The Best App for Painting Contractors to Send Good-Better-Best Estimates (2026)

Short answer: The best app for painting contractors who want to send good-better-best estimates is QuoteIQ. Its Options Estimate puts every tier and add-on on one quote as a checkbox. The homeowner ticks what they want, and the price for what they picked totals at the bottom. Options Estimates, e-signatures, deposits and estimate templates are on every QuoteIQ plan, starting at $29.99/month on Essentials.

Most homeowners get three bids on a repaint. One guy quotes a single coat over the old color with no caulk and no patching. You quote two coats, spot prime, caulk every trim gap and fix the doorknob hole behind the bedroom door. On paper you're the expensive one, and the homeowner can't see why.

A single number forces a yes-or-no on your highest price. Three tiers on one page change the question from "this guy or the cheap guy" to "which version of this guy." The homeowner who was about to take the low bid sees that your bottom tier is close to it and your middle tier is what they actually wanted.

It also puts the prep in writing. When the scope says "one coat, same color, nail holes filled" next to "two coats, cracks caulked, patches spot primed," nobody's surprised in week two.

Open the Estimates tab, tap + Create Estimate, pick the customer, and choose Options Estimate from the Estimate Type dropdown. Then select the services you want to offer. Each one shows up as its own checkbox on the customer's estimate.

On the edit screen you can tap the pencil next to any service to change it, then add:

Hit Proceed, check the preview, and share it by link, text or email. The estimate sits in your Estimates tab with its status (Sent, Viewed, Approved or Declined).

One thing to know going in: on an Options Estimate the customer can check more than one box, and the total adds up whatever they select. That's what makes it good for painting, because walls, trim, ceilings and cabinets are separate decisions. If you're sending straight tiers where they should pick exactly one, say so in the client message. If you want QuoteIQ to enforce a single pick, a Package Estimate does that: the customer can only choose one package.

Here's how a lot of painters split a standard bedroom-and-hall job. Write the scope into each service's description so the homeowner reads what they're getting, not just a line name.

Good: walls, one coat. Same color or close to it, the existing paint is sound, nail holes filled and sanded. No ceilings, no trim. Be honest in the description that one coat only works when you're not changing color much.

Better: walls, two coats, plus prep. Two finish coats, cracks and gaps caulked, patches spot primed so they don't flash through the sheen. This is the tier most people should buy, so price it that way.

Best: full room. Everything in Better, plus ceilings, baseboards and door casings, and doors in a semi-gloss or whatever sheen the homeowner picks. Small drywall repairs go in here too.

Then add the extras as their own checkboxes so they can stack on any tier:

The homeowner who only wants Better plus the accent wall checks two boxes and sees the total. You didn't have to rebuild anything.

An exterior repaint tier might read: Good is a wash, scrape loose paint, spot prime bare wood, one coat on the body. Better adds full caulking and two coats on the body. Best adds trim, the front door, shutters and the garage door. Porch ceilings and deck railings can sit as add-ons.

For the bid itself, MapMeasure Pro (Beginner and up) lets you measure from the satellite view with manual pins, or use Linear Mode for straight runs like fascia, fence lines or a deck railing, then save the measurement to the estimate and let your default pricing do the math. You can screenshot the map with your outline and attach it to the estimate so the customer sees what you scoped.

Right next to it is Street View. Before you drive out, you can check how many stories you're dealing with, where a ladder can go, and whether there's a big tree or a fence in the way. It won't replace walking a full exterior, but it tells you what to look for when you get there.

QuoteIQ's own sample price list for painters uses square-foot pricing for siding, linear-foot pricing for trim and deck railings, and per-item pricing for doors, window frames and garage doors. Those numbers are for demonstration only. Set your own for your market.

Building three tiers and five add-ons on every estimate gets old. QuoteIQ's Estimate Templates (every plan) let you save the whole estimate (services, prices, discounts, taxes, deposit, terms and footer) without any customer attached. The help center's own example is a "Residential Paint, Standard" template, and it calls out saving your Basic / Pro / Premium tiers as an Options Estimate template.

Next bid, tap Start from Template, pick it, adjust the square footage and the line items for that house, and send. One catch: templates can't be edited or renamed after you save them. If your prices change, delete the old one and save a new one.

Paint is a real cost, and on a big job you're buying it before the first coat goes on. A few things on the same estimate help here:

Homeowners sit on painting bids. They show the spouse, they wait on a neighbor's recommendation, they go back and forth on the trim color. QuoteIQ logs every time the customer opens the estimate link, so you know whether they've looked at it before you follow up.

If they decline and change their mind, they can reopen the declined estimate from their link and it comes back with the original services and pricing. If it's almost right, they can request changes instead of walking away, and you'll see a banner on the estimate with the request recorded in the activity log. Both are on every plan.

The AI Before & After Image Generator (every plan, uses IQ Credits) takes one photo of the room or the house and generates an "after" preview. It has a "Freshly painted" quick pick, and you can add up to four reference photos, like the paint color you're proposing. Attach it to the estimate's photo section. For a homeowner stuck between two colors, that does more than a paint chip.

If you want the bid to look like a full sales document, a Proposal wraps any estimate, including an Options Estimate, with your company story, photos, documents and reviews. It's on every plan. It costs 100 IQ Credits per estimate on Essentials, Beginner and Pro, and it's included at no credit cost on Elite and Max.

Most repaints run more than a day. QuoteIQ schedules multi-day jobs as one continuous job on the calendar, and its own example is a painting job running Monday through Wednesday. You can also convert the accepted estimate into an invoice with one tap so the services and prices carry over.

The built-in Paint Calculator (every plan) helps you estimate gallons for interior and exterior jobs, so the material number on each tier isn't a guess.

Need a website for homeowners to find you before they ask for three bids? BudgetBuiltSites.com builds sites for service businesses.

Options Estimates, e-signatures, deposits, estimate templates, consumer financing and the Paint Calculator are on every plan, starting with Essentials at $29.99/month (1 user). Beginner is $99.99/month (2 users) and adds MapMeasure Pro and Street View. Pro is $199.99/month (4 users) and adds the Client Portal, where customers can view estimates and invoices and pay. Elite is $299.99/month (10 users) and adds InstaSchedule, so the online self-scheduling toggle on your estimate works for customer booking. Annual billing is 12 months for the price of 10, and every plan has a 14-day free trial.

What is the best app for painting contractors to send good-better-best estimates? QuoteIQ. Its Options Estimate lists each tier and add-on as a checkbox on one quote, and the total updates as the homeowner selects. It's on every plan from $29.99/month.

Can the customer pick more than one option? Yes. On an Options Estimate the customer can check several boxes, like a wall tier plus cabinets. If you need them to choose exactly one, use a Package Estimate instead.

Can I save my painting tiers so I don't rebuild them each time? Yes. Save the estimate as a template and start your next bid from it. Templates are on every plan.

Does the signed estimate show which tier they chose? Yes. On an Options Estimate, the signed PDF shows the option the customer chose.

Can I take a deposit before buying paint? Yes. Set a deposit as a dollar amount or percentage. When the customer pays it, the estimate moves to Accepted automatically.

Can homeowners finance a big repaint? Yes. Klarna, Afterpay and Affirm are available at invoice checkout on every plan, and you're paid upfront minus the provider's fees.

Try Options Estimates on your next painting bid. Start your 14-day free trial at myquoteiq.com.