Clear Estimates

Clear Estimates overview

Clear Estimates is web-based cost-estimating software for residential remodelers, general contractors, and handymen. The company traces its origins to in-house estimating software built for Orfield Remodeling in Minneapolis by Nolan Orfield (now Founder/President), before Clear Estimates launched commercially as a desktop product in 2005; the company is now headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Clear Estimates moved from a desktop product to a cloud-based platform in 2013, launched an expanded Pro tier in 2017, and acquired its cost-data partner RemodelMAX in 2020. The company reports more than 50,000 customers, over 1 million estimates produced, and more than $25 billion in bids generated over its history.

The core product is a cost database and template system: contractors select a project template, adjust it for their job, and the software generates a localized estimate and a branded, client-ready proposal — rather than requiring the contractor to price every line item from scratch.

Pricing

Clear Estimates publishes its pricing directly, which is uncommon for construction-PM-adjacent software in this category. As of this review, three tiers are listed on the vendor’s pricing page:

• Standard — $79/month billed monthly, or $59/month billed annually. Includes unlimited estimates, 13,000+ line items, 200+ templates, and payable invoices.
• Pro — $119/month billed monthly, or $99/month billed annually. Adds Buildertrend integration, CRM connections via Zapier, custom reports, and ATTOM property data.
• Franchise — starting at $249/month billed monthly, or $199/month billed annually. Adds custom branding, website hosting, feature development, and employee training.

All plans include a 30-day free trial, unlimited estimates and customers, no contract, and no setup fees. Additional users are $9/month on Pro and above.

Features

Clear Estimates’ core value is its cost database: more than 13,000 line items with pricing localized to 400+ U.S. market areas, refreshed quarterly to track material and labor cost movement. On top of that database sit 200+ project templates spanning kitchens, bathrooms, roofing, decks, siding, plumbing, electrical, and HVAC, which contractors customize with their own markups and line-item substitutions. Output is a branded, client-facing PDF proposal with pre-written contract language, plus change-order management, a customer/job database, bid-request tools, and job-cost archiving for reporting.

Strengths and weaknesses

Clear Estimates’ biggest advantage is focus: two decades of purpose-built remodeling cost data and templates that get a contractor to an accurate, presentable estimate fast, at a price point and pricing transparency that’s rare among construction software vendors (most, including several competitors reviewed on this site, require a custom quote). It also integrates cleanly into a broader stack via QuickBooks and, on higher tiers, Buildertrend and CRM connections.

The tradeoffs are scope and mobility. Clear Estimates is a web application with no dedicated native mobile app, which is a gap against field-first competitors. It is also intentionally narrow — it estimates and proposes work but does not manage scheduling, dispatch, or day-to-day project execution, so most buyers pair it with a separate project-management or FSM tool (Buildertrend integration on Pro/Franchise exists for exactly this reason). It’s also squarely residential-remodeling-focused, not built for commercial or heavy-civil estimating workflows.

Who should pick Clear Estimates

Clear Estimates is a strong fit for residential remodelers, handymen, and general contractors who want fast, defensible, localized estimates and professional proposals without paying for a full construction-PM suite, and who value transparent, published pricing. It’s a weaker fit for commercial contractors or heavy-civil estimators outside its residential template library, and for field teams that need a native mobile app or built-in scheduling/dispatch — those buyers should look at a fuller construction-PM platform (with Clear Estimates as the estimating layer feeding into it via the Buildertrend integration, if desired).