Every list of "best job costing software" is written by someone selling one of the entries. So is this one: we make Obra, it's in the list, and this guide says where it loses. What makes the comparison useful anyway is the yardstick. A small crew doesn't need forty features. It needs to know, this week, whether the kitchen on Westlake is making money, and it needs that answer to come from receipts that were in a foreman's pocket on Tuesday.
Prices below are list prices as published on September 4, 2026, before promotions, rounded. Plan names and prices change; check the vendor before you buy.
The short version
| App | Best for | Starts at | Who can enter a cost | Runs on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Obra | Crews whose receipts arrive from the field, often over WhatsApp, in English or Spanish | Free for one active project; $12 per user a month after | Anyone you invite as a submitter, without seeing the finances | Web app on any phone or computer |
| RenoJira | A solo contractor who wants a free phone app and nothing else | Free | Whoever holds the phone | iOS and Android only |
| Ontraq | An owner with a bookkeeper who lives in QuickBooks Online | About $30 a month for two users | Plan seats | Web and mobile |
| Buildfolio | A quoting-first shop that wants profit per job as a byproduct | Free tier; about $40 a month flat | Plan users | Web |
| Contractor Foreman | A 5–15 person GC that needs scheduling, AIA billing and job costing in one suite | About $50 a month for one user, annual | Plan seats | Web, iOS, Android |
| JobTread | A remodeler running estimates, budgets and schedules from one system | About $200 a month plus $20 per user | Plan seats; portals free | Web and mobile |
| Knowify | A trade sub billing on AIA forms who wants live QuickBooks sync | About $100 a month for one user; job costing on the higher tier | Plan seats | Web and mobile |
| QuickBooks Online Plus | The one you already pay for, if one person tags everything | About $140 a month list, five users | QuickBooks users only | Web and mobile |
How we judged them
Feature grids hide the questions that decide whether job costing survives contact with a real crew. We used five:
- Who can enter a cost? If only paid seats can, field receipts will keep arriving as texts.
- What do you see mid-job? Actuals alone flatter a job until the bills land. The honest view counts committed costs and forecasts the finish.
- Is the per-job result honest? Costs, income, change orders and the original contract, on one page, per job, without a spreadsheet on the side.
- What does the accountant get? Clean, dated, categorized exports, or a sync that doesn't create double entry.
- What does a three-person crew pay? Two in the field, one owner. Per-user pricing changes the answer more than any feature.
Obra
What it is. A per-project ledger: income, expenses, receipts, change orders, budgets, a forecast of the final cost, and a close. Not accounting software; it hands the accountant exports.
Where it wins. Cost capture. A receipt sent to Obra's WhatsApp number, forwarded by email or photographed in the app becomes a draft with the amount, date and vendor already read, and a person confirms it to a job and category. Submitters, such as a foreman or a sub, capture from their own phones without seeing the project's money. The app and the WhatsApp side both work in English and Spanish, which matters more than any feature for a bilingual crew. Mid-job, each project shows cash collected, recorded cost, what's left to collect, and an expected final cost that never drops below what's already recorded.
Where it loses. It will not estimate, schedule, invoice clients or run payroll. If your problem is winning work or running the calendar, this is the wrong tier; see the decision guide. There is no native app store app, because the web app installs to the home screen and works offline.
Price. Free for one active project. Pro is $12 per user a month, or $120 a year. A three-person crew pays $36 a month.
RenoJira
What it is. A free iOS and Android app for logging expenses, client payments, quotes and change orders per job, with receipt scanning and a QuickBooks Online sync.
Where it wins. Price and simplicity. There is no plan to pick, it works offline, and a solo contractor can be logging a receipt within a minute of installing it.
Where it loses. It's phone-only and single-operator by design: the person with the app enters everything. There's no web view for the office, no submitter role for a crew, and no forecast of where a job will finish. Free with no published business model is also worth a thought if your records need to exist in three years.
Price. Free.
Ontraq
What it is. Receipt capture with AI coding, job-based expense tracking and QuickBooks Online sync, with GPS time tracking and budget-vs-actual on the higher tiers. The same company sells a bookkeeping service on top.
Where it wins. The QuickBooks-first workflow. If a bookkeeper already lives in QuickBooks Online and the goal is to get coded receipts into it faster, Ontraq is built for exactly that.
Where it loses. Profitability dashboards and change orders live on the top tier, about $80 a month for five users, so the "know your job" part costs more than the "scan your receipt" part. Extra users are about $9 each.
Price. About $30 a month for two users, $50 for three, $80 for five.
Buildfolio
What it is. A quoting and proposal tool for trades such as roofing, HVAC and electrical, with cost tracking and a "profit intelligence" view per job, invoicing, and QuickBooks sync on the paid plan.
Where it wins. If you want quotes, invoices and the profit on each job from one flat-price tool, $39 a month with no per-user fee is hard to argue with.
Where it loses. Job costing is a byproduct of the quoting flow, not the center of it, and the free tier caps estimates at three a month. It's aimed at service trades more than remodelers and GCs.
Price. Free tier; Pro about $40 a month flat.
Contractor Foreman
What it is. A broad construction management suite: estimates, scheduling, daily logs, change orders, purchase orders, AIA G702/G703 billing, time cards and job costing reports, with QuickBooks Online sync.
Where it wins. Breadth per dollar. For a GC with five to fifteen people who needs scheduling and progress billing as much as job costing, it covers more ground for less than JobTread or Buildertrend.
Where it loses. Breadth is the cost too. Setup takes weeks, the plans are annual, and the one-user plan is only useful for finding out whether you'll use it. Field cost capture still runs through paid seats.
Price. About $50 a month for one user, $105 for three, on annual billing.
JobTread
What it is. Estimating, budgeting, job costing, scheduling, time tracking and customer portals, with QuickBooks Online integration and a strong training program.
Where it wins. The budget-first workflow: the estimate becomes the budget, costs land against it, and the margin is visible per line. Remodelers who run everything from the estimate outward like it for that reason.
Where it loses. Price for a small crew, and there's no free trial, only a money-back window. Everyone who enters a cost needs a seat.
Price. About $200 a month plus $20 per internal user; a three-person crew pays about $240.
Knowify
What it is. Job management and billing for trade contractors, with AIA pay applications, change orders, time tracking and a real-time QuickBooks Online sync.
Where it wins. Subs billing on AIA forms, and anyone who wants job data to appear in QuickBooks the moment it's entered.
Where it loses. Job costing with automatic expense assignment and WIP reporting sit on the Advanced tier, about $330 a month and up. The Core tier bids and invoices but doesn't cost jobs.
Price. Core about $100 a month for one user on annual billing, plus about $30 per extra user; job costing needs Advanced at about $330 a month.
QuickBooks Online Plus, the one you already have
What it is. Accounting software with a Projects feature that reports profitability per job when every bill, expense and invoice is tagged to a project.
Where it wins. The books and the job costs come from the same numbers, and the accountant is already home.
Where it loses. The people holding the receipts aren't QuickBooks users, committed costs don't exist until a bill is entered, and the mid-job view is only as fresh as the bookkeeping. Our QuickBooks job costing guide covers the setup that gives it a fair chance and the signs it isn't working.
Price. Plus lists at about $140 a month for five users; promotions cut that for the first few months.
What a three-person crew pays
Two people in the field, one owner, monthly, on the cheapest plan that actually costs jobs:
| App | Monthly | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| RenoJira | $0 | One phone, one operator |
| Obra | $36 | Or free while one project is active |
| Buildfolio | $39 | Flat; quoting-centric |
| Ontraq | $50 | Field plan; profit dashboards are $80 |
| Contractor Foreman | $105 | Annual billing |
| QuickBooks Online Plus | $140 | If you don't already pay for it |
| JobTread | $240 | Plus training time |
| Knowify Advanced | $330+ | Core doesn't cost jobs |
Which one, by situation
- Costs arrive as field receipts, some in Spanish, from people who won't install accounting software. Obra. That's the case it was built for, and it's the most common shape of small contractor there is.
- You work alone, on your phone, and want free. Obra's free plan covers one active project with the same capture and forecast as Pro, which is enough for most solo operators; RenoJira if you need several jobs open at once for free.
- A bookkeeper runs QuickBooks and the goal is faster coded receipts. Ontraq is built around that sync. If you also want to know what each job will cost before it's closed, Obra's exports give the bookkeeper the same coded lines without a live connection.
- You need estimates, schedules, AIA billing and job costs in one place, and can afford the setup. Contractor Foreman for price, JobTread for the budget-first workflow, Knowify if AIA forms are your life. Many crews run one of those for the schedule and Obra for the money, because the suite's job-cost view only works if the receipts get into it.
- One disciplined person already tags every transaction in QuickBooks Plus. Stay there for now, and read the QuickBooks guide before adding anything; the day a second buyer shows up, that discipline breaks, and Obra is the cheapest fix.
Questions people ask
What is a job costing app? Software that keeps each job's money separate: what it was sold for, what it has cost, what's been collected, and the margin left. Accounting software tells you how the business did; job costing tells you which jobs did it.
Is a free job costing app good enough? For one person logging their own receipts, often yes. The moment a second person buys materials, the free apps stop being free, because they cost you the receipts that never make it in.
Can I use one of these with QuickBooks? All of them either sync with QuickBooks Online or export CSVs for it. The useful question is whether the sync creates double entry with your bookkeeper's workflow; ask them before you pick.
Do I need this or a spreadsheet? Run the job cost and profit calculator on your last three jobs. If you can't fill it in from records you already have, you need a capture loop, not a better sheet.
Get the template
Not ready for any of them? The free job costing spreadsheet below has one sheet per job, costs and payments kept honestly separate, and a category column ready for a short code list. Enter your email and the download starts right away.