Housecall Pro advertises $59/month, but QuickBooks sync, GPS, and the features most shops actually need live on higher plans, and typical spend lands over $200/month. Here's the honest side-by-side for a small crew.
| FieldForge | Housecall Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Advertised starting price | Free · paid from $19/mo | $59/mo (annual) |
| Realistic cost, small shop | $29–69/mo flat | $200+/mo once needed features are added |
| Per-user fees | None, flat company price | $35/user/mo on MAX plan |
| Create an invoice by voice | Yes, describe the job out loud | No |
| Bilingual voice (English + Spanish) | Yes | No |
| Performance pay engine (hourly/salary/% mix) | Yes, included | Partial (commissions tie into their paid payroll product) |
| Techs see earnings live | Yes: My Pay screen | No |
| Runs full payroll (W-2, taxes) | No, clean export to Gusto/QuickBooks | Yes, embedded payroll (their strongest card) |
| Timesheets + overtime + approvals | Yes | Yes (higher plans) |
| Recurring jobs | Yes + auto-billed memberships w/ member discounts | Yes |
| Online booking | Yes | Yes |
| Card payments | Yes: 1% platform fee | Yes: 2.99% |
| Import your customer list (CSV) | Yes, any export incl. Housecall Pro's, duplicates skipped | Yes |
| Deposits collected at estimate approval | Yes, one tap approve-and-pay | Yes |
| Good / better / best estimate options | Yes, included on every plan | Yes (sales proposal tool, higher plans) |
| Automatic estimate follow-ups | Yes, from $19/mo | Yes |
| Day-before appointment reminders | Yes, from $19/mo | Yes |
| Tips at card checkout | Yes, included | Yes |
| Consumer financing (monthly payments) | Yes: Affirm at card checkout, jobs up to $30,000 | Yes: Wisetack |
| Truck inventory / stock tracking | Yes, auto-updated from sent invoices, techs never count | No, third-party add-ons only |
| Setup time | ~2 minutes | Days, more complex setup |
Competitor pricing and features from public sources and published reviews as of July 2026, always confirm current rates on their site. Housecall Pro is a trademark of its owner; FieldForge is not affiliated with Housecall Pro.
Housecall Pro advertises $59/month, an honest number for exactly one person on an annual contract. The features a working shop reaches for (QuickBooks sync, GPS tracking, recurring service plans) live on the higher tiers, extra users run about $35/month each on the MAX plan, and card processing is 2.99%. A realistic 3-tech setup lands over $200/month: $2,400+ a year (mid-2026 public pricing).
The same shop on FieldForge: the Trio plan at $29/month flat, everything included (QuickBooks sync, GPS live map, recurring contracts, payroll math) plus Front Desk, our AI receptionist, at $49/month if you want your phone answered. $78/month all-in, with card processing at a flat 1%. Roughly $1,500–2,000 a year stays in your pocket.
1. Invoices by voice, from the truck. Housecall Pro is tap-and-type: forms, line items, dropdowns. FieldForge is hold-a-button-and-talk, "replaced the wax ring and reset the toilet, one hour labor", and the invoice builds itself from your own price book, in English or Spanish, even offline.
2. A real pay engine, not an add-on. Housecall Pro ties commissions into its separate paid payroll product. FieldForge computes any mix of hourly, salary, commission on sales or profit, and spiffs, and every tech watches their week accumulate live on the My Pay screen. Export clean numbers to Gusto or QuickBooks and run payroll wherever you like.
3. An AI receptionist that books, not messages. FieldForge's Front Desk answers 24/7, quotes your service fee, recognizes repeat customers, and books the job into your techs' real availability, then texts the customer a confirmation.
4. Flat pricing that ignores headcount. No per-user math, ever. Hire tech number four and your software bill doesn't notice until you actually outgrow the plan.
Housecall Pro has been at this for a decade: a huge marketplace of integrations, a pipeline of webinars and community, and polish everywhere. If you have office staff living in the software all day and the budget to feed the add-ons, it's a very good product. FieldForge is built for the owner-operator crew of 1–15 that wants the essentials done brilliantly at a price that stays flat.
No migration day required. FieldForge is free to start, so run it in parallel for a week: new jobs by voice into FieldForge, old invoices finish out in Housecall Pro. Or bring everything at once: export your Housecall Pro customer list as a CSV and import it in one tap — columns match automatically, duplicates are skipped. Paid jobs flow into QuickBooks Online, so your books never notice. Cancel when the last old invoice is paid.
Yes. Export your customers from Housecall Pro as a CSV and upload it under Customers → Import CSV — columns are matched automatically and duplicates are skipped.
For small crews, yes: free to start, $29/month flat for a 3-tech shop vs. $200+/month once Housecall Pro's realistic tier and per-user fees stack up (mid-2026 public pricing). Processing is 1% vs 2.99%.
No, invoices are built in forms. FieldForge builds them from a spoken description of the job, in English or Spanish, priced from your own book.
Yes: FieldForge is free to start with no contract; most switchers run both for a week or two before cancelling.
Yes, paid jobs flow into QuickBooks Online as sales receipts on every plan that includes it, with no per-sync fees.