STACK Works — For the Customer It's Priced For
STACK is a capable cloud takeoff platform, and commercial estimating teams doing serious volume get real value from it. Users who switched report meaningful time savings over their old workflow. If that's your operation, it may be the right tool.
But the recurring complaints from smaller shops follow a pattern worth naming:
- Per-seat pricing that adds up fast — reviewers describe each seat as expensive, with quoted costs for full estimating packages reaching well into the thousands per year. For a two- or three-person shop, that's enterprise money for a takeoff tool.
- Click-wait latency — reviewers frequently describe cloud takeoff tools as slow to respond while measuring: page loads lag, then each click waits on the next. Latency doesn't just cost seconds; it breaks your measuring rhythm.
- Cumbersome price data entry — reviewers also call out how slow it is to get material prices into the system, with items often entered manually one at a time.
What estimators are saying
Each seat is expensive — what is your project management software? I'd find something more modern and integrated.
Everything is cloud based and new and shiny. That being said the pages are slow to load (cloud based) and there was significant input delay when performing takeoffs. Think click, wait, click, wait, click, wait.
Importing material prices is VERY cumbersome. You have to manually import prices which is time consuming. Every item has to be manually entered.
The Lean Alternative for the Core Workflow
Datum Plan strips the job back to what a takeoff actually is: measure the plan, price the quantities, send the bid.
- One screen, live totals — the PDF, your cost book, and the running estimate share a single view. Draw a measurement and it's priced instantly. No tab-hopping, no re-typing.
- Flat $29/month — every feature included after a 14-day free trial, month to month. No per-seat tiers, no annual contract, no sales call to learn the price.
- Cost book you control — build your price book once, import items from a simple CSV template, and every future takeoff prices itself from your numbers.
- Deliverables in one click — structured .xlsx for commercial bids, branded PDF proposals for residential clients.
- Nothing held hostage — your exports are standard files on your machine and your OneDrive. Cancel anytime in two clicks.
STACK vs Datum Plan, Side by Side
| STACK | Datum Plan | |
|---|---|---|
| Priced for | Commercial estimating teams doing volume | Residential GCs and small crews |
| Licensing | Per seat, quoted annually — costs climb with each user | Flat $29/month after a 14-day free trial, every feature included |
| Measuring feel | Reviewers describe click-wait latency on cloud takeoffs | Plan, cost book, and running totals in one view |
| Getting prices in | Reviewers report slow manual entry, often item by item | Build your cost book once, or import items from a CSV template |
| Deliverable | Takeoff data you carry into a separate proposal | One-click Excel estimate or branded PDF proposal |
| Leaving | Annual commitment and a sales conversation | Standard .xlsx and PDF exports on your own machine |
Who Should Stay on STACK
If you run a commercial estimating team that needs multi-user collaboration, prebuilt assembly libraries at scale, and dedicated onboarding — STACK's price may be justified. Datum Plan is for the contractor who needs fast, accurate takeoffs and priced proposals without subsidizing an enterprise feature set.
Try It the Honest Way
Don't take a landing page's word for it — ours or theirs. Upload a real plan set from a bid you've already done, run the takeoff in Datum Plan, and compare the time and the totals against your current workflow. Software claims are cheap; your own stopwatch isn't.