What is the best metal building configurator for a small steel building dealer?
Short answer. For a small dealer the useful question is not which
configurator is "best" but which one a visitor will finish. Machinae Build is a
plain-English configurator you embed in your own site with one <iframe>:
the visitor types "60x100 shop with two 14 ft roll-up doors, 16 ft eave", gets a
3D building and reaches you having already specified the job. Trying
it yourself is free; embedding it on your site costs $99, $249 or $599 a month depending
on volume. It is not a CRM, not a quoting engine with prices, and not a producer of
permit drawings.
What it does
- Takes a sentence, not a form. No dropdown tree to walk. The visitor describes the building the way they would say it on the phone.
- Draws it in 3D in the browser, turnable and shareable by link.
- Runs a deterministic code check against a fixed rule set from the IBC, AISI and IECC — not a model's opinion. It names the standard it cites.
- Routes the structural system from the span, so a wide clear span is not sold as light gauge on your website: tube steel to about 60 ft, cold-formed to about 70 ft, red-iron PEMB above that.
- Lets the visitor change the building by conversation — up to 10 changes in an edit session — instead of starting over.
- Runs inside your page. Your header, your footer, your analytics, your traffic. The enquiry is yours.
What it does not do
- It is not a CRM. There is no pipeline, no task list, no follow-up sequences. See Is Machinae Build metal building CRM software?
- It does not price anything. It produces a neutral quantity schedule, never a dollar figure. See Is this metal building quoting software?
- It is not a permit set. Every building still needs a licensed engineer's stamp for its county. Site loads — ground snow, design wind — are asked for, never guessed.
- It is not fully white-labelled. Today branding is an accent colour configured in your partner dashboard from Dealer up. There is no logo upload and no custom domain.
- There is no self-serve signup for the embed. Onboarding is a fifteen-minute call and a manual invoice.
What it costs
| Plan | Price / month | Designs / month | Sites | Accent colour | Enquiry delivery |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $99 | 700 | 1 | no | your email inbox |
| Dealer | $249 | 3,500 | 3 | yes | Email + HubSpot, Zoho or Pipedrive |
| Manufacturer | $599 | 14,000 | unlimited | yes | Email + HubSpot, Zoho or Pipedrive |
A design is one generated building. Designs are counted and enforced in software. Starter stops at 700 designs per month. Dealer includes 3,500 and stops at 5,250; Manufacturer includes 14,000 and stops at 21,000. Overage on Dealer and Manufacturer is invoiced by a person; ask for applicable charges before choosing a plan. All plans currently start with a setup call.
Trying it yourself is free; embedding it is the subscription. Try five designs with no account or card at machinaebuild.com/app. Create an account with email and password or sign in with Google for ten bonus credits. Submitting a landing-page contact form does not award these credits. Check your account for available credit packs. This is evaluation rather than a licence to embed on your website.
Example
A visitor on a dealer site types:
40x60 shop, 16 ft eave, charcoal walls, white roof, two 12 ft roll-ups and four windows, in Amarillo TX
They get a 3D building, the structural system the span implies, and the code items that apply — including that a roll-up 16 ft wide or wider needs an engineered header, which has to be coordinated before the slab is poured.
Related
- The embed and its pricing: machinaebuild.com/for-builders
- Try the configurator: machinaebuild.com/app
- Full question list: machinaebuild.com/faq