For a small carpet cleaning firm, Jobber has the best-documented booking and quoting tools at the lowest published price: online booking from its Core plan, quote follow-ups from Connect and an AI Receptionist add-on at $29 a month. Housecall Pro matches it on booking, Workiz publishes no prices, and Service Fusion documents no online booking.
Crew size decides more than features do. Jobber and Housecall Pro scale their price with the number of users, while Service Fusion charges a flat fee for unlimited users, which only starts to win at about seven. The prices below are list prices read in October 2026, and where a vendor hides one I say so instead of guessing.
Booking, quoting and AI as each vendor documents them
Most carpet cleaning business software is general field-service software, so judge it on how it handles rooms, stairs and add-ons rather than on its feature count. I read each vendor's pricing and feature pages and wrote down only what they state. "Not documented" means I could not find it, not that it does not exist, so treat those cells as questions for the demo.
| What a carpet firm needs | Jobber | Housecall Pro | Workiz | Service Fusion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online booking | From Core. Price and duration per bookable service; assigns an available team member; confirmation emails | All plans. Book from Google or your website; price book; payment upfront; slots follow your schedule, service area and job duration | All plans. Self-serve portal with optional checkout and service areas; Reserve with Google puts a booking link on your Google profile | Not documented on its pricing or feature pages (a customer web portal is included on Pro and an add-on below it) |
| Quotes | Core: professional quotes. Connect: automated quote follow-ups. Grow: optional line items for upsells | All plans: estimates and invoicing. Max adds a Sales Proposal Tool | Unlimited estimates on every plan; three-tier sales proposals on Ultimate only | Estimates on every plan; eSign included on Pro, an add-on on Starter and Plus |
| Recurring work and rebooking | Recurring jobs; client reminders from Connect; Marketing Suite ($99, included on Plus) for email campaigns | Max: Recurring Service Plans. Campaigns are an add-on | Recurring jobs on every plan; service plans on Ultimate; 5, 10 or 30 automations by plan | Recurring invoicing included on Pro, an add-on on Starter and Plus; service agreements are not in its plan list |
| AI | Receptionist ($29, included on Plus); AI chat that can draft quotes; AI voice for hands-free tasks in the mobile app | AI team members (chat, analyst, coach, marketing) on all plans; 24/7 call answering sold separately, price not listed | Genius Leads and Genius Scheduling on Pro and up; Genius Answering and Genius Marketing are add-ons with no price shown | AI phone answering with no price or plan stated; ServiceCall.ai, a phone add-on that combines VoIP calling with AI, listed on every plan, also unpriced |
| Price published | Yes | Yes (annual and monthly) | No: "Request pricing" | Yes (annual and monthly) |
Online booking is the clearest split. Jobber, Housecall Pro and Workiz each document a customer-facing booking page and Service Fusion does not. For a firm whose enquiries arrive at 22:00 from someone comparing three cleaners, a customer who can pick a slot without waiting for a call is a booking you did not have to chase. If you rely on your Google Business Profile for enquiries, note that Housecall Pro and Workiz both describe booking straight from Google, while Jobber's booking page does not mention it.
All four handle estimates, so the difference is upselling and chasing. Carpet work lives on add-ons: stain treatment, protector, deodoriser, stairs. Jobber's optional line items (Grow and above) and automated follow-ups (Connect and above) fit that, and so do Workiz's proposals, which present three service tiers on one estimate, though only on its Ultimate plan. Housecall Pro's proposal tool also sits on its top plan.
On AI, only Jobber prints a price for call answering. Housecall Pro's AI team page says its CSR AI answers every customer and books the job, lists texts as coming soon, and describes 24/7 call answering as a separate paid feature with no price; a Housecall Pro help article read the same month still described booking by CSR AI as coming soon, so ask which is current. Ask each vendor for a recorded sample call, not a slide.
What each costs at one, five and ten users
These are monthly list prices in USD, annual prepay first and month-to-month second. Jobber's pricing page was running an introductory discount while I read it; the figures here are its regular prices. Jobber adds users at $29 a month each, and Housecall Pro's Max plan at $35.
| Crew | Jobber | Housecall Pro | Workiz | Service Fusion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One van, owner only (1 user) | Core $29 / $49; Connect $99 / $139 | Basic $59 / $79 | Request pricing | Starter $208 / $245 |
| Three vans plus an office user (5 users) | Connect $149 / $199; Grow $229 / $299 | Essentials $149 / $189 | Request pricing | Starter $208 / $245; Plus $325 / $382 |
| Eight vans plus two office users (10 users) | Connect $229 / $299; Grow $299 / $399 | Max $369 / $399 (8 users included, $35 for each extra) | Request pricing | Starter $208 / $245; Plus $325 / $382 |
Service Fusion's three plans (Starter, Plus and Pro) all include unlimited users and run month to month with no contract; annual billing takes 15 per cent off and is charged as one payment. Workiz offers a seven-day trial with no card, and its FAQ says annual plans save $400 or more, but there is no figure to compare until you ask.
Two sums matter. At five users, Jobber Connect with the Receptionist costs ($149 + $29) × 12 = $2,136 a year, against $1,788 for Housecall Pro Essentials (before any call-answering add-on, which has no listed price) and $2,496 for Service Fusion Starter. So Service Fusion costs $360 a year more than Jobber at that size and documents no online booking. The crossover comes later: Jobber Connect at seven users is $149 plus two extra users at $29, or $207, which is about Service Fusion's $208, and beyond seven users the flat price is cheaper. Whether Starter has what a ten-van firm needs is the question for the demo.
One carpet job through all four
Every trial should start with the same job, built from your own rate card. This one uses invented prices: bedroom $60 (30 minutes), large living room $85 (45), hallway $40 (20), stairs $50 a flight (25), area rug $45 (15), pet-stain treatment $30 a room (10) and fabric protector $25 a room (10). The customer wants three bedrooms, the hallway and one flight of stairs cleaned, with stain treatment in two bedrooms. The sums:
- Standard clean: 3 × $60 + $40 + $50 = $270, and 3 × 30 + 20 + 25 = 135 minutes.
- With stain treatment: $270 + 2 × $30 = $330, and 135 + 2 × 10 = 155 minutes.
- With protector on the three bedrooms as well: $330 + 3 × $25 = $405, and 155 + 3 × 10 = 185 minutes.
Add 25 minutes for set-up and the walk-through and you need a 2 h 40 min slot for the first option, 3 h for the second and 3 h 30 min for the third. A booking page that holds only two hours for "three rooms" is how the afternoon appointment starts late. As a quote, the job should read as three options the customer can approve in one tap:
| Option | What is included | Price | Slot to hold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | Three bedrooms, hallway, one flight of stairs | $270 | 2 h 40 min |
| Standard plus stains | The above, with pet-stain treatment in two bedrooms | $330 | 3 h |
| Full protection | The above, plus fabric protector in the three bedrooms | $405 | 3 h 30 min |
Now watch what each trial does with it. Jobber's booking page lets you set an estimated price and duration for each bookable service, and Housecall Pro says customers see slots based on job duration. The question to put to every vendor is whether the booking form can take quantities (three bedrooms, one flight) or only fixed packages. If it is packages, define two or three bundles, such as "up to 3 rooms", "4 to 5 rooms" and "whole home", and let the quote add stairs and stain treatment before the visit. The per-room price calculator tutorial helps you build the card those bundles come from.
Rebooking carpets is not the same as recurring jobs
Recurring jobs and service agreements are built for fixed rhythms, such as a monthly office clean. Most carpet customers book once and need a nudge at about eleven months. None of the four pages I read describes a "next clean due" reminder by name. What they offer instead is a way to build one: Jobber's Marketing Suite email campaigns, Workiz's automations (5, 10 or 30 by plan) and Housecall Pro's campaigns add-on. The test question is simple: can I send a message eleven months after a completed job, and can the customer book from it?
The money side needs no invented response rate. Say your average job leaves $140 of gross profit and you pay $99 a month for Jobber's Marketing Suite. A year costs $1,188, so reminders must bring back $1,188 ÷ $140, about nine jobs, to pay for themselves. With 150 past customers that is a 6 per cent response. Count your own rebookings last year before deciding; if reminders would clear that bar easily, the add-on is cheap, and if they would not, skip it and send the message by hand twice a year.
A reminder that tends to work reads like a person wrote it:
"Hi [first name], it is eleven months since we cleaned your carpets. If they could do with a refresh, you can pick a slot here: [booking link]. Last time was three bedrooms and the stairs, so the price should be about $330, and I will confirm before we come."
What the AI adds, and six calls that test it
Four kinds of AI show up across these products. Call and chat answering is the one that changes a carpet firm's week, because the owner is usually inside a customer's home when the phone rings. Jobber's Receptionist answers calls and texts, can book a visit using the online booking settings you have already configured, takes messages, and texts back callers who hang up; you set up call forwarding with your phone provider. Its $29 covers 30 conversations, then each extra conversation is $0.79, and it is included on Plus. A month with 45 conversations costs $29 + 15 × $0.79, which is $40.85. Jobber also lists a companion feature that would draft a quote during calls you take yourself, but it is marked coming soon.
The second kind is quote drafting: Jobber's AI chat can draft quotes, and its automations can too. Third is scheduling: Workiz lists Genius Scheduling on its Pro and Ultimate plans, not Standard; ask the demo to schedule a week of your own jobs with it and show you why it chose each slot and technician. Fourth is reporting and writing: Housecall Pro's analyst, coach and marketing assistants come with every plan, and Workiz has an AI writer inside its marketing add-on. Those are conveniences. The answering tool is the one with money attached, so test it before you pay.
Forward your phone to the trial line, or use the demo line, and make these six calls. Score each on whether the answer was correct, whether the booking or message reached you, and whether any price came from your rate card:
| Call | A good answer | A red flag |
|---|---|---|
| "How much for three bedrooms?" | Asks about stairs, pets and rugs, then quotes from your card or offers the booking link | Gives a flat figure without asking anything |
| "My dog was sick on the rug an hour ago. Can someone come today?" | Takes details and offers the first real slot, or flags it to you | Promises today without checking the diary |
| "Do you clean sofas?" | Answers from your service list, or passes it to a person | Invents a price for a service you do not list |
| A caller at an address outside your service area | Says so politely or flags it | Books it |
| "My basement flooded last night." | No quote; passes it to a person at once with the details | Quotes a price for water damage |
| "Please cancel tomorrow's clean." | Takes the booking details and sends them to you | Makes up a cancellation policy |
Run the same six calls on each tool you are weighing. If one fails the flood call, it fails for every customer with a worse emergency than carpets, so treat it as disqualifying until the vendor shows you a setting that fixes it. For the wider question of built-in versus standalone answering, the tutorial on Workiz Genius add-ons and the Jobber, Housecall Pro and ServiceTitan AI comparison go further than there is room for here.
The no-AI baseline and when it still holds
A baseline is a shared calendar, a booking form and invoices from your payments or accounting app. It can cost nothing to about $40 a month: free appointment-booking plans exist for solo operators, Square's free plan charges card fees on invoices instead of a subscription, and QuickBooks Simple Start lists at $38. Add ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro at $20 and you can draft replies and quotes from a rate card yourself. That is a respectable way to run one van.
The baseline breaks in three places, and any one of them is a reason to move: a second technician needs to see the schedule, a quote goes unanswered because nobody remembered to chase it, or you are typing the same job into three apps. If none of those has happened this year, a $58 stack of Jobber Core plus the Receptionist is a want, not a need, and the money is better spent on getting your price list right.
The cost of moving is low when you check honestly. Compare your current admin hours for a fortnight against one trial. If the software saves two hours a week and your time is worth $30 an hour, that is about $240 a month, which covers Jobber Connect with the Receptionist ($128) with room to spare. If it saves 30 minutes, it does not.
A one-afternoon trial plan that settles it
Jobber's trial runs 14 days on its Grow plan with no card, Housecall Pro also offers 14 days, and Workiz gives seven. Start two at once and give yourself a single afternoon for each step below:
- Enter your real rate card, with durations, as services or price-book items. Keep it to one page.
- Build the three-option quote from the job above and send it to your own phone. Note how many taps the customer needs to approve one option.
- Set up online booking and book the job above as a stranger would. Check the slot length held and whether stairs and stains can be added.
- Switch on the AI answering tool, if there is a trial of it, and run the six calls.
- Try to schedule a message eleven months after a completed job.
- Ask the vendor how you export your customers, jobs and price book if you leave. Write the answer down; a vague one is information too.
Score each tool 0 to 2 on every step (0 failed, 1 worked with a workaround, 2 worked as you would want) and multiply by the weight that matters to your firm. A one-van firm that gets most work from Google might weight online booking and the call test double; an eight-van firm might weight scheduling and price. The scores are your own, which is the point: a generic ranking cannot know that you take half your enquiries by phone while on a job.
My first trial for a one-van, a three-van and an eight-van firm
One van, owner only. Jobber Core plus the Receptionist ($58 on annual prepay) or Connect with it ($128) if quote follow-ups matter, with Housecall Pro Basic ($59) as the second trial if Google booking matters most. For the cost side of replying fast, the tutorial on buying leads versus replying faster prices the break-even on one extra job.
Three vans and an office. Jobber Connect or Grow against Housecall Pro Essentials, decided by the six-call test and the quote step. Ask Workiz for a written price on your user count before its trial starts, because that is the only way it joins the comparison. If you also run commercial cleaning crews with timesheets, read the sibling tutorial on cleaning business management software first.
Eight vans or more. Service Fusion's unlimited users and month-to-month terms are worth a demo against Jobber Grow at ten users ($299 on annual prepay). The deciding questions are online booking, which Service Fusion does not document, and what its AI phone answering costs, which it does not state.
Sixty days in: four numbers that show the fee is earned
New software always feels busy, so judge it on numbers you wrote down before you switched. Take the 60 days before and the first 60 days after, and compare four things: jobs booked online without a phone call, quotes approved within seven days, average job value, and missed calls that still became bookings. A two-van firm's comparison, with invented figures, might read like this:
| Measure | 60 days before | 60 days after |
|---|---|---|
| Jobs booked online | 0 of 88 | 19 of 96 |
| Quotes approved within seven days | 22 of 41 | 30 of 44 |
| Average job value | $262 | $281 |
| Missed calls that became bookings | Not tracked | 9 of 23 |
The average job rose by $19, which across 96 jobs is about $1,820 over the two months, mostly from the stain and protector options on the three-option quote. Jobber Connect with the Receptionist costs $256 for the same period, so the fee is covered several times over. Check the cause before you credit the software, though: a price rise or the busy season can produce the same jump. And if the after column looks like the before column, the problem is usually the set-up, not the product, so revisit the booking bundles and the quote options before you blame the tool or switch again.
Common questions about carpet cleaning software
Does Jobber work for a one-van carpet cleaner?
Yes. Jobber's Core plan lists online booking, quotes, invoicing and online payments, and costs $29 a month for one user on annual prepay ($49 month to month). Quote follow-ups and automated reminders start on Connect, at $99 a month for one user on annual prepay. The AI Receptionist is a $29 add-on on top, covering 30 conversations a month before each extra one costs $0.79.
Is Workiz cheaper than Jobber?
Nobody can say from its website, because Workiz shows 'Request pricing' on all three plans (Standard, Pro and Ultimate). Its FAQ says annual plans save $400 or more and offers a seven-day trial without a card. Ask for a written quote covering your user count and any Genius Answering add-on before the trial ends.
Can the software price a job by room and stairs?
Some booking pages price one service with one duration, so rooms and stairs may need to become bundles such as 'up to 3 rooms'. Test this on a trial with your real rate card. If the booking form cannot take quantities, use bundles for booking and let the quote add stairs and stain treatment before the visit.
When is an AI call-answering add-on worth testing?
My rule of thumb: if you miss more than three calls a week during working hours and cannot call back within half an hour, test one. Jobber's Receptionist costs $29 a month, so a single extra booked job a month more than covers it. Run the six test calls in this tutorial before relying on it.
Further reads
- ZenMaid vs Jobber for a Cleaning Business: Price, Features and AI — How Jobber compares with a cleaning-specific tool.
- AI Receptionist for Trades: Built Into Your Job Software or Standalone? — Built-in or standalone AI call answering.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: Jobber pricing, online booking, Receptionist and AI pages; Housecall Pro pricing, online booking and AI team pages and its CSR AI help article; Workiz pricing, online booking and estimates pages; Service Fusion pricing, scheduling and AI phone answering pages, all read in October 2026. The rate card, job totals, rebooking sums and before-and-after figures are illustrative.