What both platforms do
Before getting into where these two tools differ, it helps to be clear on where they overlap. Both HouseCall Pro and Jobber are purpose-built for field service businesses — the kind that dispatch technicians or crews to job sites, quote work on-location or in advance, and invoice customers after the job is done.
The shared feature set is substantial. Both platforms offer scheduling and dispatching, mobile apps for technicians in the field, customer-facing online booking, GPS tracking of your field team, invoicing and payment collection, and QuickBooks integration for accounting. If your core requirement is simply getting off paper and into a digital system that handles the basics, either tool will accomplish that.
The meaningful differences show up when you look at which trades each platform was built for, how each handles marketing and customer retention, and where each tool's workflow is actually cleaner for how your business runs day to day.
"Both platforms solve the same operational problem — jobs in, jobs out, customers billed. The gap shows up in the details: financing, marketing, quoting, and which trade you run."
HouseCall Pro vs Jobber: side-by-side comparison
| Feature | HouseCall Pro | Jobber |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Basic $79/mo (1 user) · Essentials $189/mo (up to 5) · MAX custom | Core $69/mo (1 user) · Connect $169/mo (up to 5) · Grow $349/mo (up to 15) |
| Built-in Financing | Yes — Wisetack, native | Not native |
| Marketing Tools | Postcard campaigns, email marketing built-in | Basic email; relies on integrations |
| Review Management | Built-in review requests | Available, less automated |
| Quoting | Solid, flat-rate pricing books (HVAC focus) | Cleaner quoting workflow, more flexible |
| Job Forms | Standard forms | More flexible, customizable |
| Client Communication | 2-way SMS available | Stronger 2-way SMS, client hub |
| Integrations / API | QuickBooks, Zapier, select partners | Stronger API, broader integrations |
| Best Industries | HVAC, plumbing, electrical | Landscaping, cleaning, multi-trade |
| Best For | Trade businesses wanting built-in marketing and financing | Trade-agnostic ops that need clean quoting and flexible workflows |
HouseCall Pro — deep dive
HouseCall Pro is built with the HVAC, plumbing, and electrical contractor in mind. Its feature set reflects those trades specifically: flat-rate pricing books, built-in consumer financing so customers can spread out the cost of a new system, and marketing tools that help owner-operators generate repeat business without hiring a separate marketing team.
Pricing starts at $79 per month for the Basic plan (single user), $189 per month for Essentials (up to 5 users), and custom pricing for the MAX plan. Annual billing reduces these rates. These are published monthly prices — confirm current pricing at housecallpro.com.
Where HouseCall Pro wins:
- Built-in consumer financing through Wisetack is the most differentiating feature. Customers can apply for financing directly from an estimate or invoice without leaving the HouseCall Pro flow. For HVAC and other high-ticket trades where a new system can cost thousands of dollars, this directly converts jobs that might otherwise be lost.
- Marketing tools are built in, not added via integrations. Postcard campaigns, email marketing, and automated sequences are native to the platform. That is unusual for field service software, and it matters if you want to run win-back campaigns or seasonal promos without adding another tool to your stack.
- Instant book from Google lets customers book directly from a Google Business Profile search result, reducing friction on inbound leads.
- Review management is built in. Automated review requests go out after job completion, and the platform helps manage the response flow — without requiring a third-party reputation management tool.
- HVAC flat-rate pricing books are a native feature, allowing technicians to quote from pre-built price lists in the field rather than calculating manually.
- Standard field service features — scheduling, dispatching, invoicing, GPS tracking, mobile app, QuickBooks integration, online booking — are all included.
Where HouseCall Pro has limitations:
- The quoting workflow, while functional, is less flexible than Jobber's for trades that do not use flat-rate pricing — such as landscaping, cleaning, or project-based work where line items and custom job forms matter more.
- The platform's trade-specific focus means some features feel purpose-built for HVAC and plumbing but less tailored for other verticals.
- API and third-party integration capabilities are more limited than Jobber's, which matters for businesses that want to connect their field service software to other systems in their stack.
HouseCall Pro financing note: The Wisetack integration enables customers to apply for financing at the point of estimate or invoice — a capability that directly addresses the most common reason a high-ticket job does not close: the customer cannot pay the full amount upfront. This is a native feature, not a third-party integration that requires a separate account setup.
Jobber — deep dive
Jobber is designed to work across a wider range of trade and service businesses: landscaping, cleaning, pest control, window cleaning, painting, and more, in addition to HVAC, plumbing, and electrical. Its emphasis is on a clean UI and workflow clarity. Getting from a lead to a quote to a job to an invoice with minimal friction, and keeping client communication in one place throughout.
Pricing starts at $69 per month for the Core plan (1 user), $169 per month for the Connect plan (up to 5 users), and $349 per month for the Grow plan (up to 15 users). These are monthly billing rates. Confirm current pricing at getjobber.com.
Where Jobber wins:
- The quoting workflow is cleaner and more flexible. Custom line items, optional add-ons, and quote approval flows are more polished than HouseCall Pro's implementation — important for businesses that do not use flat-rate pricing books.
- Job forms are more flexible. Technicians can fill out custom inspection forms, checklists, or data collection fields tied to specific job types. This is a real advantage for businesses with varied service offerings.
- Two-way SMS is stronger. Jobber's client hub makes it easier for customers to reach your team directly, and for your team to respond without routing everything through a personal phone number.
- The API is stronger and integrations are broader. Businesses connecting Jobber to a CRM, a marketing tool, or a reporting system have more options to work with.
- The UI is consistently cited as cleaner by users across multiple trades. Easier to onboard new staff, and less overwhelming for businesses running several service types at once.
- Standard field service features — scheduling, dispatching, invoicing, GPS tracking, mobile app, QuickBooks integration, online booking — are all included.
Where Jobber has limitations:
- No built-in consumer financing. For HVAC, plumbing, or electrical businesses where high-ticket jobs are common, the absence of a native Wisetack-style integration is a meaningful gap.
- Marketing tools are limited compared to HouseCall Pro. Postcard campaigns, built-in email marketing, and automated win-back sequences are not native features — you would need separate tools or integrations to run those campaigns.
- Review management is less automated out of the box. Review request workflows exist but are not as purpose-built as HouseCall Pro's implementation.
- HVAC flat-rate pricing books are not a native Jobber feature, which matters for HVAC and plumbing businesses that quote from pre-built price lists.
"Jobber's strength is its versatility and clean UX. HouseCall Pro's strength is its depth for the specific trades it was built for. If you run HVAC or plumbing, that depth matters. If you run anything else, Jobber's flexibility usually wins."
How we choose at Aplos AI
When working with field service business clients, we evaluate platform fit based on two things: the trade the business runs, and where the biggest operational or revenue gap currently lives.
We recommend HouseCall Pro when: The business runs HVAC, plumbing, or electrical — especially if high-ticket jobs are common and customer financing would meaningfully improve close rates. We also recommend it when the operator wants built-in marketing tools (email, postcards, win-back campaigns) without adding a separate marketing platform, and when review generation is a current gap.
We recommend Jobber when: The business runs landscaping, cleaning, pest control, or other trade-agnostic services where flexible job forms and clean quoting matter more than flat-rate pricing books. We also recommend Jobber when the business needs stronger API access to connect their field service software to other parts of their stack, or when staff onboarding ease is a priority.
We flag the trade-off when: A business runs HVAC but also values Jobber's quoting flexibility and API access. In that case, we look at which gap creates more lost revenue — missed financing conversions or rigid quoting — and build a recommendation from there. Sometimes custom automation can bridge a gap in whichever platform is chosen.
The decision framework
Answer these questions before you commit to either platform:
- What trade do you run? If it is HVAC, plumbing, or electrical — especially with average ticket sizes above $1,000 — HouseCall Pro's flat-rate books and Wisetack financing are purpose-built for your business. For landscaping, cleaning, or multi-service operations, Jobber's flexibility is usually a better fit.
- Do you lose jobs because customers cannot pay the full amount upfront? If yes, HouseCall Pro's built-in Wisetack financing addresses this directly. Jobber does not have an equivalent native feature.
- Do you run marketing campaigns to generate repeat business? If you want postcard campaigns, email marketing, and win-back sequences without adding a separate tool, HouseCall Pro includes these natively. Jobber requires integrations to achieve the same.
- How customized are your quotes and job forms? If your jobs require custom line items, flexible forms, or structured data collection from technicians in the field, Jobber's quoting and form flexibility is meaningfully better.
- Do you need to connect your field service software to other systems? If you plan to integrate with a CRM, build custom reports, or connect to external automation workflows, Jobber's stronger API is an advantage worth factoring in.
The automation gap
Both HouseCall Pro and Jobber include some built-in automation. HouseCall Pro handles review requests, appointment reminders, and basic follow-up messages. Jobber covers job notifications, quote follow-ups, and invoice reminders. For the most common, repeatable steps in the job cycle, these work fine.
But there is a consistent gap that neither platform closes, and we see it with almost every field service business we work with.
Neither tool handles multi-step lead follow-up sequences. If someone submits a request on your website and you don't reach them on the first call, neither HouseCall Pro nor Jobber automatically sends a follow-up text at 2 hours, an email at 24 hours, and another text at 72 hours until they respond or go cold. That sequence is responsible for a meaningful share of closed jobs in service businesses. Without it, you need either manual effort or a custom automation layer.
Neither tool manages review request timing intelligently. Blasting a review request after every job is a blunt instrument. A customer who had a billing dispute or a callback is more likely to leave a negative review if the request fires automatically. A smarter workflow — one that checks for callbacks, flags problem jobs, and times the request after a clean close — requires automation logic outside the platform.
Neither tool produces cross-system reporting. If you want a single view showing revenue by job type, close rate by lead source, average job value by technician, and review count by month, you are pulling that from multiple systems and building it yourself. Most operators are not building it at all.
This is where Aplos AI builds the automation layer for trade businesses. We do not replace HouseCall Pro or Jobber. We extend whichever one you are running with the workflows those platforms cannot handle natively: lead follow-up sequences, timed review requests, cross-system reporting. You can read more about what that looks like in our HVAC automation guide.
Running HouseCall Pro or Jobber but still chasing leads manually, sending review requests by hand, or flying blind on reporting? We map your current workflow in a free audit and show you exactly which gaps can be closed with automation — without switching platforms.
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