QuoteIQ for Christmas Light Installers: Where the CRM Stops

QuoteIQ runs from $29.99 to $699 a month across five plans, and its own guide to Christmas light software, written by co-founder Mike Vidan, says to pair it with Strandr at $197 a year if you sell on mockups. That pairing is the whole story: QuoteIQ is a multi-trade CRM with satellite measuring and no design layer. GlowBid is one canvas that measures, draws and prices the lighting job, from $299 a year at the founding price.

Written by the GlowBid founder; prices checked on each vendor's site on September 7, 2026. I run a permanent lighting company in Ottawa. QuoteIQ's lighting pages are long and honest about ranking themselves first, and I am going to be just as plain about where each tool stops.

What the stack costs

QuoteIQ's yearly prices are their monthly price with two months free. Strandr's $197 is the figure QuoteIQ's own article uses. GlowBid's founding prices are for the first 100 companies and hold while the subscription stays continuous.

The short comparison

What QuoteIQ does well

Credit first. QuoteIQ is a serious CRM and it treats holiday lighting as a real vertical, which most multi-trade tools do not. The holiday lighting page describes an AI Estimator that quotes from roofline footage, tree count, display complexity, bulb type and installation height; InstaSchedule, so last year's clients book themselves before the calendar fills; AI Autopilot for early-season rebooking outreach; and Review Multiplier, which asks for a Google review after each install. Route optimization and an employee hub arrive at Elite.

The plans are flat by user count, not by feature add-on, and the pricing page is clear about what starts where. The 14-day trial is twice ours. QuickBooks sync, in-app calling and texting, job costing and a website builder are all things GlowBid does not have. And Mike Vidan's articles, for all their length, say plainly "We are QuoteIQ. We made this list, and we picked our own platform as number one." I respect that more than a fake neutral roundup.

If you wash windows in spring, clean gutters in fall and hang lights in November, QuoteIQ is a sensible spine for the whole business.

Where does the design layer stop?

At the estimate. QuoteIQ's own Top 8 puts it plainly: it does not include built-in visual light mockup tools, and installers who sell on a picture of the lit house should add Strandr. So the picture lives in one app and the number lives in another, and the two never meet. Strandr's mockup has no footage in it (I cover that in the Strandr comparison), and QuoteIQ's estimate has no picture in it.

In GlowBid the picture and the number are the same object. You draw the roofline, the two peaks and the jump on your own photo of the house. Those drawn runs render the lights for the homeowner, and the same runs are the footage, the bill of materials and the line items. Change the drawing and all three change. There is no second app and no re-typing.

Where does the footage come from?

QuoteIQ measures from above. MapMeasure Pro is described on their site as powered by Google Maps satellite view, with AI pitch detection for roofs and pin-drop tracing for linear runs like gutters and fence lines. Their page is honest that a 9/12 roof has more surface than its footprint, and they correct area for pitch. For a lighting run the same problem applies to the edge: a gable that is a line from above is two sloped edges from the driveway.

GlowBid measures from a photo you took, scaled from a known length, with a source tag (reference-scaled or manual) and a confidence level on every run and a warning on runs angled away from the camera. The quote says the measurement is a photo estimate confirmed on site.

One note on imagery, carefully. Google's Maps Platform Terms of Service (section 3.2.3, last modified August 26, 2026) list tracing building outlines from the satellite base map, and storing Google Maps content, as examples of what a customer will not do. I do not know QuoteIQ's licence with Google and I am not saying they break anything; that is between them and Google. I designed GlowBid so the question never applies to you: the Street View preview is live and display only, and the canvas takes only photos you own. The imagery rules page has the full picture.

The same house, quoted in GlowBid

A two-storey with a 128 ft front roofline, two peaks and two jumps, permanent track lighting with a controller. Upload the photo, set the scale from the 16 ft garage door, draw five runs. Priced on GlowBid's default rate card (installers set their own):

GlowBid's default rate card also adds a 15 percent peak premium ($134.40 on this house). It is switched off in this example so the numbers stay round; you set it on your own rate card.

The 30 percent deposit is $1,347, paid on Stripe when the homeowner signs on their phone. For contrast, QuoteIQ's decorative lighting page prices its example at one rate for every foot, $18 per linear foot for warm white. At that rate this house's 172 ft is $3,096 with no controller line and no difference between a flat eave and a peak. Their example is not their limit, and you may be able to add lines by hand; what I could not find on their site is peaks, ridge lines, jumps or controllers as their own line types. Our permanent per-foot guide explains why those lines are where the margin lives. Price your own house in the free tool and compare.

Pricing, honestly

If you already pay for QuoteIQ for other trades, GlowBid Core at $299 founding is an add-on cost, and you should weigh it against Strandr's $197, which is cheaper and gives you a picture but no footage and no price. If lights are the business, compare whole stacks: QuoteIQ Beginner plus Strandr is $946.99 a year for two users; GlowBid Pro is $499 founding ($899 regular) for the company. Ultimate, with the production board and crew app, is $699 founding ($1,299 regular, $169 a month). All USD. See founding pricing.

When QuoteIQ is the right call

Choose QuoteIQ if lights are one of several trades and you want one CRM across all of them. Choose it if you need QuickBooks sync, in-app calling, route optimization or a website builder this season; GlowBid has none of those. Choose it if you have more than a few office users and want per-seat plans. And choose it if you need a proven tool this November: QuoteIQ has run seasons, and GlowBid opens November 1, 2026 with its first cohort. Those are real reasons and I would rather list them than have you find out.

Moving from QuoteIQ to GlowBid, or running both

1. Decide which it is. Multi-trade: keep QuoteIQ, add GlowBid for lighting quotes. Lighting only: replace at the end of your billing period. Either way, budget an afternoon.

2. Export your customers. Names, addresses, phone, email, last season's price. There is no QuoteIQ importer in GlowBid and I am not promising one.

3. Try the canvas. The free roofline tool is the GlowBid canvas without a login. Photo in, scale set, runs drawn, footage and lit mockup out. The measuring guide covers the reference method.

4. Build the rate card. Per-foot by run type and product line, premiums, per-jump and per-peak charges, add-ons, minimum job, deposit rule, tax. If your QuoteIQ estimator is set to one rate per foot, this is where you split it.

5. Quote the next five lighting jobs in both. Keep whichever one the homeowner signs faster.

Mistakes I have seen from multi-trade CRMs on lighting jobs

• One rate for every foot. A peak costs more to install than a flat eave and a jump is product with no lights on it. Fix: a rate per run type, with per-jump and per-peak charges.
• Measuring gables from above. The overhead line is the shortest that edge will ever look. Fix: draw both edges on a photo, or tape it.
• Ground runs and trees that do not exist from a satellite. Fix: photograph the yard and draw them.
• No takedown as its own job. The install is in the system and January is a surprise. Fix: takedown is a job with a date and, on a lease, it is created on signing.
• Selling without a picture. A line-item estimate for a $4,490 permanent job with no view of the lit house. Fix: the drawing is the picture.
• Skipping the buffer. Ordering to the drawn footage and coming up one strand short. Fix: the optional materials buffer, default 10 percent, shown on the quote.

The pitch

QuoteIQ is a good CRM that measures from above and sends you elsewhere for the picture. GlowBid is the picture, the measurement and the price on one canvas, from a photo you own, with the lease chain and the permanent rate card built in. If you run three trades, keep QuoteIQ and add us for the lights. If you run one, the founding price is open to the first 100 companies, the trial is 7 days with no card, and the free tool is open now.