Tradify vs Fergus: which per-user app fits your crew in 2026?

Tradify vs Fergus comes down to depth versus simplicity. Both bill per user with no free tier. Tradify, from $48 per user a month ex GST, is the simpler all-rounder with matching iOS and Android apps. Fergus, from $53 per user, goes deeper on job costing but gates key features behind its $77 Professional tier. Neither can quote or invoice offline.

Both tools were born in New Zealand, both sell hard into Australia, and both sit at roughly fifty bucks a seat, which is why so many tradies end up stuck between exactly these two. The pricing pages will not settle it for you, because the real differences are in what each one gates, what each one leaves out, and how the bill grows with your crew. Here is the whole picture, with every figure checked against the vendors' own Australian pricing pages in July 2026.

The short version#

If you only read one section, this is the call. Pick based on which of these sounds like you:

• You want the easiest tool to learn and your crew is a mix of iPhones and Androids: Tradify. Its mobile apps genuinely match across platforms and reviewers consistently rate it easy to pick up.

• You live and die by job profitability, or you buy a lot through Reece or Tradelink: Fergus. Its margin-per-job visibility and 100-plus supplier integrations are its strongest cards, and neither is matched by Tradify.

• You are a solo operator or a two-person outfit watching costs: be careful with both. Per-user billing at $48 to $77 a seat is built for established crews. There are cheaper ways to get quoting and invoicing done, covered further down.

• You need offline: neither one will save you. More on that below.

Pricing side by side#

Both products charge per user per month, so start the maths with your headcount, not the headline price. Here is the ladder as at July 2026, from each vendor's Australian pricing page:

Two catches hide in that table. Tradify's prices are ex GST, so a three-person crew on Pro is really about $172 a month once GST lands, not $156. Fergus's number depends heavily on which tier you actually need, because a long list of features sits only on Professional. A three-person crew that needs those is at $231 a month before add-ons. Fergus also runs rolling regional discounts, so if you see a dramatically cheaper figure, check whether it is an intro price with a snap-back.

Where Tradify shines, and the catches#

Tradify's pitch is that it gets out of your way, and by most accounts it delivers. Reviewers across Capterra and G2 consistently praise how quickly new users get productive, how fast on-site quoting is, and how cleanly its invoices come out. The accounting sync is a genuine strength: Xero, QuickBooks and MYOB connections are mature and reliable, which matters more than any feature list once your bookkeeper is involved. And unlike some rivals, its iOS and Android apps are the same product. An Android crew loses nothing.

The catches. There is no offline mode at all, confirmed by Tradify's own help centre, so no signal means no Tradify. Custom branding is gated: on the $48 Lite tier your invoices and emails carry Tradify's logo, and removing it means stepping up to Pro. The AI features it advertises, SmartRead and SmartWrite, live only on the $62 Plus tier. Reporting is often described as shallow, and inventory tracking is weak. One more fact worth knowing before you commit: Tradify was acquired by The Access Group, a large UK enterprise software company, in October 2024. It still operates under its own brand, but the tradie-founded startup you may have read about now answers to a much bigger parent.

Where Fergus shines, and the catches#

Fergus was built by a plumber, and it shows in the one place most competitors are weakest: knowing whether a job actually made you money. Its job-costing and margin visibility is the best reason to choose it, especially for service trades running lots of call-outs where small losses hide easily. The supplier side is the other standout. More than 100 supplier integrations, including Reece, Tradelink and CEF, pull invoices and pricing straight in, killing a whole category of double entry. It holds a 4.6 out of 5 on Capterra across 155 reviews, and the free one-hour onboarding session with a real person is a nice touch no rival matches at this price.

The catches sit in the tier structure. Full GPS tracking, checklists, job phases, purchase orders, SWMS and hazard tools, and advanced reporting all live only on the $77 Professional tier, so the Fergus that looks good in the demo is usually not the $53 Fergus. Add-ons stack on top: contractor users, SMS, certificates and card fees are all billed separately. Reviewers also flag that invoices are hard to edit once approved and that the interface takes more clicks than it should.

The offline question#

Neither tool solves the black-spot problem, so if your work happens in basements, new estates or anywhere the bars disappear, hear this before you pay. Tradify has no offline mode of any kind; its own help centre says so, and its users have publicly asked for one. Fergus is only slightly better: its release notes document offline support for creating and editing time entries, plus read-only viewing of data that already synced. Neither one lets you create a job, build a quote or raise an invoice without a connection. If offline capability is your deciding factor, the honest answer is that this pair is the wrong shortlist, and our offline scorecard of the major tradie apps covers who does what as at July 2026.

If both feel like overkill#

Here is the one plug in this article, flagged so you can skip it. Both Tradify and Fergus are built, and priced, for established crews. If you are solo or running one or two people, and what you actually need is quoting, invoicing, scheduling and getting paid, per-user pricing at $48 to $77 a seat may be solving problems you do not have. ServiceM8's free plan is one honest budget option if you are on an iPhone. Our tool, Chippie, is the other: the free tier covers 1 user and 20 jobs a month ongoing, not as a trial, and paid plans are $25 a month for 2 users or $45 for 4 (AUD, July 2026, plus $10 per extra user after that). There is an iPhone app on the App Store, it runs in the browser on Android, and an Android app is in development. On Pro it syncs both ways with Xero (how the Xero sync works). It does not have Fergus's supplier integrations or Tradify's accounting-sync depth, and if those are your bottleneck, buy the tool that fixes your bottleneck. You can compare properly at Chippie vs Tradify and Chippie vs Fergus, or start with the free tier and see if the simple thing is enough.

How to choose in 60 seconds#

Run your own situation through these five questions and the answer usually falls out:

1. How many people need a login? Multiply that by the real per-seat price, including GST, before you fall in love with either.

2. Do you need to know margin per job, or mostly to send quotes and get paid? Margin says Fergus, speed says Tradify.

3. Which features do you actually need, and which Fergus tier do they sit on? Price the tier you need, not the tier on the banner.

4. Does your work take you out of signal? Then neither is your answer, and you should read the offline scorecard first.

5. Still torn between platforms entirely? The ServiceM8 vs Tradify comparison and our software-choosing checklist cover the wider field.

FAQ#

Is Fergus cheaper than Tradify? Not usually. As at July 2026, Fergus Essentials is $53 per user against Tradify Lite at $48 per user ex GST, and many Fergus features need the $77 Professional tier. But Tradify's prices exclude GST and Fergus bills add-ons separately, so compare your real all-in monthly figure, not the two headline numbers.

Does Fergus work offline? Only narrowly. Fergus's own release notes document offline creation and editing of time entries, plus viewing of already-synced data. You cannot create jobs, quotes or invoices offline as at July 2026.

Does Tradify work offline? No. Tradify's own help centre confirms the app and web console need an internet connection, and there is no offline mode on any tier as at July 2026.

Who owns Tradify? The Access Group, a UK-headquartered enterprise software company, acquired Tradify in October 2024. Tradify was founded in New Zealand in 2013 and still operates under its own brand.

Do Tradify or Fergus have a free plan? No. Both offer a 14-day free trial only. Fergus includes a free one-hour onboarding session. If you need a genuinely free ongoing tier, ServiceM8 has one for a single iPhone user, and Chippie's free tier covers 1 user and 20 jobs a month on any phone.

Prices and features above were checked against Tradify's and Fergus's own Australian pricing pages in July 2026. Both vendors change pricing; check their current pages before you commit, and tell us if anything here has gone stale.