A genuinely good cloud. Tethered to the Wi-Fi.
STACK built a polished cloud takeoff platform — real collaboration, deep prebuilt libraries, well-rated support. It is also browser-only, has no offline mode, and its mobile app does not do takeoff.
Choose STACK if you want a mature browser platform with deep prebuilt libraries and native Procore and Acumatica integrations, and your team always has fast internet. Choose Groundwork Takeoff if you want native-app speed on Mac and Windows, real offline work, full takeoff on an iPad, and the same real-time collaboration — at a fraction of the per-seat cost.
| Checked September 20, 2026 | Groundwork Takeoff | STACK Takeoff & Estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Price, per seat, per year — checked September 20, 2026 | ||
| What the vendor publishes | $590 a year or $59 a month, every feature on it | Premium $249/user/mo · Pro $299/user/mo, 12-month terms (annualised) |
| Cheapest tier that does what one Groundwork seat does | $590 — there is only one tier | $2,988 — Premium — takeoff only; estimating is Pro at $3,588 |
| 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 | AI Takeoffs included from Premium |
| Native Mac app | Apple silicon and Intel | Browser only |
| Platforms | ||
| Native desktop app | Mac and Windows, rendered locally | Browser only |
| Takeoff on iPad | Full takeoff, home-screen app | The iOS app is a viewer; takeoff is read-only |
| Works offline | Offline-first, 14-day grace period | No offline mode |
| Takeoff & estimating | ||
| Measuring tools | 6 measuring tools — Linear, Segment, Perimeter, Area, Volume, Count | Solid core takeoff |
| Item and assembly libraries | Assemblies, Assembly Builder, materials catalog | Large prebuilt libraries — a real strength |
| PDF tools — compress, PDF/A, Office-to-PDF, OCR | Included | Not part of the product |
| Where STACK is ahead | ||
| Procore and Acumatica integrations | Excel and CSV export instead | Native integrations |
| Real-time cloud collaboration | CRDT co-editing included | Mature, and the thing the product was built around |
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.
$2,398 per seat, per year. That is STACK's cheapest comparable tier — Premium — takeoff only; estimating is Pro at $3,588 at $2,988 — less a Groundwork annual seat at $590. Not against their entry tier: against the cheapest tier that does what one Groundwork seat does.
The thing to check before you sign: what happens with no signal
STACK is a browser product and it has no offline mode. That is not a criticism of the engineering — it is a consequence of the architecture, and for an estimator who works at a desk on fiber it may never matter. It matters the day the jobsite trailer has one bar, because the answer is that the takeoff waits until you are back in the office. The iOS app is a viewer; takeoff on it is read-only.
Groundwork is offline-first. Work saves locally, merges when the connection returns, and a signed-in seat carries a fourteen-day offline grace period.
The second architectural consequence is rendering. A large multi-sheet set is drawn by the browser on STACK and by your own machine on Groundwork, and on a 200-sheet bid set you can feel which is which.
One correction to something we used to say
An earlier version of this page said STACK sold its AI as a paid add-on. That was wrong, and it is worth stating plainly rather than quietly deleting: STACK includes AI Takeoffs from its Premium tier. If you are comparing AI availability, STACK is one of the vendors that does include it — the difference between the two products is what the tier costs and what else is on it, not whether the AI is behind another paywall.
STACK is a mature, well-run cloud product
SOC 2 certified, thousands of reviews averaging well above four out of five, support that scores near the top of its category on G2, huge prebuilt item and assembly libraries, and native integrations with Procore, Acumatica and Excel. If those integrations anchor your workflow and connectivity is genuinely never a problem, STACK is a credible choice and the takeoff side of it is good.
Sources
Tier prices and what each tier includes, including AI Takeoffs from Premium: stackct.com/takeoff-and-estimate-pricing, read September 20, 2026. Prices are published per user per month on twelve-month terms and are annualised in the table above. The absence of an offline mode and the read-only mobile app are from STACK's own product documentation.
STACK® is a trademark of Stack Construction Technologies. 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.