Cubit alternative: why Estimator+ is the better choice

Why we reckon Estimator+ beats Cubit

"Is there anything out there that actually does the takeoff, instead of just helping with it?" If that's where your head's at, you're in the right spot. Here's the short version. Cubit gives your estimator tools to measure faster. Estimator+ does the takeoff itself. Pretty much every other difference on this page comes back to that one.

Buildsoft sells AI for Cubit as an add-on called AI Estimating. It's got four tools: Auto Scale & Name, Count Symbols, Auto Area and Scan Text. Take Count Symbols. You "simply select one symbol" and the AI finds the rest, which is handy. But each tool speeds up one step, and your estimator still drives every one of them.

In Estimator+ it runs the other way round. You ask for the takeoff of the job. The AI reads the drawing set, works out what each code means from the schedules, and then measures every sheet straight into the live tender. So your estimator ends up checking the result rather than producing it. If you've ever lost a Tuesday night to counting downlights, you'll know why that's a big deal.

How does the takeoff actually get done?

Here's how it goes.

1. You upload the drawings. Every sheet gets read and named from its title block, revision and all, at no extra cost.
2. You ask for the takeoff in Claude Code or Codex, on the AI plan you're already paying for.
3. The AI reads the set. It looks up what each code means in the schedules and leaves out any superseded sheets.
4. It marks what's drawn on every sheet. A dot on each fitting, a line along each wall, an outline around each finish.
5. Every quantity is measured at the sheet's printed scale.
6. The whole takeoff is checked against the drawings. Anything only the client can answer goes to the tender as an RFI, and each one names its sheet or line.

Now, the part you're probably wondering about. Every quantity sits on a shape you can see, so there's no invented number to catch. It doesn't price anything unless you ask it to, it won't pick a quote, and it doesn't set margin. Lines your team drew? It leaves them alone. And every line it does make is marked as the AI's, so you can tell whose is whose.

What about two estimators on one job?

On Cubit's Enterprise edition, Shared Job Access lets a team work on one estimate. Buildsoft puts it this way: "Each estimator controls the trades they're working on." To see the team's latest work, you refresh the job.

An Estimator+ tender is one live project. Two estimators, a director checking in from site and the AI can all be in it at once, and each change shows up on every screen as it's made. Nothing's locked to one person. And undo reverses your own work alone, so you're not wiping out what your teammate just did.

Why does that matter? Picture it's Thursday arvo in the last week of a tender and the addendum's just landed. That's when quantities, quotes and margins all move at once.

Why should the quotes live in the tender?

Cubit compares quotes in a second product, Cubit Select. You send your live estimate into it, pick your subcontractors and apply their quotes back. That's a separate subscription, from $114 +GST a month when bundled, and it comes with its own 12-month minimum.

We think quotes belong right next to the work they price. In Estimator+, every subcontractor's price sits beside the takeoff line it covers, in the same tender. A lump sum stays fixed to the quantity it was priced on, while a rate follows the live quantity. So when an addendum moves a wall, you can see straight away which lump sums need a call.

Exclusions get marked on the price they belong to, and the ones from the quotes you pick are gathered up for your clarifications. Every pick is yours to make, by the way.

Cubit and Estimator+, side by side

Cubit's details here come from Buildsoft's own pages, read on 2 October 2026, in Australian dollars.

So what does it cost?

We'll be straight with you. A Cubit Estimating seat is $170 to $305 +GST a month, depending on the edition and how you pay. Every edition carries a 12-month minimum term. Quote comparison is Cubit Select, which is a second subscription, and AI Estimating is $20 a month at an early adopter rate.

An Estimator+ seat is A$450 a month ex GST. One price, no editions. The AI takeoff, live teamwork, quote comparison, review and submission all sit inside it. It's billed monthly, so you can stop whenever you like.

So yes, a Cubit seat costs less, and we're not going to pretend it doesn't. The Estimator+ seat is priced for a product that does the takeoff itself. Your AI app runs on the Claude or ChatGPT plan you already have, and we don't charge any AI credits on top. If you want the fine print, our Cubit pricing post goes through Buildsoft's terms line by line.

When you should stick with Cubit

Look, if you price from BIM models, keep using Cubit for that work. Its Enterprise edition does takeoff from IFC files, and Estimator+ doesn't. We work from PDF drawings, which is how most commercial tenders still arrive.

Why we built it like this

Commercial tenders kept showing us the same problem. The estimate was never one thing. It was a takeoff file, a quote comparison somewhere else, a workbook and a Word document, and the estimator's real job was keeping all of them in agreement through every addendum. Which, honestly, isn't what anyone got into estimating for.

So we built one live tender that holds the drawings, the measured lines, the quotes, the picks and the submission. Then we put an AI to work inside it, on the model you choose. It measures the drawings, and your estimator gets on with the part that actually needs an estimator.

Thinking about switching?

Here's the thing: there's no Cubit import. Teams rebuild their trades and rates once, as a company template library, then run a tender they've already priced in Cubit and check the result line by line. It's a bit of setup, but you're doing it once. Just plan the switch before your Cubit renewal date, because each Cubit subscription carries a 12-month minimum.

Our guide to switching from Cubit sets out the order of work. Or if you'd rather see it first, book a demo, bring along a job you've already priced, and watch the AI take it off.