Paperless Parts vs CloudNC Quote Agent vs Uptool: What Each Does (2026)

What this comparison is, and is not

This is a side-by-side of three AI quoting tools that job shops ask about most: Paperless Parts (with its Wingman AI), CloudNC Quote Agent and Uptool. It is built from each vendor's public pages and review listings as of October 2026. We have not run the three tools on the same parts, and Lunan has no affiliation with any of them. Every speed figure below is the vendor's own. Treat this as a map for your own trial, not a verdict.

At a glance

Sources: Paperless Parts, Sep 2026; Capterra, Paperless Parts; CloudNC, fetched Oct 2026; IMTS article on Uptool, 2026; Capterra UK, Uptool.

Paperless Parts with Wingman

What it does. Paperless Parts is a full quoting platform. Its Wingman AI processes RFQ emails forwarded into your account: it scans for viruses, extracts attachments, assigns files to line items, matches the sender to a contact and account, and time-stamps when each RFQ arrived so you can measure turnaround. It also reads specifications on prints, including 10,000+ ASTM, AMS, MIL, NADCAP and GD&T (geometric dimensioning and tolerancing) references, and pulls PMI (product and manufacturing information) from 3D PDFs (Paperless Parts, Sep 2026).

What a customer says. Reata Engineering & Machine Works says Wingman "cut down our quote setup time in general by about 20%" (vendor testimonial, Paperless Parts).

Price. Not published. Capterra lists it as contact-vendor with no free trial (Capterra).

Follow-up. The quotes dashboard shows drafted-not-sent quotes, outstanding and expired quotes, whether the buyer viewed the quote and who owns it. Following up is a manual "Re-send Quote" with an email template (Paperless Parts, 2019, updated 2023).

Best fit. Shops with steady RFQ volume, an estimator who will live in the tool, and a budget for a platform rather than a per-part fee.

CloudNC Quote Agent

What it does. You upload CAD files and drawings, or forward customer RFQs to a Quote Agent inbox. It runs a manufacturability review, builds a quote you edit, and exports a customer-ready quote. CloudNC says a typical RFQ takes 5-9 minutes against 2-4 hours or more by hand (vendor figure, CloudNC).

Price. Free for 3 parts a month. Starter is $20, $50 or $100 a month for 8, 20 or 40 parts (single user). Professional is $200, $500 or $1,000 a month for 83, 208 or 416 parts, with multiple users (CloudNC, fetched Oct 2026).

Limits to know. CloudNC states: "At this time, Quote Agent is a cloud-based service and we do not recommend uploading export-controlled data" (CloudNC). It is also new. Trade press in September 2026 said it was demoed at IMTS and due "later this year," while the product page now shows it live (Robotics 24/7, Sep 2026). CloudNC raised $20 million that month, partly to build it (Robotics 24/7). Expect it to change quickly.

Best fit. Shops that want to try AI quoting this week at low cost, on commercial (not export-controlled) work.

Uptool

What it does. Uptool says it detects RFQs from email inboxes, gathers them in one interface, reads drawings and assigns materials and post-processing such as anodizing or powder coating. It claims to automate an estimated 90% of quoting work (vendor figure). A customer at Bullray MFG says quoting "now takes about 10 minutes," down from two hours or longer (vendor testimonial). It advertises "zero upfront cost" and setup "within an hour" (IMTS, 2026).

Price. From $195 a month, usage-based, with a free trial (IMTS; Capterra UK).

Context. Uptool's chief executive told Modern Machine Shop that US shops lose work to Asia on speed as well as cost, since buyers can get "almost anything in 10 days from Vietnam or China" (Modern Machine Shop, Jun 2026).

Best fit. Small shops that want inbox intake and quoting in one low-commitment subscription. There are no public reviews yet, so ask for references.

What none of them advertise

On the pages we reviewed, none of the three describes:

• Scheduled follow-up on quotes that got no reply.
• Won/lost reasons, meaning a record of why each closed quote was won or lost.

Job-system hand-off is a different story: Paperless Parts promotes an integration with JobBOSS and JobBOSS² for going from quote to order (Paperless Parts). For CloudNC and Uptool, ask about your job system directly.

The two gaps above matter more than a few minutes saved per quote, because a fast quote that nobody chases can still lose. Our follow-up guide covers the part the tools leave to you.

How to run a fair trial in a week

1. Pick 10 parts you already quoted. Include wins, losses and a few awkward ones. You know the right answer for each.
2. Strip anything sensitive. Use commercial parts only. Read our drawings checklist first.
3. Run each part through each tool you trial. Free tiers and trials make this cheap.
4. Score three things: how close the price came to the one you sent, how many fields you had to fix, and how long the whole thing took start to finish.
5. Ask each vendor five questions: Do you train on my files? Where are they stored and for how long? Can I delete them? Does it connect to my job system, and is that included in the price? Will you add follow-up reminders?

Do you need one at all?

Maybe not. If you quote a handful of parts a week and your estimator is not the bottleneck, a spreadsheet and a follow-up habit may recover more work than any tool. If RFQs are piling up unanswered, a tool earns its keep. Our decision worksheet helps you tell which shop you are.

If you would like help choosing, or deciding to skip, Lunan offers a free conversation of your quote flow. We do not sell any of these tools.