Jobber vs Housecall Pro: real costs and Canadian payment gaps

Both apps do the same core job

Jobber and Housecall Pro both do the same five things for a trades shop: take the enquiry, book the job, send the quote, dispatch the tech and get paid. Neither one is a niche product. If you run an HVAC, plumbing or electrical shop in Alberta, both will get through your day.

So the choice is not really about the feature list. It comes down to three things: what you pay once your whole crew is on it, how you take money from a Canadian customer, and which gap you can live with. Everything below comes from what each company publishes on its own pricing and help pages.

What the two companies charge today

Jobber's entry plan is Core at US$49 a month with no commitment, and it includes one user ¹. Housecall Pro's entry plan is Basic at US$59 a month when you pay for the year, and it includes one user ². Both pricing pages state plainly that all prices are in US dollars.

A step up, Jobber's Connect plan is US$139 a month ³ and Housecall Pro's Essentials plan is US$149 a month ⁴. At the top of the range most shops look at, Jobber's Grow plan is US$199 a month ³ and Housecall Pro's Max plan is US$299 a month ⁴.

Both companies are discounting as of today, and both discounts end. Jobber's page shows up to 40% off with the offer ending October 30th ¹. Housecall Pro's page shows Basic at $26 a month for the first month and Max at $99 a month for three months ²⁴. Those are promotions. Budget the regular price, because that is what you will be paying in month four.

One US dollar cost CA$1.4038 at the Bank of Canada's daily average rate on the day this page was checked ⁵. Your bank converts at its own rate and usually adds a foreign exchange fee, and GST goes on top of that. Read every price on both websites as a US dollar price.

Jobber charges for each extra user

This is the biggest money difference between them, and it is easy to miss. Jobber's Core, Connect and Grow plans each include one user, and the page says to add users for $29 a month each ¹³. A user is anyone who opens your account, in the office or in the field.

Housecall Pro bundles seats instead. Basic includes one user ², Essentials includes five users, and Max includes eight users with $35 a month per additional user after that ⁴.

So count your seats before you compare the headline numbers. A one-person shop pays less on Jobber Core. A shop with an office person and four techs should price out Housecall Pro Essentials against Jobber with four extra users added, and the ranking can flip. Write both numbers down on paper before you sign anything for a year.

Taking payment in Canada is where they split

Jobber's help centre says Jobber Payments can process all major debit and credit cards, as long as the card carries a Visa, Mastercard, Amex or Discover logo, and that Jobber Payments is available in the UK, US and Canada ⁶. Its pricing page lists 2.9% plus 30 cents for card processing, 2.7% plus 30 cents for Tap to Pay on a phone, 1% for bank payments, and an additional 1% if you want the money paid out instantly ⁷. The page does not list separate Canadian rates, and the help centre tells you to check your own rates inside your account settings.

Housecall Pro's pricing page says a 1% fee is applied to bank payments, and card processing fees start at 2.59% ⁸. That headline card rate looks better than Jobber's. Read the next paragraph before you choose on that basis.

Housecall Pro's own help pages say two of those payment tools do not reach Canada. Its ACH article says ACH is currently only available for businesses based in the U.S. ⁹. Its card reader article says the card reader is currently only available in the U.S. and is not yet available to our Canadian Pros ¹⁰. Its instant payout article sets a $10,000 limit per transaction for pros in Canada against $50,000 for pros in the United States ¹¹. For a shop that wants a tech to tap a card at the door, that is the deciding paragraph on this page.

Jobber has a Canadian gap of its own. Tap to Pay works on all plans in Canada, but Jobber's help centre says Interac is not supported in Canada ¹². Your customer can tap a Visa or Mastercard. They cannot tap their Interac debit card, which is how a lot of Albertans prefer to pay a tradesperson. The same article notes that taps over $250 may run into card limits.

What the cheapest plan leaves out

On Jobber, Core covers booking and scheduling jobs online, sending quotes, and sending invoices with online payment ¹. Automated client reminders, automatic payment collection and job checklists start at Connect. Automatic time tracking and job costing start at Grow ³.

On Housecall Pro, Basic covers online booking, scheduling and dispatching, quotes and proposals, and review management ². Routes, flat-rate pricing, checklist automations, photo reports, employee GPS tracking and QuickBooks Online sync start at Essentials. Open API access and route optimization are Max only ⁴.

Pick your plan by the one feature you will use every single week, not by the longest list. For most shops that is automated reminders to cut no-shows, or job costing to find out which jobs are losing money. On both products, both of those sit above the entry plan.

How to test both in two weeks

Both companies advertise a free trial, so run them side by side on real work rather than reading comparison pages ¹².

Push the same three jobs through each one: a quote that needs a follow-up, a service call where the tech needs the site history while standing in a mechanical room, and an invoice the customer pays by card at the door. Do that last one yourself, from the truck, on your own phone.

Then test the two things that bite later. Ask each company in writing exactly what a Canadian customer can use to pay you, and what happens to your data if you leave. Export a client list from both before the trial ends, and see what the file actually looks like.

Last, count the seats you really need and price that total. The one-user headline price is the number both companies advertise and almost nobody pays.

Most shops should buy, not build

For nearly every Alberta trades shop, one of these two is the right answer. They cost a fraction of a person doing the same work by hand, they are maintained for you, and your techs can learn either one in a week.

A ready-made tool is right when your work looks like other shops' work: quotes, schedules, dispatch, invoices, reminders. Custom work only earns its cost when a real part of your business does not fit that shape, such as your own equipment or parts system, a service agreement structure the software will not hold, or a Canadian payment path neither product supports.