Assembly (formerly Copilot) alternative
Looking for a Copilot alternative?
Copilot is now Assembly. It rebranded in September 2025 to get out of the way of Microsoft Copilot, and it is the same product and the same company. Assembly and The Contractor Codex are the two products that actually overlap: a branded client portal with messaging, contracts, and payments in one place. The differences are what surrounds it, and what a growing team costs.
In short
Copilot is the closest thing to a direct comparison we have, and the two products are aimed at overlapping buyers: agencies, consultancies, IT and web shops. Both are white-label client portals where the client logs in once and finds their documents, contracts, and invoices. Copilot is a modular app platform and it is polished at that, with a native mobile app and a custom-app framework we do not match. The Contractor Codex assumes the work is billed by the hour or drawn against a retainer, so it adds the layer Copilot leaves to other tools: a quote composer with a 240-item starter library, projects with budgets that gate work, live time tracking, retainers with included hours and overage approvals, and a full set of books with profit per job under a tamper-evident ledger. The other difference is the bill. Copilot charges per internal user on top of the plan. We do not.
The Contractor Codex vs Assembly (formerly Copilot), at a glance
Both tools cover the basics. The differences sit in price, workflow shape, and which kind of service business each was built for.
| Dimension | The Contractor Codex | Assembly (formerly Copilot) |
|---|---|---|
| Who actually buys it | IT consultants and MSPs, web and app developers, agencies, consultants billing hours or retainers | Agencies, accounting firms, and consultancies wanting a polished portal they can extend |
| Starting price | $15/month, or $12.50/month billed annually ($150/year) | From $29/month (Starter), which includes one internal user and 50 clients |
| Mid tier | $35/month (Pro). Identical features; you are only buying the lower payment fee | From $99/month (Professional), which includes three internal users and 500 clients |
| Internal users | Unlimited on both plans, at no extra cost | 1 on Starter, 3 on Professional, 5 on Advanced; $29/user beyond three on Professional, $59/user beyond five on Advanced |
| Service fee on payments | 0.8% on Standard, 0.1% on Pro, on top of Stripe's own processing rates | Payment processing billed through their Payments app |
| Branded client portal | Yes, fully white-label (your logo, accent color, domain) | Yes, white-label, and one of their strengths |
| Client messaging | Yes, two-way threads that also land in your own inbox | Yes, a core part of the portal |
| Contracts + e-signature | Yes, multi-signer with witness and countersigner, plus a Docusign passthrough | Yes, through their Contracts app |
| Quote composer with industry library | Yes, 240 starter line items across 24 industries, plus optional client-selected add-ons | Not built in; quoting is handled through forms or documents |
| Projects with budgets and approval gating | Yes, billable work blocks automatically when a project passes its budget cap | Not built in |
| Live work-session time tracking | Yes, start and stop a session, billable or not, with per-session rate overrides | Not built in |
| Billing modes per quote | Six, including deposit, progress payments, and a named milestone schedule, plus monthly and annual recurring lines | Invoices and subscriptions |
| Tamper-evident financial ledger | Yes, an append-only hash chain across every money event in the org | Not built in |
| Books, job profit, and tax exports | Built in. Receipts and manual costs today, with direct bank connection through Plaid built and rolling out. AI sorts each charge onto a job, then profit per job, P&L, cash flow, and tax exports | Not built in; typically paired with separate accounting |
| QuickBooks sync | No. CSV import in, P&L and tax exports out | No native sync |
| Retainers with included hours | Yes. Included hours, automatic overage requests, billable work pauses when the allowance runs out | Recurring invoices and subscriptions, not an hours allowance |
| Passthrough costs the client pays directly | Yes, hosting, domains, licenses, and API fees disclosed as estimates you never bill | Not a native concept |
| MCP server for AI agents | Yes, run the whole workspace from Claude, ChatGPT, or any MCP client | Custom apps and an API, not an MCP surface |
| Custom app platform | No, the feature set is what ships | Yes, modular apps you can enable, disable, and extend |
| Mobile app | Mobile-responsive web, no dedicated native app | Yes |
Assembly (formerly Copilot) pricing read from their public pricing page on August 19, 2026. Published prices change often, so check theirs before you decide.
Pick The Contractor Codex when…
- Your work is shaped like quote, sign, do the job, bill it, and you want that whole chain in one record
- You have more than one person on the team and do not want the bill to climb with every seat you add
- You need real quoting: a reusable price list, optional add-ons the client picks, deposits, and progress payments
- You want the money side (job profit, P&L, tax-ready reports) in the same place as the client relationship
- You track hours against a budget and want work to stop automatically when the cap is hit
Pick Assembly (formerly Copilot) when…
- You run an agency, accounting firm, or consultancy where the portal is mostly files, messages, and recurring invoices
- You want to build custom apps into the portal, which is Copilot's platform bet and something we do not offer
- A native mobile app for you and your clients is a requirement rather than a preference
- You do not quote line-item work and a quote composer would sit unused
- You are a single operator on Starter and the per-seat pricing never becomes a factor
Pricing: where the per-seat model changes the answer
Assembly's Starter plan starts at $29/month and includes one internal user and 50 clients. Professional starts at $99/month and includes three internal users and 500 clients, with each additional internal user at $29/month. Advanced starts at $499/month, includes five, and charges $59/month per user beyond that. That per-user number is the one worth modeling, because it is the one that moves. A four-person shop on Professional is $99 plus $29 for the fourth seat, so $128/month. The Contractor Codex is $15/month, or $12.50 billed annually, with unlimited internal users, so the same four-person shop pays $15. The sharper gap is white-label: full white-labeling sits on Assembly's Advanced plan at $499/month, and it is included here on every plan at $15. The honest counterweight: we take a service fee on payments that Assembly does not structure the same way, 0.8% on Standard and 0.1% on the $35/month Pro plan, charged on top of Stripe's normal processing rates. On $20,000 a month in card payments that is $160 on Standard, or $20 on Pro, which is why Pro exists and why it stops making sense below roughly $2,900/month in billing.
The layer Copilot leaves to other tools
Copilot is a portal platform. Messaging, files, contracts, e-signature, payments, forms, and a custom-app framework on top. If your client relationship is mostly documents and a recurring invoice, that is a clean fit and the modular app model is genuinely flexible. What it does not include is the work itself. There is no quote composer with a reusable price list, no project record carrying a budget, no live time tracking, and no per-job profit. Businesses that quote line-item work usually end up pairing Copilot with a separate estimating tool and a separate accounting stack. The Contractor Codex puts that in one place: build the quote from a 240-item library across 24 industries, let the client accept and pay a deposit on the same page, track hours against the project budget, and read profit per job at the end without exporting anything.
Money you can audit, not just money you can collect
Both tools collect payments and both do it well. The difference is what happens to the record afterward. Every money event in The Contractor Codex writes to an append-only ledger where each entry carries a hash of the one before it, so the chain is tamper-evident: a changed or deleted record breaks the hash and the break is visible. On top of that sit a four-level payment reminder ladder with automatic late fees, refunds and credits that stay audited, and multi-signer change orders that keep a signed history when scope moves. If your work involves disputes, retainers drawn down over months, or anyone who might one day ask you to prove what was billed and when, that record matters more than the invoice itself.
AI: an agent surface, not a chat box
The Contractor Codex ships an MCP server, which means you can connect Claude, ChatGPT, or any MCP-compatible client and operate the workspace by conversation: draft a quote, check who owes you money, record a payment, chase an unsigned contract. Anything that sends or bills asks for approval before it goes. There is also an in-portal assistant your clients can use to ask about their own projects and invoices, and an advisor that reads your numbers and tells you what needs attention. Copilot offers an API and a custom-app framework, which is a real extensibility story, but it is a build-it-yourself path rather than an agent surface that works on day one.
Switching from Assembly (formerly Copilot)
Moving from Copilot is mostly a matter of clients and documents. Export your client list from Copilot and either re-create the records here or bulk-load them with the create_client tool through an AI agent. Files and message history do not transfer, so most people leave the old portal readable for a cycle and start new conversations in the new one. Contracts already signed in Copilot stay valid where they are; you do not need to re-sign anything, just keep the signed copies. The pieces you will build fresh are the ones Copilot did not have: your quote library, your billing profiles, and any project budgets. That usually takes an afternoon, and the 240-item starter library covers most of it before you type anything. Running both for one billing cycle is the safe way to do it.
FAQ: The Contractor Codex vs Assembly (formerly Copilot)
Is The Contractor Codex cheaper than Copilot?
For almost any team, yes, and the gap grows with headcount. The Contractor Codex is $15/month, or $150/year which works out to $12.50/month, with unlimited internal users. Assembly's Starter starts at $29/month and includes one internal user and 50 clients; Professional starts at $99/month and includes three, with each additional user at $29/month. Full white-labeling is on Assembly's Advanced plan at $499/month and is included here at $15. The one cost to add on our side is the service fee on payments, 0.8% on Standard and 0.1% on Pro, on top of Stripe's processing rates.
What does Copilot do that The Contractor Codex does not?
Three things worth naming. Copilot has a custom-app platform, so you can extend the portal with your own functionality, and we have nothing equivalent. Copilot has a native mobile app where we are mobile-responsive web only. And Copilot's product is aimed squarely at agencies, accounting firms, and consultancies, so if that is your business the defaults and the language will feel more natural out of the box.
Can I quote jobs in Copilot?
Not with a dedicated quoting tool. Copilot handles proposals through forms and documents, which works if your pricing is simple or negotiated case by case. The Contractor Codex has a quote composer built around a reusable price list, ships with 240 starter line items across 24 industries, supports optional add-ons the client chooses at acceptance, and turns the accepted quote into a contract and an invoice without you re-entering anything.
Do I pay more as my team grows?
Not with us. Both plans include unlimited internal users, so adding your third or eighth person changes nothing on the bill. Assembly includes a set number of internal users per plan and charges $29/month per extra user on Professional and $59/month on Advanced, which is usually the line item that decides the comparison for anyone who is not a solo operator.
Does The Contractor Codex have client messaging like Copilot?
Yes. Clients can message you from their portal, and those threads also land in your own email inbox so you are not forced to log in to answer. Replies from your mailbox go back into the thread. Copilot's messaging is more central to how their portal is designed, so if secure client chat is the main thing you are buying, look at both.
How long is the free trial?
30 days, on both the monthly and annual plans. You pick a plan and add a payment method when you sign up, and nothing is charged until the trial ends. The trial is the full portal rather than a limited version: send real quotes, sign real contracts, and take real payments.
Try The Contractor Codex free
30-day free trial, unlimited clients and projects, every feature on every plan. From $15/month after the trial. You pick a plan and add a payment method up front, and nothing is charged until the trial ends. Send your first quote in under a minute.