The process
- Check the vendor's own Australian page. Prices, plans, trial terms and plan-by-plan features come from the vendor's AU pricing and feature pages. We record the date and the page for every fact.
- Convert foreign prices, and say so. Some vendors only list US dollars or euros. We show their price exactly as listed, then an AUD estimate beside it (marked ≈), converted at the Reserve Bank of Australia rate of 20 Oct 2026 with GST added, so it compares with the AUD prices that include GST. Your bank's rate and card fees decide the final figure.
- Regional editions use that country's page. The New Zealand and UK editions take every price from the vendor's NZ or UK pricing page, exactly as listed and never converted. Where a page doesn't say whether tax is included, a price is only marked lower when it is at least 10% lower however the tax turns out.
- Mark what we can't confirm. If a page doesn't say whether a price includes GST, or which plan a feature is on, the comparison shows a question mark instead of a tick.
- Run the free trial on the same test work. For trade job apps, we set up the same small trade business in each app and run four jobs end to end (see below). Every design and construction guide has its own trial checklist. Until our hands-on trials of a category are done, its guide is built from vendor-published facts only, and says so.
- Connect a test accounting file. Where the app offers it, we sync invoices to a test Xero file and check what comes across.
- Re-check every month. Prices are re-checked monthly and the date on the page is updated. Anything that changed is noted in the update log.
The four test jobs (trade job apps)
| Test job | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Hot water system replacement | Quote with materials and labour, photos, compliance certificate, invoice |
| Switchboard upgrade | Quote options, scheduling two workers, sign-off on site |
| Split-system service | Recurring job, service reminder, equipment history |
| Bathroom renovation | Staged quote, a variation, progress invoices, timesheets |
What we score on
- Real cost in AUD for a sole trader, a 3-person team and a 10-person team.
- Paperwork: forms, certificates and photos on site, and which plan you need for them.
- Accounting: Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks, and what syncs.
- On-site use: how fast a quote can be built on a phone.
- Trial and contract terms: card needed, lock-in, what happens when a promotion ends.
We don't publish a single star score. A sole trader and a 10-person team need different things, so we say who each app is best for instead.
Independence
Vendors can't pay to change rankings or see a review before it's published. Where we earn an affiliate commission, the link is marked and explained in our disclosure.
Corrections
Spotted a price that's changed or something we got wrong? Email [email protected]. We check it against the vendor's page and fix it, usually within two business days.
Update log
- 20 October 2026: prices and plan features checked for Tradify, ServiceM8, Fergus and AroFlo. Hands-on trials in progress.
- 20 October 2026 (second pass): confirmed from vendor pages: Tradify prices are ex GST; ServiceM8 includes Xero/MYOB/QuickBooks sync, timesheets, staff GPS and quoting on every plan; Fergus prices are per user; AroFlo integrates with Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks; all four have iPhone and Android apps. With GST shown like for like, ServiceM8 became our top pick on cost.
- 21 October 2026: the site widened to design offices and builders and became Studio to Site. Prices and features checked on vendor pages for CAD & BIM, PDF markup, rendering, practice management, document control, estimating, construction project management, site safety, payroll and trade specialist tools. Where research notes and a vendor page disagreed, the vendor page won. Hands-on trials of these categories haven't been done yet.
- 21 October 2026 (later): added head-to-head pages for Revit vs Archicad, Bluebeam vs Drawboard and Buildxact vs Cubit, re-checking their prices and facts on the vendor pages. Foreign-currency prices now show an AUD estimate at the RBA rate of 20 Oct 2026.
- 21 October 2026 (night): New Zealand and UK editions of the job-app comparison, with Tradify, ServiceM8, Fergus, Xero and MYOB prices read on each vendor's NZ and UK pages.
Price changes, check by check
Generated from every recorded monthly check. When a price moves, its table on the guide also shows a small “up” or “down” tag until the next check.
- 21 October 2026: first recorded check, 168 listed prices across the Australian, New Zealand and UK pages. From the next monthly check, every price that moves is listed here and tagged on its page.