Published 5 September 2026
MyRemodelCalculator vs Remodelum: their project database, or your price tags
This is the comparison where the other product has something we do not, and it is worth being straightforward about that up front. Remodelum is free and prices from a database of real renovation projects. We charge $20 and hold no database at all. Whether that trade is worth making depends entirely on how far along you are.
Who each one is for
Use Remodelum when
You want a free planning number, you are working at the scale of a whole house, an addition, a basement or a patio, and you have not chosen specific products yet. Finish level as a dial — basic through luxury — is a genuinely useful way to explore a budget before anything is decided.
Use MyRemodelCalculator when
You have started choosing. Once you know the actual tile, the actual vanity, the actual flooring, an average for your finish tier is the least accurate part of the estimate, and it is the part we replace with your photographed price.
Side by side
| Remodelum | MyRemodelCalculator | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $20 once, 30 days, no subscription |
| Account required to see the result | Yes free account, "no credit card required" | Yes after payment |
| Own pricing database | Yes "proprietary database of real renovation projects" | No none — and we say so on the product |
| ZIP-level labour data | Yes "ZIP code–level labor market data" | Partly ZIP used as context for estimated lines only |
| Prices lines from photographed product price tags | Not stated | Yes the core mechanic |
| Project types covered | Kitchen, bathroom, whole house, addition, basement, patio, other | Room-by-room remodels |
| Finish level as an input | Yes basic, mid-range, high-end, luxury | No you supply the actual products instead |
| Publishes an accuracy percentage | No | No |
| Says it does not replace a contractor bid | Yes explicitly, including about itself | Yes |
"Not stated" means not stated. It is not a polite no. Their pages did not address price-tag reading, so it is left unknown rather than asserted as absent.
What Remodelum does better
- It is free, and we are not. No payment at all; an account, but no card. For a homeowner who just wants a planning figure, that is a real advantage and no amount of explaining changes it.
- It has a pricing database and we do not. Its page describes a proprietary database of real renovation projects, ZIP-level labour market data, and material costs updated for 2026. We hold none of that. If your question is "what does this normally cost around here," they are better equipped to answer it than we are.
- It covers more project types. Whole house, additions, basements and patios, with finish level as a dial. We work room by room around products you have chosen.
And one thing worth crediting that is not a feature
Their page states that "no AI estimate — including Remodelum's — replaces a contractor bid for final pricing," describes its output as planning-level, and recommends a 10–15% contingency for unknown conditions. Naming your own product inside your own caveat is rarer than it should be in this category, and it is the same position we take. We would rather point at it than pretend we are the only ones being careful.
The real difference: a good average is still an average
A database of real projects is a genuinely better source than a formula, and a well-built one will beat a guess most of the time. But it answers a question about other people's projects. It cannot answer what your tile costs, because your tile is a specific product at a specific store at a specific price, and no database has been standing in that aisle.
That gap is small early and large late. Before you have chosen anything, a finish-tier average is the best available answer and Remodelum's is free. Once you have picked the vanity, the average has become the weakest number in your estimate — and replacing it is the entire mechanic we built.
So the honest sequence, if you have the patience for it: use theirs to find out whether the project is plausible at all, then use ours once you are choosing products and the specifics start to matter. Every line in our estimate is labelled by source — your photo, your typed number, or a regional average — so you always know which parts of the total are measured and which are assumed. The reasoning is in how we estimate.
Questions
Is Remodelum free?
Its estimator page states the tool is free and that you create a free account to view your estimate, with no credit card required. No charge, but a signup step before the result. Read 5 September 2026.
Where does each tool's pricing come from?
Remodelum states a proprietary database of real renovation projects, plus ZIP code-level labor market data and material costs updated for 2026. MyRemodelCalculator holds no pricing database at all: lines come from price tags you photograph, numbers you type, or a regional average estimated for your ZIP and labeled as an estimate on the line.
Does either publish an accuracy percentage?
Neither does, and both say the estimate does not replace a contractor bid. Remodelum states that no AI estimate, including its own, replaces a contractor bid for final pricing. That is the same position we take.
Which one should I use?
If you want a free planning number across a whole house, addition or basement and have not chosen products, Remodelum covers more project types and costs nothing. If you have started choosing and want those real prices on the lines rather than a database average, that is ours.