Houzz Pro vs Buildertrend

Houzz Pro and Buildertrend overlap more than they differ. Both take a residential job from lead to final payment: estimates and takeoffs, selections, schedules, daily logs, change orders, a client portal, invoicing and online payments, with apps for iOS and Android and an integration with QuickBooks.

Where they part ways is how you buy them and where your work comes from. Houzz Pro shows you a price and sits next to a marketplace of homeowners. Buildertrend quotes every customer, and its tools center on running the jobs you’ve won.

A price list against a phone call

Houzz lists Pro at $199 a month for one user and Teams at $399 a month and up with five users included. Extra users on either plan are $50 a month each, and Enterprise, with unlimited users, has no listed price. There is also a free plan with a 3D floor planner, estimates and invoicing that needs no credit card, and a 30-day free trial. Houzz’s FAQ says the annual subscription begins when the trial ends, so read that before you start one.

Buildertrend lists no prices at all. You answer a few questions about your business and book a call, and the company says the quote reflects your builder type, annual revenue and specific needs. Every plan includes every feature, users and projects are unlimited, and the FAQ says plainly that there is no free trial. You get a personalized demo instead.

That unlimited-users line is worth doing the math on. On Houzz’s listed prices, a team of eight on Teams is $399 plus three extra users at $50, or $549 a month before any add-ons. Buildertrend’s number won’t change as you add people. Get its quote in writing, then price the same team on Houzz Pro.

Who each one is for

Buildertrend is direct about its customer. Its pricing page says it is built for builders who run five or more projects a year or handle complex, multi-phase builds, and its FAQ names custom, semi-custom and luxury home builders and remodelers as its primary users. It also has pages for commercial general contractors and specialty contractors.

Houzz pitches Pro at new businesses and solo pros and Teams at growing teams, and says it serves the home remodeling and design industry, from new construction and remodeling to interior design and architecture. If you’re a remodeler doing a handful of jobs a year, or a designer, you’re closer to Houzz’s customer. If you run several builds at once with an office behind you, you’re closer to Buildertrend’s.

Finding work, or running it

This is the difference I’d weigh most. Houzz Pro comes from the company that runs Houzz’s site for homeowners, and it sells advertising there. The Advertising Package starts at $499 a month and puts your business in Houzz search results, targeted by area, service, project type and budget. Teams adds a premium profile, a custom website and email marketing.

Buildertrend’s sales tools, as it describes them, are for working the leads you already have: a CRM for capturing and tracking leads, scheduled email drips, digital proposals that clients sign online, and a lead contact form that feeds the CRM. It also connects to HubSpot, Salesforce and Pipedrive.

If Houzz already sends you work, that may settle it. If your jobs come by referral and repeat clients, the advertising is a cost you can leave off.

The design desk against the back office

Houzz Pro puts more into designing and selling the project. It lists 3D floor plans made from 2D drawings, AR tours, a room scanner in its mobile app, selections and mood boards, and homeowner financing through Figure, GreenSky and Affirm. Its budget tool compares costs against the estimate, and invoices can be split into installments.

Buildertrend puts more into the money once the job is running. It lists job costing, WIP reporting and Bill Pay, payments by ACH, card, Apple Pay and Google Pay in the US, and integrations with QuickBooks, Xero, Sage Intacct and Gusto. Houzz describes its QuickBooks Online link as a one-way sync.

A simple way to choose: think about who will live in the software every day. If it’s the designer and the salesperson, Houzz Pro’s list fits. If it’s the bookkeeper and the project manager, Buildertrend’s does.

The AI

Houzz names a lot of AI. It says its assistant, Houzz AI, drafts estimates from a voice or text prompt, counts symbols for takeoffs, turns estimates into schedules and 2D plans into 3D models, writes daily logs from spoken site notes and drafts weekly client updates. Pro is “enhanced with Houzz AI,” and Teams unlocks every AI feature, including note-taking for calls and meetings.

Buildertrend lists five AI features and says they are built in, not sold separately: Client Updates, Bill Capture, Page Naming for plan sets, Selections from a supplier URL, and Submittals, which scans specifications and plan sets.

Houzz’s AI is aimed at design and estimating, and Buildertrend’s at paperwork. I wouldn’t pick either for its AI alone. Ask for a demo of the one feature you’d use every week, run on your own documents.

Where I’d start

Houzz Pro if you’re a remodeler, designer or smaller builder who wants to see a price, start free or on a trial, keep design tools in the same product and have the option of buying homeowner leads. Buildertrend if you run five or more projects a year, want unlimited users and stronger financial tools, and are ready to buy through a demo and a quote.