For one van and about 60 jobs a month, ServiceM8 Growing ($79, 150 jobs, unlimited users) undercuts Jobber Connect ($139), while Jobber Core ($49, one user, no job cap) is the cheapest plan that covers the volume. Both draft quotes with AI; ServiceM8 adds invoices and messages, Jobber a priced AI receptionist ($29). Neither is built for vehicle repair.
Jobber's 48 industry pages and ServiceM8's 12 include no mechanic page (Jobber's nearest is auto detailing), so you will set up registration, make and mileage fields yourself. Prices are list prices in USD from each vendor's own pricing page in October 2026. I price a mechanic doing three jobs a day over 20 working days: 60 booked jobs a month, plus about 25 quotes that never convert.
What one van costs on each side
Jobber prices by plan and user, with one user included on Core and Connect and extra users at $29 a month each. ServiceM8 prices by job volume, with unlimited users on every paid plan. For one person the user count barely matters, so the real difference is the job meter. Here is each vendor's pricing page and its ServiceM8 counterpart, reduced to what a one-van mechanic would look at:
| Plan | Monthly list price | What a one-van mechanic gets |
|---|---|---|
| ServiceM8 Starter | $29 | 50 jobs, unlimited users, progress invoices, supplier invoice importing, auto-pay recurring jobs, API access |
| ServiceM8 Growing | $79 | 150 jobs; adds asset management, forms and certificates, proposals, bundles, inbox |
| ServiceM8 Premium | $149 | 500 jobs; adds job costing and markup billing |
| Jobber Core | $49 | One user; online booking, scheduling, quotes, invoices with online payment, reporting |
| Jobber Connect | $139 | Adds client reminders, automatic payment collection, job checklists, quote and invoice follow-ups, QuickBooks sync, time and expense tracking |
| Jobber Grow | $199 | Adds richer quotes with images, optional line items, job costing, two-way texting, custom workflow automations |
Jobber also sells annual prepaid billing, which works out at $29, $99 and $149 a month for Core, Connect and Grow at standard prices, and $39, $119 and $169 on monthly billing with a one-year commitment. ServiceM8's page shows monthly prices only and says there are no lock-ins, with unused credit from an old plan counting towards a new one. Both offer a 14-day free trial without a card.
A per-job meter against a per-user fee
ServiceM8 calls its limit job credits: every time you create a new job card, it uses one. Converting an accepted quote to a work order does not use another. That is generous to a mechanic who wins most quotes and expensive to one who quotes widely, because a declined quote has already spent its credit.
- Counting the example van. 60 booked jobs plus 25 quotes that never convert is 85 job cards. Starter's 50 cannot cover that; Growing's 150 leaves 65 spare.
- When the limit is hit. The page says you can keep working for another seven days, then you are prompted to upgrade, unless the plan resets in that window. Premium Plus, at $349 for 1,500 jobs, charges 20 cents for each job above its limit.
- A second van. Two vans would produce about 170 job cards, which is over Growing's 150, so ServiceM8 moves you to Premium at $149, a $70 rise. On Jobber, a second user costs $29 a month on any plan.
Choose by the busy month, not the average one. Suppose the same van books 78 jobs and quotes 52 more in a busy spring month, which is 130 job cards: Growing still holds, and in a quiet 58-card month you pay the same $79. Starter at $29 looks tempting until the first busy week of the year breaks it.
The free ServiceM8 plan allows one user and 30 jobs, and its page says you can earn bonus jobs by accepting card payments without explaining the mechanics. Read the support article before counting on that. For a one-van mechanic, 30 jobs is a trial, not a plan.
Vehicle records: custom fields against assets
A mechanic's customer is really a customer plus a car, and often two cars. Both tools can hold that, but neither does it out of the box.
Jobber's custom fields can be true or false, numeric, area, dropdown or text, and can attach to clients, properties, quotes, jobs, invoices and team members. Jobber's help page says they are available on select plans, which means checking your plan before you build on them. It also says a field's type cannot be changed once created, so decide now that mileage is numeric; a mileage stored as text cannot be sorted or compared later. A workable set for a mechanic, attached to the job:
| Field name | Type | Example entry |
|---|---|---|
| Registration | Text | ABC-1234 |
| Make, model, year | Text | Hatchback, 2017 |
| Fuel type | Dropdown | Petrol |
| VIN | Text | 17-character code from the windscreen plate |
| Mileage in | Numeric | 68,400 |
| Parts warranty given | Dropdown | 12 months |
ServiceM8 approaches the same need with its asset register, listed from the Growing plan up on the pricing page (the asset page itself calls it an add-on, so confirm Growing includes it). Its page says assets let you record equipment against a client, track each asset's service history, add customisable fields (text, number, date, multiple choice) and use QR-code labels. The page never mentions vehicles, so a car would be an asset type you create yourself. On paper that is the closer fit for a customer with two cars, because each car carries its own history. Test it with a real two-car customer before you rely on it.
ServiceM8's forms are the other half. Its forms page describes checklists, safety audits and inspection reports with required photos and signatures. A pre-service inspection with photos is the sort of thing a mechanic wants on every job. The pricing page lists Forms & Certificates from Growing and purchasable forms on every plan, without prices for the Form Store, so ask what a vehicle inspection form costs. Jobber's job checklists arrive on Connect.
Parts, markup and a deposit on a driveway quote
Parts margin is how a mobile mechanic earns, so how the tool handles markup matters more than most feature lists admit. Here is an illustrative quote for front brakes on a hatchback:
| Line | Your cost | Customer price |
|---|---|---|
| Front pads, set | $46.00 | $59.80 (30% markup) |
| Front discs, pair | $96.00 | $124.80 (30% markup) |
| Labour, 1.5 hours at $90 | Your time | $135.00 |
| Total | $142.00 in parts | $319.60 |
| Optional: brake fluid change, 0.75 hours plus $14 fluid | $81.50, making $401.10 |
A 50% deposit on the parts sale ($184.60) is $92.30 before the part is ordered. How each tool helps:
- ServiceM8. Markup Billing is listed under Premium ($149), so on the lower plans expect to enter marked-up prices yourself. Bundles, listed under Growing, look like the nearest thing to a saved "front brake service" package; test whether they hold parts and labour together. Deposits are listed on every plan, Free included; during the trial, check that the client is asked to pay one when accepting the quote. Supplier Invoice Importing (Starter and up) is the feature to test for parts invoices.
- Jobber. Its quoting features list markups and optional add-ons without naming a plan; the Grow card lists optional line items for upselling, which is how the brake fluid line above would work. Its client hub page says customers can approve quotes and pay deposits online, so the $92.30 can be collected at approval.
The AI cannot know what your supplier charged. It can draft the description and structure the lines, and you supply the prices. That is the line to keep in mind for everything below. The tutorial on building an auto repair price estimate with ChatGPT covers the template side in more detail.
What AI adds on each side
Jobber groups its AI features under the name Jobber AI: Voice, Chat, Draft for me and the Receptionist add-on. ServiceM8's pricing page lists its drafting tools as the AI Smart Helper, on every plan with no separate price, alongside a report helper and a phone agent. Side by side, on what a one-van mechanic would use:
| Job | Jobber | ServiceM8 |
|---|---|---|
| Draft a quote | "Draft for me" auto-drafts quotes; plan not named on the pricing page, and earlier readings of Jobber's plan table put auto-drafted quotes on Connect and up, so ask before relying on it with Core | Auto-Quote reads the job card and your job history to draft a quote |
| Write invoice and message text | Not listed on the pricing page | Auto-Invoice drafts the description and billable items; AI Writing Helper improves messages |
| Answer calls | Receptionist add-on, $29 a month with 30 conversations, then $0.79 each | "Phone Agent" answers calls; no price on its AI page |
| Voice from the field | AI Voice: create quotes, update schedules and send messages by voice; plan and price not shown | Voice assistant started with "Hey Siri, Start ServiceM8 Chat" |
| Reports | Describe the report you want and Jobber builds it from live data | Smart Report Helper |
| Link to a chat assistant | Zapier integration; the pricing page lists 7,000-plus apps | ChatGPT and Claude connector via MCP, listed on its pricing page |
Usage limits favour ServiceM8: its AI features allow 10 uses a day on the Free plan and unlimited uses a day on Starter and above. The price picture is murkier. ServiceM8's pricing page shows an Office Agent Pro add-on at $39 a month on Starter and above (the page does not describe what it does), ServiceM8 Phone from $19 a month (a phone system with recording, transcription, call groups and after-hours routing, with a free trial given as one month in one place and three in another), and the AI Smart Helper with no price. Its AI page describes a Phone Agent without a price, and the pricing page does not list one. The pages do not say which line item buys call answering, so ask support in writing. Jobber is clearer on price and stricter on trial: add-ons and its dedicated phone number are unavailable while you are on a trial, and the Receptionist needs that number.
For the call-answering question alone, the Jobber receptionist pricing tutorial for a one-van plumber works through the same maths for another trade, and the mechanic's receptionist cost tutorial weighs it against missed calls.
A day under the van: where AI earns its keep
Four moments in one working day show where the AI features matter and where they do not.
7.40: a photo of a warning light
A customer texts a dashboard photo and asks for a price. The useful reply (drafted by AI, checked by you) asks for registration, mileage, when the light appeared and whether the car drives normally, and promises a price only after a diagnostic visit. Something like this, with the brackets filled in by you:
Hi [first name], thanks for the photo. A warning light on its own is not enough for me to price a repair. Could you send the registration, the mileage and when the light first came on, and tell me whether the car drives normally? I can book a diagnostic visit on [day] at [time] for [your diagnostic fee], and I will price any repair once I have seen the car.
An assistant should never quote a repair from a warning light, and the fee in that message is yours to state, not the draft's.
9.15: the phone rings while you are under a car
A receptionist add-on can take the details instead of voicemail. Give it a short script, and decide the rules before you switch it on:
- Ask for the registration, make and model, the symptom, where the car is and whether it is drivable.
- Ask for a preferred day and a number to call back on.
- Never quote a price or a diagnosis; book a diagnostic slot or take a message.
- Send a stranded or unsafe-to-drive caller straight to your mobile. Jobber's help article has a section on escalation policies for exactly this.
11.20: a voice note becomes a quote
You dictate while the tools are still in your hand. Paste or speak something like this into whichever AI drafting feature you have:
Customer's hatchback, front brakes squealing. Pads down to about 2 mm,
discs scored. Quote front pads and discs, one and a half hours labour,
plus a brake fluid change, three quarters of an hour. Friendly tone.
Do not invent part numbers, prices or torque figures.A typical draft (illustrative) comes back with three lines: "Replace front brake pads and discs (pair), including cleaning and lubricating caliper slides", "Brake fluid change", and a closing sentence: "Brakes inspected and confirmed safe to drive." What to fix: delete the "confirmed safe" sentence, because you have not said so; check the caliper slide wording matches what you will actually do; and enter your own prices and hours, since the draft cannot know them.
14.05: job notes become an invoice description
You jot "pads, discs, bled fluid, road tested, rear pads at 4 mm next service". The assistant tidies it into a customer-friendly description. The check is simple: every sentence must be something you did or measured. The advice about the rear pads stays, because you said it.
If drafting saves six minutes on each of the month's 85 job cards, that is 8.5 hours a month, worth $340 at an illustrative $40 an hour. Treat that as a hypothesis, and time your own first ten quotes with and without the draft during the trial.
Where AI must stay out of a mechanic's paperwork
- Diagnoses. Fault codes and symptoms point somewhere; they do not name a part. The tutorial on ChatGPT for fault-finding sets out where that help stops.
- Safety statements. "Safe to drive" and "passed" are your words, backed by your inspection. A draft that includes them has gone beyond its evidence.
- Part numbers and fitment. A chat assistant can produce a convincing but wrong number. Use the supplier's catalogue.
- Warranty promises. Terms come from your supplier and your own policy.
Used within those limits, the AI is a fast typist with good manners, which is a fair description of what a busy mechanic wants from it.
The monthly bill for one van, with and without a second
| Set-up | Monthly | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ServiceM8 Growing | $79 | 150 jobs; AI drafting included |
| Growing plus ServiceM8 Phone | $98 | Phone from $19; its AI phone agent is unpriced |
| Growing, Phone and Office Agent Pro | $137 | Every published ServiceM8 add-on stacked; neither page says which item buys AI call answering, so get that in writing |
| Jobber Core plus Receptionist | $78 | The help article says "select plans"; check Core, and add the dedicated number |
| Jobber Connect plus Receptionist | $168 | $128 on annual billing |
| Jobber Grow plus Receptionist | $228 | Adds two-way texting and job costing |
Then the card fees. On 60 jobs at an average of $190 ($11,400 billed), with 51 paid by card ($9,690), Jobber's published rates give $276.93 a month through Tap to Pay (2.7% plus 30 cents) or $296.31 through an online invoice (2.9% plus 30 cents). ServiceM8 processes through Stripe, and its pages print no rate. Jobber's published card fees exceed the software line in every row of that table, and ServiceM8 prints no rate to compare, so ask for its card rate before you compare subscriptions.
The second-van maths cuts the other way: Jobber adds $29 for the second user, while ServiceM8's job count tips Growing into Premium for $70 more. If your plan is to grow, put that into the comparison.
A ten-job trial that settles it
Run both 14-day trials at once with the same ten real jobs from last month: three brake jobs, two services, two battery or electrical jobs, one diagnostic call-out, one declined quote and one parts-return trip. For each job, time these steps in each tool:
- Create the customer and vehicle record, including registration, make and mileage in.
- Build the quote with parts, markup and labour, and send it.
- Take the deposit, then mark the quote accepted.
- Invoice on site and take a Tap to Pay payment.
- Find that vehicle's history again, as if a customer rang a year later.
Score each step in minutes and by how often you had to work around the tool. Then send support four questions: the card rate and any per-payment fee, whether a declined quote uses a job credit (for ServiceM8) or which plan holds custom fields (for Jobber), which AI items cost extra and what they cost, and how to export your data if you leave. ServiceM8's page says the trial gives full access to every feature, so test its AI items there. Jobber's add-ons are off limits in trial, so budget a paid month to test its receptionist.
ServiceM8 or Jobber: which van owner each one suits
| Pick | If | Because |
|---|---|---|
| ServiceM8 Growing | You expect 40 to 150 job cards a month and want per-car records and forms | Lowest list price for what it holds; AI drafting is unlimited on paid plans |
| Jobber Connect or Grow | You hate meters, want client reminders and quote follow-ups, or plan a second van soon | Flat price per user; a published AI receptionist price |
| Neither yet | You work from a workshop and need registration lookups and parts catalogues | Both are general field-service tools; a garage system may fit better |
If a second pair of hands is a year away, start on the cheaper tool and revisit then. Your job history is the thing worth protecting, so test the data export in the first month either way. Once the jobs are in a system, the same job list gives you the dates and places for a clean mileage record, which the mileage log tutorial turns into a log. Before you commit to either, the ServiceM8 AI tutorial for a small heating firm shows what its helpers do for another trade.
Questions a one-van mechanic asks before choosing
Is there software built for mobile mechanics instead of these two?
Garage management systems exist, usually with registration lookups and parts ordering, but I have not priced them here and many assume a workshop. Neither Jobber's 48 industry pages nor ServiceM8's 12 covers vehicle repair, so test whether custom fields or assets hold what you need, and read any garage system's pricing page for per-user and per-job fees.
Can I take card payments on the driveway with either?
Yes. Jobber lists Tap to Pay at 2.7% plus 30 cents and online cards at 2.9% plus 30 cents. ServiceM8 processes through Stripe, supports Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android in the places it lists, and lets you type card details into the app. Its pages print no fee percentage, so ask for the rate.
Can I test Jobber's AI Receptionist before paying?
Not in the free trial. Jobber's help pages say add-ons and dedicated phone numbers are unavailable while you are in trial, so the first real test comes after you have paid for a plan. Start on monthly billing, add the receptionist for one month, and read its conversations before deciding to keep it.
Does ServiceM8's job limit count quotes?
Every new job card uses a credit, and a quote sits on a job card, so a declined quote still uses one. Converting an accepted quote to a work order does not use another. Count enquiries as well as booked work when you pick a plan. Going over the limit gives you seven days to keep working before you are asked to upgrade.
Further reads
- AI App for Tradies: ServiceM8, Tradify or Fergus by Business Size — ServiceM8, Tradify or Fergus compared by business size.
- Best AI for Auto Mechanics: Estimates, Parts Research and Messages — Estimates, parts research and customer messages for mechanics.
- Jobber, Housecall Pro, and ServiceTitan AI Features Compared — How the AI features of three big job platforms compare.
- Auto Repair Intake Form: Let AI Capture the Complaint Clearly — Capture the customer's complaint clearly before the job card opens.
- AI Service Reminders That Bring Garage Customers Back — Bring garage customers back with service reminders written by AI.
- Are AI Glasses Worth It for Mechanics? A Small-Garage Test — A one-week test plan for AI glasses in a small garage: what hands-free photos and voice notes save, what they cost, and where they must not be trusted.
- Best AI for Mechanic Diagnosis: Fault Codes, Manuals and Limits — A scorecard and a 40-minute test for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity on fault codes and manuals, plus the limits a shop should set.
- Mobile Hairdressing Business: Diary, Travel Time and Rebooking With AI — Plan a mobile hairdresser's diary around drive time: patch days, same-street batching and rebooking texts, with two Tuesdays compared in minutes and income.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: Jobber's pricing and industries pages and help-centre articles on Receptionist, add-on features, dedicated phone numbers, custom fields and requests; ServiceM8's pricing, AI, feature-overview, payments, forms, asset-management and industries pages. All read in October 2026.