| July 2026 | Groundwork Takeoff | PlanSwift Professional |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ||
| Annual, per seat | $950 — everything included | $2,000/yr (planswift.com; some sources cite $1,749) |
| Monthly option | ✓ $95/mo | ✗ Annual only |
| Perpetual license | ✓ $2,500 + optional $295/yr maintenance | ✗ Revoked in 2025 — holders moved to annual |
| Crew discounts | ✓ 3+ seats −15%, 5+ −25% | ✗ Not published |
| AI takeoff | ✓ Included on every seat | Takeoff Boost — cloud add-on plugin, extra subscription |
| Platforms | ||
| Windows native | ✓ 64-bit (Tauri) | ✓ Reported still 32-bit (~2GB RAM ceiling) |
| Mac native | ✓ | ✗ |
| iPad | ✓ Home-screen app | ✗ |
| Browser access | ✓ | ✗ Desktop install only |
| Works offline | ✓ Offline-first, 14-day grace | ✓ Desktop app |
| Takeoff & estimating | ||
| Point-and-click takeoff | ✓ 6 modes incl. Volume & Dimension | ✓ Genuinely fast and easy to learn |
| Assemblies (material + labor) | ✓ Library + Assembly Builder | ✓ Strong — material, labor, waste |
| Built-in estimate grid | ✓ Live grid + formula evaluator | Estimating via Excel round-trip |
| Plan compare / overlay | ✓ Live-canvas diff + blend, auto-align | ✗ |
| Stability on large plan sets | ✓ Native 64-bit rendering | Crashes/freezes on large sets reported in reviews |
| Collaboration & extras | ||
| Real-time multi-user | ✓ CRDT co-editing included | ✗ File passing |
| Excel / CSV export | ✓ Incl. batch export | ✓ Strong Excel integration |
| Trade plugin marketplace | ✗ Assemblies built in instead | ✓ Plugins for many trades |
| Markup depth (clouds, stamps, tool chest) | ✓ + revision log, legends | Basic annotation |
PlanSwift pricing from planswift.com/pricing (fetched July 2026). Perpetual-license revocation, stability, and support complaints from Capterra reviews (capterra.com, PlanSwift listing, 396 reviews, 4.3/5 — including an April 2025 review titled "Bait & switch scammers"). 32-bit architecture is a reported, competitor-sourced claim — verify with the vendor. Takeoff Boost details from ConstructConnect press releases, May 2026.
What PlanSwift owners
tell us after 2025.
We'll say it plainly.
PlanSwift is one of the easiest takeoff tools ever made — G2 users rate it above Bluebeam on ease of use — and its assemblies (material + labor + waste) and trade plugins are genuinely good. If your whole team is trained on it, runs Windows, and your plugin workflow is dialed in, the switching cost is real.
But if you're paying $2,000 a seat every year for a Windows-only tool that revoked the licenses it once sold outright, Groundwork gives you the same point-and-click speed, deeper estimating, and modern hardware support — for $950. Or own it outright for $2,500, the way PlanSwift used to let you.
