PlanSwift vs ArcSite Comparison: Everything You Need to Know Before Choosing

ArcSite is a mobile-first 2D computer-aided design application that lets field professionals produce accurate scaled drawings on a tablet, and then generate pricing, proposals and material takeoffs directly from those drawings. The combination is what distinguishes it. Conventional CAD produces a drawing and stops; the estimate is then built separately in a spreadsheet, and the two drift apart whenever the design changes. ArcSite treats the drawing as the source of the quote, so when a wall moves or a room is resized, the material list and the price update with it. For a contractor measuring a job on site, that means walking out with a finished, accurate proposal instead of promising to send one in a few days — and same-visit quoting materially raises close rates. Drawing is designed for touch input rather than mouse and keyboard, with precise dimension entry, snapping, layers, symbols and annotation, and a laser distance measurer can feed measurements in directly by Bluetooth so a single operator captures a site plan quickly and accurately. Product catalogues hold parts, assemblies, labour and pricing, and placing an item in the drawing adds it to the bill of materials automatically. Takeoff calculations cover linear, area and count quantities derived from the geometry. Proposal generation produces branded documents combining the drawing, specification, itemised or summarised pricing and terms, with electronic signature capture for on-the-spot acceptance. Drawings and projects sync to the cloud so the office sees field work as it happens and can reuse it for permits, installation or service records. Export covers PDF and CAD-compatible formats for sharing with architects and engineers. The application works offline, which matters in basements, new-build sites and rural properties. Typical users are contractors and specialty trades — fencing, decking, solar, security, HVAC, concrete, remodelling — along with surveyors and facility managers. Pricing starts from around USD 15 per user per month with a free trial and no free version.