Jobber is a polished, well-loved platform, and for many shops it's a fine choice. But for a 1–5 tech crew, the math and the workflow look very different. Here's the honest side-by-side.
| FieldForge | Jobber | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free · paid from $19/mo | $39/mo (solo, annual billing higher monthly) |
| Realistic cost: 3-tech shop | $29/mo flat (Trio) | $169/mo team plan + $29 per extra user |
| Per-user fees | None, flat company price | $29/user/mo beyond plan seats |
| AI receptionist / add-ons | Included where offered | $99/mo AI Receptionist · $79/mo Marketing Suite |
| 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 | No, timesheets sync to Gusto, math is on you |
| Techs see earnings live | Yes: My Pay screen | No |
| Timesheets + overtime + approvals | Yes | Yes |
| Recurring jobs | Yes + auto-billed memberships w/ member discounts | Yes |
| Online booking | Yes | Yes |
| Card payments | Yes: 1% platform fee | Yes: 2.9% + 30¢ |
| Import your customer list (CSV) | Yes, any export incl. Jobber'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 |
| 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 | Basic material check-off; full inventory via third-party add-ons |
| Payroll export | Yes: Gusto/QuickBooks CSV | Yes: Gusto sync |
| Setup time | ~2 minutes | Hours to days |
Competitor pricing and features from public sources and published reviews as of July 2026, always confirm current rates on their site. Jobber is a trademark of its owner; FieldForge is not affiliated with Jobber.
Software pricing pages hide the real number, so here it is for a typical 3-tech HVAC or plumbing shop. On Jobber you'd realistically land on a team-tier plan (about $169/month billed annually as of mid-2026), and every additional user beyond your seat count adds roughly $29/month. Want their AI Receptionist? That's about $99/month on top. Call it $268/month ($3,216 a year), before payment processing at 2.9% + 30¢.
The same shop on FieldForge: the Trio plan at $29/month flat (no per-user math, three techs included) plus Front Desk (our AI receptionist) at $49/month if you want your phone answered. $78/month ($936 a year), with card processing at a flat 1% platform fee. That's roughly $2,280 a year staying in your pocket, which for most small shops is a week of revenue.
1. Invoices by voice, from the truck. This is the core difference in how your day feels. In Jobber, an invoice is a form: line items, quantities, tax fields, typed on a phone keyboard in a driveway, or "later tonight" (which becomes never, which becomes unbilled work). In FieldForge you hold a button and say "Replaced the capacitor and two pounds of R-410A on Maria's AC, three hours labor", the AI matches parts against your price book, adds labor and tax, and shows a finished invoice to confirm. Works in English and Spanish, and even queues offline in a dead-signal basement.
2. Techs who can see their own pay. Jobber tracks time and syncs it to Gusto; the pay math is on you. FieldForge has a real performance-pay engine (any mix of hourly, salary, commission on sales or profit, and spiffs) and every tech gets a live My Pay screen showing what this week has earned them. Shops tell us this one screen changes how techs treat Friday afternoon calls.
3. An AI receptionist that books, not messages. Jobber's AI Receptionist add-on answers and takes messages. FieldForge's Front Desk checks your techs' actual availability and books the job into your schedule while the caller is still on the line, then texts them a confirmation. It also quotes your service-call fee and recognizes repeat customers by caller ID.
4. Two-minute setup. No onboarding calls, no implementation weeks. Sign up, speak your first job, send your first invoice, most owners do it from the truck the same afternoon they find us.
Fair is fair. Jobber has a decade of polish, a large integration marketplace, and features built for bigger operations, franchises, marketing suites, dedicated account managers. If you run 15+ techs with office staff whose full-time job is the software, Jobber (or ServiceTitan above it) earns its price. FieldForge is deliberately built for the 1-to-15-tech shop where the owner still turns wrenches, the crew Jobber's pricing quietly outgrows.
There's no risky migration day. FieldForge starts free with no contract, so most switchers run both for a week or two: new jobs go into FieldForge by voice, old invoices finish their life in Jobber. Or skip the wait entirely: export your customer list from Jobber as a CSV and import it in one tap — FieldForge matches the columns automatically and skips duplicates. Either way, paid jobs flow into QuickBooks Online so your books never notice the change. When the last Jobber invoice is paid, cancel it and keep the difference.
For small crews, substantially: FieldForge starts free and a 3-tech shop pays $29/month flat, vs. roughly $169/month plus per-user fees on a comparable Jobber tier (mid-2026 public pricing). Card processing is 1% vs 2.9% + 30¢.
Yes. Export your customers from Jobber as a CSV and upload it in FieldForge under Customers → Import CSV. Columns are matched automatically (you can adjust the mapping) and duplicates are skipped — most lists import in under a minute.
No. Jobber invoices are built in forms. FieldForge is voice-first: describe the job out loud in English or Spanish and the invoice builds itself from your own price book.
Yes. That's the normal path. FieldForge is free to start with no contract, so you can run one week of real jobs through it in parallel before deciding.
FieldForge ships trade-tuned parts catalogs and equipment fields for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, appliance repair, garage door, and pool & spa businesses.