If you want the website, the enquiries, the quotes and the invoices in one place, and you do not want the bill to rise every time you add a person, start with Mortar. If you are on your own and want Making Tax Digital inside the same app as the jobs, look at Powered Now. If the whole crew needs a login and you can live with a monthly job cap, look at ServiceM8.
We make Mortar. Here's how we compared these tools, and where others may suit you better.
This is for a small UK trade. Work has to come in, then be quoted, done and invoiced. Seven tools are below. Each still sells to small trade businesses. Every price was taken from that company's own site on 20 October 2026, except Jobber, which was checked again on 2 November 2026. Where a page did not state a fact, it is left out.
How we compared
Five things, and nothing else. No star ratings, and no review sites.
- Price for the whole team. A price per business stays put when you take someone on. A price per user is multiplied by every login.
- Getting work in. A website and a place for enquiries, or a job system that assumes you already have the work.
- Quotes and invoices. Can you send a quote, turn it into a job, and get paid from the same record.
- A mobile app. Can the person on site see the job, not only the person at a desk.
- AI help. Drafting, answering, or reading paperwork. Named only where the company describes it.
The comparison
Prices as listed on each company's website on 20 October 2026, except Jobber, checked again on 2 November 2026. They are monthly list prices, not annual discounts. Jobber's $49 is the monthly price with no commitment. The same page also lists $29 a month billed annually. Jobber's prices are in US dollars. VAT is noted under each tool, because the sites do not all treat it the same way.
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Per-user fees | Website | AI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mortar | Work coming in, and the jobs, on one price | £49 a month plus VAT | No | Yes | Morris drafts on Core. Answers on Pro. |
| Powered Now | A sole trader who also wants MTD | £28 a month, ex VAT | Business is one user. Then yes. | Yes | On Premium, plus a receptionist add-on |
| ServiceM8 | A whole team inside a job cap | £25 a month Starter, ex VAT | No on paid plans | Add-on | Smart Helpers, quotes and invoices |
| Tradify | Job costing and accounting sync | £34 per user a month | Yes | Add-on, £10 a month | On Plus |
| YourTradebase | Quoting and invoicing, kept simple | £29 a month, plus VAT | £15 a month per extra user | Not listed | Not listed |
| Fergus | Supplier price books and job cards | From £39 a month per user | Yes | Not listed | Reads supplier invoices |
| Jobber | A website plus field service, in USD | $49 a month for one user, no commitment | Yes, $29 a month each extra | Yes, on Core | Receptionist add-on |
Mortar
Best for: Small trade businesses that want work coming in, not just jobs managed: website, enquiries, quotes and invoices in one, with no per-user fees.
What it does well. Core is £49 a month plus VAT for the business, not each login: a website built by Morris, an enquiries inbox, quotes, jobs, scheduling, forms signed on site, the mobile app, and invoices with card payments. Morris drafts replies and writes quotes from your notes. You approve what a customer sees. Pro is £79 a month plus VAT when Morris should answer chat, texts and the phone, and book jobs. Invoices, payments and expenses sync to Xero or QuickBooks. Build the site free. The first 14 days after it goes live are free. A plumber's page shows that shape of site.
Grow is £29 a month plus VAT, on Core or Pro. Morris asks ChatGPT, Google AI and Perplexity the questions your customers ask, prepares directory details for you to submit, keeps your Google Business Profile in sync, and sends a review request after a job. You approve the fixes. It does not promise a mention.
Watch-outs. Mortar is newer, and it lists fewer supplier connections than Tradify or Fergus. Pro and Grow are separate prices.
Price. Core £49 a month plus VAT for the whole team. Pro £79. As listed on 20 October 2026.
Official page: mortar.site/pricing.
Powered Now
Best for: a UK sole trader who wants quotes, invoices, Making Tax Digital and a free website on one plan.
What it does well. Business is one user: quotes, invoices, payment links, a diary, job sheets, expenses, supplier invoices and purchase orders. Powered Now says Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is built in and recognised by HMRC, and that you do not need a separate accounting package to comply. Every plan includes a free Here Is My Work website. It runs on PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android, including offline. Professional adds certificates, Xero, QuickBooks, team chat and staff location.
Watch-outs. A second login is Professional, £32 a month per user, excluding VAT. AI writing and the receipt scanner are on Premium, at £40 per user. A receptionist add-on starts at £29 a month. Your own domain is Here Is My Work Premium, £100 a year, unless you are already on Premium.
Price. Business £28 a month for one user. Professional £32 per user. Premium £40 per user. All exclude VAT. 14-day trial, no card. As listed on 20 October 2026.
Official page: powerednow.com/pricing.
ServiceM8
Best for: a team that wants every person logged in without a per-user fee, and can stay inside a monthly job cap.
What it does well. Paid plans do not charge per user. Only the free plan limits logins, to one user and 30 jobs a month. Every plan includes job cards, scheduling, quotes, invoices, email and SMS, mobile payments, accounting integrations, and iOS and Android apps. AI Smart Helpers, on every plan, draft emails, texts, and the description and billable items on a quote or invoice. Trial is 14 days, no card.
Watch-outs. You pay by new job cards: Starter 50 a month, Growing 150. Turning a quote into a work order does not use a second credit. Past the cap you have seven days, then an upgrade prompt. The website add-on is free for 24 months, then £24 a year, and it registers a new domain. Ready-made forms can be bought on any plan. Building your own is on Growing and above. Prices exclude VAT.
Price. Free, Starter £25 a month, Growing £59, Premium £119, Premium Plus £269. As listed on 20 October 2026.
Official page: servicem8.com/uk/pricing.
Tradify
Best for: a team that wants job costing, timesheets and accounting sync, and will pay for each user.
What it does well. Lite covers jobs, scheduling with Google Calendar, quotes, invoices, markups, card payments, and sync with Xero, Sage and QuickBooks Online. The app is on iPhone, iPad and Android. Pro adds an enquiry form and email inbox, photos, timesheets, progress invoicing and compliance certificates. Plus adds SmartRead for bills and SmartWrite for descriptions, which Tradify describes as AI. The trial is 14 days and includes every feature. Billing is month to month, and they train the team during setup.
Watch-outs. Every plan is per user, so five people on Pro is five times £37. Instant Website is £10 a month on top, and you need a Tradify subscription to publish it. The enquiry form is on Pro, not Lite. The UK pricing page does not say whether those figures include VAT.
Price. Lite £34 per user a month. Pro £37. Plus £44. Instant Website £10. As listed on 20 October 2026.
Official page: tradifyhq.com/uk/pricing.
YourTradebase
Best for: quoting and invoicing kept simple, with a flat monthly price and a published fee for each extra user.
What it does well. YourTradebase calls itself an app for trades: quotes, estimates, invoices, job sheets, schedules, lead tracking and card payments from the invoice. The trial is 30 days, no card, no limits. Do nothing at the end and the account becomes a free plan with usage limits. Your data stays. Annual billing is two months free. Prices are subject to VAT.
Watch-outs. The pricing page charges £15 a month for each additional user. Another page on the same site describes extra users differently, so that version is left out. No website, and no AI feature, was listed on the home page or the pricing page.
Price. £29 a month, plus £15 a month for each additional user. Prices subject to VAT. As listed on 20 October 2026.
Official page: yourtradebase.com/pricing.
Fergus
Best for: job costing with supplier price books, once you have confirmed the live per-user price.
What it does well. Fergus sells to UK trades and lists a Manchester office. The job card app covers directions, notes, photos, a timer, sign-off, certificates and hazard logs. It connects to Xero and QuickBooks, and to suppliers including CEF, City Plumbing, Wolseley and Screwfix, so a supplier invoice can be matched to a job. The plan comparison includes quoting, enquiries, a mobile app, and Xero, QuickBooks and MYOB. You pay per user, month to month, with a 14-day trial and no card. Plans start from £39 a month.
Watch-outs. The UK pricing page shows Essentials as £39 and also as £3.90, and Professional as £45 and also as £4.50, without saying which figure you pay. Timesheet users are shown as £12 and also as £1.20. Those pairs are not in the worked example. No website was listed on the pages checked. The pricing page describes email ingestion that reads a supplier invoice as using AI.
Price. From £39 a month per user, as stated on the UK job-card page on 20 October 2026. Confirm it on the pricing page before you multiply it by the crew.
Official page: fergus.com/uk/pricing.
Jobber
Best for: a mature field-service platform with a website, if you are happy to pay in US dollars.
What it does well. Core is one user, with unlimited quotes, jobs and invoices. Clients can request work and book online, approve a quote online, and pay an invoice online. Jobber Payments is available in the UK. For a one-person team the pricing page lists a professional website, reporting, and a marketplace of other tools. Extra users are $29 a month. A user is anyone at the office or in the field who views or manages the schedule. An AI receptionist is an add-on on Core. The trial is 14 days, with no card.
Watch-outs. Prices are in US dollars and exclude sales tax where it applies. On 2 November 2026 Core was $49 a month with no commitment, $39 a month on a one-year commitment, and $29 a month billed annually. The sums below use the $49 monthly price with no commitment, plus $29 for each extra user.
Price. $49 a month for one user on Core with no commitment, or $29 a month billed annually, plus $29 a month for each extra user. As listed on 2 November 2026.
Official page: getjobber.com/pricing.
What a team of one, three and five costs
Each column is the tier that covers quotes, invoices, jobs and a mobile app, with the website included where that takes an add-on. Monthly list prices. The figures other than Jobber are as listed on 20 October 2026. Jobber was checked again on 2 November 2026, and this column uses $49 a month with no commitment, not the $29 a month billed annually. One person who needs a login counts as one user. Fergus is left out, because its pricing page shows two figures for the same plan and does not say which you pay.
Tradify is Pro, because the enquiry form is on Pro, plus the £10 Instant Website. ServiceM8 is Starter: unlimited users, 50 new jobs a month. A busier month is Growing at £59, still with no per-user fee. Powered Now is Business for one person, then Professional, because Business cannot add a second login. They charge only for people who need an account, so a crew where only the owner logs in stays at £28. YourTradebase adds £15 for each extra user, which is the pricing-page figure. Mortar is Core. Pro, at £79, is the step up if you want the phone answered.
| People | Mortar Core | Powered Now | ServiceM8 Starter | Tradify Pro + website | YourTradebase | Jobber Core |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | £49 | £28 | £25 | £37 + £10 = £47 | £29 | $49 |
| 3 | £49 | £32 × 3 = £96 | £25 | £37 × 3 + £10 = £121 | £29 + £15 × 2 = £59 | $49 + $29 × 2 = $107 |
| 5 | £49 | £32 × 5 = £160 | £25 | £37 × 5 + £10 = £195 | £29 + £15 × 4 = £89 | $49 + $29 × 4 = $165 |
Add VAT where the supplier says the price excludes it. Mortar, Powered Now, ServiceM8 and YourTradebase all say their prices exclude VAT. Tradify's UK page does not say. Jobber is in dollars, and subscription prices exclude sales tax where it applies.
Mortar and ServiceM8 stay flat as the crew grows. ServiceM8 stays flat only inside the job cap, and the £25 does not include the website. Powered Now, Tradify, YourTradebase and Jobber climb with each login. At one person, Powered Now, ServiceM8 and YourTradebase are the lower monthly figures. Powered Now's £28 includes the free website and Making Tax Digital, and does not include the AI writing on Premium. At five people, the per-user tools cost more than Mortar Core before VAT. Quotes and invoices are on all of them. The difference is what else sits in the same login, and whether the fifth person changes the bill.
Where Mortar isn't the best fit
Mortar is the wrong first choice if you already have a website you are happy with and you want the deepest job file. It is newer, and it lists fewer supplier connections than Tradify or Fergus. ServiceM8 is the clearer pick when you want several logins and would rather pay for job volume than for seats. Powered Now is the clearer pick when Making Tax Digital inside the job app matters more than a site that also takes the enquiry. A larger team that wants deep field-service features may prefer an established tool. If you work alone and want a lower monthly figure, Powered Now Business and ServiceM8 Starter are listed cheaper for that one login.
How to choose
Answer these for your own week, then the shortlist is usually two tools, not seven.
- Does a new person need their own login? If yes, write the price at five people, not at one. The order of the tools changes.
- Where do enquiries come from today? If the answer is "the website is out of date, and the calls go to a personal mobile", a job system with no site leaves that problem where it is. Look at what a trade website has to do, then at which tools include one.
- How many new jobs do you open in a busy month? If it is over 50, ServiceM8 Starter is the wrong column. Use Growing at £59 in the sum instead.
- Do you want software to file the tax, or to hand clean records to your accountant? Powered Now files Making Tax Digital for Income Tax itself. Mortar syncs invoices and expenses to Xero or QuickBooks and does not file the return.
- What should the software do while you are on the tools? Draft a quote for you to send, or answer the phone. Those are different products, and on Mortar they are Core and Pro.
Questions
What should a UK sole trader look at first?
Start with who the plan is priced for. Mortar Core is £49 a month plus VAT for the whole business, including the website. Powered Now Business is £28 a month excluding VAT for one user, and includes a free website. Both cover quotes, jobs and invoices.
Which of these tools charge per user?
Tradify, Fergus and Jobber charge per user. Powered Now Business is one user, then Professional and Premium are per user. YourTradebase's pricing page adds £15 a month for each additional user. ServiceM8's paid plans do not charge per user. Mortar does not charge per user.
Which tools include a website?
Mortar, Powered Now and Jobber include a website in the plan. Tradify and ServiceM8 sell one as an add-on. YourTradebase and Fergus did not list a website on the pages checked on 20 October 2026.
What does a team of three cost?
On monthly prices with no annual commitment, three people cost £49 on Mortar Core, £96 on Powered Now Professional, £25 on ServiceM8 Starter, £121 on Tradify Pro plus its website add-on, and £59 on YourTradebase. Jobber Core is 107 US dollars. Jobber was checked on 2 November 2026. The other figures were checked on 20 October 2026. The same Jobber page lists $29 a month billed annually, which this sum does not use.
Can I try them before paying?
Yes. Mortar lets you build the website free, then gives 14 days free once the site goes live, and does not ask for a card to start. ServiceM8, Powered Now, Fergus and Jobber each offer 14 days with no card. Tradify offers 14 days with every feature. YourTradebase offers 30 days with no card.