Jobber vs Housecall Pro: how they compare for home service businesses

How to choose between Jobber and Housecall Pro

Picture two owners in the same town. They are an example, not clients of ours. One runs three lawn crews and visits the same yards every week from April to October. The other runs two HVAC trucks, answers calls about broken systems and sends a few replacement quotes a week, each worth thousands of dollars.

Either owner could run the company on either program, but they are shopping for different things. The lawn owner's week depends on the route, the repeat visit and a monthly bill that charges itself. The HVAC owner's week depends on the price book, an estimate with three options and the maintenance agreement that brings the customer back each spring.

Gary Keller asks a question in The ONE Thing that suits a software choice: what is the one thing that, done well, makes everything else easier? Name the job your office repeats most often. Pick the program that handles that job best on a plan you can afford, and let the rest of the feature list break a tie.

Questions owners ask when choosing

Which is cheaper, Jobber or Housecall Pro?

It depends on how many people need a login. For one person working alone, Jobber starts lower. Once the team grows, the comparison changes, because Jobber's price rises with team size while Housecall Pro's Essentials and Max plans include five and eight users.^[1][6][12]

See Jobber's current prices · See Housecall Pro's current prices

No prices are printed on this page; both companies change them often.

For a five-person team that wants QuickBooks sync, which starts on Jobber Connect and Housecall Pro Essentials, look up Jobber Connect for five users on Jobber's pricing page and set it beside Housecall Pro Essentials, which includes five users. The two plans do not include the same features, so read both lists before you treat the cheaper one as the answer. Card processing fees, add-ons and printed postcards come on top of either bill. Ask each company for the full monthly total for your team size, in writing.

Is Jobber or Housecall Pro better for HVAC?

An HVAC company usually sells repair calls at a set price, replacement systems with options and maintenance agreements that bring the customer back. Housecall Pro has a feature for each. A flat-rate price book and consumer financing come on every plan, and recurring service plans and a sales proposal tool come with Max. Jobber lists HVAC among its trades and offers quotes with optional add-ons and financing options, with job costing on Grow.

In each trial, build one replacement estimate with three options and one maintenance visit that repeats in six months. Choose the program that handles both without a workaround.^{[1][2][5][6][7]}

Is Jobber or Housecall Pro better for plumbing?

Plumbing days fill with same-day calls. The office has to send the right plumber to the right house quickly, and the price has to be settled before the plumber leaves. Both programs schedule and dispatch with GPS tracking. Housecall Pro's price book is built for flat-rate pricing. Load twenty of your most common jobs and their prices into each trial, then have a plumber build a quote on a phone in a customer's kitchen. If you price by the hour, expect less difference between the two.^[2][7]

Is Jobber or Housecall Pro better for lawn care?

Lawn care runs on repeat visits along a route, billed by the visit, the month or the season. Jobber lists lawn care, landscaping, irrigation and snow removal among its trades. It offers route optimization on its plans above Core, and automatic recurring billing. Housecall Pro lists landscaping, schedules recurring jobs and puts route optimization on Max. With several crews on the road, compare what route optimization costs you on each: a Jobber plan above Core against Housecall Pro's Max.^{[1][2][5][6][7]}

Is Jobber or Housecall Pro better for a cleaning business?

Cleaning companies often send several cleaners out each day, and every cleaner who needs the app counts as a user. Jobber lists residential, commercial and janitorial cleaning and window cleaning. Housecall Pro lists home cleaning, carpet cleaning and window cleaning. Both handle recurring visits. Count the people who need a login before you compare prices, because Jobber's price rises with each user you add, while Housecall Pro includes five users on Essentials and eight on Max.^[1][5][6][7]

Switching from Jobber to Housecall Pro, or from Housecall Pro to Jobber

Whichever way you move, the worry is the same: years of customers, past jobs and notes sitting in the old program. A move goes best when you export what the old program allows, clear out duplicate customers before the import, test the new account with real jobs and choose the go-live date yourself. Keep the old account open for reference until nobody needs to look anything up there.

Housecall Pro imports customers and jobs from a spreadsheet file, and its Max plan adds help from its own import team. Our page on switching to Housecall Pro covers that move in detail. Moving to Jobber? Our Jobber setup and support page covers how we plan it.^[11]