For solo contractors and small crews
Free Estimating Software for Contractors
Send the estimate from the driveway. Get the yes before you leave.
Build from line items with local labor rates, send a link your customer approves on their phone, and turn it into an invoice when the job is done. The sample on this page, a 20x20 patio with tear-out, comes to $4,974.51, the same price our slab calculator shows a homeowner for that job.
Free forever · No card · Cancel anytime
Labor rates
Start from what the trade earns where the job is
- Enter the job's ZIP and the labor rate starts from the BLS median wage for your trade there.
- Every rate shows its source and release date.
- The builder adds 35% for payroll taxes, insurance and equipment, same as our calculators. You can change it under More options.
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX metro
Cement masons and concrete finishers
$23.45/hr median wage
Source: BLS OEWS May 2025, metro median hourly wage.
That's the wage, not a billed rate. Your payroll costs, overhead and profit go on top.
Estimates · Approvals
Your customer approves on their phone
- Send a link by text or email.
- You see when they open it, and they sign right there.
- On Pro, a deposit button opens your own payment link. The money goes to you.
Invoices
Turn the approved estimate into an invoice
- One tap copies every line from the estimate.
- Overdue reminders go out only if you switch them on (Pro).
- Mark it paid when the money lands.
Payments go straight to you. We never hold your money.
Email reply within 2 business days.
20x20 patio, 4 in, with tear-out
Same numbers on both sides
Quotes your customers can verify
- Homeowners price their job with our calculators and check quotes against them.
- Estimates you build here use the same engine, wages and material estimates.
- A fair price holds up when your customer checks it.
Pick your trade
Labor is the BLS median wage for cement masons and concrete finishers plus 35% for payroll taxes, insurance and equipment. Overhead and profit is 20% and there's no tax, as in our calculators. Change any of it under More options. More on concrete estimating.
Labor is the BLS median wage for electricians plus 35% for payroll taxes, insurance and equipment. Overhead and profit is 20% and there's no tax, as in our calculators. Change any of it under More options. More on electrical estimating.
Labor is the BLS median wage for general maintenance and repair workers (the closest BLS occupation to handyman work) plus 35% for payroll taxes, insurance and equipment. Overhead and profit is 20% and there's no tax, as in our calculators. Change any of it under More options.
Also in beta: Construction · General contractors · HVAC · Plumbing · Painting · Landscape
9
trades with their own item library
415
line items across those libraries
BLS OEWS May 2025
labor wages by metro and state
NRMCA 2023
ready-mix price, indexed with BLS PPI WPU1333
Pricing
Start free. Pay when you send a lot.
Pro
$13/month
or $130 a year
$130/year — 2 months free
That's $10.83 a month. Extra people are $20 a year each.
- Unlimited sends and approvals
- Follow-up reminders
- No footer on your PDFs
- A calculator widget for your website
4 people included. $2 each after that. Your price never goes up.
Start freeSign up now and your price is locked for life. Your work is never held hostage.
Payments go straight to you. We never hold your money.
Email reply within 2 business days.
Questions
Is it really free?
Yes. Free has no time limit and never asks for a card: unlimited drafts and PDF downloads, and 5 tracked sends a month.
What counts as a send?
Sending an estimate or invoice through the app: the link, the approval, the e-signature and the reminders. Downloading the PDF and emailing it yourself doesn’t count.
Can I cancel?
Any time, in one step. Pro runs to the end of the period you paid for, then the account moves to Free.
What happens to my data if I stop paying?
Nothing is deleted. You can still log in and export everything: CSV, JSON and a ZIP of your PDFs.
Where do the prices come from?
Labor starts from the BLS median wage for your trade and metro, plus 35% for payroll taxes, insurance and equipment. Material prices are our national estimates, marked “estimated”, until you put in yours.
Can my crew use it?
Pro includes 4 people, counting you. Each extra person is $2 a month.
What the app does and does not do
American Build Rate is a contractor estimating app that's free to start. Choose your trade, load its line-item library, let the labor rate start from the BLS wage for your metro, and send a PDF or an accept link. Drafts and PDFs cost nothing, 5 tracked sends a month are free, and Pro is $13 a month for up to 4 people.
It builds estimates: line items with quantity, unit, material cost, labor hours and a labor rate; markup per line or per document; tax after markup; totals rounded to the cent by the same engine on every page. It prints a PDF with your company name (and logo on Pro), and it gives each estimate a private link where your customer can accept or decline. It keeps a customer list and your own item library.
It does not schedule crews, track time, run payroll or replace your accounting. The comparison notes on each trade page name the tools that do and what they cost. The libraries are separate by trade for a reason: an electrician counts devices and home runs, a painter measures square feet and coats.
Estimating software by trade: Construction · General Contractor · Electrical · HVAC · Plumbing · Painting · Landscape · Concrete. Prefer a document? The estimate templates come as PDF, Word, Excel and Google Docs files, and trade rates show what each trade earns per hour.
Where the numbers come from: labor from BLS OEWS May 2025 medians for SOC 47-2051, 47-2111, 49-9071, 49-9021, 47-2152, 47-2141, 47-2061 and 37-3011; ready-mix from NRMCA 2023, indexed with BLS PPI WPU1333. Methodology