Comparison
IntelCost vs Desktop Takeoff Software: An Honest Comparison
Cloud-based takeoff and estimating compared with installed desktop takeoff software, including where desktop is the better fit and how to trial on a real bid.
By IntelCost Team · · 5 min read
Installed desktop takeoff software has been the standard tool for estimators for a long time, and it does the job. This page compares desktop takeoff software in general with IntelCost, which is cloud-based takeoff and estimating. Desktop products differ from one another, so the desktop column below describes what is common rather than any one program. Where a desktop tool is the better fit, this page says so.
The main difference: where the work lives
Desktop takeoff software is installed on a computer. Projects are saved on that machine or on a shared network drive, and licenses are usually tied to a machine or a user. Updates are installed per computer, often by whoever looks after IT.
IntelCost has nothing to install. Your projects live in the cloud, and you sign in from the office, home or the trailer and open the same project. The tradeoff is simple: IntelCost needs an internet connection, and a desktop program, once installed, does not.
Most other differences follow from that one.
Side by side
| Topic | Desktop takeoff software | IntelCost |
|---|---|---|
| Installation | Installed and updated on each computer | Nothing to install; your projects live in the cloud |
| Working offline | Works with no connection once installed | Needs an internet connection |
| Where projects are stored | On the computer or a shared network drive | In the cloud, opened from any computer you sign in on |
| Several estimators on one job | Varies: often the set is split and files are combined later; some products offer a server or multi-user edition | Several people work the same project and the same sheet at once; changes appear without a reload, with colleagues' cursors shown. A workspace can choose Work together or One at a time |
| Scale | Calibration per page is standard | Each sheet keeps its own scale: presets, Calibrate Scale and custom scales, plus a check of the printed scale against dimensions drawn on the sheet |
| Measuring | Linear, area and count, usually with deducts | Linear, Area, Segment and Count, deducts, and height or slope to turn lengths into wall or roof area |
| Derived quantities | Commonly through assemblies or condition formulas | Sub-items with formulas from named dimensions, such as concrete in CY from slab area and thickness; reusable assemblies |
| Revisions | Many offer an overlay compare | Overlay, Standard or Comparative, with additions and deletions in two colors |
| Estimate | Some include estimating; others pass quantities to a separate program or spreadsheet | An Estimating tab synced live from the takeoff, with labor, material, equipment and subcontract, ending in a bid summary and bid total |
| Classification | Varies by product | CSI MasterFormat, UniFormat, NRM 1, NRM 2 or CESMM, or your own custom folders |
| Excel | Export is common | Export to Excel with live formulas, sub-item quantities linked to their parent and to a Dimensions sheet, and a Bid Summary sheet |
| Your existing setup | Years of templates, conditions and past jobs already built | You rebuild your standard items as assemblies; past jobs stay in the old tool for reference |
| Trying it | Varies | A free trial with Professional access, no card required |
Where desktop takeoff software is the better fit
Be honest with yourself about these before you switch anything.
- You often work with no connection. A remote site trailer with unreliable internet, or travel with long stretches offline, favors software that runs locally.
- Your drawings must stay on your own servers. Some clients and some company policies require it. Read the contract and your IT policy first.
- You have years of templates. Firms that have built conditions, templates and assemblies in a desktop tool for a decade have real work to move. That setup is valuable, and rebuilding it takes time someone has to schedule.
- Other systems depend on it. If your cost database, reports or accounting already read files from the desktop tool, changing takeoff tools means changing those links too.
- Large uploads on a slow connection. A big drawing set has to upload before anyone can start. On a weak connection, that is a wait.
None of these are reasons cloud software cannot work. They are reasons to plan the move, or to stay where you are for now.
Where cloud takeoff is the better fit
- Teams spread across offices, or estimators who work from home. One project, opened from wherever people are, with no files to merge and no copies to keep in step.
- Big bids split between people. Two estimators can take off the same set at the same time, and the estimate updates for everyone.
- No one to manage installs and licenses. There is nothing to install or patch on each computer.
- Takeoff and estimate in one place. In IntelCost the quantities you measure are already lines in the estimate, so nothing is retyped between programs. See Estimating.
- People who need to look but not measure. PMs and reviewers can use the Essentials plan, which is annotations and comments: they view the drawings and measurements, annotate and comment, and read the estimate. See pricing.
Who should stay and who should switch
Stay, for now, if offline work is a daily need, if your drawings cannot leave your servers, or if you are mid-season with a large template library and no one free to rebuild it. Revisit at a quieter time of year.
Try a switch if your team spends time combining files, emailing project copies or retyping quantities from takeoff into an estimating spreadsheet, or if installs and license keys are a recurring headache. Those are the problems cloud software is built around.
Run both for a while if you are unsure. Keep the desktop tool for jobs already in progress and start new bids in the new one. Our guide to digital takeoff vs paper and Excel has a step by step plan for any move of method, and most of it applies here too.
How to trial on a real bid
A trial on a toy drawing tells you little. Use a job you know.
- Pick a finished bid. A modest job you already took off in your desktop tool, with drawings you know well and quantities you trust.
- Set up the set. Upload the drawings, name the sheets from the title block and set a scale on every sheet.
- Rebuild your top items. Recreate the 10 or 20 items you use most, with their units, classification and any sub-item formulas, and save them as assemblies.
- Take off the same scopes. Measure the same areas, runs and counts and compare quantities line by line with the desktop takeoff. Where they differ, find out why: usually scale, deducts or a convention.
- Price it and export it. Carry the job through the Estimating tab to a bid total, then export to Excel and compare against the bid you sent.
- Put two people on it. Have a second estimator open the same project at the same time, and a PM add a cloud or a note to a sheet.
- Write down what you would miss. Anything you rely on in the desktop tool that you did not find is a real cost of switching. Weigh it before you decide.
Only after the past bid compares cleanly should you run a live bid in the new tool. See Takeoff for what each measuring tool does.