About once a month an integrator emails me to ask whether Specifi replaces D-Tools. The short answer is no, and I have been saying that since we launched. The longer answer is that the question is doing too much work, because "AV software" actually means two different jobs sitting next to each other on a real stack. This is the version I would give you over coffee at CEDIA.
I am going to be straightforward about both products. D-Tools is a strong piece of software and a respected brand in the trade, and I would rather give you the real picture than the marketing picture. If you read this and decide D-Tools is the right tool and Specifi is not, that is a good outcome. If you read it and decide you need both, that is also a good outcome. Both happen often.
What D-Tools is built to do, very well
D-Tools is engineering-led AV software. The product is optimised for the AV designer and the system engineer first, the business owner second. That focus pays off in a few specific places:
- The largest product library in AV. Over a million dealer-priced SKUs with engineering-grade specifications, dimensions, weights, power draw, cable types. The kind of detail you need to draw a real rack and have it work.
- Genuinely deep system-design tooling. Rack elevations, line drawings, conduit routing, structural calculations, plate-by-plate wiring schematics. If an architect or a GC is going to review the drawings, D-Tools is one of a small number of tools that can produce drawings at that level.
- A mature service-management module. Decades of refinement on the post-install workflow for commercial integrators with ongoing-service contracts.
If you bid commercial AV work where the spec doc has to survive third-party review, you need an engineering-grade tool. D-Tools is the canonical choice. We are not in that market, we are not trying to be, and the integrators we work with who do that work all keep D-Tools on their stack.
What Specifi is built to do, very well
Specifi is business-management AV software. The product is optimised for the owner running the AV business first, the designer second. The shape of the platform is one database holding the lead, the proposal, the project, the purchase orders, the inventory, the invoice, the client portal, the marketing surface and the single-page website, with Bob the AI sitting across the whole record.
The win we are after is removing duplicate entry across the business workflow. When the SKU you quoted is the same SKU you ordered, that became the same SKU you installed, that became the same SKU you invoiced for, you stop losing days a month to spreadsheet rebuilds. That is the gap, and we have spent the last six years closing it.
How the two work on one real job
The integrators who run both Specifi and D-Tools follow a similar shape on a typical commercial job:
- Lead. The opportunity comes in via the website, the inbox, or a referral. It lands in the Specifi CRM with the contact, the source, and the conversation thread attached.
- Design. The system designer drafts the engineering work in D-Tools. Rack drawings, line drawings, conduit, the architect-facing pack. D-Tools holds that data as the system of record.
- Proposal. The bill of materials from D-Tools imports into the Specifi proposal as the starting point. The proposal layer (room-by-room layout, cable schedule, client-facing document, branded PDF) lives in Specifi because that is the client surface.
- Project. Once signed, the job becomes a project in Specifi. Work orders dispatch, hours track, suppliers send POs, the client sees progress in the portal.
- Invoice. Milestone invoices generate from the same line items the proposal carried. They sync to Xero or QuickBooks and reconcile against payment.
- Service. Post-install service that needs an engineering view goes back to D-Tools. Recurring service contracts and the day-to-day client relationship stay in Specifi.
Neither tool pretends to be the other. The integrator picks up the right one for the layer of work they are doing. That has been the architecture from day one.
Specifi owns the proposal layer of design. D-Tools owns the engineering layer. The integrators who run both are the integrators who have stopped trying to make one tool do every job.
Matthew, Founder
When you can run just Specifi
A lot of residential AV businesses run Specifi without D-Tools and the work supports it. The proposal layer in Specifi produces room-by-room layouts, cable schedules, wiring schematics for system block diagrams, and a bill of materials tied to live supplier pricing. For a residential retrofit or a smart-home build where no architect is going to ask for a rack elevation, that is enough drawing output to scope, sell, and install.
The line we draw is the same one I would draw at a trade show. If your drawing has to satisfy a third party (architect, GC, commissioning engineer, city inspector), you need an engineering tool and D-Tools is the obvious choice. If the drawing only has to satisfy the client and your install crew, Specifi handles it.
When you can run just D-Tools
Less common but it happens. Smaller engineering-led shops with a low job count, a single designer who is also the owner, and a manual accounting workflow can run D-Tools alone. Once the business grows past two or three projects in flight, the absence of CRM, project management, marketing and accounting sync starts to bite. That is the moment most of those shops add a business-management layer.
The combined cost picture
Both tools are paid. D-Tools Cloud lists a sticker on its public site, with additional cost for QuickBooks or Xero sync and Gold Support. Specifi is one flat price per tier that includes everything in the platform, with no per-user surcharges and no integration fees. If you run both, you are paying both, and that is real money. The integrators who keep them on side by side do it because the combined output (engineering drawings plus business workflow) is materially better than either tool alone, not because the bill is small.
If you want the side-by-side feature breakdown plus the longer pricing analysis, the D-Tools comparison page has it. If you want to see what Specifi looks like with a real job in front of it, book a demo and we will walk through one of yours.