Comparison
Cornerstone Contracts vs MERX
MERX is the canonical Canadian tender aggregator — a place to find notices. Cornerstone reads those same boards for you, scores each posting against your profile, and drafts the proposal you would otherwise write from scratch.
Where MERX is strong
MERX is an established, broadly useful aggregator: federal, provincial, MASH, and some private RFPs all surface there. If you want a raw notice feed and are happy to filter and draft on your own, its free search is a reasonable starting point.
Where Cornerstone fits better
MERX shows you everything and tells you nothing about fit. You still triage a firehose every morning and write each response from a blank page. Cornerstone scores every posting against your trade, region, and size, then drafts a Canadian-spec compliant proposal you can edit in minutes. MERX is a board; Cornerstone reads the boards — MERX included — and helps you respond.
Side-by-side
| Feature | Cornerstone | MERX |
|---|---|---|
| Audience | Canadian SMB contractors and subs | Any supplier searching public notices |
| Headline pricing | Free, $49/mo Pro | Free notice search; per-solicitation e-bid / document fees |
| AI-driven match scoring | Per-user scoring against your trade profile | Saved-search keyword alerts; no per-profile scoring |
| AI proposal drafting | AI drafts a Canadian-spec compliant proposal in minutes | None — it is a notice board, not a drafting tool |
| Geographic scope | Canadian boards, scored and ranked to your profile | Broad Canadian aggregation, unscored |
| Canadian board coverage (BC Bid · APC · MERX · SaskTenders · CanadaBuys) | All five major boards + 30+ municipal portals | Wide aggregation; you search and filter manually |
| No-credit-card free tier | Free tier, no card | Free registration |
| No annual lock-in | Pro is month-to-month | Pay-per-document / e-bid fees vary |
| Founder-led support | Founder reply within one business day | Standard portal support |
If you want a raw notice feed and like doing your own filtering and drafting, MERX free works. If you want the boards watched, ranked against your profile, and the first proposal drafted for you, that is what Cornerstone adds on top.
Other comparisons: BiddingForGood (Bonfire) · GovWin (Deltek) · BuildingConnected (Autodesk) · ConstructConnect · PlanHub