Orys AI vs STACK: Which Is Better in 2026?

Orys AI and STACK are both used for construction estimating, but they solve the problem differently. STACK is a takeoff and estimating platform where estimators input items and assemblies manually. Orys AI is an AI-assisted estimating platform where an AI catalog does that work for you — and confirms every action before executing. For commercial electrical contractors, that difference is not small. It determines how many bids your team can submit in a week.

This article compares Orys AI and STACK across the decisions that matter most: catalog management, takeoff speed, platform performance, learning curve, and price. It is written from firsthand experience — the founder of Orys AI spent years managing electrical crews and handling cost estimating before building this platform.

The Problem Both Tools Are Trying to Solve

Commercial electrical contractors tend to hit a ceiling around $3 million in annual revenue. At that point, the bottleneck is rarely manpower. It is estimating capacity. The company can only bid as many jobs as its estimating process allows. If an estimate takes two days, the team submits fewer bids. Fewer bids means fewer wins. Fewer wins means the company stalls.

Owners trying to break through that ceiling need one thing: more bids submitted per week without adding headcount. Lead estimators drowning in bid deadlines need one thing: a tool that multiplies their output without multiplying their hours. That is the problem both Orys AI and STACK are competing to solve.

The difference is how far each tool goes to actually solve it.

What Estimating Looks Like Before Orys AI

One electrical contractor now using Orys AI walked through his previous process for estimating a La Madeleine restaurant buildout. He had three screens open simultaneously: Google Earth on one, blueprints on another, and a spreadsheet on the third. Google Earth was slow. Screenshots ended up scattered across his desktop with no organization. He counted duplexes and switches manually on the blueprint — and miscounted, which meant recounting the entire page from scratch.

Then he cross-referenced each device number (like C-17) against the schedule to figure out branch routing. Then he updated the spreadsheet. Then he double-checked every formula in the template because a broken cell reference could throw off the entire estimate. A single price change from a supplier meant manually updating every line item that referenced that material.

That is the workflow Orys AI was built to replace. STACK improves parts of it. Orys AI replaces the core of it.

Catalog Management: Manual vs AI-Assisted

STACK requires estimators to build and maintain their cost catalog manually. Every item, every assembly, every price update is entered by hand. When a supplier sends a new quote with updated pricing, someone on the team has to open the catalog, find every affected line item, and update each one individually.

Orys AI's catalog works differently. An estimator uploads a vendor quote — a PDF from Lone Star Electrical Supply, for example — and Orys AI's catalog extracts the items, organizes the pricing, and proposes the updates. The estimator reviews and approves before anything changes. No manual data entry. No missed line items. If a material price changes mid-project, the estimator updates it once in Orys AI's catalog and the change flows through to every project that references that item in real time.

That is the core difference. STACK gives estimators a digital place to manage a catalog. Orys AI gives estimators an AI that manages the catalog for them.

Takeoff Speed: Manual Counting vs Template Matching

In STACK, estimators count symbols by clicking each one individually on the drawing. For a full commercial electrical scope — every duplex receptacle, every switch, every light fixture across every page — that process takes hours. It also introduces human error. Miscounts happen, especially on dense drawing pages.

Orys AI's template matching works differently. An estimator highlights one duplex receptacle on the page. Orys AI finds every matching symbol across that drawing page automatically. The process takes seconds, not hours. On the La Madeleine restaurant estimate mentioned earlier, this single feature eliminated the manual recount that had previously cost the estimator an hour of rework.

Both platforms support PDF blueprint upload. The difference is what happens after the upload. STACK requires the estimator to do the counting. Orys AI does the counting and asks the estimator to confirm.

Platform Performance on Large Projects

Multiple verified reviews on Capterra note that STACK's interface becomes slow and laggy when users upload large project files. For commercial electrical contractors working on multi-building scopes or large floor plans, this is a real productivity problem. A tool that lags on big jobs fails the estimators who need it most.

Orys AI was built with platform performance as a top priority. The interface does not degrade on large project files. This is a deliberate engineering decision, not a coincidence — a modern estimating platform cannot afford to slow down when the job gets complex.

Learning Curve: Weeks vs 2 to 3 Days

Legacy estimating software — and some current platforms — carry steep learning curves. The founder of Orys AI spent weeks learning a legacy platform during his time managing electrical crews at Go Green Texas EV. That included paid courses, support calls, and YouTube tutorials. The interface was overloaded with features, slow to respond, and required significant time investment before it was productive.

Orys AI's onboarding takes 2 to 3 days on average. That figure holds across age ranges from 28 to 60 years old. The platform is built to be intuitive for estimators who are not technical — the AI handles complexity, so the estimator does not have to navigate it.

STACK has its own learning curve, particularly for users setting up complex assemblies and formula-driven pricing. For teams that are already comfortable with digital takeoff tools, that curve is manageable. For teams coming off Excel or legacy software, Orys AI's 2 to 3 day onboarding is a meaningful advantage.

Project Organization: Folders vs Dedicated Project Workspaces

On Excel, finding an old estimate means digging through SharePoint folders, shared drives, and file names that may or may not be descriptive. Pulling up an estimate from 18 months ago can take two hours of searching. That is not an edge case — it is a real cost that compounds across every project a company has ever bid.

Orys AI organizes estimates inside dedicated project workspaces. Every estimate is searchable by project name. Orys AI also supports estimate snapshots — frozen versions of an estimate at a specific point in time. This is useful for change orders, for comparing Class 1 vs Class 2 estimates under AACE guidelines, or for preserving a baseline before scope changes. Pulling up any version of any estimate takes seconds, not hours.

Orys AI vs STACK: Side-by-Side Comparison

Who Should Use Orys AI vs STACK

STACK is a reasonable choice for contractors who already have an established digital workflow, are comfortable maintaining their catalog manually, and primarily need a cloud-based takeoff tool to replace paper-based processes.

Orys AI is built specifically for commercial electrical contractors bidding strip malls, restaurants, and commercial buildings who want AI to handle the repetitive work — catalog maintenance, symbol counting, vendor quote processing — so estimators can spend their time on more bids, not more data entry.

If your team is still on Excel or legacy software, Orys AI's 2 to 3 day onboarding and AI-assisted catalog make the transition significantly easier than rebuilding your workflow inside a manual platform like STACK.

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