7 Best Joist Alternatives for Contractor Estimates and Invoices

The Short Answer

If you want estimates and invoices that don't nickel-and-dime you as your crew grows, Trusso is the strongest overall pick at a flat $29/mo for an owner plus two crew, with AI estimates tied to your own price book and a 14-day free trial. If you need deeper scheduling and dispatch for a bigger team, Jobber or Housecall Pro are worth the higher price. If all you need is basic invoicing, Wave or Square Invoices are free.

Joist built its reputation as the go-to estimate-and-invoice app for small remodelers and trade contractors, largely because it was free. That appears to have changed: Joist's published pricing page now shows paid plans starting around $12/mo, with no free tier listed, and higher tiers for things like client-facing project tools and crew access. If that's accurate for your account, it's a reasonable trigger to compare what else is out there — not just as a cheaper Joist, but as something that might handle more of the job than estimates and invoices alone. Always check Joist's current pricing page directly before assuming your plan has changed.

How We Compared These

We looked at seven tools contractors commonly consider when they outgrow or leave Joist: what they cost, what they're actually built for, and where they fall short. A couple of these are full job-management platforms; a couple are invoicing-only tools that happen to do estimates too. Know which category you need before you pick.

1. Trusso

Best for: a contractor who wants estimates, scheduling, and invoicing in one place without paying per seat.

Trusso builds estimates from your own price book — not a generic database — so numbers come out the way you'd actually quote a job, and it can generate a draft estimate straight from jobsite photos or a 3D room scan. Leads from Angi, Thumbtack, Yelp, and Google LSA import automatically instead of sitting in a text thread, and scheduling, crew assignments, and invoicing live in the same app as the estimate. There's also an optional AI Receptionist add-on that answers missed calls under your existing number and can tell a verified caller their appointment time or resend an invoice — something no estimate-only app offers.

The honest limitation: Trusso is a newer, leaner platform than the big enterprise suites, so if you need deep inventory management or complex multi-division reporting, it's not built for that scale yet. It's aimed at small crews, not 50-truck operations.

Pricing: flat $29/mo for owner plus 2 crew, $59/mo for owner plus 10 crew, $99/mo unlimited crew — no per-user fees, 14-day free trial, no contract. If you're still deciding between a free tool and paying for something like this, this breakdown of free estimating apps walks through when free stops being enough.

2. Jobber

Best for: crews of five or more that need routing, dispatch, and a client portal alongside estimates.

Jobber has been around long enough to have a mature feature set — route optimization, recurring job scheduling, and a reasonably polished client-facing hub for approvals and payments. It's a legitimate step up from Joist if estimating is only part of what's slowing you down.

The limitation is cost structure: plans scale with user count and feature tier, so a two- or three-person crew can end up paying more than the feature set they actually use. See the full Jobber pricing breakdown before committing, and the Trusso vs. Jobber comparison if you're weighing the two directly.

Pricing: published pricing starts around $39/mo for a single user and increases by plan tier and crew size.

3. Housecall Pro

Best for: service trades with recurring maintenance contracts — HVAC, plumbing, pest control.

Housecall Pro leans into membership plans and recurring revenue tools, which makes sense if a chunk of your business is maintenance agreements rather than one-off jobs. Dispatch and online booking are solid.

It's priced and built for service trades more than project-based remodeling or construction work, so estimate-heavy contractors may find the estimating tools feel secondary to the scheduling engine. Full numbers are in the Housecall Pro pricing guide.

Pricing: published pricing starts around $59/mo and rises with crew size and add-ons.

4. Invoice Fly

Best for: a solo contractor who wants fast mobile invoices and nothing more.

Invoice Fly is lightweight by design — create an estimate or invoice on your phone in a couple of minutes, get it signed and paid. If your business is just you and a truck, that simplicity is a real advantage over a bloated platform.

It doesn't do scheduling, crew management, or lead tracking, so you'll outgrow it the moment you hire your first helper or start juggling more than a few jobs a week. The Invoice Fly alternatives roundup goes deeper on when that happens.

Pricing: free tier available; paid plans start around $9.99/mo for more invoices and features.

5. FreshBooks

Best for: contractors who want invoicing tied directly into bookkeeping and tax prep.

FreshBooks started as accounting software and it shows — time tracking, expense categorization, and reports that make tax season less painful are all built in. If your invoicing and your books have always lived in two different tools, FreshBooks closes that gap.

It's an accounting tool wearing an invoicing hat, not a job-management platform — there's no scheduling, crew dispatch, or lead capture. The FreshBooks alternatives post covers contractor-specific options in more depth.

Pricing: published pricing starts around $21/mo for the entry-level plan.

6. Wave

Best for: a contractor on a tight budget who just needs clean, free invoices.

Wave's invoicing and basic accounting are free, and the interface is simple enough that you can send your first invoice the same day you sign up. For a side-business or brand-new solo operation, that's hard to beat on price.

Wave makes its money on payment processing fees, and it has essentially no field-service features — no scheduling, no job tracking, no crew tools. It's an invoicing app, full stop. The Wave alternatives comparison covers what to move to once you need more.

Pricing: free invoicing; standard card processing fees apply on payments.

7. Square Invoices

Best for: a contractor who already takes card payments through Square and wants invoicing in the same ecosystem.

If you're already swiping cards with a Square reader, Square Invoices keeps everything — payments, invoices, basic customer records — under one login with no new app to learn.

Like Wave, it's invoicing-first with no real job-management layer, and the free tier pushes you toward Square's payment processing, which may or may not be the rate you want. The Square Invoices alternatives post breaks down where it fits best.

Pricing: free with standard processing fees; a paid plan runs around $20/mo for added features.

Making the Switch Without Losing Your Client List

Whatever you pick, don't start from zero. Export your client list, past estimates, and job history out of Joist before you cancel — most apps let you download a CSV even on a free or legacy account. If you want a checklist for that process, this guide on what to export before switching software and this one on switching without losing customer data cover the steps in order.

If you're not sure which direction to go yet, it's worth testing a few estimates with Trusso's free AI estimate generators for painting, roofing, drywall, fencing, flooring, or pressure washing before you commit to a paid plan anywhere. You can also read the direct Trusso vs. Joist comparison if that's the specific switch you're weighing.

This comparison reflects publicly available pricing and feature listings as of October 10, 2026; always confirm current plans on each provider's site before switching, since pricing pages change.