Jetbuilt vs. QuoteAV: Which AV Quoting Tool Is Right for Your Shop?

If you're shopping for AV quoting software in 2026, you've probably come across Jetbuilt. They've carved out a solid position in the mid-market — cloud-based, AV-specific, with strong manufacturer partnerships and a polished interface. For a lot of commercial AV firms, Jetbuilt is a genuinely good tool.

QuoteAV is newer and aimed at a different slice of the market: the smaller firms that need structured quoting without the per-seat pricing and feature depth that comes with a mid-market platform. Both tools solve the same core problem — getting AV integrators off spreadsheets and into something purpose-built — but they solve it at different scales and price points.

Here's an honest breakdown to help you figure out which one fits your shop.

What Jetbuilt does well

Jetbuilt has been around since the mid-2010s and has built real traction in the commercial AV space. A few things they do particularly well:

• Manufacturer catalog partnerships — Jetbuilt maintains direct relationships with major AV manufacturers, which means their product database is extensive and kept reasonably current. When you're speccing Crestron, Extron, or Biamp gear, the products are there with specs and images.
• Team collaboration — built for firms where multiple people touch a project. Sales builds the quote, the engineer reviews the bill of materials, the project manager tracks progress. Role-based access and internal notes support that workflow.
• Polished proposals — Jetbuilt puts real effort into the output. Proposals look professional, and you have control over what clients see vs. what stays internal.
• Project tracking — it goes beyond quoting into light project management. Status tracking, phase management, and some ops features that help post-sale.
• Integrations — connections to QuickBooks, some CRM tools, and manufacturer portals. If you're a firm that needs your quoting tool to talk to your accounting software, Jetbuilt has invested there.

For a 15–50 person commercial AV firm with a dedicated sales team and an operations coordinator, Jetbuilt is a strong choice. It's genuinely built for the AV industry, not a generic quoting tool with an AV skin.

Where Jetbuilt may be more than you need

Jetbuilt's strength is also its constraint for smaller firms. A few areas where the fit gets less comfortable as your team size shrinks:

Per-seat pricing at small scale

Jetbuilt uses per-seat pricing. That's standard for mid-market SaaS, and it's fair when you're spreading the cost across a team of 10+. But if you're a 3-person shop and only one person builds quotes, paying per-seat for a single license can feel expensive relative to what you're getting. The cost-per-user is designed for teams, not solo operators.

No permanent free tier

Jetbuilt offers trial periods, but there's no permanent free tier for small firms that only handle a handful of jobs per month. If your quoting volume is 5–10 jobs a month and your average project is $15K–$40K, the subscription cost needs to justify itself against that scale. For some shops, it does. For others — especially residential and event AV firms with tighter margins — it's a harder sell.

Feature depth vs. simplicity

Jetbuilt has a lot of features. That's great if you use them. But if all you need is "build a quote, see my margins, send a proposal," the interface has more going on than you need. More tabs, more options, more workflow steps. It's not unusable — it's just more than necessary for a firm where one person manages the entire quote-to-proposal workflow.

What QuoteAV does differently

QuoteAV makes different trade-offs. It's less powerful than Jetbuilt in several areas — intentionally — because it's optimized for a different user: the owner or sales lead of a 2–15 person shop who needs to get quotes out fast without a steep learning curve or a significant software budget.

• Radical simplicity — the interface is stripped down to what you actually use every day: rooms, systems, line items, margins, proposals. No project management layer, no procurement module, no approval chains. One person's tool for one person's workflow.
• Genuinely free tier — 10 active jobs, 50 products, 10 clients. No time limit, no credit card required. This isn't a 14-day trial — it's a permanent tier that covers many small firms' actual needs. If you quote 8 jobs a month and close half of them, you may never need to upgrade.
• Flat pricing — the paid tier is $29/month for unlimited everything. Not per seat. If you have 3 people who need access, it's still $29. No negotiation, no "call for a quote," no annual commitment required.
• Per-line-item margins — every piece of equipment and every labor line shows cost, sell price, and margin. You see exactly what you're making on that Shure MXA920 ceiling mic or that rack of QSC amplifiers before the proposal goes out. Not just a rolled-up project margin — per line.
• Works for residential, commercial, and event — the room/system structure is flexible enough for a home theater, a corporate boardroom, or a festival stage. No assumptions about vertical baked in.

Side-by-side comparison

Who should use Jetbuilt

Jetbuilt is the better fit if:

• You're a 15–50 person commercial AV firm with a dedicated sales team
• Multiple people collaborate on quotes and projects with defined roles
• You need integrations with accounting software (QuickBooks) or CRM platforms
• Manufacturer catalog depth is a priority — you need extensive product data with specs and images
• You want project tracking beyond quoting — phases, status, post-sale ops
• Per-seat pricing at your team size works out to a reasonable per-user cost

Who should use QuoteAV

QuoteAV is the better fit if:

• You're a 2–15 person shop where one or two people handle all the quoting
• You want structured AV quoting without paying per seat or committing to annual contracts
• You need a free tier that actually works long-term — not a 14-day trial
• You do a mix of residential, commercial, and event work and need something flexible
• Per-line-item margin visibility is important to how you price jobs
• You want to be quoting today, not next week after onboarding and configuration
• Your software budget for the whole business is closer to $100/month than $500/month

The bottom line

Jetbuilt and QuoteAV aren't interchangeable — they're built for different scales. Jetbuilt is a mid-market platform with depth and integrations that earn their price at the right team size. QuoteAV is a focused tool for small firms that trades feature depth for simplicity and accessibility.

The good news is you don't have to guess. Jetbuilt typically offers a trial period, and QuoteAV has a permanent free tier with no time limit. Sign up for both, build the same quote in each, and see which one matches the way you actually work.

If you're a small shop and you find yourself using 20% of Jetbuilt's features, you know the answer. If you're a growing firm and QuoteAV starts feeling limiting, Jetbuilt is a natural step up. There's no wrong answer — just the right fit for where your firm is today.

Try QuoteAV free — no credit card, no time limit. See if it fits your workflow.