ServiceM8 vs Tradify for Electricians: Tested on Real Jobs
Two job management apps built for the trades, tested on the same five tasks. One wins on quoting, the other wins on price. Here's the split.
Both of these apps were built for tradespeople rather than for offices, and both will get a two-person electrical crew from a phone call to a paid invoice without touching a desktop. The differences only show up when you run them through the same five tasks: quote a job, schedule it, log materials, invoice it, chase payment.
We ran both for eleven weeks on residential service work — panel changes, EV charger installs, and a lot of "the bathroom light stopped working" calls. Here is where each one actually breaks.
Quick verdict
| ServiceM8 | Tradify | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Scales with monthly job volume | Scales with number of users |
| Free tier | Yes — 30 jobs/month, resets monthly | Free trial only |
| Client SMS / email | 10¢ per text on Free; included from $29/mo up | Included |
| Offline reliability | Strong; queues and syncs cleanly | Good, occasional delay on large photo sets |
| Android parity | Weaker custom-form builder | Near-identical to iOS |
| Supplier price lists | Not supported natively | Not supported natively |
| Best for | 1–3 person crews doing high call volume | Any crew that wants predictable per-seat cost |
Task 1: quoting on site
ServiceM8 wins this one, and it isn't close. The job card model means you open a job, add line items from a catalogue you build once, and the quote is already attached to the customer record. If you quote the same panel change weekly, you'll be through it in under a minute.
Tradify's quoting is cleaner to read and easier to send as a branded PDF, but it takes more taps to get there. On a quote-heavy day — say you're pricing four jobs back to back — the difference is real.
Task 2: scheduling
Tradify's calendar is the better calendar. Drag-and-drop is responsive, and colour-coding by job type is genuinely useful when you're splitting service calls from installs.
ServiceM8's scheduling works but feels like it was designed as a list that happens to have dates attached. For a solo operator with three jobs a day it's fine. For a crew of five with overlapping windows, you'll feel it.
Task 3: the parts nobody puts in the demo
Here's the thing that decides this for most electricians, and it isn't in either vendor's comparison page.
ServiceM8 charges client SMS at 10¢ per message on the free tier. From Starter ($29/mo) upward texts are included, so the per-message line item disappears as soon as you pay for a plan. On the free tier the arithmetic is real: a crew running 30 jobs a month with two reminders per job is still only six dollars, but it is a line item that never appears on the pricing page.
Tradify includes client notifications in the subscription. If you rely on reminder texts to cut no-shows — and you should — that difference compounds.
Task 4: invoicing and getting paid
Both do quote-to-invoice conversion. ServiceM8 converts a completed job into an invoice with the materials already attached, which is the correct behaviour. Tradify does the same but requires you to confirm line items, which is slower but catches mistakes.
Neither includes card processing in the base price. Budget for a payment processor and check whether the rate is card-only or supports bank transfer — on a $1,200 service call the difference between 2.9% + 30¢ and a bank debit rate is about $32 per job.
Who should not buy ServiceM8
- You're on Android and you build your own site-survey forms. The form builder is materially weaker there.
- You run high call volume with heavy client messaging. Per-message billing will surprise you.
- You need supplier price list integration. Neither app has it, but ServiceM8's workaround is clunkier.
Who should not buy Tradify
- You quote from a catalogue dozens of times a day. The extra taps add up.
- You need deep purchase-order and supplier management. That module is thin.
- You're solo and price-sensitive — the free-tier arithmetic on ServiceM8 may beat a paid seat.
The honest recommendation
If you're one or two people doing mostly service calls and you want the fastest path from phone call to invoice, start with ServiceM8 and watch your monthly job count — the moment you cross the tier boundary, re-run the numbers.
If you're three or more, or you're on Android, or you send a lot of client reminders, go with Tradify. Predictable per-seat pricing is worth more than a faster quote screen once you have payroll to think about.
Either way, do the five-task test yourself before you commit a year. Both vendors will give you enough runway to find out whether the app survives your Tuesday.
FAQ
Is ServiceM8 free for one person?
There's a free tier, but it caps you at 30 jobs per month and the counter resets monthly. Treat it as an extended trial. Client SMS is 10¢ a message on that tier and included once you pay for a plan.
Does Tradify work on Android?
Yes, and the builds are functionally equivalent. ServiceM8's Android app has historically lagged on custom form building.
Which is cheaper for a two-person crew?
Tradify, in almost every configuration, unless your monthly job count is low enough to sit inside ServiceM8's cheapest tier.
Can either import supplier price lists?
Not natively. If supplier pricing drives your quotes, plan for manual updates or a separate estimating tool.
Pricing and plan details change. Figures in this article were checked in November 2026 against each vendor's public pricing page; verify current plans before you buy.