a second version for our wholesale company in 2001. Two versions is a lot of work, but it is well worth the investment. Master File, Scratch Builder, Parts Catalog, Misc. Estimator and Cash Register are used daily on any of our eleven stations. Once set up, this system is very detailed, reliable and saves time and money. SDA are fence people and understand the countless parts and terminology that go into estimating, fabricating and selling a wide variety of fence products. Great customer service. We have known Ray since the days when he actually came out to install the program for us. All of his team are knowledgeable and timely with responses when we have issues. CFS is one of the most important tools in our business.

Steve C, GC-AAA-Vinyl Fences IncFence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/features)

We’ve been working with Software Design Associates for over 20 yrs now and they clearly have the best fence estimating software out there. A lot of our company’s success can be attributed to our ability to properly estimate jobs. Jen and the rest of their tech support staff are reliable and friendly. If you’re in the fence business and don’t take the time to set up and use this software you’re missing out.

Dave G., The Fence GuysFence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/faq)

I definitely would recommend them to anyone because it's so easy to be able to build a line of fence to run an estimate for the cost.

Vicki Remein, New York State FenceFence Cloud vendor testimonial carousel (fence.cloud/faq)

Frequently asked questions

How much does Fence Cloud cost?

Fence Cloud publishes its prices, which puts it ahead of most trade platforms. Essential is $220/month or $2,200/year for up to 3 users and 2 company profiles. Professional is $345/month or $3,450/year for up to 10 users and 5 company profiles. Ultimate is $545/month or $5,450/year for up to 16 users and 10 company profiles. Above 16 users you call (800) 544-2536 for an Enterprise quote. And annual billing works out to 10 months instead of 12. But ignore the $99, $150 and $175 figures floating around third-party directories, because none of them match the vendor's own page.

Do all Fence Cloud plans include the same features?

Yes. The plan comparison table shows an identical checklist on Essential, Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise: supplier material catalogs, chain link, wood, vinyl and ornamental estimating, lead and estimate tracking, shop drawings, customizable calendars, documents and reports, file storage, invoices and orders, appointment reminders by text and email, e-signature, image editing and markups, gate cut sheets, retail sales and multi-style estimating. So the only thing you buy when you move up a tier is more user seats and more company profiles.

Can you really cancel Fence Cloud at any time?

The refund policy says yes and the Terms of Service says something narrower, so read the Terms of Service. Section 9 requires at least 30 days' prior written notice and states that termination "shall not be effective until the end of the then-current Renewal Term after such 30 day period." The contract's own worked example is blunt: on an annual plan starting January 1, notice given on December 15 makes the termination effective December 31 of the following year. And section 11 adds that you stay liable for all fees until the last date of the term even if you terminate early. There are no refunds either way.

Does Fence Cloud integrate with QuickBooks?

Not the cloud product. Software Design Associates ships a QuickBooks interface, but it belongs to CFS, the Windows desktop predecessor, and it's a one-way push of a CFS job into QuickBooks Premier or Enterprise 2008 or later as an estimate. And Fence Cloud itself names no accounting, payment or automation integration on any page, and its directory listing reads "No Integrations at this time." So plan on manual entry into your books.

How do I get my data out of Fence Cloud?

You ask, and the vendor decides the format. Terms of Service section 6 gives Software Design Associates a 60-day retention obligation after termination or expiration and lets you "reasonably request a copy of Customer Data prior to the Data Retention Cutoff, delivered in a format determined by SDA." And there's no documented self-serve export, and section 10 cuts off all account access the moment the agreement terminates, so you can't pull it yourself afterwards. So ask for a sample export before you sign.

Is Fence Cloud any good for landscapers or pool builders?

No. The vendor is unambiguous that it serves the fencing industry and only the fencing industry. The estimating engines are chain link, wood, vinyl, ornamental and a miscellaneous engine originally built for agricultural and split-rail fence. And there's no landscape design, no route optimization, no maintenance-contract billing, no phase scheduling and no progress billing. So a landscaper or pool builder who installs the occasional fence would be paying $220/month minimum for a takeoff calculator.

Why can't I find any Fence Cloud reviews?

Because there aren't any. Capterra, Software Advice, GetApp, G2 and AlternativeTo have no Fence Cloud profile at all. SourceForge and Slashdot have a profile with zero reviews and the note "No User Reviews. Be the first to provide a review." So every quote you'll see is from the vendor's own testimonial carousel, undated and unverified, and six of those ten quotes name CFS rather than Fence Cloud. And ask for reference customers who are live on the cloud product.

What is GeoDraw and do I need it?

GeoDraw is a separate Software Design Associates product at $99.00/month that sits on your website and lets a homeowner trace their fence line on Google Maps, get a budgetary number and hand over their contact details, which then land on the Fence Cloud leads board. But it isn't bundled with any Fence Cloud tier. So if satellite measurement at the top of the funnel matters to you, that capability is an add-on here, not a built-in part of the estimator.

Freshness

How we keep this page current

Three dates govern this review, and they carry different meanings. The initial source sweep is dated August 7, 2026; when only part of the evidence set is recaptured later, that later date is stated beside the refreshed claim. We last revised the page on August 7, 2026. And the user reviews we quote were posted over roughly the last 24 months, so their individual dates remain part of the evidence instead of being overwritten by a later pricing update.

We revise the page when Fence Cloud changes a published price or a contract term, when a rating we cite moves by more than a few tenths, or when the vendor ships something big enough to change the verdict. We never bump the date just to look fresh, because Google treats that as manipulation and so do we. If a figure here reads as stale by the time you land on it, treat it as a floor and check the vendor's own page. We linked it at every number for exactly that reason.

Sourcing

How this review was researched

Every figure on this page traces to a captured source linked inline where it appears. The initial sweep is dated August 7, 2026; any later, partial recapture is dated at the claim rather than relabelling the whole evidence set. Ratings come from Capterra, GetApp, Software Advice and the Apple App Store. Note that Capterra, GetApp and Software Advice share one Gartner Digital Markets review pool, so an identical score across all three is a single sample rather than three corroborating ones, and this page treats it that way. G2, TrustRadius and Trustpilot block automated access, so where their numbers appear they are labelled as reported rather than verified. No claim here is sourced from Reddit or from a contractor Facebook group, because neither could be retrieved and quoting them would mean inventing attribution. Pricing marked as reported comes from third-party roundups, never from Fervor. Fervor's own findings come from the Contractor CRO Index 2026.

About

About Fervor Studio

Fervor Studio is a conversion rate optimization (CRO) and web design studio for home services contractors across North America, based in Cochrane, Alberta. Fervor does not sell field service management software and is not an alternative to Fence Cloud. It publishes the Contractor CRO Index, a public benchmark measuring contractor website conversion potential using reproducible, open-source methods such as axe-core and Google Lighthouse. Fervor Studio is operated by Fervor Group Inc.