ServiceM8 vs Tradify vs Fergus (2026): which should you pick?

On this page

1. ServiceM8 vs Tradify vs Fergus: key differences
2. ServiceM8 vs Tradify vs Fergus pricing
3. Quoting and invoicing compared
4. Mobile apps on site compared
5. Xero integration compared
6. Card payment fees compared
7. API and integrations compared
8. ServiceM8 vs Tradify
9. Tradify vs Fergus
10. Fergus vs ServiceM8
11. ServiceM8, Tradify and Fergus in New Zealand
12. Which is best for your business?
13. ServiceM8 vs Tradify vs Fergus FAQs

We tested all three on their 14-day trials from 29 and 30 October 2026, on the web, on an iPhone and on an Android emulator. We set up the same made-up Brisbane plumbing business in each, quoted the same A$449.90 job, invoiced it, ran it on the phone and connected each app to Xero. The full results are in our ServiceM8 review (SFT score 8.1), Tradify review (7.2) and Fergus review (7.0).

Short answer

Pick ServiceM8 if you run a small team doing lots of short jobs. You pay by the number of jobs, not by headcount, so a third or fourth person costs nothing extra, and the phone app works without reception.

Pick Tradify if you want the simplest app to learn and your crew is always in mobile range. It’s priced per user, has no offline mode, and its users rate it highest of the three.

Pick Fergus if you’re a plumber or electrician buying from Reece, Tradelink or the Rexel brands. Supplier invoices land on the right job (our test invoice was read line by line in about 15 seconds), it shows profit per job, and you can add apprentices as cheaper timesheet-only users. It’s the dearest of the three for a crew.

ServiceM8 vs Tradify vs Fergus: key differences

All three handle the basics well: quotes, scheduling, job cards on the phone, invoices, card payments and a Xero connection. The differences that matter come down to five things.

ServiceM8 vs Tradify vs Fergus pricing

The headline prices don’t compare like for like: ServiceM8 shows prices including GST, Tradify shows them ex GST and doesn’t charge GST to GST-registered Australian businesses (it bills from NZ), and Fergus’s terms say its per-user fees exclude tax. This table shows what each costs a GST-registered business after GST credits (most trade businesses), on the plan most tradies would need:

If you’re not registered for GST, add 10% to all three: A$29 / A$57.20 / A$58.30 for a sole trader, A$79 / A$171.60 / A$174.90 for three people, A$149 / A$343.20 / A$349.80 for six.

How these were worked out:

• ServiceM8 has unlimited users on every paid plan. The plan is set by new jobs a month: up to 50 on Starter, 150 on Growing, 500 on Premium. Go over and you can keep working for seven days before you’re asked to upgrade; a quote that becomes a work order doesn’t use a second job credit. There’s also a free plan for one person doing up to 30 jobs.
• Tradify is A$48, A$52 or A$62 per user. We’ve used Pro (A$52) because Lite lacks job photos, online quote acceptance, recurring jobs and progress invoicing.
• Fergus is from A$53 (Essentials) or A$77 (Professional) per full user, plus GST, per its terms of service. Timesheet-only users are from A$26, so two full users plus four apprentices on timesheets is A$210 ex GST (A$231 inc). Essentials isn’t a perfect match for Tradify Pro: forms, checklists, SWMS and purchase orders are on Fergus Professional. Fergus is also running a “90% off til December” offer; check the terms before counting on it.

The extras to budget for:

• SMS: ServiceM8 includes 100, 300, 1,000 or 3,000 texts a month on Starter, Growing, Premium and Premium Plus; extra texts are 10c each, and Free has no allowance. Tradify charges 20c per text. Fergus charges A$15 per 100.
• Forms and certificates: every ServiceM8 plan, even Free, can buy and use ready-made forms from its Form Store (priced by each form’s publisher); building your own needs Growing. Tradify includes safety forms and compliance certificates on Pro. Fergus charges A$30 a month for certificates (1–9 staff) and puts forms and SWMS on Professional; it also lodges NSW electrical CCEWs directly with the Building Commission.
• Add-ons: ServiceM8 Phone is A$29 a month, or A$49 with an AI phone agent. Tradify offers a basic website for A$19 a month. Fergus’s premium supplier links (Reece, Tradelink) didn’t show a price in our trial.

None of the three charge a setup fee or lock you into a contract. All three have a 14-day free trial with no credit card.

What our three-person test crew would pay. We used free trials, so this isn’t a bill we’ve paid. But each trial made it clear which plan a three-person plumbing business would need, ex GST:

• ServiceM8 Growing, A$71.82. Starter’s 50 jobs a month is too few for three people, and Growing is where texts come from your business name and website enquiries land in the Email Inbox.
• Tradify Pro, A$156. Lite has no job photos, online quote acceptance or timesheets. Texts are 20c each on top, and they’re switched off during the trial.
• Fergus Professional, A$231, or A$261 with certificates. Automatic supplier imports, forms, SWMS and phone support are all on Professional, and supplier imports are the main reason to pick Fergus. Queensland plumbing forms are in the A$30 certificates add-on. Texts are A$15 per 100.

So the same crew pays about three times as much on Fergus as on ServiceM8, before card fees.

Quoting and invoicing compared

All three let you build quotes from a price list, send them by email, and turn an accepted quote into a job and then an invoice.

• ServiceM8 includes multiple quote options, online acceptance with e-signature and automatic quote follow-ups on every plan. Progress invoices and deposits start on Starter. Its Office Agent (September 2026) drafts quotes and invoices for you to approve.
• Tradify has quote templates on every plan. Quote options, online acceptance, and progress invoicing with deposits and retentions start on Pro. Its AI tools (reading supplier bills, writing help) are on Plus.
• Fergus is strongest for trades buying a lot of materials: supplier integrations keep your price book current and pull supplier invoices onto the right job, and Professional adds tiered pricing and purchase orders. Quote options (good, better, best) arrived in April 2026, and Fergus Assistant, an AI helper for finding information and updating jobs, in September.

The same quote in all three

We built the same quote in each app: a new customer, a A$289 kitchen mixer tap and A$120 of labour, A$449.90 including GST.

These are rough times from one run each. Two traps to know: Tradify’s labour rate starts at A$0, so a time-and-materials invoice came out at A$0.00, and Fergus’s invoice shows the customer a single “remainder of quoted price” line unless you split it.

Mobile apps on site compared

This is where your crew will live, so test it on the phones they actually use.

• ServiceM8 works offline and syncs when you’re back in range. Until September 2026 the Android app was a cut-down “Lite” version. ServiceM8 15 (18 September 2026) replaced it with an Android app that ServiceM8 says has “almost all the same functionality as the iOS app”. Still iPhone-only: Room Scan and AR measuring, drawing diagrams, editing PDFs from attachments, and full in-camera photo tagging. Tap to Pay on Android needs Android 13 and NFC. Android users are still less happy: 3.76 on Google Play against 4.54 on the Australian App Store, and some post-update reviews say uploading photos from the gallery was removed.
• Tradify “does not work offline”: the app and the web version both need a live connection. If your crew works in basements, new estates or out of town, this is the deal-breaker. Its users rate it highest: 4.73 on the Australian App Store and 4.77 on Google Play.
• Fergus added an offline mode in August 2026 for time entries, job notes and photos, and lets you view jobs you’d already loaded. It only lists those as working offline, so plan on signal for quotes and invoices.

What we found on site

• ServiceM8: the home screen shows your next job with a route map and when to leave. Starting the job offers an “on the way” text with an arrival estimate and a tracking link, GPS clocks you on, and checking out records travel and job time without a timer to remember. On Android, a gallery photo shared into the app didn’t attach on our emulator, and AR Measure and Room Scan are missing.
• Tradify: a big Add Time button, but the timer is manual. The “I’m on my way” text goes from your own number with a fixed “about 20 mins”. The customer signs the job sheet, not the invoice. Gallery photos worked on both phones, but the Android app froze twice on photos in our emulator.
• Fergus: a Start timer button and one Add menu for everything: forms, certificates, photos from the camera or album, time and materials. There’s no “on my way” text; the message button opens a blank text. Approving an invoice on the phone showed an error even though it went through, and invoicing with the timer still running logged the same time twice.

Offline. Tradify wouldn’t open, or save a note, with no connection. Fergus kept notes, photos and the timer working on a job we already had open, but reopened with no signal it couldn’t show any jobs. We haven’t tested ServiceM8 with no signal yet; ServiceM8 says the whole app works offline.

Xero integration compared

All three connect to Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks Online. With Xero:

• ServiceM8 syncs contacts, items and payments both ways about every 30 minutes and pushes invoices when they’re approved. Shift times can go to Xero Payroll with the Automated Timesheet Sync add-on.
• Tradify sends invoices, bills and credit notes to Xero, and invoices paid in Xero are marked paid in Tradify. Timesheets go to Xero Payroll by CSV export, not sync.
• Fergus sends customer and supplier invoices on approval and marks invoices paid when they’re reconciled in Xero. It also pulls your overheads from Xero into its business performance reports.

For a closer look, see job management software that works with Xero.

Our Xero test

We sent an invoice from each app to Xero and recorded a payment against it in Xero.

All three got GST and the sales account right. Fergus was the only one to split materials and labour into separate lines in Xero. The things we had to fix by hand: GST in ServiceM8 (before connecting), the time zone in Tradify (after connecting), and the payment refresh in Fergus.

Card payment fees compared

Each app takes card payments on invoices, powered by Stripe (Tradify’s Australian payments run through Access Payments). Standard Australian card fees:

From 1 October 2026 businesses can no longer add a surcharge to eftpos, Mastercard or Visa payments (Reserve Bank decision, March 2026), so these fees now come out of your margin. ServiceM8 and Fergus have switched surcharging off for Australia. Tradify’s help pages, updated 13 October 2026, still describe an option to pass the fee on as a surcharge, so check your settings if you use it.

API and integrations compared

If you want leads from your website, call tracking or a CRM to flow into your job app automatically, this matters more than it sounds.

• ServiceM8 has a public API (Starter and up), Zapier, a large add-on marketplace, and connections that let ChatGPT or Claude look up jobs.
• Fergus has an open API, Zapier, and an MCP server for AI tools.
• Tradify “does not currently offer a public API or self-service API keys (as of September 2026)”.

ServiceM8 vs Tradify

ServiceM8 is cheaper from two people up, works offline and connects to other tools; Tradify is easier to learn, better rated, and cheaper for one person doing 51 to 150 jobs a month. See the full ServiceM8 vs Tradify comparison.

Tradify vs Fergus

Within a dollar of each other per user on the comparable plans (A$52 vs A$53). Tradify is simpler and better rated; Fergus wins on supplier links, offline time and photos, and an API. See Tradify vs Fergus.

Fergus vs ServiceM8

Fergus is cheaper for one or two people doing a lot of jobs and is built around supplier materials; ServiceM8 is cheaper from three people, fully offline, and has lower card fees. See Fergus vs ServiceM8.

ServiceM8, Tradify and Fergus in New Zealand

Tradify and Fergus were both founded in New Zealand. All three sell in NZ with prices in NZ dollars:

• ServiceM8 uses the same plan prices in NZD (Free, $29, $79, $149, $349). NZ card fees are higher, from 3.10% on Free down to 2.49% + 30c on Premium (its NZ page shows 1.19% on Premium Plus, which looks copied from Australia; confirm with ServiceM8).
• Tradify is NZ$48, $52 or $62 per user, and charges 15% NZ GST. NZ card payments run through Stripe at 2.9% + 30c.
• Fergus calls its plans Basic (from $53) and Pro (from $75) in NZ. Certificates are NZ$50 a month and NZ card fees 2.95% + 30c. NZ businesses can still pass card fees on to customers.

Which is best for your business?

ServiceM8

Tradify

Fergus

Our call, after using all three.

ServiceM8 (SFT score 8.1) is the one we’d start most small crews on. It’s the cheapest from the second person, it gives the customer the best experience of the three (an online quote they sign, and an “on the way” text with tracking), and its Xero sync was quick both ways. Fix its setup first: GST, your logo and the message templates.

Tradify (7.2) is the easiest to get help with: a setup checklist, a phone line, and a call on the first day. It suits a sole trader or a small crew who are always in range. But it doesn’t work offline at all, three people pay about twice what they would on ServiceM8, and set your labour rate before your first job.

Fergus (7.0) is the best of the three on materials and margins. It read our supplier invoice onto the job with nothing typed, showed the job’s profit straight away, and had the most thorough setup. But it’s the dearest for a crew, has no “on my way” text, only works offline on jobs you’ve already opened, and a payment made in Xero needed a manual refresh to show up.

ServiceM8 vs Tradify vs Fergus FAQs

Is Tradify or ServiceM8 better? ServiceM8 for crews of two or more, offline work and card payments. Tradify for simplicity and for sole traders always in range.

Which is better, Tradify or Fergus? Tradify for ease of use; Fergus for plumbers and electricians who want supplier links and margin reports.

Is Tradify a New Zealand company? It was founded in New Zealand and has been owned by The Access Group (UK) since October 2024. Fergus is still NZ-owned.

Does ServiceM8 work on Android? Yes, with a near-full app since September 2026.

Do any of them work offline? ServiceM8 says it works fully offline; we haven’t tested that yet. Fergus kept notes, photos and the timer working on a job we’d already opened, but couldn’t show our jobs when we reopened it with no signal. Tradify doesn’t work offline at all.

Still not sure? Each one has a 14-day free trial with no card. Run one real job through two of them in the same week and you’ll know which suits you. Switching from Tradify? ServiceM8 imports a Tradify job-history CSV for free.

DE

Written by Dan Edwards

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