What job management software costs in 2026: AU price index

Short answer

For a three-person crew, the subscription runs from about A$72 a month (ServiceM8) to A$240 (AroFlo), ex GST. Tradify and Fergus sit in between at about A$156–159. Simpro doesn’t publish prices. Its customers report paying about A$85–100 per person a month.

The card fee is usually the bigger cost. If half your customers pay through the app’s payment link, that same crew pays about A$540–700 a month in card fees. That’s four to seven times the subscription. Since 1 October 2026 you can’t surcharge eftpos, Mastercard or Visa payments, so the fee comes out of your margin.

Prices have moved a lot in five years. ServiceM8’s plans cost the same as in 2019. AroFlo’s entry rate is up 60% since 2022.

We priced the five job management apps we cover, for four sizes of business, using each vendor’s own published prices. This page puts every number in one place, with the assumptions next to it. You can download the data as a spreadsheet.

Monthly subscription by team size

Figures are per month, ex GST, which is what a GST-registered business pays after claiming GST credits. They’re rounded to the nearest dollar.

How each app is priced:

• ServiceM8 charges per business, not per person. The plan depends on how many new jobs you create a month, and every plan has unlimited users. Its prices include GST, so we divided by 1.1.
• Tradify charges A$52 per user a month on Pro, the plan most trades need (Lite has no job photos, online quote acceptance or progress invoicing). It bills from New Zealand, so it doesn’t charge GST if you’re GST-registered.
• Fergus charges A$53 per full user a month plus GST on Essentials, and from A$26 for timesheet-only users. That’s why it gets cheaper per person as you add apprentices and field staff. Above 10 staff, Fergus quotes its Enterprise plan, so the 12-person figure is a guide only. We ignored its 90%-off promotion because the terms aren’t published.
• AroFlo charges A$80 per user a month plus GST, with a three-user minimum. It says bigger teams pay less per user but doesn’t say how much less, so the 6 and 12-person figures are the most you’d pay. There’s also a one-off setup package from A$1,450. See AroFlo pricing.
• Simpro publishes no prices. See what Simpro costs for what customers report.

Cost per person

Dividing the subscription by headcount gives a fairer comparison as a business grows. For the six-person business, ex GST, per person, per month:

ServiceM8 is the cheapest per person in every profile we priced. The exception is a small team doing a lot of small jobs. A sole trader doing 60 new jobs a month moves up to ServiceM8’s Growing plan (A$72 ex GST), and at more than 150 jobs a month to Premium (A$135). Tradify would still be A$52 for that one person.

Card fees: usually the biggest cost

All three self-serve apps let customers pay an invoice by card through a link or tap-to-pay. That’s convenient and gets you paid faster, but each payment costs a percentage plus 30 cents.

Here’s what that adds up to if half your invoices are paid by card in the app, next to the subscription and SMS costs:

“All in” is subscription plus SMS plus card fees, per month. ServiceM8’s paid plans include an SMS allowance. Tradify charges 20c a text and Fergus A$15 per 100.

Two things follow from this:

1. Compare card rates, not just subscriptions. For the six-person business, ServiceM8’s lower rate on Premium saves about A$510–560 a month in card fees against Tradify or Fergus. That’s more than the whole ServiceM8 subscription.
2. Card payments are optional. You can still put your bank details on the invoice. If most customers pay by bank transfer, the fee line shrinks to almost nothing. Since 1 October 2026, surcharges on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa cards are banned in Australia, so you can’t pass the fee on. Price it into your rates or steer customers to bank transfer.

How prices have moved since 2019

We went back through archived copies of each vendor’s pricing page to see how the entry price has changed.

Fergus’s archived prices come from its global pricing page, which shows NZD, so its history is in NZD. Tradify’s 2020 page didn’t say whether its price included GST. Its current prices exclude it.

What the subscription doesn’t include

The monthly fee is the easy part to compare. Budget for these too:

• Setup. ServiceM8, Tradify and Fergus have no setup fee. AroFlo’s setup package is from A$1,450, or A$2,900 with implementation. Simpro charges a setup fee it doesn’t publish.
• Your own time. Loading your price list, customers and job templates takes time whichever app you pick. Bigger teams often pay someone to do it.
• Accounting software. Every app here sends invoices to Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks, which you pay for separately. See what Xero costs and which job apps sync best with Xero.
• Add-ons. Phone systems, GPS hardware, compliance certificates and AI features are extra on some plans.
• Contract terms. ServiceM8, Tradify and Fergus are month to month. AroFlo and Simpro offer annual billing, and Simpro customers report multi-year terms.

Which is cheapest for you

• Sole trader doing up to 30 jobs a month: ServiceM8’s Free plan costs nothing, though its card rate is the highest of its plans.
• Small crew, high job volume: ServiceM8, because the price doesn’t rise with headcount and the card rate falls as you move up plans.
• Crew with apprentices or field staff who only clock on and off: Fergus, because timesheet users cost about half a full user.
• One person doing lots of small jobs: past 50 new jobs a month, Tradify (A$52) comes out cheaper than ServiceM8’s Growing plan (A$72 ex GST).
• Maintenance, compliance or project work with three or more people: AroFlo publishes a price and includes everything in one plan. Simpro is the other option but you’ll need a quote.

Price is one part of the choice. If you want a shortlist that also weighs your trade, accounting software and how you work, try the software finder. For other options, see alternatives to ServiceM8 and alternatives to Tradify.

Using this data

You’re welcome to quote these figures. Please link to this page as the source (“Software for Tradies job management software price index, October 2026”) so readers can see the assumptions. The full table is available as a CSV. We’ll update it when a vendor changes its prices.

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Written by Dan Edwards

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