TL;DR
"Contractor software" is six different purchases, and the first page of Google mixes them with HR tools for managing freelancers. The six, with the pick and the live price for each: a field service hub for anyone dispatching trucks (Jobber from $29 a month, Housecall Pro from $59, ServiceM8 from $29 with unlimited users); construction project management for anyone running multi-week jobs (Contractor Foreman from $49 to $332 a month on annual billing, Knowify $99 or $329, Buildertrend and Procore by quote); estimating and takeoff (Joist from $8.34 a month, Buildxact $199, STACK $249 a seat); photo documentation (CompanyCam $63 to $199 plus $29 a seat); time tracking (ClockShark $42 plus $9.50 a user, on a three-year term); and accounting (QuickBooks Online $38 to $340 list). Buy the hub first, make the rest feed it, and skip anything that will not put a seat price in writing. Every figure read from the vendor's live pricing page on October 7, 2026, with the deep-dive on each tool linked below.
Disclosure: Skill Mammoth builds websites and runs local SEO and ads for the trades. We are a Jobber partner (readers get 20 percent off through our link and we earn a commission); we have no arrangement with any other vendor named here, and we set up and integrate these tools for clients weekly, which is where the opinions come from. This page is the map. Each tool has its own pricing breakdown on this site, linked in its row, and those are where the plan-by-plan detail lives.
The six categories, and which one you are actually shopping for
| Category | Who needs it | The pick | Live price (annual billing) | Also consider |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Field service hub (CRM, scheduling, dispatch, quotes, invoices) | Anyone sending trucks to service calls: HVAC, plumbing, electrical, cleaning, lawn, pest | Jobber | $29 Core, $99 Connect, $149 Grow; Plus from $399 for five users | Housecall Pro $59 to $299; ServiceM8 $0 to $349 with unlimited users; Service Fusion $208 to $533 with unlimited users |
| Construction project management (schedules, change orders, selections, job costing) | Remodelers, builders, roofers and GCs running jobs measured in weeks | Contractor Foreman | $49 (1 user) to $332 (unlimited) a month; $139 to $399 monthly | Knowify $99 plus $29 a user; JobTread $199 plus $20 a user; Buildertrend and Procore by quote |
| Estimating and takeoff | Everyone, but three different products wear the name | Joist for walkthrough quotes; Buildxact for drawings | Joist $8.34 to $58.33; Buildxact $199 unlimited users | Clear Estimates $79; STACK $249 a seat; Roofr $0 to $349 for roofers |
| Photo documentation | Any crew that has argued with a homeowner about what was there before | CompanyCam | $63 Core, $119 Crew, $199 Scale, plus $29 a seat | Your field service hub's photo feature, until it fails you |
| Time tracking and scheduling | Hourly crews, prevailing-wage work, anyone paying from paper timesheets | ClockShark | $42 base plus $9.50 a user (Standard), $63 plus $11.50 (Pro); three-year term | Jobber or Contractor Foreman time cards, included in the plan |
| Accounting | Everyone, because the accountant already lives there | QuickBooks Online | $38 Simple Start, $85 Essentials, $140 Plus, $340 Advanced (list; 50 percent off three months) | Nothing else that your CPA will accept without a conversation |
| Verdict | A one-truck shop needs the hub and QuickBooks: about $70 a month. A five-person service company needs the hub, CompanyCam and QuickBooks: about $400. A remodeler needs project management instead of the field service hub, plus estimating and QuickBooks: $250 to $450. Nobody needs all six on day one. | |||
1. The hub: field service software for anyone dispatching trucks
If your work is service calls, installs and recurring visits, this is the first purchase and everything else feeds it. Jobber on annual billing is $29 a month on Core (scheduling, quotes, invoices, client hub), $99 on Connect (online booking, automated reminders, review requests, QuickBooks sync) and $149 on Grow (two-way texting, job costing, custom automations), with team bundles from $199 and extra users at $29. Housecall Pro is $59, $149 and $299 on annual billing with one, five and eight users, and a better consumer-facing booking flow. ServiceM8 charges by job count instead of users, from free (30 jobs a month) to $349 (1,500-plus), which inverts the math for a big crew. Service Fusion charges the company a flat $208 to $533 with unlimited users.
The full ranking is in best field service software, the plan detail in Jobber pricing and Housecall Pro pricing, and if you have outgrown Jobber the replacements by reason are in Jobber alternatives. The thing a field service hub will not do is manage a 14-week remodel with selections and draw schedules, which is the next category.
2. Construction project management for jobs measured in weeks
Contractor Foreman is the published-price option in a category that mostly refuses to publish. Annual plans are $49 a month for one user, $105 for three, $166 for eight, $221 for fifteen and $332 for unlimited, with monthly billing at $139 to $399 (no monthly Basic), unlimited projects on every tier, a 30-day trial and a 100-day money-back guarantee; Pro and Unlimited include free setup. Knowify is $99 a month for one user on Core and $329 for ten on Advanced, each plus $29 an extra user, with AIA-style billing built in. JobTread is $199 plus $20 a user. Buildertrend no longer publishes prices (the circulating figures run $339 to $1,099 and disagree with each other), and Procore prices by annual construction volume with unlimited users and no public number; both are covered in Buildertrend pricing. For roofers specifically, JobNimbus publishes the plan shapes and none of the prices, which JobNimbus pricing works through.
Pick this category instead of the field service hub when the job has a schedule of values, change orders and selections. Pick the hub when the job is a visit. Companies that do both (a plumber who also does bathroom remodels) usually run Jobber for the service side and let the remodel side live in estimating software until it is a third of revenue.
Not sure which category you are?
Half the contractors who ask us about Buildertrend needed Jobber, and a quarter of the ones asking about Jobber needed Contractor Foreman. Fifteen minutes with your job list settles it.
3. Estimating: three products wearing one name
If you price from a walkthrough and a phone call, Joist does the whole job at $8.34 a month (Basics, five documents a month), $14.17 (Pro, unlimited) or $26.67 (Elite, with change orders and reports) on annual billing, with a new Run tier at $58.33 that adds scheduling, and a $49 AI receptionist add-on. Clear Estimates at $79 adds a cost database. If you price from drawings, takeoff is the expensive part: Buildxact is $199 a month with unlimited users, STACK is $249 a seat. If estimating is one tab of a job-costing problem, it is already inside Contractor Foreman, Knowify and JobTread. The decision tree is in best estimating software for contractors, and roofers have their own shelf (Roofr from free to $349, AccuLynx by quote) in roofing estimating software.
4. Photos: CompanyCam, the closest thing to mandatory
CompanyCam is $63 a month for one user on Core, $119 for three on Crew and $199 for three on Scale, all annual, with every extra seat at $29 and monthly billing 20 percent higher. At three users Core costs $121 and Crew $119, so Crew is the rational plan for anyone past a solo operator. Review requests, Google Business Profile sync and the $79 Marketing Suite are add-ons below Scale. It earns the money the first time a homeowner says the scratch was not there before; the detail is in CompanyCam pricing.
5. Time tracking: ClockShark, with one catch
ClockShark is $42 a month plus $9.50 a user on Standard (GPS, scheduling, job and task tracking) and $63 plus $11.50 on Pro (PTO, multi-office, advanced job costing, mileage), billed only for active users. The catch is on the page in one line: a contract term of three years applies to all plans. A ten-person crew pays $137 a month on Standard, which is fair; a three-year commitment to a time clock is not something to sign on a Tuesday. Jobber Grow and Contractor Foreman both include time cards, and most crews under ten should use those before buying a standalone.
6. Accounting: QuickBooks Online, because the argument is over
QuickBooks Online list prices are $38 a month for Simple Start (one user), $85 for Essentials (three), $140 for Plus (five, with job costing by project) and $340 for Advanced (25), with 50 percent off the first three months running on the pricing page. Plus is the contractor plan, because it is the one with projects and class tracking. Every tool above syncs to it, and the sync is the thing to test before buying any of them; the failure modes are in QuickBooks CRM integration.
What is not on the list, and why
Reviews and messaging tools (Podium at $399, NiceJob at $75 to $175) are not a category for most contractors, because the field service hub already sends review requests and a missed-call text-back can be built for the price of a phone number; see missed call text back. Sales CRMs (HubSpot, Pipedrive) are not contractor software unless the sale is long and the work is short, which CRM for contractors explains. The seven-app phone stack, in adoption order, is in best apps for contractors.
Three things to skip
Any tool that will not put a seat price in writing. Buildertrend, Procore, ServiceTitan, AccuLynx, JobNimbus and Workiz are all real products and all quote-only. Ask for the seat price, the add-on prices and the contract term on paper, then slot the number into the table above. A product you cannot price in a spreadsheet cannot be compared.
Buying the suite before the hub. An all-in-one platform bought before you know which category you are in becomes the expensive tool you use a tenth of. Pick the hub, run it for 90 days, and add the next category when the hub's version of it fails you.
Enterprise names at the top of Google. "Contractor software" searches return Procore, Trimble and freelancer-compliance tools built for companies with a procurement department. If you run three trucks or two remodel crews, the right tool costs $29 to $332 a month and the setup takes a weekend.
Want the stack priced for your shop?
Tell us the trade, the headcount and the job type. We will say which two or three tools you need this year, what they cost on annual billing, and which ones to turn down.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best software for contractors?
It depends on the job type. For service calls and installs, a field service hub: Jobber from $29 a month, Housecall Pro from $59 or ServiceM8 from free with unlimited users. For multi-week projects with change orders, construction management: Contractor Foreman from $49 to $332, Knowify from $99, or Buildertrend by quote. Add CompanyCam for photos and QuickBooks Online for accounting, and most shops are done.
How much does contractor software cost?
A one-truck service business pays about $70 a month (Jobber Core $29 plus QuickBooks Simple Start $38). A five-person service company pays about $400 (Jobber Connect for five, CompanyCam Crew, QuickBooks Plus). A remodeler pays $250 to $450 (Contractor Foreman Standard or Plus, Joist or Buildxact, QuickBooks Plus). Prices are annual billing from each vendor's page on October 7, 2026.
What is the difference between field service software and construction management software?
Field service software (Jobber, Housecall Pro) is built around the visit: schedule, dispatch, quote, invoice, repeat. Construction management software (Contractor Foreman, Buildertrend, Procore) is built around the project: schedule of values, change orders, selections, draws and job costing over weeks. A plumber needs the first; a remodeler needs the second; a company doing both usually runs the service side on a hub and the project side in estimating software until projects are a third of revenue.
Is there free contractor software?
ServiceM8 is free for one user and 30 jobs a month. Roofr has a free tier for roof measurements. Joist's Basics plan is $8.34 a month. QuickBooks has a free tier with basic features. Past a few jobs a week, the $29 to $49 entry plans on Jobber and Contractor Foreman pay for themselves in one invoice that did not get lost.
Do I need Buildertrend or Procore?
Not under about $3 million in annual construction volume. Both are quote-only, Procore prices by annual construction volume, and both are built for general contractors managing subs, submittals and RFIs. Contractor Foreman ($49 to $332 with published prices) or Knowify ($99 to $329) covers a remodeler or small builder with the same core features and a weekend of setup.
Which contractor software works with QuickBooks?
All of the picks on this page sync to QuickBooks Online: Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceM8, Service Fusion, Contractor Foreman, Knowify, JobTread, Joist, CompanyCam (via the hub) and ClockShark. Test the sync in the trial with a real invoice before buying, because the sync is where most contractor software disappointments live.