Cubit Estimating

Australian estimating and on-screen takeoff in one window, priced openly per user per month

As of 1 September 2026, Cubit Estimating starts at 167/month. Buildsoft's estimating package for builders and quantity surveyors, notable for publishing its full price list when almost no competitor does. Softwr lists it under Construction. Cubit Estimating is made by Buildsoft, available on Windows.

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Overview

What Cubit Estimating does

Cubit Estimating combines on-screen measurement with the estimating worksheet in a single interface, so a dimension measured off a drawing writes straight into the rate build-up rather than being exported from a separate takeoff tool. It handles calculation sheets, rate libraries, price lists, bills of quantities and cost reporting, and is sold in Standard, Professional and Enterprise editions with an AI takeoff add-on. The distinguishing commercial fact is that Buildsoft publishes its rates. Standard is $167 per user per month on annual billing and $200 monthly, Professional $222 and $266, Enterprise $250 and $299, all in Australian dollars excluding GST, with the AI Estimating add-on at $20 per user per month at an introductory rate the vendor has said will rise. Every subscription carries a minimum twelve month term. In a market where HCSS, Sage and RIB all refuse to publish, being able to budget an estimating team without a sales call is a genuine differentiator. Buyers are Australian and New Zealand residential and commercial builders, quantity surveying practices and subcontractors, plus a smaller UK following. The trade-off is regional: rate libraries, measurement conventions and BOQ formats follow Australian standards, so a North American contractor gets a tool built around someone else's method. The other trade-off is tiering, because BIM and IFC takeoff plus multi-user job collaboration only appear at Enterprise, which is where the per-seat cost is half again the entry price.

What people use it for

An Australian commercial builder that wants takeoff and estimate in one file rather than exporting quantities from a separate measurement tool
A quantity surveying practice producing trade-structured bills of quantities to local convention
A subcontractor pricing repeat work from maintained supplier price lists rather than rebuilding rates each tender
A small estimating team that needs to know the annual cost before booking a demo, because the rate card is published

Where it falls short

Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Cubit Estimating.

Every subscription carries a minimum twelve month term, so a firm that hires an estimator for one tender period pays for the full year regardless.
BIM and IFC takeoff sits only in Enterprise at $250 per user per month, meaning a builder who receives models rather than PDFs is pushed to the top tier whether or not it needs collaboration features.
The product is Windows only with no macOS or browser client, which excludes practices standardised on Macs unless they run virtualisation.
Rate libraries, measurement conventions and BOQ structures follow Australian practice, so buyers outside Australia and New Zealand inherit a method that does not match their local standard forms.
The AI Estimating add-on is priced at an explicitly temporary introductory rate, so a firm building the feature into its workflow is accepting an unspecified future increase on top of the seat price.

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of Cubit Estimating

Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.

Cubit Estimatingvs
PlanSwift
PlanSwift: Cheaper takeoff-first tool if you mainly need quantities and already estimate in Excel
Cubit Estimatingvs
Sage Estimating
Sage Estimating: Better fit for North American contractors who need integration to a US construction accounting ledger
Cubit Estimatingvs
Bluebeam Revu
Bluebeam Revu: If measurement and drawing markup matter more than a structured estimating worksheet

Pricing

What Cubit Estimating costs

Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.

Standard

$167 /mo

Integrated estimating and takeoff
Calculation sheets, rate sheets and price lists
Basic job management
Cost tracking
Annual billing, minimum 12 month term
$200 per month if billed monthly

Professional

$222 /mo

Everything in Standard
Code grouping
Custom reporting
Bills of quantities
Advanced analysis
$266 per month if billed monthly

Enterprise

$250 /mo

Everything in Professional
BIM and IFC takeoff
Multi-user job collaboration
Revision management
$299 per month if billed monthly

AI Estimating add-on

$20 /mo

Automated element recognition
Works with any edition
Introductory rate the vendor says will increase

Capabilities

Features

Integrated takeoff and estimate
Measure on the drawing and the quantity lands directly in the rate build-up
Calculation and rate sheets
Assemble rates from labour, material, plant and subcontractor components
Price list management
Maintain supplier price lists and update rates across jobs
Bills of quantities
Produce trade-structured BOQs at Professional and above
BIM and IFC takeoff
Measure from IFC models, Enterprise edition only
Revision management
Compare drawing revisions and requantify changed areas
AI Estimating add-on
Automated recognition of drawing elements, charged per user per month
Job collaboration
Multiple estimators on the same job, Enterprise edition only

Answered, with sources

Questions people ask

Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

What does Cubit actually cost?

Standard $167, Professional $222 and Enterprise $250 per user per month on annual billing, in Australian dollars excluding GST. Monthly billing is about 16 per cent more.

Can I get BIM takeoff without the Enterprise tier?

No. IFC model takeoff is an Enterprise feature only.

Is there a perpetual licence?

No. Cubit Estimating is subscription only with a minimum twelve month commitment.

Does it suit contractors outside Australia?

It works, but rate libraries and BOQ conventions follow Australian standards, so buyers elsewhere do more setup than a locally built alternative would need.

Keep looking

Where to go from Cubit Estimating

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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Cubit Estimating, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.

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