Great markup. But where's the takeoff?
Drawboard Projects is genuinely good design-review software: best-in-class pen inking, automatic revision overlays, honest published pricing. It measures exactly two things — calibrated lengths and simple areas.
If your team only reviews drawings — comments, revisions, issue tracking — Drawboard Projects is honest value and costs less than we do, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. The moment you have to count, price or bid, it has nothing for you: measurement stops at length and simple area, and the only export is a task list.
| Checked September 20, 2026 | Groundwork Takeoff | Drawboard Projects |
|---|---|---|
| Price, per seat, per year — checked September 20, 2026 | ||
| What the vendor publishes | $590 a year or $59 a month, every feature on it | Team $270 · Growth $370 per user/yr |
| Cheapest tier that does what one Groundwork seat does | $590 — there is only one tier | Quote-only — No takeoff-and-estimating tier to compare |
| Volume discount | 3+ seats −15%, 5+ seats −25%, applied at checkout | Not published on the vendor's pricing page |
| Perpetual license | $2,500 once, first year of updates included; $295/yr after that gates new versions, never access | Subscription only |
| AI takeoff included | Every seat, including trial seats | No AI takeoff |
| Native Mac app | Apple silicon and Intel | Cross-platform |
| Platforms | ||
| Windows native | Yes | Yes |
| iPad | Home-screen app, Pencil markup | iOS app with Apple Pencil |
| Works offline | Offline-first, 14-day grace period | A cloud-first project workspace |
| Measurement and takeoff — where the category line falls | ||
| Measuring tools | 6 measuring tools — Linear, Segment, Perimeter, Area, Volume, Count | Calibrated length, and rectangle or polygon area |
| Count takeoff — fixtures, doors, outlets | Yes, with AI-assisted counting | No count tool |
| Assemblies and estimating | Library, builder, live estimate grid | None — it is a review tool |
| Quantity export | Excel, CSV, batch | Tasks to CSV; no quantity schedules |
| Where Drawboard is ahead | ||
| Pen and pressure inking | Pencil markup on iPad | Best-in-class Surface Pen and Apple Pencil inking |
| Issues pinned to the drawing | Markups and a revision log | Purpose-built task tracking |
| Procore, Revit and Teams integrations | Not built | Yes |
Competitor figures are read off that vendor's own pricing page on September 20, 2026; the sources are listed at the foot of this page. A vendor who publishes no price gets no number here — the empty cell is the finding.
There is no saving figure on this page. Drawboard Projects publishes no comparable price, so there is nothing to subtract a Groundwork seat from. A number here would be somebody's estimate wearing a vendor's name.
This is a category line, not a scoreboard
Drawboard Projects is cheaper than Groundwork Takeoff. It is the one product on our comparison list that is, and the savings table on our pricing page leaves it out for exactly that reason: it is not a takeoff-and-estimating tool, so beating it on price would be winning a contest it never entered.
What it does, it does well. What it does not do is turn a drawing into a number. Its measurement toolset is calibrated length plus rectangle or polygon area — no counts, no volumes, no assemblies, no quantity schedules. The export is tasks to CSV.
So the practical question is not which is better. It is whether a review tool is the whole job. If your day ends when the redlines are back, it is. If your day ends with a bid, you will end up buying a review tool and a takeoff tool, and paying to re-key the data between them.
One thing worth knowing about the pricing
Drawboard Projects is subscription-only; there is no perpetual license. Drawboard's other product, Drawboard PDF, moved from a paid app to a subscription, and the company's own new-Pro-plans FAQ acknowledged features moving from the free tier to Pro. That is not an accusation, it is a documented change of model — and it is the reason we still sell a perpetual license at all.
The inking is the best in the industry and we are not close
If your team's job is design review — architects and engineers redlining with a pen, tracking issues, comparing revisions, pushing tasks into Procore or Teams — Drawboard Projects is excellent at it, honestly priced, and better at that job than we are. Pressure-sensitive Surface Pen and Apple Pencil inking, automatic versioning, purpose-built issue tracking pinned to the drawing, and integrations we do not have.
Sources
Tier prices and measurement scope: drawboard.com/pricing, read September 20, 2026, published per user per year. The Drawboard PDF subscription conversion and the acknowledgement of features moving from free to Pro are from Drawboard's own new-Pro-plans FAQ and the Microsoft community thread that followed it.
Drawboard® is a trademark of Drawboard Pty Ltd. Check current details with the vendor.
Check it against your own set.
The fastest way to settle a comparison page is to open your own plans in both. Ours takes a week and no card.