How Monaro Compares

Four honest comparisons

Monaro is built for one job: automating equipment takeoffs and quoting for HVAC and plumbing distributors. Several other tools overlap with part of that, and every one of them is genuinely better than us at something.

These pages set out where each tool fits, including when you should pick the other one. Distributors are the audience throughout, so the framing is always about quoting equipment supply rather than estimating installed cost.

The short answer

FastPIPE and PlanSwift are contractor estimating tools. Bluebeam Revu is a PDF measurement tool. Beam AI is a takeoff service. Monaro is the only one of the five built specifically around a distributor bid desk.

Monaro vs FastPIPE

FastPIPE, from FastEST, Inc., is on screen piping and plumbing estimating software for mechanical contractors. It covers pipe, fittings, valves, labour hours and fabrication, with a catalog of over 150,000 items.

Choose FastPIPE if

You are a contractor bidding installed work and you need pipe takeoffs by spec, with labour units and fabrication detail behind them.

Choose Monaro if

You are a distributor quoting the scheduled equipment, and the bottleneck is counting symbols and retyping schedules.

Read the full FastPIPE comparison

Monaro vs Beam AI

Beam AI is a takeoff service. You send the plans out, define the scope, and a QA reviewed takeoff comes back in roughly 24 to 72 hours, covering many trades.

Choose Beam AI if

You bid across many trades and you are happy to outsource the takeoff itself, particularly for overflow capacity.

Choose Monaro if

Response speed decides the job. Takeoffs finish in under 20 minutes on your own screen, and your drawings never leave your workspace.

Read the full Beam AI comparison

Monaro vs PlanSwift

PlanSwift, a ConstructConnect product, brought on screen takeoff into the mainstream. Estimators click each item or drag assemblies onto a digitised plan, and the software totals materials and labour.

Choose PlanSwift if

You are a contractor estimating full installed cost across many trades and you want hands on control of every measurement.

Choose Monaro if

Clicking every diffuser is the slow part of the day. Monaro counts them for you and carries the result through to a finished quote.

Read the full PlanSwift comparison

Monaro vs Bluebeam Revu

Bluebeam Revu is the industry standard for PDF markup, collaboration and measurement, and it is where a lot of distributor teams do their takeoffs today.

Choose Bluebeam if

You need a general PDF tool for markup, RFIs, punch lists and design review, or your estimators want full manual control of every measurement.

Choose Monaro if

The counting itself is the bottleneck. These two are complementary more often than competitive, so most teams keep Bluebeam for markup and let Monaro handle the takeoff and the quote.

Read the full Bluebeam comparison

How Monaro compares