Guide
What job management software costs a UK trade business
Updated
Four pricing shapes are in play in this market, and picking the wrong one costs more than picking the wrong software.
The four shapes
- Per user
- Per business
- Per job volume
- Per band
Every figure above was read on the supplier's own pricing page on 15 August 2026. VAT treatment varies and several suppliers do not state it at all: check before you budget.
The costs that sit outside the subscription
- Text messages. Tradify charges 10p per message for quotes, invoices and appointment reminders, ServiceM8 5p per SMS beyond the plan allowance. On two hundred reminders a month that is real money, and it is the feature customers notice most.
- Onboarding and training. Okappy publishes training from £250 and configuration from £100. Products aimed at bigger firms often carry four-figure onboarding, so ask early rather than at contract stage.
- Tier creep. The feature you are buying the software for is frequently one tier above the price you were quoted. Certificates sit on Tradify's Pro tier and Powered Now's Professional tier; adding your team is itself a Professional feature on Powered Now.
- Card fees. Every product here that takes payments does it through a payment provider, and those fees are separate from the subscription in all cases.
What it is worth
There is no published market figure for what UK trades save by moving off paper, and any page that gives you one has invented it. The honest way to size it is your own arithmetic: how many hours a week go on quoting, chasing and invoicing, what an hour of your time is worth on the tools, and how many jobs a year you lose because a quote went out three days late. If a £34 per user product removes two hours a week of admin, it has paid for itself before you get to the software's other claims.
Start with the trial, not the demo
Five of the eight products here state you can start a trial without giving anyone a card number, and four of them state there is no minimum term at all. That is unusually buyer-friendly for business software and it is worth using: put two products on the same real job in the same week, send both quotes, and see which one you actually opened on site. The one you dread opening will not get used no matter what the feature table says.