Housecall Pro and Jobber are the two names most small service businesses shortlist, and they're closer than their marketing suggests. Both publish prices, offer a 14-day trial with no card, run on iPhone and Android, sync with QuickBooks Online and now sell AI phone answering and a sales pipeline. The differences are in packaging, trade focus and the customer experience.
Every price and feature here comes from each vendor's own website, checked October 15, 2026.
Pricing side by side
Housecall Pro has three plans, each with a user cap (pricing):
- Basic: $59 a month annual, $79 monthly, 1 user.
- Essentials: $149 annual, $189 monthly, 5 users.
- Max: $299 annual, $329 monthly, 8 users, then $35 per extra user.
Jobber has four plans, each priced by user band, and three ways to pay: no commitment, a 1-year commitment billed monthly, or annual prepaid (pricing). On annual prepaid:
- Core: $29, 1 user.
- Connect: $99 (1 user), $149 (5), $229 (10), $299 (15).
- Grow: $149 (1), $229 (5), $299 (10), $399 (15).
- Plus: $399 (5), $449 (10), $529 (15).
No-commitment monthly prices run $20 to $170 higher depending on plan and band. Extra users are $29 a month; 16+ users means contacting sales.
A 5-user example
Here's an example, not a quote. A crew with 4 techs and an office manager wants QuickBooks Online sync and either flat-rate pricing (Housecall Pro) or job costing and two-way texting (Jobber):
- Housecall Pro Essentials: $149 a month annual.
- Jobber Connect gets you QuickBooks sync for $149; Grow, with job costing and two-way texting, is $229.
Now add AI phone answering and a sales pipeline. On Jobber that's $29 plus $49, both published, taking Grow to $307. On Housecall Pro, CSR AI and Pipeline are add-ons with no listed price, so you'll need a quote.
Features that actually differ
Customer experience
Jobber's Client Hub is the stronger portal. Customers request work, approve quotes or ask for changes, see upcoming visits with photos of the team assigned, pay invoices or deposits, tip and refer friends (Client Hub). Grow adds quotes with photos, reviews and optional line items the customer chooses.
Housecall Pro's customer-facing strengths are elsewhere: online booking, review management, and since May 2026 a structured photo report sent after each job, plus Klarna deposits on estimates and Wisetack financing (May 2026 updates).
Selling and pricing work
Housecall Pro adds flat-rate pricing and commissions on Essentials, and its Sales Proposal Tool and recurring service plans on Max. For a mechanical shop that sells from a price book and pays techs on what they sell, that's a closer fit.
Jobber's selling tools are lighter but effective for general services: optional line items, photos and reviews in quotes, quote follow-ups and deposits.
AI
Housecall Pro includes Analyst AI (reports from a question), Marketing AI ("write it for me" and review replies), Coach AI and Help AI on every plan for free. Only CSR AI, the phone agent, costs extra (AI Team).
Jobber's AI builds custom reports when you ask, suggests automations, rewrites client messages and lets techs run more than 100 tasks by voice. Its AI Receptionist answers calls and texts and books jobs for $29 a month below Plus (Jobber AI).
Roughly: Housecall Pro gives more away; Jobber prices its phone agent openly.
Recurring and route work
Jobber has long been popular with lawn and cleaning businesses, with recurring jobs that repeat visits and invoice per visit or at a fixed price on a schedule (Jobber help), plus route optimization (routing). Housecall Pro added route-based scheduling with recurring routes in May 2026, available from Essentials, and route optimization on Max.
Growing past the plans
Housecall Pro's Max covers 8 users and then charges $35 each. Jobber's bands go to 15 users with $29 extra users and then a sales call. Both count office staff. A shop expecting to pass 15 people should ask both for a written quote at that size.
What they have in common
Before the differences, it helps to know how much is the same. Both offer online booking, scheduling and dispatch, quotes or estimates, invoicing with online payments, QuickBooks Online sync from their second plan up, a mobile app for techs, an AI phone agent and a sales pipeline. Both have a 14-day trial with no card and keep improving every few months.
That means the decision rarely comes down to whether a feature exists. It comes down to which plan includes it, what it costs once you add the extras, and whether the product feels built for your trade.
Where both fall short
Being neutral means saying where both are thin, too.
Office users cost money. Both count every login. A shop with a big office pays for it on either platform.
Some prices need a sales call. Housecall Pro's add-ons aren't priced on its site. Jobber publishes add-ons but sends 16+ user teams to sales.
Mechanical-trade depth. Neither is built first for maintenance memberships with visit entitlements, equipment records at every address, or refrigerant logs. Housecall Pro is closer, with service plans on Max. Shops whose revenue depends on memberships and replacement sales should test this hard.
Offline. Housecall Pro lists "offline viewing." Jobber's pricing page doesn't make an offline claim. If techs work without signal, test both in a basement.
Switching between them
If you're on one and considering the other, the move is usually straightforward because the products are similar in shape. Export customers and your services or price book, import them during the other's trial, and run a week of real jobs. Keep the old export for history, since past jobs and invoices rarely import cleanly. Saved cards on file are the hardest part; plan a card-update text to recurring customers.
Mind the timing on the Jobber side. If you're on Jobber's 1-year commitment or annual prepaid, leaving early doesn't stop the charge, so switch near the renewal date.
A quick way to decide
Write down three things before you start either trial: your trade, the number of people who'll log in a year from now, and the add-ons you know you'll want. If your trade is mechanical and you want flat-rate pricing and commissions, start with Housecall Pro. If your customers book and pay online and your work repeats, start with Jobber. If you'll pass 8 users soon, price Jobber's bands and Housecall Pro's extra-user fee side by side. Then trial the other one anyway for a few days, because the one that feels easier to your office manager usually wins.
Which should you pick?
Housecall Pro if you're an HVAC, plumbing or electrical crew, you want flat-rate pricing and commissions without paying for the top plan, and free AI for reports and marketing matters to you.
Jobber if you're in lawn, landscaping, cleaning or general home services, your customers love booking and paying online, and you want every add-on price published.
Either way, run the trial with your real price list and a week of real jobs, and get the full monthly total, with add-ons, in writing.
A third option for mechanical shops
If you're an HVAC, plumbing or electrical shop of roughly 3 to 50 techs and both feel a little general, TradesWork is built for that work. It's $79 to $139 per tech a month on annual billing, with office staff free, and includes memberships, good/better/best estimates and a tech app that works with no signal. It's new, doesn't have route-day scheduling for lawn or pest, and costs more than either of these for a one- or two-person crew. See our pricing.
For a structured way to score them, use the field service software scorecard.
