Bobyard vs Takeoff Monkey: Should you outsource your landscape takeoffs or do them in-house?

If you've been researching landscape takeoff software, you've probably come across Takeoff Monkey. Takeoff Monkey is not actually software, but an outsourcing service.

In choosing between Bobyard and Takeoff Monkey, it goes beyond comparing features and capabilities. You also might need to decide if you want to outsource takeoffs or bring them in-house.

Below is a quick summary to compare, followed by a more in-depth breakdown of both options, so you can decide which model best fits your business needs.

Table of contents

1. Takeoff Monkey vs. Bobyard side-by-side comparison

2. What is landscape takeoff software?

3. What is Takeoff Monkey?

4. What is Bobyard?

5. Bobyard vs. Takeoff Monkey: 5 decision factors to help you choose your landscape takeoff solution

   1. Speed

   2. Cost

   3. Control + Ownership

   4. Scalability

   5. Onboarding
      

6. FAQ

Takeoff Monkey vs. Bobyard side-by-side comparison

 

What is landscape takeoff software?

A landscape takeoff is the process of measuring quantities from a set of construction drawings (e.g., counting plants, measuring hardscape square footage, etc) to drive your estimate amounts, and ultimately your bid.

Many estimators do this by hand, reading through plan sheets and manually counting or measuring. It’s time-consuming, error-prone, and unscalable as bid volume increases.

Landscape takeoff software like Bobyard uses AI trained specifically on landscape construction plans to automate counts, measurements, and calculations from blueprints and drawings, resulting in faster, more accurate takeoffs.

Evaluating other tools? Check out our other comparisons:

• BeamAI vs. Bobyard
• On-screen Takeoff vs. Bobyard

What is Takeoff Monkey?

Takeoff Monkey is an outsourced estimating service for landscape contractors (not software). You upload your plan set, their team of human estimators does the takeoff, and they send you the completed quantities, typically within 48 hours.

Their team is made up of former landscape estimators with decades of real industry experience. Their client list includes established names like BrightView and Klausing Group.

Here's what they offer:

• Construction takeoffs and quantity worksheets
• Irrigation takeoffs and design
• Landscape design and drafting
• 48-hour standard turnaround (75 hours for irrigation design)
• White-labeled deliverables branded with your company logo
• First five sheets free promotional offer
• $39 per sheet, billed only for sheets with actual counts and measurements

What Is Bobyard?

Bobyard is AI takeoff and estimating software first built specifically for landscape contractors, and now expanding to more trades. Developed with computer vision and high-powered AI trained specifically on landscape construction across thousands of real landscape plan sets, Bobyard allows you to upload construction drawings to automatically extract quantities: plants, hardscape, irrigation, linear measurements, and more. Your estimators stay in control of the process, but with little manual intervention.

Here are key Bobyard features:

• Estimate tables to organize quantities into a clean table to price and export
• Material-centric takeoffs where quantities stay connected to pricing
• Aerial takeoffs that generate surface-area measurements from aerial/satellite imagery
• Spec & RFI chatbot to get instant answers to project questions or RFIs
• Instant search, detection, and counting: symbols, polygons, and hatch patterns
• Text callouts and annotations can also be factored into calculations and counts
• One-click generator area, perimeter, volume, and related quantities
• Confidence scores provided for results so estimators know where to focus attention
• Easy navigation through complex plan sets with search and project structures that match workflow phases
• Priced by seats, not on a project or output basis

Bobyard vs. Takeoff Monkey: 5 decision factors to help you choose your landscape takeoff solution

1. Speed

This is where the gap is largest.

Takeoff Monkey’s standard SLA is 48 hours for a takeoff. If you need revisions like a scope change, a plan update, or other fixes after delivery, you go back in the queue. That’s potentially another 48-hour wait.

Bobyard completes a landscape takeoff in about 20 minutes from plan upload to output. If something changes, you make the revision yourself, immediately.

During peak bid season or for a sudden opportunity, waiting 48 hours might cost you the job. With Bobyard, your turnaround time can help you meet sudden demands and higher volumes.

“Now that we’re using Bobyard, one sheet takes me a minute. 10 sheets take me 15 minutes.”

— Nick Somes, Project Manager and Estimator, Smith and Enright

2. Cost

Takeoff Monkey charges $39 per sheet, billed for any sheet with actual counts or measurements on it. The average commercial landscape plan has about five to nine sheets.

 

That’s your cost just for the opportunity to submit your bid. With commercial landscape win rates typically running at 20–30%, you might be paying for three to five takeoffs for every project you actually land. At a 7-sheet average and a 25% win rate, your real cost per won job in takeoff spend is over $1,000. Takeoff Monkey does offer a block-credit discount for volume, but that discount might still not be enough.

Bobyard works differently. You pay a flat subscription per estimator seat, regardless of how many takeoffs you run. Bid 5 jobs a month or 50, and your software cost doesn’t move.

Here’s the math contractors typically run:

Takeoff Monkey spend = Monthly bid volume × Sheets per project × $39
Bobyard spend = Flat per-seat subscription, no matter the volume

Most contractors bidding more than a handful of projects per month find Bobyard pays for itself within the first few weeks. From there, every additional bid is essentially free.

On top of the software cost itself, Bobyard customers report meaningful efficiency and revenue gains. Cutting takeoff time in half (or more) doesn’t just save hours — it lets your estimators bid more work, take on bigger projects, and stop turning down opportunities they don’t have time to price.

“Now that we have Bobyard… I’ve seen quite a jump in my efficiency, by at least 50% if not more. Revenue has climbed by 10–20% thanks in part to Bobyard’s impact.”

— Rudy Prado, Estimator, K&D Landscaping

3. Control and data ownership

Every time you use Takeoff Monkey, your project details go to an external team, and when the job is done, that’s it. Each engagement is a one-time transaction. None of your quantities, pricing context, or project history stays within your organization. If you stop using that outsourcing team, you start from scratch.

With Bobyard, your takeoff data stays with you, and each project your team runs builds on the last one. Your estimating history, your pricing logic, your templates all stay with you and compound over time.

There’s also the revision dynamic to consider again. If something needs to change on a Takeoff Monkey deliverable, you’re dependent on their team to fix it, on their timeline. With Bobyard, your estimator owns the file. Changes happen when you need them to happen.

“We were able to find a project where there was a whole bunch of pottery that we could supply, but that the contractor was going to potentially get elsewhere… when we were able to see what pottery was on that job, we saved that customer about $20,000.”

— Evan Moffitt, Director of Sales, Farm Supply Company

4. Scalability

Scalability covers multiple fronts: how each solution scales with the volume of bids, and how it scales and adapts for your business and the industry at large.

Bobyard’s pricing is built around how many users you have, not the amount they use it. If your company goes from bidding 5 jobs a month to 50, your Bobyard cost doesn’t change.

Bobyard is also built for any size business — from small companies with one estimator, all the way up to being used by some of the most recognized landscaping companies in the U.S. So if you plan on growing your business, Bobyard can scale with that growth.

Beyond that, Bobyard is constantly updating and evolving the software to ensure that the tool and its capabilities meet the needs of clients and the industry at large. They incorporate the latest AI technology, which is constantly changing.

“This is literally the future of estimating in landscaping, and it’s time to get on board.”

— John Barrett, Project Manager and Estimator, Chopper Landscaping

Takeoff Monkey’s scalability constraint is the inverse: their 48-hour human turnaround is a fixed ceiling, as is the cost per sheet. You can’t speed it up by paying more, and as your bid volumes rise, so do your Takeoff Monkey costs.

While Takeoff Monkey provides services for a wide array of landscaping companies, they do not necessarily have a commitment to ensure their service account managers continue to adjust and adapt their practices with the times. The level of service you get depends on your account manager and the experience they bring.

5. Onboarding and the learning curve

Takeoff Monkey’s biggest advantage is simplicity. You upload plans, and they handle everything. There’s no software to learn, no onboarding, no ramp-up period. For a small contractor with no estimating staff, that’s a legitimate reason to use them.

Bobyard requires your team to actually use the software, but the lift is light. The software is intuitive, so most pick it up in the first few uses. Every account gets a dedicated customer success manager from day one, onboarding is done through live one-on-one sessions, and demos are run on your actual project drawings, not generic samples, so your team can see exactly what Bobyard does with their real plans before committing.

“My wife does our admin work, and with zero landscape construction experience, was able to so easily utilize Bobyard. That’s one of the things that I like about it.”

— Joshua Hernandez, Lead Estimator, La Tierra Verde Landscape

 

The bottom line on Bobyard vs. Takeoff Monkey

Takeoff Monkey is good at what it does. If you have low bid volume, no dedicated estimator, and no intention of building one, outsourcing makes sense. You’ll get a clean takeoff from experienced humans without learning anything new.

Bobyard flips the model. Takeoffs in about 20 minutes. Revisions on your timeline. A flat per-seat cost that doesn’t punish you for bidding more. Your estimating data, pricing logic, and plan history stay in your account and get sharper every project. And because Bobyard’s AI was trained on real landscape construction plans (with more trades offered), it actually understands what it’s looking at.

If your business is growing, or you want it to, outsourcing isn’t a long-term strategy, but a ceiling. Bobyard is built to take you above it.

Ready to see Bobyard on your actual drawings?

Try a real takeoff in a demo →

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is AI takeoff software accurate enough to trust? Modern AI takeoff tools like Bobyard are trained on thousands of real landscape construction plans, and results come with confidence scores so estimators know exactly where to verify counts. Your team stays in control — the AI handles the manual measuring and counting, and your estimator reviews and adjusts before the bid goes out the door. Most users find AI takeoff to be at least as accurate as a careful manual takeoff, and significantly faster.

How do I speed up my landscape bids? The biggest time sink in most landscape bids is the takeoff itself — manually counting plants, measuring hardscape, and tallying linear footage off plan sheets. Replacing manual takeoff with AI-driven software can cut that step from hours to minutes. From there, the faster you turn a plan into a priced estimate, the more bids you can submit and the more strategic time your estimators have for pricing decisions instead of measuring.

Is Takeoff Monkey software or a service? Takeoff Monkey is a human-powered outsourcing service, not software. You upload your construction drawings, their team of estimators completes the takeoff manually, and delivers the results back to you, typically within 48 hours. There is no software platform for you to use or log into.

How much does Takeoff Monkey cost per project? Takeoff Monkey charges $39 per sheet, billed only for sheets that contain actual counts or measurements. A typical commercial landscape plan set has 5–9 billable sheets, putting most projects in the $195–$351 range per takeoff. Volume discounts are available through pre-purchased credit blocks.

How long does a Bobyard takeoff take compared to Takeoff Monkey? Bobyard completes a landscape takeoff in approximately 20 minutes from the time plans are uploaded. Takeoff Monkey’s standard turnaround is 48 hours. If revisions are needed, Bobyard allows immediate edits; Takeoff Monkey requires resubmission and potentially another queue wait.

Can Bobyard handle irrigation takeoffs? Yes. Bobyard supports irrigation takeoffs directly. Takeoff Monkey also offers irrigation services, though their irrigation design turnaround is 75 hours.

What happens to my estimating data when I use Takeoff Monkey? Your project drawings and quantities are processed by Takeoff Monkey’s team and returned to you as a deliverable. Takeoff Monkey states that completed takeoffs are only shared with the submitting customer, and deliverables are white-labeled with your company logo. However, your estimating history and pricing logic are not stored within a platform you control; each engagement is a standalone transaction.

Which is better for a small landscape company: Bobyard or Takeoff Monkey? It depends on where your business is right now. If you don’t have a dedicated estimator and your bid volume is low, Takeoff Monkey’s no-learning-curve model is a reasonable choice. If you’re actively scaling — bidding more work, building an estimating team, or trying to reduce per-project costs — Bobyard is built for that. The breakeven point depends on your monthly bid volume; the comparison is worth running for your specific situation.