We're biased, not hiding it. We make Yamate, and it's on this list. We've said where the others beat us, and every price here links to the vendor's own page.
Not sure job management is the category you need? Start with the apps a tradie actually needs — it sorts them by the job each one does.
How we picked
What we did. We read each vendor's own Australian pricing page, most recently checked September 2026, and recorded the figures exactly as published, including whether they were GST-inclusive and whether they were per user. Nothing in the price table comes from a comparison site, a review aggregator or a press release.
Why these six and not twenty. These are the established job-management platforms an Australian trade business would realistically shortlist. A page naming twenty products helps nobody choose, and recommending a tool with a handful of customers to a business that will depend on it is not a favour. Jobber is excluded as North-America-first and not consistently present in Australian search results for this category.
The comparison
Where we could not read a vendor's price at source, the cell says so rather than repeating a figure from a listicle.
| Product | Published price, as at September 2026 | What you pay for | Built for |
|---|---|---|---|
| ServiceM8 | Published priceFree $0 · $29 · $79 · $149 · $349 per month, incl GST. SMS 10¢; card fees 1.49–2.10% + 30¢, as at September 2026. Source | What you pay forMonthly job volume — free tier 30 jobs and 1 user; paid tiers include unlimited users | Built forField service — dispatch, on-site quoting, mobile job cards |
| Tradify | Published priceLite A$48 · Pro A$52 · Plus A$62, per user per month, ex GST, as at September 2026. 14-day trial. Source | What you pay forPer user | Built forSolo tradies and small crews wanting the full quote-to-invoice workflow |
| Fergus | Published price"From $53/month" and "From $77/month"; timesheets from $26/month per timesheet user; contractors $4/user/day, as at September 2026. Source | What you pay forThe page does not state whether the $53 is per user or per account, or whether it includes GST — see the methodology | Built forSmall-to-medium trade businesses; workflow and cashflow visibility |
| simPRO | Published priceNo price published. Quote-based; its pricing page was not reachable to us on the day. Source | What you pay forQuoted per business after a sales conversation | Built forLarger contracting businesses — projects, inventory, maintenance contracts, multiple crews |
| AroFlo | Published priceStarting price $80 per user a month, minimum three users, as at September 2026. The page does not say whether that includes GST. Source | What you pay forPer user, with a 3-user minimum | Built forMid-size to larger field-service and contracting businesses |
| Yamate OURS | Published price$19/mo Founder plan if you sign up before 30 November 2026, then $29/mo. Both include 3 people. Company plan $59/mo for 8 people, $15/mo per person after. Details | What you pay forPer business, with people included per plan | Built forSolo tradies and crews — quoting, invoicing, chasing, and money as you go |
Prices as at September 2026. Software pricing moves — check the vendor's own page before deciding. Currency AUD. Note the GST inconsistency between vendors: ServiceM8 publishes GST-inclusive, Tradify publishes ex GST, so a like-for-like comparison has to add 10% to the Tradify figures. Fergus and AroFlo do not say either way.
The one thing that decides most of this
These products do not charge on the same axis, and that matters more than any feature list.
- Tradify charges per seat. One person is A$48–62 a month ex GST, as at September 2026; five people is five times that. Cost scales with headcount.
- ServiceM8 charges by monthly job volume and gives away seats. Ten people doing 100 jobs a month costs the same as two people doing 100 jobs a month. Cost scales with throughput.
- Yamate charges per business, with three people on the solo plans and eight on the Company plan at $59/mo, then $15 a head.
- AroFlo charges per user too, from $80 a month with at least three users, as at September 2026. simPRO's pricing page was not reachable to us, so you cannot model it without a sales call.
So the question isn't which is cheapest, it's which axis matches your business. A four-person crew doing high-value, low-count jobs is punished by per-seat pricing and rewarded by job-count pricing. And someone on their own doing 40 small jobs a month is the reverse.
The products, honestly
ServiceM8 — best for the high-volume service round
Australian-built, and the strongest of the group at the actual field-service loop: dispatching a job to a phone, quoting on site, capturing photos and signatures, and turning it into an invoice before you leave. The free tier is unusually generous for a category where Tradify starts at $48 a user and Fergus from $53 a month, as at September 2026 — 30 jobs a month and one user is a real working allowance for someone starting out.
The costs to model are the ones outside the subscription: SMS at 10¢ a message and card processing at 1.49–2.10% + 30¢. On a business sending a lot of customer messages those add up, and they are not in the sticker price.
Tradify — best for the small crew that wants depth
The most consistently recommended product for Australian and New Zealand tradies, and deservedly: quoting, scheduling, timesheets, job management and invoicing in one place, without the complexity of the enterprise tools. Setup is fast and the mobile app is good. Three tiers let you take only what you need.
The consideration is the pricing axis. At A$48–62 per user per month ex GST, as at September 2026, a five-person crew is a substantial monthly cost, and it grows with every hand you put on. That is a fair trade if every one of those people needs their own login and is using the scheduling; it is expensive if two of them just need to see today's jobs.
Fergus — best for knowing what each job made
Built around workflow and cashflow visibility, with genuinely good job costing — it is designed to tell you whether the job you are on is making money while you are still on it, which is a real gap in most of this category. It suits a business that has outgrown a spreadsheet and wants to see where profit is leaking.
Be aware that the published pricing is harder to model than the others. The pricing page states "from" figures and adds separate per-user charges for timesheet users and per-day charges for contractors, and it does not state whether the base figure is per user or per account, or whether it includes GST. Ask them directly and get the answer in writing before you commit.
simPRO — best for projects, stock and maintenance contracts
The heavyweight of the group. Project management, inventory, recurring maintenance contracts, multi-crew scheduling and deep job costing — genuinely more capability than the others, and genuinely more to implement. Businesses that need it usually know they need it.
Its pricing page was not reachable to us, so we have no price for it, and you should expect one only after a sales conversation. That alone tells you the intended customer, and it is not a sole trader.
AroFlo — best for the growing contractor with compliance duties
Australian-built, aimed at mid-size and larger field-service and contracting businesses, with strong workflow, compliance and asset-management capability. Like simPRO it is a serious platform.
AroFlo publishes a starting price of $80 per user a month, with a minimum of three users, as at September 2026. So even a crew of one pays for three. The page does not say whether that includes GST, so ask before you sign.
Yamate — best for the solo tradie whose evenings go on admin OURS
We build this, so treat it as an argument rather than a review. Yamate is deliberately simpler to drive than the products above, and these days that is the only thing deliberately small about it. The core is quoting on site, invoicing with a payment method attached, and chasing late payers. Around it, on the same flat price: suppliers and purchase orders, stage billing on big jobs, crew pay runs prepared with payslips, SWMS drafting, licence and insurance reminders, missed-call text-back, and the part the others leave out — your GST, tax set-aside and profit per job shown as estimates as you earn, rather than at year end. The feature list carries each one with its honest limits.
If you carry stock or run multi-crew projects, the two platforms above are the honest answer.
We ran a week of real jobs in four of them, plus Xero
Everything above can be read off a pricing page. This cannot. In September 2026 we set up the same NSW electrical business in ServiceM8, Tradify, Fergus, Xero and Yamate and worked the same week in each, booking, quoting, invoicing, chasing, a write-off, an import of the old books. Measured 22 to 24 September 2026, one tester, who works for Yamate, full limits on the scorecard.
- ServiceM8's home screen was a promo and training feed, not the day's work, and the deeper capability arrived as separate paid add-ons. The part underneath that gets jobs to a crew is solid.
- Tradify kept a trial nag on every screen, 13 Trial Days Left, Upgrade, and its settings run strictly A to Z, so related settings sit apart. The core job flow is the simplest of the competitors.
- Fergus had the deepest trade workflow we tested, supplier bills that match themselves to the job they belong to, saved price lists, staged billing for big jobs. Its onboarding is a five step course of about 30 minutes, and the home screen stays onboarding until you finish it. Depth has a price, you pay it in learning.
- Xero is not a field app and does not pretend to be, about 45 seconds to the first screen opened fresh, and a full page reload between steps. It also does things no job app here does, it lodges with the ATO. Most tradies end up running it beside one of the others, which is why the handoff to it matters more than any feature.
- Yamate's home screen told us the day's next action, chase Dave, send this quote, which no competitor did. The walk caught real problems in ours too, an undo that quietly switched off the reminder texts and an order that changed a job's profit on a screen that never showed it, both fixed in the builds of 29 and 30 September 2026. Every snag we hit in the other four is published on the scorecard page, all of them.
A decision guide
| If you are… | Start with | Because |
|---|---|---|
| Solo, just starting, low volume | Start withServiceM8's free tier, or Yamate | Because30 jobs a month for nothing is a real allowance; Yamate if the money side is what you want handled |
| Solo, established, want one good all-rounder | Start withTradify or Yamate | BecauseTradify for the wholesaler price-book workflow; Yamate for a lower per-business price with the money, pay and safety side included |
| Two or three hands, high job count | Start withServiceM8 | BecauseSeats are free; you pay for throughput, which is what you have |
| Two or three hands, high-value low-count jobs | Start withTradify, Fergus or Yamate | BecauseJob-count pricing wastes money when you do few, large jobs |
| Four to ten, and profit per job is the worry | Start withFergus | BecauseJob costing is what it is built around |
| Four to ten, and cost per head is the worry | Start withYamate's Company plan, or ServiceM8 | BecauseBoth avoid multiplying a seat price by headcount |
| Projects, stock, maintenance contracts | Start withsimPRO or AroFlo | BecauseNothing else in this list does it; budget for a sales process and an implementation |
The verdict, restated
There is no single winner here, and a page that names one has not asked what your business looks like. Pick by shape. ServiceM8 when throughput is what you have and heads should be free. Tradify when you live in a wholesaler's price book and your seat count is stable. Fergus when the worry is what each job actually made. simPRO or AroFlo when you run projects, stock or maintenance contracts and will resource an implementation. Yamate when you are solo or run a crew and the admin is what eats your evenings — that last one is ours, which is why every competitor figure above links to its source.
See Yamate before you decide — try the demo, no sign-up →If a solo or small-crew tool is what you are after: Yamate is $19/mo on the Founder plan if you sign up before 30 November 2026, locked in — $29/mo after that, and both include up to 3 people. Got a crew? The Company plan is $59/mo for eight people, then $15/mo each. No lock-in, cancel anytime. Prices in AUD.
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FAQ
What is the best job management software for a solo tradie in Australia?
There is no single answer, but the realistic shortlist is ServiceM8 (particularly its free tier while volume is low), Tradify, and Yamate. The deciding factor is usually whether you want the deepest workflow, the lowest cost, or the money and tax side included.
Which is cheapest?
ServiceM8's free tier, as at September 2026, is $0 for up to 30 jobs and one user. Beyond that, per-seat products get expensive with headcount and job-count products get expensive with volume — model your own numbers rather than comparing headline prices.
Do any of them work offline?
Several offer some offline capability and the detail differs, so check each vendor's current documentation. Yamate works with no signal for quoting, invoicing, jobs, customers and photos; sending texts, card payments and syncing need a connection.
Do I still need accounting software?
Usually yes. Job management and accounting are different jobs — most of these products integrate with Xero or MYOB rather than replacing them. See invoicing apps versus accounting software.
Why isn't simPRO's price on this page?
Because its pricing page was not reachable to us, and repeating a figure from a comparison site would be presenting someone else's guess as a fact. AroFlo does publish one: from $80 per user a month, minimum three users, as at September 2026.
How often is this page updated?
The prices carry the month they were last checked — September 2026. Software pricing moves without announcement, so confirm at the vendor's page before you sign up.
Sources, and what we could not verify
Every price above links to the vendor's own Australian pricing page, checked September 2026. simPRO's pricing page was not reachable to us on the day, so it carries no price here. AroFlo now publishes a starting price, $80 per user a month with a minimum of three users, as at September 2026, and it is in the table. Fergus's page states "from $53 per month" without saying whether that is per user or per account, or whether it includes GST, and three separate checks have not resolved it; we have not guessed. Numbers published for these products elsewhere on the web disagree with each other by wide margins, which is itself a reason not to repeat them.
Related
General information for Australian businesses, not financial or purchasing advice. Yamate makes one of the products compared here and says so wherever it appears. Competitor prices were checked September 2026 and features read on 17 August 2026, each at the vendor's own page and linked to it; they change without notice, so check each vendor's page and trial the shortlist before you commit.