Every tradie who has ever run a job off a notebook and a phone gets told the same thing: get yourself some job management software. Fair advice. The trouble starts when you go looking, because almost every comparison you’ll find on the first page of Google is published by a company that sells one of the products.
Cards on the table: we’re a marketing agency for trade businesses. We do not sell job management software, we are not a reseller or affiliate for any product here, and we don’t earn a cent whichever one you pick. What we do have is a view most reviewers don’t: we watch enquiries land in these systems across a lot of trade businesses, and we see which ones get quoted fast and which ones sit there.
Prices below were taken from each company’s own New Zealand pricing page on 17/08/2026. They change. Check the source before you sign up.
The four that matter in New Zealand
Dozens of products exist. Four come up again and again in NZ trades, and they are the four with real search demand here.
Tradify is the New Zealand-built one most tradies have heard of. Priced per user, per month, with no cap on how many jobs you run.
ServiceM8 is Australian, iPhone and iPad first. Priced per month on a flat fee with unlimited staff, but capped on the number of jobs you can create each month.
Fergus is also New Zealand-built, aimed at businesses that want tighter job costing and profitability tracking rather than just scheduling and invoicing.
NextMinute is New Zealand-built and pitched at established teams, with a minimum of three users and everything included at every tier.
There are others worth knowing about. simPRO and AroFlo are heavier systems for larger contracting businesses with complex projects and stock control, and they are priced by quote rather than off a public page, which is why they sit outside this comparison.
What they actually cost
All figures NZD per month, excluding GST, from each vendor’s NZ pricing page on 17/08/2026.
| Entry | Mid | Top | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tradify (per user) | Lite $48 | Pro $52 | Plus $62 |
| ServiceM8 (flat, job-capped) | Free $0 (30 jobs) | Growing $79 (150 jobs) | Premium Plus $349 (1500+ jobs) |
| Fergus (account + extra users) | Basic $53 | Professional $75 | Enterprise 10+ by quote |
| NextMinute (flat, banded by users) | Growth $199 (3 to 9) | Pro $349 (10 to 14) | Max by quote |
Those headline numbers are close enough to look interchangeable. They are not, because the three products charge on three completely different axes.
The pricing trap: per user, per job, or per account
This is the part that decides your bill, and it is the part the vendor comparisons skate over.
- Tradify charges per user and doesn’t care how many jobs you run. Add a fifth sparky, add $52 a month. Do 400 jobs instead of 40, pay nothing extra.
- ServiceM8 charges per month with unlimited staff and caps the jobs. Put your whole crew on it for one flat fee, but a busy month pushes you up a tier.
- Fergus charges for the account, then adds timesheet users from $26 each (and contractors at $4 per user per day). The headline price is not the whole bill once the team is on it.
- NextMinute charges a flat band by user count and includes every feature at every tier, but the entry point is three users, so it is not a solo operator’s product.
Work it through for three shapes of business. Mid tiers, all figures monthly and ex GST.
Solo sparky, about 40 jobs a month
| Product | Cost |
|---|---|
| ServiceM8 Starter | $29 |
| Tradify Pro | $52 |
| Fergus Basic | $53 |
| NextMinute | not available under 3 users |
Three on the tools, about 120 jobs a month
| Product | Cost |
|---|---|
| Fergus Basic + 2 timesheet users | $105 |
| ServiceM8 Growing | $79 |
| Tradify Pro × 3 | $156 |
| NextMinute Growth | $199 |
Eight on the tools, about 400 jobs a month
| Product | Cost |
|---|---|
| ServiceM8 Premium | $149 |
| NextMinute Growth | $199 |
| Fergus Professional + 7 timesheet users | $257 |
| Tradify Pro × 8 | $416 |
The spread at eight staff is nearly three times, on products that all do the core job. That is not because one is a rip-off. It is because a per-user model and a per-job model price two different businesses well.
The rule that falls out of it:
- Lots of hands, moderate job count (a building team on longer jobs) suits a flat fee with unlimited users. ServiceM8 and NextMinute price this shape well.
- Few hands, high job count (a service plumber or an appliance tech smashing out small callouts) suits per-user pricing with no job cap. Tradify prices this shape well, and a high-volume solo operator on ServiceM8 will climb tiers on job count alone.
Count your jobs last month and your users before you look at a single feature list. That one calculation eliminates half the options for most businesses.
What actually decides it, beyond price
Your accounting software. All four integrate with Xero, which is what most NZ trade businesses run. If you are on MYOB or something older, check the integration before anything else, because re-keying invoices will cost you more time than the subscription costs money.
Whether you need job costing or just job tracking. If you quote fixed-price work and want to know which jobs actually made money, that is Fergus’s pitch and it is the reason people move to it. If you charge time and materials and mostly need scheduling, quoting and invoicing to stop falling over, you are paying for depth you won’t use.
What phones your crew carry. This one catches people out. ServiceM8’s full app is built for iPhone and iPad. Android users get ServiceM8 Lite, a deliberately cut-down app for field techs that covers the jobs assigned to them but not the management side. If your crew is on Android and you want them doing more than viewing their own jobs, check that limitation during the trial rather than after you have migrated. The others are cross-platform.
Who has to use it. The best system is the one your team will actually open on a Tuesday afternoon in a roof cavity. Every product here has a free trial (14 days for Tradify, ServiceM8 and Fergus, 10 days for NextMinute). Put your two least tech-keen staff on the trial, not yourself.
How it handles an enquiry. This is the bit we care about, and the bit most buyers never test.
The part nobody tells you
Job management software does not create work. It manages work you already have.
We see this play out constantly. A business gets its systems sorted, the office runs better, everyone feels more organised, and the number of new customers stays exactly the same. That is not a failure of the software. It was never the software’s job.
Where it does move the needle on new work is speed of reply. A quote that goes out the same day beats a better-priced quote that goes out on Friday, and every product here shortens the gap between “enquiry arrives” and “quote sent”. If your enquiries currently sit in a phone inbox until the weekend, that alone can be worth the subscription.
So set it up so enquiries land in it. Tradify has enquiry forms on the Pro tier, ServiceM8 has an inbox on Growing and above, and all of them will take a lead from your website if it is wired up properly. A system your enquiries never reach is a very tidy filing cabinet.
For the full picture of where new work actually comes from, our complete guide to lead generation for tradies covers every channel worth your money.
Which one, for which business
Solo, or you and an apprentice, high job count. Tradify. Per-user pricing with no job cap is exactly your shape, and it is the one most NZ tradies and their accountants already know.
Solo, low job count, watching every dollar. ServiceM8’s free tier does 30 jobs a month for nothing. If that covers you, take it and spend the money on getting found instead.
A team of three to ten on longer jobs. ServiceM8 on a flat fee, or NextMinute if you want everything included and local support without tier-by-tier feature hunting.
You quote fixed-price work and don’t know which jobs made money. Fergus. That is the problem it was built for, and the costing depth is worth the extra user charges.
Big contracting outfit, complex projects, stock control. Get a quote from simPRO or AroFlo. You have outgrown this comparison.
You’re not sure you have enough work to manage. Sort that first. Software will not fix a quiet phone.
Job management software FAQ
What is the best job management software in New Zealand?
There isn’t one. The choice is decided by your user count against your monthly job count, because the products charge on different axes. Count both, then trial the two that price your shape well. Anyone giving you a single answer without asking those two questions is selling something.
Is Tradify or ServiceM8 cheaper?
It depends entirely on your shape. For one user doing high volume, Tradify at $52 a month beats climbing ServiceM8’s job tiers. For eight users on moderate volume, ServiceM8 Premium at $149 beats eight Tradify seats at $416. Prices as at 17/08/2026.
Do these integrate with Xero?
All four integrate with Xero, which is the main reason they dominate here. Confirm the depth of the integration for your workflow during the trial, particularly if you need purchase orders or supplier bills flowing through rather than just invoices.
Is there free job management software?
ServiceM8 has a genuine free tier: one user, 30 jobs a month. It is a real product rather than a crippled demo, and for a part-timer or a very small operator it is often enough. Beyond that, the free options are spreadsheets, and they cost you in missed follow-ups.
Will job management software get me more jobs?
Only indirectly, by helping you quote faster and follow up reliably. It does not generate enquiries. If the problem is that not enough people are calling, the fix is marketing, not software.
How long should I trial one for?
Use the whole trial and run real jobs through it, not test ones. Fourteen days is enough to find out whether your crew will use it, which is the only question that matters after price.
Picking the software is the easy half. If the harder half is that not enough enquiries are coming in to manage, get a free game plan: 20 minutes with Ryan or Matt, your actual numbers, no obligation.