SimplyCount vs Togal: Two AI Takeoffs — One Runs on Your Machine
SimplyCount and Togal (an AI takeoff tool) agree on the premise: estimators shouldn't count symbols by hand. Where they part is trust mechanics. SimplyCount runs on the estimator's own machine, so drawings never leave the building; each symbol's detections are reviewed by a person, and unverified counts render as floors (≥), never dressed-up totals — the number in the bid is one you signed off on, produced somewhere your IT can point to.
Windows 10/11 · 16 GB RAM minimum · no GPU required — full requirements
When estimators compare SimplyCount to Togal, the difference is where the counting — and the trust in the count — lives. SimplyCount finds and marks every symbol automatically, then puts a person in the loop: you review each symbol's detections and unverified counts show as a floor (≥), never dressed up as a total. It runs entirely on your own machine, so your drawings and IP never upload to anyone's cloud — most tools force everything through theirs. And it learns your custom symbols so the next job is faster than the last.
An AI total you can't inspect is one you can't defend when a bid is challenged.
Cloud AI tools process your drawings on vendor infrastructure — at minimum, they leave your network.
Without per-symbol review, you're trusting a percentage instead of signing off a count.
What you get
- Automatic symbol detection across the whole plan set — not manual clicking.
- You review each symbol's detections and accept or reject them; unverified counts show as a floor (≥).
- SimplyCount runs on your own machine: counting is local, plan sets are never uploaded, and results live in an encrypted local database inside your firewall. The license is checked once, at app launch, over HTTPS — after that, counting runs fully offline; a fully offline build with no license check is available for air-gapped environments at negotiated pricing, and firms that want one shared install can run SimplyCount on a server inside their own firewall.
- Self-learning: teach a symbol once and count it on every future job.
- Exports to Excel, CSV and PDF. SimplyCount's benchmark is 60 unique symbols across 168 pages in about an hour, including review — roughly 168× faster than counting by hand. How we measured it.
Drag the line. See every symbol get found.
A real plan sheet — slide to reveal what SimplyCount marks.
Your planCounted
Every symbol on this sheet — found & markedCommon questions
How is SimplyCount different from Togal?
What does SimplyCount cost compared to Togal?
Can we keep everything inside our network?
How fast is it, really?
Can it learn our custom or non-standard symbols?
Togal is a trademark of its respective owner. SimplyCount is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by them; the name is used only to identify the product being compared. Product details reflect our understanding at publication — check their site for current specifics.
Never manually count another symbol
Request early access with your work email — the team reviews every request, nearest bid deadlines first — then run your first plan and see a number you can defend. 168 pages · 60 symbols · ~1 hour.
Free during early access · Your work email · No credit card · Counting runs on your machine