Buyer’s guide · prices checked 28 July 2026

Best Plasterer Software UK — Prices Compared

Plastering is mostly sole traders and small gangs, a lot of it subcontract, so the software question is really two questions: does it price skim, dot-and-dab and render by the square metre without a fight, and does it get CIS right? This guide compares five options UK plasterers actually shortlist, with prices taken from each vendor’s own page.

Plasterers 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
Traddie£9.99 / month14 daysYesSole trader plasterers and two-hand gangs
Powered Now£28 / user / month14 daysYesVAT-registered plastering firms filing their own returns
YourTradebase£29 / month30 days, no card requiredYesPlasterers quoting domestic customers who compare on presentation
Tradify£34 / user / month14 daysNoPlastering firms running two or more gangs
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 — check before you buy.

How to choose software for plasterers

Price matters more in plastering than in most trades

Most job-management tools charge per user from the first seat, which is fine for a firm with a fleet and painful for one plasterer and a labourer. The gap here is wide: entry prices on this page run from £9.99 a month to £59. If you are working alone, the per-user tools are quietly the most expensive thing on your shortlist, and the flat-rate ones are worth a look before you commit.

CIS is the feature that actually saves you money

If you subcontract to builders, the contractor deducts 20% (or 30% unverified) before you see the money, and you need that recorded against the right invoices to reclaim it. Software that applies CIS correctly and produces the figures at year end saves real hours and real cash. Software that does not means a spreadsheet, and spreadsheets are where deductions go missing.

Quote by area, and price the access separately

Skim, dot-and-dab, float-and-set and render all price differently per square metre, and external render carries scaffolding and access on top. The tool you want lets you keep those as separate, reusable lines so you are not rebuilding a quote from scratch each time, and so the customer can see what the scaffold is actually costing them.

Schedule around drying, not around optimism

Multi-coat work has curing time baked in, and a scheduler that lets you block that out rather than stacking jobs back-to-back is the difference between a realistic week and a week of apologetic phone calls. This is where the heavier tools earn their money if you are running more than one gang.

The options, by who they suit

These are grouped by the kind of business they fit rather than ranked one to five — the right pick for a sole trader is rarely the right pick for a firm with four vans.

If you are a sole trader watching costs

Traddie

From £9.99 / month14 days free trial

UK-built job software running quote → job → invoice in one flow, with CIS deductions and VAT threshold tracking handled directly. At £9.99 for a single user it is the cheapest way to get CIS handled properly on this page.

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 £28–34 per user
  • CIS deductions and VAT threshold tracking built in, not an add-on
  • Card, GoCardless and bank payments on every plan
  • Syncs to Xero and QuickBooks on Pro and above

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 — 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 — 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 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 — 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 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

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 plasterers:

  • 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
  • Pricing by square metre for skim, dot-and-dab and render
  • Scheduling that allows for drying and curing time

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 — use them rather than taking anyone’s word, ours included.

Plasterers software: common questions

What is the cheapest software for a self-employed plasterer?

Of the tools compared here, Traddie is cheapest at £9.99 a month for a single user, 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. The gap is largest for sole traders, because the per-user tools charge full price for one seat.

Does plastering software handle CIS deductions?

Some do and some do not, and it is worth checking before you buy rather than after. If you subcontract to builders, your contractor deducts 20% at source (30% if you are not verified), and you need those deductions recorded against the right invoices to reclaim them. Traddie and Powered Now both handle UK CIS directly. Accounting platforms like Xero will record it but will not run your quoting or scheduling.

Can I quote plastering by the square metre?

Yes, in any of the workflow tools here — the practical difference is whether you can save reusable line items for skim, dot-and-dab, float-and-set and render at your own rates, and price scaffolding or access separately on external work. Reusable templates are what turn a twenty-minute quote into a two-minute one.

Do I need job software if I already use an accountant?

They solve different problems. Your accountant, and Xero or QuickBooks behind them, handles the books and the tax return. None of that quotes a rendering job on a Tuesday afternoon or chases an invoice that went quiet three weeks ago. Most plasterers run a workflow tool for the day-to-day and sync it to whatever their accountant uses, so figures are only entered once.

How long are the free trials?

They vary more than you would expect: YourTradebase gives 30 days with no card required, Traddie, Tradify and Powered Now give 14 days, and ToolTime gives 7. Checked 28 July 2026. Quote two or three real jobs during a trial rather than clicking around the demo data — that is the only way to tell whether the quoting flow suits how you actually price.

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