A Hands-On Review of Tradify for Electricians, Plumbers, and Small Trades Businesses

If you run a small trades business, you already know the paperwork problem. The actual work - wiring a panel, swapping a hot water cylinder, diagnosing a fault - is the easy part. The hard part is everything that wraps around it: quoting fast enough to win the job, tracking which tech is where, getting signed-off timesheets back from the crew, and invoicing before the client forgets you were even there.

Tradify pitches itself squarely at this pain. It is a job management app built specifically for electricians, plumbers, HVAC techs, builders, and other small-to-mid trade operators. I spent several weeks putting it through real workflows with two small crews - a three-person electrical outfit and a solo plumber who subs out overflow work - and this is the honest, hands-on verdict.

What Tradify Actually Is (and Is Not)

Tradify is not a CRM. It is not a full accounting platform. It is a job management tool - the layer between "quote sent" and "invoice paid" where 80% of trades admin lives. It handles quotes, jobs, scheduling, timesheets, purchase orders, and invoicing in one app, with a tight mobile experience for techs in the field.

Want the full picture of the category before you commit? Browse our best field service management software roundup to see where Tradify sits against the rest.

Who It Is Built For

• Electricians running 1-20 techs
• Plumbers and gasfitters, including solo operators
• HVAC and refrigeration crews
• Builders, handymen, and general trades
• Property maintenance and facilities teams

If you are a solo tradie doing five jobs a week, Tradify works. If you are running 50 vans with complex dispatch routing and parts inventory across warehouses, you will outgrow it - and you should be looking at heavier enterprise field service platforms.

First Impressions: Setup and Onboarding

Signup took under two minutes. The app walks you through importing customers (CSV or direct from Xero/QuickBooks), setting up your price list, and adding your first staff member. The onboarding tour is not intrusive - you can skip it and figure things out yourself, which I appreciate.

The thing I noticed immediately: Tradify does not try to be pretty. The interface is functional, slightly utilitarian, and clearly designed by people who have watched tradies actually use software on a jobsite. Buttons are big. Text is readable in sunlight. Forms have fewer fields than you would expect.

Mobile App Quality

This is where Tradify earns its keep. The mobile app (iOS and Android) is not a stripped-down shadow of the desktop version - it is close to full-featured. Techs can:

• See their day's jobs with directions
• Clock on and off jobs (GPS optional)
• Add notes, photos, and signatures
• Record materials used from a searchable price list
• Convert a job straight to an invoice

Both crews I tested with had the same reaction: the app "just works" offline. Data syncs when signal returns. For trades doing rural work or basement jobs, this matters more than any feature on a marketing page.

Quoting: The Feature That Wins Jobs

Tradify's quoting is its strongest module. You can build a quote in three ways:

1. From scratch using saved labor rates and a price-list database
2. From a template ("standard kitchen rewire", "hot water replacement")
3. From a supplier catalogue - quote line items pulled straight from suppliers like Rexel, Reece, or Bunnings in supported regions

That third option is the killer feature for electricians and plumbers. When you can import a 40-line bill of materials from your wholesaler in two clicks instead of typing SKUs, you reclaim an hour per quote. Over a month, that is real money.

Quotes get emailed as a branded PDF with an accept/decline button. Acceptance drops automatically into your job list as a scheduled job. Slick.

For a deeper look at what else is out there in this space, check our guide to the best quoting software for small business - there are some strong alternatives depending on your workflow.

Scheduling and Dispatch

The scheduler is a drag-and-drop week/day view with staff across the top. It is simple, visual, and does 90% of what a small shop needs. You can color-code by job type, see tech availability, and drag unassigned jobs onto a tech's row.

What it does not do well:

• No route optimization. If you are dispatching 15 vans across a city and need the system to sequence stops intelligently, Tradify will disappoint you.
• No skills-based auto-assignment. You assign manually.
• Recurring jobs are basic. They exist, but the editor is clunky compared to a dedicated FSM tool.

For crews under 10 techs, none of this matters. For bigger operations, it does. This is the main reason mid-size shops consider Housecall Pro instead, which has stronger dispatch tooling and consumer-facing booking features.

Timesheets and Job Costing

Techs clock on to specific jobs from the mobile app. Those hours roll up into two places: payroll (exportable) and job costing (automatic). That second bit is the one most small businesses are missing, and it is where Tradify quietly delivers.

At any point you can open a job and see: quoted price vs. actual labor logged vs. materials consumed vs. profit margin. For a solo plumber I worked with, this was the first time he had ever seen which job types actually made him money. Answer: small emergency callouts were crushing his hourly rate. He has since restructured his pricing.

Invoicing and Payments

You can invoice from a completed job in two taps. Tradify syncs with Xero, QuickBooks Online, and MYOB, so the invoice appears in your accounting system automatically - no double entry. Online payments work via Stripe.

One honest criticism: if you are already deep in a full accounting workflow with FreshBooks or Wave, there is no native direct integration with those. You can still export and import manually, but the tight two-way sync is reserved for Xero, QBO, and MYOB.

If your accounting is the center of gravity and jobs are secondary, a FreshBooks-first setup may serve you better. See our breakdown of the best accounting software for contractors for context.

Pricing: What You Actually Pay

Tradify uses simple per-user, per-month pricing with a single plan - no feature gating. As of 2026 it sits around $45 USD per user per month (pricing varies by region). That includes everything: quotes, jobs, invoicing, mobile app, integrations.

There is a 14-day free trial with no credit card required, which is unusually generous in this category.

Is It Worth It?

For a solo tradie, $45/month is roughly the cost of one hour of billable work. If the software saves you more than an hour a month in admin, it pays for itself. In practice, most users I have spoken to say it saves them 4-8 hours a month once they are up and running. The ROI is not subtle.

For a 5-person crew, you are looking at $225/month, which is comparable to Housecall Pro at similar tier and cheaper than most enterprise FSM platforms.

What I Did Not Like

No review is honest without the rough edges:

• Reporting is thin. You get the basics - job profitability, invoice aging, tech utilization - but no custom report builder. If you want deep BI, you export to a spreadsheet.
• No native customer portal. Clients cannot log in to see quote history or job status. For B2B property maintenance contracts, this is a gap.
• The client-facing PDFs look dated. Functional, but not the polished branded experience you get from some competitors.
• Inventory management is basic. Tracks materials per job but is not a serious inventory system. If you hold stock across vans and a warehouse with reorder points, you need an add-on.

None of these are dealbreakers for the target user. They are gaps worth knowing about before you commit.

Tradify vs. The Alternatives

Here is the quick mental model I use when recommending:

• Solo to 10-person trades shop doing field work? Tradify is probably your best pick. It is built for exactly this.
• Residential service business wanting consumer booking, dispatch, and marketing tools? Look at Housecall Pro.
• Accounting-first shop where jobs are a side workflow? Stay in FreshBooks or similar.
• Large commercial contractor with complex scheduling? You have outgrown this category - look at enterprise FSM.

We dig deeper into the head-to-head in our Tradify vs Housecall Pro comparison if you are specifically weighing those two.

Who Should Sign Up Today

After several weeks of real use, my honest take: Tradify is the default recommendation for small trades businesses who spend more time on admin than they want to. It is not the prettiest tool. It does not have the most features. But it solves the actual problem - getting quotes out fast, jobs scheduled, hours tracked, and invoices paid - with less friction than almost anything else I have tested in this category.

Start with the 14-day trial. Import your customers and your top 20 price list items. Run one real job through it end to end. If you do not see the value by day 14, you have lost nothing. If you do, you have probably just reclaimed your Sunday evenings.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Tradify good for solo electricians and plumbers?

Yes. Solo operators are one of Tradify's core user segments. The per-user pricing and mobile-first design make it particularly friendly to one-person businesses who need to quote, schedule, and invoice without a back-office person.

Does Tradify work offline?

The mobile app works offline for most core actions - viewing jobs, adding notes and photos, logging time, recording materials. Data syncs automatically when connectivity returns. This is one of the strongest parts of the product.

What accounting software does Tradify integrate with?

Native two-way sync with Xero, QuickBooks Online, and MYOB. FreshBooks, Wave, and Sage are not directly supported - you would need manual export or a third-party connector.

How does Tradify compare to Housecall Pro?

Tradify is stronger on quoting, job costing, and trades-specific workflows. Housecall Pro is stronger on consumer-facing booking, dispatch optimization, and marketing features. Tradify suits crews where most jobs are quoted B2B or commercial; Housecall Pro suits residential service businesses selling on speed and convenience.

Can I use Tradify for recurring maintenance contracts?

Yes, but with caveats. Recurring jobs are supported but the scheduling UI for them is basic. If recurring service contracts are the majority of your work, test it carefully during the trial or consider a more maintenance-focused tool.

Is there a free plan?

No free tier, but there is a genuine 14-day free trial with no credit card required. Given the time savings most users report, this is usually enough to decide.

Does Tradify handle purchase orders and supplier integrations?

Yes. Purchase orders are built in, and in supported regions you can pull line items from major suppliers (Rexel, Reece, Bunnings, and others) directly into quotes and jobs. This is one of the standout features for electricians and plumbers.