Original data
Home-Service Software Cost Index
The index
Monthly cost in U.S. dollars, using annual billing where a vendor offers it. Employees means W-2 staff not counting the owner.
| Employees | Lean | Standard | Full platform | Lean, per employee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $55 | $55 | $105 via Jobber | $55.00 |
| 3 | $67 | $67 | $175 via Jobber | $22.33 |
| 5 | $79 | $79 | $245 via Jobber | $15.80 |
| 10 | $109 | $109 | $420 via Jobber | $10.90 |
| 15 | $139 | $168 | $595 via Jobber | $9.27 |
What each tier means
- Lean. Payroll only. Scheduling, checklists and forms handled with free tiers and printed templates.
- Standard. Payroll plus a crew app for scheduling and time tracking, plus digital forms.
- Full platform. Payroll plus a field-service platform covering quoting, dispatch, invoicing and customer history.
Three things the numbers show
1. Small businesses pay the most per head, by a long way
At one employee the payroll layer works out at $55.00 per employee per month. At ten it is $10.90. That is a 5.0 times difference, driven entirely by flat base fees, and it lands on the businesses least able to carry it.
2. Under ten employees, the operational layer is free
The standard tier costs exactly the same as the lean tier at every size up to ten, because Connecteam's Small Business plan is free for life to 10 employees and Jotform's free tier covers 100 submissions a month. Scheduling, a phone time clock, checklists and forms cost nothing at that size. Any advice telling a five-person business it must pay for scheduling software is wrong.
3. The platform decision is the expensive one
Moving from free operational tools to a full field-service platform multiplies a five-person business's software bill by about 3.1. That single choice matters more than every other software decision combined, which is why we built a readiness quiz that is willing to tell you not to.
Method
Everything here is computed from published list prices rather than estimated, and the computation lives in code so the figures cannot drift away from the prices we checked.
- Employees means W-2 staff, not counting the owner.
- Users means everyone needing software access, so employees plus the owner.
- Payroll assumes Gusto Simple, the plan that fits single-state businesses.
- Annual billing is used wherever a vendor offers it.
- Free tiers are used wherever the business genuinely qualifies.
- Field service takes whichever of Jobber or Housecall Pro is cheaper at that user count, priced from published per-seat rates.
Input prices
| Vendor | Plan used | Price | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gusto | Simple | $49/mo + $6/user | Cross-checked |
| Connecteam | Small Business (free) | Free | Vendor page |
| Jotform | Starter (free) | Free | Vendor page |
| Jobber | Core | $21/mo | Vendor page |
| Housecall Pro | Basic | $59/mo | Vendor page |
Known limits
- Jobber sells larger bundles including five, ten and fifteen users at prices it does not publish openly. Our field-service figures use the published per-seat rate, so real quotes at higher headcounts may come in lower.
- List prices exclude sales tax, payment processing and setup fees.
- Vendors run introductory discounts, so a first-year bill is often lower than the index shows.
- This index covers software only. It excludes insurance, vehicles, and the payroll taxes themselves, which our cost calculator handles.
Citing this
Free to use and quote with attribution. If you publish a figure from here, please link back so readers can check the method and see when it was last updated.
Suggested citation
FirstCrewOps, "Home-Service Software Cost Index", 28 August 2026. https://firstcrewops.com/data/software-cost-index/
We recheck vendor pricing and republish this index on a regular basis. If a figure here is out of date, tell us and we will fix it and note the change.
Common questions
How much does software cost for a small home-service business?
Less than most owners expect at the small end, and it does not scale the way people assume. A one-employee business running payroll plus free scheduling and forms pays about $55 a month. A five-employee business pays about $79. The jump comes from adding a field-service platform, which takes a five-person business to roughly $245 a month.
Why does software cost more per employee for a smaller business?
Base fees dominate. Payroll charges a flat monthly fee plus a small per-employee amount, so at one employee you pay $55.00 per head and at ten you pay $10.90. That is a 5.0 times difference, and it falls hardest on the businesses least able to absorb it.
Do I have to pay for scheduling software?
Not under about ten employees. Connecteam's Small Business plan is free for life to 10 employees and Jotform's free tier covers 100 form submissions a month, so the entire operational layer costs nothing at that size. In this index the standard stack and the lean stack are the same price at every size up to ten.
How is this index calculated?
From published vendor list prices, checked against each vendor’s own pricing page and dated on this page. Annual billing is used where offered, free tiers are used where the business qualifies, and the field-service line takes whichever of Jobber or Housecall Pro is cheaper at that user count. Full method is on the page.