Joist is a good invoicing app with over a million sign-ups — and in 2026 it dropped its free plan, capped the cheapest tier at five documents a month, and moved change orders, reports and scheduling up to its $32 and $70 tiers. Estiquik starts a step earlier — on the drawing: measure areas, wall runs and fixture counts straight off a PDF plan and send the quantities to the estimate. Then nine renovation templates with labour and material rates for your state or province, and invoices, change orders, receipts, contracts and scheduling on one $29.99 plan — with card payments landing in your own Stripe account.
Joist's cheaper tiers hold back the paperwork a renovation actually generates. Estiquik's Starter is the whole estimating tool; Pro is the whole back office; Crew is the same thing for a team.
| BasicsUp to 5 estimates + invoices a month · online payments · e-signatures · financing offers | $10 ($100/yr) |
| ProUnlimited documents · logo · photos · contracts · markup · templates · expenses · QuickBooks Online | $17 ($170/yr) |
| EliteAdds change orders (on invoices) · business & sales reports · review prompts | $32 ($320/yr) |
| RunAdds jobs and visit scheduling with a calendar · launched August 2026 | $70 intro, list $100 |
| Free3 estimates from a blank sheet · client records · build and print, no card and no clock | $0 |
| StarterAll 9 pre-priced templates · regional pricing · unlimited estimates · invoicing with auto tax · progress billing · leads & CRM · card payments via your Stripe | $19.99 (CA$24.99) |
| ProAdds the AI estimator (draft from a recorded walkthrough) · plan takeoff — measure areas, wall runs and fixture counts off a PDF drawing · expenses & receipts · contracts · change orders · scheduling · job costing · QuickBooks Online | $29.99 (CA$34.99) |
| CrewEverything in Pro for up to 10 people in one workspace · one subscription | $69.99 (CA$79.99) |
Card processing on Estiquik is Stripe's own standard rate (2.9% + 30¢ in the US, 2.9% + 30¢ CAD in Canada), charged by Stripe into your own account — Estiquik adds nothing on top. Joist's US rate of 3.49% + 49¢ is published in its help centre; in Canada the two rates are the same.
Joist publishes its plans in US dollars only. Converted at the Bank of Canada's daily average of 1.3840 on 4 September 2026, and rounded to the cent — your card issuer's rate and any foreign-transaction fee will move these.
| Plan | As published (USD) | At 1.3840 (CAD) |
|---|---|---|
| Joist Basics | $10/mo · $100/yr | CA$13.84/mo · CA$138.40/yr |
| Joist Pro | $17/mo · $170/yr | CA$23.53/mo · CA$235.28/yr |
| Joist Elite | $32/mo · $320/yr | CA$44.29/mo · CA$442.88/yr |
| Joist Run (introductory) | $70/mo · $700/yr | CA$96.88/mo · CA$968.80/yr |
| Joist Run (list) | $100/mo · $1000/yr | CA$138.40/mo · CA$1,384.00/yr |
| Joist Payments card fee, Canada | 2.9% + 30¢ CAD per card payment, per Joist's help centre | |
| Estiquik Starter | $19.99/mo · $199.99/yr | CA$24.99/mo · CA$249.99/yr — a published Canadian price, billed in CAD |
| Estiquik Pro | $29.99/mo · $299.99/yr | CA$34.99/mo · CA$349.99/yr |
| Estiquik card fee, Canada | Stripe's standard 2.9% + 30¢ CAD, charged by Stripe into your own account; Estiquik adds nothing | |
Estiquik's Canadian prices are set in Canadian dollars, not converted, so they do not move with the exchange rate; the Canada page covers HST, GST and PST by province and e-Transfer. Joist's USD prices were read from joist.com on 3 September 2026.
Everything here is taken from each company's public website and help centre. Where we could not verify something, we say so.
| Joist | Estiquik | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An estimate and invoice maker. You type every line item yourself. | A renovation estimator that also invoices. Templates arrive priced; you adjust. |
| Pre-priced templates | No Blank line items and a web cost-calculator page | Yes — kitchen, bathroom, basement, flooring, painting, deck and roofing, plus custom Every price stays editable and your edits become your baseline |
| Draft an estimate from a walkthrough | No You start from a blank estimate | Pro, $29.99 — record the site visit and get rooms, line items and quantities to price Record on your phone; the AI drafts, you price |
| Plan takeoff — measuring off the drawings | No You measure on paper and type the quantities in | Pro, $29.99 — scale a PDF sheet, trace areas, wall runs and counts, and the quantities become estimate lines Wall runs turn into drywall, insulation and trim from one trace; tagged devices count in a click |
| Free plan | No Free trial only | Yes — 3 estimates, build and print, no card and no clock |
| Regional labour & material rates | No | Yes — 60+ US states and Canadian provinces |
| Sales tax | Per line item Tax some lines and not others | Auto-filled for your state or province, one editable rate per document, applied to everything or to materials only Joist's per-line tax is more flexible; ours is faster |
| Cheapest plan | $10 / month, capped at 5 documents a month | $19.99 / month, no document cap |
| Change orders | Elite, $32 On invoices only, not estimates | Pro, $29.99 Priced, signed and tracked against the estimate's contract value |
| Job scheduling | Run, $70 Introductory price; list $100 | Pro, $29.99 Month calendar, today view, ICS feed to your phone calendar |
| Expenses & receipts | Pro | Pro Receipts compress on your phone; tax tracked as its own reclaimable field |
| Estimate vs actual | Partly Expenses can be linked to an invoice to show margin | Yes — quoted, invoiced, spent and margin per job on Pro |
| Client reminders & follow-ups | Invoice reminders Manual and automatic invoice reminders; no estimate follow-up published | Pro — job reminder the evening before, one estimate follow-up with the sign button, overdue-invoice reminders with a pay link |
| Leads & CRM | Client list Contacts and their documents; no pipeline | Every plan — client records plus a lead pipeline (enquiry → visit booked → estimate sent → won) with follow-up dates and sources, fed by the booking page |
| AI receptionist | Add-on from $49 a month | Add-on — $29 a month for 100 minutes (300 for $69, 650 for $129) on any paid plan. Answers the calls you miss, books the site visit into your real schedule, creates the client and the lead, and emails you the transcript. No overage: out of minutes and it stops answering rather than billing you. How it works → |
| Online booking | No | Pro — a public site-visit booking page for your website and Google listing |
| Contracts | Pro — attach a contract to a document | Pro — drafted from the estimate, e-signed from a link, signed copy filed with it |
| E-signatures | Every plan On estimates and invoices | Starter and up — estimates; contracts and change orders on Pro; name, time, IP and document fingerprint recorded |
| Progress billing | Yes Deposits and milestone payment requests | Every plan — payment schedule on the estimate; each stage is its own invoice with an optional holdback |
| More than one user | No Joist states each account is a single user with a single login | Crew — up to 10 people, one subscription |
| Card payments | Joist Payments: 3.49% + 49¢ (US), 2.9% + 30¢ (Canada). Tap to Pay, ACH in the US, deposits and milestones. | Your own Stripe account at Stripe's standard rate. Pay button on emailed invoices. No Tap to Pay or ACH today |
| Homeowner financing | Yes — Acorn Finance marketplace, US only, on every plan | No |
| QuickBooks Online | Pro and up | Pro and up |
| Trying it | 14-day trial of Elite, no card | Open the live demo right now, no signup. Then 14 days free, no card. |
| Getting your data out | Client export; invoice export one month at a time, totals only, no line items | CSV and JSON export on every list, every plan, no notice period |
| Track record | 1.3M+ contractor sign-ups since 2011; part of EverCommerce | Launched 2026. We would rather tell you that than hide it. |
Sources: joist.com/pricing and Joist's public help centre, checked 3 September 2026. Joist may change pricing or features at any time; this page is updated when we notice. Spot an error? Tell us and we will fix it.
So nobody finds out after switching: there is no homeowner financing, no Tap to Pay or in-person card reader, no ACH or cheque deposit, and no review-request tool. Regional pricing covers the US and Canada only. If any of those is a deal-breaker today, Joist is the safer choice and we would rather you knew now.
We also apply one tax rate per document rather than per line. It is auto-filled for your state or province, editable, and can cover everything or materials only, which suits most renovation invoices. If you need a different rate on individual lines, Joist handles that more neatly.
The importer was built against Joist's own export files. You can run both apps for a month if you would rather move slowly.
On the web app, export Clients, then export Invoices one month at a time and paste the months into one sheet. Step-by-step in Help.
Drop the files on the Import page, clients first. It recognises Joist's headers, shows a preview, and writes nothing until you say so. Part of Starter, and the 14-day trial needs no card.
Pick the kitchen, bathroom or basement template, check the regional rates against your last invoice, and adjust. Your edits become your baseline.
Link your Stripe account once. Email the estimate, get it signed, invoice in one click with a Pay button on it.
Full step-by-step guide to switching from Joist →
One thing to know up front: Joist's invoice export carries totals only, not line items. Those invoices import as a single line at the right total, so every figure stays correct even though the itemised breakdown was never in the file.
For estimates, invoices, progress billing, e-signatures, card payments, contracts, change orders, expenses, receipts, a lead pipeline, scheduling and QuickBooks Online — yes. For homeowner financing, Tap to Pay, and ACH — no, not today. An AI receptionist, yes: $29 a month for 100 minutes on any paid plan. The table above lists both honestly.
Starter is not an invoice maker; it is an estimator that invoices. The nine templates come priced for your state or province, which is the hour of research a blank Joist estimate leaves to you. If you already know every price and only send a few invoices a month, Joist's Basics or Pro is genuinely the better buy and we say so above.
Joist's pricing page says the free plan is no longer available and that new users get a 14-day trial instead. Its cheapest paid tier, Basics, is capped at five estimates and invoices a month. Check Joist's current terms; they can change.
In the US, Joist's help centre publishes 3.49% + 49¢ per card payment through Joist Payments. Estiquik connects your own Stripe account, which charges Stripe's standard 2.9% + 30¢, and we add nothing. In Canada both routes are 2.9% + 30¢ CAD, so there is no difference there.
No, on any switch between any two systems — saved card details are held by the payment processor and cannot be exported. Clients pay the next invoice by tapping the Pay button on it.
Every list exports to CSV or JSON on every plan, there is no notice period, and card payments live in your own Stripe account, so nothing about your money depends on us. Cancel from the billing page whenever you like.
Open a working contractor account with priced estimates, invoices, receipts and a schedule. No signup, nothing to install.