ServiceM8 pricing explained

Most job management apps charge for every person who logs in. ServiceM8 doesn't. Its five Australian plans are priced by how many new jobs you create each month, every paid plan allows unlimited users, and the prices it publishes include GST.^[1] That makes it cheap for a crew with a steady job count and dearer for a small team that turns over a lot of short jobs.

The five plans, by jobs a week

Monthly allowances are easier to judge as a week's work. Divide by 52 and multiply by 12 and the plans line up like this, each at its published price including GST:^[1]

• Free: one user and 30 new jobs a month, about 6 a week.
• Starter, $29 inc GST: 50 jobs a month, about 11 a week.
• Growing, $79 inc GST: 150 jobs a month, about 34 a week.
• Premium, $149 inc GST: 500 jobs a month, about 115 a week.
• Premium Plus, $349 inc GST: 1,500 jobs a month, then 20c for each extra job.

Higher plans also add features. Forms and asset maintenance, for example, start on Growing, so a business that needs them may move up for the features before it needs the jobs.^[1]

What counts as a job

Every new job card uses one credit. A job can start life as a quote or as a work order, and when an accepted quote becomes a work order it stays the same job card, so it doesn't use a second credit.^[1] The flip side is that a quote which never goes ahead has still used its credit. Count the enquiries you quote, not just the jobs you win.

What happens when you go over

Run past your allowance and ServiceM8 lets you keep creating jobs as normal for another seven days. If your billing month resets in that time the credits start again; if not, you're asked to upgrade.^[1] Only Premium Plus sells extra jobs one at a time. On every other plan a busy month means the next plan up, which is worth knowing before a seasonal rush.

The free plan's bonus jobs

The Free plan is for one person, but its job limit can stretch. Each time you take a card payment through ServiceM8 and Stripe, in the app or online, you earn a bonus job credit, and ServiceM8 says there's no limit to how many you can earn in a month: take card payment on 15 invoices and you can create 45 jobs that month instead of 30.^[2] A sole trader who gets paid by card on the spot can stay on Free for longer than the headline 30 suggests.

Card fees fall as the plan rises

ServiceM8's card-payment rate depends on your plan: 2.10% plus 30c on Free, 1.85% on Starter, 1.65% on Growing and 1.49% on Premium and Premium Plus, each plus 30c.^[1] That can soften an upgrade, but rarely pays for one on its own. On our arithmetic, a business taking $15,000 a month by card through ServiceM8 pays $277.50 in percentage fees on Starter and $247.50 on Growing: $30 less, against a plan that costs $50 more. The card saving only covers that gap at about $25,000 a month in card takings.

Comparing it with per-user apps

ServiceM8 prints its Australian prices with GST included, while apps such as Tradify print theirs excluding GST.^[1][4] A GST-registered business can claim back the GST on software it uses in the business,^[3] so for most trade businesses Growing really costs $71.82 a month, not $79 inc GST. Compare both on the ex-GST figure.

On those figures, one person doing ten jobs a week pays $26 a month before GST on ServiceM8's Starter plan and $48 on Tradify Lite. Double the work to 20 jobs a week and ServiceM8 moves to Growing at $72, while Tradify still costs $48. Add a second person instead and the order flips back: Tradify doubles, ServiceM8 doesn't move. Tradify vs ServiceM8 runs that comparison across 36 crews.

Who each plan suits

• Free: a sole trader starting out, or one who takes most payments by card on the job.
• Starter: a small crew with a handful of jobs a week, where an apprentice or the office needs a login that costs nothing extra.
• Growing: a crew of any size doing up to about 34 new jobs a week, or anyone who needs forms and certificates.
• Premium and Premium Plus: high-volume service work, such as cleaning, pest control or maintenance rounds, where jobs are many and short.

If the allowance is what pinches, the alternatives to ServiceM8 are priced for a busy two-person business.

Count new jobs a month, quotes included, and divide by 4.33 to get a week: that number, not your headcount, picks your ServiceM8 plan.