← Automatic driveway gate bid calculator
Names no specific product or company. This compares a free calculator against the generic pricing habit every gate shop competes with: one flat number — commonly a "$4,500 automatic gate" special — advertised the same regardless of opening width, material, columns, power, loops, or access.
A Facebook ad or a yard sign needs a number before anyone has seen the driveway. "$4,500 installed" is a perfectly fine headline price, and no calculator replaces having one. What follows is not an argument that the flat number is wrong. It is what that same number stops showing you the moment an opening is real and you know its style, material, columns, power, and access.
Both rows below are this calculator's own built-in starting jobs — the two ends of its catalogue — priced at its own shipped shop rates: a $42/hr crew wage, 32% burden, $285 travel and equipment, 16% overhead, a 28% target margin, and a $125 permit. The only thing that changes between them is the job.
| Question | Cheap end — 12 ft single aluminum swing, existing posts, AC | Where the special loses — 16 ft dual steel swing, masonry, 2 loops, keypad, solar |
|---|---|---|
| What the flat special charges | $4,500 — the gate | $4,500 — the gate, unchanged |
| Operators / new columns | 1 operator, 0 new columns (existing posts) | 2 operators, 3 new masonry columns |
| Total crew hours | 12.95 h | 42.89 h — more than 3× the crew time |
| Material cost | $3,035.00 | $10,024.00 — masonry columns, two loops, keypad, and solar do not live in a per-opening special |
| Total cost before any profit | $4,684.02 — already above the $4,500 flat special | $14,716.71 — far above the $4,500 flat special |
| What the $4,500 flat special actually nets | −$184.02 — a loss on the cheapest job in the catalogue | −$10,216.71 — a loss more than double the flat price itself |
| This calculator's price at a 28% target margin | $6,505.58 | $20,439.88 — $13,934.30 more than the cheap-end price, for the same $4,500 headline |
| Effective crew rate the $4,500 flat special actually pays | $347.49/hr (12.95 billed hours) | $104.92/hr — a 70% cut from the cheap-end rate, at the identical advertised price |
A flat special answers "what do I charge for a gate," not "how many operators and columns this opening needs." Both live inside the same $4,500 either way. The calculator splits them out — 1 operator and 0 new columns on the cheap end, 2 operators and 3 masonry columns on the harder job — so the crew hours, the hardware, and the labor are visible numbers instead of one flat guess that happened to work out on a good day.
This is the one that costs real money. The flat special charges $4,500 whether the opening is the easiest job in the catalogue or the hardest, but the cost behind it is not the same — on this calculator's own defaults, even the cheap end already runs $184.02 over the flat price before a dollar of profit, and the harder job runs $10,216.71 over it. A shop quoting "the $4,500 special" on every call can sell every job on the price sheet and still lose money on each one, with nothing on the ad to say so.
For advertising, it plainly is. A yard sign or a Facebook ad cannot show a live calculator, and a homeowner calling for a price wants one number, not a form. The sensible arrangement is both: run the flat special to get the call, then run this calculator once you know the opening width, material, columns, power, loops, and access, to check whether that job's version of "the $4,500 gate" still covers the operators and the columns — and, on a job far enough from the cheap end, whether it needs a real bid instead.
Every figure on this page is this calculator's own worked example, computed from its own built-in starting jobs and shipped default shop rates, not a claim about any real shop's business or an industry benchmark. Your rates, wages, and overhead will produce different numbers — the point is which numbers to produce, not what they should come out to.
No, and it should not go away. A Facebook ad or a yard sign needs one number, and "$4,500 installed" is a fine headline price. The point of this page is not that the flat number is wrong — it is that the flat number is the same whether the opening is a 12-foot single aluminum swing on existing posts or a 16-foot dual steel swing on new masonry columns with loops and solar, and only a full bid separates the two.
On this calculator's own shipped defaults, no. The cheapest preset — a 12 ft single aluminum swing on existing posts with AC power — comes out to $4,684.02 in total cost before any profit is added, $184.02 above the flat $4,500 special. That is the easiest job the calculator prices, and the flat rate is already short of covering it.
A 16 ft dual steel swing on new masonry columns, with two vehicle loops, a keypad, and a solar kit, costs $14,716.71 on this calculator's own defaults — $10,216.71 more than the flat $4,500 special, before a dollar of profit. Two operators instead of one, three new masonry columns instead of zero, and the loop and solar hardware do not live inside a per-opening special.
No, and it is not trying to. The flat number is what you advertise to get the call. This calculator is what you run once you know the opening width, material, columns, power, loops, and access, to check whether that job's version of "the $4,500 gate" still covers the operators, the columns, and the crew hours — and, on a job far enough from the cheap end, whether it needs a real bid instead.
Bid your own gate →
How much to charge to install an automatic gate →