Comparison · Spreadsheets
Screed vs
spreadsheets
Most hardscape estimates still start in a spreadsheet, and yours has years of your judgment in it. Screed carries one takeoff through to the proposal, the purchase order and the delivery, so nobody types it twice.
Side by side
At a glance.
Who each one is built for, what it costs and who the price covers. The spreadsheet column is how most shops run one; prices are from Microsoft’s and Google’s public pages.
| Item | Spreadsheets | Screed |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | SpreadsheetsAnyone. That’s the point. | ScreedHardscape and paver subcontractors |
| Published price | SpreadsheetsFree | ScreedStarter $80 · Pro $250 · Commercial $600 a month |
| Users | SpreadsheetsAnyone with the file | ScreedEveryone in your company, on every plan |
Straight answer
Choose spreadsheets if…
If either sounds like you, the spreadsheet is probably the better fit. Better you hear it here than find out three months in.
- 01you do a handful of jobs a year and nobody else touches the numbers.
- 02you’d rather keep the template you know than pay for software.
Built for hardscape subs
Where Screed is different.
What we built for the sub whose money is in the material. Every line here is in the app today, and the tag says which plans include it.
- 01The takeoff is shaped like a paver job. Base, bedding sand, joint sand, edge restraint and pavers are all sized from the same outline, with waste included. No formula to break.Every plan
- 02Quantities are priced from your catalog and your own supplier price lists. The catalog carries sizes, weights and coverage. A price change lands in the next estimate.Every plan
- 03One estimate makes the proposal PDF, the bill of materials and a draft PO for each supplier. Type it once.Every plan
- 04Deliveries get logged against each PO, full or partial, with photos. What’s still owed stays on the job until it shows up.Pro · Commercial
- 05Crews go on the Board across every project, day by day, with daily logs from the field. Installed quantities get checked against the estimate, area by area.Pro · Commercial
- 06Everyone in the company works the same job, from any phone browser.Every plan
Monthly vs monthly
Their list price. Ours. Same terms.
Public list prices, monthly billing wherever there’s a choice. Promotions and annual discounts are left out on both sides. Follow the link for current terms.
Excel and Google Sheets
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Excel for the webWith a Microsoft account. | Free |
| Google SheetsWith a Google account.workspace.google.com ↗ | Free |
| Desktop ExcelComes with Microsoft 365 subscriptions. | See Microsoft’s site |
- The license isn’t the cost. The retyping, and the mistakes it lets through, are.
Checked September 2026microsoft.com pricing ↗
Screed
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly |
|---|---|---|
| Starter25 active projects | $80/mo | $800/yr |
| ProUnlimited projects · everything in Starter | $250/mo | $2,500/yr |
| CommercialUnlimited projects · everything in Pro | $600/mo | $6,000/yr |
- Every plan covers everyone in your company.
- No activation fee and no onboarding fee. No free trial, either.
- Yearly is ten months’ price.
- Cancel anytime from Settings → Billing.
Closest match, month to month
Excel or Google Sheets
Free
Whoever has the file
Screed Starter
$80/mo
Everyone in your company
Starter is the estimate, proposal, bill of materials and supplier POs. Everything you’d otherwise retype.
Per seat or per company
Spreadsheets: anyone with the file. Screed: every plan covers your whole company, so adding a foreman or an estimator doesn’t change the bill.
Switching from spreadsheets
What moves, and how.
Move the lists you reuse and the jobs that are still open. Closed jobs can stay where they are.
- 01Pull your lists.Customers, open projects, and your item list with the prices you pay. A spreadsheet is fine.
- 02Load them through the API or MCP.Customers, projects and company item lists import through Screed’s API and MCP, on Pro and Commercial. The easy way: give Claude, or another MCP-capable assistant, your old spreadsheets and a Screed key with writes allowed, and ask it to do the import. Keys are read-only unless you allow writes. On Starter, you add them in the app.
- 03Run the next job in Screed.Build the estimate, send the proposal, and let the purchase orders come off it.
- 04Want a hand?Commercial includes a setup call with us to get your company set up.
Notes for spreadsheet users
- Your spreadsheets are the import. Customers, open projects and your item list with prices can come straight across.
- Keep the sheet for the odd job it handles better. Nobody’s taking it away.
- Still want a spreadsheet at the end? The bill of materials exports as CSV.
What stays where
- QuickBooks or your ERP
- The books.
- Your bill-pay system (Ramp)
- Invoices, bills, approvals and payments. Screed pushes the purchase orders it creates.
- Screed
- The job: what was bid, ordered, delivered, installed and changed.
Screed doesn’t approve bills, match invoices, make payments or keep a ledger.
Product names and trademarks belong to their owners; Screed isn’t affiliated with them. Prices are public list prices checked September 2026 — if something has changed, tell us at hello@getscreed.com and we’ll fix it.
Run your next paver job in Screed.
Starter is $80 a month for your whole company. No activation fee, no seat count. Cancel anytime from Settings → Billing.