Take-off software, compared honestly.
Measurement software for quantity surveyors starts at £264 per user per year — and that is the only vendor that publishes a price at all. QS Takeoff is free while it is in beta, and when it leaves beta we expect to charge no more than £10 a month.
How much does take-off software cost?
List prices as published by each vendor, checked 7 August 2026. Where a cell says not published, that is the finding — the vendor requires a sales conversation before quoting.
| Product | Published price | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| QS Takeoff | Free | While in beta, no card. Under £10/month planned at launch |
| Bluebeam Revu — Basics | £264 | Per user, billed annually |
| Bluebeam Revu — Core | £330 | Per user, billed annually |
| Bluebeam Revu — Complete | £438 | Per user, billed annually |
| Bluebeam Revu — Max | £588 | Per user, billed annually |
| PlanSwift | Not published | Demo or sales call required |
| STACK Takeoff & Estimate | Not published | Free tier offered; paid pricing on request |
| Countfire | Not published | Trial, then sales call |
Bluebeam's figures are its own UK list prices, stated tax-inclusive on its UK pricing page; reseller and volume terms may differ. Prices move — confirm the current figure with the vendor before you budget. Product names are the trade marks of their respective owners; this comparison is our own and is not endorsed by any of them.
Even after we start charging: £10 a month is £120 a year — under half the cheapest Bluebeam tier, and roughly a quarter of the Complete tier that most surveyors actually need for measurement. And dynamic fill — click inside a closed space and it measures itself — sits in that £438 Complete tier. It is in QS Takeoff on every account.
Where we match the paid tools.
Measured against Bluebeam Revu, since it is the tool most QSs are actually comparing us with, and the only one publishing enough detail to compare against fairly.
| Measurement feature | QS Takeoff free in beta | Bluebeam Revu from £264/user/yr |
|---|---|---|
| Length and area measurement | Yes | Yes, all tiers |
| Perimeter, count, angle and volume | Yes | Core and above |
| Dynamic fill (click a space, it measures itself) | Yes | Complete and above |
| Snap to drawing geometry | Yes | Yes |
| Per-page calibration for multi-scale sets | Yes | Yes |
| Filterable markups list with per-unit totals | Yes | Yes |
| Custom columns (SOR codes, rates, status) | Yes | Yes |
| Legends and layers | Yes | Yes |
| Annotation: clouds, callouts, notes, stamps, text | Yes | Yes |
| CSV export to Excel | Yes | Yes |
| Cloud project storage | Yes | Yes |
| Runs with no install | Yes | Web viewer; desktop app for full tools |
| Saving a job never uploads the drawing | Yes — markups only | Local files locally; cloud sync uploads |
| Turn the PDF into editable CAD, export DXF | Yes — GO_CAD | No |
What you get here that a licence doesn't buy.
Nothing to install, and your drawings stay put
Open a tab on whatever machine you are sat at and carry on — no IT ticket, no licence server, no seat you forgot to cancel. The PDF is opened and measured on your own machine, and only the take-off data — calibration, markups, your column values — is saved to your account. For drawings under an NDA, that distinction matters.
Edit the drawing, not just measure it
GO_CAD opens the line work in your PDF as real, editable CAD and exports a DXF. No measurement tool in this comparison does that, at any price.
No sales call to find out the price
Three of the four packages above will not quote without a demo booking. Ours is on this page, including what we expect to charge later. Sign up, open a drawing and decide for yourself in ten minutes.
Which one should you actually use?
Use QS Takeoff if…
You measure from PDFs published out of CAD, you want quantities you can price in Excel, and you would rather not pay several hundred a year per seat for the privilege. Also if you only take off occasionally and a licence has never quite justified itself.
Buy Bluebeam if…
You live in PDFs all day and need a full document suite — page management, redaction, signatures and drawing sets — as much as you need measurement.
Buy an estimating package if…
You want the measurement and the price in one place, with rate libraries and assemblies behind it, and you are prepared to set that up properly.
Use both, honestly
Plenty of surveyors keep a paid seat for the document work and do the actual measuring here because it is quicker to open. Nothing stops you — there is no lock-in and the CSV goes anywhere.
Common questions.
Is it free, or is this a trial that runs out?
It is free while QS Takeoff is in beta — every measurement tool, calibration, export and cloud project, no card required. It is not a countdown trial and we will not lock your take-offs behind a paywall without warning.
What will it cost when it leaves beta?
We expect no more than £10 a month. That is our intention rather than a contract — we would rather tell you the number we are aiming at than pretend the question isn't coming. Existing users will get clear notice well before anything changes, and there will still be a free way to open and read a take-off you have already done.
How can it be so much cheaper than the others?
It is a focused tool rather than a suite. The paid packages bundle document management, cost databases, field apps and BIM modules, and they price for the whole bundle plus the sales team that sells it. We do measurement and we sell it from a web page, so the number can be a lot smaller.
Can I move a take-off from Bluebeam or PlanSwift into this?
Not directly — there is no import for another tool's markup format. You would open the same PDF here and measure it fresh. Going the other way, CSV and JSON export cleanly into anything.
Is a browser tool accurate enough to rely on?
Accuracy comes from the calibration and from snapping to the drawing's real line work, not from whether the software is installed. How we approach measurement accuracy sets out the safeguards, the known limitations, and a five-minute check you can run on your own drawing to satisfy yourself.
Where did these prices come from?
Each vendor's own published pricing page, checked 7 August 2026. We do not use review-aggregator figures, which frequently disagree with the vendors. Where a vendor does not publish a price, we say so rather than guessing.
Ten minutes and a drawing.
That is enough to know whether this replaces your licence, sits alongside it, or isn't for you. Free while we're in beta — no card, no install, no sales call.