What Field Service Software Actually Costs Once You Hire

Every field service platform advertises a price that assumes two things: that you pay for a full year in advance, and that exactly one person uses the software. Most owners comparing options are looking at a number that describes neither their billing preference nor their business. The gap is not small, and it grows in exactly the situation you are hoping for, which is hiring.

The headline is a one-person price

Jobber's Core plan advertises $29 a month. That figure is billed annually and it covers one user; every additional person on the account is another $29 a month. Housecall Pro takes a different route to the same place, capping each plan by headcount: Basic covers one user at $59 a month billed annually, Essentials covers up to five at $149, and MAX covers up to eight at $299. Neither company is hiding this — it is on their pricing pages — but neither is it what you see first.

Run it forward for a real business. A three-person shop pays $87 a month at Jobber and $149 at Housecall Pro. At five people it is $145 and $149. At eight it is $232 and $299. The software has not changed. You have simply hired, which is the thing the software was supposed to help you do.

Why per-seat pricing fits this trade badly

Headcount in the trades is seasonal. You take on help in June and you are smaller again by November. Per-seat pricing turns that into an administrative chore with a financial penalty: either you remember to remove seats in the autumn, or you quietly pay for people who left. Owners who forget are not being careless. They are running a business where the software licence is the fortieth most important thing that week.

It also puts a small tax on a decision you want to make freely. Adding your bookkeeper to the system so they can chase unpaid invoices is obviously correct, and per-seat pricing makes you think about it first.

The second number nobody quotes: what happens if you leave

This one is worth reading carefully, because it is where the real money sits. Jobber's terms state that fees are non-refundable and that there are no refunds for months unused. If you pay for a year and stop using it in month three, the remaining nine months are gone. Their monthly plan with a one-year commitment works the same way from the other direction: cancel part-way and you continue to be billed until the twelve months are up.

So the advertised annual price is not simply a discount for paying early. It is a discount in exchange for giving up the ability to change your mind. That is a real trade and it might be one you are happy to make — but it should be priced into the comparison, and usually it is not.

What to actually ask before you sign

• Is the advertised price monthly, or does it require twelve months up front?
• How many users does it include, and what does the next one cost?
• What does this cost me in July when I have three extra people?
• If I cancel in month four, what happens to the money I already paid?
• Is the website a tool I have to build myself, or does a person build it for me?
• What does the payment processing rate become for an emailed invoice, a card on file, or an Amex?

That last one catches people out more than anything else on the list. An advertised processing rate is usually the card-present rate, and most of a contractor's volume is not card-present. On a few hundred thousand dollars of annual billing, the spread between the advertised rate and the one you actually pay can exceed what you pay for the software itself.

Where we land, honestly

We price Core flat: $29 a month paid annually or $39 month to month, for everyone in your business rather than per seat, so the number above does not move when you hire. If you cancel, we refund the months you did not use. And if it is just you, our price and Jobber's headline are the same — we are not cheaper for a solo operator, we are cheaper the moment there are two of you.

We are also younger and narrower than both of them. If you need route optimisation, payroll and time tracking, or a long list of accounting integrations today, they genuinely do more than we do. Our full side-by-side, including the parts where they beat us, is on the Compare page at /compare, and the plan prices are at /pricing. Every competitor figure in this article was read on each company's own pricing, help centre, or terms page in September 2026.