Jobber and Housecall Pro are two of the most popular field service management solutions available. These two software options offer comparable features and services. Which is best for you? That depends on your needs.
Overview of Jobber
As a Field Service tool, one of Jobber’s strengths is in the intuitive access to reporting. The interface has a simple dashboard with all the necessary reports neatly arranged. Clicking on one takes you to its full view, giving you a sidebar dashboard from which you can see all other listed reports.
Another compelling aspect is superior quoting tools. Any marketer can tell you people respond more to texts than emails, so the ability to send quotes in texts will give you an edge in winning work. You can also create quotes that contain all your branding so they look as slick as possible, and customers can review and approve them online. Better still, Jobber contains automated follow up emails or texts if you haven’t heard back.
Overview of Housecall Pro
Tailored a little bit more toward the smaller end of the field service market like the plumbing and HVAC industries, Housecall Pro is a standalone app that’s separate from the browser-based version. Unlike most competitors, it’s very high quality, containing all the features of the larger version and making them just as easy to use.
The dashboard is divided into action areas called blocks and – also unlike most other Field Service Management systems – it’s customizable, letting you move, add or remove blocks by clicking and dragging them to suit your screen size, the most common tools necessary for your industry, and your personal preference.
Despite the apparent target market of SMEs that might only have one or a handful of operators, Housecall Pro is a little pricier than others, with several important features only available as extensions that cost more still. That makes it more suited to existing businesses with healthy cash flow.
Major features in common
The most important features both platforms offer is full connectivity across screens and devices wherever you, your staff, or your customers are. The aesthetic design and user interfaces of each have been constructed to be legible and easy to use whether you’re looking at a PC screen or a smart phone, and being cloud products they’re easy to sign up for and deploy.
Both systems provide perfectly adequate help files and guidance on everything from getting started to more advanced features. How-tos, explainer videos and FAQs are all included natively as part of each platform.
It’s also easy to integrate both Housecall Pro and Jobber with accounting software like QuickBooks for your financial reporting needs or Zapier for connectivity to a wide breadth of services.
Major differences
According to customer reviews, Jobber’s tech support stands head and shoulders above the rest, letting you connect with a real live specialist in next to no time – in fact, Jobber’s own marketing literature claims the average wait time for tech support is just 36 seconds.
So while Housecall Pro’s price offerings range between $65 and $229 per month and Jobber’s are between $49 and $279 (with significant discounts in both cases if you pay annually), the difference is going to be in the core features each platform offers rather than the price. Both offer free trials, so spend as long as the publishers allow playing with each system to see which one suits you better.
That said, it’s not unreasonable to consider Jobber to be better value in most cases because of several factors. First is that you’ll spend less time (and therefore money) waiting for tech support. Second and perhaps more important is that most of the functions you need are part of the core feature set. Housecall Pro includes the basics, but there are more features that cost extra, and therefore more chance you’ll need to pay more for what you need.
Jobber also has basic inventory control, letting you keep track of assets like products your staff need to sell or supply on the road.
But Housecall Pro is a clear winner in an unexpected area in that it lets you build a rudimentary customer-facing website that your entire Field Service Management platform plugs into behind the scenes. The results aren’t as customizable as one from WordPress and not as attractive as templates from a service like SquareSpace, but it provides a means for customers to read a little about you and make their own booking through the site or your social media channels.
Choosing the best Field Service Management software
Where smart business owners look behind just the advertised price for true value, Jobber seems on the surface to be a better proposition simply because it contains more of the features most operators will need for a lower price. Housecall Pro is not only a little more expensive straight out of the gate, some of the capabilities larger organizations need aren’t available without paying more for upgrades or plugins.
But if you have more specialized needs that generate a very particular revenue stream and need less common functions, it might be well worth the money to go with Housecall Pro and pay the extra you need to get them done properly. Look at the way your business operates on an end-to-end basis, research the features offered in each platform carefully, and the right choice will present it to you.
