Software comparison
ServiceM8 vs simPRO for an Australian trade business
For an 8 person electrical firm doing about 400 jobs a month, ServiceM8's Premium plan costs $149 a month including GST, with unlimited users. simPRO publishes no price for any team size and asks you to request a quote instead. simPRO's own site lists deeper project, stock and multi company features than ServiceM8 offers natively. Checked 25 September 2026.
Last checked 25 Sep 2026 against the sources listed at the end of this page.
ServiceM8
Pick ServiceM8 if you want a published price you can budget against today, unlimited users, and a field app that keeps working without signal.
simPRO
Pick simPRO if your firm runs multi stage projects with real materials to track, needs multi company consolidation, and you are prepared to sit through a sales quote to get a number.
What it costs
ServiceM8: AUD per month, GST inclusive, billed monthly, published on its pricing page. simPRO: no published price basis exists for any plan or user count.. Prices captured 25 Sep 2026 from ServiceM8 and simPRO.
| Plan | 1 user | 3 users | 8 users | How we worked it out | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ServiceM8 | Starter, Growing, Premium (by job volume) | $29 | $79 | $149 | The plan you need follows job count, not headcount: roughly 40 jobs a month sits inside Starter's 50 job allowance at $29, about 120 fits within Growing's 150 at $79, and around 400 fits Premium's 500 at $149. Every figure is GST inclusive with unlimited users on any paid tier. |
| simPRO | Base plan (one tier, quote only) | Quote required | Quote required | Quote required | There is nothing to compute here: simPRO's page carries one Request Pricing button no matter how many staff you have, so the 1, 3 and 8 user figures are all the same unanswered question until a salesperson calls you back. |
Feature by feature
| ServiceM8 | simPRO | |
|---|---|---|
| Published pricing | Yes, five tiers by job volume, all figures on the site. | No. One base plan shown by feature, price on request only. |
| Offline mode | Yes. Field staff can open job details without signal and changes sync when coverage returns. | Not stated on the pricing page. Public reviews raise mobile app stability and speed concerns in the field. |
| Project costing and stock control | Not built in as a dedicated module; add-ons from the ServiceM8 directory cover parts of this. | Built into the base plan: real time inventory and purchasing, plus project costing. |
| Multi company support | Not listed as a core feature. | Included in the base plan. |
| Asset tracking | Yes. Record client owned assets and their site location, then complete forms against them. | Not named on the pricing page; project and job costing are the stated strengths instead. |
| Named paid add-ons | A public add-on directory and API for custom forms, reports and automations. | Digital Forms, an extra Data Feed, Maintenance Planner, Takeoffs, Simtrac GPS fleet tracking and SMS, none priced on the site. |
Declared bias: we build on ServiceM8
FFP Digital is a ServiceM8 developer and builds add-ons, forms and reports for businesses running it, so we have an obvious reason to prefer it. We have tried to represent simPRO fairly from what its own site actually shows, and we say plainly where we could not find a number to compare, rather than guessing one.
We do not earn a commission from either vendor for this page.
Two very different sales models
ServiceM8 publishes five plans on its Australian pricing page, priced by monthly job volume with unlimited users on every paid tier: Free, Starter at $29, Growing at $79, Premium at $149 and Premium Plus at $349. An 8 person electrical crew running around 400 jobs a month lands on Premium at $149, GST inclusive, with no lock-in contract.
simPRO shows none of that. Its pricing page lists one base plan by feature, with a single Request Pricing button that leads to a demo booking form. There is no published figure for 1 user or for 8, no stated minimum seat count, and no listed onboarding fee. If your firm is choosing between the two, budget for a sales conversation with simPRO before you can put a real number against it, because nothing on its website lets you do that yourself.
Where simPRO's extra depth actually shows up
simPRO's base plan is built around project costing, purchasing and real time inventory, plus multi company support and 3 included data feeds. Paid add-ons extend that further: Digital Forms, an extra data feed, Maintenance Planner, Takeoffs, Simtrac GPS fleet tracking and SMS, though none of those are priced on the site either. That project and stock control depth is aimed at firms running multi stage jobs with materials to track across sites, which is a heavier job than most single visit trade work.
ServiceM8 does not offer that kind of stock or project costing module natively. It tracks client owned assets and their site location, and supports recurring jobs, but firms that need a proper stock ledger or multi company consolidation usually look to simPRO or a dedicated inventory add-on instead.
Where ServiceM8 stays the simpler tool
ServiceM8's field app works fully offline: staff can open job details without signal and changes sync when coverage returns. Public reviews of simPRO raise the opposite concern, with reviewers describing mobile app stability and speed problems in the field, alongside a setup process and interface reviewers call heavier than simpler job management tools.
For an 8 person firm that mostly needs jobs, quotes, invoicing and scheduling done well, ServiceM8's flat published price and unlimited users can be the easier thing to commit to, because you know the number before you pick up the phone.
Common complaints and catches
ServiceM8
- Occasional sync failures and crashes reported in the field app
- Reviewers noting missing features like camera roll photos and an iPad dispatch board
- Support that runs through chat and third party developers rather than a phone line
- Needing to keep paying a plan fee just to see old invoices
simPRO
- A setup and onboarding process some reviewers describe as longer than simpler job management tools
- Field app speed and stability complaints from on-site staff
- A user interface reviewers sometimes call old-fashioned next to newer entrants
- Add-on pricing reviewers say only became clear after the initial sales call
Switching between them
Moving from simPRO to ServiceM8, customers and price list items are the easiest to bring across by CSV; job and project history, custom forms and stock records usually need a planned export before you cancel simPRO, since neither vendor publishes a direct migration path between them. Run both tools side by side for a full billing cycle so no open invoice or in-progress project is lost.
FFP Digital is a ServiceM8 developer and builds for Cliniko clinics. We have tried to be fair; prices are the vendors' own published figures on the date shown.
Sources
- ServiceM8's Australian pricing page lists five tiers by monthly job allowance: Free (30 jobs, 1 user, no cost), Starter at $29 for 50 jobs, Growing at $79 for 150 jobs, Premium at $149 for 500 jobs, and Premium Plus at $349 for 1,500 jobs plus 20 cents per job over that; every paid tier includes unlimited users, all figures are AUD inclusive of GST, there is no lock-in, and new accounts get a 14 day free trial. ServiceM8, checked 25 Sep 2026.
- ServiceM8 field staff can access all job information without internet connectivity and updates sync when connectivity returns; it supports client owned assets with site location, recurring jobs, a public API, and free email and live chat support. ServiceM8, checked 25 Sep 2026.
- Instead of published tiers, simPRO's Australian site lists a single base plan by feature and routes every visitor to a Request Pricing button and demo form; not one dollar figure appears anywhere on the page. simPRO (Simpro Group), checked 25 Sep 2026.
- The base plan's feature list covers quoting and estimating, field and contractor scheduling, real time inventory and purchasing, field operations, invoicing and payments, accounting and finance, business intelligence reporting, support for multiple companies, and 3 Data Feeds included as standard; Digital Forms, an extra Data Feed, Maintenance Planner, Takeoffs, Simtrac GPS fleet tracking and SMS are sold separately with no published price. simPRO (Simpro Group), checked 25 Sep 2026.