Tradie Apps: Quote, Schedule and Invoice Tools Compared, With AI Features

No single tradie app wins. ServiceM8 suits solo and low-volume firms (priced per job card, AI quote and invoice drafting on every plan), Fergus has one assistant working across your jobs, quotes and invoices (no extra cost for now), Tradify suits staged-payment quoting but keeps SmartTools on Plus, and Jobber suits firms that miss calls ($29 receptionist).

Treat what follows as a reading of vendor pages in October 2026, not a lab test. AI features in these apps are still being rolled out, several carry a beta label, and what they do to your quotes is something only a trial on your own jobs can show. The scorecard grades what each vendor documents, and every app gets its own example and a short test to run in its trial.

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Quote, schedule and invoice before any AI: where the four differ

The AI sits on top of the everyday workflow, and the workflow differs more than the marketing suggests. This table lists what each vendor's pages document for the three jobs in the title. "Not stated" means the pages I read are silent, not that the feature is missing, so confirm anything that matters to you during the trial.

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Three differences decide more purchases than any AI feature. First, staged payments: Tradify documents deposits, progress payments and retentions, and Fergus documents staggered progress invoicing, while Jobber mentions deposits and progress invoicing without saying which plan carries them and ServiceM8's pricing page is silent, so a firm that takes a deposit on bigger jobs should test that first. Second, quote chasing: Jobber automates follow-ups from Connect and Tradify sends reminders from Pro, ServiceM8 sells the chase as part of a $39 add-on, and Fergus shows you the status and leaves the chasing to you or its assistant. Third, accounting: all four sync with the usual packages, but the plan and the edition decide whether it works for you.

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A plumber who takes 30% up front on bathroom refits should shortlist Tradify Pro and Fergus. A plumber who does repairs paid on the day can pick on price, phone cover and how the crew likes the screen.

How the AI scorecard works, and what it cannot tell you

Each app gets 0, 1 or 2 for seven jobs a trade business does every week. A 2 means the vendor's own pages describe the AI using your jobs, history, schedule or customers to produce a draft, an answer or an action. A 1 means it helps with wording, reads a document or photo you supply, or is named without enough detail to rely on. A 0 means I found nothing documented. The maximum is 14.

This scores breadth on paper. A vendor that documents less may do one job better, and a 12 that you never switch on is worth less than a 3 you use daily. Approval behaviour sits in its own rows, because an AI that drafts and an AI that sends carry different risks.

The AI scorecard: four apps, seven jobs, one table

Read the totals with the plan row beside them. Fergus and ServiceM8 tie at 12 because their AI is documented across the job, but they get there differently: Fergus through one assistant that acts after you confirm, ServiceM8 through about a dozen separate helpers placed inside the screens you already use. Tradify scores low because its two features sit on one plan and cover wording and bill capture. Jobber's 8 understates how much one feature can matter: the receptionist is a different kind of tool from the drafting aids, and a one-van firm that misses calls might value it above everything else in the table.

List prices in USD, and what each app counts

All four vendors publish regional pages in other currencies, so these figures come from the dollar-priced pages, and a straight currency conversion of another region's page will not match. For price ladders by headcount, a tutorial on ServiceM8, Tradify and Fergus by business size goes deeper; here is the short version.

One caution on the figures. Fergus prints two price sets: $31 and $44 a user on its dollar-priced page, and $53 and $75 on its global page, which names no currency. Ask Fergus which applies to your account before you budget, and get the answer in writing. For Jobber, the figures are standard list prices, not a new-customer offer.

Tradify: quote options and progress invoicing, with AI on one plan

Tradify's own trade pages list electrical, plumbing, gas, HVAC and property maintenance, and it is built for firms that quote, schedule and invoice from a phone. The quoting side is the strongest part: saved templates, supplier price lists imported as a CSV file, quote options a customer can accept or decline, acceptance online from the emailed quote, and automatic reminders for quotes nobody has answered. Most of that, and progress invoicing with deposits and retentions, starts on Pro; Lite is a scheduling and invoicing plan. Its invoicing page describes raising a progress invoice from a quote as a percentage, a fixed amount or chosen lines. Scheduling syncs with Google Calendar from Lite, with subcontractor scheduling from Pro.

The AI is two tools under the SmartTools name. SmartRead extracts the details from a photo of any supplier invoice. SmartWrite fixes spelling and grammar, switches between friendly and professional tones, and generates quote and invoice descriptions from your line items. Tradify's pricing page lists SmartTools on Plus only.

A two-person electrical firm quoting a switchboard upgrade shows the sum. On Pro the two users cost $102 a month; on Plus $122. The $20 gap is what SmartRead and SmartWrite cost, and the break-even is quick to work out: $20 divided by $45 an hour is about 27 minutes a month. If the two of them save more than 27 minutes between them tidying line descriptions and keying supplier bills, Plus pays for itself. If neither writes more than a handful of quotes a month, Pro is the better buy.

Test in the trial: paste a real quote's line items and read what SmartWrite returns. Photograph three supplier invoices, one crumpled, and check every field SmartRead fills in. Tradify's pricing page says the trial includes all the features, so you can test the Plus tools before paying for Plus.

ServiceM8: job-card pricing and the longest AI list

ServiceM8 prices by how many job cards you open, not by people. A job credit is used whenever you create a new job card, quotes included, and turning an accepted quote into a work order uses no further credit. Paid plans have unlimited users, and if you pass your limit you can keep working for seven more days before being prompted to upgrade. The Free plan suits a solo operator, with 30 jobs a month and one user.

That counting rule bites firms that quote a lot. A plumber who sends 60 quotes a month and wins 35 still opens 60 job cards, so the firm uses 60 credits and needs Growing at $79 rather than Starter at $29 with its 50. Because AI Quote & Invoice is listed on every plan, the AI does not push you up a tier; the number of quotes does.

ServiceM8 documents the widest set of AI features. AI Automated Quoting analyses the job card and job history to draft a quote; Auto-Invoice drafts an invoice description and billable items from the job description, notes, checklists, items, tracked time, transcribed videos, client messages and supplier invoices. AI Scheduling suggests booking times, the voice assistant (ServiceM8 Chat) can summarise a job, dictate notes and send template messages, and a report helper builds reports from a typed request. Free accounts get 10 AI uses a day and paid plans are unlimited. The pricing page also lists Office Agent Standard on every paid plan and Office Agent Pro as a $39-a-month add-on, an AI assistant for routine admin that ServiceM8 describes as chasing quotes and flagging overdue tasks, with approvals. The page does not say what Standard does, so ask what you get without Pro before paying for it.

Here is what Auto-Invoice might return for a boiler service, as an illustration of the kind of draft to check:

Annual boiler service and safety check. Removed casing, cleaned heat exchanger and burner, checked flue and pressure, replaced expansion vessel valve. Tested operation. Items: Service labour 1.5 h; Valve kit 1.

What you would fix: the draft did not mention the extra 20 minutes spent clearing a blocked condensate pipe, which the tracked time shows; it states a "safety check" that your own checklist may not cover; and it guessed the valve quantity. ServiceM8 says you review and produce the completed invoice, and cites a vendor figure of 30% of drafted invoices accepted for use, which is its claim, not a measurement. A fair test is to finish five old jobs with Auto-Invoice and count the lines you had to change.

Fergus: an assistant that works on your own job data

Fergus charges per user, month to month, with a free one-hour onboarding session and no set-up fee. Its two plans differ on more than price: its dollar-priced page puts checklists, tasks and purchase orders on Pro, and its trial covers Essentials, so ask what you can test of Pro. Certificates, text messages and card payments are priced as add-ons on that page.

The AI is the Fergus Assistant, built into Fergus on the web and the Fergus Go app, with what it can do varying a little between the two. Fergus's help says it is "included in your current monthly Fergus subscription at no extra cost for now", and that it will say clearly before any new pricing applies. It finds job and customer details, checks schedules, prepares quotes and invoices, drafts customer messages and builds reports, and it asks for confirmation before supported customer-facing actions. Fergus AI, a wider experience, is marked as coming soon and in beta through support.

Fergus also documents an MCP server that connects Claude or ChatGPT to your account. It can read and write jobs, quotes, customers, sites, contacts, calendar events, enquiries, notes, stock and users, and read invoices, time entries and price books. Setting it up needs a Full User with Master User permissions, because the server has the same data access as a Master Admin. That is a strong reason to start with read-only questions.

A prompt worth trying in the trial, with brackets for your own details:

Create a job for [customer name] at [address]: leaking tap in the kitchen. Add a first quote draft with two hours of labour and one standard mixer tap, and show me the margin. Do not send anything.

Check that it matched an existing customer instead of creating a duplicate, that the labour rate is yours and that the margin matches your own sum. Fergus's help describes this kind of request, and says AI does not replace your judgement.

Jobber: follow-ups and a receptionist, priced by plan

Jobber sells by plan and user tier (Plus charges $29 for each user beyond the tier), and its plan ladder carries the features. Core is a one-user plan with online booking and scheduling, quotes, invoices and online payments, and customers approve quotes and pay invoices or deposits in Jobber's client hub. Connect adds automated quote and invoice follow-ups, time tracking and QuickBooks Online sync, Grow adds optional line items for upsells and job costing, and Plus adds crew scheduling and custom reports. The receptionist is the headline AI product. Jobber's page says it handles calls and texts when you are unavailable, schedules jobs, creates requests and takes messages, works within limits you set, and sends real-time notifications. It costs $29 a month as an add-on and is included on Plus. A Jobber help article says the $29 covers 30 conversations, then $0.79 each; an older article gave a different allowance, so confirm the current one.

Jobber AI also lists a report builder, suggested automations that can send follow-ups and draft quotes, a one-click rewrite for messages, a chat assistant, and Voice for completing mobile tasks by speaking. Voice is where Jobber's own pages disagree: a help article labels it beta and says it is for admins, while other pages list it for field workers. Test it with a crew login before counting it.

For a one-van firm on Connect with one user at $99 a month on annual prepay, add the receptionist. If 45 conversations arrive in a month, that is $29 plus 15 extra at $0.79, which is $11.85, so $40.85 for the receptionist and about $140 for the month in total. If the firm misses calls while on roofs, the receptionist's price is set against the job a missed call costs. If it rarely misses calls, it is the wrong add-on and Connect alone is enough.

To put it through its paces, have a friend ring after hours with an urgent request and a vague one, and read the transcript. Then check whether a follow-up message to a silent quote reads like you wrote it. For the plan arithmetic in depth, a guide to Jobber plans for a small crew covers tiers and add-ons.

One three-person plumbing firm, priced on all four apps

Put one firm through all four price lists and the choice narrows quickly. Take an owner and two plumbers who open about 70 job cards a month (45 quotes and 25 call-outs), take a deposit on every bathroom refit, and miss a few calls a week while on jobs. Monthly list prices on monthly billing:

For this firm the deposit decides the shortlist before the AI does. ServiceM8 and Fergus are the two cheapest and the two highest scorers, so they get trialled first, each with a deposit invoice for a real bathroom quote on day one. If neither handles the deposit and the balance cleanly, Tradify Pro is the fallback at $60 a month more than Fergus Essentials. Jobber earns a place only if the missed calls are costing real work: at $228 a month it costs $135 more than Fergus, or $1,620 a year, so the test is whether the calls its receptionist catches would bring in more profit than that. A few calls a week also sit well inside the receptionist's 30 included conversations.

Run the same three jobs in every trial

Scores on paper settle nothing until your own jobs run through them. Take three real jobs you have already finished and run them through each trial in the same order:

1. Quote a job from a supplier PDF and two site photos. Start the clock when you open the app and stop when the quote is ready to send.
2. Invoice it with a deposit and a final payment. Note how many lines you edit.
3. Move two booked jobs after a sick day. See whether the app tells you what is affected before you change anything.

Log minutes taken and corrections made. A filled-in sheet shows the layout; the numbers are placeholders for your own, not measurements of any of these apps:

Choose on corrections as well as minutes. An AI that drafts fast and gets the quantity wrong costs you at the end of the month; one that takes two minutes longer and gets it right does not. If every app needs a similar number of fixes, pick on price and the parts of the job the AI does not touch.

Which app for which firm

• A solo operator who does about 30 jobs a month. ServiceM8's Free plan, then Starter at $29 when the 31st job card arrives. Keep a count of job cards, since quotes use them.
• A three-person electrical firm with long quotes and supplier price lists. Tradify Pro or Fergus Essentials to start; add Tradify Plus only if SmartRead and SmartWrite pass the trial. See a head-to-head of Tradify and Fergus for plumbers and electricians for the AI differences.
• A one-van firm that loses work to missed calls. Jobber Connect with the receptionist, tested against ServiceM8's phone options once their price is confirmed.
• A small builder paid in stages. Tradify Pro or Plus for progress invoicing, or Fergus for phases and progress claims; a Tradify set-up for builders covers the quote and stage-payment side in steps.
• A crew that quotes many jobs and wins few. Check ServiceM8's job-card count against Tradify's and Fergus's per-user pricing, because quote volume decides the cheapest app.
• A firm that wants to ask questions of its own data in plain English. Fergus Assistant or ServiceM8's report helper, after checking the answers against one report you trust.

Seven questions that close the gaps on the pages

The pages leave gaps a short email can close. Ask each vendor the same seven questions and keep the replies:

1. Which plan includes each AI feature, and what will it cost when any "for now" or promotional offer ends?
2. Is customer data from my account used to train AI models, and where is it processed?
3. Which AI actions send something to a customer without my confirmation?
4. Which user types can use the AI, and does it respect my permission settings?
5. Can I switch an AI feature off for one user?
6. Which accounting packages and editions does the sync cover on the plan I am choosing?
7. What can I export if I leave, and in what format?

The answers to the first and third questions will tell you most. For a closer look at one app's AI before you commit, a review of ServiceM8's AI helpers for a heating firm and a guide to what AI quoting tools cost plumbers show how to test the drafting features on real jobs.

Tradie app questions, answered

Which tradie app is cheapest for a one-person business?

ServiceM8's Free plan covers one user and 30 jobs a month at $0, with the AI writing helper capped at 10 uses a day. Paid plans there start at $29 for 50 jobs. Tradify starts at $47 a user, Fergus from $31 a user on its dollar-priced page, and Jobber's Core is $29 to $49 for one user. The cheapest depends on how many job cards you open.

Which tradie app has the best AI for quotes?

No vendor page proves a winner. ServiceM8 and Fergus describe quoting help that uses your job data, Tradify's SmartWrite writes descriptions from line items you enter and needs its $61 Plus plan, and Jobber's quote drafting is thinly documented. Test each on three past jobs and count the corrections before you decide.

Can I connect ChatGPT or Claude to my job app?

Fergus documents an MCP server that connects Claude or ChatGPT to your account and needs a Full User with Master User permissions, so it carries admin-level access. ServiceM8 lists a ChatGPT and Claude connector through MCP. Treat both as advanced features, start with read-only questions, and use the narrowest login that works.

Do tradie apps work with Xero and QuickBooks?

Tradify lists Xero and QuickBooks Online sync from its Lite plan, ServiceM8 lists QuickBooks Online and Xero on every plan, and Jobber lists QuickBooks Online sync from its Connect plan. Fergus lists Xero, QuickBooks and MYOB, but its help pages name specific regional QuickBooks editions, so confirm yours in writing before you pay.

Is a 14-day trial long enough to judge a tradie app?

Yes, if you run three real jobs end to end: a quote, an invoice with a deposit and a rescheduled day. ServiceM8's trial gives full access and Jobber's runs on its Grow plan, while Fergus's covers Essentials only, so ask for the Professional features separately; Tradify's includes all features, Plus's SmartTools among them. Keep a count of corrections to the AI's drafts as you go.

Further reads

• Best AI for Tradies: Seven Tools by Job, Price and Setup Effort — See seven AI tools ranked by the job they do
• AI Automation for Tradies: Quote Follow-Ups That Run Themselves — Automate the quote chase once the app is chosen
• Jobber, Housecall Pro, and ServiceTitan AI Features Compared — Compare three more field service platforms
• AI Receptionist for Trades: Built Into Your Job Software or Standalone? — Decide between built-in and standalone call cover
• Best AI Receipt Scanning App for UK Tradesmen: Xero, Tradify, Powered Now — Test receipt scanning before paying for it
• Property Maintenance Software: Jobber, ServiceM8 and Fergus Compared — Compare the same apps for maintenance work orders
• Fergus for Builders: Job Costing and Progress Claims, With Fergus AI — Set up Fergus for staged builds
• CCTV Installation Quote Template: A Worked AI-Drafted Walk-Round Quote — One six-camera site, from messy walk-round notes to a checked quote: the prompt, the faults in a first draft, storage maths, exclusions and follow-up.
• AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.

Sources: Tradify, ServiceM8, Fergus and Jobber pricing, feature and help pages, read in October 2026; vendor claims are labelled as claims.