ServiceTitan vs Jobber vs Housecall Pro vs FieldEdge vs Workiz

If you have ever priced field service software, you already know the trick: every vendor quotes in a different currency. One charges per technician. One charges per user. One wants a custom proposal and an implementation call before they will tell you anything. So "which is cheaper" is usually the wrong question, and "which is better" depends entirely on how many trucks you run.

This guide compares ServiceTitan, Jobber, Housecall Pro, FieldEdge, and Workiz the way owners actually shop them: by shop size, by what the monthly bill really looks like, and by where AI fits. Where Tradecraft belongs in that picture is covered plainly at the end. For the head-to-head on our own positioning, see Tradecraft vs ServiceTitan, Jobber, and Housecall Pro - this piece stays a buyer's guide.

TL;DR

• One to two trucks: shortlist Jobber or Housecall Pro. Simple, proven, priced honestly.
• Three to ten trucks: Workiz or Housecall Pro MAX if phone-first is your world; FieldEdge if HVAC dispatch and QuickBooks depth matter; this is also where flat-fee AI-native platforms start winning on math.
• Ten-plus trucks, multi-location: ServiceTitan is still the enterprise default. Budget for implementation and a specialist to run it.
• The pricing model matters more than the sticker: per-tech and per-user ladders punish hiring; flat platform fees with unlimited technicians do not.
• "AI" means different things: an answering add-on, a platform module, or the operating system itself. Know which one you are buying.
• Every competitor price in this guide is commonly cited, not contractual. Verify on the vendor's site before you sign.

How to read a five-way comparison

Ignore feature bingo. Four variables decide almost every field-service purchase:

1. Pricing shape. Per-technician, per-user, per-tier, or flat platform fee. This determines what your bill does when you hire.
2. Implementation. Days of self-serve setup versus weeks of guided (and sometimes billed) onboarding.
3. Ops depth. Scheduling and invoicing alone, or dispatch intelligence, pricebook, inventory, documents, training, and marketing in the same system.
4. Where AI lives. An answering bolt-on beside the board, a paid module inside it, or agents that share the same records as your jobs.

Score each vendor on those four and the "best" answer sorts itself by shop size.

By shop size: who to shortlist

Your shop	Usual shortlist	Why
1-2 trucks, owner-operator	Jobber, Housecall Pro	Fast onboarding, clean quoting and scheduling, published entry pricing
3-10 trucks, phone-driven	Workiz, Housecall Pro MAX	Inbound calls convert straight into jobs; marketing polish for residential work
3-10 trucks, HVAC with heavy dispatch	FieldEdge	Dispatch depth and QuickBooks paths, priced per tech
10+ trucks, multi-location	ServiceTitan	Deepest enterprise modules; budget for implementation and a dedicated admin
Any size, wants AI-native + flat fee	Tradecraft	Unlimited technicians, included AI credits, voice-to-invoice agents on one board

Now the honest version of each vendor.

Jobber: the clean SMB default

Jobber earned its reputation on clean UX and fast adoption for small crews. Core is commonly cited from about $39/mo for one user, with Connect and Grow tiers rising as you add seats and features. Quoting, scheduling, invoicing, and client communication are genuinely good.

The limits show up in two places. First, per-user tiers: solo is cheap, but office staff plus growing crews climb the ladder. Second, AI: answering and marketing are commonly sold as add-ons beside the base FSM rather than as the core operating system. If you want always-on voice that books into the same record your office works, you will likely pay for a second product and reconcile two brains.

Choose Jobber when your team is small, your workflow is simple, and you value polish over an agent stack.

Housecall Pro: marketing polish for residential work

Housecall Pro sits between lightweight SMB tools and enterprise FSM. Tiers are commonly cited near $79 (Basic), $189 (Essentials), and $279 (MAX), with seat and feature gates along the way. Online booking, reviews, payments, and a polished customer experience are the wedge - a lot of HVAC and plumbing shops standardize on it for exactly that.

The tier structure is the tradeoff. GPS, pricebook, marketing, and consumer-financing modules can stack cost as you climb. AI depth varies by packaging, so treat "AI" claims as a demo question, not an assumption.

Choose Housecall Pro when consumer booking and reviews drive your growth and your AI needs stay light.

Workiz: the phone-first play

Workiz is commonly discussed from roughly the mid-$60s/mo with tiered plans, and its wedge is telephony: field CRM plus phone features so inbound calls become jobs with less manual entry. For shops where the bottleneck is literally answering and logging calls, that focus is a feature, not a bug.

The question is what happens after the call. If your bottleneck moves from answering to running the rest of the operation - dispatch intelligence, inventory, training, outbound marketing - a phone-first stack means bolting on more tools and more vendors.

Choose Workiz when inbound phone volume is the business and your jobs are short-cycle.

FieldEdge: HVAC dispatch depth, priced per tech

FieldEdge is commonly cited around $100-$200 per tech/month for HVAC-focused shops, with QuickBooks paths (including Desktop sync) and dispatch depth as the buying frame. It has earned a real place in mid-market HVAC.

The per-tech model is the math to watch. At eight techs, commonly cited ranges put FieldEdge somewhere in the $800-$1,600/mo band before you add anything - and every hire moves the bill. If dispatch depth and accounting workflows are the non-negotiables, that can still be the right spend.

Choose FieldEdge when HVAC dispatch and QuickBooks integration are the priority and per-tech economics fit your growth plan.

ServiceTitan: the enterprise default

ServiceTitan is quote-only; market discussions commonly cite roughly $145-$400 per user/month plus implementation that can run into the tens of thousands, plus annual contracts and module add-ons. It is also genuinely deep: memberships, marketing attribution, dispatch, and reporting that multi-location contractors actually use.

That depth is real and so is the weight. Onboarding is a project, not an afternoon. The platform rewards a dedicated admin - which is either a line item or a hidden tax on your office manager.

Choose ServiceTitan when you are a large operation with dedicated ops staff and you will use the modules you are paying for.

The cost math nobody runs

Sticker prices lie by omission. Run your own headcount before any demo. Here is an illustrative model for a growing shop: 8 field techs, 2 office admins. Treat every competitor figure below as commonly cited starting points - verify current pricing on each vendor's site.

Platform	Hedged pricing model	Illustrative monthly for 8 techs + 2 admin	What hiring does to the bill
Jobber	From ~$39/mo (1 user), tiers rise with seats	Roughly low-to-mid hundreds	Every added user climbs the ladder
Housecall Pro	~$79-$279/mo by tier + modules	~$279+ for MAX tier before add-ons	Tier and module jumps
Workiz	From mid-$60s/mo + tiers	Varies by tier and telephony packaging	Tiered
FieldEdge	~$100-$200/tech/mo	~$800-$1,600 for techs alone	Linear with every tech
ServiceTitan	~$145-$400/user/mo + implementation	~$1,450-$4,000 for 10 users, plus implementation	Per-user + contract
Tradecraft	$199 Shop / $399 Business flat	$199 or $399	Zero. Unlimited technicians

The pattern: per-tech and per-user pricing is cheapest when you are smallest and most expensive exactly when you are winning. A flat platform fee flips the incentive - you pay for admin seats and AI usage, not for every truck in the field.

For the checklist version of this evaluation, Seven capabilities before you buy trade software covers the non-price questions to ask in a demo.

Where AI actually differs

Every vendor on this list now says "AI" somewhere on their site. Three different products hide inside that word:

An answering bolt-on. A separate AI phone product that syncs into your FSM. You pay two vendors and reconcile two records. Workiz builds telephony in natively; other stacks pair an FSM with an outside answering layer.

A platform module. AI packaged as a feature tier or add-on inside the FSM - Jobber and Housecall Pro commonly sell AI-adjacent extras this way, and ServiceTitan has platform AI options at enterprise prices.

The operating system. Agents that share the same customers, jobs, and history as everything else - so the call that booked the job is the same record dispatch, invoicing, and follow-up work from. That is the AI-native model. For the longer version of why that architecture matters, see AI agents in the trades.

Ask a blunt question in every demo: does the AI write into the same job record your office opens, or does someone reconcile by hand?

When each one wins

• Jobber - you are small, want polish and speed, and do not need an agent stack yet.
• Housecall Pro - residential booking and reviews are your growth engine; AI is a later problem.
• Workiz - the phone is the bottleneck and short-cycle jobs are the business.
• FieldEdge - HVAC dispatch depth and QuickBooks sync are non-negotiable and per-tech math fits.
• ServiceTitan - you are multi-location with dedicated ops staff who will use enterprise modules daily.
• Tradecraft - you want one AI-native OS: 24/7 voice and chat, human-approved dispatch, pricebook, quotes, invoices, Stripe payments, inventory, documents, training, and marketing on a flat fee with unlimited technicians.

The Tradecraft alternatives hub has per-vendor deep dives on all five if you want the full pricing rows and fit notes.

Why shops put Tradecraft on the list

Tradecraft is built as an AI operating system for the trades, not scheduling software with AI bolted on later. Voice and chat share context with the job board. Dispatch recommendations stay under human approval. Quotes, invoices, payments, inventory, documents, training, and marketing studio live on the same stack as the agent that answered the phone.

Published pricing (verify on pricing):

• Shop $199/mo | Business $399/mo | Enterprise custom
• Unlimited technicians ($0 per tech). Admin seats: 3 on Shop, 10 on Business, unlimited on Enterprise.
• 1,000 / 5,000 AI credits included monthly. Metered credit overage only after the pool.
• About 500ms first voice response. 24/7 voice, chat, and SMS.

It is the wrong buy if you want the cheapest job board or a decade-deep enterprise suite. It is the right buy if hiring techs should not raise your software bill and the agent should live where the work lives.

FAQ

Is ServiceTitan worth it for a small shop? Usually not. ServiceTitan's depth pays off for larger operations with dedicated staff. Small shops typically get more from a simpler SMB tool or a flat-fee platform, at a fraction of the all-in cost.

Is Jobber or Housecall Pro better? Jobber is the cleaner quoting-and-scheduling pick for small crews; Housecall Pro leads on consumer booking, reviews, and marketing polish for residential work. Both use tiered per-user pricing, so model your headcount before choosing.

How much does field service software cost per month? Commonly cited ranges span roughly $39/mo for a single-user Jobber Core plan to $145-$400 per user/month for ServiceTitan plus implementation. Per-tech platforms like FieldEdge commonly run $100-$200 per tech. Flat-fee options like Tradecraft publish $199-$399/mo with unlimited technicians.

Do any of these include AI that books jobs? Workiz builds telephony into the CRM. Jobber and Housecall Pro commonly sell AI-adjacent add-ons. ServiceTitan offers platform AI at enterprise pricing. Tradecraft ships voice and chat agents that book against real availability as part of the core OS, billed through included AI credits.

What is the biggest hidden cost when switching? Implementation and headcount-priced plans. A five-figure onboarding project plus per-tech seats is how "cheap" gets expensive at scale.

Close

There is no single best field service platform - there is a best fit for how many trucks you run and how your software bill behaves when you grow. Small and simple: Jobber or Housecall Pro. Phone-first: Workiz. HVAC dispatch depth: FieldEdge. Enterprise: ServiceTitan. AI-native with a flat fee and unlimited techs: Tradecraft.

Compare the field on the alternatives page, check pricing, or book a demo and put your real headcount on the spreadsheet before you sign anything.