InstaBid is estimating and closing software for small residential contractors: the owner-operator with one to ten on the crew who still writes his own bids at night.
The contractor describes the job three ways, all priced by the same engine:
- The web form: a short embed on his own site. The homeowner answers plain questions and gets an itemized bid with a branded PDF.
- InstaBid 411: call the job in from the truck, say it out loud, and the estimate builds itself in his account.
- InstaBid Live: a video walk where the AI asks what a general contractor would ask, counts fixtures and prices the job in the call.
From scope to a sent, itemized estimate takes about two minutes. The engine returns cost, not a sell price. The markup is the contractor's, every line is editable, and his edit wins from then on. By default nothing reaches the customer until he taps send.
The catalog holds 25,533 hand-walked prices across 11 trades, with state-level regional pricing. When a material price moves more than 10%, the engine holds it for the contractor's ruling instead of quietly billing it.
The close is in the same flow: itemized proposal, contract, before/after render, Stripe card deposit and a start date on his calendar. Change orders, automatic follow-ups on quiet bids and subcontractor bid collection are built in. It plugs into ABC Supply and Ferguson accounts, QuickBooks, Slack, HubSpot, ServiceTitan, Zapier and Make. The full Spanish journey runs from signup to estimate, PDF and email.
Pricing: Solo $99/mo (one trade), Crew $249/mo (three trades), Shop $499/mo (every trade, plus InstaBid 411 and InstaBid Live). 10-day free trial, no card.
Built by John Dudley, a 30-year general contractor and co-host of the syndicated home-improvement radio show Around the House.
