Bobyard vs PixelTakeoff
Bobyard is browser-based AI takeoff that automates a first pass across the sheet and leaves the estimator to verify it. PixelTakeoff is a native desktop app whose deterministic engine does the measuring, with an optional AI agent that drives those tools rather than replacing them. Same goal, genuinely different architecture.
About this page
We make PixelTakeoff, so read this the way you would read any vendor's comparison. What we can promise is sourcing: every claim about Bobyard comes from their own site or documentation, linked at the bottom, and checked on 19 September 2026. Where they are better, the page says so.
Found something out of date? Tell us at support@pixeltakeoff.com and we will correct it.
Side by side
| Criterion | PixelTakeoff This product | Bobyard |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Native desktop app on Windows and macOS, Apple Silicon included. | Browser-based. Runs on Mac, Windows and tablets with nothing to install. |
| Where your drawings live | On your machine. Rendering, measuring and exporting run locally, and plan files are not uploaded. | Uploaded to their cloud, where the AI processes them. |
| Price | $1,099 per seat per year, published. Discounts and offers run through the year, including at renewal. | Not published. The site leads to a booked demo. |
| Free trial | 14 days, full features, no credit card. | No self-serve trial advertised. The call to action is to book a demo. |
| What the AI does | Operates the tools. An agent decides where to click; the engine measures and returns the number. | Produces the first pass. It detects and groups quantities across the sheet and keeps the estimator in the verification loop. |
| Area, linear and count | One click inside an area, one click on a run, one symbol to find the rest. You choose what to measure and the engine does it exactly. | Detected across the whole sheet in the first pass, grouped, and handed to the estimator to verify. |
| Repeatability | A deterministic engine measures. The same click returns the same number every run. | Model output, reviewed by the estimator. |
| Works with your own AI account | Yes. Connect Claude or Codex to the local MCP endpoint. Off by default. | The AI is the product and is not swappable. |
| Estimating | Takeoff today, with quantities exporting to Excel with formulas intact. A full estimating module is in build and is included in the same seat at no extra cost, laid out the way Candy users already work. | Takeoff, estimating and material pricing already in one platform. |
| Exports | Annotated PDF, Excel with formulas preserved, CSV. | Export from the platform. |
Advantage, PixelTakeoff Advantage, Bobyard No rule · no meaningful difference
In one line. Both put AI in front of the takeoff and disagree about what it is for. Bobyard has it produce the quantities, which leaves you to verify them. PixelTakeoff has it operate the instrument that produces them, so what is left to check is where it clicked.
Three clicks, not three hundred
Almost every takeoff is the same three jobs repeated: an area, a run, a symbol counted. This is where the time goes, so this is where Bobyard and PixelTakeoff differ most.
One click inside it.
Click inside a paved area, a planting bed or a roof plane and the boundary is found for you, curves and all. Nothing to trace, no vertices to chase, and the more awkward the shape the more that matters.
One click on the run.
Click a kerb, an edge, a fence or a pipe run and it is followed end to end. Dashed and dotted lines are joined across their gaps rather than measured piece by piece.
One symbol, then all of them.
Point at a single tree, light fitting or fixture and every other instance on the sheet is found and tallied, rotated and mirrored copies included. You check the result instead of clicking it out.
The mode that makes a dense sheet behave
A busy drawing is where takeoff tools normally give up and hand the work back to you. Hueprint view makes the sheet legible to the tools, so a fill stops where the material stops instead of bleeding into whatever is drawn beside it. Turn it on and the one-click measuring above keeps working on exactly the sheets that used to need tracing.
Built on our proprietary, patent-pending colour-separation technology.
Estimating, in a format you already know
Items, cost libraries, markups, quotes, revisions and bid analysis, laid out the way Candy users already work, so the learning curve is mostly recognition. It is in build now and lands inside the same $1,099 seat at no extra cost, not as a second licence or a higher tier.
What Bobyard is genuinely good at
No comparison is worth reading if the other product is a straw man. These are real reasons estimators buy it.
Nothing to install
It opens in a browser on any machine, including a tablet on site. If you have estimators on mixed hardware or subcontract the work out, that removes a real logistical problem.
It is straight about the review loop
Bobyard says plainly that the estimator stays in the verification loop, and that its time savings depend on drawing quality and on your review process. Plenty of AI tools bury that. Take the disclosure seriously, though, because it is where the arithmetic of the whole category is decided.
One platform, shipping today
Quantities, material pricing and estimating in one place, working now. We are headed to the same place and ours is in build, included in the same seat at no extra cost, so treat this as a question of timing rather than of direction.
Where PixelTakeoff takes a different line
ARCHITECTURE
The engine measures, the agent only clicks
This is the whole difference. In PixelTakeoff every number comes from the same deterministic engine you would drive by hand, so the same click returns the same figure every run and an agent cannot quietly round, average or invent one. What the agent decides is where to click, and its work lands on your canvas marked for review.
THE MATHS
A first pass you have to re-check is not a saving
This is the question to ask any AI takeoff tool, ours included. If a model measures the whole sheet, every quantity is unverified until you have checked it, and checking a number you did not produce means re-measuring it to know. Sheet-wide review can quietly consume the time the first pass saved, which is why the claim is always time saved before review. Here the engine measures, so review is a different and much shorter job: you check where it measured, not whether each figure is right. Placement is something you can eyeball; arithmetic across a full sheet is not.
PRIVACY
Your drawings stay on your machine
Browser-based AI means the plan set is uploaded to be processed. PixelTakeoff renders, measures and exports locally, and plan files are not uploaded. If you connect an agent, only the crops it asks for go to your model provider, and never to us.
CONTROL
Your AI account, your choice of model
The agent is Claude or Codex on your own subscription, not a model we chose for you. When a better one lands you point the endpoint at it, and if you want none of this, it is off by default and the app is fully usable without it.
TRIAL
You can try it today
Fourteen days, full features, no card and no call. Run your most awkward sheet through it this afternoon rather than waiting on a calendar invite.
So which should you buy?
Buy Bobyard if
- You want the AI to produce the first pass rather than operate the tools.
- Your estimators are on mixed hardware and you want nothing installed.
- You need takeoff, material pricing and estimating in one platform this month.
Buy PixelTakeoff if
- Your drawings cannot be uploaded to a third-party cloud.
- You need the same click to return the same number, every run.
- You want to use your own Claude or Codex account, or no AI at all.
- You want to start this afternoon without booking a demo, at a price you can read off the page.
Bobyard,
answered.
Is PixelTakeoff an AI takeoff tool?
It is a measurement engine with an optional AI agent on top. The engine does every measurement, deterministically. The agent decides where to point it, and everything it does arrives on your canvas marked as work in progress for you to accept or fix. It is off until you turn it on.
Do my drawings get uploaded?
Plan files are not uploaded. Rendering, measuring and exporting run on your machine, and only a kilobyte-scale licence check and a few smart assists talk to our server. If you connect the AI agent, the crops it requests go to your model provider, not to us.
Which is more accurate?
The more useful question is what the review costs. Any model-produced quantity is unverified until an estimator checks it, and Bobyard says as much: its time savings depend on drawing quality and your review process. PixelTakeoff moves the AI off the measurement entirely. A number comes from the deterministic engine or it does not exist, so the review is checking where it measured, not whether each figure is right, and that is a far shorter job.
Does an AI first pass actually save time?
It depends entirely on what the review costs, and that is the part to test rather than take on trust. Run one of your own awkward sheets through any tool you are considering and time the whole job, review included, against measuring it yourself. A first pass that is quick to produce and slow to trust is not a saving, and no vendor, us included, can answer that for your drawings.
Can I use PixelTakeoff without any AI?
Yes, and most people do. The agent endpoint ships off. Every tool it drives is one you can drive yourself, which is rather the point.
Sources · checked 19 September 2026
Bobyard is a trademark of its owner. PixelTakeoff is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Bobyard. Candy is a trademark of its owner and PixelTakeoff is not affiliated with it; the estimating module is described as familiar in layout, not as file-compatible. Product details change: check current terms with the vendor before you buy.
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PixelTakeoff is already in daily use at some of the top landscape firms. Tell us where to reach you. No credit card, no sales call. We email your trial key and installer, and you're estimating the same evening.
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