Countfire Reviews

Future of Estimating

Pros:

Countfire is a dream to use. It does everything I wanted when I imagined a program to help automate the takeoff process, and they are still improving and adding more. The ability to hide the background and define zones are two features that make complicated plans go so much quicker. Out of the hundreds of projects we've completed already, very few have issues that hinder the programs functionality. But when something like that does pop up, there is always somebody to respond quickly and take a look. They always are happy to hear customer feedback and take suggestions. I can't say enough good about the team behind this software, they are going to change the industry. I can't believe a couple of months ago in 2021 I was still printing drawings and using a yellow highlighter.

Cons:

What I like least about the software is the output excel file is a bit complicated compared to what we are used to. I only count devices of one discipline at a time, there is really no reason for more than one sheet. After I download the take off from countfire I always delete about half the rows / columns and transpose the x and y.

Alternatives Considered: STACK

Reasons for Switching to Countfire: Stack was mostly manual counting, and charged extra for the auto count that was slow and rarely worked.

Taking off made easy!

Pros:

Automatically counting multiple drawings at the same timeAbility to identify any issues/errorsConstantly adding new features

Cons:

So far we have had no issues wit the software. The only very minor issue was not receiving a notification of duplicate symbols on a set of drawings but still not really an issue

Sceptical at First

Comments: Very sceptical at first having always done things longhand and trusted my own ability. However having used Countfire and realised the time saving and accuracy it gives you is outstanding. The support is brilliant if you are unsure of something or want to do something a bit different. Overall a great asset to any estimating or project control division

Pros:

The ease of document loading and producing take off's

Cons:

I do not believe anything is missing. The hardest part is remembering to set the zones so you do not do a take off on the legend

Great Tool for Estimating

Pros:

So easy to take off all elements and easier than trying to mark up manually

Cons:

Nothing to add on this one that I have found at the moment

Game changing!

Comments: Fantastic!!Been using countfire for 4 years now and its made estimating a lot less laborious

Pros:

The constant improvements and the ease of accurate take offs! Countfire team are always looking for ways to improve the software and take on customer feedback very well!Its also a massive bonus for my business model that all take offs can be done online and no need for a printer! Enables the company to operate from anywhere very easily..

Cons:

A live catalogue of materials would complete this software. It would cut down time going out to get live prices on materials.

Alternatives Considered: Ensign

Reasons for Switching to Countfire: The take off element is currently superior to theirs.

A great time saver

Pros:

Countfire works very well as quick take off tool when producing estimates, it saves a lot of time when working through large quantities of drawings, you only need to make small adjustments to the search criteria as opposed to going through every drawing and taking off by hand.

Cons:

There are some limitations in what you can and cant do, with some updates from the suggested features it would become a far more competent tool for a designer estimator like myself - in particular different shaped coverage indicators and a larger choice of symbols and colour choices would massively improve the usability of countfire.

FMS Review

Comments: I've had a great experience overall. I use it daily.

Pros:

it speeds up my take offs on a daily basis.

Cons:

sometimes it doesn't pick up some symbols

A real time saver

Comments: Excellent product

Pros:

Saves days when completing take offs a very useful tool

Cons:

No issues at all, highly intuitive with no issues

First time user

Comments: Very positive so far - still learning but for me it has been quite easy to pick up so am very confident I will have the hang of it quite quickly.

Pros:

It is very straightforward. I am a bit of a tech phobic and am picking this up quite easily.

Cons:

Nothing yet as I have only been on it for a very short while

Countfire

Comments: Very good experience so far with a lot of support. Quite expensive cost wise.

Pros:

Easy to use for take offs and counts same symbols over multiple drawings in one go.

Cons:

Symbol recognition doesn't work properly sometimes.

Best Estimating Takeoff Software

Comments: I've only been using it for a month or so but it has been very nice. The support team is phenomenal. They are very good at fixing any problems you might face. There is also a feature request page that you can request new features and everyone can vote on them and then the Countfire team will work on implementing that feature. The Countfire team is very active and always looking for new ways to make the experience better.

Pros:

Features that I like the best: The Support: User Interface: I really like the clean simple user interface. It looks very nice and up to date unlike a lot of the competition. Autocount: In comparison to other software such as Livecount, Planswift, Bluebeam, eTakeoff, etc. Countfire is by far faster. I've used Livecount & Planswift the most. Countfire can do in 2 seconds what Livecount & Planswift takes 3 minutes to do. I can select a fixture type to autocount and it will find every fixture with extreme accuracy on every plan page in 2 seconds or less (Tested with a plan set of 120+ pages) Background Hide: Countfire has the ability to hide the background on a drawing. This is very useful when you have a messy plan set or when all the furniture and details are on the same page as the electrical. You can toggle it on and off. You can also define what is a part of the background and it will hide it. This makes it so much easier to see only the electrical stuff. Hide Counted Symbols. (Only works for symbols counted with autocount). This is a feature that most of the estimating takeoff software has but this does it in a much different way. It will actually hide the symbols that have been counted not just the digitizer count itself. This allows you to toggle off everything that has been counted and now you can see what hasn't been. This only works on the symbols that are counted with autocount. You can still hide the manual digitizer counts but it won't hide the symbol.

Cons:

The estimating side isn't as advanced as some of the other competitors but they are currently working on a big update that will fix most of that.

Easy to use take off software

Comments: Great piece of software that not only speeds up the process but also helps with the reporting.

Pros:

The software is easy to use and if in doubt the speed of assistance is almost immediate. The ease to choose symbols which then copies across to all drawings in that section makes it so much faster.

Cons:

Not having used any other software for take offs in the past doesn't give me much to say what features the software lacks or is missing, anything we do use is a bonus and with new features constantly updating I cant fault it.

One Year In Review

Comments: The system is very easy to use which makes the familiarisation process quire easy.
With any new software you have to familiarise yourself with the peculiarities of the system and work with it to get the best from it which is what we have found with Countfire.
The first thing you notice is the speed and responsiveness of the auto count system which is so much better than other systems we have tried.
We have found Countfire to suit our business needs but there are improvements to be made and hopefully we will see this product develop further.

Pros:

Easy to use, fast, useful for auto counting from certain revised drawings such as lighting. Demarcation of drawings is a good feature.

Cons:

There is no 'back' button to help you correct mistakes - you have to rely on not saving changes which is not ideal. Recognition of different orientation of symbols is limited to 90 degrees only - expanding this would be useful. Typical small power symbol auto count can be time consuming because of how symbols are recognised by the system, this makes the auto count process unreliable particularly across multiple drawings - a manual count often becomes the best option which defeats the object.

Countfire - The go to Take Off software

Pros:

The product is very easy to use with excellent customer support if required and lots of tutorials if needed. the system is designed so that items can be counted with ease giving you a final number to evaluate.

Cons:

I would say that the system does not need improvements to state due to the presence of a ticket service which allows users to provide feedback on findings which are constantly reviewed by staff to make he service better.

1st review

Comments: My overall experience has been great.

Pros:

I think it is easy to use and faster then doing a count by printing and manually counting. I like the background drop it makes it easy to see all the things that need to be counted. Another pro is that by using CountFire i don't have to be printing the drawings which helps the environment.

Cons:

sometimes drawings take to long to upload in to the software. I would like to see improvements in the unjoining and joining symbols, the improvement could be that we the users had a choice in which parts of drawings we join or unjoin.

Electrical Takeoff

Pros:

Accurate and easy to use, managed software any issues you can contact the team

Cons:

Price, the software is expensive - however does save time which would need to be considered

Amazing & Friendly Staff

Comments: Countfire has saved me tons of time performing takeoffs. It is also very helpful in accomplishing a set of takeoffs for a project with a quick turn around time.

Pros:

I absolutely love the quick response from the members of the Countfire Staff. They are quick to respond and help resolve any issues you may have.

Cons:

I love everything about the Countfire Program.

Personal view of Countfire after 3 weeks

Comments: Its quick and easy to use. There are a few things which can be done to make it even better but overall its far more efficient than using paper and coloured pens.

Pros:

It is pretty easy to use once you are using it on a daily basis. It makes the take-off process a lot quicker and doesn't require the need for printing off a Forrest worth of trees for drawings, plus you don't need to keep a whole range of coloured pens handy.

Cons:

I have found that I have gone back to drawings that I have taken off first time around and noticed symbols which I did take off were not highlighted. That could be simply down to me not saving each time. However, I have had to go back through each drawing to make sure I haven't missed anything. There should be something in place to highlight anything that has been missed. It would also be helpful to have an option to pick regularly used symbols and containment so that you can save time not having to manually type them in.

Countfire Review

Comments: saves printing drawings out and buying highlighters etc, but also saves alot of time and so is very valuable.

Pros:

its made the takeoff process alot easier and ten times faster.

Cons:

an undo button would be great, also took abit of time to introduce new users and get them to fully understand the software.

Extraordinary

Comments: I feel have happy when new drawings coming in from companies I tender for simply because I know Countfire will help me getting the job done without much effort and in time.

Pros:

-So easy to use -You can count, measure, select -It saves everything into a spreadsheet

Cons:

It could have a small box in one of the corner where you can see where is the mouse when zoomed in, also it would be useful to the drawing number and title showing somewhere instead of having to go to the bottom drawing to check it.

Good, versatile, fast, ongoing development, active support

Pros:

The software is a good alternative to the usual means of working with large plans, as it saves a lot of time and space/printing materials

Cons:

One of the cons is the requirement of the chrome browser, since the additional software isn't supported by the IT Department.

Great software

Comments: brilliant

Pros:

the checks - and the excel output - this gives me the perfect platform to begin my estimation

Cons:

to be honest the is no features i don't like - really happy with software

quality time saving product

Comments: excellent quality service provided at all times

Pros:

The software has given us more time to produce quality accurate take-off's, enabling more productivity and scope to be successful with tender submissions

Cons:

fast effective easy to use tools, could do with a duplication tool to add additional missed items to the existing plan using the same icon

The product is easy to use and the support staff is amazing.

Comments: I have saved a lot of time on performing take offs.

Pros:

I like its chat option and the great support staffs fast response time. I also like how when I have a problem that I may run into one of the members of the support team will help me immediately. They can actually open and view the actual project I am working on and will send me a clip of how to get past what problems I may be having.

Cons:

Nothing. Everything about this software is amazing. The support staff has a quick response. They normally respond is less than 5 minutes.

I've never experienced technical support that countfire. Simply the best

Comments: Saves me tons of time and for someone that works 80+ hours a week, my time is very valuable.

Pros:

The ease of use. It is very easy to use once I learned the shortcuts and best practices from Countfire. Was up and running withing a few days 100% and it is saving me so much time. I did the a job the other day that was normally a 4 hour job and it took me 30 minutes by using Countfire and that 3.5 hours is very valuable to me.

Cons:

The only thing I'd like and it is really only for hotels, but to be able to find a certain room and count them and multiply out already in the excel sheet, but I use the counts for the rooms and easily adjust the excel spreadsheet in less than a minute, so it really isn't an issue.