Cost seg comparison:
every firm, side-by-side.

Updated May 25, 2026 · n=8 firms tracked

The three tiers of the cost-seg market

The cost-segregation market has stratified into three pricing tiers, each with a different delivery model:

• Major firms ($5,000–$15,000+ residential): Engineered Tax Services, Madison SPECS, and other traditional engineering firms. Built for $5M+ commercial work. On-site engineering, 4–8 week engagements, white-glove project management. Right fit for hospitality, REIT-scale, ground-up commercial, specialty assets.
• Mid-tier firms ($3,000–$8,000 residential): ELB Consulting, CSSI, Bedford Cost Segregation, and similar. Smaller specialty engineering firms. Often on-site or hybrid; 3–6 week engagements. Right fit for mid-market commercial $1M–$5M and owners who want a small-firm engagement relationship.
• Automated and DIY (from $495 residential): Cost Seg Smart and DIY software. Same methodology, structured-data delivery, residential and small-commercial focus. Right fit for residential, STR, small multifamily, small commercial under $5M.

Which tier is right for you?

Three questions to ask, in order:

1. Is the property over $5M with hospitality, specialty assets, or ground-up commercial? → Major firm (ETS, Madison SPECS, or similar).
2. Is the property $1M–$5M commercial with non-public construction details, or do you specifically value a small-firm engagement? → Mid-tier firm (ELB, CSSI, Bedford).
3. Otherwise (residential, STR, small MF, small commercial under $5M, or you want fast and affordable)? → Cost Seg Smart. Same methodology, dramatically lower study fee, faster turnaround.

DIY cost-seg software sits at the same price point as Cost Seg Smart's residential tier, but transfers the labor and audit-defense responsibility to the customer. See the detailed DIY-vs-automated comparison.

Detailed head-to-head comparisons

Pick a firm to see the full side-by-side comparison: pricing for typical residential, comparison table, methodology overlap, where each firm wins, and 5-question FAQ.

• Major firms:
  • Cost Seg Smart vs. traditional engineering firm — large engineering firm, $5K+ residential, 4–6 week turnaround, $5M+ commercial focus.
  • Cost Seg Smart vs. Engineered Tax Services (ETS) — full-service specialty tax firm, bundles cost seg with R&D credits and §179D.
  • Cost Seg Smart vs. Madison SPECS — specialty engineering firm focused on high-end commercial and industrial work.
• Mid-tier firms:
  • Cost Seg Smart vs. ELB Consulting / CSSI / Bedford — three established mid-tier firms compared in one table.
• DIY:
  • Cost Seg Smart vs. DIY cost-seg software — same price point, very different labor model.

Cost segregation vs. other tax strategies

Cost segregation is often confused with adjacent tax-deferral strategies. These comparison pages walk through where each strategy applies and how they stack:

• Cost segregation vs. 1031 exchange — different timing (ownership vs. disposition), different deferral type (depreciation vs. capital gains), routinely stack in the same year.
• Cost segregation vs. Opportunity Zones — OZ defers capital gains (and eliminates them after 10 years on appreciation); cost seg accelerates depreciation. QOFs can claim cost seg on their underlying property.
• Cost segregation vs. bonus depreciation alone — bonus depreciation is the rate (100% post-OBBBA); cost segregation determines how much of basis qualifies for that rate. Without cost seg, only 3–6% of basis is bonus-eligible; with cost seg, 18–35%.

The methodology is shared

This is the consistent thread across every comparison: the technical machinery is the same. Every credible firm — major, mid-tier, automated, DIY — uses industry-standard 2026 construction cost data, MACRS classification per Rev. Proc. 87-56, and the IRS Cost Segregation Audit Techniques Guide framework. Component-level documentation, a reviewed deliverable, and Form 3115 §481(a) lookback support are all standard. The deliverable is a 30–45 page CPA-ready PDF in nearly every case.

What varies is the labor model — who does the work, how long it takes, how much it costs, and whether on-site engineering is part of the analysis. For residential and small-commercial properties under $5M, the structured-data approach Cost Seg Smart uses produces the same MACRS classification result as a traditional on-site study, at a fraction of the cost and time. For larger and more complex commercial properties, on-site engineering captures details a remote analysis can miss. Pick the firm that fits the property.

Next steps

If you want to see the math on a specific property before deciding, our free calculator gives a Year-1 estimate in 30 seconds. For full methodology details see /methodology/; for pricing tiers see /cheap-cost-segregation/; for the speed argument see /under-1-hour-cost-segregation/.

How we score and rank firms

This comparison is published by Cost Seg Smart. We are an operator in this market — one of the firms in the table — and that should be visible to the reader, not hidden. The comparisons below are constructed under the following rules:

• What we measure. Four observable, externally-verifiable dimensions: typical residential study fee, typical turnaround for a $500K–$2M residential property, methodology disclosure (does the firm publish their cost-data source, MACRS classification basis, and reconciliation approach), and the segment each firm targets best (residential, mid-commercial $1M–$5M, large commercial $5M+).
• What we don't measure. Customer-service quality, sales-process aggressiveness, "premium feel," and other subjective dimensions. Those vary firm-to-firm and operator-to-operator; we don't have a defensible way to score them across vendors.
• Where the data comes from. Public pricing on each firm's website where available; otherwise from quotes shared by buyers, summarized engagement letters, and the 2026 cost-segregation pricing market survey at costsegregationpricing.com. We update when public pricing changes. For firms that quote per-engagement only, we note the typical range without claiming precision.
• Methodology-overlap claim. When we say every credible firm uses "the same underlying methodology," we mean: industry-standard 2026 construction cost data unit cost data (or equivalent commercial cost-data source), MACRS classification under Rev. Proc. 87-56, and the IRS Cost Segregation Audit Techniques Guide (Pub 5653) framework. This is verifiable from each firm's own deliverable when you receive one. The labor model (site-visit engagement vs. structured-data) is what varies.
• Editorial judgment we apply. Tier assignment ("major firm," "mid-tier firm," "automated/DIY") is a judgment call based on price + headcount + market positioning, not a regulated taxonomy. Reasonable people could place ELB or Bedford in the "major firm" tier depending on engagement size. We default to the categorization that's most useful to a residential or small-commercial buyer, which is the audience we serve.
• Conflict-of-interest disclosure. Cost Seg Smart benefits financially when a reader chooses our automated tier over a competitor. We mitigate this by (a) showing the math when a different tier is the right fit ("if your property is over $5M with hospitality or specialty assets, a major firm is the right fit — not us"), and (b) linking to the dedicated head-to-head pages so the reader can see the case for the other firm in the same depth we make for ourselves.
• Confirm directly. Pricing and scope change. Before signing an engagement, confirm with the firm directly. This page is a starting point, not a contract.

Related research and reviews

For the full 2026 cost-seg pricing market survey across all major US providers, see our companion site costsegregationpricing.com. For customer-reported reviews of major cost-seg providers, see costsegregationreviews.com. For the 412-study benchmarks dataset showing typical reclassification ranges by property type, see 2026 benchmarks. For deeper pricing analysis, see 2026 pricing research.

Change log

Substantive edits since first publication:

• 2026-05-22: Added "How we score and rank firms" methodology section with conflict-of-interest disclosure. Added this change log. Updated last-reviewed date format.
• 2026-05-01: Pricing tier refresh; added mid-tier head-to-head page. Aligned hero copy with the 2026 pricing dataset.
• 2026-01-15: First publication. Eight-firm comparison + four strategy comparisons (1031, OZ, bonus alone, DIY).

Last reviewed: 2026-05-22. Maintained by the Cost Seg Smart Editorial Team. All comparisons are informational; firm names are trademarks of their respective holders. No affiliation. Confirm pricing and scope directly with each vendor.