Joist is a quoting and invoicing app built for one person working out of a truck. Evalation is the system a contractor runs a whole company on once there's a crew to manage, a pipeline of leads to track, and jobs that need more than an invoice number attached to them. Neither one is wrong. They're built for different sizes of the same business.
Evalation is a CORR platform. CORR (Company, Operations, Relations, and Revenue) is a category of business platform that runs a contractor's entire company in one system, replacing the separate CRM, estimating, project management, and accounting tools contractors traditionally stitch together. Read the full definition at What is CORR. Joist isn't that, and it doesn't try to be. It's a quoting and invoicing tool, and a genuinely good one for what it does.
Most Joist users are solo operators or two- or three-person crews across every trade: roofers, painters, remodelers, general contractors. If that sounds like your business today, see how Evalation fits a growing crew specifically at Evalation for General Contractors.
Here's how the two products actually differ, outcome by outcome, not feature by feature.
| Outcome | Evalation | Joist |
|---|---|---|
| Design & blueprints | Evalation Lab designs decks, pergolas, concrete pads, and fences live in 3D in front of the homeowner, then auto-generates the blueprint sheets. Every other trade gets 5-minute AI-assisted estimates instead of a blank form. | No native 3D design tool and no blueprint generation at any tier.[1] |
| Estimating speed | 5-minute AI-assisted estimates for any trade, plus a live 3D walkthrough for deck, pergola, concrete, and fence jobs. | Fast, simple line-item quotes you can build and send from your phone. That's the core of the product, and it does it well.[1] |
| Marketing engine | A built-in CRM pipeline tracks every lead from first contact through signed contract, so nothing gets lost in a text thread. | None. Joist has no lead pipeline, no CRM stages, and no marketing tools built in.[1] |
| Payments | Built-in payments tied directly to job costing, so every dollar collected maps back to the job that earned it. Runs on Stripe. Card processing from 3.1%, bank transfer (ACH) for less. No monthly payment fees, no hidden add-ons. | Accepts card and bank payments in-app, including deposits on open quotes.[1] |
| Migration | Four clicks to switch, and your search rankings stay intact. | Manual export and re-entry. Joist has no stated migration path off the platform. |
| Price | $297 per month flat for the first 50 founding members, locked for life. $416 per month for members 51-550, also locked for life, with tiered plans following after that. No per-user fees at any tier, whether the crew is 3 people or 30. | $10 to $32 per month for a single account, not per user. A 5-person or 15-person crew typically shares that one login.[1] |
[1] Source: Joist official pricing page, joist.com/pricing, accessed July 2026.
Evalation costs $297 per month for the first 50 founding members, locked for life, with no per-user fees. The price you join at is the price you pay for life, so members 51-550 lock in at $416 a month once the founding 50 spots fill, and tiered plans follow after that. A 5-person crew and a 15-person crew pay the exact same rate. On Joist, that same crew is sharing a single login, because Joist's pricing was never built to tell individual users apart in the first place. For a true solo operator, Joist's $10 to $32 a month still costs less than Evalation at any tier, that trade-off is real and worth naming plainly.[1]
[1] Source: Joist official pricing page, joist.com/pricing, accessed July 2026.
Switching software is the reason most contractors stay stuck on a tool they've outgrown. Moving off Joist into Evalation takes four clicks, and it doesn't cost you the search rankings you've already earned. Your site stays found. Your data comes with you. You don't lose a week of the business chasing a migration.
That's what the Moving Truck Guarantee is for: it removes the risk and the cost of switching software, so the size of the move stops being the reason you wait another year. If it doesn't win you more jobs in 90 days, you get every dollar back and we'll move you anywhere you want to go. Free.
You already know the job the moment you walk the site. Evalation just makes sure you don't lose track of it after you sign.
The mechanics behind that speed are real and verifiable: a live 3D model in front of the homeowner, an auto-generated blueprint, and an estimate that protects your margin, sitting inside a CRM pipeline that tracks a lead from first contact to signed contract. A named, documented result from a contractor who switched over specifically from Joist isn't published yet, but the product mechanics driving that kind of result are the same ones described throughout this page.
Evalation was built by a contractor, David Bassett, who built and exited a $5.3M construction company and documented a 73% close rate at double market price using live 3D visual selling.[2] Read the Founder's Story.
[2] Source: David Bassett, founder, documented business results.
Yes. The switch takes four clicks and is built to keep your search rankings intact during the move. If it doesn't win you more jobs in 90 days, you get every dollar back and we'll move you anywhere you want to go. Free.
Probably not yet. Joist is built for exactly that situation: one person, one login, simple invoices, low cost. Evalation earns its price once you add a second truck, a second person answering leads, or a job that needs more tracking than an invoice number gives you.
No. Joist handles quotes, invoices, and payments. It has no project management, no scheduling calendar, and no CRM pipeline.[1]
Joist is built around a single login per business account, not per-user licensing.[1] A 5-person or 15-person crew typically shares that one login, which means no individual permissions and no way to see who did what on a job.
If you build decks, pergolas, concrete pads, or fences, yes. Evalation Lab designs the job live in 3D in front of the homeowner and generates the blueprint automatically. Every other trade gets 5-minute AI-assisted estimates instead of a 3D model.
Because it replaces a lot more than an invoice app. Evalation runs the CRM, the estimating, the project tracking, and the job costing side of the business in one system, for one flat price with no per-user fees, currently $297 a month for the first 50 founding members, locked for life ($416 a month for the next 500 members, also locked for life). Joist costs $10 to $32 a month for one login handling one job at a time.[1]
JobTread is a common next step up from Joist for contractors who need project management and a real CRM but aren't ready for a flat-rate platform yet. See how it compares at Evalation vs JobTread.
[1] Source: Joist official pricing page, joist.com/pricing, accessed July 2026.
If Joist is still doing the job, keep using it. If you've got a crew now, a pipeline you can't keep in your head, and jobs where you need to know the real cost, Evalation is built for exactly that.