STACK ✓

STACK is cloud-based construction takeoff and estimating software founded in 2014 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, built around letting contractors and estimators measure quantities directly from digital drawings in a browser, without a heavy desktop-software install -- competing directly with PlanSwift, CostX and QikBIM, also in this catalog, in the same general takeoff/estimating category.

The platform's core workflow covers digital takeoff (measuring lengths, areas, counts and volumes from imported drawings), assembly-based cost estimating (building estimates from reusable cost-item templates), and collaborative features that let multiple estimators work on the same project's takeoff data simultaneously in the cloud, rather than passing desktop files back and forth.

STACK has built a substantial customer base among general contractors and trade contractors across residential and commercial construction, with the company reporting significant growth in users since its founding, reflecting genuine market traction in the digital-takeoff category specifically among small-to-midsize contractors looking to move off manual or spreadsheet-based estimating.

As a cloud-native platform from its founding (rather than a desktop tool later adapted for cloud access), STACK's collaborative, browser-based approach to takeoff is a meaningful practical differentiator for distributed estimating teams, letting multiple people contribute to the same project's quantity takeoff without file-version conflicts common to desktop-based tools passed between users.

STACK's assembly-template library is also designed to be shared and standardized across an entire estimating department, letting a firm build up a consistent, reusable set of cost assemblies that every estimator draws from -- reducing the variability between different estimators' bids on similar project types and making it easier for firm leadership to audit how a specific estimate was built.

The platform also integrates with common accounting and project-management software used by contractors, letting completed takeoff and estimate data flow into a firm's existing financial systems rather than requiring manual re-entry of the same cost data into a separate accounting platform.

Editor’s takeBIM•STACK editor's take: STACK's cloud-native, collaborative approach to digital takeoff is a genuine strength for distributed estimating teams wanting to avoid file-version conflicts, and its substantial contractor customer base confirms real market traction in this competitive category. Firms should compare it directly against PlanSwift and CostX on assembly-database depth and specific workflow fit, since all three compete closely in the same takeoff/estimating space with somewhat different strengths.

STACK's takeoff workflow -- importing drawings and measuring quantities on-screen -- maps directly onto concepts estimators already understand from manual takeoff or other digital tools, so the conceptual learning curve is generally moderate for anyone with prior estimating experience.

The collaborative, cloud-based multi-user aspect requires little additional training beyond understanding how simultaneous editing works, since STACK's browser-based design keeps the core measurement workflow consistent regardless of how many team members are contributing to the same project.

Building out a firm's shared assembly-template library takes meaningful upfront investment, similar to other assembly-based estimating tools, but pays off across every subsequent bid once established -- firms generally assign this initial template-building work to a senior estimator rather than distributing it across the whole team.