Estimate vs. Cyrious???

[Ink Splash Graphics]

I too have been looking at sign pricing software...so far I have been happy with the Estimate program trial, I am unsure if I should just buy the Professional version and a few plugins or just go with the monthly freedom plan for $50/mo allowing you access to all plugins and then use Quickbooks for my billing side which it will allow you to export estimates over for billing etc. This option allows for unlimited upgrades as they are available as well as unlimited support and no contract so to speak... Can stop using it at will if needed.

 

[Gene@mpls]

They are pretty accommodating as far as payment plans- I signed up for a
monthly withdrawal from the credit card and before I thought of it it was
paid off. I hate renting anything. I have to admit that the support plan is
worth something- occasionally you will have a question/problem and their
forum has degenerated into almost no help. When I first bought last year
the forums were helpful but I think (unfortunately) they revised their support
policy in order to offer 'paid' support- so I think most of us are just limping
along and doing the best we can. I understand that telephone support is
expensive but there should be some sort of non emergency support available.

 

[jmcnicoll]

I have looked pretty hard at both estimate and cyrious. If I was a one man show or with just a couple employees I would go with estimate. It looks like a great estimating tool, but pretty much only estimating. We are a 20 person company and will go with cyrious because it is also a full company communication program with accounting, inventory, shipping and so on. Much more expensive, but will make up more profitable overall all with all our paper work, job tracking and so on.

Jim

 

[Kevin-shopVOX]

I prefere Estimate 2.0. I believe the price point, the fact that its customizable to your business, you can check data in and out of it for sales calls, the GL export is nice and it is just user friendly. I think the reporting is a little weak but most of that can be made up by pulling reports in Quickbooks. It would be nice to pull reports though based on things such as most popular items sold. I've used scrap paper, Activity (the annoying pop up window on the side of screen drove me crazy...has that been changed?) CASper by EazyNet Solutions which in my mind is a terrible program especially their GL export interface. Activity is better than CASper for sure a far as keeping it simple, and I've used Cyrious which I think is just overpriced and to much for what we need as sign shops. Good program none the less, but not as easy to use as Estimate. My .02 cents

 

[ChiknNutz]

Take a look into GraphixCALC as well (www.graphixcalc.com) as it offers many of the features spoken of here (including native QuickBooks integration). It has many of the features found in Estimate Professional too w/o the high price. While it may not compete with Cyrious, I'd say it does fill a gap.

 

[Lunatic Taskbar]

I use Estimate and have done for over a year now. I love it.

ian