Stairkey vs Joist
Joist is the cheapest respectable way to send professional estimates and invoices from your phone — if that's all you need, it wins on price and simplicity. Stairkey costs more and does far more: scheduling, projects, takeoff, portals, and real double-entry books. Pick by whether estimates-and-invoices is your whole problem or just the start of it.
Joist nails one job: a contractor standing in a driveway can build a clean estimate on a phone, get it signed, and invoice it — from $8/mo (billed annually), with a limited free plan. There's no scheduling, no project management, no crew portal, and no ledger; QuickBooks sync covers the books. Stairkey covers that same estimate-to-invoice flow but keeps going: measured takeoff, projects and scheduling, client and crew portals, AI capture, and native double-entry accounting.
This page is written by the Stairkey team — bias declared. Joist is genuinely good at what it does, and at $8/mo we will not pretend price is our win here. The honest question is scope, so that's how we've framed every row below.
At a glance
| Joist | Stairkey | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $8/mo (Basics, billed annually); limited free plan | $20/mo, capped at $100 |
| Estimates & invoices | Yes — fast, phone-first, e-sign | Yes — line items OR measured takeoff + approvals |
| Scheduling & tasks | No | Yes — calendar, tasks, crew assignments |
| Project management | No | Yes — projects, Gantt, budgets |
| Built-in accounting | No — syncs to QuickBooks | Yes — native double-entry GL (+$20/mo add-on) |
| Sales tax (HST/GST) | Line-item rates | Native HST/GST, year-end package |
| Client portal | Estimate/invoice view & e-sign | Yes — full portal |
| Crew portal | No | Yes — phone-first, offline cache |
| AI features | No | Photo/voice → tasks, workspace AI |
| Real estate / deal module | No | Yes — buying, listing, deal P&L |
| Best for | Solo trades who only need estimates + invoices | Small crews who need the rest of the job managed too |
Who each one is for
you're a solo contractor whose entire software problem is 'send a professional estimate, get it signed, invoice it' — Joist does that from $8/mo and stays out of your way. Pair it with QuickBooks (or a spreadsheet and an accountant) for the books.
estimates are just the front door: you also need to schedule the work, track the project, give clients and crew a portal, and keep real books with HST/GST — in one tool instead of Joist + QuickBooks + a calendar.
Pricing
Prices verified July 2, 2026. Quote-gated vendors change pricing without notice — confirm before you buy.
Pro $15/mo and Elite $32/mo add features like QuickBooks sync; flat-rate, not per-user. A limited free plan exists. The books still live in QuickBooks, billed separately.
Accounting add-on +$20/mo (=$40/mo) for native double-entry books with HST/GST. Usage capped at $100/mo; first month free, no credit card.
Where the others win
Joist wins on price, full stop — $8/mo (or free, limited) versus our $20/mo core, and if estimates and invoices are your entire workflow, Stairkey is paying for scope you won't use. Joist is also ruthlessly simple: less to learn, nothing to configure, and it's been doing this one job for years across a large user base. Stairkey is the newer, broader product — that breadth is the point, but it means more surface area than a solo handyman who just needs paper out the door may want. If that's you, buy Joist and don't look back.
Common questions
Is Joist really enough to run a contracting business on?
For a solo operator, often yes — estimates, e-signatures, invoices, and payments cover the paperwork, and plenty of one-person trades run exactly that plus QuickBooks at year-end. It stops being enough when you're scheduling a crew, tracking multiple jobs, or wanting job costs and books in one place — that's the gap tools like Stairkey fill.
Does either replace QuickBooks?
Joist doesn't try — it syncs invoices to QuickBooks and leaves the ledger there. Stairkey does: its +$20/mo accounting add-on is a native double-entry ledger with HST/GST, bank reconciliation, and year-end reports, so a small operation can drop the separate accounting subscription.
Why is Stairkey more expensive than Joist?
Because it's a different scope: Joist is an estimate-and-invoice app; Stairkey also covers scheduling, project management, client and crew portals, measured takeoff, AI capture, and accounting. If you don't need those, Joist's $8/mo is the better deal — we say so plainly above.