Cleaning business software in Australia (2026): what to use, by type of cleaning

Short answer

Domestic cleaners with regular clients: ServiceM8. One flat price with unlimited users, recurring jobs, online booking with an instant quote, photo checklists, offline use and Xero. Check how many cleans a month you do first, because the plans are capped by jobs.

Solo cleaners who want free: ServiceM8’s free plan (one user, 30 jobs a month) or Square Appointments Free (one location, unlimited staff accounts).

Commercial contract cleaners across many sites: an Australian commercial tool such as CBS GoSoft or Taskr, for QR site sign-in, GPS and quality audits.

Anyone employing cleaners: add a rostering and payroll app that reads the Cleaning Services Award, such as Deputy or Microkeeper. The job apps don’t do award pay.

We’ve based this on each vendor’s published prices and features, checked 26 October 2026, plus our own crawl of 725 Australian and NZ cleaning business websites. We haven’t run a cleaning business on any of these apps.

The options side by side

What Australian and NZ cleaners use

We crawled 725 cleaning business websites found through Google Maps in nine Australian and three NZ cities, looking for booking forms and job apps. 42 of them (5.8%) linked to or embedded one:

From the crawl:

• ServiceM8 was the most common single app, but the three US booking tools (Launch27, BookingKoala and ZenMaid) were on 22 sites between them. Cleaners who take bookings online seem to want a form that shows the price, enough to put up with a US-priced app that has no Xero listing.
• No cleaning site had a Tradify or Fergus enquiry form. Both have cleaning pages, but we didn’t see either in use.
• Most cleaners take bookings by phone or a plain contact form. 94% of sites showed none of these tools. 24 took card payments on the site through Stripe.

What it costs for a real cleaning business

Cleaning is lots of short, repeat visits, and each job app charges for that differently:

• ServiceM8 charges by how many new jobs you create a month (30 free, 50 on Starter, 150 on Growing, 500 on Premium), with unlimited users.
• Tradify and Fergus charge per user, however many cleans each person does.
• Square Appointments charges per location, with unlimited staff accounts on the free plan, and makes its money on card fees.
• Moply charges a flat price for a band of users (3 users on Starter, 6 on Professional).

Monthly subscription, ex GST, which is what a GST-registered business pays after credits:

Notes:

• The ServiceM8 figures assume every recurring visit counts as a new job. ServiceM8’s recurring jobs feature “re-create[s]” a job for each visit, and its plans limit “New Jobs per Month”, but neither its pricing page nor the help articles we read say outright that re-created jobs count. Ask ServiceM8 before you pick a plan. If they don’t count, a solo cleaner with 60 regular cleans could sit on a cheaper plan.
• Moply and Square don’t say whether their prices include GST. We’ve shown them as listed.
• Tradify Pro is the plan with job photos, recurring jobs and the enquiry form. Tradify doesn’t charge GST to GST-registered Australian businesses.
• Fergus prices are per user plus GST. Its cleaning page was advertising 90% off until December when we checked.

Card fees can cost more than the software

Most domestic cleaners take card payments, and many keep a card on file for regular clients. Since 1 October 2026 you can’t add a surcharge for eftpos, Mastercard or Visa payments in Australia, so the fee comes out of your price.

Card fees for the 3-cleaner business, 200 cleans at A$150, all paid by card:

Square’s free plan looks cheapest until you charge a card on file: at 2.2%, the fees on this business are about A$180 a month more than ServiceM8 Premium’s, which covers the Premium subscription.

Which kind of cleaning do you do?

Domestic, with regular clients

What matters: recurring weekly or fortnightly visits that schedule themselves, access notes, a checklist per home, and getting paid without chasing.

• ServiceM8 has recurring jobs and auto-pay for recurring clients on every plan, checklists and photos, auto-scheduling and route planning, and online booking where the customer can “get an instant quote, select a time, then book”. It works offline, and since September 2026 it has a full Android app.
• Square Appointments suits a booking-led business: a booking site, recurring appointments, card on file, reminders and cancellation fees. It isn’t a job app, so checklists and job photos are thin.
• Moply is an Australian app built for cleaners: recurring jobs, quotes with client approval, clock-in and out, and checklists with photo proof on Starter. Cleaners use it free. It doesn’t say whether it connects to Xero.

End-of-lease and bond cleans

These are one-off jobs, priced by bedrooms, bathrooms and extras, with the bond on the line. What matters: a quote the customer can see before booking, and photos to show the agent.

• ServiceM8’s online booking gives the customer an instant price and a time slot. Its job photos and checklists cover the evidence.
• BookingKoala and Launch27 are US booking-form tools built around customer-visible pricing. They’re priced in US dollars (or unlabelled), and their pricing pages mention QuickBooks, not Xero. Even so, 18 of the cleaning sites we crawled used one of the two.
• Watch the job cap. One-off cleans are all new jobs, so a busy end-of-lease business hits ServiceM8’s limits faster than a regular-clients one.

Some cleaners would rather quote first than offer open booking, so they control travel and the schedule. A simple quote form on your website does that with any of these apps.

Commercial and contract cleaning

What matters: many sites, cleaners signing in on site, periodic tasks, quality audits, and a portal for the client.

• CBS GoSoft (Melbourne) does QR site sign-in with GPS, mobile quality audits, periodic task sign-off, certificate and insurance expiry alerts, and a client portal. It’s “from only AUD $4.00 per cleaner per month”, with three modules required. It doesn’t publish a full price list.
• Taskr (Australian) covers multi-site scheduling, shift clock-in, photo checklists, audits and contract renewals. It has a 14-day trial; we couldn’t find a price.
• Swept is the US equivalent, from US$150 a month for up to 15 locations.
• Connecteam handles staff scheduling, GPS time clocks and checklists, free for up to 10 users. Its own comparison says it “lacks invoicing and billing”, so you’d still need something to invoice.

The trade apps (ServiceM8, Tradify, Fergus) handle contract cleans as recurring jobs. They don’t do QR site sign-in or client audit portals.

Carpet and upholstery

These look more like trade jobs: per-room or per-item pricing, one-off visits, a van, and card payment on the day. Any of ServiceM8, Tradify or Fergus fits. Tradify Pro or Fergus can be cheaper for one person doing a lot of jobs, because they charge per user.

NDIS domestic assistance

None of the general job apps we checked (ServiceM8, Tradify, Fergus, Jobber) advertise NDIS support-item invoicing or price-limit checks. If you’re NDIS-registered, look at an NDIS platform, or plan to invoice NDIS line items yourself.

Paying your cleaners: the award

Employed cleaners are covered by the Cleaning Services Award 2020 (MA000022), with its own rates, penalty rates and allowances. The job apps record time: ServiceM8 can export shift times to your accounting software as timesheets, and Tradify Pro has timesheets. None of their pricing pages mention award interpretation, so you’d still work out award pay yourself or in payroll.

Rostering apps do that part:

• Deputy has award interpretation from its Lite plan, A$6.75 per user a month (excluding taxes), and Advanced Award Interpretation from Core (A$8.75). Payroll is A$5 per user extra.
• Microkeeper is an Australian payroll and rostering app with GPS clock-in, award interpretation and Single Touch Payroll.

If you only use contractors, the award doesn’t apply. Check that the Fair Work rules would treat them as contractors.

Xero

Most Australian cleaners use Xero or MYOB, and the US cleaning apps are built around QuickBooks.

If you pick a US app, ask how invoices get into Xero before you sign up.

The apps

ServiceM8

Job card

ServiceM8

Best for

Small teams doing lots of short jobs

Not ideal for

Project work needing progress claims or Gantt charts; deep stock control

Price from

Free (30 jobs/mo), then A$29–349/mo inc GST

Free trial

14 days, no card, no lock-in

Runs on

iPhone, Android, web. Works offline

Accounting

Xero two-way (contacts, items, payments). MYOB, QuickBooks

Try ServiceM8→

Details checked 25 Oct 2026

ServiceM8 has the most to offer cleaners of the trade apps: recurring jobs and auto-pay on every plan, online booking with an instant quote, checklists, offline use, and a flat price with unlimited users. Its cleaning page features Pristine Professional Cleaning, which it says ran “2,000 jobs in a little over a year” through it. Ratings: 4.54 on the Australian App Store (5,564 ratings), 3.76 on Google Play, where reviews of the old Android app pulled the average down. The main question for cleaners is the job cap (see above).

Tradify

Job card

Tradify

Best for

Sole traders and crews up to about 20 who want simple

Not ideal for

Crews often out of mobile range; anyone needing an API or Zapier

Price from

A$48 per user/mo ex GST (no GST charged if you're GST-registered)

Free trial

14 days, no card, no lock-in

Runs on

iPhone, Android, web. No offline mode

Accounting

Xero two-way (invoices, payments). MYOB, QuickBooks

Try Tradify→

Details checked 26 Oct 2026

Tradify has a cleaning page, but its testimonials are from plumbers, electricians and marine businesses, and part of its copy talks about “running an electrical business”. Its “online booking” means customers accepting quotes online; there’s no self-serve slot booking. It’s the easiest job app to learn and the highest-rated on every store (4.73 on the Australian App Store), but it doesn’t work offline. Recurring jobs and job photos need Pro (A$52 per user).

Fergus

Job card

Fergus

Best for

Plumbers and electricians running crews of 1–20

Not ideal for

Stock-level inventory; quoting or invoicing offline

Price from

From A$53 per user/mo + GST (Essentials), A$77 (Professional)

Free trial

14 days, no card, no setup fee

Runs on

iPhone, Android, web. Partial offline (time, notes, photos)

Accounting

Xero (invoices out, payments back). MYOB, QuickBooks

Try Fergus→

Details checked 26 Oct 2026

Fergus supports recurring cleaning contracts and syncs with Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks. It’s built around trade supplies (Reece, Tradelink), which most cleaners don’t need, and it has no customer self-booking. From A$53 per user plus GST.

Square Appointments

A booking app with payments built in. Free for one location with unlimited staff accounts; Plus is A$40 and Premium A$90 a month per location. Card fees are 1.6% in person and 2.2% for online payments, card on file and payment links. It connects to Xero and QuickBooks.

Jobber

Jobber is Canadian and popular with US cleaners: online booking, client hub, quotes and checklists (on its Connect plan and up). Its pricing page showed US dollars when we loaded it (Core from US$49 a month for one user), with tax excluded. Check the Australian price and whether Jobber Payments is available to you before you sign up. It rates 4.6 on the Australian App Store (248 ratings).

Moply

Australian, built for cleaners. Individual is free (one user, 10 clients), Starter A$29 a month for 3 users, Professional A$59 for 6, charged in AUD. 30-day trial with no card.

ZenMaid, BookingKoala and Launch27

US apps built for home cleaning. ZenMaid is US$19 a month (40 appointments), US$39 unlimited. BookingKoala starts at US$27 for 5 providers. Launch27 starts at $75 a month. All three are built around booking forms, and ZenMaid Pro adds cleaner payroll. None list Xero on their pricing pages.

Common questions

What’s the best software for a cleaning business? For domestic cleaners with regular clients, ServiceM8: recurring jobs, online booking, checklists and a flat price. For commercial contracts across many sites, a commercial tool like CBS GoSoft or Taskr. If you employ cleaners, add Deputy or Microkeeper for award pay.

Is there free cleaning business software? ServiceM8 is free for one user and 30 jobs a month. Square Appointments is free for one location. Moply is free for one user and 10 clients. Connecteam is free for up to 10 users, but it doesn’t invoice.

What’s the best app for a cleaning business with staff? One that charges per business rather than per user, if your cleaners each do lots of visits. ServiceM8 and Moply charge flat; Tradify and Fergus charge per user.

Do I need a CRM for my cleaning business? Most cleaners don’t need a separate one. The job app keeps clients, notes and history. See CRM for tradies for when a separate CRM is worth it.

Does the software work out award pay? The job apps don’t. Deputy and Microkeeper read the Cleaning Services Award.

DE

Written by Dan Edwards

Dan sets up job management, call tracking and CRM systems for trade businesses. More about Dan.