Painter's Log vs PaintScout
This is an honest comparison. PaintScout is built for painters, and at what it does — selling the job — it's genuinely polished. The difference is what happens after the customer signs.
No credit card. Free forever for small operations.
Credit where it's due — PaintScout is a serious painting-industry tool:
Painter's Log is built around one question generic tools can't answer well: did the job actually make money?
Every hour and receipt lands on a job, so you see what the job actually cost next to what you bid — while it's running, not at tax time.
Crews clock in by job-site geofence, so hours attach to the right job on their own — and when a painter moves between sites, the shift is split so each job carries its true labor.
Run a small operation on the free plan indefinitely: 5 jobs and 20 documents a month, every feature included. We make money when you do — 1% on payments while you're free, 0% on Pro.
English and Spanish through the whole product — the crew app and your estimates included — not a translated login screen.
Painter's Log runs the operational back office — estimates, scheduling, the jobs, invoicing, job costing. QuickBooks stays for accounting. Most contractors run both.
| PaintScout | Painter's Log | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Painting contractors — estimating and sales first | Painting contractors — the whole job lifecycle |
| Pricing model | Sales plan $119/mo ($99 annual) with an Operations add-on at $99/mo (~$218 combined); 1 user per tier, + $20/mo per additional user (May 2026 — see their pricing page) | Free forever (usage-limited), or one Pro plan: $179/mo including 4 users (owner + 3), + $29/mo per additional active worker |
| Free tier | 14-day trial | Free forever — 5 jobs/mo, 20 documents/mo, 1% on payments collected through the app (0% on Pro). No credit card. |
| Job costing (estimate → actual) | Not the focus — PaintScout is an estimating and sales tool, not an actual-cost tracker | The core of the product — estimate vs. actual, per job, as the hours and receipts come in |
| Online payments | Sales-side focus — see their site for current capabilities | Yes — deposits, schedules, and online payment; 1% fee on free, 0% on Pro (Stripe's standard processing rates apply either way) |
Competitor pricing as published May 2026 — check their pricing page for current rates.
Enter what you quoted, your hours, and your spend — and see your real cost and true margin. Free, no signup.
Try the free “Did I make money?” calculatorIt depends on what you're solving. If you only want a sharper sales and estimating tool, PaintScout is strong there. If you want one tool that also schedules the work, tracks the crew's hours against the bid, invoices, collects payment, and tells you what the job actually made, that's the lane Painter's Log is built for — some contractors will compare the two, others will use PaintScout purely for sales.
Yes — and you don't have to switch all at once. Start on the free plan (no credit card), upload estimate PDFs from PaintScout to convert them into job records, and run a job or two side by side before you commit.
Keep it. Painter's Log runs the operational back office around your painting jobs — estimating, scheduling, running the work, invoicing, and job costing. QuickBooks stays for accounting. Most contractors run both.
Painter's Log is free forever for small operations — 5 jobs and 20 documents a month, with a 1% fee on payments you collect through it. Pro is $179/month including 4 users (owner + 3), plus $29/month per additional active worker, and the payment fee drops to 0%. PaintScout's published pricing was $119/month for Sales ($99 on annual) plus a $99/month Operations add-on, with additional users at $20/month, as of May 2026 — see their pricing page for current rates.
Run your whole business on the free plan for as long as you like. We only make money when you do: 1% on payments you collect through Painter's Log while you're free, and 0% once you're on Pro.
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