STACK Review 2026: Pricing, Pros, Cons, Alternatives

The short verdict on STACK

STACK earns its money with Estimating desks of roughly three to fifteen seats at commercial specialty subcontractors bidding hard-bid work off drawing sets, where several estimators need the same plans at once and you're willing to build and maintain your own item and assembly library. 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 $249. And pricing was verified on 7 August 2026, so you can check every figure below in a browser tab.

The shops STACK fits, and the ones it doesn't

It fits Estimating desks of roughly three to fifteen seats at commercial specialty subcontractors bidding hard-bid work off drawing sets, where several estimators need the same plans at once and you're willing to build and maintain your own item and assembly library. 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 solo contractor or two-person shop that bids occasionally and wants to pay only in the months work is busy. The smallest real commitment is one Premium seat on a twelve-month term, which is $2,988 a year prepaid, and the monthly option is the same twelve-month obligation at $3,588. There's no early termination and no prorated refund. So a seasonal bidder pays through the quiet months either way. Look at Buildxact instead.

Don't buy it if you're A residential remodeler who wants takeoff, estimating, job costing and client-facing scheduling in one subscription. STACK splits preconstruction and project management into two separately priced products, and the project management half is the weaker one by its own users' account. So buying both means two subscriptions with two price schedules. And the field product still doesn't do job costing against actuals. Look at Buildertrend instead.

Don't buy it if you're A shop whose accounting runs on Xero, Foundation, Viewpoint Vista or Sage 100 Contractor. The ERP Connectors FAQ names exactly two systems: 'STACK currently offers connectors for Sage Intacct and Acumatica.' QuickBooks Desktop and Online, plus NetSuite, appear in the wider integrations directory as estimate exports rather than as connectors. Anything outside that short list means you're re-keying, or paying for API access to build the bridge yourself. Look at PlanSwift instead.

Don't buy it if you're A roofing-only contractor who expects the vendor's support team to speak roofing. A roofing owner using STACK reports that support examples skew to plumbing and concrete and don't transfer to roofing work. And aerial measurement, the natural roofing accelerator, is a Premium-gated paid add-on rather than an included capability. Look at EagleView instead.

What STACK costs

STACK prints its numbers on its own site. Good. That means you can price your real configuration tonight instead of waiting on a rep.

Per named user, enforced by seat count. The licensing article states that 'STACK licenses are assigned per user, per year', that 'Licenses are assigned to named users', that 'The system enforces license quantities and prevents assigning more users than purchased licenses', and that 'Licenses are assigned to individual users and cannot be shared.' Seats can be revoked and reassigned by the Account Owner at any time, and removing a user immediately frees the licence. Unpaid collaborators do not consume a seat: 'STACK Takeoff & Estimate has free users that do not consume a paid license and have limited platform access. These users may be added to projects for collaboration and visibility, with a maximum of 400 free users per project.' Note the billing unit conflict: the help centre says 'per user, per year' while the pricing page prices the same plans 'per user / month'.

There is a discount for paying annually up front: The pricing page advertises 'SAVE 20%' on annual billing, but neither published pair reaches 20%. Premium runs $299 monthly against $249 annual, which is 16.7% off. Pro runs $369 monthly against $299 annual, which is 19.0% off. In Canadian dollars the gap is wider: Premium is CA$379 monthly against CA$329 annual, or 13.2% off. The FAQ repeats the claim: 'All Takeoff & Estimate subscriptions are 12-month terms. You can pay upfront annually (save 20%) or spread payments monthly.' All four monthly and four annual figures were read out of the stackPrices JavaScript object in the page's raw HTML on 2026-08-07. 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 STACK number you get quoted

Payment processing. STACK does not process contractor revenue and takes no cut of jobs. It does keep a payment instrument on file for its own fees and charges it automatically: 'subscription fees shall be automatically charged to previously used credit card information or ACH if available, unless Customer provides 30-day notice to STACK prior to the end of the current Initial Term or Renewal Term.' A failed charge gives STACK a repricing right: 'if an automatic renewal charge is declined or otherwise fails, STACK reserves the right, upon not less than fifteen (15) days' prior written notice to Customer, to modify the payment terms applicable to the Renewal Term, including adjusting the billing frequency and the applicable rates to reflect the then-current rate for the adjusted billing frequency.'

Implementation and onboarding. Disclosed as possible but never priced. The footnote under the Takeoff & Estimate feature matrix reads in full: '*A one-time onboarding fee may apply.' Training itself is marketed as free: 'our training and support are always available and always FREE.' Build & Operate lists 'No Cost Training' and a 'Dedicated Account Manager' as included. No figure appears anywhere for the onboarding fee, and no page states which accounts trigger it.

Minimum term. Twelve months, and choosing monthly payments does not shorten it. The MSA is unusually blunt: 'Unless otherwise specified in the applicable Order Form, each Subscription Term is for a fixed period of twelve (12) months. Fees for a Subscription Term may, as set forth in the applicable Order Form, be invoiced and payable annually in advance or in monthly installments; however, the election of monthly installment billing shall not reduce, shorten, or otherwise alter the Subscription Term, which in all events remains a fixed twelve (12) month commitment and is not a month-to-month subscription. Customer's obligation to pay the fees for the full Subscription Term shall not be affected by Customer's discontinuation of use of the Service or by the billing frequency elected.'

Getting out. There is none, and the help centre says so plainly: 'Know that there is no early subscription termination/cancellation and no full or partial refunds offered so your STACK subscription/account access (and payment obligations) won't end until your current billing cycle is over.' The MSA agrees: 'Customer shall not be entitled to any refund of any fees paid to STACK as a result of a termination or Customer's discontinued use of the Service.' The stated refund policy is 'No refunds will be offered on canceled subscriptions. Paid subscriptions are non-refundable, and no prorated refunds or credits will be offered for partially used subscriptions.'

Auto-renewal. Automatic, on rolling twelve-month terms, with a 30-day notice window and no cap on the renewal rate: 'This Agreement shall automatically renew for successive renewal terms of twelve (12) (each a "Renewal Term"), depending upon the Customer's choice and subscription fees shall be automatically charged to previously used credit card information or ACH if available, unless Customer provides 30-day notice to STACK prior to the end of the current Initial Term or Renewal Term. Customer will be charged the subscription fees in effect at the time of renewal.' On the Takeoff & Estimate side the notice cannot be given in the app: 'All cancellations must be confirmed with a live STACK representative.'

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

The STACK 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.

The four workflows you pay for

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

Takeoff and estimating sit in one product, but the bridge between them runs through formulas you'll have to build Pro is sold as an integrated path from plans to a priced bid, and reviewers who invest in the item and assembly library get exactly that. But the friction is in how a measurement becomes a priced line. One operations manager describes estimates accepting only one measurement type per takeoff, so pulling both square feet and cubic yards off the same concrete slab requires custom formulas rather than a selection. Another reviewer reports that material pricing has to be entered and unit-converted by hand. So STACK rewards shops willing to maintain their own library, and punishes shops expecting it to work out of the box.

Two genuine two-way ERP connectors, sold as a Pro-gated add-on, and a wider directory of one-way estimate exports STACK draws a line its marketing doesn't. The ERP Connectors product covers Sage Intacct and Acumatica and is explicitly bidirectional. But everything else in the accounting column of the integrations directory is an export: the help centre articles are titled 'Export Your STACK Estimate to QuickBooks Desktop', 'Export Estimate Worksheet Data to QuickBooks Online' and 'Export an Estimate Worksheet to NetSuite (TE)'. And both halves cost extra, because ERP Integrations is a paid add-on and the pricing page marks it 'Pro Required'.

The field half is a separate purchase on a separate price schedule, and it's the weaker product Build & Operate is priced per user per year rather than per user per month, on its own page, with its own tiers and its own trial length. So if you want preconstruction and field document control, you're buying two subscriptions. The mobile app that carries the field half is thinly rated: Apple's own catalogue records 3.875 stars from 8 ratings for STACK Construction Management, against 4.5 from 1,398 reviews for the takeoff product on Capterra. A reviewer using both halves puts it plainly.

Custom libraries export to CSV, supplied libraries don't, and the AI licence you granted survives your departure The exit story has three parts. First, the export: custom libraries come out as CSV with costs, coverage rates and accounting codes, but STACK-provided, Quick Start, 1build and BNi libraries don't, and item notes are dropped. Then the clock: 90 days after the billing cycle ends, project data is deleted and unrecoverable, and free accounts get no retention obligation at all. And third, the licence: the rights granted over AI inputs and over customer-built items and assemblies are perpetual and irrevocable, and section 3.2 is on the MSA's survival list, so leaving doesn't end them.

STACK trade fit

The STACK accounting link, and where it stops

Sage Intacct connects both ways, gated to a higher tier. Acumatica connects both ways, gated to a higher tier. QuickBooks Online connects one way only, so edits made in your books do not come back, gated to a higher tier. QuickBooks Desktop connects one way only, so edits made in your books do not come back, gated to a higher tier. Oracle NetSuite connects one way only, so edits made in your books do not come back, gated to a higher tier. 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. Xero, Foundation Software, Viewpoint Vista and Sage 100 Contractor, Payroll and time tracking of any kind, Zapier or any general-purpose automation layer 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 Procore (Two separate listings, one syncing Procore drawings into STACK for field markup and measurement, one for storing, marking up and measuring Procore-managed documents inside STACK with plan updates and addendums synchronised. STACK also maintains a Procore marketplace listing.), Velixo (STACK for Excel) (It connects STACK project data directly into Excel, and it's a seat-based add-on that must be enabled in Account Settings.), Workpack (Third-party AI takeoff engine embedded in the STACK workflow. Seat-based add-on.), Nearmap (It imports high-resolution aerial imagery into STACK for takeoff and quantification including pitch.), BNi (Building News) (Regional cost data associated directly to STACK takeoff items.), Followup CRM and TopBuilder (Two CRM bridges. Followup CRM pushes project documents into STACK to start takeoff. TopBuilder exchanges plans and quoting details in both directions.), Dodge Data & Analytics, BidCentral, Autodesk Vault, Ediphi, LED Lighting Supply (Plan-room and document inbound feeds (Dodge, BidCentral, Autodesk Vault), a takeoff-quantity handoff to a separate estimating platform (Ediphi), and a supplier catalogue exposed inside the STACK item library (LED Lighting Supply).). A public API exists: An API exists on both product lines and is never included in a published price. On Takeoff & Estimate the licensing article lists 'API Access' among add-ons 'Available With: All plans', 'Enabled at the company level', which makes it a separate purchase on top of the per-seat fee. On Build & Operate it appears as 'API Integration' inside the Enterprise tier, whose price is not published and whose button reads LET'S TALK. STACK also runs a developer page and a 'Get API Access' link in the partner navigation, both routing to contact rather than to documentation with pricing.

STACK support, and what it costs you

What happens when you want to leave STACK

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

Minimum term. Twelve months, and choosing monthly payments does not shorten it. The MSA is unusually blunt: 'Unless otherwise specified in the applicable Order Form, each Subscription Term is for a fixed period of twelve (12) months. Fees for a Subscription Term may, as set forth in the applicable Order Form, be invoiced and payable annually in advance or in monthly installments; however, the election of monthly installment billing shall not reduce, shorten, or otherwise alter the Subscription Term, which in all events remains a fixed twelve (12) month commitment and is not a month-to-month subscription. Customer's obligation to pay the fees for the full Subscription Term shall not be affected by Customer's discontinuation of use of the Service or by the billing frequency elected.'

Auto-renewal. Automatic, on rolling twelve-month terms, with a 30-day notice window and no cap on the renewal rate: 'This Agreement shall automatically renew for successive renewal terms of twelve (12) (each a "Renewal Term"), depending upon the Customer's choice and subscription fees shall be automatically charged to previously used credit card information or ACH if available, unless Customer provides 30-day notice to STACK prior to the end of the current Initial Term or Renewal Term. Customer will be charged the subscription fees in effect at the time of renewal.' On the Takeoff & Estimate side the notice cannot be given in the app: 'All cancellations must be confirmed with a live STACK representative.'

Early termination. There is none, and the help centre says so plainly: 'Know that there is no early subscription termination/cancellation and no full or partial refunds offered so your STACK subscription/account access (and payment obligations) won't end until your current billing cycle is over.' The MSA agrees: 'Customer shall not be entitled to any refund of any fees paid to STACK as a result of a termination or Customer's discontinued use of the Service.' The stated refund policy is 'No refunds will be offered on canceled subscriptions. Paid subscriptions are non-refundable, and no prorated refunds or credits will be offered for partially used subscriptions.'

Payment processing. STACK does not process contractor revenue and takes no cut of jobs. It does keep a payment instrument on file for its own fees and charges it automatically: 'subscription fees shall be automatically charged to previously used credit card information or ACH if available, unless Customer provides 30-day notice to STACK prior to the end of the current Initial Term or Renewal Term.' A failed charge gives STACK a repricing right: 'if an automatic renewal charge is declined or otherwise fails, STACK reserves the right, upon not less than fifteen (15) days' prior written notice to Customer, to modify the payment terms applicable to the Renewal Term, including adjusting the billing frequency and the applicable rates to reflect the then-current rate for the adjusted billing frequency.'

What people running STACK tell you

The realistic shortlist against STACK

Four or five real options, each with what it does better and what it does worse. Both halves, or it's marketing.

Bluebeam Revu. Roughly a fifth of STACK Pro's annual per-seat cost at the Basics tier, and the strongest PDF markup and document-collaboration engine in the category. Two STACK reviewers name it as the alternative they weighed. But Revu is Windows-desktop centred and produces quantities rather than a priced estimate, so the costing step lands in Excel. There's no estimating worksheet, no assemblies library, and no ERP connector.

PlanSwift Professional. Cheaper than STACK Pro on an annual per-seat basis at $2,000 against $3,588, with support, updates and two hours of training bundled into the published price and no add-on ladder for core takeoff. But Windows desktop rather than browser-native, so the multi-estimator, work-from-anywhere case that STACK reviewers praise is weaker. And there's no cloud collaboration, no free viewer seats.

Buildxact. Priced per account rather than per seat, so a five-person office pays $199 a month instead of STACK's $1,495. And it carries a $0 entry tier, plus job costing and client quoting that STACK's preconstruction product doesn't. But Aimed at residential builders and remodelers rather than commercial specialty subs. Takeoff depth, assemblies and the commercial bidding workflow are lighter than STACK's, and there's no ERP connector.

On-Screen Takeoff. The incumbent STACK reviewers most often migrated from, with a deep commercial takeoff heritage and a mature bid-management stack around it. But No published price at all, which removes the one clear advantage STACK has over most of this category. Reviewers switching to STACK cite the desktop database model and cloud access as the reason they left.

The EDGE. Named by a STACK reviewer as the head-to-head alternative, with strong trade-specific estimating databases for insulation, drywall and specialty interior work. But Nothing is published, so a buyer can't compare before a sales call. And the STACK reviewer who compared them chose STACK, citing 'Price and training availability and costs were the main factors.'

Who should not buy STACK

Don't buy STACK if you're A solo contractor or two-person shop that bids occasionally and wants to pay only in the months work is busy. The smallest real commitment is one Premium seat on a twelve-month term, which is $2,988 a year prepaid, and the monthly option is the same twelve-month obligation at $3,588. There's no early termination and no prorated refund. So a seasonal bidder pays through the quiet months either way. Look at Buildxact instead.

Don't buy STACK if you're A residential remodeler who wants takeoff, estimating, job costing and client-facing scheduling in one subscription. STACK splits preconstruction and project management into two separately priced products, and the project management half is the weaker one by its own users' account. So buying both means two subscriptions with two price schedules. And the field product still doesn't do job costing against actuals. Look at Buildertrend instead.

Don't buy STACK if you're A shop whose accounting runs on Xero, Foundation, Viewpoint Vista or Sage 100 Contractor. The ERP Connectors FAQ names exactly two systems: 'STACK currently offers connectors for Sage Intacct and Acumatica.' QuickBooks Desktop and Online, plus NetSuite, appear in the wider integrations directory as estimate exports rather than as connectors. Anything outside that short list means you're re-keying, or paying for API access to build the bridge yourself. Look at PlanSwift instead.

Don't buy STACK if you're A roofing-only contractor who expects the vendor's support team to speak roofing. A roofing owner using STACK reports that support examples skew to plumbing and concrete and don't transfer to roofing work. And aerial measurement, the natural roofing accelerator, is a Premium-gated paid add-on rather than an included capability. Look at EagleView instead.

The verdict, by shop size

Solo estimator or two-person shop bidding a few jobs a month

No. The entry commitment is $2,988 per seat for twelve months with no early termination and no prorated refund, and the monthly option is the same obligation at $3,588. That's a lot of fixed cost for a shop whose bidding volume swings with the season, and the AI features that would justify the premium are add-ons on top. So Bluebeam Revu Basics at $260 a year, or an account-priced tool like Buildxact, will cover this band for a fraction of the exposure. This band runs 1 to 2 on the crew, doing residential and commercial work, and that's the profile the recommendation is written for.

Three to fifteen estimators at a commercial specialty subcontractor bidding hard-bid work off drawing sets

Yes, and this is the shape the product is built for. This is the band STACK is built for and the one its reviewers come from. Browser-native access means several estimators work the same plan set from office, home or site, free viewer seats let PMs and field staff look without a licence, and the assemblies and formula engine rewards you if you've got the discipline to maintain a library. The 4.5 rating across 1,398 Capterra reviews is earned here. But negotiate a renewal cap in the Order Form and get every add-on line-itemed, because the per-seat total grows quickly at the top of this range. This band runs 3 to 15 on the crew, doing commercial work, and that's the profile the recommendation is written for.

Residential remodeler or custom builder who needs takeoff, estimating, job costing and client communication in one system

No. STACK is a preconstruction product. Job costing against actuals, client-facing selections and scheduling aren't in Takeoff & Estimate, and the separate Build & Operate subscription is the half its own users rate lowest. So buying both means two price schedules and still leaves the costing gap. You'd be better served by a residential end-to-end platform. This band runs 1 to 30 on the crew, doing residential work, and that's the profile the recommendation is written for.

Roofing or exterior contractor whose work is measured off aerial imagery rather than architectural drawings

Only under conditions, and they are worth being honest about. STACK can do this, through Nearmap imagery and the Aerial Image Takeoff capability, but only as a Premium-gated paid add-on on top of the seat price, and a roofing owner on Capterra reports that support examples skew to plumbing and concrete. So it's conditional on getting the aerial add-on quoted before signing, and on confirming the support team can speak to roofing assemblies. If aerial measurement is the whole job, you'll get a cheaper route from a measurement-report vendor. This band runs 1 or more on the crew, doing residential and commercial and insurance work, and that's the profile the recommendation is written for.

Any contractor whose accounting isn't Sage Intacct or Acumatica and who needs estimates to reach the ledger without re-keying

Only under conditions, and they are worth being honest about. Two true bidirectional connectors exist and both sit behind a Pro-required paid add-on. QuickBooks, NetSuite and everything else is an estimate export rather than a sync. It's conditional on accepting a one-way handoff, or on paying for API access as a further company-level add-on and building the bridge. So confirm in writing which of the two your ERP is before treating the integration as solved. This band runs 1 or more on the crew, doing commercial and residential and service work, and that's the profile the recommendation is written for.

How this STACK page was researched

A word on limits. We read STACK's pages and its reviews, but we didn't operate it. And what stands behind it is documentary: 18 vendor pages read on 7 August 2026, and a review corpus sorted by what went wrong. So each number carries the date it was read, and the page it was read from.

So: twelve quotes on this page, twelve from Capterra.

And https://www.softwareadvice.com/construction/stack-takeoff-profile/ (404 via WebFetch; every other slug guessed returned 403 to curl, so no Software Advice profile was located), https://www.softwareadvice.com/construction/stack-profile/ (403), https://www.getapp.com/construction-software/a/stack-takeoff/ (403), https://www.getapp.com/construction-software/a/stack/ (403), https://www.g2.com/sellers/stack-construction-technologies (linked from STACK's own schema sameAs; G2 blocks automated access), https://support.stackct.com/hc/en-us (Zendesk help centre returns 403 to curl; article bodies were retrieved through the open Help Center API instead) and https://www.capterra.com/p/147181/STACK-Takeoff/reviews/ (403 to curl, so the figures couldn't be grep-verified against raw HTML in the usual way; verified instead by reading the live rendered DOM) refused automated retrieval for STACK. Where their scores appear in third-party roundups we have left them out rather than pass on a number we could not open.

What that leaves untested: the in-product experience. No STACK account was created, so seat assignment, the licensing dashboard, the CSV export dialog and the Build & Operate cancel flow are described from vendor documentation rather than from use.. And everything above is 18 vendor pages and a review corpus, which is documentary rather than hands-on.