An honest side-by-side with three tools service businesses actually shortlist — including the things they do better than we do.
The short answer
ServiceInvoicing is invoicing software for service trades, priced from $0 to $39/mo, with unlimited invoices on every plan, team seats included, and no payment processing fees. Jobber ($49–$499/mo) is a full field-service suite with scheduling and dispatch. FreshBooks ($23–$70/mo) is accounting software with bookkeeping and tax reports. Joist ($12–$100/mo) is a contractor estimating app with a strong native mobile app, but its entry plan caps you at five documents a month. Choose ServiceInvoicing if invoicing, contracts and client records are what you actually need; choose the others if you need scheduling, bookkeeping or on-site mobile estimating respectively.
Last reviewed against each vendor’s published pricing page.
Competitor pricing and features checked against their public pricing pages in September 2026.
Comparison of ServiceInvoicing, Jobber, FreshBooks and Joist across pricing, invoicing, client management and scope.
Feature
ServiceInvoicing
This site
Jobber
Field service suite
FreshBooks
Accounting first
Joist
Contractor invoicing app
Price & limits
Free planA usable plan that costs nothing, not just a trial.
YesYes — 2 clients, unlimited invoices
No14-day trial only
No30-day trial only
No14-day trial only; the free plan was retired
Entry paid plan
$9/mo
$49/mo (from $29 billed annually)
$23/mo
$12/mo (from $8.34 billed annually)
Top plan
$39/mo — unlimited everything
$499/mo (Plus)
$70/mo (Premium)
$32/mo (Elite), $100/mo (Run)
Invoices per monthThe number of invoices you can actually send.
YesUnlimited on every plan, including free
YesUnlimited
YesUnlimited (clients are capped instead)
Partial5 documents/mo on Basics; unlimited from $17/mo
What the plan caps
Active clients (2 / 10 / 25 / unlimited)
Users and features
Billable clients (5 / 50 / unlimited)
Documents per month on the entry plan
Team members includedExtra people who can work in the account at no extra charge.
Yes2 / 10 / unlimited, included in the plan price
No1 user on most plans; +$29/mo each
No1 user; +$11/mo each
NoNot included in the published plans
Contract or commitment
YesMonth-to-month, cancel any time
PartialMonth-to-month costs more; best rates need an annual prepay
PartialHeadline prices are promotional and renew higher
YesMonth-to-month, or 2 months free billed annually
Invoicing
Itemized line items, tax, discounts, deposits
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
PDF download and print
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Trade-specific job fieldsReusable custom fields — permit number, VIN, serial number, claim reference — that attach to every invoice.
YesCustom schemas you define per trade
PartialCustom fields on higher plans
No
NoNo custom field system published
Payment status trackingDraft, Pending, Paid, Overdue — filterable by client or status.
Yes
Yes
Yes
YesClient activity tracking from $17/mo
Multi-currency invoicing
Yes18 currencies, set per invoice
PartialLimited
Yes
NoNot published
Free invoice templates without an account
Yes30 printable trade templates
Yes
Yes
Yes
Clients & contracts
Client address book
Yes
Yes
Yes
YesUnlimited clients on every plan
Contracts with e-signature
YesIncluded from $19/mo
PartialQuote approval rather than general contracts
PartialProposals on Plus and above
YesContracts with in-app signatures
Client portalYour clients sign in to view invoices and sign contracts.
YesIncluded from $19/mo
Yes
Yes
PartialClients receive and pay documents; no sign-in portal
Time entries billed to invoices
Yes
YesConnect and above
Yes
NoWork orders, not billable time
Revenue reports with CSV export
YesBilled, collected and outstanding by date range
Yes
Yes
PartialBusiness reports on Elite; CSV export not published
What we deliberately do not do
Processes card paymentsWe produce invoices and track their status. We never touch your money — you get paid however you already do.
NoNo — and no processing fees either
Yes2.9% + 30¢ per card charge
YesProcessing fees apply
YesStandard processing fees apply
Scheduling, dispatch and GPS routing
No
YesCore strength
No
PartialVisit scheduling on the $100/mo Run plan
Full bookkeeping, expenses and tax reports
No
PartialSyncs to QuickBooks
YesCore strength
No
Native mobile app
NoWeb app; works in a phone browser
Yes
Yes
YesCore strength
Jobber, FreshBooks and Joist are trademarks of their respective owners and are not affiliated with ServiceInvoicing. Prices shown are the vendors’ published list prices in September 2026 and exclude promotional discounts, add-ons and taxes.
Head to head
Each of these is the right answer for someone. Here is who.
ServiceInvoicing vs Jobber
The full field-service suite — and priced like one.
Jobber runs the whole job: scheduling, dispatch, routing, quotes, payments and invoicing. If you have crews to move around a map every morning, that is worth paying for. But its entry plan starts at $49/mo month-to-month for a single user, extra users are $29/mo each, and card payments carry a 2.9% + 30¢ fee on top. Its best rates require an annual prepay.
ServiceInvoicing covers the paperwork end only — invoices, clients, contracts and reports — at $9 to $39/mo with team access included and no per-transaction cut. A three-person shop pays $19/mo here versus $107/mo on Jobber Core with two extra seats.
Honestly? Choose Jobber if scheduling and dispatch are the problem you are actually solving.
FreshBooks is built for bookkeeping: expenses, receipt scanning, tax reports and an accountant login. Its limits are on billable clients — 5 on Lite at $23/mo, 50 on Plus at $43/mo, unlimited on Premium at $70/mo — and every extra team member is $11/mo. The headline prices you see advertised are promotional and renew at those higher rates.
ServiceInvoicing is not trying to be your accounting system. It is built around the invoice, with reusable trade-specific job fields, contracts and a client portal, and team seats included in the plan price rather than billed per head.
Honestly? Choose FreshBooks if you want your books and your invoices in one place.
The closest rival here — built for contractors, metered by the document.
Joist is genuinely good at what it does: estimates that become invoices, a well-liked mobile app, contracts with in-app signatures, and homeowner financing you can offer on the spot. The friction is the shape of the plans. The free tier was retired, the $12/mo Basics plan caps you at 5 documents a month, unlimited invoicing starts at $17/mo, and card payments carry standard processing fees.
ServiceInvoicing never caps how many invoices you send, on any plan including the free one. It adds trade-specific job fields you define yourself, a client sign-in portal, billable time entries and employee access included in the plan price.
Honestly? Choose Joist if you estimate on site from your phone and want to offer clients financing.
Yes. The free plan covers 2 active clients and unlimited invoices, with PDF download and status tracking, and it does not expire. No credit card is required to start.
Why do you limit clients instead of invoices?
Because invoicing is the job. Capping how many invoices or documents you can send penalises you for working. We cap active clients instead, so a busy month never costs you more than a quiet one.
Can ServiceInvoicing collect payments for me?
No. ServiceInvoicing produces invoices and tracks whether they have been paid. It does not process cards or collect money, which also means there are no per-transaction processing fees. You get paid however you already do.
Does ServiceInvoicing replace Jobber, FreshBooks or Joist?
Not entirely, and we would rather say so. Jobber does scheduling and dispatch that we do not; FreshBooks does bookkeeping and tax reporting that we do not; Joist has a native mobile app and homeowner financing that we do not. If invoicing, contracts and client records are what you actually need, ServiceInvoicing does that without an invoice cap.
How current is this comparison?
Competitor pricing and features on this page were checked against their public pricing pages in September 2026. Vendors change their plans often — always confirm on their site before deciding.