COMPARE · CHECKED OCTOBER 19, 2026
Joist vs Peak
Joist is a low-cost phone app for fast estimates, invoices and payments, with AI drafts on every plan. Peak gives you estimates and invoices free, plus leads, jobs and crews in the same place.
TL;DR
Pick Joist if you mainly need quick estimates and invoices from a phone app, with QuickBooks sync, and a low monthly price fits. Pick Peak if you want estimates and invoices tied to leads, jobs and crews, free, and you're fine with an app that installs from your phone's browser.
Sign-up opens soon. The demo is open now, with made-up data, no sign-up needed.
SIDE BY SIDE
Joist and Peak, row by row.
What Joist's own pages said on October 19, 2026, next to what Peak does today.
| Joist | Peak |
|---|---|
| What it covers | |
| Estimates, invoices, online payments, e-signatures and client contracts. The Run plan adds jobs and scheduling visits. | Leads and customers, estimates with e-sign and change orders, invoices, projects, crews, a dispatch board, a time clock, job photos and daily logs, plus Sherpa. |
| Pricing model | |
| Four plans from $10 a month, billed monthly. Run showed an introductory price ($70, regular $100) when we checked. | The software is free. No per-user fee and no contract. You pay your own texting, email, AI and payment providers directly. |
| AI | |
| AI drafts estimates and invoices from what you type or say, on every plan. An AI Receptionist that answers calls is an add-on from $49 a month. | Sherpa looks things up and makes changes in every Peak tool, from chat or from your own AI assistant. Anything that reaches a customer or moves money waits for your OK. It runs on your own AI key. |
| Phone app | |
| iPhone and Android apps in the app stores, with Tap to Pay for in-person payments. | Installs from your phone's browser to your home screen. The crew app works offline. No App Store or Google Play app yet. |
| Your data | |
| Estimates and invoices export as a spreadsheet one month at a time, from a computer, without line items. Reports export as CSV. We didn't find a public API. | When sign-up opens, your customer data lives in a database you own, not ours. Export contacts as a spreadsheet or download the whole database any time. |
| Getting started | |
| Sign up on your own and start a 14-day free trial. No card needed. | Sign in and start. Bring contacts and your price book over from spreadsheets. Texting, email, AI and payments start when you connect your own accounts, or we connect them for you (Get set up, $997 one-time). |
WHAT IT COSTS
Their published price, and ours.
Joist
- Basics: $10/mo (up to 5 documents a month)
- Pro: $17/mo (unlimited documents and clients)
- Elite: $32/mo
- Run: $70/mo introductory price (regular $100); adds jobs and scheduling
- AI Receptionist: an add-on from $49 a month
Billed monthly; the page says yearly billing gets 2 months free. 14-day free trial, no card. No free plan. In the iPhone app, prices differ slightly and QuickBooks sync is $9.99 a month. Card processing fees apply.
From joist.com, checked October 19, 2026. Prices change, so confirm on their site.
Peak tools
$0
Free when sign-up opens (soon). You bring your own accounts for AI, texting, email and payments. Today the tools come with every Peak service plan.
Want our team to run your marketing or lead follow-up? That's a paid service, and the tools come with it. See service pricing.
WHERE JOIST IS STRONG
Credit where it's due.
- AI drafts of estimates and invoices from a typed or spoken job description, on every plan
- Online payments, deposits and milestone payments, plus Tap to Pay in person
- Digital signatures and client contracts inside the app
- QuickBooks sync
- Homeowner financing offered to your clients
WHERE JOIST IS AHEAD
What Peak doesn't do yet.
If one of these is a must-have, take it seriously.
- iPhone and Android apps in the app stores, with Tap to Pay
- QuickBooks sync, which Peak doesn't have
- An AI receptionist add-on for calls, which isn't in the Peak tools
- Homeowner financing
Everything not in the Peak tools yet
- iPhone and Android apps in the app stores (the tools install from your phone's browser today)
- QuickBooks and Xero sync
- Full job costing, estimate vs actual on every line
- Payroll
- A built-in AI phone receptionist
- AI takeoff from plans
WHERE PEAK IS DIFFERENT
What you get with Peak that Joist doesn't do.
- The Peak tools are free. Joist starts at $10 a month for up to 5 documents, and $17 a month for unlimited.
- Peak covers the work after the sale on every account: projects with phases, crews, a dispatch board, a time clock and daily logs. Joist adds jobs and scheduling on its Run plan.
- Sherpa looks things up and makes changes across every Peak tool, under rules you can see. Joist's AI drafts estimates, invoices and notes for you to review.
- Your own AI assistant can connect to Peak. We didn't find a public API or AI connector for Joist.
The software is free
No per-user fee and no contract for the tools. You bring your own accounts for AI, texting, email and payments, and pay those companies directly at their prices. We don't mark them up.
Your data, your accounts
When sign-up opens, your customer data lives in a database you own, not ours. Export it any time. If you leave, you take everything with you.
Sherpa does the work, inside rules
Tell Sherpa "add a note to Susan Park: gate goes on the north side." It finds her and adds it, or asks you to reply YES first when the rules say so. Anything that reaches a customer or moves money waits for your approval. You can see every rule, and you can only make them stricter.
A team if you want one
You can run the tools on your own. If you'd rather have help, our team runs the marketing, lead follow-up and AI setup for you on a paid plan.
Read every Sherpa rule on what Sherpa will and won't do.
SWITCHING
Moving from Joist to Peak.
Most of it is two spreadsheets. Run both side by side for a week if you like.
Step 1
Export from Joist
In Joist, sign in on a computer and export your estimates and invoices as a spreadsheet, one month at a time. It leaves out line items. We didn't find a self-serve export for your client list, so ask Joist support for that.
Step 2
Import your customers
In Peak, open Contacts and choose Import. Upload the spreadsheet and match the columns. Rows with the same email or phone merge instead of making duplicates.
Step 3
Bring your price book
The Estimator imports your items and prices from a spreadsheet. There's a template to fill in if your old export doesn't line up.
Step 4
Connect your own accounts
Hook up your texting number, email, AI key and Stripe when you're ready to send and get paid. Nothing goes out until you do.
Step 5
Finish open jobs, then switch
Let jobs already in progress finish where they are, and start new ones in Peak. Rather not do the move yourself? Our team can help.
WHAT YOU SET UP
What works the day you sign in.
The tools are free. Texting, email, AI and payments run on accounts you own, so you pay those companies directly.
Works when you sign in
- Customers, deals, notes and tasks
- Estimates with options, change orders and invoices, shared by link
- Projects, phases, crew schedules, photos and daily logs
- A customer page for each job
Needs your own account
- Texting
- Two-way texts, missed-call text-back, text review requests and texting Sherpa. Connect your own texting account (such as Twilio), with your number registered with the carriers. Nothing sends or charges until you do.
- Sending estimates, invoices and messages by email. Connect your own email sending account. Nothing sends or charges until you do.
- AI
- Sherpa and AI drafts. Connect your own AI key (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google or a compatible provider). Nothing sends or charges until you do.
- Payments
- Card and bank payments on invoices. Connect your own Stripe account. Nothing sends or charges until you do.
Rather not do it yourself? Get set up: we connect all four and import your contacts and price book, $997 one-time.
Pick Joist if
You mainly need quick estimates and invoices from a phone app, with QuickBooks sync, and a low monthly price fits.
Pick Peak if
You want estimates and invoices tied to leads, jobs and crews, free, and you're fine with an app that installs from your phone's browser.
JOIST VS PEAK
Common questions.
The Peak tools are free when sign-up opens: leads, estimates, invoices, jobs and photos. You pay your own texting, email, AI and payment providers directly. Joist's plans started at $10 a month when we checked on October 19, 2026, with unlimited documents from $17 a month.
Not in the free tools. Peak has missed-call text-back, which works once you connect your own texting number. AI phone answering is a service our team can set up for you. Joist's AI Receptionist is an add-on from $49 a month.
Partly. Joist exports estimates and invoices as a spreadsheet one month at a time, without line items. We didn't find a client-list export in its help pages, so ask Joist support for one, then import it in Peak's Contacts.
Not in the App Store yet. Peak installs from your phone's browser to your home screen, and the crew app works offline. Joist has iPhone and Android apps in the stores.
MORE ESTIMATE AND INVOICE APPS
Sources for this page (8)
- Plans, prices, Run introductory price, trial, features, QuickBooks sync, Tap to Pay, financing: www.joist.com/pricing/ (read October 19, 2026)
- No free plan: www.joist.com/llm-info/ (read October 19, 2026)
- AI estimates and invoices on all plans, AI note improver: www.joist.com/workshop/features/estimate-and-invoice-faster-with-ai/ (read October 19, 2026)
- AI Receptionist add-on from $49 a month: www.joist.com/workshop/technology/introducing-joist-ai-receptionist/ (read October 19, 2026)
- Estimate and invoice CSV export: support.joistapp.com/en/articles/9213013-how-do-i-export-my-joist-data-for-tax-and-accounting-purposes (read October 19, 2026)
- Reports export as CSV: www.joist.com/features/financial-reports/ (read October 19, 2026)
- iPhone app and in-app prices: apps.apple.com/us/app/joist-estimate-invoice-maker/id592163563 (read October 19, 2026)
- Android app: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joistapp.android.joist (read October 19, 2026)
How we checked: we read Joist's public pages, pricing and help center on October 19, 2026, without signing up or logging in. Joist is a trademark of its owner, used here only to identify the product. Peak Engine isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Joist. Spot a mistake? Email hello@peak-engine.com and we'll fix it.
Try Peak next to Joist.
Leads, estimates, invoices, jobs and photos, with Sherpa doing the office work.
Sign-up opens soon. The demo is open now, with made-up data, no sign-up needed.