ServiceM8 vs Tradify comparison: which one fits your trade business

If you run a trade business in Australia, sooner or later you compare ServiceM8 and Tradify. Both are good. Neither is perfect. The right one for you comes down to about five questions, and most comparison pages skip the ones that actually decide it.

The short answer: ServiceM8 charges by the job, with as many users as you like, so it suits a crew sharing a modest job count. Its app is strongest on iPhone and iPad, and the Android version has fewer features. Tradify charges per person and lists no job cap, so it suits one or two people pushing serious volume, and it runs on Android. Run your own numbers before you trust anyone's verdict, including ours.

Which one is cheaper?

It depends which you have more of relative to your job cap.

Add people and ServiceM8 stays the same price, so a crew sharing a modest job count usually wins there. Add jobs and Tradify stays the same price, so a small team pushing high volume usually wins there. Both publish their prices, so this is worked straight from their pricing pages, checked again on 9 October 2026, in Australian dollars.

• ServiceM8: Free $0 for 30 jobs a month (1 user), Starter $29 for 50 jobs, Growing $79 for 150, Premium $149 for 500, Premium Plus $349 for 1,500. Users are unlimited on every paid plan.
• Tradify: Lite $48, Pro $52, Plus $62, per person per month, with no job cap listed. One wrinkle: Tradify's prices exclude GST and ServiceM8's include it, so add your 10% to the Tradify prices before comparing.

A solo sparkie on 45 jobs a month pays $29 on ServiceM8, $48 on Tradify. Under 50 jobs a month, ServiceM8's cheapest tier wins outright, before the people-versus-jobs pattern even applies. A 4-person crew on 140 jobs pays $79 flat on ServiceM8, $192 on Tradify. Flip it: a 2-person outfit knocking out 400 small jobs a month needs ServiceM8's $149 plan, while 2 Tradify seats cost $96. Extra hands are free on ServiceM8. Volume is free on Tradify. Hardly anyone does this 10 minutes of arithmetic before signing up, and it settles most cases on its own.

Does ServiceM8 work on Android?

Yes, but it is a lighter version of the iPhone and iPad app. ServiceM8's own help page says room scans, drawing diagrams and filling in PDFs from attachments are not available on Android. Tradify runs on iPhone, iPad and Android. If half your crew is on Android and staying there, try ServiceM8's Android app in the free trial first, because no feature list beats the phone already in their pocket.

Which one works offline?

ServiceM8. It keeps working with no signal and syncs when you are back in range, which helps in basements, new estates and half the hinterland. Final PDF quotes, invoices and forms wait until you have signal again. Tradify's own help centre says its app needs a live connection. Do not take their word or ours: both give you a 14-day free trial, so spend one of those days on your worst-signal site and see for yourself.

What about compliance certificates?

Both do. ServiceM8 sells ready-made forms through its Form Store, a one-off charge for each, and you fill them in on site with the job. Tradify has forms in the app, including the Queensland Certificate of Testing. The rules differ by state, and some regulators want certificates lodged through their own portal, so check yours before you rely on either. If you issue them every week, that is hours of double handling gone. If you never issue one, it is a feature you will never open.

Which one handles complicated quotes better?

Tradify. Quotes with optional items and staged invoices, the way carpenters, landscapers and renovators quote, are the shape of work it was built for. ServiceM8 is at its best when the work is get the call, do the job, invoice on the doorstep. If you tap cards on the doorstep too, the terminal fees are worked out in the Zeller vs Square fee comparison.

What do the extras cost?

Texts, mainly: 10c a message on ServiceM8 past your plan's bundle, 20c on Tradify. Both sit alongside your accounting software rather than replacing it. If you text reminders on every job, do that arithmetic too, because the subscription is never the whole bill.

Why owners actually switch

What wears owners down is that the app runs one job at a time, and nothing reads across the business. Your app knows job 4,182 got invoiced. It has no idea Tuesdays are quietly dying, or that one builder now owes you a third of your month. So we build a system you own that does the reading, with a morning report pulling your jobs, money and bookings into one short page. It takes over what the job app does, so the monthly app subscription stops, and the automations are built around your business instead of limited to the settings the app ships with. In the meantime, here is which ServiceM8 automations are worth turning on. Clinic owners hit the same wall with their booking software, which is why we ran the same five-question comparison for Cliniko and Halaxy, and salon owners get the free-versus-per-staff arithmetic on Fresha and Timely.

Where to start

Pick the one that fits the phones your crew already carries, your job count and the way you quote. Then put it to work. If you would rather not pay an app every month, we build a system you own that does the same job and more: same-day quote follow-up, missed-call capture, the morning report above, everything approved by you before it reaches a customer. The Engine is $3,500, one build, and the element packs are $950 each. The full list is in what an AI consultant costs in Australia.

If you want your job app doing more than logging jobs, answer a few short questions and we will provide a free custom audit of your business.