CRM for contractors: how to choose the right software for your trade

Who this page is for

• You own or run a plumbing, HVAC, electrical, landscaping, cleaning or other home service business.
• Leads, estimates and schedules live in a mix of paper, texts, a phone calendar and QuickBooks.
• You’re comparing Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan or Thryv, and their pricing pages don’t line up.
• You have 1 to 50 people in the field and want software that still fits in two years.

The problem, in a contractor’s words

Picture a shop with four trucks. The owner quotes jobs from the driver’s seat, the office manager books from a paper calendar, and invoices go out on Friday afternoon.

A homeowner asks for a quote on Monday. Nobody follows up, and on Thursday she hires someone else. A tech finishes a job at 3 pm but the invoice waits four days. A regular customer texts “when is my guy coming?” and nobody knows where the truck is.

None of these is a disaster on its own. Together they cost jobs, cash flow and your evenings. A CRM or field service tool is how you stop each one from depending on someone’s memory.

What a contractor CRM should do

A CRM for a trade business needs to cover the full job loop. These are the core features to compare, in the order a job moves.

• Lead capture and lead source. Web forms, calls, texts and Google listing messages land in one inbox, tagged by where they came from.
• Scheduling and dispatch. A calendar or dispatch board shows who is where, and moving a job notifies the customer and the tech.
• Estimates with options. Customers approve estimates online, choose between options, sign and pay a deposit.
• Job records. Notes, photos, checklists and equipment details stay on the job and the customer.
• Invoicing and payments. A finished job becomes an invoice that customers can pay by card, tap to pay or bank transfer.
• Automated follow-up. Appointment reminders, review requests and maintenance renewals go out without anyone remembering to send them.
• Technician app. Techs see the schedule, job notes and price list on their phone, and close out the job from the driveway.
• Reporting. Revenue by lead source, estimate close rate and job costing show which work is worth chasing.

Records some trades have to keep

Software doesn’t make your business compliant. It can hold the records a rule asks for, so they don’t live on paper in a truck.

• HVAC. EPA’s Section 608 program requires technicians who dispose of appliances holding 5 to 50 pounds of refrigerant to keep recovery records. EPA’s technician Q&A says those records must be kept for three years. The HVAC page covers what to log.
• Lawn care. Pesticide application records are set by each state. Washington, for example, requires certified applicators to keep records for seven years, according to the Washington State Department of Agriculture. The landscaping page covers the details.

EPA and your state’s pesticide agency confirm what applies to your business, not the software vendor.

The main options compared

Prices below come from each provider’s own pricing page, as of October 2026. Thryv and Copper are providers I work with. I don’t work with the others.

Option	Best for	How it works	Published pricing	Pros	Cons
Thryv	Local businesses that need marketing and customer management together	All-in-one: listings, reviews, website and social, plus CRM, scheduling, estimates, invoices and payments	Starter $99/mo (1 user), Signature $399/mo (5 users), Custom by quote	Listings and review tools built in; two-way Google or Outlook calendar sync	Its pages don’t describe a dispatch board, technician GPS or flat-rate price book
Jobber	Solo to mid-size residential service businesses	Field service: quotes, scheduling, invoicing and payments	Core $29/mo billed annually (1 user); Connect from $99; Grow from $149; Plus from $399 (5 users)	Every tier priced publicly; 14-day trial of Grow	Two-way SMS and job costing start at Grow
Housecall Pro	Residential plumbing, HVAC and electrical shops	Field service with price book, financing and service plans	Basic $59/mo (1 user), Essentials $149 (5 users), Max $299 (8 users), billed annually	Price book and consumer financing on every plan	Flat-rate pricing and QuickBooks sync start at Essentials; service plans need Max
ServiceTitan	Larger HVAC, plumbing and electrical shops with dispatchers and call takers	Full trade platform: call booking, dispatch, pricebook, memberships	Not published; per-technician pricing after a demo	Pricebook, call booking and memberships built for trades	No public prices to compare
Workiz	Small to mid-size service shops that want phone and AI add-ons	Field service with automations	Not published (“Request pricing”)	7-day free trial; service plans and flat rate on Ultimate	Prices only after a demo
FieldEdge	HVAC, plumbing and electrical shops	Field service with pricebook and service agreements	Not published; annual memberships	Pricebook from the first tier	No free trial
Copper	Office-based B2B teams in Google Workspace	Sales CRM inside Gmail and Google Calendar	Basic $23, Professional $59, Business $99 per seat/mo billed annually	Built around Google Workspace	Its site doesn’t list scheduling, dispatch or a technician app

Landscaping has its own specialists, such as LMN (from $297 per month) and Service Autopilot (from $49 per month plus a sign-up fee). I compare them on the landscaping software page.

For deeper reads, see my Thryv review and the Thryv alternatives comparison. If a term in the table is new to you, the CRM and field service glossary defines it.

What it costs

Published prices for a five-person team

A team of five (say four techs and one office person) is where most plan tiers split. Here is what each provider publishes for five users, as of October 2026.

Option	Plan that covers 5 users	Billed annually	Month to month
Jobber	Connect, 5 users	$149/mo	$199/mo
Jobber	Grow, 5 users	$229/mo	$299/mo
Housecall Pro	Essentials (5 users included)	$149/mo	$189/mo
Thryv	Signature (5 users included)	Annual option says it saves 15%	$399/mo [VERIFICAR]
Copper	Professional, 5 seats	$295/mo (5 x $59)	$345/mo (5 x $69)
ServiceTitan	Not published	Not published	Not published

Jobber also offers a third price for a one-year commitment billed monthly. Connect for 5 users is $169 per month on that option.

What changes the price

• Users or technicians. Jobber charges $29 per month for each additional user. Housecall Pro Max charges $35 per month per extra user. ServiceTitan prices per technician.
• Commitment. Jobber’s no-commitment plans can be canceled anytime. Its 1-year commitment keeps billing until the term ends, according to its pricing page.
• Onboarding fees. LMN charges a one-time onboarding fee and Service Autopilot charges a sign-up fee. Neither page states the amount. Thryv’s pricing table shows a $250 onboarding fee as waived on Signature [VERIFICAR].
• Add-ons. Jobber lists Marketing Suite at $99 per month, Receptionist at $29 per month and Pipeline at $49 per month, all included in its Plus plan. Thryv’s done-for-you Boosts don’t have published prices.
• Payment processing. This often costs more than the subscription, so compare it.

Provider	Card online or keyed	Card in person	Bank payment (ACH)
Jobber	2.9% + 30¢	2.7% + 30¢ (Tap to Pay)	1%
ThryvPay	2.9% + 30¢	2.6% + 30¢	1%, $1 minimum, $9 maximum
Housecall Pro	“As low as 2.59%”	Not itemized	1%

Jobber adds 1% for instant payouts. Housecall Pro’s financing partner, Wisetack, charges the business a flat 3.9% of the financed amount, according to Housecall Pro’s financing page.

How to choose by team size

Solo (just you)

Your bottleneck is time. Look for fast quoting from your phone, online booking, automatic reminders and card payments. Jobber Core and Housecall Pro Basic are the lowest published prices among the field service tools here.

If your calendar is empty rather than full, software for getting found matters more. Thryv Starter ($99 per month) focuses on listings, reviews and a website.

2 to 5 people

Now someone else books jobs or drives a truck. You need a shared schedule, a technician app, a price list everyone uses and QuickBooks sync.

Jobber Connect (QuickBooks Online sync, automatic payment collection) and Housecall Pro Essentials (flat-rate pricing, GPS tracking, QuickBooks Online sync) are the tiers to compare.

6 to 15 people

You probably have an office person or a part-time dispatcher. Look for a dispatch board, job costing, two-way texting, maintenance plans and route optimization.

Compare Jobber Grow or Plus, Housecall Pro Max, Workiz Ultimate and FieldEdge. Ask ServiceTitan for a quote too, so you know where it lands.

16 to 50 people

You likely have dispatchers, call takers and a sales process for replacements. ServiceTitan and FieldEdge are built for this size, and neither publishes prices. Get written quotes from at least two, plus Housecall Pro Max as a published-price benchmark.

How to choose by trade

• Plumbing. Emergency dispatch, flat-rate price books and options on water heaters and repipes decide the pick. See CRM for plumbers.
• HVAC. Maintenance agreements, equipment history and peak-season dispatch decide it. See CRM for HVAC companies.
• Landscaping and lawn care. Recurring routes, seasonal contracts and crews decide it, and specialist tools often win. See CRM for landscapers.
• Electrical, pest control and cleaning. The general field service tools above serve these trades too. ServiceTitan lists electrical and pest control among its industries, and Service Autopilot lists pest control and cleaning.
• B2B contractors with office estimators. If you bid commercial work by email, a Gmail-based sales CRM may fit better. See CRM for Google Workspace.
• Photographers and studios. Studio CRMs built around contracts and sessions usually fit better than trade software. I don’t cover them on this site yet.

How to move from paper or spreadsheets

A small shop can usually switch in two to four weeks if you do it in this order.

1. Week 1: clean your data. Export customers from QuickBooks, your phone or your spreadsheet into one file. Remove duplicates and fix addresses.
2. Week 1: list your services. Write down the 20 to 40 jobs you do most, with your price for each. This becomes your price list or price book.
3. Week 2: set up the trial. Import customers, build estimate and invoice templates, connect payments and add your team.
4. Weeks 2 and 3: run in parallel. Book every new job in the new system while you finish open jobs the old way.
5. Week 3: connect accounting. Turn on the QuickBooks sync and check that a real invoice and payment land correctly.
6. Week 4: switch fully. Turn on reminders and review requests, and retire the paper calendar.

• Customer list cleaned and in one spreadsheet
• Top 20 to 40 services written down with prices
• Estimate and invoice templates approved by the owner
• Payments connected and tested with a small real charge
• Every tech has the app installed and has closed one job
• QuickBooks sync checked against one invoice and one payment
• Review request timing set
• Old calendar retired on a set date

What to test in a free trial

Trial lengths differ, so plan your test before you start the clock. Jobber offers 14 days of its Grow plan and Housecall Pro offers 14 days of Max, both without a credit card. Workiz offers 7 days. Thryv’s Marketing Center page advertises a 30-day trial of its Signature plan [VERIFICAR]. FieldEdge says it doesn’t offer a free trial.

Run these tests with your own jobs:

• Book a job from a phone call while the caller is still on the line.
• Send an estimate with three options and approve it from your own phone as the customer.
• Convert the estimate to a job, assign it, and send the “on my way” text.
• Close the job with photos, send the invoice and pay it.
• Check how the invoice and payment show up in QuickBooks.
• Export your customers and jobs to a spreadsheet, so you know you can leave.

Integrations that matter

QuickBooks

Most trade businesses keep their books in QuickBooks, so check this first.

• Jobber includes QuickBooks Online sync from its Connect plan.
• Housecall Pro includes QuickBooks Online sync from Essentials.
• Thryv’s marketplace lists a QuickBooks Online integration.
• Workiz lists a QuickBooks integration on its Standard plan.
• FieldEdge’s pricing page references QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise for its warehouse inventory add-on.
• Copper lists QuickBooks among its integrations.

Ask whether the sync supports QuickBooks Online or Desktop, whether it runs one way or both ways, and whether it sends customers, items, invoices and payments.

Google

Thryv says its calendars sync two ways with Google or Outlook, and its marketplace lists Reserve with Google for bookings from your Google listing. Copper runs inside Gmail and Google Calendar, which matters to office-based teams. Make sure you, not a vendor, are the owner of your Google Business Profile.

Payments

Built-in payments are convenient, but compare rates using the table above. Thryv’s marketplace also lists Stripe, PayPal and Square integrations.

Questions to ask any provider

1. Which plan includes every feature I listed as a must-have, and what does it cost for my number of users?
2. Is the price for annual billing, a one-year commitment or month to month?
3. How do I cancel, how much notice do you need, and is any part of the fee refundable?
4. Is there an onboarding or setup fee, and what does it include?
5. What are the card, tap to pay and bank payment rates?
6. Does the QuickBooks sync work with my version, and what does it sync?
7. Can techs use the app with no signal, in a basement or a crawl space?
8. How do I export all my data if I leave?

Common mistakes

• Buying on the entry price. The $29 or $59 plan rarely includes QuickBooks sync, two-way texting or job costing. Price the tier you’ll actually need.
• Signing a term before testing. Thryv’s small business terms say annual subscriptions renew automatically unless you cancel at least 30 days before the period ends. Test first, then commit.
• Importing a messy list. Duplicate customers and bad addresses follow you into the new system and break routing and reminders.
• Turning everything on in week one. Automations sent from a half-built setup confuse customers. Start with scheduling, estimates and invoices.
• Ignoring the technician app. The office picks the software, but techs use it 40 hours a week. Have one tech run real jobs during the trial.
• Skipping the payment math. A small difference in card fees can outweigh the gap between two subscription prices.

If you’d rather not compare all of this alone, send me your trade, team size and current tools for a free shortlist.