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MagicPlan's pricing looks simple until you run a busy month. Then the overage charges kick in and the bill looks nothing like what you signed up for. Here's exactly how MagicPlan's per-project billing works, when it gets expensive, and what contractors are switching to instead.
MagicPlan charges a monthly subscription that includes a set number of project exports. A "project" in MagicPlan's system is one property or job site. Once you've used your included projects for the month, each additional project costs extra — billed on top of your subscription.
The overage rate varies by plan but can reach $40 per additional project. For contractors running a high volume of jobs, this turns a predictable monthly cost into a variable one that scales with your busiest months — exactly when you can least afford surprises.
Take a restoration contractor running 30 jobs in a month on MagicPlan's entry plan, which includes 10 projects. That's 20 overage projects at the overage rate. At $40/project, that's $800 in overages on top of the subscription cost. A month that felt productive becomes a month with an unexpectedly large software bill.
Slower months look fine. Busy months hurt. The pricing model penalises growth.
In MagicPlan, a new project is created each time you start documenting a new property. For contractors who document every job — which is the whole point of field documentation software — every job is a potential overage once you've hit your plan limit. The only way to avoid overages is to document fewer jobs, which defeats the purpose.
MagicPlan does roll unused projects to the following month, which provides some buffer. But rollover credits deplete quickly during busy periods, and they don't eliminate the overage problem — they just delay it.
The most common trigger for contractors leaving MagicPlan isn't a product issue — it's a billing one. The product works reasonably well for floor plans. The pricing model creates frustration because it's unpredictable. A contractor who signed up expecting a $42/month bill and received a $300 bill for a busy month tends to look for alternatives immediately.
Search volume for "MagicPlan pricing" spikes in patterns consistent with billing cycles — contractors researching their options after seeing an unexpected charge.
Manifold uses flat per-user pricing with no per-project charges and no overage fees.
Run 5 jobs this month or 50 — the bill is the same. No per-project charges. No overage tracking. No billing surprises at the end of a busy month.
For a 3-person crew on Photo+Scan, that's $72/month flat regardless of job volume. For a solo contractor, it's $24/month.
MagicPlan has genuine strengths worth acknowledging. Its Xactimate integration is valuable for insurance and restoration contractors who bill through that system. Its iOS floor plan output is clean and well-formatted. If you're deeply embedded in an Xactimate workflow, MagicPlan's integration is worth the per-project cost math.
For general construction, renovation, HVAC, and restoration contractors who don't use Xactimate, the integration isn't a factor — and the per-project pricing is just a cost without a corresponding benefit.
Take your average monthly job volume. Subtract your MagicPlan plan's included projects. Multiply the difference by the overage rate. Add your subscription cost. That's your real MagicPlan monthly cost on a typical busy month. Compare it to your team size multiplied by $24.
For most contractors doing more than 15 jobs a month with a small team, Manifold is cheaper. For contractors doing fewer jobs with a large team, MagicPlan's unlimited-user model may be more cost-effective.
Manifold's free trial requires no credit card and includes full access to Orbit Measure 3D scanning. Try it on your actual jobs before committing to anything.
Start your free trial or book a 15-minute demo to compare directly with your current MagicPlan setup.
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