Comparison
Cactus alternative: Origentic vs Cactus
Cactus (trycactus.com) and Origentic sit in the same category: AI-assisted commercial real estate underwriting that reads a deal's documents and turns them into a cash-flow model. Cactus is a capable, real product — it extracts rent rolls, T-12s, and OMs with source citations and builds DCF models fast. The honest differences are price and verifiability: Origentic has a permanent free plan with the full engine and publishes flat plans from $89/month, while Cactus is a paid subscription with no published list prices as of July 2026; and Origentic requires a human to review and sign off on every AI-extracted field — each with its source and a confidence score — before it can touch the model, on a deterministic engine verified against golden test vectors.
| Capability | Origentic | Cactus |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Permanent free plan; published flat plans $89–$189/mo | Paid subscription; no public list prices as of July 2026 (tailored Core / Plus / Max tiers) |
| Free tier | Yes — permanent free plan with the full engine and no trial clock | No; 7-day free trial |
| AI document extraction (rent roll, T-12, OM) | Yes — glass-box | Yes — with source citations |
| Per-field confidence + required human sign-off | Yes — nothing enters the model unapproved | Citations shown; sign-off not a required gate per their site (July 2026) |
| Engine verification | Deterministic engine verified by golden test vectors | Exports Excel with working formulas; verification methodology not published |
| Asset classes available | 7 — multifamily, retail, office, industrial, self-storage, hospitality, residential | 2 available (multifamily, self-storage); others listed as beta/planned as of July 2026 |
| GP/LP waterfalls & sensitivity | Yes | Yes |
| Deal CRM, investment memos, LP share links | Built in | Investor decks/reports; no deal CRM listed on their site (July 2026) |
| Seats | 1 on Free/Analyst; 5 on Syndicator; unlimited on Institutional | Unlimited users on every plan |
Comparison compiled from public information as of July 2026; verify current details on each vendor's site.
Where the two products genuinely agree
Cactus and Origentic share more philosophy than most head-to-head pages admit. Both use AI where it is actually good — reading deal documents — rather than letting a language model do the arithmetic. Both trace extracted figures back to the source document: Cactus displays citations like 'OM p.14' against extracted line items, and Origentic shows the source location for every AI-proposed field. Both produce real DCF outputs — cash flows, return metrics, and equity waterfall analysis — rather than a summary paragraph. If you are evaluating this category, either tool is a serious step up from re-keying a T-12 into a spreadsheet by hand.
The pricing difference is simple
Origentic has a permanent free plan with the full engine and no trial clock: deterministic underwriting, waterfalls, sensitivity, memos, and exports for up to 3 active deals, with no credit card. When your pipeline grows, the plans are published and flat — Analyst $89/month, Syndicator $189/month — never tailored, never per-seat. Cactus is a paid subscription. As of July 2026 its pricing page lists three tiers — Core, Plus, and Max — with pricing 'tailored to your team's size, deal volume, and workflow needs' rather than published list prices, a 7-day free trial, and unlimited users on every plan. That is a reasonable model for a commercial product, but it means a sales conversation to know your number. With Origentic the number is public — and $0 to underwrite your first three deals.
- •Origentic: permanent free plan (full engine, 3 active deals); published flat plans $89–$189/mo
- •Cactus: tiered subscription, no public list prices as of July 2026, 7-day trial
- •Every Origentic plan includes the full deterministic engine; AI features require an Anthropic API connection
Verifiability: a citation you can check vs. a gate you must pass
The deeper difference is how each product treats AI output before it becomes your underwriting. Cactus cites where extracted values came from, which is genuinely good practice — you can check any number you doubt. Origentic goes one step further and makes verification structural: every extracted field carries its source page and a confidence score, and a human must review and approve it before it enters the model at all. Nothing is auto-applied. That distinction matters at committee, where the question is not 'could someone have checked this?' but 'was this checked?' Downstream of the inputs, Origentic's math runs on a deterministic engine verified against a frozen suite of golden test vectors, so identical inputs always produce identical outputs — the model you defend is reproducible, not just fast.
- •Per-field source page and confidence score on every extracted value
- •Mandatory human sign-off before any AI value touches the model
- •Deterministic engine — same inputs, same outputs, verified by golden test vectors
Coverage today, and the workflow around the model
As of July 2026, Cactus's features page lists multifamily and self-storage as currently available, with industrial, retail, office, hospitality, and others in beta or planned. Origentic ships seven asset classes on one engine today: multifamily, retail, office, industrial, self-storage, hospitality, and residential (SFR/BTR). Origentic also carries the deal past the model — a built-in deal CRM and kanban pipeline, one-click investment memos generated from the live model, and read-only, revocable LP share links — so a deal moves from screening to committee to investor update without leaving the platform or re-keying a number.
An honest note
Cactus is a real, actively developed product with a fast extraction-to-DCF workflow and source citations — this page is not a knock on it. If your book is multifamily or self-storage and you value their specific workflow, trial it; the 7-day trial makes that easy. The factual differences are that Origentic publishes its prices and is free to start, requires human sign-off on every AI value rather than making review optional, verifies its engine against golden test vectors, covers seven asset classes today, and includes the CRM, memo, and LP-sharing workflow around the model. Evaluate both on your own deal.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Origentic really free?
- Yes — Origentic has a permanent free plan with the full engine and no trial clock: deterministic underwriting, waterfalls, sensitivity, memos, and exports for up to 3 active deals, with no credit card. Paid plans are published and flat — Analyst $89/month, Syndicator $189/month. Cactus, by comparison, is a paid subscription with no published list prices as of July 2026 and a 7-day trial rather than a free plan.
- How does glass-box extraction differ from automated extraction?
- Automated extraction reads a document and applies the values; the burden is on you to notice errors. Glass-box extraction makes verification structural: in Origentic, every AI-extracted field shows the exact source page it came from and a confidence score, and a human must review and approve it before it can enter the model. Cactus does cite sources for extracted values, which helps you check numbers you doubt — but Origentic makes the check mandatory rather than optional, so no unreviewed AI value ever reaches your pro forma.
- How much does Cactus cost compared to Origentic?
- As of July 2026, Cactus does not publish list prices; its pricing page offers three tiers (Core, Plus, Max) tailored to team size and deal volume, with a 7-day free trial and unlimited users. Origentic publishes flat prices — a permanent free plan, Analyst $89/month, Syndicator $189/month — so you know the number without a sales conversation, and it's $0 to underwrite your first three deals.
- Which asset classes does each cover?
- Origentic underwrites seven asset classes on one deterministic engine today: multifamily, retail, office, industrial, self-storage, hospitality, and residential (SFR/BTR). As of July 2026, Cactus lists multifamily and self-storage as currently available, with other classes in beta or planned.
- Does Origentic replace the rest of the deal workflow too?
- Origentic includes a deal CRM and pipeline, one-click investment memos generated from the live model, and revocable, watermarked LP share links, so screening, underwriting, committee, and investor communication happen in one place. Cactus offers investor decks and reports; a deal CRM is not listed on its site as of July 2026.
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