Distro alternative: a different fit for quoting from your own catalog

What Distro offers, in its own words

According to distro.app, Distro is based in Palo Alto, California, and is backed by Y Combinator. Its site shows a HARDI Proven Partner badge, and the NAED blog lists Distro as an NAED Allied Partner since August 2025. Its product range covers Quoting and Order Entry, a Sales Agent, Plan and Spec, a Customer Support Agent, CPQ and Accounts Payable. Among the ERP systems it lists are Epicor Prophet 21, Eclipse, Infor CSD, SXE and FACTS, NetSuite, Acumatica, DDI, Salesforce and SAP.

Distro's Implementation and Pricing page describes five milestones: data onboarding, including the ERP connection, the product catalog, customer data and single sign on; user acceptance testing by Distro's team; champion testing, where 3 to 5 of your power users try the platform for 5 days; a rollout with training by role; and ongoing success and optimization. It says customers go live in weeks, not months. The page I reviewed on 10 November 2026 did not show a price figure, and its call to action is to schedule a demo.

What QuoteClerk AI does

QuoteClerk AI turns an incoming material list into an itemized quote draft. The list can be a spreadsheet (XLSX, CSV or TSV), a PDF of up to 10 pages including scanned pages, the text of an email, or a PNG or JPG photo of a list written on the job site. Uncertain lines are flagged for a person to check, never guessed.

Each line is matched to your own catalog and priced from your own pricing: the customer's own price first, then the customer group price, then the list price, with quantity breaks and price dates. Your catalog, customers, stock and prices come in as XLSX, CSV or TSV exports, in US dollars. The approved quote comes out as a PDF with your logo plus a UTF-8 CSV. There is no native connection to ERP systems: whether your ERP can import that CSV for quotes or orders is checked during the pilot. A person on your team approves every draft before anything reaches a customer.

Side by side

The Distro pages I reviewed do not say whether handwritten lists from the job site are read. If that matters to you, ask Distro directly.

Which one fits you

• Consider Distro if you want one platform across quoting, order entry, sales, customer support and accounts payable, connected to one of the ERP systems it lists, and you have the people to take part in a structured implementation with testing by your power users.
• Consider QuoteClerk AI if your main problem is the time contractors' material lists take to quote, including photographed and handwritten ones, you want drafts priced from your own catalog with every doubtful line flagged, and you prefer published prices and a paid pilot before any wider rollout.

Both choices can be right. The test is your own lists: how many arrive each month, in which format, and how long each one takes to quote by hand today.

Pricing

Starter is $490 a month for up to 20 requests, and Team is $990 a month for 3 users and up to 200 requests, both with no setup fee. The full rollout is $1,690 a month for up to 500 requests and 10,000 line items, or $4,900 a month for up to 1,500 requests and 30,000 line items, plus $7,900 onboarding including the $1,990 paid pilot. Before the pilot starts, the success criteria are agreed in writing. If the pilot misses them, you pay nothing for it.

Frequently asked questions