Paint Portal vs PaintScout
Two different bets. PaintScout has spent years perfecting the estimate and the proposal. Paint Portal covers the whole job — quote, crew, costs, and collection — in one app. Here's the honest math on which bet fits your shop.
Paint Portal is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to PaintScout. PaintScout is a trademark of its owner. Every claim below is sourced from PaintScout's public website as of June 12, 2026 — their pricing and features may change, so check their site for current details.
The short version
Both are real tools built for painters. The fit depends on what your week looks like.
PaintScout fits better when…
- Estimating is your bottleneck and you want the deepest production-rate engine on the market
- You sell with polished, presentation-style proposals and want training to match
- You want to offer clients consumer financing (Wisetack)
Paint Portal fits better when…
- You want the crew side too — scheduling, GPS clock-ins, and prep/prime/paint progress, not just the sale
- You want to know what each job actually made while it's still on the wall
- You'd rather start at $39 a month and pay only for the tools you run
- Your painters live on their phones — ours get a real app, not a browser tab
Feature by feature, with sources
“Not advertised” means their public pages don't mention it as ofJune 12, 2026 — nothing more. We compare what each company tells the public, not rumors.
| Feature | PaintScout | Paint Portal |
|---|---|---|
| Win jobs | ||
| Estimates & proposals | Its specialty — production-rate estimating with polished, presentation-grade proposals | Room-by-room quote builder with live margin warnings and one-click PDF |
| E-signatures | Included — clients sign on the spot | Included — clients e-sign from any device, no account needed |
| Automated follow-ups & customer chat | Included in the Sales plan | Automatic email follow-up on unanswered quotes (add-on); no text drips |
| Consumer financing | Wisetack integration | Not offered |
| Run crews | ||
| Job scheduling & job management | Operations add-on ($99/mo on top of Sales) | Drag-and-drop crew calendar included on every paid plan |
| Crew time clock | Not advertised | GPS-verified clock-in, automatic overtime |
| Production progress tracking | Not advertised | Prep / prime / paint sliders for each job, updated from the field |
| Jobsite photos | CompanyCam integration | Built-in gallery with GPS pins and timestamps |
| Equipment tracking | Not advertised | QR tags on sprayers, ladders, and tools — scan to check out |
| Know your numbers | ||
| Live job costing | Not advertised | Labor hours and material costs against the estimate, while the job runs |
| A/R aging | Not advertised | Overdue buckets 0–90+ days with pre-written payment reminders |
| Payroll math | Not advertised | Approved hours roll into gross pay with overtime, exportable |
| Get paid | ||
| Online payments | Included in the Sales plan | Cards and ACH through Stripe, straight from the client portal |
| Deposits | Payments included; deposit flow not detailed on the pricing page | Client pays the deposit in the same sitting as the e-sign |
| Platform | ||
| QuickBooks | Integration available | Yes: invoices, expenses and payments sync with QuickBooks Online |
| Other integrations | Pipedrive, CompanyCam, Monday.com, Wisetack, Zapier, HubSpot | Data import from Jobber, Monday.com, CSV |
| Mobile | Mobile-responsive web app (phone, tablet, desktop) | Web app that works on any phone, tablet or computer |
| Try before you buy | 14-day free trial, no credit card | Free tier with real jobs in it — no timed paid-plan trial |
| Onboarding | Free onboarding and live chat; paid success packages $999–$1,999 | Self-serve setup with data import |
Where PaintScout is genuinely ahead
Credit where it's due — these are real advantages, not straw men.
Estimating depth
PaintScout's production-rate engine is the most established in the painting industry. If your whole problem is "my estimates take too long and miss," it's a focused, proven answer.
Proposal presentation
Their proposals are built to be presented in the living room — polished, customizable, e-signed on the spot. Ours are clean and professional; theirs are a sales weapon.
Integrations and ecosystem
Wisetack financing, Zapier, HubSpot, Pipedrive, CompanyCam. If your business already runs on those rails, PaintScout plugs in today — we don't yet.
Hands-on onboarding
Free onboarding, live chat, and paid success packages where their team builds out your production rates and templates with you. If you want white-glove setup, they sell it.
Where Paint Portal pulls ahead
The estimate is one morning. The job is two weeks. We built for the two weeks too.
The whole job, not just the sale
After the client signs, PaintScout's job moves to a $99/mo Operations add-on for scheduling and job management. In Paint Portal, scheduling, GPS clock-ins, production tracking, photos, and equipment are part of the same app the quote came from.
Know your numbers while the job runs
Live job costing tracks hours and materials against the estimate in real time, then A/R aging chases what's unpaid. Their public pages don't advertise either.
Price of entry
Paint Portal starts at $39 a month with quoting, scheduling, and clock-in included, and a free tier below that. PaintScout's entry point is $119 a month for one user, estimating-side only.
The monthly bill for a 3-person crew
An owner and two painters, priced on each platform's own published monthly rates as of June 12, 2026.
| Setup | How it adds up | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| PaintScout, estimating only | Sales plan $119 includes 1 user; ask PaintScout which additional seat type your crew needs | $119 + seats |
| PaintScout, with job management | Sales $119 + Operations $99; two additional Team seats at the published $20 each, if suitable for your crew | $258* |
| Paint Portal, Starter | Starter: $39 for 1 full user + 2 crew-only users, 25 active projects and unlimited quotes, signatures and invoices | $39 |
| Paint Portal, Pro | $99 includes 5 users with unlimited quotes and invoices — payments, GPS verification, live job costing, A/R | $99 |
*Team seats are not a promise of additional Sales licenses. Confirm the required access with PaintScout. Prices and the Team-seat label were rechecked on their pricing pageSeptember 13, 2026; other feature descriptions retain the review date below. Fair notes: PaintScout drops to $99/mo (Sales) and $79/mo (Operations) on annual billing, and their trial doesn't take a card. Our $39 Starter includes 1 full user + 2 crew-only users and 25 active projects; a second office user requires Pro at $99. Paint Portal is free during the beta, and these plans start at launch. Full breakdown on our pricing page.
Sources: paintscout.com and paintscout.com/pricing, retrieved June 12, 2026, using monthly billing. Paint Portal figures are our own published pricing on the same date.
PaintScout is a trademark of its respective owner. Paint Portal is an independent product with no affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement relationship with PaintScout. If anything above is out of date,tell us and we'll fix it.
Run three jobs through it and judge for yourself
Start free, and if Paint Portal hasn't earned its keep after 3 jobs or 90 days on a paid plan, every dollar comes back.How the guarantee works.