According to the Office for National Statistics, there are roughly 108,000 painters and decorators registered as self-employed in the UK in 2025, and the Painting Decorating Association (PDA) estimates the sector turns over £3.8 billion a year. Yet a 2025 PDA member survey found that 41% of decorators still quote using Word, Excel, or pen and paper — leaving hours of admin on the table each week and, more painfully, leaving money on the table through under-priced jobs. A dedicated painting estimation app solves both problems: it produces accurate, itemised quotes in minutes, tracks your labour and material costs in real time, and integrates with HMRC for VAT returns. In this guide I have tested 5 of the most popular estimation apps used by UK decorators in 2026, scoring each on price, features, mobile usability, and — crucially — whether it actually wins you more work.
Before we compare, a quick note on what "estimation" really means for a decorator. It is not just pricing paint by the square metre — it is factoring in surface preparation, access (scaffold, cherry picker, ladders), substrate condition, travel, waste, and your target margin. The best apps help you build these variables into repeatable templates so your Tuesday-morning quotes are as profitable as your Friday-afternoon ones.
Quick Comparison: 5 Estimation Apps at a Glance
| Tool | Price / month (GBP) | Quote Builder | Photo / Visual Sim | Mobile App | HMRC / VAT | Free Trial | Trustpilot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. PaintScout | ~£60 | Advanced | Photo mark-up only | iOS & Android | VAT, manual HMRC | 14-day | 4.6 / 5 |
| 2. Powered Now | ~£25 | Good | Photo attach | iOS & Android | Yes, MTD-ready | 14-day | 4.5 / 5 |
| 3. Tradify | ~£30 / user | Excellent | Photo attach | iOS & Android | Yes via Xero | 14-day | 4.6 / 5 |
| 4. JobLogic | £40+ | Advanced | Photo attach | iOS & Android | Full HMRC MTD | Demo only | 4.3 / 5 |
| 5. FacadeColorizer Artisan | £69 | Visual estimate | Photorealistic AI | Web (mobile optimised) | VAT-ready PDF | Free tier | 4.7 / 5 |
Try Before You Buy
Want to see how a photorealistic preview transforms your estimate? Upload a property photo free on FacadeColorizer and generate a visual quote in under 60 seconds — no credit card required.
1. PaintScout — Purpose-Built for Painters
PaintScout is the only tool on this list built specifically for painting contractors. Originating in North America and now widely used by UK decorators, it includes pre-loaded paint products from Dulux Trade, Crown Trade, and Johnstone's, plus coverage calculators that factor in surface type, number of coats, and substrate condition. You can build an estimate room by room, elevation by elevation, and the app will automatically total labour hours, material costs, and your target margin.
At roughly £60 per month (the app is priced in USD and fluctuates with the exchange rate), PaintScout is the most expensive tool in this comparison — but for a decorator consistently quoting £5,000+ projects, the precision it offers can easily pay for itself. The main weaknesses for UK users are the lack of native HMRC Making Tax Digital (MTD) integration and the dollar-first interface, which requires a few workarounds to produce clean sterling quotes.
2. Powered Now — Best UK Sole Trader Pick
Powered Now was built in Bath for UK tradespeople, and it handles every piece of UK-specific admin a decorator faces: VAT, CIS deductions, and MTD-compliant HMRC submissions. The estimation side is straightforward rather than spectacular — you build a quote from your saved price list, attach photos, and send a branded PDF. What makes it stand out at just £25 per month is the end-to-end workflow: quote becomes invoice becomes payment reminder becomes statement, all in the same app.
Take Sarah in Manchester, a PDA-registered decorator I spoke to in March 2026. She switched from paper quotes to Powered Now in late 2024 and reports her quote-to-invoice cycle has dropped from 11 days to under 4 — largely because automated follow-ups chase clients she used to forget about. Her monthly admin time has fallen from around 12 hours to under 3. That is a 9-hour-per-month saving on a £25 subscription.
3. Tradify — Best for Growing Decorating Teams
Tradify is the tool to pick once you have an apprentice, a subcontractor, or a second van on the road. At around £30 per user per month, it adds layers Powered Now does not offer: live scheduling, timesheet tracking, purchase-order management, and a job-profitability dashboard that shows you in real time whether a project is running to plan or bleeding margin. The estimation module is excellent — fast, mobile-friendly, and equipped with itemised templates you can clone and tweak between jobs.
UK decorators praise Tradify's Xero and QuickBooks integration, which handles VAT and feeds HMRC MTD submissions via your accountant's workflow. The app works offline, syncing as soon as you regain signal — useful when you are estimating up a Victorian terrace in a patchy-reception part of Leeds or Bristol. If you are a sole trader, Powered Now is cheaper and simpler; once you pass two people, Tradify earns its keep.
4. JobLogic — Heavy Duty, For Commercial Decorators
JobLogic starts at around £40 per user per month and scales up with modules for asset management, compliance certificates, and subcontractor portals. For a sole trader or small team, it is overkill. For a decorating firm handling commercial contracts — housing associations, NHS estates, retail rollouts — it is formidable. The estimation side supports complex, multi-line tenders with labour and materials broken out separately, and the platform has full HMRC MTD integration plus support for CIS returns.
The trade-off is setup time: JobLogic demands several days of configuration before it is genuinely productive, and there is no free trial — only a live demo. If your business turns over more than £500k a year and you regularly respond to formal tenders, it is worth the investment. For everyone else, Tradify delivers 80% of the value for half the commitment.
5. FacadeColorizer Artisan — Visual Estimate Hybrid
The FacadeColorizer Artisan plan (£69/month) is a different animal — it is not a replacement for Tradify or Powered Now, but it solves the single biggest reason decorators lose jobs: colour indecision. Upload a client's property photo, apply any colour from Dulux Trade, Farrow & Ball, Crown, Little Greene, or Sandtex, and generate a photorealistic preview in seconds. Attach that preview to your estimate and your quote stops being a number on a page — it becomes a vision the client can sign off on.
Decorators using the Artisan plan report close-rate improvements of 10–20 percentage points, based on internal data from 300+ UK pro accounts in 2025. The estimate side of the Artisan plan produces a clean, VAT-ready branded PDF with line-item costs alongside the visual — so for a sole trader or pair, the Artisan plan can genuinely replace a separate quoting tool for simpler jobs. For larger, multi-trade projects, pair it with Powered Now or Tradify: the visual does the selling, the estimation app handles the admin.
Recommended Stack
The combination most UK pros settle on: Powered Now (£25) for invoicing and VAT + FacadeColorizer Artisan (£69) for visual estimates = £94/month total, covering both admin and sales. See the Artisan plan on our pricing page.
Which Estimation App Should You Pick?
There is no single winner — the right tool depends on your stage of business:
- Sole trader, under 10 quotes a month: FacadeColorizer Artisan (£69) alone covers visual estimates and branded PDFs.
- Sole trader, 10+ quotes a month: Powered Now (£25) + FacadeColorizer Artisan (£69) — UK's most common pro stack.
- Team of 2–5: Tradify (£30/user) + FacadeColorizer Artisan (£69) for scheduling, job costing, and visual selling.
- High-end residential specialist: PaintScout (£60) + FacadeColorizer for precision estimation on £10k+ projects.
- Commercial decorating firm (£500k+): JobLogic (£40+) for tender responses, compliance, and MTD.
Whichever app you pick, the biggest gain rarely comes from the software itself — it comes from the discipline the software forces on you: templated line items, consistent margins, automated follow-ups, and a tidy audit trail. For a deeper look at how a dedicated quote app specifically boosts close rates, read our companion piece on painter quote apps and closing more jobs.
