All PlanSwift Reviews

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User Profile

Ahmed

Verified reviewer

Civil Engineering, 1 employee

Used weekly for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed July 2022

PlanSwift is my partner for my freelance work for Estimating Civil Works Quantities

PROS

PlanSwift is a best software for quantity estimation for Civil Works . PlanSwift has made my work so easy, and you I don't have to do manual hand calculation that is time-consuming, and handling drawings is also not an easy task. In PlanSwift, you can attach pdf drawings and scale them according to your needs and calculate quantity of each activities from Excavation to finishing of the project and the best part is that it integrate well with excel and make BOQ at the backend on excel

CONS

I get hang when switching tabs also it does not remember the last drawing you were working so you have to open every time when you restart the software.

Stephen

Construction, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed November 2016

Great for Takeoffs

*Disclaimer* I declined any training in this product, so negative experiences may be the result of ignorance I've been using PlanSwift for nearly a year & am very happy with it. I use it exclusively for takeoffs, of which I have done over 600 this year. I would highly recommend it for takeoff purposes, but I have no experience with it's other functions & cannot offer any comments on them. Customer service was prompt & answered my questions to my satisfaction. They couldn't fix my desktop freezing problem (see below) & were not aware of it being a problem, but I found an acceptable workaround myself. I can't comment on value for money as I am not responsible for any budget in my company.

PROS

PlanSwift gives a high level of user control for the published result of the takeoff. I can modify takeoff colours, add notes, create my own legend (with notes), insert lines, arrows, etc. The takeoff functions are well designed. Adding an area to the same layer is easy, subtracting a section is just as easy & displays very nicely as a blank space which doesn't interfere with other layers or the original drawing. Modifying a takeoff shape or colour is very easy, as well as drawing curved shapes, copying shapes to same or new layer. Various layers don't interfere with each other, don't "fall behind", etc. Layers can easily be turned off & on. Scaling is excellent with preset dropdown & custom input available, allowing you to work in metric or imperial & scale in either without limiting your output unit selection (ie. scale in metric & get takeoff output in imperial units if desired). It appears to me that a lot of attention went into the design of the takeoff features. There are a lot of little things that make it much easier to use. For example, drawing a shape can take several minutes sometimes, & if you are interrupted & need to use another program you just have to move to another screen or minimize the program & when you come back you can carry on. Lots of programs force you to resolve the function you were engaged in before minimizing, but PlanSwift doesn't. This little thing makes a big difference when referring to another drawing on a pdf that has to be zoomed, or moved, etc while doing the takeoff. The published pdf is very easy to read, & looks clean & professional - a very high quality finished product is possible with this program.

CONS

The loading time is the biggest drawback. If I load too many drawings into the program at a time, opening the program, publishing a pdf, & organizing files within the program can take a long time. This also causes my desktop to freeze so that I cannot move files around or into folders until I restart windows, wait for my screensaver to come on, or sometimes it just fixes on it's own. This is silly, but it seems that the program loads every drawing in it's database when I open the program, so to keep loading times reasonable, I need to remove files from it's database when I finish with them. It's an annoying & unnecessary hassle. It may be that the program is designed to load several drawings for a single project & then file the whole project when complete; so this might indicate I am using the program in a way it wasn't intended. However, I don't want to file away each drawing when I'm finished & start a new project. The takeoff is the project for me, so creating a project for each drawing will end up costing me even more time, if that is how it is designed. Twice with complicated, multi-layered projects, I've had the program freeze when attempting to publish a pdf. Generally at the end of the day when I've already stayed a bit late to finish, & the takeoff is needed asap. This sucks. Restarting, loading the program & trying again takes 10-15 min. In both case it has not worked after 3 tries & I've had to relay the info verbally or use a screenshot instead of a published pdf. Honestly, out of 600+ takeoffs, that's not terrible - I'm assuming it has something to do with the file format and/or amount of info I tried to publish. I've had lots of complicated takeoffs with many layers & pages work just fine.

Matt

Construction, 51-200 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

2

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

1

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed August 2018

Very easy tool for accurate quantity takeoffs, but has not improved features in awhile

PROS

Low learning curve, very easy to use. Accurate quantities generated, and graphical representations of takeoff items (color-coding items on drawing sheets). Can be very flexible if you want to create custom takeoff tools or templates

CONS

Since purchased by Textura and then Oracle, the product has not improved at all. There is a clear limit to the number of drawing sheets that can be published; the program freezes or crashes if too many drawings loaded- this makes it a poor choice for large construction projects. Can be difficult to copy/paste transfer takeoff items between drawing versions, and can't transfer at all between project files. Also, navigability of drawing sheets could be easier- providing links to open additional sheets for referencing sections/details/callouts, etc.

MIKE

Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed June 2019

EC using Planswift versus others

Good, little glitches here and there, appreciate the ability to float the license from terminal to terminal

PROS

Value of the product and intuitive design for getting started for a beginner, easy to teach

CONS

Autocount is not very accurate It would be good to see some feature that auto-centers your takeoff mark over the object since you can fly through a takeoff if you could rely on the computer to center your marks, somehow integrated with the OCR it should be able to do that

Reason for choosing PlanSwift

Cost / Value

Reasons for switching to PlanSwift

Value / Cost

User Profile

Nathan

Verified reviewer

Construction, 51-200 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed November 2018

PlanSwift Review

It makes takeoffs very easy which makes us more productive

PROS

I love how easy it makes plans to read and how fast takeoffs can be with this.

CONS

I didn't like how my computer will slow down and it bogs down with more takeoff items in it.

User Profile

Radiah

Verified reviewer

Construction, 2-10 employees

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed January 2019

Makes Reading Plans Easy

PROS

My assistant uses this software to take measurements off of blueprints. She loves this software before it she use to take hours getting measurements off of blueprints. Now she can get it done in half of that time and the numbers are more accurate.

CONS

I can't find a problem today this software has saved us alot of time when reading plans. I wished we found this years ago glad to have it today.

Anonymous

201-500 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed December 2018

An Estimators Bestfriend

Overall Planswift would make an excellant addition to any company or end user looking to do material takeoffs. Planswift also has a great back log of videos that can be used to help you along the journey if you were ever to get stuck on a particular feature.

PROS

Planswift is one of the best and affordable products for anyone looking to do estimating. The ability to create folders and well ask auto count items makes for a simple yet efficient process.

CONS

Although a great product, planswift like most can be very expensive. However the efficiency of the software far outweighs the cost.

Anonymous

201-500 employees

Used weekly for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

3

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

3

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed October 2019

Planswift Review

Overall I would recommend it for the price and the ease of use.

PROS

Easy to use and a quick learn. I like the tool palette and some of the summary features and report tabs.

CONS

It was supposed to be integrated with estimating platforms but we were never able to make it work and limited customer service.

Cosby

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed March 2018

Great for estimating

PROS

This is a great tool for taking quick takeoffs. Allows you to upload whole plan sets or individual pages depending on need. The takeoff functions snap to lines seamlessly provide quick and accurate measurements.

CONS

Spending a little time on the front end can make estimating various construction trades easier, however this process is lengthy and will probably turn most casual users off.

Suja

Verified reviewer

Construction, 201-500 employees

Used weekly for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed March 2019

PlanSwift save my times

PROS

* Easy to learn * Easy to teach * Easy to work

CONS

I am using this application for takeoff quantities and this application reduce 50% time to take of my time

Ryan

Glass, Ceramics & Concrete, 11-50 employees

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

3

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed April 2017

Ease of use, and rapid efficiency for contractors doing takeoffs on plans.

I used this program for the entire duration of the trial I was permitted to use it for. While in use this program was highly efficient in is duty to serve as an upgrade to our current takeoff software. (See pros/cons)

PROS

- Can get square footage for concrete of massive plans in 20 - 7 minutes, as opposed to using something like Vu360, and (constantly crashing) taking multiple days to do a single takeoff for one PDF plan. - This program is organized, It comes with an integrated item list that (after you put your prices in for materials) can give you the equivalent of an excel estimate, as you finish the takeoff, and while you are in the middle of doing it. - There is a fill tool for getting square footage or selecting lines for linear feet, you can do supermassive takeoffs for concrete (as long as there isn't a cancerous amount of pointing lines dashing the entire plan) in seconds... - They just broke free from the shackles of oracle so now they have a bunch of awesome plugins back, Plugins such as 'convert takeoff into Quickbooks'... - The program was very quick, no memory leaks here, no lag. - Can be converted into excel

CONS

- High cost, this program is about $ or more PER install (gets cheaper the more you get possibly on a per-software basis), after all of your salesman deals and whatnot, (without any fancy online training) - Complicated at first, Don't try to show the program off to anyone unless you have spent a good 3 - 4 days experimenting with all of the tools, and asking your salesman for a live demonstration. It can be frustrating to know the tool you've been wondering where it is, is under your nose. - The program can only do auto ("one click area") (for getting square/lineal footage) selection for so much space, so on big PDF plans, you will have to use the cut tool to dice the plans into a moderately sized grid, of which it will then handle like a champ.

Matt

Construction, 11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed August 2019

Digital Take-Off

Very positive experience as the product is constantly updated. I would and do recommend this software to everyone.

PROS

- Ease of use - Layering Function (ability to turn on and off items) - PDF snap shot of take-off areas with legend to provide to sub-trades

CONS

The cost can be an obstacle for a growing company. I've talked to a lot of other Estimators who use this software and I feel departments always seem to be sharing several copies between multiple users as having a dedicated license for each user is cost prohibitive.

Reason for choosing PlanSwift

Cheaper

Reasons for switching to PlanSwift

Better Features

Linda

Construction, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed July 2018

Planswift meets our growing needs and is expandable

Overall, we love this product for our companies needs.

PROS

Easy to use and great support for training and technical issues. The support team works well to accomplish better performance and has a great system for followup and trouble shooting. The program itself is very intuitive to use for the takeoff section, and lots of autocad shortcuts work wtih planswift.

CONS

Building of assemblies is not straight forward. It is cumbersome to put them together. The reporting function as well is not as all encompassing as we would like to see it. Too generic in its applications with no real way to modify the output without great difficulty.

Cody

Construction, 11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

2

EASE OF USE

2

VALUE FOR MONEY

3

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

2

FUNCTIONALITY

2

Reviewed July 2023

Great for Takeoffs, Not for Estimating

PROS

The takeoff side of the program was easy to use.

CONS

Uploading plans was time consuming, and no work could be done in the program until the upload is complete. No automatic plan page naming. The estimating side of the program is not user friendly at all. We use an Excel spreadsheet instead.

Charlie

Construction, 11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

2

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed January 2017

Solid Takeoff Software

Used this software for two years for Mechanical/Air Distribution Equipment Takeoff. It is quick and easy to perform counts and linear/area takeoffs. There were some minor glitches, but once I learned how to avoid them I had no problems with accuracy/ease of use. The software has a lot of potential for speeding up takeoff with custom columns/properties, templates, that require some set-up by the user. When I first got the software there was a great plug-in store that provided added features, but unfortunately, that has been taken down for the foreseeable future. My biggest complaint is that support does not seem to respond to many of my emails or takes a long time which is unacceptable given the cost of yearly maintenance/support. I did not use some of the tools like parts and reports, so I can't comment on those.

PROS

Easy to get started with takeoff (counts, linear, area) and organize your takeoff items Fast takeoff, quick to load new pages/zoom in and out Custom columns/properties allow for in software calculations

CONS

Have to import pages to the software, has proprietary plan swift job files that make sharing a bit harder. Some glitches such as takeoff items getting jumbled when exporting/importing Have to create folders for breakouts/separating takeoff by page (without plugins at least) which can make things like room schedules a bit tedious.

Perri

Construction, 51-200 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed November 2017

Affordable Digitization

I've been using Planswift for over 15 years and I love it. While there are other products out there, I feel Planswift gives me the most for my money. If you are looking at other products, I would suggest, that you factor in maintenance cost into your overall price.

PROS

Small learning curve, feature packed, ease of use, the overall cost is lower than most when maintenance cost is figured into the overall price.

CONS

New features could come out faster, not cloud-based, needs to be able to sync with tablets. Import DPI could be higher.

Paul

Construction, 11-50 employees

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed June 2021

Planswift is Great

Overall has been great! ran into a licensing issue with one of my computers but it was the computer itself that was an issue rather than Planswift so once I had fixed the issue with the computer everything got better.

PROS

What I like about this software is that it is easy to install and manage. I also like the online portal where I can see all my licenses as well as what computers they are installed in and how long the license is valid for until it reactivates itself. The customer support is also great as I had remote support from them and they really stayed on there trying to solve the issue and escalated it to a supervisor when needed,

CONS

Not much to say about what I don't like since they did a really good job when I needed support with fixing an issue as well as it is overall easy to administer

Jamie

Construction, 51-200 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed November 2016

PlanSwift Does The Job

We have being using PlanSwift now for close to a year and it has been a blessing. We are a commercial irrigation business and strictly use PlanSwift for takeoffs and estimating. It does just about everything we need. It's easy to learn, accurate, customizable for us and their customer service is first class.

PROS

The biggest plus with PlanSwift is that it's easy to use. The takeoffs are accurate, the tools are there to use and all the data is right there at your finger tips. You can create your own library of items, which saves times once you begin to do multiple takeoffs over time. Speaking of time, using PlanSwift is definitely a time saver compared to the way we used to takeoff jobs. Again, the counts and linear footage tools are spot on so I am never worried about inaccurate data.

CONS

At this time, PlanSwift is not compatible with our existing excel spreadsheet. So we do the takeoff in PlanSwift and import the data onto our spreadsheets. On another note, PlanSwift slows down with the bigger takeoffs deep into the takeoff cycle for that particular job. And if I really had to be nit-picky I would love to see more "count" symbols.

Alan

Construction, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed February 2017

1000's of lost hours

I recently logged in to complete a new project's takeoff and realized that all of my previous projects had been permanently lost. I basically lost thousands of hours of takeoff and had to redo multiple projects just to be able to bid new projects. I have also been looking to add an earthwork plugin and recently found out that they are no longer selling these plugins and couldn't tell me when or if they would ever be selling these again.

PROS

Ease of use.

CONS

Lost projects. No longer selling pluggins.

Todd

Construction, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

3

VALUE FOR MONEY

3

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

3

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed June 2017

Quantitive Take Off Software

A more efficient and economical way to accomplish QTO

PROS

PLanSwift is a great alternative to other overly priced and complicated to use software. The technical support team is quick to help and knowledgable.

CONS

Some of the import features are difficult to maneuver and sometime the software crashes. That being said the software is continually saving so you don't lose work in progress.

Tim

Design

Used free trial

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed June 2014

Straightforward software with easy-to-use tools

PROS

- Straightforward and easy to use. - QTOs are faster than on PDF writer, which allows measuring - Able to scale drawings based on manual reference lines - Ability to overlay drawings and compare revisions - Video tutorials under the help heading - Being able to turn off unneeded digitized elements to reduce clutter/overlap on the screen - Ability to load multiple drawings into one project and quickly jump back and forth - Magnifying tool

CONS

- Method of saving to network or hard drive; cannot move the files once saved or risk corruption. - Not being able to change the name or color of an element once digitized without changing all of the elements of that type (For example, partition drawn as Type A but should be Type B. Renaming the element changes all the Type A elements on the page). - Would like to see 1:75 and 1:400 as metric scale options - Not being able to provide a QTO summary of each page of a multi-page project; currently have to make unique names for each floor - Would like to see a way to customize what is shown in the legend (would like to be able to turn the quantities on and off). - Using one scale for a whole page; sometimes multiple scales are present on one page.

Quinn

Construction, 11-50 employees

Used more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed August 2019

Best Take-Off Software

My take-off's have been consistently accurate and well organized. They are easy to communicate to the estimators and their confidence in me and the take-offs have made the estimating process much easier. Our quality of estimates has improved due to the quality of the take-off.

PROS

Easy to use and understand. The way it allows me to organize my take-off is fantastic. I haven't used the cost estimating on it yet but I plan to and I feel like there is great value in it once I get that setup. I love the little tricks that help make the take-offs go much faster. the accuracy is fantastic.

CONS

Learning the software was like learning any new software it took a bit of time. But with YouTube this is made much easier.

Adam

Construction, 11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

4

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed September 2021

Review of Product Software

The best software available for construction estimating and project management

PROS

Planswift is easy to use and functional for our roofing business. We like the simplicity of inputting our custom assemblies that integrate with the job costing feature and project management component of the software. We use Planswift every day to ensure our success in estimating and bidding new projects.

CONS

Because the software is so high powered, it takes some training to get up to speed with all the functionality of it but its well worth the time invested to learn it well!

Misty

Construction, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed November 2018

Cost effective takeoff

PROS

Planswift provides intuitive, easy to use features that make completing takeoffs simple, yet effective.

CONS

The inability to separate values on the estimating tab can be discouraging - this small inconvenience is easily corrected when transported to excel

Anonymous

2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed November 2018

PlanSwift for Architecta

PROS

It's really easy to use and you can do your estimates in very little time and with not that much effort by using PlanSwift.

CONS

The only complaint I have is that it takes about 2 hours on the phone for support to actually attend your call.

Showing 1 - 25 of 396 Reviews