Free Estimate Generator That Gets Signed On The Spot

Why do estimates go quiet?

Sometimes you lost on price. Often the customer never read it. A Jobber customer wrote in a public review that "over 60% of my estimates aren't even viewed by clients. The emails are sent from a generic Jobber domain (jobbermail.com), which most clients ignore." That's one contractor's experience, not a study — but the mechanism is real and it applies to every platform that sends your documents from its own domain instead of yours. A PDF you text or email from your own address, with your name in the sender field, doesn't have that problem.

The other failure is upstream of the email. CompanyCam mapped three chokepoints that stall contractor payment, and every one of them starts at the estimate: unclear scope, so the customer disputes a line and freezes the whole thing; undocumented change orders, because nobody defined what the original scope was; and disputed completion, because "done" was never written down. Their line is the one to remember: "Faster invoicing software cannot resolve a scope disagreement."

Which is why the "Not Included" box on this estimate is not an afterthought. It's the section that pays for itself. "Drywall repair not included. Paint not included. Existing shutoff valves assumed serviceable; replacement quoted separately if seized." Three lines, written before the job, that turn a fight into a change order.

What do estimating tools charge in 2026?

Sources: vendor pricing pages and Capterra listings compiled August 2026; DocuSign tier structure via PandaDoc's published competitor comparison (bias noted); Jobber's July 2026 increase from its own pricing page. Verify before you buy.

Notice what's behind the paywall in every one of those. Signatures. Photos. Three-option pricing. Document history. Those are the four things that actually help you close a job in a driveway, and they are the four things the free tiers remove. All four are in the tool above.

What this free estimate generator does

• Scope and exclusions, with a realistic worked example for ten trades you can drop in and edit.
• Good, better and best pricing. Three real options with their own inclusion lists and prices, one marked as recommended.
• A signature pad. Sign with a finger on a phone or a mouse on a laptop, or type the name if the customer prefers. It prints on the PDF.
• Job photos. Attach shots of the failed part, the leak, the rot. They're resized in your browser and embedded in the printed document.
• Deposits in dollars or percent, with the balance on completion computed for you.
• A valid-until date from 7 to 90 days so a price from March doesn't have to be honored in July.
• Per-line sales tax, because materials and labor aren't taxed the same way in a lot of states.
• Printed-section toggles. Turn off the sections you don't want on this particular estimate without deleting the content.
• Saved drafts and a price book shared with the invoice tool, plus CSV export of the estimate log and a JSON backup.
• Convert to invoice in one click when the job's done.

Is this enough for your shop?

If you're one to three people, you quote from the truck or the kitchen table, and you send documents yourself by text or email, this covers it. Under roughly 40 estimates a month, one person doing the quoting, no crew that needs to see the same pipeline — there's nothing you're missing here that a $49-a-month subscription would give you.

Where it stops: if you have two estimators and need one shared list of open quotes, you need software with a server. If quote follow-up is your biggest leak and you want an automatic nudge going out on day 4 while you're on a roof, buy that. If you're bidding commercial work that requires assemblies, takeoffs and unit-cost databases, this is the wrong tool entirely. And if the contract value is large enough that you'd want to prove in court exactly who signed and when, use a real e-signature platform — DocuSign's audit trail is the actual product you're paying for, not the signature image.

How do you use it?

1. Fill the header. Business name, phone, license number, logo. Tick "Remember my business info on this device" and it's there next time.
2. Pick your trade and hit "Use this example." You get a realistic scope, a realistic exclusions list and sensible terms for that trade. Edit it to the actual job — the example is a starting point, not a template to send as-is.
3. Write what's not included. Spend more time here than feels natural. Every line in that box is an argument you don't have in week three.
4. Price it. Line items for a single price, or turn on the three-option section and give them good, better and best. Set your deposit as a percentage or a dollar amount.
5. Add photos. Two or three. The failed part, the access problem, the thing they can't see from where they're standing.
6. Get it signed. Hand them the phone. A finger works. Or type the name and date it.
7. Save the draft, print the PDF, and when the job's done, hit Convert to invoice.

What belongs on a contractor estimate?

• Your legal business name, license number and contact details. Several states require the license number on written proposals; all of them make the document look more serious.
• An estimate number and date. When you're chasing an approval six weeks later, "estimate E-1044 dated June 12" beats "the one I sent you."
• A valid-until date. Non-negotiable if any part of the job is a commodity.
• The customer's name and the job address, which on rentals and property management are two different things.
• Scope in plain sentences. Brand, model, quantity, finish. "Install owner-supplied Kohler K-4007 toilet" and "install standard-height elongated toilet, model TBD" are different jobs and different prices.
• An explicit exclusions list. See below.
• Priced line items, or three priced options.
• Deposit and payment terms, including when the balance is due and what the late fee is.
• A change-order sentence: anything added to this scope gets priced and approved in writing before it's done.
• A signature line with a date.

Estimate, quote, or bid — does the word matter?

In everyday trade use: an estimate is an informed approximation that can move if conditions change. A quote is a fixed price you're committing to. A bid is a quote submitted in competition for a defined project, usually against a spec someone else wrote. A proposal is a quote plus the sales case for why you.

Customers don't know these definitions and courts care more about what the document says than what it's called. So say it explicitly. If the number is firm, write "fixed price for the scope described above." If it can move, write exactly what would move it: "price assumes existing 3/4in supply lines are copper and serviceable; if PEX or galvanized is found behind the wall, work stops and a change order is issued." That single sentence has saved more contractors more money than any pricing software ever built.

How do you price good, better and best?

Three-option pricing changes the customer's question from "should I do this?" to "which one?" That's the whole mechanic. It also gives a price-sensitive buyer somewhere to go that isn't your competitor's phone number.

A structure that works in most trades:

• Good — fixes the problem. Standard parts, standard warranty, nothing extra. This is your honest floor, not a trap.
• Better — fixes the problem and the thing that caused it. Better parts, longer warranty, the adjacent item that's going to fail next year anyway. Mark this one recommended.
• Best — the version you'd do at your own house. Premium equipment, extended labor warranty, a maintenance visit included.

Two rules. First, all three have to be real, deliverable scopes you'd be happy to sell. A padded fake tier built to make the middle look reasonable gets seen through, and when it does you lose the whole job, not just the tier. Second, the differences have to be describable in one line each. If a customer can't tell you the difference between Better and Best in their own words, you built three versions of the same thing.

The exclusions list is where your margin lives

Most contractors write two sentences of scope and no exclusions. Then the customer assumes the price includes hauling the old unit, patching the drywall, painting the patch, and moving the washing machine. You eat all four because arguing over $180 isn't worth losing a review.

Write the exclusions. Common ones worth having on file for your trade:

• Permits and inspection fees, if you're passing them through
• Drywall repair, patching, texture and paint after any cut
• Anything discovered behind a wall, under a slab, or in an attic that wasn't visible at the walkthrough
• Asbestos, lead, or mold remediation — always excluded, always referred out
• Code upgrades triggered by the work but not part of the work
• Landscaping, sod and irrigation repair after excavation
• Customer-supplied materials and their warranty
• Removal and disposal, if it's not in the price
• Work outside normal hours, and standby time caused by someone else

Nine lines. Each one is a real argument that costs somebody real money every week.

Valid-until dates and moving material prices

A price you gave in March is not a price you owe in July. The valid-until date is what makes that fair instead of shady — the customer had a window, the window closed, here's a current number. Thirty days is the standard default and it's what this tool sets. Shorten it when a commodity is most of the job: copper, lumber, shingles, steel, anything on a tariff schedule.

For longer jobs, don't rely on the valid-until date alone. Put a materials price-escalation clause in the contract, not the estimate: if a named material rises more than a stated percentage between signing and purchase, the increase passes through with documentation. The free contract generator has that clause built in with an adjustable threshold. Contractors who don't have that clause eat mid-job increases, and mid-job increases are one of the most reliably painful conversations in the trades.

Deposits, and why "50%" isn't always right

The deposit exists so you're not financing someone else's job on your own credit card. Size it to the material buy, not to a habit. If a $6,000 job has $3,400 of equipment sitting on your account for two weeks, a 50% deposit is barely covering the parts. If a $6,000 job is almost all labor, 50% up front is more than you need and it makes cautious customers nervous.

Worked example. Total $6,480, deposit 40%. Deposit is $6,480 × 0.40 = $2,592.00. Balance on completion is $6,480 − $2,592 = $3,888.00. Type 40 into the deposit box with % selected and both numbers print on the estimate, so there's no arithmetic to argue about later. Some states cap deposits on home improvement contracts — check yours before you standardize on a number.

What a signature on this document actually means

A signed estimate is meaningfully better than a verbal yes. It shows agreement to a specific scope, a specific exclusions list and a specific price, on a specific date. In a small-claims dispute, that's most of what you need.

What it isn't: an ESIGN or UETA audit trail. A signature that holds up under those rules involves verifying who the signer is, sealing the document so tampering is detectable, and issuing a certificate of completion recording the IP address, timestamps and consent. That's what DocuSign's $10-a-month Personal plan is really selling — and it caps you at 100 envelopes a year with $3–$8 per envelope after that. If a job is big enough that you'd want that record, buy it for that job. For a $900 water heater swap signed in a driveway, a signature on the PDF and a photo of the customer holding it is proportionate.

How to follow up without being annoying

Most contractors send an estimate and wait. The ones who close more send it, then follow a simple pattern: a text the same afternoon confirming it arrived, a call after 3 business days, and one final message a few days before the valid-until date noting that the price expires. Three touches, all short, all useful to the customer.

Keep the tone flat. "Hi Dana — sending this to confirm the estimate came through, and that the price holds until September 7. Happy to walk through the options if it's helpful." Nobody has ever lost a job by being clear.

Common questions