The best apps for Australian trade businesses in 2026

There are more apps for Australian trade businesses than you have time to trial. This roundup covers seven: TrackYaTradie, ServiceM8, Tradify, Fergus, AroFlo, simPRO and NextMinute. One thing up front: we build TrackYaTradie, so read that section knowing it. Everything else is checked against each vendor's own site in August 2026, and where we could not confirm a detail we say check their site.

Four questions sort the field fast. How many people will log hours, including apprentices and labourers, because that sets your bill on per-user software. What phones the crew carry, because one Android in a management role rules some tools out. Whether you want to pay per user, flat per business, or by jobs or crew size. And whether you need live profit per job while it is running, or invoicing is enough. We compare TrackYaTradie with each one if you want the head-to-head.

The seven at a glance

TrackYaTradie (ours)

Best for: crews of one to about 25 who want to know whether each job is making money while it is still running.

Where it shines: you set the job value once, the crew logs hours and supply costs from their phones, and the profit on that job updates live, with an alert when costs climb towards the invoice. Quotes, invoices, a saved price list, payment stages and crew timesheets are in the one app. It runs in full on iPhone, Android and the web. Pricing is flat per business, not per user, so adding a labourer never adds a line to the bill (see pricing). Invoices, costs and timesheets sync to Xero. The trial is 14 days with no card.

Limitations: it is deliberately lean. No inventory, fleet or compliance modules, and it syncs with Xero only, not MYOB or QuickBooks. If you run maintenance contracts across a big service fleet, look at AroFlo or simPRO.

ServiceM8

Best for: field service businesses that book lots of small jobs and run on iPhone and iPad.

Where it shines: booking, dispatch and getting the job done on site. Pricing is tiered by jobs per month rather than per user, in Australian dollars including GST. Its AU pricing page in August 2026 lists a free plan for one user and 30 jobs a month, then Starter at $29 for 50 jobs, Growing at $79 for 150, Premium at $149 for 500 and Premium Plus at $349 for 1,500-plus, with unlimited users on every paid plan. Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks Online sync are included and the trial is 14 days with no card.

Limitations: the full app is iPhone and iPad only. Android phones get ServiceM8 Lite, which ServiceM8 says is for technicians, subcontractors and temporary workers when it is not practical to give them an iPhone, without the full feature list. A busy month can push you up a tier, and it is a field service tool first, not a live job profit tool. If your crew is mixed, read our ServiceM8 alternative for Android.

Tradify

Best for: small crews who want a well-known, all-round job management app and are happy paying per seat.

Where it shines: quoting, scheduling, job tracking and invoicing in one place, with apps for iPhone and Android plus desktop and tablet. It syncs with Xero and also lists MYOB and QuickBooks Online. Pricing is per user per month, ex GST. Its Australian pricing page in August 2026 lists Lite at $48, Pro at $52 and Plus at $62 per user a month, plus a Custom tier you call about. Every plan gets a 14-day free trial.

Limitations: the bill grows with every tradie you add, so do the sum for your headcount first. Costing and bill tracking sit on Pro and above, not Lite, so the plan you are really comparing for job costing is Pro, and its pages do not list an alert when a job's costs approach the quote. See our Tradify alternative for Australia.

Fergus

Best for: trade businesses that want a structured, workflow-driven system from an established brand. Fergus lists builders, electricians, plumbers and carpenters among more than 30 industries.

Where it shines: job cards, quoting, invoicing and a cost report on every job card, all in a set workflow, with the Fergus Go app on the App Store and Google Play. Its help centre says you pay per user, per month. Its Australian pricing page in August 2026 lists Essentials from $53 a month and Professional from $77 a month, an Enterprise option if you have more than 10 staff, timesheet-only users from $26 a month and contractor users at $4 per user per day. The trial is 14 days with no card, month to month with no lock-in contracts. Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks sync are included on both plans.

Limitations: per-user pricing again, so a growing crew means a growing bill, and the page does not say whether those figures include GST, so check their site. The free trial is the Essentials plan, so if you need a Professional feature, ask them how to test it.

AroFlo

Best for: field service operations, small to large, that need inventory, compliance workflows and asset maintenance as well as jobs and invoices.

Where it shines: depth. AroFlo is Australian, headquartered in Melbourne and now part of the Simpro Group, and it splits into AroFlo Office for the desktop and AroFlo Field for phones and tablets, with apps on the App Store and Google Play. Quoting and estimating, scheduling, timesheets, job costing, inventory, safety compliance, asset management, digital payments and Xero sync are all there, alongside modules most small crews never open.

Limitations: pricing is on request. The pricing page offers a Request Pricing button and a free demo rather than a self-serve trial. AroFlo's own blog puts it at from $67 per user a month with a $335 monthly minimum, and an onboarding fee from $2,900 for AroFlo Premium. Treat those as a guide and check their site. That minimum makes it dear for a crew of one or two, and it comes with a learning curve and an implementation project. If you genuinely need the modules, it earns the complexity. For the head-to-head, see TrackYaTradie vs AroFlo.

simPRO

Best for: larger contractors and enterprises running projects, service work, asset maintenance and stock across several locations.

Where it shines: it is the deepest system on this list. Projects with stages and variations, service work, asset maintenance and stock across multiple locations sit on one platform, with Simpro Mobile for the field on iOS and Android and the office side in the browser. Invoices, timesheets, customers and suppliers transfer to Xero, and it also connects to QuickBooks. Simpro says it suits anything from a team of five to a franchise with more than 1,000 staff, and names electrical, HVAC, plumbing, security and fire protection. An electrical contractor with a service division and an office team is who this is built for.

Limitations: pricing is on request, not published. Its pricing page has Request Pricing and Get Demo buttons and no self-serve free trial, and its implementation page says to plan for around 60 days of setup, training and data migration. Fine for a business with an office manager and a software budget, wrong for a three-person crew that wants to be running jobs by tonight. Check their site for current platform requirements.

NextMinute

Best for: builders and tradies who want quoting, scheduling, timesheets, invoicing and back-costing in one app, with the whole feature set on every plan.

Where it shines: back-costing that compares actual labour, material and subcontractor costs against the estimate as the job runs, by job and stage. Apps are on the App Store and Google Play, and it syncs invoices, contacts and timesheets with Xero, and also lists MYOB and QuickBooks. Setup, training and ongoing support are included. Pricing is by crew size rather than per user, in Australian dollars plus GST. In August 2026 its AU pricing page lists Tradie Growth from $199 a month for three to nine users, Tradie Pro from $349 a month for 10 to 14 users, and Tradie Max on custom pricing for 15 or more, month to month with no lock-in contracts. The trial is 10 days with no card.

Limitations: the published plans start at a three-to-nine user band, so a sole trader should check their site first. The trial is shorter than most here, so push a real job through it before it runs out.

How to choose in five minutes

1. Count your crew, including anyone who logs hours or needs a login. That number decides whether per-user pricing hurts.
2. List the phones. If anyone running the business is on Android, cross off tools that only give Android a cut-down app.
3. Pick the pricing model that fits: per user (Tradify, Fergus, AroFlo), tiered by crew size or jobs (NextMinute, ServiceM8), flat per business (TrackYaTradie) or quoted (simPRO). Do the sum for your crew, not the advertised starting price.
4. Decide whether you need live profit per job or just invoicing. If you carry materials and labour on fixed-price work, you need costing. Put a recent job through the job profit calculator to see what a live number would have told you.
5. Shortlist two, start both trials the same week, and run the same real job through each. Keep the one you still open on a flat-out Tuesday.

That is the whole method. The right app fits your crew size, your phones and your pricing tolerance, and tells you the truth about your margin before the job is finished.