Everything you need to use QuoteHive

1What QuoteHive is

Canada’s pay-per-bid contractor marketplace, plus a buy/sell marketplace for the trades.

QuoteHive connects two kinds of people. Clients (individuals, businesses, and government/institutions) post construction and trade work for free. Verified contractors spend a small amount of credit to bid on it. Every job has a deadline, and once bidding closes the results are transparent to everyone who took part: you always see where you ranked.

On top of that sits the Marketplace: buy, sell, auction, or request quotes on tools, materials, trucks, surplus and services, with a one-tap bridge to get anything delivered or installed by those same verified contractors.

2Create your account

Two account types, chosen at signup: pick the one that matches what you’re here to do.

3Finding your way around

The header is the same on every page. Here’s what each part does.

• Find work: Canadian Tenders, Private Construction, Trust & Safety (what we verify per trade), and credit Pricing.
• Marketplace: Browse, Sell an item, Pricing & fees, your Bidding balance, and Messages.
• Help: this guide, the Help Center, How-it-works, FAQ, and Contact.
• FR / EN: switch the whole site between French and English any time.
• Bell: notifications (outbid, hired, expiring credentials, referral rewards…) and QuoteHive announcements. Important announcements also show as a banner across the top of the site until the announced window ends.
• Your avatar: the account menu: dashboard, settings, credits, billing, marketplace balance, security, log out.

4Clients: post a project

Posting is always free, for any client and any budget.

5Contractors: bid on work

Bidding is a three-step funnel: each step is enforced, and bidding is open to every verified contractor until the deadline.

• Info package matters. Attach a proposal, schedule and references, a portfolio URL, or a cloud link: you’re judged on your work, not just price.
• After the close, the full bid table is revealed to participants: even when you lose, you see exactly where you ranked.

6Getting verified

The gate before bidding, so clients can trust every bidder is a real, insured business.

Confirm your email, then upload your documents on the verification page: government ID, proof of address, liability insurance, WSIB/workers’ comp, and your trade licence. An admin reviews them (usually within one business day) and validates you. Dated credentials (insurance, WSIB, licence) are tracked: we remind you at 60/30/7 days before expiry, and pause bidding if one lapses until you re-upload.

7Credits & what bids cost

Clients never pay. Contractors buy credits and spend them only when they compete.

• Unlocking a job’s documents costs 1 credit; a Bid of Intent is free; a final bid costs 1–12 credits by budget band (shown before you commit).
• New contractors start with 12 free credits. Top up in three packs, 10/$50, 28/$120, 60/$220, bigger packs cost less per credit.
• No mandatory subscription, no commission on the work.

8The Marketplace

Buy, sell, auction, or get it quoted: five ways to list.

• Fixed-price sale: a fixed price; purchase or make an offer.
• Auction: bid live against a countdown; highest wins.
• Get it quoted, for services/custom supply; the seller replies with a price.
• Wanted: post what you need and let sellers come to you.
• Deliver & install: once an item is yours (bought, auction won, or offer accepted), turn the listing into a real job for verified contractors in one tap (the QuoteHive edge). Before you own it you can still see a non-binding estimate of what delivery and install would cost.

9Marketplace bidding balance

Your first bids are free; after that, bidding costs a few cents from a small prepaid balance.

Everyone gets a batch of free bids to start. When those run out, each auction bid costs a flat fee (25¢) from your Marketplace balance: top it up any time (from the Marketplace menu or your account menu). Buying, selling, offers and messaging stay free.

10Messaging

Private, purpose-built threads, never a spam free-for-all.

• After a hire, a private thread opens automatically between the client and the contractor they hired: one per job, with file attachments and a typing indicator.
• On the Marketplace, you can message a seller once you’ve bid or made an offer on their listing, so sellers only hear from serious buyers.
• Report anything off from inside the thread; it goes straight to our team.

11Referrals: earn credits

Invite people, get free bidding credits.

Every account has a personal referral link (on your Account page). When someone signs up through it, verifies their email and makes their first purchase, a credit pack or a Marketplace bidding top-up, you earn credits automatically, with no limit on how many people you can refer. The first-purchase step is a deliberate anti-farming safeguard, so a click alone never pays out.

12Team accounts & seats

Several estimators under one company? Buy credits once and share them.

Organization seating lets an owner account invite team members as seats and share a single pool of bidding credits: instead of every estimator running a separate account and a separate wallet. Manage it from Account → Organization.

• Invite team members from the Organization page, then assign credits from the pool down to any member so they can bid.
• See each seat’s credit spend, and reclaim unused credits back to the pool at any time: when someone leaves or a project wraps up.
• Removing a member returns their remaining balance to the pool automatically, so credits are never stranded.
• Seating shares the credit pool, not the login: every member still signs in as themselves, keeps their own two-factor authentication, and bids in their own name.

13Account & security

Strong protection on the actions that matter.

• Two-factor authentication (an authenticator app) or a passkey is required before you post, unlock a job’s documents or bid. Browsing needs neither. Set 2FA up under Account → Security and keep the one-time backup codes somewhere safe.
• See and revoke every signed-in session, web and mobile, under Account → Security.
• A passkey signs you in with your device’s fingerprint, face or PIN. Nothing to type, and a fake login page can’t use it: the credential only works on QuoteHive’s own address. It satisfies the strong-auth requirement on its own; keeping an authenticator app as well means you’re never locked out if you lose a device.
• In the mobile apps, biometric sign-in seals your session behind the phone’s own sensor so returning is one touch, and an optional app-open lock re-locks the app every time it comes back to the foreground. Re-enrolling a face or finger, or signing out, clears the saved sign-in on purpose. See Biometric sign-in.

14Mobile apps

Native Android apps talk to the exact same account as the website.

QuoteHive (client), QuoteHive Pro (contractor) and QuoteHive Marketplace are in private beta, distributed directly by us: iPhone versions are in development. Same login, same rules, same data as the web.

15Getting more help

If anything here didn’t answer your question.

Browse the Help Center for detailed articles, skim the FAQ, or contact support: we typically reply within one business day. Live chat is available on most pages.