Buyer’s guide · prices checked 28 July 2026

Best job management software for UK tradespeople

Every roundup of trade software seems to be written by someone selling one of the tools, and this one is no different: we make Traddie, and we say so lower down. What we can do is compare honestly. Every price here is read off the vendor’s own pricing page, the trade-offs are listed for all of them including ours, and nothing is ranked number one, because the right tool for a sole trader is the wrong one for a firm with four vans.

UK job management software compared on price

Entry price is what one person pays to start. Tools marked per user charge that figure again for every extra seat, which is what makes them expensive for small outfits.

SoftwareFromFree trialUK-builtSuits
Tradify£34 / user / month14 daysNoEstablished firms with staff to dispatch and a budget per head
Traddie£9.99 / month14 daysYesSole traders and small teams who want one flat, low monthly price
Powered Now£28 / user / month14 daysYesVAT-registered firms that want tax and job admin under one roof
YourTradebase£29 / month30 days, no card requiredYesTrades winning work on the strength of a well presented quote
ToolTime£59 / month7 daysYesFirms that live on detailed site documentation and time tracking
XeroSee xero.com30 daysNoBookkeeping and tax, alongside a separate workflow tool

Prices read from each vendor’s own pricing page on 28 July 2026 and quoted as they state them. Vendors change pricing without notice, so check before you buy.

How to choose job management software

The pricing model decides more than the feature list

Most job management tools charge per user from the first seat, and that is the number to check before any feature comparison. On this page the entry prices run from £9.99 a month to £59, and the gap widens fast when you add people. A three person firm on a £34 per user tool pays over £100 a month; the same firm on a flat rate tool pays a fraction of that. Neither model is wrong, but the right one depends on how many people will actually log in, so count seats before you compare screenshots.

UK tax is where the imported tools fall short

A lot of the big names in this market were built for Australia, New Zealand or North America, and it shows in the tax handling. VAT tends to be supported, but the Construction Industry Scheme usually is not, which means deductions live in a spreadsheet or in your accounting software instead of on the invoice where they belong. If you subcontract, or you use subcontractors, put CIS at the top of your checklist. If you are close to the VAT registration threshold, a tool that tracks your rolling turnover against it earns its keep too.

It has to work in a van, not just in an office

The quote that wins the job is usually the one that arrives first, and that means quoting from the driveway rather than at the kitchen table three days later. Test the mobile app properly during a trial: build a real quote on your phone, convert it to a job, and raise the invoice from site. Signal is part of this. Plenty of jobs happen in basements, new builds and rural spots where there is none, so check whether the app keeps working offline and syncs when you are back in coverage.

Your accountant gets a vote

Whatever you pick will sit alongside accounting software at year end, so check the sync before you commit. Xero and QuickBooks are covered by most of the tools here; FreeAgent and Sage are rarer, so if your accountant runs one of those, your shortlist just got shorter. A two way sync that carries invoices and payments across without re-keying is the difference between books that reconcile themselves and a weekend of copy and paste every quarter.

The options, by who they suit

Grouped by the kind of business they fit rather than ranked one to six. The right pick for a sole trader is rarely the right pick for a firm with staff to dispatch.

If you are scheduling a team across several sites

Tradify

From £34 / user / month14 days free trial

The most widely used trade job-management tool in the UK, and the strongest here on scheduling and dispatch. Pro adds job templates, timesheets, subcontractor scheduling and compliance certificates.

Plans: Lite £34 · Pro £37 · Plus £44, all per user

Strengths

  • Deepest scheduling and dispatch of any tool on this page
  • Large UK user base, so plenty of independent reviews and help material
  • Syncs with Xero, Sage and QuickBooks Online
  • Compliance certificates included from the Pro tier

Trade-offs

  • Priced per user from the first seat, so a three hander on Pro is £111 a month
  • Text messages are charged per message and the website builder is a paid add-on
  • More tool than a one van business usually needs
Visit Tradify

If you are a sole trader watching costs

Traddie

From £9.99 / month14 days free trial

UK-built job software that runs quote, job and invoice in one flow, with CIS deductions and VAT threshold tracking handled rather than bolted on. The cheapest option on this page by a wide margin, and the only one that does not charge per user from the first seat.

Plans: Solo £9.99 · Pro £19.99 · Team £49.99 for 3 users, extra seats £7

Strengths

  • Lowest entry price here. A sole trader pays £9.99 where most rivals start at £28 to £34 per user
  • CIS deductions and VAT threshold tracking built in, not an add-on
  • Card, GoCardless and bank payments on every plan
  • Syncs two ways with Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent and Sage

Trade-offs

  • Newer than the established names, so there are far fewer third-party reviews to read
  • No workshop stock or materials-inventory module
  • Made by us, so weigh this entry accordingly and use the free trial rather than our word
See Traddie pricing

If you want VAT returns filed from the same app

Powered Now

From £28 / user / month14 days free trial

UK-built and Making Tax Digital compliant, with VAT return submission on the Professional tier alongside forms, certificates and team management.

Plans: Business £28 · Professional £32 · Premium £40, per user, excluding VAT

Strengths

  • Submits VAT returns directly, which few job management tools do
  • Forms and certificates included from the Professional tier
  • Annual billing works out at two months free

Trade-offs

  • Priced per user, and quoted excluding VAT so the real figure is higher than it first reads
  • Customer portal and automatic quote chasing are held back for the £40 Premium tier
Visit Powered Now

If your quotes need to look the part

YourTradebase

From £29 / month30 days, no card required free trial

A UK small-business favourite with the tidiest customer-facing quote documents here, one flat base price rather than per-user from the off, and the longest trial on this page.

Plans: Flat £29 base, additional users £15 each

Strengths

  • Longest trial here at 30 days with no card up front
  • Flat base price instead of per-user from the first seat
  • Well-presented quote and job documents for the customer

Trade-offs

  • Extra users are £15 a month each, so a team catches up with per-user rivals
  • Lighter on heavy field-service features than Tradify
Visit YourTradebase

If your job sheets matter more than your scheduling

ToolTime

From £59 / month7 days free trial

UK-focused job management with strong mobile job sheets, time tracking and quoting, split into an office licence plus cheaper field licences.

Plans: Office user £59, additional field users £29 each, on a 12-month term

Strengths

  • Strong mobile job sheets and on-site time tracking
  • Field-user licences are cheaper than office ones, so crews cost less to add

Trade-offs

  • Highest entry price on this page at £59 a month for the first user
  • Billed on a 12-month term rather than rolling monthly
  • Shortest trial here at 7 days
Visit ToolTime

If your accountant already runs your books

Xero

From See xero.com30 days free trial

The accounting platform most UK accountants already work in. It is not job management software and does not pretend to be. It belongs on this page because most trades end up running one of the tools above and syncing it to Xero.

Plans: Plans change often; check current UK pricing directly

Strengths

  • The default at most UK accountancy practices, so handover is painless
  • Making Tax Digital ready

Trade-offs

  • No quoting workflow, scheduling or job costing. This is books, not jobs
  • You will still be paying for a workflow tool alongside it
Visit Xero

If you have outgrown the tools above

Firms with engineers to dispatch, maintenance contracts to honour or fleets to track shop in a different aisle. These platforms are compared properly on their own pages.

ServiceM8

Australian field service app priced by job volume rather than per user. Historically Apple first, and CIS deductions are not automatic.

Read the ServiceM8 comparison

Commusoft

London-built platform for firms of roughly 5 to 100 engineers running planned maintenance and service contracts. Powerful, and more than a small team needs.

Read the Commusoft comparison

Joblogic

Birmingham-built, with deep gas and F-Gas certificate workflows for compliance-heavy HVAC and refrigeration contractors.

Read the Joblogic comparison

simPRO

Enterprise field service for larger contractors juggling inventory, project job costing and big dispatch teams. Expect an implementation process.

Read the simPRO comparison

BigChange

Built for fleets, with bulk scheduling, route optimisation and live vehicle tracking. A lot of platform if you run one or two vans.

Read the BigChange comparison

How we put this together

Every price on this page was read off the vendor’s own pricing page on 28 July 2026 and is quoted the way they state it, including whether it is per user and whether VAT is excluded. We judged the tools against the things that decide the job for UK trades:

  • Quote to job to invoice workflow quality
  • Real cost for the way your business is actually staffed
  • Mobile usability for quoting and updating jobs on site
  • VAT threshold tracking and CIS deduction handling
  • Integration with Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent and Sage
  • Length of the free trial, and whether it needs a card

Disclosure: we make Traddie, one of the tools listed here. We have tried to describe it as plainly as the others, trade-offs included, and we have not put it top of the page. Every tool here has a free trial, so use them rather than taking anyone’s word, ours included.

Job management software: common questions

What is the best job management software for a sole trader in the UK?

For most sole traders the deciding factor is cost, because per user pricing punishes a business of one. Of the tools compared here, Traddie is cheapest at £9.99 a month, followed by Powered Now at £28 per user and YourTradebase at £29 flat. Tradify starts at £34 per user and ToolTime at £59. Prices checked 28 July 2026. If you schedule staff across several sites, the per user tools start to earn their price.

How much does job management software cost in the UK?

Entry prices on this page run from £9.99 to £59 a month, checked against each vendor's own pricing page on 28 July 2026. The headline figure is only half the story: most tools charge it again for every user, some quote prices excluding VAT, and extras like text messages or website builders can be paid add-ons. Work out the real monthly cost for your actual headcount before comparing anything else.

Which job management tools handle CIS?

Fewer than you would hope. CIS is a UK-only scheme, so tools built abroad generally leave it to your accounting software. Of the tools compared here, Traddie applies CIS deductions automatically on subcontractor labour and Powered Now is UK CIS aware. If you work under CIS in either direction, test this during the trial with a real invoice rather than taking the feature list at its word.

What about ServiceM8, Commusoft or Joblogic?

They are real options for the right size of business. ServiceM8 prices by job volume and suits field service teams; Commusoft and Joblogic are mid-market platforms for firms running engineers, maintenance contracts and heavy compliance. For a sole trader or a small crew they tend to be more platform and more money than the job needs, which is why this page focuses on the lighter tools. The comparison pages linked above set out the differences properly.

Is there a free option worth using?

Spreadsheets and free tiers work while you are quoting one job a week, and stop working when you are chasing four invoices and cannot find what you quoted for a similar job last spring. None of the tools here has a permanent free plan, but every one offers a free trial, from 7 days at ToolTime to 30 at YourTradebase. Checked 28 July 2026. Quote two or three real jobs during the trial rather than clicking around demo data.

Related

Trade-specific software guidesTradify alternativesTraddie pricingAll trades