Joist is a solid, established estimate-and-invoice app where you build estimates by hand. Bid.Fast builds them from your voice — you talk, the AI writes and prices the line items.
Try Bid.Fast Free →No credit card · 3 free estimates
Joist and Bid.Fast both help contractors create estimates, so this one is a closer match. The core difference is how the estimate gets made: in Joist you tap in line items from templates and saved lists; in Bid.Fast you walk the job, describe it out loud, and AI generates the priced line items for you. Joist also includes invoicing and payments; Bid.Fast stays laser-focused on fast, accurate estimating. Here's the fair comparison.
Comparison reflects each product's primary focus. Joist is a trademark of its respective owner; details may change — check their site for current specifics.
Plenty of contractors run both — Joist for the back office, Bid.Fast for getting a number to the customer fast.
Yes — both create contractor estimates. The difference is method: Joist is manual entry with templates; Bid.Fast generates the estimate from a voice walkthrough using AI. If your goal is creating estimates faster, Bid.Fast is built for exactly that.
Not currently — Bid.Fast focuses on creating and sending estimates with a one-tap accept/decline link. Joist includes invoicing and payments, so if you need billing in the same app, that's a point for Joist.
Instead of tapping in each line item, you describe the job out loud and the AI writes the line items, applies labor + material pricing and your markup, and produces a sendable estimate — typically in about 90 seconds.
Yes. Add your real supplier and labor prices to your Price Book and the AI uses your exact numbers instead of estimates — just like keeping a saved item list, but applied automatically.
Record one walkthrough and watch Bid.Fast build the estimate. Free to try.
Get 3 Free Estimates →