You bought 12 posts for a 100 ft run at 8 ft centres. You needed 14. Length ÷ spacing looks like 12.5, so the ticket was twelve. The run still needs a post at 0 and a post at 100. Twelve cannot cover both ends and the line. Holes are marked. The truck is light by two. That is a second store run before lunch.
This is the fence count you use on the job tomorrow, not a textbook. Not theory. Numbers you take to the lumber yard — posts, rails, pickets, bags.
Free does one run. Pro is $9.99 a month for multi-run, gates, and a branded quote PDF with your logo. Worth $9.99 if you leave the house with more than one fence on the board. After the first takeoff, the next app in the suite was already open: Concrete Mix Master for the holes.
What a fence takeoff app actually has to do
Most “best fence material calculator” pages are a length field and a blog. A fence takeoff app has to survive the next morning: dirty thumbs, a tape you already walked, a list you can read at the yard without translating a formula.
Fence Takeoff Master is a phone-first PWA. Add it to the Home Screen. English UI. US, UK, AU, NZ, and CA units and bag sizes. Offline after the first load. No login. No account. Data stays on the device unless you export a backup.
You enter a run — length, height, post spacing, 2 or 3 rails, picket width and gap, waste percent, optional gates. You get how many fence posts, rails, pickets, and post-hole concrete bags. There is a gravel calculator in cubic yards. Quote tab builds the material list. That is the product. Not a lecture.
The post math is the same open-run rule we already published: posts = ceil(length ÷ spacing) + 1. A 100 ft straight run at 8 ft spacing is 14 posts, not 12. If you want the chart on paper, use How Many Fence Posts Do I Need? The app is that count plus the rest of the ticket — rails per bay, pickets with waste you can edit, bags by region you pick (it never reads your location).
I used it on the job the next morning. That is the only review that matters. If the number only works at a desk, it is homework. If it works in the truck, it is a takeoff.
Free vs Pro — no mystery
Free: one fence run and one gravel pad. How many fence posts, rails, pickets. Post-hole bag counts for the region you choose. Gravel in cubic yards. Feet/inches or metres/millimetres. Editable waste percent. JSON backup on this device.
Pro, $9.99 a month: everything in Free, plus multiple fence runs and gravel pads, single and double drive gates, a printable material list, a quote PDF (print) and PNG, and company logo plus details on that PDF.
Gates are the line most calculators skip. A walk gate is two posts — hinge and latch — not a hole punched in the line-post formula. A double drive gate is not a walk gate with extra width. If the yard has openings, Free will feel like a demo. Pro is the working copy.
Multi-run is the other unlock. A lot is not one 100 ft line. It is sides, a return, a gate wing. Free lets you prove the math on one run. Pro lets you count the yard you actually have to build.
The branded quote is why Pro is not just “more fields.” You put a company name, phone, optional email, job line, and logo on a PDF you print or share from the phone. It looks like a contractor sheet, not a screenshot of a calculator. It is still a takeoff sheet. It is not a signed contract.
What it is not
Estimate only — not engineering or building-code advice. It does not know your frost line, soil, wind, or the inspector. Product span tables can require closer posts than the spacing you type. Measure twice. Buy a spare line post.
It is not a contract. The PDF is a material list with letterhead. It does not bind anyone. Do not send it as if it were stamped drawings.
It is not Jobber. There is no schedule, no crew, no invoice, no client portal, no payment collection. If you needed a business OS, this is the wrong tab. If you needed a fence material calculator you can open without an account, this is the right tab.
It is not five country apps. One English UI. Price in USD. Paying markets: USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada. No live lumber catalog. No AI. Bag yields are static tables you pick a region for.
Is $9.99 worth it?
If you run one backyard a year, Free is the product. One run, one pad, post count, go to the lumber yard.
If you run more than one fence — sides of a lot, a return, a gate, a second address — Pro is the product. Multi-run is how a real yard is counted. Gates are how a real quote is counted. The PDF with a logo is how you hand a number to a client without forwarding a notes app.
Worth $9.99 on a week with two bids. Not worth pretending it replaces a licensed engineer or a signed contract. The second store run for two missing posts costs more than a month of Pro in time, fuel, and a stalled hole. That is the offer. No fake star widget. No invented “customers say.” The test is whether you used it on the job the next morning. I did.
The series
Fence Takeoff Master is one app in EBN Build Calculators. After the fence list, the next number is usually the holes. I already opened Concrete Mix Master for post-hole bags. Same idea across the suite: phone-first, offline, estimate only — cut lists, stairs, sheets, framing, roofing, decks, masonry, rebar.
If you still want the long-form post chart, read how many fence posts you need. Then come back and run the takeoff. Theory is the chart. The job is the list.
Bottom line
Fence Takeoff Master is a fence takeoff app you can use on the job tomorrow. Not a textbook. Not Jobber. Free for one run. Pro for multi-run, gates, and a branded quote PDF with your logo. Punch the tape. Take the numbers to the lumber yard. Open the next app in the series when the holes need bags.
Open Fence Takeoff MasterEstimate only — not engineering or building-code advice. Not a contract. Not Jobber.