Quoting.ai vs Distro
Verified against the live products on 2026-07-05.
Distro (distro.app) sells a six-module agentic sales platform for industrial wholesale distributors: RFQ automation, takeoffs, a rep-facing product Q&A agent, a customer chatbot, and AP, with strong Epicor Prophet 21 and Eclipse coverage. Quoting.ai Supply does one job deeply: multichannel RFQ-to-quote-to-order with write-back live in production on DDI Inform and Spruce, measured by a published Human Edit Rate. Pick by shape: one vendor covering the whole front office versus depth on the quoting desk itself, with fax, WhatsApp, and voice intake Distro does not document.
Pick Quoting.ai when
- Your RFQs arrive by fax, WhatsApp, or voice as well as email and PDF. Distro documents email, PDF, Excel, image, and handwritten intake only.
- You run DDI Inform or Spruce and want quote and order write-back that is live in production today, not platform-level integration.
- You are a lumber or building materials dealer. Distro's industries are HVAC/R, plumbing, and electrical; LBM is not covered.
- You want measurable trust before autonomy: a published Human Edit Rate and Assist, Guarded, Autopilot modes instead of a generic review-and-approve screen.
Pick Distro when
- You are an HVAC/R, refrigeration, plumbing, or electrical distributor on Epicor Prophet 21 or Eclipse and want one vendor across the whole front office.
- Your counter and inside reps lose time answering technical product questions: Distro Agent and QuoteTech target exactly that, and Quoting.ai does not offer a rep knowledge chat.
- You also want a customer-facing e-commerce chatbot and AP invoice automation from the same platform.
Is a six-module platform better than a deep quoting tool?
It depends on where your margin leaks. Distro's breadth is real: AutoBid, TakeOffs, Distro Agent, CustomerBot, QuoteTech, and AP automation under one roof is a genuine one-vendor story. The tradeoff is depth per module. Quoting.ai concentrates on the RFQ-to-quote-to-order path: five intake channels including fax, WhatsApp, and multilingual voice notes, SKU matching against your own item file, price levels from your ERP, and write-back running live in production.
The honest test: list your top three time sinks. If they spread across rep Q&A, e-commerce, and AP, look at Distro. If quoting and order entry dominate, depth wins.
How do the trust models differ?
Both keep a human in the loop. The difference is instrumentation. Quoting.ai publishes the Human Edit Rate, the measured percentage of AI-drafted lines your team corrects, and gates autonomy behind it with Assist, Guarded, and Autopilot modes. Distro's documented workflow is a review-adjust-approve screen without a published accuracy metric or graduated autonomy. In order entry, agentic without instrumentation is a claim you cannot verify from the outside.
Common questions
Does Distro publish pricing?
No. Their pricing page returns a 404 and third-party listings say contact vendor, as of July 2026. Quoting.ai publishes its pricing method and worked scenarios on the pricing page.
Both claim takeoffs. Same thing?
Different jobs. Distro's TakeOffs module extracts BOMs from drawings for distributor bids. Quoting.ai Takeoff is a browser-based counting engine for Division 8 doors and windows with 4 Eyes omission detection, aimed at estimators who cannot afford a missed opening.
Settle it with your own work
Demos flatter every tool. Your real RFQs and your real plan sets are the honest benchmark.