If you're already paying for fence or contractor software, you've cleared the "is this worth anything?" question. The question now is: is the savings big enough to justify the switching cost?
This article does the math honestly. Annual savings vs every major tool fence contractors land on, the switching costs nobody puts on the marketing page, and which scenarios genuinely don't justify a switch.
Annual savings, by current tool
Numbers assume a typical mid-sized fence shop: 5-person crew, 20 quotes/month, 45 minutes per quote on the current tool, $50/hr loaded estimator cost. Time savings assume FenceTracer drops quoting to ~10 minutes (industry-typical for shops past their first week on the tool).
| Feature | FenceTracer | Annual savings switching to FenceTracer |
|---|---|---|
| From JobNimbus (~$40/user × 5 = $200/mo) | +$240 software + $7,000 time = **$7,240/yr** | Per-user pricing |
| From ServiceTitan (~$300/mo flat) | +$1,440 software + $7,000 time = **$8,440/yr** | Custom enterprise pricing |
| From ArcSite (~$99/user × 5 = $495/mo) | +$3,780 software + $7,000 time = **$10,780/yr** | Per-user CAD |
| From Buildertrend (~$399/mo flat) | +$2,628 software + $7,000 time = **$9,628/yr** | Flat tier |
| From FenceCloud (~$150/mo) | −$360 software + $7,000 time = **$6,640/yr** | Mid-market flat |
The pattern: for everyone except the very cheapest tools, the software savings alone covers FenceTracer, and the time savings is what makes the annual total interesting. For shops larger than the assumed 5-person crew, the per-user delta only widens.
Plug in your own numbers
The calculator below is pre-loaded with JobNimbus — change the current-tool dropdown to whatever you're on now. Numbers update live.
ROI calculator
Your savings with FenceTracerAll figures in CAD. Numbers update as you type, adjust to match your shop.The switching costs nobody talks about
A migration story that ignores the friction is propaganda. Here's the honest list:
1. Data migration
Customers and basic project notes export from every major tool as CSV. FenceTracer imports them. This is a 1–2 hour task.
Quote templates and pipeline stages don't migrate cleanly — the data models differ. You rebuild them in FenceTracer's structure. Most shops do this once, in an afternoon, and don't think about it again.
Historical quotes stay in the old system as a read-only archive. You don't migrate them; you reference them if needed.
Realistic effort: 4–8 hours, one-time. At $50/hr that's $200–$400. Recovered inside month 1 against any of the annual savings above.
2. Retraining
Anyone who can use a web app can use FenceTracer. The drawing tool has a 30-minute learning curve; the rest is mostly self-explanatory because the workflow matches how a fence shop actually quotes.
Realistic effort: 2 hours per user for the drawing tool, ~30 minutes for everything else. A 5-person crew is 12–15 person-hours of light training, $600–$750 in payroll.
3. Contract overlap
This is the one nobody mentions: most per-user SaaS bills you in advance, often annually. If you're 4 months into a 12-month JobNimbus contract, switching means paying both for the remaining 8 months or negotiating a refund (sometimes possible, often not).
Realistic effort: depends on your contract. Plan for 1–3 months of overlap unless your current tool is month-to-month.
4. Integration rewiring
If you have QuickBooks, CompanyCam, EagleView, or other tools wired into your current software, you'll need to reconnect them. FenceTracer's integration story is narrower than JobNimbus or Buildertrend — it's deliberately focused on the fence workflow, not on being a universal hub.
Realistic effort: case-by-case. If you depend on a deep JobNimbus + CompanyCam workflow, audit that before switching.
Total switching cost vs annual savings
For the typical 5-person fence shop coming from a major tool:
Switching cost: ~$800–$1,500 one-time (data + training)
+ Contract overlap: ~$0–$1,200 (depends on current contract)
= Total worst case: ~$2,700
Annual savings (avg across tools): ~$8,000+/year
Payback on the switch itself: 3–5 months in the worst case, immediate if you're on a month-to-month plan.
When NOT to switch
A few cases where the math doesn't favor switching:
- You're in month 11 of a 12-month annual contract — wait the month, then switch. The contract overlap eats half your year-1 savings.
- You run a heavy roofing + fence hybrid and your team genuinely uses JobNimbus's or Buildertrend's roofing-specific workflows. FenceTracer is fence-first; if 40% of your jobs aren't fence, the fit drops.
- You have a deep integration stack (QuickBooks + CompanyCam + EagleView + your CRM all wired up) that would take weeks to rebuild. The integration rewire cost matters here.
- You're already on FenceCloud and happy. FenceCloud is fence-specific too. The software savings are modest; the case for switching is feature fit (drawing tool, Canadian tax, catalogue depth), not raw cost.
Read the head-to-heads
If you want the full feature-by-feature comparison for the tool you're currently on:
- FenceTracer vs JobNimbus
- FenceTracer vs ServiceTitan
- FenceTracer vs ArcSite
- FenceTracer vs Buildertrend
- FenceTracer vs FenceCloud
FenceTracer
Run the math on your shop, not a generic one
The 30-day trial is free, no credit card. Quote a month of real jobs in FenceTracer in parallel with your current tool — the switching decision becomes obvious.FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to switch from JobNimbus to FenceTracer?
Most shops are fully on FenceTracer within 1–2 weeks, with the old system as a read-only archive for another month or two. The CSV export from JobNimbus → CSV import into FenceTracer is a 1–2 hour task. Rebuilding quote templates takes an afternoon. The longest pole is usually retraining the crew, which is a few hours per user.
Can I run both tools in parallel during the switch?
Yes — and we recommend it for the 30-day trial. Quote your next batch of jobs in both, compare time-per-quote and quote quality, then make the call. This avoids the worst switching outcome, which is committing fully and discovering an edge case three weeks in.
What if I'm mid-contract on my current tool?
You have three options. (1) Run both for the remaining contract term — cheap if you're 1–2 months out, expensive if you're 6+. (2) Negotiate an early termination with your current vendor; some will refund pro-rated, most won't. (3) Wait until the renewal date and switch then. Most shops who are 6+ months out from renewal find option 1 still nets positive within year 1.
Will my CompanyCam / QuickBooks / EagleView integrations still work?
FenceTracer's integration footprint is narrower than JobNimbus or Buildertrend — we focus on the fence workflow rather than being a CRM hub. QuickBooks integration is on the roadmap but not live as of mid-2026. If you have a deep integration stack that's load-bearing, walk through it with us during the trial before switching.
Is the $180/mo price going to go up?
No price increase planned for existing customers. New-customer pricing has been flat at $180 CAD/month since launch. If we ever raise it, existing customers are grandfathered at their current rate — this is a written commitment.
