StructSuite vs SkyCiv

• Free in full: every design module runs without an account or a time limit, and the complete calculation shows on screen. Paying is only needed to print, save more than one project or share a plan-check link.
• Shear walls modeled on the building plan all at once: wall lines drawn on the plan, the force distributed automatically, collector (drag strut) forces drawn along each line, then hold-downs, anchor bolts and end posts.
• Simpson Strong-Tie across the workflow: hangers, hold-downs, SABR anchor bolts, framing clips for base shear transfer and post caps are picked from the catalog and checked against the computed loads, and hangers, post caps, clips and sill anchorage are drawn as details.
• Fast framing: for floor joists, ceiling joists, rafters and headers the smallest adequate size is named as soon as the table inputs are in, sawn lumber from the 2024 IBC tables or TJI from the Trus Joist tables, with every candidate charted against the span (or the load, for TJ-9000 headers).
• Dead and live loads built from the ASCE 7-22 tables (Table C3.1-1a material weights, Table 4.3-1 occupancies), so the gravity loads start from a cited table.
• The newest US editions throughout (NDS 2024, AISC 360-22, ASCE 7-22, 2024 IBC), with ACI 318-25 as well as 318-19 for footings and retaining walls.
• US code text at the point of use: a book icon beside a governing input opens the provision word for word, from 2024 IBC, ASCE 7-22, NDS 2024, SDPWS 2021, ACI 318-25 and AISC 360-22.
• A plan-check link for the calculation itself: the printed report links to a read-only page of the live calculation that any reviewer opens without an account, and it flags any change made after printing.
• Live-load arrangements per ASCE 7-22 §4.3.3 on wood and steel beams, each drawn with its load placement and a note on why it can govern.
• Design tools for less: every calculation is free, and Pro is $100/month or $1,000/year (or $50 for a week) against SkyCiv Professional, the first plan with design tools, at $139/month on a 12-month contract or $249/month flexible.

Choose StructSuite if…

• Most of your work is US residential and light commercial: wood beams, posts, joists, rafters, headers and shear walls, steel beams and columns, spread and strip footings, and concrete or CMU retaining walls.
• You want the whole calculation package from one project: a cover sheet with your logo, stamp and signature, the loads, every member, footings and walls, a table of contents and page numbers, printed as one PDF and renumbered for you when you revise.
• You want the tool free to use, or you need it for a week rather than a year.
• You want dead, live, wind and seismic loads built from ASCE 7-22 in the same place you size the members.
• You or your reviewer want to read the code text and every substituted step, not just the result.
• You want a tool a new engineer can pick up quickly: guided numbered steps, a filled-in sample project, step-by-step videos and worked-example guides.
• You size joists, rafters and headers at the job site, on a phone or tablet instead of a desktop computer.
• You review other engineers’ calculations: StructSuite is free, runs in the browser with nothing to install (so it works on locked-down city and agency computers) and needs no account, so a plan checker can rerun a beam, post, footing, shear wall or wind load from another program’s calc package, within StructSuite’s scope (US codes, wood ASD, steel LRFD), and copy the quoted code section into a correction comment.