EstiMate alternative
The modern EstiMate alternative for print & sign shops
EstiMate was sign estimating software that a lot of shops ran happily for fifteen or twenty years. Since 2023 its users have reported unanswered renewals, support reaching them only from a personal email address, and a website that went offline and came back. If your licence is lapsing and nobody is answering, this page is about where to go next — and about keeping the parts of EstiMate you actually liked.
There is no EstiMate export we can read, so nothing gets imported — your materials and markups are entered once into the options library and quotes price themselves from there. Most shops are quoting the same afternoon. Send us your price list and we will set it up with you, free.
PrinterFlo vs EstiMate
| EstiMate | PrinterFlo | |
|---|---|---|
| Still supported | Users report renewals and tickets going unanswered | Reply to any email and a person answers |
| Where it runs | Installed on one desktop | Browser — the shop PC, the laptop, the phone on the floor |
| Estimate contents | Product, cost, custom message, terms, PO number | All of it, plus live cost, profit and margin % as you build the quote |
| Material costs | Customizable cost plug-ins | Options library: substrate, vinyl, laminate, sides, quantity breaks — edited inline by your staff |
| QuickBooks | Export | Two-way sync — invoices and payments post themselves. Or keep the books in PrinterFlo itself, with Books |
| After the estimate | Ends at the quote | Same record carries through production, proof approval, invoice and payment |
| Your pricing data | Locked in a local database | One-click CSV/JSON export, any time |
Switching from EstiMate
The part everyone worries about, in three steps.
- 01
Export from EstiMate
Most systems let you export your customer list as a CSV or Excel file, and many export invoice or order history too. Price lists are hit and miss: some systems export them, many don't. Whatever EstiMate lets you export is yours to take.
- 02
Import it here
Settings → Import: drop the files in and check the columns PrinterFlo matched. Customers come in as customers, products with flat or per square foot prices, and past invoices, orders and payments as read-only history on each customer. Old invoice PDFs can go on too. Pricing formulas, matrices and tiers don't import. They get rebuilt in the options library, and we'll do that with you, free.
- 03
Bring the jobs you're still working on
Export your open orders from EstiMate too and drop them under Open orders. Each one becomes a live order on your board, its jobs in the column its status matches, with anything already paid counted on its balance. You tick which statuses come over, nothing emails your customers, and one click undoes the import.
Or don't do it yourself — send us the export.
We'll map and load your customers and products for you, check the prices came across right, and hand it back ready to quote from. No charge, and you don't have to be a customer first.
Where EstiMate fits
Shops who bought it years ago, learned it inside out, and would happily still be using it if renewals were being answered.
Why shops switch to PrinterFlo
- → Renewal and support requests going unanswered — the complaint that starts every thread.
- → No announcement either way, so nobody can plan around it.
- → Desktop-only, so your pricing lives on one machine rather than anywhere you are.
- → Estimating only — the job still gets tracked on a whiteboard or in a spreadsheet after the quote goes out.
- → No customer-facing proof approval or online deposit.
EstiMate alternative — FAQ
Is EstiMate sign software still in business?
There has never been a public announcement either way, so we won't claim one. What sign shops report on Signs101 is consistent: renewals and support tickets going unanswered since around 2023, contact coming from a personal email address, and the website going offline and later returning. If your licence is close to expiring, it is worth having a plan that does not depend on someone answering.
I have fifteen years of pricing in EstiMate. Do I lose it?
No — but it does have to be rebuilt rather than imported, because the pricing sits in a local database with no export we can read. In practice that is an afternoon, not a project: your substrates, vinyls, laminates and markups get entered once into the options library, and from then on quotes price themselves. Send us what you have and we will set it up with you, free.
What did EstiMate do that PrinterFlo also does?
The parts users say they miss: an estimate carrying product type, cost, a custom message to the customer, terms of sale and a PO number; customizable material costs; and QuickBooks. PrinterFlo does those, then keeps going — the same record becomes the production job, the proof the customer approves, the invoice, and the payment.
Is PrinterFlo desktop software like EstiMate was?
No, and that is the part worth knowing before you replace one with the other. PrinterFlo runs in a browser, so your pricing is not tied to one machine that can fail, and nothing has to be reinstalled or re-licensed. It also means you are never locked out of your own data by a licence lapsing.
Run your shop on PrinterFlo
A clean production board, fast quoting with a built-in sign calculator, and one-click customer approvals — built for how sign & print shops actually work.
Try it free. No card needed.