Amply vs Cool Calc: Pricing, Features & Offline Manual J

Amply vs. Cool Calc: the headline

Amply and CoolCalc are both HVAC design tools that leverage LiDAR to scan a home and run an ACCA-approved Manual J load calculation. They're built for different jobs.

Amply is an on-site sales and design tool. You can scan, run the Manual J, place equipment in AR, and hand the homeowner a design document, all on one iPad in one visit, with or without internet. It's a better choice if you want to size and sell the job while you're in the house.

Cool Calc is a design suite that is primarily web-based. It can do Manual J, S, and D. It also has an add-on mobile app on Apple devices that can do scan a home, but you must switch devices to do it.  It's a better choice if you need to do full duct design or only run occasional load calcs.

We make Amply, so read this with that in mind. We tried to be fair, including about where Cool Calc is ahead. 

Where Amply is stronger

The whole job happens on site, on one device.

With Amply, you scan, run the Manual J, and design the system on the iPad while you're in the house. With Cool Calc, you scan every room in one app, assemble them into a building model, and only then run the Manual J in a web app,With Cool Calc, you scan in one app and finish the Manual J in a web app, which usually means a laptop and often a trip back to the office. That handoff is where the homeowner conversation gets pushed to a second visit.

It works without a signal.

Amply runs scanning and the Manual J with no internet and no cell service, and syncs when you're back online. Cool Calc's scan works offline, but the Manual J happens in a web app that needs a connection.

It's built to sell the job, not just size it.

Amply lets you place equipment in the homeowner's actual living room in AR and leave behind a design document that explains your recommendation in plain language. Cool Calc is a calculation tool. It has no equipment visualization and nothing written for the homeowner.

It captures the house as it is.

Amply measures angled walls, knee walls, and irregular geometry directly, so the surface areas feeding your Manual J are the surface areas of the house. Cool Calc squares walls off into rectangles. 

You talk to the people who built it.

Amply's co-founders, Eric Fitz and Ed Smith, still lead sales and customer success. We'll review your first few Manual Js for free, and when something goes sideways, you reach someone who has designed heat pump systems.

Is Amply worth the higher price?

If you only need a number for a permit or a rebate, probably not. Cool Calc is a good, affordable calculator, and we'd tell you so on a demo call.

Amply is worth it if the load calc is part of how you win the job. When the homeowner watches you scan the house, sees the system placed in their living room, and gets a design document that explains why, you're explaining a system instead of defending a price. If that conversation closes even one more job a month, the difference in software cost is small next to the margin on the install.

Which should you choose?

Choose Cool Calc if you need a full ACCA Manual J, S, and D suite, design ducts regularly, run load calcs only occasionally, or are comfortable finishing the design at a computer with an internet connection.

Choose Amply if you're an independent, heat-pump-focused contractor who wants to scan, size, design, and present in one visit on one device, with or without signal.

Or use both. Some contractors run the Manual J and homeowner conversation in Amply, then bring the Amply Manual J into another tool for the occasional full Manual D.

Book a demo and we'll show you the whole workflow, or see our pricing.