The 7 Best Remodeling Software Tools for Contractors in 2026

Four kinds of remodeling software

Search for remodeling software and the results mix four different kinds of product, often described with the same words. Some help you sell the job. Some help you run it once it's sold. Some turn measurements into a price, and some capture the room in the first place. A tool that's excellent at one of those jobs can be no help at all with the problem you have.

This guide covers seven tools worth knowing, what each one does as of October 2026, what each vendor publishes about pricing, and where each one falls short. The details come from the vendors' own sites and app store listings. Alcovia is our product, so we've tried to be as plain about its limits as about everyone else's.

How to choose: design, project management, estimating or scanning

Pick the category by the problem that costs you the most.

Design and sales. Software that helps the homeowner see the finished room and say yes: 3D design, renders, proposals. If you lose bids to contractors who present better, start here. Alcovia, Houzz Pro, Planner 5D and Renovate AI all work in this space, at very different levels.

Project management. Software that runs the job after it's sold: schedules, budgets, change orders, subs, client updates and invoices. If you win work and then lose money or weekends to coordination, start here. Buildertrend is the best-known example, and Houzz Pro covers a lot of the same ground on its higher plans.

Estimating and takeoffs. Software that turns measurements into quantities and quantities into a price. If quotes eat your evenings or go out a week late, start here. Houzz Pro and Buildertrend both include estimating and takeoffs, magicplan prices from its floor plans, and Alcovia's Growth plan prices from the scan.

Scanning and measuring. Apps that capture the existing room so nobody has to measure it twice. magicplan and Polycam are the best-known standalone options, and Alcovia, Houzz Pro and Planner 5D build scanning into a bigger workflow.

A common setup is two tools: one that wins the job and one that runs it. Buy them in the order your bottleneck dictates.

1. Alcovia: best for designing and pricing the remodel on the first visit

Alcovia, our own product, is an iPhone and iPad app built for the sales visit. You scan the room with LiDAR and get a floor plan and a 3D model. You redesign the room with AI, by describing the changes or applying the client's inspiration photo, and export photorealistic renders in a client-ready PDF. On the Growth plan, the same scan produces a material takeoff and a project quote, and you get a material catalog, a client design portal, a contractor CRM, and project management and scheduling.

Pricing: Basic is $29 per seat per month for unlimited AI redesigns from photos. Core is $49 per project and Growth is $199 per project, with no monthly fee on either. Enterprise is custom, for contractors running 100 or more projects a year. Your first project is free.

What it doesn't do: Alcovia is iOS and iPadOS only, and scanning needs a LiDAR-equipped iPhone Pro or iPad Pro. It's in closed beta, so you join an early-access list rather than sign up today. And while Growth includes project management and scheduling, Alcovia isn't a full construction management suite like Buildertrend. If coordinating crews, subs and budgets across many jobs is your bottleneck, you'll still want a dedicated platform for that.

Best for: remodelers who win or lose jobs at the kitchen table and want to scan, design, price and present in one visit. Join the early-access list.

2. Houzz Pro: best all-in-one suite for design-build firms

Houzz Pro tries to do more than anything else on this list. Every paid plan includes a 3D floor planner, photorealistic renders, mobile room scanning, CRM, estimates and proposals, invoicing and online payments. The Pro and Teams plans add AI takeoffs, project scheduling, change orders, budgets, contracts and daily logs. Leads from homeowners on Houzz come through a separate advertising package.

The room scan uses LiDAR on an iPhone 12 Pro or newer or a recent iPad Pro, and a camera-based measuring tool on other devices. Design work happens at a computer: you can scan a new floor plan on your phone, but Houzz says editing an existing plan has to be done on a desktop. Its AI tools cover takeoffs, estimates and note-taking, and turn 2D drawings or room scans into 3D models. The renders come from the 3D model you build rather than from a text prompt or a photo of the client's room.

Pricing: a free plan covers the 3D floor planner, estimates and invoicing. Design is listed at $99 a month and Pro at $199 a month, one user each, with extra users at $50 a month. Teams starts at $399 a month with unlimited users, and advertising starts at $499 a month on top. Design and Pro come with a 30-day free trial, after which the annual subscription starts unless you cancel.

Best for: design-build firms that want one subscription to run sales, design and the business, and that do their design work at a desk. See Alcovia vs Houzz Pro and our list of Houzz Pro alternatives.

3. Buildertrend: best for running the build

Buildertrend is construction project management software, and it goes deep on the part of the job that starts after the contract: scheduling, daily logs, time clock, change orders, selections, a subcontractor portal, warranties, bids, purchase orders, job-costing budgets, invoices and online payments. It covers the front office too, with lead management, proposals, estimates, a takeoff tool, and a client portal where homeowners follow along. Its AI features draft client updates and read bills, and a September 2026 release added AI tools for submittals and plans.

What it doesn't do is show the homeowner the finished room. There's no room scanning, no 3D design and no rendering. The takeoff works from plans, and Buildertrend's own help center says it has no built-in LiDAR; you upload a plan made in a LiDAR app instead.

Pricing: Buildertrend doesn't publish prices. You get a quote after a demo, based on your business type and volume, and plans include unlimited users and projects. There's no free trial.

Best for: remodelers and builders running several jobs at once, where coordination is what costs money. See Alcovia vs Buildertrend and our list of Buildertrend alternatives.

4. magicplan: best for floor plans and field estimates

magicplan turns a phone scan into a 2D floor plan with 3D and elevation views, then lets you pin photos, notes and 360 tours to it and build reports from it. On its PRO plans it adds an estimator that pulls quantities from the plan and prices them from your own lists, plus Xactimate ESX exports for insurance work. LiDAR scanning runs on Pro iPhones and iPads, the camera handles other iPhones, and Android users draw their plans instead of scanning them.

Its homepage now speaks to restoration teams, and the moisture reports and claim exports show that focus. What it doesn't do is design: there's no AI redesign and no photorealistic remodel render.

Pricing: a free Starter plan includes two projects. PRO is billed per project with a 10-project monthly minimum: $25 per project on a 24-month plan, $30 on 12 months, or $40 month to month, with unlimited users. Single users can buy a Sketch plan at $12.99 a month or a Report plan at $39.99 a month in the app.

Best for: restoration, insurance and remodeling contractors whose deliverable is a measured plan and a documented estimate. More in our magicplan vs Polycam vs RoomScan Pro vs Alcovia comparison and Alcovia vs magicplan.

5. Planner 5D: best for homeowners and interior designers

Planner 5D is a 3D interior design app with a catalog of more than 10,000 items. It scans rooms with LiDAR on Pro iPhones and iPads using Apple's RoomPlan, and its AI Studio, launched in June 2026, restyles a room from a text prompt or a photo while keeping the layout. The Professional plan adds unlimited 4K renders, 360-degree walkthroughs and CAD export.

The gap for a contractor is everything after the picture. Planner 5D has a budget widget and cost tools for furniture selections, but no takeoffs, no labor-and-materials estimate, and no CRM or proposal workflow.

Pricing: Free; Premium at $19.99 a month or $59.99 a year; Professional at $49.99 a month or $399.99 a year; Enterprise is custom. 4K renders are on Professional only. It runs on the web, iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and Windows.

Best for: homeowners and designers exploring looks, not contractors pricing jobs. See Alcovia vs Planner 5D.

6. Renovate AI: best for quick inspiration from a photo

Renovate AI, from Trial and Error, Inc., is the fastest way on this list to get a what-if image. Upload a photo of a room, pick a style or type the change you want, and it returns a redesigned image in seconds. It handles interiors, exteriors, landscaping and virtual staging, and its website advertises a cost breakdown of materials, labor and finishes for each design.

What it doesn't give you is measurements. Renovate AI describes its own output as a photo-realistic preview, not a measured plan, and says it isn't a floor planner or a 3D modeller. There's no LiDAR scan and no takeoff, so any cost it shows isn't tied to the room's measured dimensions.

Pricing: five free renders without an account, then a subscription in the app or on the web. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and the web.

Best for: early conversations with a homeowner who's still deciding what they want. See Alcovia vs Renovate AI.

7. Polycam: best for detailed 3D capture

Polycam is the most capable pure capture tool here. A LiDAR scan in its Space Mode gives you a detailed 3D mesh, and on the Business plan, 2D and 3D floor plans, measuring tools, point clouds and AI reports with square footage and wall areas. Photo-based capture handles objects and exteriors, Gaussian splats included, and Business users can send ESX files to Xactimate for $19.99 an export.

It reconstructs the room as it is. There's no remodel render, no estimate and no proposal, so a contractor using Polycam prices and presents the job in another tool.

Pricing: Free; Basic at $150 a year or $30 a month; Business at $400 per user per year; Enterprise at $1,200 per user per year with a three-user minimum.

Best for: contractors, architects and designers who need as-builts or detailed 3D documentation. See Alcovia vs Polycam.

The bottom line

Pick the tool that fixes the problem costing you the most, then fill the gaps.

If you lose bids because homeowners can't picture the finished room, start with design and sales. Alcovia fits if you want to scan, design and price on the first visit from a phone. Houzz Pro fits if you'd rather run the whole business in one subscription and design at a desk.

If you win plenty of work but the build is chaos, start with project management. Buildertrend is the deep option. JobTread, which lists remodelers among the trades it's built for, covers estimating, scheduling, job costing and client portals for $199 a month plus $20 per internal user.

If your deliverable is a measured plan or a claim file, look at magicplan. If it's a detailed 3D record, Polycam. For early inspiration, Renovate AI or Planner 5D will do.

Whatever you choose, run a real job through it before you sign up for a year.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best software for remodeling contractors?

The one that fixes your biggest bottleneck. For selling remodels on the first visit, Alcovia or Houzz Pro. For running jobs, crews and budgets, Buildertrend or JobTread. For measured floor plans and field estimates, magicplan. For detailed 3D capture, Polycam.

Is there one remodeling software that does everything?

Houzz Pro comes closest, with design, CRM, estimates, takeoffs, scheduling and payments in one subscription, though takeoffs and scheduling need the Pro plan or higher and design work happens on a computer. Buildertrend goes deeper on construction management but has no design tools. Alcovia covers the scan, design, renders and quote, with a lighter CRM and project management layer on Growth. You may still end up pairing two tools.

How much does remodeling software cost?

Anywhere from free to several hundred dollars a month. Planner 5D, Polycam, magicplan and Houzz Pro all have free tiers. Houzz Pro's paid plans are listed from $99 a month to $399 and up, JobTread is $199 a month plus $20 per internal user, and Buildertrend quotes each customer. Alcovia's Basic plan is $29 per seat per month, and Core and Growth are $49 and $199 per project with no monthly fee.

Does Alcovia work on Android?

No. Alcovia runs on iPhone and iPad, and scanning needs a LiDAR-equipped iPhone Pro (12 Pro or later) or iPad Pro (2020 or later). Our guide to scanning a room with your iPhone lists every model.

Can I use Alcovia alongside Buildertrend?

Yes. They cover different stages: Alcovia handles the scan, design, renders and quote at the sales visit, and Buildertrend runs the build after the contract is signed.

How do I get Alcovia?

It's in closed beta. Join the early-access list and your first project is free.