Bolster Reviews 

I sincerely wish the negative reviews here didn’t reflect my own experience, and I wish I had seen them before purchasing in October 2025.
Alex initially came across as a great guy, but BolsterBuilt.com did not work for my business, Rochester NY Painters. In my experience, the advertising was misleading, onboarding was poor, and the software and support fell far short of what was promised. I also felt there was little understanding of what a contracting business actually needs.
I paid $5,998 and immediately discovered that I could not use the software as advertised. There were no prebuilt templates or national pricing available to me, and Alex had to put my pricing into a spreadsheet. The system simply was not ready in the way I had been led to expect. Still, I gave it a genuine chance, working with Alex for over a year through different versions of the software.
My biggest concern, however, was billing. I submitted written notice of cancellation shortly after signing up. When renewal time came, Alex offered a $600 annual plan to return, which I also declined. Despite those refusals, Alex and Bolster attempted to charge me another $5,998—even though the credit card associated with my account had already been closed.
I’ve been in business for 28 years, and I believe in treating customers fairly, even when that means taking a loss. Based on my experience, I cannot recommend BolsterBuilt.com or Alex.
I wish my experience had been different. Seeing reviews from others describing similar problems is why I’m sharing mine. I hope it helps even one business owner avoid the frustration and expense I experienced.

Unfortunately, there is no option to give less than one star.

I purchased BolsterBuilt's annual Premium software package on March 17, 2026, paying $5,308.80 CAD upfront. What followed has been one of the most frustrating and disappointing experiences I've had with a software company.

The sales pitch versus reality

During the sales process, Chadwick Johnson presented Bolster as a comprehensive solution that would transform how my contracting business handled estimating, proposals, and project management.

He even told me I could get rid of Basecamp, my existing project management software, along with my CRM and spreadsheets, because Bolster would replace them.

I relied on those representations when deciding to purchase the software.

Unfortunately, the reality was very different.
Lost a project within three days of signing up

One of the main reasons I purchased Bolster was to test the software using an actual client project. I made it very clear that I had a real estimate to prepare, with a specific deadline, and understood that Bolster would help me complete it as part of the onboarding process.

On March 17, I provided my costing spreadsheet and project information. That same day, the salesperson informed me that he couldn't open my spreadsheet because he didn't have the appropriate software.

By March 19, I still didn't have the completed estimate and was scrambling to put something together myself.

On March 20, I informed Bolster that my client had cancelled the project and gone with another contractor because of the delay.

There was a disagreement about the understood deadline, but the outcome for my business was the same: I had relied on getting assistance with a real estimate, and it wasn't ready when I needed it.

That same day, just THREE DAYS after paying, I requested cancellation and my money back.
Software problems and disappointing onboarding

Despite that terrible start, I continued trying to make the software work.

I found the interface clunky, cumbersome, and unnecessarily complicated. I was completing estimates using my existing spreadsheets in a fraction of the time it was taking me to navigate Bolster.

I had also expected considerable hands-on help setting up products, assemblies, estimating templates, and workflows. In my experience, that support fell well short of what I believed I had purchased.

I also experienced concerning issues with user permissions. When I wanted to restrict an employee's access, I was told the options available wouldn't accommodate what I needed. Later, multiple estimates and invoices were unexpectedly sent to various contacts while we were trying to use the system. We couldn't determine exactly how it happened, but it highlighted serious concerns for me about the workflow and access controls.

At that point, the software was costing me time rather than saving it.

Poor communication and refusal to refund

I repeatedly contacted Bolster explaining my concerns, asking for assistance, and requesting my money back.

Although some support staff attempted to help, the salesperson who initially sold me the subscription stopped responding to my later follow-up emails.

After months of correspondence, Bolster's management informed me that they had reviewed my sales call, onboarding sessions, and account history and would not approve a refund.

They referred me back to the annual subscription agreement.

On August 19, I formally requested copies of the sales and onboarding recordings they claimed to have reviewed, along with an explanation of their findings.
As of October 16, I have received no response to that request.

This is not buyer's remorse

I didn't simply change my mind about the software.

I purchased Bolster based on what I understood it could do, the promises made during the sales process, and the support I expected to receive.

I raised serious concerns and requested a refund only three days after purchasing the subscription. I subsequently spent considerable time attempting to make the platform work and gave the company multiple opportunities to resolve the situation.

I have retained the payment confirmation and extensive email correspondence documenting my experience.

Yet Bolster has refused to return any of my $5,308.80.
My advice to other contractors

Before paying thousands of dollars for BolsterBuilt, insist on testing the software using your actual projects and business workflows. Make sure every important feature and onboarding promise is demonstrated, get commitments in writing, and read the cancellation and refund terms carefully.I wish I had done more research and read other customers' experiences before committing.

Based on my experience, I cannot recommend BolsterBuilt.

$6,999 spent after Bolster confirmed in writing it could handle our workflow

We purchased Bolster after specifically discussing how our handyman company operates. We have written communication from Bolster confirming the software could manage multiple crews and our scheduling needs.

During onboarding, we discovered the system could not schedule the same crew on multiple jobs in the same day—a basic requirement for our business. Even more concerning, the onboarding specialist appeared surprised when we asked about operating multiple crews and began working through how that would function.

This wasn’t buyer’s remorse. We discovered during onboarding that a critical workflow we had discussed before purchasing did not work as represented.

We documented the problem, provided the written communications, and requested a refund. Bolster refused to return our $6,999.

My recommendation to contractors: require Bolster to demonstrate your exact scheduling workflow before paying and get every critical capability in writing.

Our experience: $6,999 spent on software we determined during onboarding could not support the workflow we had specifically discussed.

I wished I can give more than one star review but unfortunately their business practices are not fair.
If you are thinking about signing up for their services pls pay attention to their cancelation terms.. you cannot really cancel ..vague verbiage abd not standard for these type of online subscription

I genuinely wanted Bolster to work, but my experience was one of the most frustrating software experiences I’ve had in over 20 years running construction companies.

Almost immediately after signing up, I began experiencing a constant stream of issues including account lockouts, duplicated accounts, verification problems, payment setup issues, invoice errors, notification failures, client portal issues, photo and document sharing problems, and estimate pricing inconsistencies.

At one point I was completely locked out of my account while trying to send estimates to clients. I was later informed by support that my account had somehow been duplicated or “cloned” and that the development team was investigating the issue. The duplication created additional problems where I could not use my own email address because the system claimed it was already in use, and at one point my contractor account was even being identified as a customer account.

I also repeatedly reported issues with invoices not displaying correctly, missing payment and approval notifications, and clients being unable to access documents and photos through the portal. Several issues were marked as fixed, only for the same problems to continue occurring.

The most concerning issue involved privacy and account access. While reviewing my account activity logs, I discovered entries showing actions being performed by an internal Bolster account named Lucas Gerroir, including sending invoices and backing up invoice versions. I was never informed beforehand that internal staff would be performing actions within my account, and seeing employee activity recorded inside my workspace without prior notice raised serious concerns about transparency, privacy, and access controls.

I spent countless hours on tech calls with Ryan with emails, screenshots, Zoom calls, testing, and troubleshooting. I felt more like an unpaid beta tester than a paying customer.

After weeks of recurring issues and lost productivity, I requested a refund. Despite the extensive history of documented problems, my request was denied, including any partial refund.

The idea behind Bolster has potential, but based on my experience, the platform was not reliable enough for a professional contracting business where estimates, payments, client communication, and data security are critical.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend it.

Software was extremely clunky and buggy upon signing up. Customer service is awful. Product is highly overpriced compared to alternatives that perform much better at half the price. Avoid this company.

Amazing process to get signed up and implement the product. Easy to use once we had it set up and totally changed the way we do business!

This company will sell you on the fact that this is an all-in-one solution. For a start-up business, this sounds ideal. They claim that there is a 3-page website that can be utilized and that it's easy to sketch out a drawing for estimates. The reality is, they have an open API integration for connection to an already established website.

They do not have robust sketch software; you must upload a sketch or drawing into the system, then trace over it. You cannot add small jobs or even manage subs for a small job without first building a package to upload into the sketch.

If you have a debris removal job, where no sketch is necessary, and you want to manage subs, you have to go draw a sketch, then build out an estimate. Simply creating a few individual line items for a job is not possible.

This is clunky and not a good project management or sub management software for everyday small jobs. Their front-end proposal to the client is nice for jobs requiring a lot of different material selection. The proposal is laid out nicely and has a great customer-facing feature. The software itself, for easy everyday construction use, with a small project, is horrible. We requested a refund, felt that we were misled during the initial sales meeting, and paid for a full year upfront. And the company gave us the shaft. The contract states that they are not required to give a refund. Think twice before going with this company. we will be writing to the attorney general, as we are likely not the only ones effected as well as the BBB. Use extreme caution. This company will respond to this post saying they've done nothing wrong, yet refused to refund anything after realizing the benefits of this software were not true.