A shop running two to ten techs needs field service software to do four things well: schedule and dispatch jobs, invoice and collect payment, run on a phone in a truck, and eventually hold a price book. Most of what enterprise platforms sell beyond that, multi-location rollups, franchise tools, dedicated account managers, is built for operations with dozens of techs and a back office to run it. A small shop pays for that layer and rarely opens it.
What a small shop needs
Four things cover almost everything a 2-to-10-tech HVAC, plumbing, or electrical shop does day to day.
- A scheduling and dispatch board that shows every tech, every job, every day, and lets you drag a job to whoever's free. Nobody skips this one.
- Invoicing and payment on the spot. The tech finishes the job, pulls up the invoice on a phone, and gets paid before driving off, instead of mailing a bill and waiting on a check.
- A mobile app that works from a truck. Office software that only runs on a desktop doesn't help a tech standing in someone's basement.
- A price book, eventually. Not every shop needs this on day one. It starts to matter once you want every tech quoting the same number for the same job instead of pricing off memory.
Enterprise platforms add layers on top of this: multi-location reporting, franchise management, call center staffing, custom business intelligence dashboards. Those solve problems a 200-tech operation has. A five-tech shop usually doesn't have those problems yet, and paying for that tooling doesn't fix anything a small shop is dealing with.
How field service software pricing works
Vendors in this category price themselves a handful of ways, and the model matters more than the headline number once you start adding techs.
Per-tech or per-user pricing
The base plan includes a set number of users, and every tech past that adds a monthly fee. Jobber's Core, Connect, and Grow plans include one user in the base price; Plus starts at five. Every user past your plan's base costs $29 a month (checked getjobber.com/pricing/, September 25, 2026). Housecall Pro's Max plan includes eight users and charges $35 a month for each one after that (checked housecallpro.com/pricing/, September 25, 2026). Hire a tech under this model and your software bill goes up with them.
Flat or unlimited-user pricing
A smaller group of vendors price by company tier instead of by head count. Service Fusion's three plans all include unlimited users, so the bill doesn't move when you add a sixth or seventh tech (checked servicefusion.com/pricing, September 25, 2026).
Add-ons
Even a flat-priced base plan can grow once you add the pieces vendors sell separately: GPS fleet tracking, AI call answering, marketing tools, a dedicated receptionist line, advanced reporting. Jobber sells a marketing suite, a receptionist add-on, and a pipeline tool separately from its core plans (checked getjobber.com/pricing/, September 25, 2026). Ask what's bundled and what's billed on top before you compare one sticker price to another.
Onboarding fees and contract length
Some vendors charge a setup or onboarding fee to get your price book, customer list, and team accounts running; some don't. Contract terms vary the same way. Jobber's Core plan is available with no commitment at $49 a month, or at a lower rate if you prepay a year (checked getjobber.com/pricing/, September 25, 2026). Service Fusion offers month-to-month billing or a 15 percent discount for paying annually (checked servicefusion.com/pricing, September 25, 2026). Ask directly what happens if you cancel three months in, since the pricing page rarely spells it out.
What competitors publish
Some vendors show their prices. Others route every quote through a sales call. Here's what each company's own pricing page showed when checked on September 25, 2026.
| Vendor | Pricing model | What's published |
|---|---|---|
| Housecall Pro | Per tier, extra users cost more | Basic $59/mo (annual) or $79/mo (monthly), 1 user. Max $299/mo (annual) or $329/mo (monthly), 8 users, then $35/mo per extra user. |
| Jobber | Per tier, extra users cost more | Core $49/mo, Connect $139/mo, Grow $199/mo (1 user each), Plus $499/mo (5 users), no-commitment monthly rates. Extra users $29/mo each. |
| Service Fusion | Flat per tier, unlimited users | Starter $245/mo, Plus $382/mo, Pro $627/mo, month-to-month. 15 percent off for annual billing. |
| Workiz | Unclear from the site | Standard, Pro, and Ultimate tiers listed by feature, no dollar figures. Pricing requires a demo call. |
| ServiceTitan | Unclear from the site | Starter, Essentials, and The Works tiers, each behind a "Request Pricing" button. |
| FieldEdge | Unclear from the site | Select, Premier, and Elite tiers, no dollar figures. The page directs you to book a demo. |
Any number you see for the three vendors on the bottom of that table, from a review site or a comparison blog, is someone else's estimate or a quote that company got, not a published price. Treat it that way until you've gotten your own quote.
What to ask before you sign
- What does the bill look like after I add a sixth and seventh tech? Per-seat or flat?
- Is there a setup or onboarding fee, and what does it cover?
- What's the contract length, and what happens if I cancel in month three?
- Which features are in the base price, and which ones are paid add-ons?
- Can I see a real number before I book a demo call?
A flat-rate example: SpanCrew charges $99 a month for the whole crew, with no per-tech pricing, no setup fee, and no contract, currently in early access. That's one answer to the per-tech question above. It's not the only answer, and it won't be the right fit for every shop, but it's worth comparing against whatever quote you get.