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Tradify vs Fergus (2026): which suits your trade in Australia and NZ?
Tradify vs Fergus compared: feature-matched prices in AUD and NZD, supplier links, offline, API, forms, app ratings, and both vendors' comparison claims checked.
By Dan Edwards · Updated
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We tested both on their 14-day trials from 30 October 2026, on the web, on an iPhone and on an Android emulator. We ran the same made-up Brisbane plumbing job through both, from quote to invoice, and connected each to Xero. The full results are in our Tradify review (SFT score 7.2) and Fergus review (7.0).
Short answer
Pick Tradify if you’re a sole trader or a small crew who’s always in mobile range, you want a phone line and progress invoicing with retentions, and you don’t need other software feeding jobs in. Its users rate it higher on every app store.
Pick Fergus if you’re a plumber or electrician buying a lot from Reece, Tradelink, the Rexel brands or (in NZ) Mico and Corys, you want job and business profit side by side, or you need an API, Zapier or some offline use.
On price they’re close: A$52 vs A$53 per user a month on the comparable entry plans.
 TradifyTestedOCT 2026 |  FergusTestedOCT 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Sole traders and crews up to about 20 who want simple | Plumbers and electricians running crews of 1–20 |
| Price from | A$48 per user/mo ex GST (no GST charged if you're GST-registered) | From A$53 per user/mo + GST (Essentials), A$77 (Professional) |
| How it’s priced | Per user (A$48 / 52 / 62 ex GST by plan) | Per full user, plus cheaper timesheet-only users (from A$26/mo + GST) |
| Free trial | 14 days, no card, no lock-in | 14 days, no card, no setup fee |
| Runs on | iPhone, Android, web. No offline mode | iPhone, Android, web. Partial offline (time, notes, photos on jobs already open) |
| Accounting | Xero two-way (invoices, payments). MYOB, QuickBooks | Xero (invoices out, payments back). MYOB, QuickBooks |
| Try Tradify → | Try Fergus → |
Tradify vs Fergus: who owns them
Tradify and Fergus were both founded in New Zealand, and both charge per user. Tradify has been owned by The Access Group, a UK software company, since October 2024, and its Australian card payments now run through Access Payments. Fergus is still an independent New Zealand company. Both sell in Australia, NZ, the UK and the US.
Tradify vs Fergus pricing
The plans don’t line up by name, so here they are by what you get. Tradify Pro is the first plan with job photos, timesheets, safety forms and online quote acceptance. Fergus Essentials covers the basics, but forms, SWMS, purchase orders and automatic supplier imports are on Professional.
Monthly subscription, ex GST:
| Team | Tradify Pro | Fergus Essentials | Tradify Plus | Fergus Professional |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 person | A$52 | A$53 | A$62 | A$77 |
| 3 people | A$156 | A$159 | A$186 | A$231 |
| 6 people | A$312 | A$318 | A$372 | A$462 |
| 3 full + 3 apprentices | A$312 | A$237 (timesheet users) | A$372 | A$309 (timesheet users) |
Two things make this fairer than the sticker price:
- GST. Tradify bills from New Zealand and doesn’t charge GST to GST-registered Australian businesses. Fergus’s terms say its fees exclude tax, so GST is added. The table is ex GST, which is what a GST-registered business pays after credits.
- Cheaper users. Fergus’s timesheet-only users (from A$26) can log time and fill forms but can’t upload photos. Tradify has a separate price for staff who never log in; those staff only get their jobs by email.
Extras: Tradify charges 20c per SMS and A$19 a month for an optional website. Fergus charges A$15 per 100 texts and A$30 a month for certificates. Card fees: Tradify 1.9% plus 30c, Fergus 1.95% plus 30c. Since 1 October 2026 you can’t pass those on as a surcharge for eftpos, Mastercard or Visa in Australia.
Price rises. Fergus’s NZ entry price has gone up every year since 2023 (Basic NZ$40 in 2023, NZ$42 in 2024, NZ$48 in 2025, NZ$53 in 2026), and its Australian Essentials price went from A$44 (June 2025) to A$53 (by August 2026). Tradify has been unchanged since January 2025.
Tradify vs Fergus pricing in New Zealand
| Tradify | Fergus | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | Lite NZ$48 / Pro NZ$52 per user | Basic from NZ$53 per user |
| Top plan | Plus NZ$62 | Professional from NZ$75 |
| GST | 15% added | Added |
| Card payments | 2.9% + 30c | 2.95% + 30c |
| Certificates | Included on Pro | NZ$50 a month add-on (1–9 staff) |
Note the plan-name trap: Fergus’s entry plan is “Essentials” in Australia and “Basic” in NZ, and Professional is A$77 in Australia but NZ$75 in NZ.
Tradify vs Fergus: key differences
| Tradify | Fergus | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup, in our test | A checklist and GST right from the start, but the labour rate starts at A$0 | The most thorough we’ve tested: ABN, bank details and logo in one step, a A$110 labour rate and example jobs to learn on |
| Supplier links | Import a CSV price list | Supplier invoices and price files from dozens of wholesalers |
| Job and business profit | Job costing | Job costing plus overheads pulled from Xero |
| Works offline | No | Time, notes and photos (since August 2026) |
| API and Zapier | None | Open API, Zapier, an MCP server for AI tools |
| Purchase orders | Plus plan | Professional plan |
| Progress invoicing | Deposits, progress payments and retentions (Pro) | By percentage of quote or by phase |
| Subcontractors | Schedule at no extra cost | Contractor users A$4 a day |
| Certificates | Compliance certificates on Pro | Add-on: NSW (with eCert lodgement), QLD and NZ |
Supplier integrations
Fergus’s headline feature. In Australia: Reece (invoices and credit notes within about an hour), Tradelink, and the Rexel Group (Rexel, Ideal, John R. Turk, Lear & Smith), with dozens more wholesalers importing invoices by email. In NZ it goes further, with price books and purchase orders for Mico, J.A. Russell and Corys. Builders who buy from PlaceMakers or ITM should note neither appears on Fergus’s NZ supplier list, despite one comparison site saying they do. Tradify imports supplier price lists from a CSV file.
Offline mode and integrations
Tradify needs an internet connection on both the app and the web. Fergus Go queues time, notes and photos offline. In our tests, Tradify wouldn’t open with no connection and wouldn’t save a new note. Fergus kept a note, a photo and a running timer on a job we had open, but reopened with no signal it couldn’t show any jobs. And Tradify has no API, webhooks or Zapier “as of September 2026”, so website forms, call tracking or a CRM can’t create jobs in it. Fergus has an open API and a Zapier app, so they can.
Tradify and Fergus comparison claims, fact-checked
Each vendor’s own comparison page ranks for these searches and feeds Google’s AI summaries. Here’s how their claims about each other hold up:
| Claim | Who makes it | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Fergus has no online enquiry form | Tradify | Out of date. Fergus has enquiry management and a hosted web form on both plans |
| Fergus doesn’t integrate with Xero, QuickBooks, MYOB and Sage | Tradify | Misleading. Fergus has Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks; only Sage (UK) is missing |
| Fergus charges for subcontractors | Tradify | True: A$4 a day per contractor user |
| Fergus has no website builder | Tradify | True |
| Tradify is the highest-rated across review platforms | Tradify | Supported against Fergus (see ratings below) |
| Tradify lacks supplier integrations | Fergus | True: CSV import only |
| Tradify lacks custom digital forms | Fergus | Disputed: Tradify Pro has safety forms and compliance certificates |
| Fergus plans start from $44 | Fergus | Out of date: Essentials is from A$53 |
| Phone support is free | Fergus | Conflicts with Fergus’s own plan table, which puts phone support on Professional |
We didn’t build a custom form in either app during our trials, so we can’t settle the forms claim yet. We did fill in a Queensland Form 9 (testable backflow devices) in Fergus’s certificates add-on. It pulled the address, owner and tester details from the job onto the official Queensland Government form, and took about four minutes.
Tradify vs Fergus reviews: what users say
| Where | Tradify | Fergus |
|---|---|---|
| Apple App Store (AU) | 4.73 (4,108) | 4.55 (564) |
| Apple App Store (NZ) | 4.65 (882) | 4.56 (959) |
| Google Play | 4.77 (3,142) | 4.42 (866) |
| Xero App Store (AU) | 4.64 (187) | 4.41 (79) |
| Capterra | 4.7 (152) | 4.6 (155) |
Of each app’s written app-store reviews since 2024 that we pulled, 15% of Tradify’s were 1 or 2 stars against 46% of Fergus’s, and Fergus’s complaints cluster around crashes and slowness. Fergus has more NZ App Store ratings than Tradify, and is named in more NZ job ads (10 to 4); in Australia they’re level at 15 each.
The same job in Tradify and Fergus
We quoted, booked, ran and invoiced the same A$449.90 job (a new kitchen mixer tap) in each, and sent the invoice to Xero.
| Tradify | Fergus | |
|---|---|---|
| Building the quote | About 8 minutes (job and quote are separate screens) | About 3 minutes, including emailing it |
| Business details on the quote | Name only: no ABN, phone or address | Name, address, phone, email and ABN |
| Customer accepts | One click, no signature | We accepted from the office |
| “On my way” text | Ready-made, sent from your own phone | None: the message button opens a blank text |
| Gallery photos | Worked on iPhone and Android | Worked on iPhone (we only used the camera on Android) |
| What went wrong on the phone | Android froze twice on photos; a time-and-materials invoice came out at A$0 | Approving an invoice showed an error but went through; the timer logged the same time twice |
| Invoice reaches Xero | Straight away | 15 seconds, with materials and labour on separate lines |
| Payment back from Xero | Within eight minutes | Only after we pressed Refresh Data |
| Connecting Xero | Replaced our business name, ABN and time zone with Xero’s | Wouldn’t connect to Xero’s demo company |
Fergus was quicker to quote and had the better setup. Tradify did more for the customer on site and brought the payment back from Xero on its own. Both had a phone-side problem to check during your own trial.
Tradify or Fergus: which to pick
| If you’re… | Pick |
|---|---|
| A sole trader or small crew who wants it simple, in range | Tradify |
| A plumber or sparky buying through Reece, Tradelink or the Rexel brands | Fergus |
| An NZ trade buying through Mico, Corys or J.A. Russell | Fergus |
| A builder buying through PlaceMakers or ITM | Either; Fergus’s supplier edge doesn’t apply |
| Working out of signal | Fergus (or ServiceM8, which works fully offline) |
| Wanting website leads or a CRM to create jobs automatically | Fergus |
| Watching price rises | Tradify has been flat since January 2025 |
For more options, see ServiceM8 alternatives, the Tradify review and the Fergus review.
Our verdict. They’re close: 7.2 for Tradify and 7.0 for Fergus, and within a dollar a user on the entry plans. For a plumber or electrician buying a lot through Reece, Tradelink or the Rexel brands, we’d pick Fergus. Reading supplier invoices onto the job and showing each job’s profit is what it does best, and it keeps working on an open job when the signal drops. For other trades, or a sole trader who wants a phone line and simple progress invoicing, we’d pick Tradify, as long as you’re always in range. If neither fits, a crew of three or more should look at ServiceM8, which costs less than either once you add people.
Written by Dan Edwards
Dan sets up job management, call tracking and CRM systems for trade businesses. More about Dan.