Stack vs PlanSwift 2026: Choose Your Takeoff Path

What this comparison decides

A construction takeoff is the measured quantity of material taken from the drawings, and an estimate is that quantity with labor, material prices, and markup applied. Specialty estimators type "stack vs planswift" when the bid desk is about to pay for one of those two jobs. The useful answer is not a slogan. It is which product still exists, what each paid plan actually includes, what the pricing page prints, and what happens to the quantities after the measure is done.

TL;DR: PlanSwift is still the Windows desktop takeoff and estimating program sold by ConstructConnect, with a printed annual price for one seat. STACK Takeoff & Estimate is still the browser product sold by STACK Construction Technologies, with a free account and a printed per-user monthly rate on a 12-month term. Neither name has been retired. Pick PlanSwift when the estimator's machine is Windows and the priced bid should live in the same installed program. Pick STACK when other people must open the job in a browser, and pay the Pro plan if the worksheet estimate has to live there too.

PlanSwift was founded in 2007, joined ConstructConnect in 2018, and launched its Takeoff BOOST suite in May 2026, according to PlanSwift (2026). ConstructConnect acquired the PlanSwift assets on April 9, 2018 and described an 11-year rise in takeoff software, according to ConstructConnect (2018). The same about page says ConstructConnect also builds On-Screen Takeoff. That is a different product. Do not price On-Screen Takeoff as if it were PlanSwift, and do not treat a ConstructConnect cloud takeoff offer as a rename of PlanSwift.

STACK's current takeoff and estimate pricing page still sells the product under the STACK name, with Free, Premium, and Pro plans. Nothing on that page, or on PlanSwift's pricing page, says either product was merged into the other or pulled from sale.

How we evaluated these two takeoff tools

The reader is an estimator at a specialty contractor who is close to a purchase. The weights below follow that decision, not a generic software score. Trade measurement is 20% because a wrong measurement type ruins the quantity before price ever matters. A second person opening the job without a Windows PC is 20% because project managers and owners rarely sit at the estimator's desktop. A priced estimate inside the same product is 15% because some shops want the proposal in that login and some already price in a spreadsheet on purpose. A price you can read before a call is 15% because this search happens late, when a hidden seat fee changes the year. A way for quantities to leave the tool is 15% because purchasing and accounting still need the count. A trial on your own plans is 15% because a specialty assembly only proves itself on your sheets. Those six weights add to 100%.

Only one item is a deal-breaker by itself. If the product cannot measure the trade, stop. The other gaps have a workaround: a spreadsheet for price, one Windows PC for the license, a call when the extra-seat dollar amount is missing, a manual file for the handoff, or a paid month when the free limits are too tight. The table records that split. It is not a lab score, and it is not a ranking of the two brands.

Evidence for every row is a vendor page or a review page opened for this guide. Where a dollar amount was not on the vendor pricing page, the cell says so. No score in this article pretends to be a timed test.

Who this is for

This guide is for the person who measures a specialty scope and sends a number the company will stand behind. Typical desks are mechanical, electrical, plumbing, drywall, roofing, concrete, painting, or another trade that lives on counts, lengths, and areas. You are choosing between a browser subscription and a Windows program, and you want the printed price next to the limit that will hit you in month two.

Red flags: you have no Windows PC and will not run Windows in a virtual machine; you need a dollar amount for 10 or more PlanSwift seats before you will talk to anyone; you need an ERP connector with a price printed on the page.

You are in the right place if you can name the measurement (duct, fixture, membrane, footing) and you can say whether the priced proposal must be created inside the takeoff product. You are also in the right place if a second person has to look at the job from a laptop that is not the estimating PC. The habit that matters is reading the limit beside the price. The same habit shows up when people compare in-house plan tools in a comparison of in-house plan platforms. Different industry, same buying error: the headline price without the cap.

Two products, still under their own names

STACK Takeoff & Estimate is a cloud product. The pricing page says it is 100% cloud-based and can be opened from any device with an internet connection. The free account is the on-ramp. After 7 days of the Pro feature set, the free account keeps a tight cap, which is spelled out in the pricing section. Premium is the full takeoff plan: unlimited projects, pages, and measurements, a pre-built item and assembly library, drawing overlay, automatic plan naming and hyperlinking, symbol search, AI takeoffs, STACK IQ listed by name, and unlimited viewer seats. Pro is the plan that adds the priced bid: worksheet estimating, labor and material items and assemblies, STACK for Excel, rollups, an estimate dashboard, a regional BNI cost library, a check for missing materials, and native proposal generation. ERP connectors are listed as an add-on on Pro. The add-on price is not printed. Aerial image takeoff is a separate add-on that requires Premium, and that price is not printed either.

STACK's developer tutorials say plan files can be PDF, ZIP, JPG, TIFF, or PNG, and that CAD or BIM files such as DWF, DWG, and DXF have to be converted before upload. Measurement types documented there include area, linear, count, linear with drop, pitched area, pitched linear, surface area, and two volume types. A project requires a bid date and a name. Estimates are created from a takeoff, not as a free-floating file. That is the implementation shape: a login, a project, files, measurements, then a proposal on the Pro plan. STACK's pricing page says most people are working in the product within a matter of hours, and that training resources are included. Treat that as the vendor's claim, not as a timed result from this guide.

Best fit for STACK is a specialty desk that is not glued to one Windows PC, that wants viewers on the job without buying each of them a full seat, and that will move to the Pro plan if the worksheet and the proposal have to live in STACK. The limitation is easy to miss. Premium measures. Pro prices. Buying Premium and expecting a worksheet, Excel integration, a BNI library, or a native proposal is a mismatch with the bullet list on the pricing page. The other limitation is the contract shape: every Takeoff & Estimate subscription is a 12-month term, payable annually or spread monthly, and the page says annual billing saves 20%. The monthly amount before that savings is not printed on the annual view of the page.

PlanSwift is the other shape. Its features page states that it is an installed Windows desktop application and is not a browser-based application. Jobs can sit on local, network, or cloud storage, but the program itself is the desktop install. The features page says both paid subscriptions include desktop takeoff, reports, print, and export, plus Auto Count, Auto Scale, and Auto Bookmark. The Core plan adds full Auto Takeoff, which the pricing page describes as a first pass of areas, lengths, and counts. Essential does not include that Auto Takeoff tool. Estimating is in the product on both paid plans: assemblies, labor, material, formulas, and bid proposals are part of the features description, not an upgrade the way STACK's worksheet is.

PlanSwift's Essential plan costs $2,000 per year for 1 seat, the Core plan costs Core seat: $3,000 per year according to PlanSwift (2026), the trial costs $0 for 14 days and includes the full Core feature set with no credit card, both paid plans include 2 hours of live one-on-one training, the pricing page says additional seats are discounted without printing that dollar amount, 10 or more licenses are quote-based, and the same pricing page says the product is trusted by over 43,000 construction pros.

Best fit for PlanSwift is the estimator who already works on a supported Windows PC, wants takeoff and the priced bid in one installed program, and wants a sticker price for the first seat before a call. The limitations are the machine, the old versions, and the seats you cannot price from the pricing page alone. File types listed on the features page are PDF, DWG, DXF, JPG, TIFF or TIF, and PLN, with DWF called out as variable. That is a real difference from STACK, which tells you to convert DWG and DXF first. Live Excel Link, Excel export, and starting a supported takeoff from Excel are listed on the features page. A local copy of Excel is required for those Excel functions, which the system requirements page states separately.

Primary pages for this section are the STACK pricing page, the STACK developer tutorials, the PlanSwift pricing page, the PlanSwift about page, and the PlanSwift features page. Review counts are held for the section that cites them, so a vendor slogan is not treated as a score.

What the pricing pages actually print

Pricing checked October 10, 2026.

STACK's free account costs $0 and, after 7 days of Pro, keeps 1 active project a month, up to 300 plan pages, and 50 measurements per project, while the Premium plan costs Premium rate: $299 per user monthly according to STACK (2026) and the Pro plan costs $349 per user per month, both billed annually on a 12-month term, with the page stating that annual billing saves 20%.

The one-seat year in the table is arithmetic, not a second sticker. Twelve times $299 is $3,588. Twelve times $349 is $4,188. PlanSwift's paid rates are already annual, so the one-seat year matches the printed rate. Extra-seat dollars are not taken from any page except the pricing pages, and those pages do not print an extra-seat dollar amount for PlanSwift. ERP connectors and aerial image takeoff on STACK are quote-based because the pricing page lists them as add-ons and does not print a price.

The free and trial rows use a term of 0 months because neither one is a year of paid software. The free STACK account is described as forever, inside the caps above. The PlanSwift trial is 14 days. Read the next table before you treat $0 as a production plan.

A specialty bid that needs more than one live project, or more than 50 measurements, does not fit the free STACK account. That is the published cap, not a guess about company size. The trial of PlanSwift is the full Core set for 14 days, and the pricing page says nothing is charged automatically when it ends.

For one paid seat that includes a priced estimate, the printed comparison is PlanSwift Essential at $2,000 for the year, PlanSwift Core at $3,000 for the year, and STACK's Pro plan at twelve times $349, or $4,188. STACK's Premium plan at twelve times $299, or $3,588, is the wrong comparison if you need the worksheet, because that worksheet is on Pro. Quote-based items sit outside all of those figures: PlanSwift seats from 10 up, STACK ERP connectors, and STACK aerial image takeoff.

Key Takeaways

• PlanSwift is still PlanSwift, owned by ConstructConnect since the April 9, 2018 acquisition, and it is a Windows desktop program, not a browser rename of On-Screen Takeoff.

• STACK Takeoff & Estimate is still sold under that name, in a browser, with Free at $0, Premium at $299 per user per month billed annually, and Pro at $349 per user per month billed annually.

• The worksheet estimate, STACK for Excel, the BNI library, and native proposals are on STACK's Pro plan. Premium is the takeoff plan.

• PlanSwift's Essential plan is $2,000 per year for one seat and includes estimating. The Core plan is $3,000 per year for one seat and adds Auto Takeoff. Both include 2 hours of live training.

• The free STACK account allows 1 active project a month, up to 300 plan pages, and 50 measurements per project after 7 days of Pro. That is a trial shape, not a production bid load.

• Quantities still have to reach purchasing or accounting. That handoff is a separate design from the takeoff product you buy.

What reviewers report

STACK score: 4.5 from 1,399 reviews according to Software Advice (2026), and the same page lists PlanSwift at 4.3 from 402 reviews, with 82% of STACK reviewers and 78% of PlanSwift reviewers recommending the product, on a comparison updated October 1, 2026.

Those are satisfaction counts, not a measure of quantity accuracy. The page also says both products are most often reviewed by small businesses, that construction is the most common industry at 79% of STACK reviews and 64% of PlanSwift reviews, and that estimating and takeoff are the top use cases named. On the same page, STACK's ease of use, value for money, customer support, and functionality are listed at 4.5, 4.3, 4.7, and 4.2. PlanSwift's matching figures are 4.4, 4.1, 4.1, and 4.1. Support is the widest gap in that set. Do not import a starting price from that review page into your budget. This guide uses only the vendor pricing pages for dollars.

A high review count does not tell you whether your trade's assembly exists, whether your PC can run the desktop program, or whether Premium includes the proposal. Use the scores as a check that both products have a long public record. Use the pricing page and the feature bullets for the purchase.

Windows, browser, and the file you were sent

Minimum memory: 8GB according to ConstructConnect (2025), with 16GB or more recommended, Windows 11 Pro or Enterprise recommended, and a notice that as of October 1, 2025 PlanSwift versions older than 10.3 are no longer distributed or supported. The same page says Home editions are not tested, server and Remote Desktop installs are not supported, and a Mac cannot run the program directly. A Mac needs Boot Camp or a virtual machine running a supported Windows. The features page adds Windows 10 to the operating systems it lists, beside Windows 11.

That machine list is the practical disqualifier for a shop that has standardized on Mac laptops and will not keep a Windows PC in the estimating room. It is also the disqualifier for a shop that hoped to put PlanSwift on a shared server and have five people remote in. Extra seats can be bought, and the pricing page says the extra-seat price is discounted, but the program is still a desktop install on a supported Windows edition. Minimum processor listed is a dual-core at 2.6 GHz. Recommended processor is an Intel i5 or i7, 64-bit, and the help page says Takeoff BOOST wants a high-end processor. Minimum free disk is 10GB. Recommended free disk is 256GB or more on an SSD. Minimum graphics memory is 512MB, with 1GB or more recommended.

STACK does not publish a hardware minimum on the pricing page because the app runs in the browser. The requirement it does publish is an internet connection. Offline work is not what that page promises. If the trailer or the jobsite has no connection, a desktop program with local files is the clearer fit, provided the PC matches the list above. If the plans arrive as DWG or DXF, PlanSwift's features page says those formats can be imported, while STACK's tutorials say to convert them first. If the plans arrive as PDF, both products take them. PlanSwift's features page adds a caution: for Takeoff BOOST, use the original PDF rather than a TIFF conversion.

Where the quantities go next

Buying the takeoff tool does not post the cost code. Someone still moves lengths, counts, and areas into purchasing or accounting, and a person still has to agree the quantity is the one the company will buy against. A proposed workflow from US Tech Automations starts when the estimator marks a STACK proposal ready or saves the PlanSwift workbook. The action is to pull the quantities, map them to the shop's cost codes, and hold the file. The output is a draft sheet, not a posted cost. The prerequisite on the STACK side is a partner credential. STACK's authentication page shows that a partner is given a client id and secret, then requests an access_token before any later call. The prerequisite on the PlanSwift side is the Excel file the features page already knows how to produce, including the Live Excel Link, plus a local copy of Excel. A person approves the draft before any accounting system is written.

US Tech Automations would be configured to stop when the export is empty, when a quantity is negative, or when the same proposal is sent a second time. The estimator reviews the draft, changes a cost code if the assembly did not match the trade, and only then releases the file. That review is part of the design. It is not a report about a live customer, and it is not a measured saving. The same pattern of moving numbers between systems, without retyping them, is what a ramp stack means for accounting firms describes on the finance side of a company.

Zapier, Make, and n8n can keep a run history, retry a failed step, branch on an error, and store an audit trail when someone sets those pieces up. The buyer then owns the logs, the rule that a repeated event does not post twice, who gets the alert, who can see the file, and the upkeep when a vendor changes an export. A proposed US Tech Automations design could hold the review stop, the cost-code map, and the no-double-post rule in one configuration, with the same prerequisites and the same human approval before anything is written to accounting. Shops comparing that kind of handoff can also read what a ramp stack changes and then decide whether a general connector is enough for a weekly file.

Skip the extra layer when you do not have the export. STACK will not hand a stranger an access_token. PlanSwift will not produce a Live Excel Link if Excel is not installed. A workflow cannot invent either one.

A one-seat year on paper

Take one estimator and the printed rates, and extend them before you call. STACK's Pro plan at $349 per user per month billed annually, multiplied by the 12-month term, is $4,188 for that seat, according to STACK (2026). PlanSwift's Core plan at the $3,000 one-seat rate already cited is $1,188 less than that $4,188 before any add-on. The same bid still needs a person in the loop: a configurable handoff requests an access_token, reads the proposal quantities, and waits until the estimator confirms them before a cost code is posted. If the shop only needs takeoff and will price in a spreadsheet, the Premium comparison is twelve times $299, or $3,588, against PlanSwift Essential at $2,000, a gap of $1,588 on the printed rates, with the spreadsheet work remaining on the shop.

Words the bid desk actually uses

Takeoff. The count and measure. It is not the price.

Estimate. The takeoff plus labor, material, equipment, and markup. On STACK, the worksheet version is a Pro feature. On PlanSwift, estimating is part of Essential and Core.

Assembly. A saved group of items tied to a measurement, so a length of pipe or a count of fixtures brings its parts along. Both products list assemblies. The library contents for your trade are something you confirm on your own plans, not something this guide can promise.

Viewer seat. On STACK's Premium and Pro plans, viewers are unlimited and are not the same thing as a paid estimating user. Do not budget viewers as if they were full seats, and do not assume a viewer can change the estimate.

Takeoff BOOST. PlanSwift's name for Auto Takeoff, Auto Count, Auto Scale, and Auto Bookmark. Essential includes the last three. Core adds Auto Takeoff. The suite launched in May 2026.

Live Excel Link. PlanSwift's connection from takeoff values to cells in a local Excel workbook, so the sheet updates as the measure changes. It is not a browser login.

Proposal. The document the customer sees. STACK lists native proposal generation on Pro. PlanSwift lists bid proposal generation in the product.

Quote-based. Used here only when the vendor pricing page does not print a dollar amount. It is not a guess at the missing number.

Mistakes that waste a bid cycle

The first mistake is comparing the free STACK account to a paid PlanSwift seat. The free account is $0 and then 50 measurements per project. A real specialty bid blows past that cap. Compare free with the 14-day PlanSwift trial if you are still testing, and compare Pro with Essential or Core if you are buying a year of priced estimating.

The second mistake is buying STACK's Premium plan because it is the lower printed monthly rate and then discovering the worksheet, Excel, the BNI library, and the proposal sit on Pro. The bullet list is the contract. Read it before the card is charged.

The third mistake is assuming PlanSwift will open on a Mac the way a website does. It will not. Budget a Windows PC that meets the 8GB minimum, or do not buy it. A related mistake is paying to renew a PlanSwift older than version 10.3. Those versions are unsupported as of October 1, 2025.

The fourth mistake is dropping a price from a review site into the budget. Review pages in this market do not match the vendor pricing pages line for line. The figures in the pricing section are the ones printed by the vendors on October 10, 2026.

The fifth mistake is treating an unlimited viewer as an estimator. Viewers look. The paid user measures and, on the right plan, prices. The sixth is building the handoff before the export exists. No token, no Excel file, no workflow.

Questions estimators ask before they buy

Is PlanSwift discontinued or renamed?

No. PlanSwift is still sold under that name as a ConstructConnect product, on an annual Essential plan and an annual Core plan. It joined ConstructConnect on April 9, 2018. On-Screen Takeoff is a different ConstructConnect product, and PlanSwift's features page says PlanSwift itself is not a browser application.

Does STACK price the bid, or only measure it?

Only the Pro plan on STACK includes the worksheet estimate, labor and material assemblies in that worksheet, STACK for Excel, and native proposals. The Premium plan is the full takeoff plan, at $299 per user per month billed annually. The Pro plan is $349 per user per month billed annually. The free account measures inside a cap of 50 measurements per project.

Which printed price is lower for one person?

The lowest printed paid price for one seat in this pair is PlanSwift's Essential plan at $2,000 a year, and that plan includes estimating. PlanSwift's Core plan is $3,000 a year. STACK's Pro plan is $349 per user per month billed annually, which is $4,188 if you extend that rate across the 12-month term. STACK's free account is $0 and is not a full production plan.

Can the rest of the office open the job?

STACK's Premium and Pro plans include unlimited viewer seats, and the product runs in a browser. PlanSwift needs a supported Windows install for each person who will run the program, and the pricing page does not print the discounted extra-seat dollar amount. Remote Desktop and server installs are not supported.

Will an older PlanSwift still activate?

No. As of October 1, 2025, PlanSwift versions older than 10.3, including versions 9 and 8, are no longer distributed or supported. Budget the current subscription and a PC with at least 8GB of memory, not a renewal of the old desktop build.

When should the shop skip a workflow layer on top?

Skip US Tech Automations when the estimator already sends the proposal from inside the takeoff tool and nobody retypes the quantities, when the only handoff is one Excel file a week that a person already checks, or when the shop has neither STACK partner credentials nor a PlanSwift Excel file. In those cases the vendor's own export is the simpler tool, and a second system only adds a review step nobody asked for.

Do I have to convert CAD files?

On STACK, yes for the formats the tutorials name. DWG, DXF, and DWF are converted to PDF or an image type before upload. On PlanSwift, the features page lists DWG and DXF among the formats it imports, and it says DWF compatibility varies. For PlanSwift's Takeoff BOOST tools, that page says to use the original PDF rather than a TIFF conversion.

The decision

Choose PlanSwift's Essential plan when the estimator has a supported Windows PC, wants takeoff and the priced bid in one install, and wants the $2,000 one-seat year on the page. Choose the Core plan when that same desk wants Auto Takeoff and will pay the $3,000 one-seat year. Choose STACK's Premium plan when the job has to open in a browser and the priced worksheet will live somewhere else. Choose STACK's Pro plan when the worksheet, the proposal, and STACK for Excel have to live in STACK, and put twelve times $349, or $4,188, in the year-one line for one user. Leave quote-based lines as quote-based: 10 or more PlanSwift seats, and STACK's ERP add-on.

If the open question is which takeoff tool to buy, use the printed rates and the caps above. If the open question is what happens after the quantities exist, see how US Tech Automations configures this. The configuration still needs the export, and it still needs a person to release the file.