On-Screen Takeoff vs PixelTakeoff
On-Screen Takeoff is the incumbent multi-trade takeoff package from ConstructConnect, built around conditions and bid workflow, and paired with Quick Bid for pricing. PixelTakeoff is a native Windows and macOS takeoff app built around a measurement engine you can also drive with an AI agent. Here is how they actually differ.
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 On-Screen Takeoff comes from ConstructConnect's 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Found something out of date?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 | On-Screen Takeoff ConstructConnect |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Native desktop app on Windows and macOS, Apple Silicon included. | Windows only. ConstructConnect states none of its desktop products install directly on macOS. |
| Price | $1,099 per seat per year, published. Discounts and offers run through the year, including at renewal. | Not published. ConstructConnect states pricing varies by licensing option and directs you to contact sales. |
| Licensing | Annual subscription per seat. | Moving off perpetual licences to annual subscription, with existing perpetual holders migrating during 2026. |
| Free trial | 14 days, full features, no credit card. | 14 days. |
| Where your drawings live | On your machine. Rendering, measuring and exporting run locally, and plan files are not uploaded. | On your machine. It is a desktop application too. |
| Measuring an area | Click once inside it. The engine finds the boundary itself, curves and all, and returns the quantity. | Draw the condition over it. Takeoff Boost automates some measurements and identifies wall types; curved and irregular boundaries are drawn. |
| Measuring a run | Click the run once and it is followed end to end, dashed and dotted lines included. | Draw the run as a linear condition. |
| Counting symbols | Point at one symbol and every other instance on the sheet is found and tallied. | Auto Count scans the bitmap for repeated objects. |
| Other automation | Duplicate a region to reuse its material, colour and depth elsewhere. Colour separation for busy sheets, hole filling, boundary adjust, zone partitions. | Takeoff Boost, plus a patented Multi-Condition Takeoff that draws several conditions in one pass. |
| 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. | Priced through Quick Bid, licensed separately from On-Screen Takeoff. |
| Organising the takeoff | Layer Manager. Layers and groups you name as you go, with saved layers kept separate from work in progress. | Conditions, set up before you measure and carried through the bid. |
| Bid workflow | Takeoff and quantities, with estimating joining the same seat when it ships. | Conditions, bid organisation and a direct path into Quick Bid. Built for multi-trade bid management. |
| Drive it with an AI agent | Yes. A local MCP endpoint lets Claude or Codex drive the real tools. Off by default. | No published agent interface. |
| Exports | Annotated PDF, Excel with formulas preserved, CSV. | Excel and PDF, plus the ConstructConnect toolchain. |
Advantage, PixelTakeoff Advantage, On-Screen Takeoff No rule · no meaningful difference
In one line. OST buys you a conditions-driven bid workflow that large multi-trade contractors have run for years. PixelTakeoff buys you the measuring: click inside an area instead of drawing a condition around it, follow a run instead of tracing it, find every symbol instead of tapping each one, and still get a number you can check.
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 On-Screen Takeoff 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 On-Screen Takeoff is genuinely good at
No comparison is worth reading if the other product is a straw man. These are real reasons estimators buy it.
A support organisation behind it
ConstructConnect runs a public knowledge base and user community for OST and a support desk behind them. When a bid is due at four and something breaks, an established place to call is worth more than any feature list, and a small vendor has to earn that over years.
A complete bid pipeline
Takeoff flows into Quick Bid and the wider ConstructConnect toolchain, including plan rooms and bid boards. If you buy the pipeline rather than the measuring tool, that is a real advantage.
Two decades of process built around it
Condition libraries, naming conventions and handover rules that a company has refined over years live inside OST, and they represent real work. Rebuilding that elsewhere costs something, and we would rather say so than pretend switching is free.
Where PixelTakeoff takes a different line
SPEED
One click, not a drawn condition
A condition has to be drawn around what you are measuring. Here you click inside it once and the engine finds the boundary, curves included. The gap grows with the drawing: the more irregular the shape, the more clicks it costs to draw and the less difference it makes to us. Runs are followed rather than drawn, and symbols are found rather than tapped one at a time.
TRUST
Automatic and checkable are not opposites
The speed comes from a deterministic engine, not a model guessing. The same click returns the same number on every run, every region stays on the canvas for you to inspect, adjust or delete, and nothing is averaged or rounded behind your back. You are reviewing where it measured, never whether it measured.
PLATFORM
It runs on your Mac
ConstructConnect is explicit that none of its desktop products install directly on macOS. PixelTakeoff ships a native macOS build alongside Windows, Apple Silicon included, so a Mac estimator is not stuck maintaining a virtual machine.
PRICING
One number, on the website
OST pricing is not published and varies by licensing option, so you book a call before you know whether it is in budget, and pricing for the estimating half lives behind a second product. Ours is $1,099 per seat per year, written down, with the estimating module included in that seat when it ships. Discounts and offers run through the year, including at renewal.
AI
An agent can drive the real tools
PixelTakeoff exposes its tools over a local MCP endpoint, so Claude or Codex can run the takeoff while you review what it did on your canvas. The agent never invents a number: the engine measures, the agent only decides where to click.
SETUP
Organising is the small half of the day
Both tools organise a takeoff: conditions there, the Layer Manager here, with layers and groups you name as you go and saved work kept apart from work in progress. The difference is when and how much. Conditions are set up before a single quantity exists, and however good that structure is, it is a fraction of the hours a bid costs you. The measuring is the rest, which is why the rows above matter more than this one.
So which should you buy?
Buy On-Screen Takeoff if
- You run large multi-trade bids where conditions are the organising idea, not just a way to measure.
- You already use Quick Bid or the wider ConstructConnect toolchain and buy the pipeline, not the takeoff.
- You have years of condition libraries you are not willing to rebuild this bid season.
Buy PixelTakeoff if
- You measure a lot of irregular areas, long runs or repeated symbols, which is most site and landscape work.
- You want the automation without giving up a number you can check.
- Anyone on your team estimates from a Mac.
- You want one published number rather than a quote, and estimating in the same seat rather than a second licence.
- You would rather set a scale and measure than configure conditions first.
On-Screen Takeoff,
answered.
Does On-Screen Takeoff run on a Mac?
No. ConstructConnect states that none of its desktop products can be installed directly on macOS. Some users run it in a virtual machine on Intel Macs, which is not supported. PixelTakeoff ships a native macOS build alongside Windows.
How much does On-Screen Takeoff cost?
ConstructConnect does not publish a price, stating that it varies by licensing option, so you contact them for a quote. PixelTakeoff pricing is shared with you before your free trial ends, and the trial needs no card.
Is On-Screen Takeoff still sold as a perpetual licence?
It is moving to annual subscription. ConstructConnect has been migrating perpetual licence holders to subscription licensing during 2026. Check the current terms with them before you buy.
Can PixelTakeoff replace OST for a multi-trade contractor?
For the measuring, yes. For bid management, be honest with yourself about what you use: if your process is built on conditions flowing into Quick Bid, OST is doing more than takeoff for you and a takeoff-first tool is not a like-for-like swap.
Sources · checked 19 September 2026
- ConstructConnect: On-Screen Takeoff product page
- ConstructConnect support: running takeoff applications on Apple hardware
On-Screen Takeoff and Quick Bid are trademarks of ConstructConnect. PixelTakeoff is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by ConstructConnect. 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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