Painting estimating software prices a job from the surfaces: walls, ceilings, trim and doors in square feet or count, the coats each needs, the prep hours the condition demands, and the crew's production rate per surface, then paint and sundries at cost with the markup. A painter buying software should look for production rates per surface that the company can set, because the estimate is those rates times the measured surfaces. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, cited below, puts the median annual wage for cost estimators at $78,740 in May 2025; the free template on this site prices any one job from the hours, the materials, the overhead and the markup.
Surfaces, coats and prep
Walls at one rate, ceilings at another, trim by the foot and doors by the count, each with the coats and the prep the condition needs; software that keeps production rates per surface prices a house in the time it takes to measure it.
Paint at cost, marked up, on its own line
Gallons from the coverage and the coats, at the supplier's price with the company's markup, as a line the customer can read; the template on this site takes materials separately so the line prints separately from labor.
Production rates are the company's
A crew's square feet per hour on a given surface is a number the company measures on its own jobs and nobody else's; software that lets the company set and revise the rates from recorded hours is the one that keeps the estimates honest, and Pro records the hours against the estimate.
Questions people ask about painting estimating software
Is there free painting estimating software?
The estimate template on this site prices a job from your own takeoff, rate, overhead and markup, free and with no account, and prints the estimate. Markupbird Pro adds the rate tables, the estimates kept against customers and jobs, and the wins recorded against the markup.
What markup should the estimate carry?
Whatever covers the overhead share and leaves the profit the company needs, chosen with the margin in front of you; the template prints the margin the total carries at any markup you try.
How does painting estimating software calculate coverage?
From the wall and ceiling area with openings, the coats and the coverage per gallon for that surface and product, with the prep hours and the hours per square foot per coat at a loaded rate.