ServiceM8 vs Tradify vs Fergus: best job management app for Aussie tradies

Pick the wrong job app and you’ll know about it within a month. Your apprentice can’t find the job notes, invoices go out late, and you’re back to writing quotes on the back of a docket book at 9pm.

ServiceM8, Tradify and Fergus are the three names you hear most on Australian sites and in tradie Facebook groups. All three do the core work: book the job, quote it, send someone out, take photos, invoice it and sync to your accounting software. The real differences are in how they charge and what kind of business they were built around.

This comparison is based on each vendor’s Australian pricing and feature pages, checked in October 2026, plus how the pricing models play out for real crew sizes. We haven’t run all three on live jobs for this version of the guide. We’ll add hands-on notes as we do.

How each app charges (checked October 2026)

This is the part most comparisons skip, and it matters more than any feature list.

Swipe the table sideways to see every column

A few things stand out straight away.

ServiceM8 doesn’t charge per user. You pay for the number of new jobs you create each month. On the Starter plan that’s 50 jobs, on Growing it’s 150. Extra people cost nothing on a paid plan, but extra jobs do.

Tradify charges per user, ex GST. Lite at $48 per user works out to $52.80 a month with GST. Most growing businesses will want Pro, because job photos, recurring jobs, progress invoicing, timesheets and compliance certificates all sit in Pro or above.

Fergus prices around office users and field users. The Essentials and Professional prices are per full user, with timesheet-only users for the people who mainly clock on and off jobs. When we checked, the Fergus page also showed a short-term promotional price, so check the current offer when you sign up.

What it costs for your size of business

Here’s how those models play out. These are rough monthly figures from the October 2026 list prices, before card fees, SMS charges and add-ons.

For your own numbers, our job app cost comparer applies each app’s published prices to your team size, job count and the features you need.

Sole trader, about 25 jobs a month. ServiceM8’s free plan covers you, as long as you stay under 30 jobs. Tradify Lite is $52.80 with GST. Fergus Essentials is from $53. If money is tight in year one, ServiceM8 is hard to beat here.

Owner plus an apprentice, about 45 jobs a month. ServiceM8 Starter at $29 covers both of you, because users are unlimited on paid plans. Tradify Pro for two users is $104 ex GST. Fergus would be one full user plus one timesheet user, from around $79.

Service plumber or sparky doing 8 jobs a day. That’s roughly 170 jobs a month, which pushes ServiceM8 past the Growing plan’s 150-job allowance and into Premium at $149. Per-user pricing doesn’t care how many jobs you do, so for high-volume small jobs with a small crew, Tradify or Fergus can work out cheaper.

Renovator running 5 people on a handful of big jobs. ServiceM8 Starter or Growing would cover your job count easily and cost the least. But a builder running long jobs with lots of materials, variations and progress claims might get more value from Fergus’s job costing and Tradify’s progress invoicing than from the savings.

ServiceM8

ServiceM8 is Australian, based in Darwin, and it came out of a locksmith business. It grew up around service businesses: electricians, plumbers, air con techs, cleaners, locksmiths. The workflow is built around the job card. A job comes in, gets scheduled, the client gets an “on the way” text, you check in on arrival, take before and after photos, add materials, get a signature, take payment on the spot and move on.

Things it does well:

• Client communication is built in. Booking confirmations, reminders, “on my way” texts with arrival tracking, quote follow-ups and payment reminders can all run automatically. That cuts a lot of phone tag.
• Pricing suits small crews. Unlimited users on paid plans means you can give your apprentice or subbie a login without thinking about it.
• Forms and certificates. You can buy ready-made forms from its Form Store on any plan, including the free one. Building your own forms needs the Growing plan or higher.
• Add-ons. Online bookings, recurring jobs, asset tracking and job costing are available, though some sit in higher plans.

It started life on the iPhone and is still strongest on iOS. ServiceM8 says its Android app is now almost identical to the iOS one, but if your crew is all on Android, make sure everyone tests it during the trial.

For plan details and setup tips, see our full ServiceM8 review.

Try ServiceM8 free for 14 days → Affiliate link. Opens the merchant site in a new tab.

Tradify

Tradify started in New Zealand and is widely used here. Its pitch is simplicity: it’s easy to learn, the screens are uncluttered, and you can have quotes going out the first afternoon. Pricing is clean too, a flat amount per person with no job caps.

Things it does well:

• Quoting and invoicing. Quote options, online acceptance, quote and invoice reminders, and progress invoicing for deposits and retentions (Pro and up).
• Scheduling. A clear scheduler with Google Calendar sync, appointment reminders and subcontractor scheduling.
• Costing. Bill tracking and timesheets against jobs on Pro. Purchase orders, kit bundles and reporting on Plus.
• Instant Website add-on. For $19 a month, if you don’t have a website yet.

The catch is the per-user model. Every person who needs a login costs you, so a five-person crew on Pro is $260 a month ex GST. For a solo operator or a two-person team doing lots of jobs, it’s competitive. For a bigger crew doing a small number of jobs, it gets expensive compared with ServiceM8.

Also note Lite is basic. Job photos and files, recurring jobs and progress invoicing are all Pro features. Most tradies will end up on Pro, so budget for $52 per user, not $48.

For plan details and setup tips, see our full Tradify review.

Start a Tradify free trial → Affiliate link. Opens the merchant site in a new tab.

Fergus

Fergus was started in New Zealand by a plumber, Dan Pollard, to run his own plumbing business, and that background is clear. It’s at its best for plumbers, electricians and builders who buy a lot of materials and want to know if each job made money.

Things it does well:

• Supplier price lists. Fergus lists supplier integrations, with automatic updates on the Professional plan. If you spend time keying in supplier invoices, this alone can justify it.
• Job costing and phases. You can split jobs into phases and track labour and materials against each, which suits multi-stage work.
• Reporting. Job, staff and financial reporting, with advanced reporting on higher tiers.
• Onboarding. A free one-hour onboarding session with a product specialist, plus phone support on the Professional plan.

The downsides: it has more to learn than Tradify, and extras add up. When we checked, compliance certificates were $30 a month for 1 to 9 staff, SMS reminders were $15 per 100 texts, and contractor users were $4 per user per day. Card payments were listed at 1.95% plus 30c per transaction, a little higher than ServiceM8’s 1.69% plus 30c on its Starter plan.

For plan details and setup tips, see our full Fergus review.

Try Fergus free for 14 days → Affiliate link. Opens the merchant site in a new tab.

Which one should you pick?

Want more detail on one app? Read our individual ServiceM8 review, Tradify review and Fergus review.

Go with ServiceM8 if you’re a sole trader or small crew, you do service and maintenance work, and you want automatic client texts. The free plan is a cheap way to start. Watch your job count as you grow.

Go with Tradify if you want the quickest setup, your crew is small, and you do a high volume of jobs. It’s also a good fit if progress invoicing matters and you don’t want to learn a big system.

Go with Fergus if you’re a plumbing, electrical or building business where materials are a big part of every job, and you want supplier pricing and proper job costing.

If you’re running more than about 15 people with stock, service contracts and project management, look at simPRO as well. It’s a bigger, more involved system.

If you run several crews with office staff, projects, stock across locations or maintenance contracts, all three may feel small. Our Simpro review covers the bigger option and what its quote-only pricing involves.

How to run a fair trial

All three give you 14 days free. Two weeks goes quickly, so plan it.

1. Shortlist two, not three. Trialling all three at once means you won’t use any of them properly.
2. Put real jobs through. Quote one, schedule it, attend it, invoice it and sync it to your accounting software. Fake test jobs hide the annoying bits.
3. Get your crew on it. The person who matters most is the one using it in a ceiling cavity with bad reception. Ask them which one they’d rather use.
4. Check the accounting sync. Make sure invoices, payments, GST codes and items land in Xero or MYOB the way your bookkeeper wants. If you haven’t picked accounting software yet, see our Xero vs MYOB comparison.
5. Ask about moving your data. Client lists and price books are the painful part of switching later.

If you’re still getting the basics in place, start with our guide to setting up as a sole trader tradie, then come back to this once the jobs are coming in.