Joist is a solid, cheap way to fire off an estimate or invoice. But the job is more than a piece of paper. SideWRK runs it end to end — estimate, customer approval logged with the time and amount, fee-free get-paid, and your real profit on every job — for any of 42 trades, from your phone, starting at $24/mo.
| SideWRK | Joist | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $24/mo (full job toolkit) | Free / $8 / $15 (invoicing focus) |
| Built for | Running & getting paid for the whole job | Quick estimates & invoices |
| Get paid | Fee-free to Venmo, Cash App, Zelle & Apple Pay (no merchant account) + card | Card payments via processor (per-transaction fees) |
| Logged customer approvals | Yes — name, time & amount, re-auth on changes | Limited |
| Real-profit tracking | Yes — private cost per line | Revenue, not profit |
| Multiple trades, one login | Yes ($39/mo) | General-contractor focus |
| Trade-specific tools | Yes — per trade (permits, tickets, etc.) | Generic |
| Free trial | 14 days | Free plan |
Joist pricing per its public pricing page (2026). Comparison reflects typical solo use; your needs may differ. Joist is a trademark of its owner; SideWRK is not affiliated with or endorsed by Joist.
Estimate, approval, photos, invoice, payment, and profit all live on one job — instead of an invoice in one app and everything else in your head.
Get paid fee-free to Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, or Apple Pay — no processor skim on every job. Card's there when a customer wants it.
A private cost on each line means the Money tab shows what you actually made — not just what you billed. That's the number that runs a business.
If all you want is to send the occasional estimate or invoice and nothing more, Joist's free and ~$8 tiers are genuinely hard to beat on price.
So does SideWRK — it exports QuickBooks-ready income and expense files straight from your year-end summary, so your bookkeeper imports a clean year instead of you re-typing it. You keep the phone-first app and QuickBooks still gets fed.
Your customers come with you. Export your client list from Joist (any CSV or spreadsheet works — even a screenshot or a photo of a handwritten list), then in SideWRK open Customers → Import and drop it in. Names, phones, emails, addresses, and notes land clean, with a preview and dedupe before anything saves. Your history stays yours: SideWRK exports everything back out in a click, so there's no lock-in on this side either.
Full walkthrough: switch from Joist →
Your money is never held. Payments go straight to you — Venmo, Zelle, or Cash App directly, or cards on your own Stripe account where you're the merchant of record. How that works →
No caps, no per-user fees. Unlimited jobs and invoices on every plan, and the working automation — deposits on approval, e-signatures, customer-choice add-ons, automatic payment reminders, receipt scanning, review follow-ups — is included, not held two tiers up.
The price you join at is the price you keep. Features you already have never move behind a new paywall.
Joist focuses on quick estimates and invoices and is inexpensive for that. SideWRK runs the whole job — estimates and branded invoices, customer approvals logged with name/time/amount, fee-free payment options, real-profit tracking, and trade-specific tools — for any of 42 trades in one login.
Joist is cheaper on the sticker — it has a free tier and paid plans around $8 and $15/month. SideWRK is $24/month and up because it does more than invoicing. If you just need to send the occasional invoice, Joist wins on price; if you want to run and get paid for the whole job, SideWRK is built for that.
SideWRK shows your real profit, not just revenue — every part or material carries a private 'your cost' the customer never sees, so the Money tab reflects what you actually made. That profit view is core to SideWRK.
Yes. SideWRK lets you get paid fee-free to Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, or Apple Pay with no merchant account, and supports in-app card payments too. Apps that route payments through a processor charge a percentage on every transaction.
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