Powder coating software for a small shop

A powder coating shop lives on two kinds of work: walk-in jobs like wheels, patio furniture and railings, and repeat batches from fabricators and small manufacturers. The walk-in customer wants a price, a color and a ready date. The manufacturer wants a per part price and the date kept every time.

Most coating software on the market is an ERP for a production floor, built for shops with operators, racking and quality paperwork. A one to five person shop needs less: a fast quote from a photo, a price list that remembers the setup fee, and a way to get paid when the part leaves.

• Estimates. Most quote requests arrive as a photo of a wheel, a chair or a bracket with a question about color, and the shop that answers first usually gets the part.
• Price book. Powder coating is priced by the part, the batch and the square foot, with setup, minimum and rush charges that are easy to forget on small jobs.
• Invoices and online payments. Most parts are paid for at pickup, and half the calls in a week are customers asking whether theirs is done.
• Instant price on your site. A price for common jobs, like a set of wheels, answers the first question before anyone has to call.
• Calls answered by AI. Nobody answers a phone in the booth with a gun in one hand and powder in the air.
• Review requests. People choose a coater by photos and reviews of finished parts.

These are the lines on a powder coating estimate. The unit is how each one is usually priced.

In Koira these go on your price list once. Every estimate, instant price and invoice pulls from it, so a powder coating shop never types the same line twice, and Koira never writes a number that is not in your records.

• A quote from the customer's photo or file
• Per part, per batch and square foot pricing
• A setup fee and a minimum on small jobs
• A rush fee when a job jumps the queue
• Deposits on custom colors and big batches
• A text when the part is ready, with the pay link
• A review ask at pickup
• Repeat batches priced the same way every time

Estimates. On Office, the free plan, the quote form on your Koira site takes photos and files, and photos become a draft estimate from your own price list for you to check before it goes.

Price book. Your price list holds per part, per batch, per pound and square foot lines, with a setup fee, a minimum charge and a rush percentage that ride on every estimate and carry through to the invoice and the customer's page.

Invoices and online payments. Mark a job Ready and Koira texts the customer once with the pickup note and the pay link (from your Koira number on Grow). It waits out your quiet hours and never texts someone who replied STOP.

Instant price on your site. Get a price on your site answers from your own price list, such as a price per wheel or per chair. Anything not on the list comes to you as a question.

Calls answered by AI. On Grow, Koira answers on your number and texts back missed calls, asking what the part is, the color and finish, how many and when, and whether they will drop it off or ship it.

Review requests. Every paid job gets the review ask, on every plan.

We read the industries pages of the companies we compare on koira.ai and noted which ones name this trade. Steelhead Technologies is in the tables below.

• Steelhead Technologies names it as Powder Coating. Read on Steelhead Technologies home page.

QuoteIQ publishes a blog roundup of software for powder coating businesses, but powder coating is not on its industries page as we read it.

Read on October 10, 2026 from each company's own page. A company not named here may still serve powder coaters; it just does not name the trade on that page, so ask.

The features that matter most to a powder coating shop, and where each first appears on each company's public pricing page, then the people, usage, card and add-on rows every company gets. It is not a full feature list for anyone, including us.

From Steelhead Technologies, checked October 10, 2026; QuoteIQ pricing, checked November 3, 2026; Jobber pricing, checked October 8, 2026. Steelhead's /pricing page refused a plain fetch (403). Its home page shows no prices and asks you to schedule a demo. Jobber's pricing page blocks a plain fetch and changes its prices with a team size picker, so we read it in a real browser. The $29 a month per added user is in the note behind each plan's user count. A cell names the lowest plan that lists the feature; "Not listed" means we did not see it, so ask. Prices change often, so check the page before you buy.

Every plan in the same columns: price, people, usage, card rates and add-ons. Koira has no per-person fee on any plan, and Office costs nothing a month.

What comes on top: people, card payments and add-ons

From Steelhead Technologies, checked October 10, 2026; QuoteIQ pricing, checked November 3, 2026; Jobber pricing, checked October 8, 2026. Steelhead's /pricing page refused a plain fetch (403). Its home page shows no prices and asks you to schedule a demo. Jobber's pricing page blocks a plain fetch and changes its prices with a team size picker, so we read it in a real browser. The $29 a month per added user is in the note behind each plan's user count. A cell names the lowest plan that lists the feature; "Not listed" means we did not see it, so ask. Prices change often, so check the page before you buy.

Card rates as each company publishes them, checked October 9, 2026; QuoteIQ online payments, checked November 3, 2026. Koira's is Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ for a US card plus Koira's share, which pays for Office in place of a monthly fee.

If quote requests sit in your texts for a day, start with the quote form and photo estimates. If small jobs are losing money, start with the setup fee and minimum on your price list. Both are on Office, the free plan; the Ready text from a Koira number and call answering are on Grow.

If you run a production line with operators, racking, certs and compliance audits, a finishing ERP like Steelhead is the better fit. Ask for its price in a demo, since it is not published.

Whichever you try, put one real week of powder coating jobs through it before you commit. Koira's Office plan is free with no time limit: start on Office, free, or see every plan on the pricing page. The others offer free trials or demos, so ask.