Construction estimating, recalibrated
Every other tool gives every contractor the same answer.
Kanopi gives you your answer.
Drop a plan set. Get a bid in minutes — calibrated to your subs, your overhead, and your history. Not RSMeans. Not generic. Yours.
The problem
Off-the-shelf software bids the same way for every contractor.
Every tier — enterprise, mid-market, SMB — pulls from the same generic cost database. You pay $5K to $50K to look up the same numbers every other contractor in your region looks up. Your shop isn't average. Your bids shouldn't be.
How it works
Four things every other tool can't do.
Autonomous takeoff
Drop a plan PDF. Vision AI reads the sheets, classifies them, extracts quantities — automatically. You review, you don't redo.
vs. competitors: PlanSwift, Bluebeam — hours of manual click-to-measure
Calibrated to your shop
We learn from your past bids, your subs, your overhead, your history. The same project bid by you and bid by your competitor produces two different numbers — both correct.
vs. competitors: Sage, STACK, ProEst — generic RSMeans, identical to peers
Live market pricing
BLS Producer Price Index feed, daily 1build material prices, live tariff watch on imported categories. Quotes update with the market, not with the next quarterly software release.
vs. competitors: Most catalogs update quarterly, often months stale
Confidence on every line
Each line shows where the number came from — quoted by a sub, measured from the plan, assumed from history, or budgeted as an allowance. Owners trust transparent bids more than perfect-looking ones.
vs. competitors: Industry standard: opaque lump-sum totals
The competitive landscape
Every category leader.
One blind spot.
Kanopi vs. the eight tools most contractors evaluate today. Compare on what matters: setup time, plan ingestion, pricing data source, and customization to your shop.
| Capability | Sage Estimating | PlanSwift | Bluebeam Revu | STACK | ProEst | Buildxact | Clear Estimates | Kanopi |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tier | Enterprise | Mid | Markup only | Mid | Mid | SMB | SMB | Mid, priced like SMB |
| Annual cost | $10K–25K+ | ~$2.4K | $400–700/seat | $2.4K–4.8K | ~$5K | $2.4K–3.6K | $720–1.1K | $1.5K–3K |
| Setup time | 6–12 weeks | 1–2 weeks | Days | 2–4 weeks | 2–4 weeks | 1 week | Days | Days |
| Plan-set ingestion | Manual takeoff | Manual takeoff | Manual measure | Manual + AI assist | Manual | Template-driven | Template-driven | Autonomous (Vision AI) |
| Pricing data | RSMeans static | User catalog | None | RSMeans + user | Generic | Generic + user | RSMeans | Live BLS PPI + 1build + your history |
| Customization to your shop | High (manual build) | Moderate | None | Low | Low | Low | Low | Automatic — learns from your bids |
| Bid types | Fixed only | Fixed | — | Fixed | Fixed | Fixed | Fixed | Fixed / Cost-Plus / T&M |
| Confidence per line | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Quoted / Takeoff / Assumed / Allowance |
| Margin-of-error band | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Yes — narrows by plan stage |
| Cloud / desktop | Desktop | Desktop | Desktop + cloud markup | Cloud | Cloud | Cloud | Cloud | Cloud-native |
| Learning curve | Very steep | Moderate | Low | Moderate | Moderate | Low | Low | Low |
Pricing and setup ranges based on publicly available information and buyer interviews, 2025-2026. Approximate. Implementation timelines assume a single estimator with no prior platform experience.
Who it's for
Subcontractors, general contractors, and developers. Any size. Any region.
We're horizontal across building construction — residential, commercial, hospitality, multifamily. We're not for heavy civil (HCSS owns that lane), specialty MEP databases (Trimble Accubid owns that), or PDF markup (Bluebeam stays on every laptop). We integrate with what you already use.
What it costs to wait
A mid-size GC bidding eight jobs a month.
Today
- 1 estimator full-time
- $90,000 / yr
- Sage + Excel macros
- $18,000 / yr
- Bluebeam (3 seats)
- $1,800 / yr
- Manual takeoff: 6 hrs/bid
- ~600 hrs / yr
- Generic pricing: margin slip
- −2 to −5%
Net result
~$110K/yr in estimating function + 2-5% margin slip on every bid from generic pricing data.
With Kanopi
Same estimator. 3× throughput. Tighter margins. ~$2,500/yr in license. Same person bids twenty-four jobs a month, not eight.
Request a demo
See your last bid,
recalculated.
Send us a project you've already bid. We'll run it through Kanopi and show you the difference — calibrated to your shop, not a generic database. No 90-minute discovery call.