Wonderly vs. Joist
Joist keeps your transaction fees even when you refund the customer.
You issue a refund to make things right, but Joist's 3.49% + $0.49 stays in their pocket—not yours. It's buried in their help docs, and most contractors don't discover it until they've already paid. That's why we built Wonderly.
Free until you get results. Go live in 48 hours.
Why people switch
Three things Joist customers figure out after they've already committed.
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Joist doesn't include phone, texting, or email.
Joist gives you estimates and invoices. That's it. If you want to call a customer, text them a reminder, or send a follow-up email, you need separate software. There's no phone system, no texting capability, and no email tool built in. You're paying $10–32/month for documents, then buying everything else on top.
Wonderly includes phone, SMS, and email with 10,000 credits in the AI tier. One platform, one login, no extra bills.
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Payment fees are non-refundable, even when you refund customers.
Joist's terms say all transaction fees are non-refundable. If you charge a customer $5,000 and refund them the next day, you still lose the 3.49% processing fee — $174.50 gone. Their payment system also routes some transactions through PayPal, stacking fees that can reach 10% on a single invoice.
Wonderly does not require annual contracts. You can cancel anytime, and you're not locked into payment processors that penalize refunds.
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The $10/month plan caps you at 5 documents.
Joist's Basics plan limits you to 5 estimates or invoices per month. Send 6 estimates in a busy week? You're forced to upgrade to the $16/month Pro plan. That's a 60% price jump just to send more quotes. The advertised $10 price only works if you barely use the software.
Wonderly's CRM and business tools are $0 forever with no document limits, no contact caps, and no forced upgrades as your business grows.
Feature overview
Wonderly vs. Joist in one glance.
The most important things you need to know.
Feature details
Here's a detailed look at Wonderly's features.
We know unpredictable pricing is stressful — that's why ALL AI features (Receptionist, Text, Automations) are included in one flat rate of $395/mo after the first 14 days. No surprises, ever.
The elephant in the room
But Joist is built specifically for contractors like me...
It is. And if all you need is mobile estimating and invoicing, Joist does that well. But it won't answer your phone when you're on a ladder, follow up with leads while you're driving between jobs, or automatically text a quote to someone who called at 7 PM on a Tuesday.
Contractors who switch to Wonderly aren't looking for a better estimating app. They're looking to stop losing revenue to missed calls, late follow-ups, and leads that go cold because they were too busy working to respond in time.
Here's the real question: Do you need a tool that helps you create estimates faster, or do you need a system that stops leads from going cold while you're out on a job?
The math doesn't lie.
What a 5-person team costs over 2 years.
Wonderly
$0
Free forever. 5 seats included.
Need AI? Add $395/mo flat rate. $0 spent on platform fees
Joist
$3,840
$32/seat × 5 people × 24 months
And that's their mid-tier plan.
$3,840 spent on platform fees
That's $3,840 you could spend on marketing, hiring, or literally anything else.
Time to get started
With Wonderly get set up in minutes
Set up Wonderly
in under 30 minutes
Most users know if it works for them in 20 mins.
Set up Joist
That takes 2-3 days
Onboarding calls, training, configurations
Free until you get results. Go live in 48 hours.
FAQs
Common Questions
Everything you need to know about switching from Joist
Wonderly replaces your website builder, business phone system, texting platform, email management, scheduling tool, and project management software in one platform. Joist only handles estimates and invoices, so you're still paying for Calendly ($8/month), RingCentral ($20/month), Mailchimp ($10/month), and a website builder ($15/month). That's $53/month in tools Wonderly includes for free, plus the time you spend switching between apps and keeping everything connected.
Picture this: you're under a sink fixing a leak when a new lead calls. With Wonderly, our AI Receptionist picks up, qualifies the lead, and books the appointment while you work. Then AI automatically texts and emails follow-ups until they respond. With Joist, that call goes to voicemail. You'll remember to call back later — maybe. By then, they've already hired someone else who answered the phone.
Wonderly's AI builds your website, sets up your phone system, configures your CRM, and creates your automations in one 20-minute session. Everything talks to everything else because it's one platform. With Joist, you get estimates and invoices working quickly, but then you're back to finding, buying, and connecting separate tools for your phone, website, scheduling, and follow-up. Each one needs its own setup, and none of them talk to each other without expensive middleware.
When you close a deal in Wonderly, the project automatically kicks off with task lists, timelines, team assignments, and a client portal where customers can see progress and upload documents. Joist converts estimates to invoices and that's it — you're back to managing projects in spreadsheets or buying another tool like Monday.com ($8/month per user). Most contractors don't realize they need project management until they're juggling five jobs and losing track of what's due when.
Your business number is on your truck, Google listing, and business cards — you can't just change it. Wonderly ports your existing number and the AI Receptionist starts answering calls immediately. Joist doesn't offer phone service at all, so you'd need to find and pay for a separate VOIP provider like RingCentral ($20/month), then figure out how to connect it to your CRM. With Wonderly, calls automatically create leads in your CRM and trigger follow-up sequences.
You don’t have time to figure out software. You shouldn’t have to.
Set Wonderly up in 20 minutes. Free forever.