Is there a free CRM for contractors that also handles invoicing?

Yes. Swivl's Starter plan is $0 a month with no end date, and it keeps customers, jobs, estimates and invoices in one place with unlimited users. HubSpot's free CRM is built for sales pipelines and offers payment links. Jobber and Housecall Pro include invoicing but have no free plan, starting at $49 and $79 a month.

Most contractors I talk to don't call it a CRM. They call it the customer list, the notebook in the truck, or the pile of invoice copies on the desk. What they want is simple: one place that knows who the customer is, what you did at their house, what you charged, and whether they paid.

That's a CRM for a trades business. The catch is that most free CRMs were built for sales teams, and most software built for contractors isn't free. Here's how the options line up today, and where each one fits.

What should a CRM do for a contractor?

A sales CRM tracks deals moving through a pipeline. A contractor's day runs on jobs: a call comes in, you go look, you send a price, you do the work, you bill it, and you chase the money if you have to. For a small shop, I'd want a CRM to cover these before anything else:

• A customer record by name and address, with every job you've ever done there.
• Estimates and invoices that live on that record, so you can see what you quoted, what you billed and what got paid.
• A schedule your techs can see from their phones.
• Notes and photos from the job, for the next time that customer calls.
• Room for everyone on the crew, with no seat fee that makes you think twice before adding a helper.

In Swivl, a job is the folder for the work. The estimate, the scheduled visits, the invoice, the photos and the job costs all sit inside it, and the job sits on the customer's record. When that customer calls back in two years, the history is right there.

Why do contractors outgrow paper invoices and spreadsheets?

Paper works fine until somebody asks you a question about last year. Lee Killingsworth has run Lee's Unlimited, an HVAC and septic company in Huntsville, Texas, for almost 30 years. He liked his paper invoices. The trouble came when a homeowner expected him to remember exactly what he'd fixed two years earlier.

A short clip from Swivl Sessions. Lee Killingsworth of Lee's Unlimited loved his paper invoices. The trouble came two years later, when a homeowner expected him to remember exactly what he fixed last time, and that's when Lee's Unlimited started using Swivl.

Matt Navin hit the same wall when he took over AAA Rooter, the drain cleaning company his grandfather started in 1998 in Berlin, Connecticut. On his Swivl Sessions episode he said paperwork was the hardest part of taking over.

A spreadsheet is a step up from paper, but it doesn't send the invoice, take the payment or remind the customer. You end up keeping the list in one place, the invoices in another and the schedule on a whiteboard. That's three places to update and three places for something to slip.

Which free CRMs handle invoicing?

Here's what each option offers on its free or cheapest plan, from the pricing pages on October 8, 2026:

• Swivl: Starter is $0 a month, free forever, with unlimited users, customers, estimates you write yourself and invoices. Scheduling, dispatch and the mobile app are included. (pricing, checked October 8, 2026)
• HubSpot: the free CRM is $0 with no expiration date. It includes contact management, deal pipelines, a reporting dashboard, payment links and a mobile app. (free CRM, checked October 8, 2026)
• Jobber: Core is $49 a month for one user on monthly billing, or $29 a month billed annually, and it includes invoicing and online booking. Extra users are $29 a month each. There's a 14-day trial and no free plan. (pricing, checked October 8, 2026)
• Housecall Pro: Basic is $79 a month for one user, or $59 billed annually, with estimates, invoicing, scheduling and dispatch. There's a 14-day trial, no free plan, and no long-term contract. (pricing, checked October 8, 2026)

So the honest answer is that there are two kinds of free here. HubSpot is free and good at tracking sales conversations, but its free CRM page doesn't list job scheduling or dispatch. Jobber and Housecall Pro are built for the trades and handle invoicing well, but neither is free. Swivl's Starter plan is the one in this group that's both.

When is HubSpot, Jobber or Housecall Pro the better fit?

Each of these does real work well, and for some shops one of them is the right pick.

• HubSpot is strong if your business runs on a long sales cycle, like design-build or remodeling bids that take weeks to close, and you want email tracking, templates and a deal board. It connects to over 2,000 apps, so you can bolt on invoicing elsewhere.
• Jobber Core gives a solo operator online booking and invoicing in one plan, and its monthly option has no commitment. If you want those and you're happy paying $49 a month, it's a good fit. Job costing is on its Grow and Plus plans.
• Housecall Pro Basic includes a price book, scheduling and dispatch, and consumer financing. Essentials adds routes, employee GPS tracking and QuickBooks Online sync, with 5 users for $189 a month. It's a capable, well-supported tool.

Matt put the other side of it plainly. A small shop watching every dollar has to weigh what a system costs against what it does.

Matt Navin of AAA Rooter in Berlin, Connecticut, took over the drain company his grandfather started in 1998. He explains why they charge $400 to snake a sewer line, how they've grown on word of mouth alone, why paperwork was the hardest part of taking over, and why most plumbing software doesn't fit a drain cleaning company.

Why did I want the CRM and invoicing to be free?

When I ran the plumbing company, there was no free option like this. I've been there more times than I'd like, choosing between paying for something we wanted and paying for something we needed, like the truck payment. Any trades business that's growing feels that squeeze every once in a while.

What worried me most was the history. If you can't pay this month for features that aren't necessary, you shouldn't be under threat of losing your customer records, your job history and your data. Having software that does all of this for free is a giant weight off of any owner's shoulders. It's exactly what I wish I'd had, and it's why we built Swivl.

So Swivl is set up so you can pay monthly or drop to the free plan anytime. Customers, estimates and invoices stay unlimited on Starter, so you can still do what you need to do, versus what would be nice to do.

What's free in Swivl, and what costs credits?

Free on every plan, including Starter: unlimited users, customers, estimates you write yourself, and invoices. Scheduling and dispatch, the mobile app for iOS and Android, the price book, inventory, reports and email automations are free too. There's no contract and no per-seat charge, and every new account starts with 14 days on Scale Pro with no card required.

Credits pay for the features that cost us money to run. Text reminders are 1 credit each, while email reminders cost nothing. The AI Estimator runs about 60 credits an estimate, GPS is 5 credits an hour per tech while they're clocked in, and the AI Receptionist is 10 credits a minute while it's on a call. Starter includes 250 credits a month. Growth is $49 a month with 1,500 credits. Card payments carry the processor's fee.

For a solo operator or a two-truck shop, that means the CRM and invoicing cost nothing. You'd only pay if you start leaning on texts or AI features past what 250 credits covers.

How do you move your customer list into a CRM?

Start with the customers you'll see again: anyone with a maintenance agreement, a repeat service, or an open invoice. Get them in with a name, a phone number, an address and a note about what you did last time. That's enough to answer the next call well.

Then send your next invoice from the CRM instead of the paper pad. Once the money comes in through it, the habit sticks. Swivl includes a free 30-minute onboarding call on every plan if you'd like help getting set up.

More on this: the CRM built for small teams, free field service management software and contractor invoicing software.