TradePilot vs SimplyWise 2026: Pricing, Features & Honest Comparison
SimplyWise Cost Estimator is everywhere right now — 30,000+ App Store ratings, a 4.8-star average, and a hook that genuinely works: snap a photo, get an estimate in seconds. For thirty bucks a month, that's real value. So why would you look at TradePilot? Because there's a difference between getting a number fast and knowing your number — and if you price work for a living, that difference is your profit margin.
The Short Version
SimplyWise runs $29.99/month. TradePilot Starter is $59/month. That's twice the price — so this comparison owes you a straight answer on what the difference actually buys, and whether it's worth it for your business.
SimplyWise is a photo-to-estimate app inside a broader small-business suite — the same company also makes receipt scanning, mileage tracking, and AI receptionist apps. The estimate comes from AI market averages, fast. TradePilot is built around one job: pricing your work off your real numbers — your expenses, labor cost, income goals, and profit targets — then turning that into estimates, proposals, and invoices you control line by line.
Different question, different tool. SimplyWise answers "what does a job like this usually cost?" TradePilot answers "what do you need to charge on this job to cover your costs and hit your profit goal?" The first is a ballpark. The second is a business.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | TradePilot | SimplyWise |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $59/mo (Starter) | $29.99/mo or $239.99/yr |
| Full-featured plan | $99/mo (Pro) | Single subscription |
| How the AI builds your price | Pilot AI — from your rates, price book & profit goals | Photo-to-estimate from market averages + markup settings |
| LiDAR room scanning | FieldScan (iPhone Pro) | 3D room scanning |
| Rate calculator | 3 modes (My Rate, Employee, Crew) | Not available |
| Custom price book | Your line items, your rates | Pricing leans on AI market data |
| Job costing | Live margin tracking | Not available |
| Apps | iOS app + web app | Estimator, plus separate receipts, mileage & AI receptionist apps |
| Free trial | 7 days | 7 days |
Pricing: $59 vs $29.99 — What the Difference Buys
SimplyWise charges $29.99/month or $239.99/year, one subscription for everything. TradePilot is $59/month for Starter and $99/month for Pro, with unlimited Pilot AI (fair use).
So TradePilot costs about twice as much, and that gap is honest: a rate calculator built on your real costs, your own price book, and job costing are a deeper toolkit than a photo ballpark inside an app bundle. Here's the math that matters: the extra ~$30/month is one underpriced hour of labor. If knowing your real break-even saves you one mispriced job a year, the difference paid for itself many times over.
Worth noticing: SimplyWise's estimator is one feature in a suite built by a receipt-scanning company. TradePilot does one thing — contractor estimating and the workflow around it. At the same price, you're choosing between breadth you might use and depth you'll use every day.
AI Estimating: Both Do It. Here's How They Differ.
SimplyWise's AI estimating
SimplyWise's core move is genuinely impressive: photograph the job, and AI returns an itemized estimate — materials and labor — in seconds. It pulls from market pricing data, offers markup settings to layer your margin on top, and suggests upsells to raise ticket size. For fast ballparks on straightforward jobs, it's the quickest tool out there.
The tradeoff is where the number comes from. The estimate is built on averages — what jobs like yours typically cost, somewhere — not on your costs. Public reviews praise the speed but ask for more control over the business side: one detailed App Store review this June requested the ability to build overhead and profit directly into estimates, noting the reviewer "couldn't find an option to up-charge an estimate for profit in any way." Markup settings on top of a guessed base aren't the same as knowing your break-even.
TradePilot's AI estimating
Pilot AI works from the opposite direction. First, the rate calculator establishes what you actually need to charge — using your real expenses, labor costs, income goals, and billable hours, in three modes (My Rate, Employee Rate, Crew Rate). Then Pilot drafts estimates from your rates and your price book, and you adjust every line. The AI assists your judgment; it doesn't replace it with a database average.
An estimate built on your numbers — not a stranger's average.
Rate calculator + LiDAR scanning + your own price book. From $59/mo.
Join the Waitlist →What TradePilot Has That SimplyWise Doesn't
A rate calculator. The most common question in the trades is "what should I charge?" TradePilot answers it with math — your overhead, your income goal, your billable hours — before you ever build an estimate. SimplyWise assumes the market average plus markup is close enough. If you've ever won a job and still lost money on it, you know it isn't.
Your price book. Save your real line items and rates once, reuse them on every estimate. Your quotes sound like you and price like you, job after job. SimplyWise's numbers regenerate from market data each time.
Job costing with live margin tracking. Estimating right is half the battle; knowing whether the job actually hit its margin is the other half. TradePilot tracks it. SimplyWise's answer is its separate receipts app — which tells you what you spent, not whether the job made money.
Where SimplyWise Wins
Raw speed to a ballpark. Photo in, itemized estimate out, seconds flat. Nothing beats it for a fast gut-check number, and the wow factor with a homeowner standing next to you is real.
Social proof at scale. 30,000+ ratings at 4.8 stars is serious volume, and plenty of reviewers credit fast, clean estimates with helping them close jobs. TradePilot is pre-launch — our review count is a work in progress.
AI renderings. Before/after visualizations help clients picture the finished job. TradePilot doesn't offer renderings.
The bundle. One subscription includes their receipt scanner, mileage tracker, and AI receptionist apps. If you want those tools and light estimating, it's honest value.
Where SimplyWise Falls Short
The number isn't yours. Market averages don't know your insurance bill, your truck payment, what your helper costs you, or what you need to take home this year. On a straightforward job in an average market, close enough may be fine. On the job that's a little unusual — or in a market that runs hot — a generic base number with a markup slider is how contractors quietly lose their margin.
Accuracy on complex work. Reviews praising speed sit alongside reports of estimates that miss regional reality on bigger jobs. Any AI estimate needs review — but when you can't rebuild the number from your own rates, "review" means guessing at what the AI assumed.
Estimating is a side business. SimplyWise is a well-funded company whose roots and largest audience are receipt scanning and expense tracking. The estimator is one product in a portfolio. That's not a knock — it's a strategy — but it means estimating depth (rate math, price books, tiered pricing, job costing) isn't where their roadmap lives.
Who Should Choose What
✅ Choose SimplyWise if:
- You want the fastest possible photo-to-ballpark, and you'll gut-check the numbers yourself
- You want AI renderings to show clients a before/after
- The bundled receipt scanner, mileage tracker, and AI receptionist matter to you
- Estimating is occasional for you — not the core of how you earn
✅ Choose TradePilot if:
- You price jobs for a living and need your break-even, not a market average
- You want a rate calculator that tells you what to charge before you estimate
- You want AI that drafts from your price book and rates — with you in control of every line
- You want job costing that tells you whether the job actually made money
- You'd rather pay ~$30/month more for a number you can build a business on than save it on a ballpark
The Bottom Line
SimplyWise earned its ratings. As a fast ballpark tool inside a handy small-business bundle, it delivers exactly what it promises, at a fair price. If that's the job you're hiring an app for, it's a fine pick.
But if estimating is how you make your living, the question isn't "how fast can I get a number?" It's "is this number right for my business?" TradePilot is the only tool in this price range built around that question — rate calculation from your real costs, estimates from your own price book, and job costing to close the loop. It costs more than a ballpark app — because it answers a more expensive question.
Know exactly what to charge. Then estimate it in minutes.
7-day free trial. Early access pricing locked for life for the first 100 users.
Join the Waitlist — It's Free