No signup needed

Setting up your demo

Building your workspace...

Comparison

Tradie software compared, honestly

Seven tools, one table, and a straight answer about who each one is for. We build one of them, which we say plainly on every row.

Start free

Key takeaways

  1. The pricing model matters more than the price. Per-user tools cost you crew; per-job tools cost you volume.
  2. Two of the seven have a real free plan: ServiceM8 and Chippie.
  3. One will not sell you fewer than three seats: AroFlo, at $80 each, so $240 a month.
  4. One bills Australians in US dollars and has no GST handling: Jobber.
  5. One has an iOS-only full app: ServiceM8.

How do I narrow seven down to two?#

  1. Count your people

    Per-user pricing multiplies. Four people on a $52 seat is a different business decision from four people on one plan.

  2. Count your jobs a month

    Per-job pricing multiplies the other way. A busy month on a job-capped plan pushes you up a tier.

  3. List what you cannot work without

    Timesheets, SWMS, job costing, purchase orders. Most of these tools differ on exactly these, and most of them lock them to a higher plan.

  4. Trial the two that are left on a real job

    Not a demo job. A real one, on site, on your actual phone, with signal as bad as it gets.

All seven, one table#

Prices AUD unless marked. Each verified from the vendor's own pricing page; see the 1:1 comparison for the date.
  Pricing model Entry price Free plan Best suited to
Chippie Per plan, users included $25/mo, 2 users 20 jobs/mo 1 to 10 people
Tradify Per user $48/user/mo ex GST None Small teams wanting timesheets
ServiceM8 Per business, job caps $29/mo, 50 jobs 30 jobs/mo Apple-based teams
Fergus Per user From $53/mo None Crews needing SWMS and phases
Jobber Per user, USD US$49/mo, 1 user None Marketing-led service businesses
AroFlo Per user, 3 minimum $80/user/mo, $240 floor None Larger field teams
Ascora Per user $45/user/mo None Crews of five and up

The one-line version of each#

  • Tradify. Mature, with timesheets and reporting Chippie does not have. Per-user pricing on every plan, no free tier.
  • ServiceM8. Unlimited users and a real free plan, capped by jobs a month. The full app is iOS only.
  • Fergus. Job phases, purchase orders and SWMS, most of it on the Professional plan, plus several paid add-ons.
  • Jobber. The strongest client-communication tooling here, billed in USD with a generic tax field instead of GST.
  • AroFlo. Deep job costing and project structure for larger teams. It starts at $80 per user with a three-user minimum, and anything past that is a sales call.
  • Ascora. Australian, per user, with the features most people want sitting on the Elite plan.
  • Chippie. Quotes, jobs, invoices and GST for one to ten people, users included in the plan. No timesheets, no job costing, no SWMS, and offline is still in development.

What about the invoice apps?#

The seven above all manage jobs. A lot of sole traders are not choosing between them at all, they are on an invoicing app and wondering whether to move. That is a different comparison, so it has its own pages rather than a row in the table above.

  • Chippie vs Invoice2go: US$7.99 to US$44.99 a month, with invoices capped per year on the two cheaper plans.
  • Chippie vs Joist: US$12 to US$100 a month, with organising jobs and scheduling on the top plan only.

Choosing tradie software: your questions#

Which tradie software is cheapest?
It depends on whether you have more people or more jobs. Per-user tools (Tradify, Ascora, Fergus, Jobber) get expensive with crew size. Per-job tools (ServiceM8) get expensive with volume. Chippie includes users in the plan and caps nothing on paid plans.
Which ones have a real free plan?
Two. ServiceM8 offers 30 jobs a month for one user, and Chippie offers 20 jobs a month. Tradify, Fergus, Jobber, Ascora and AroFlo are trial-only.
Which work properly on Android?
All of them except ServiceM8, whose full app is iOS only; its Android app is a cut-down version its help centre describes as core functionality for staff without a management role.
Which one actually works offline?
None of them fully. ServiceM8 lets you view and update already-synced jobs but needs a connection to send. Tradify states it has no offline mode. Chippie's is in development. Treat any claim of full offline in this category sceptically.
Which are priced in Australian dollars?
All of them except Jobber, which publishes USD only and has no Australian pricing page. Ascora and AroFlo are Australian companies; Tradify is New Zealand-founded and UK-owned.
Which ones publish their prices at all?
All seven publish something, but two publish only a starting point. AroFlo publishes $80 per user per month with a three-user minimum and no rate beyond that. Fergus publishes starting prices without saying how extra users change them.
How do I choose between them?
Count your people, count your jobs a month, and list the two or three things you cannot work without. Those three answers eliminate most of this page. Then trial the two that are left on a real job.
Do any of them lock me in?
Jobber's annual prepayments are non-refundable and its one-year plans bill the full twelve months even on early cancellation. The others advertise no lock-in. Read the annual terms wherever you prepay for a discount.

Have a play. It is free.

Free while you are small. No card, no lock-in.

Have a play
Free up to 20 jobs a monthWorks on any phone

    People also ask on this page