Is there a free alternative to Housecall Pro for a small shop?

Yes. Housecall Pro has no free plan, only a 14-day trial, and its Basic plan is $79 a month for one user on monthly billing. Swivl's Starter plan is $0 a month with no end date and unlimited users, and it covers scheduling, estimates, invoices and the mobile app. AI features use credits.

I get this question from owners who like Housecall Pro but can't justify the bill yet. Maybe you're one truck and a helper. Maybe you're three plumbers and your spouse runs the office from the kitchen table. You want the job board, the estimates and the invoices, and you don't want another monthly payment sitting next to the truck note.

Short version: Housecall Pro doesn't have a free plan. Swivl does, and it covers the basics for the whole crew. Below is what each one costs, what you give up on a free plan, and when I'd tell you to pay for Housecall Pro anyway.

Does Housecall Pro have a free plan?

No. Housecall Pro offers a 14-day free trial on its Max plan with no credit card, and after that you pick a paid plan. Their FAQ says your data stays safe if the trial runs out and you can pick back up by adding billing. (Housecall Pro pricing, checked October 12, 2026)

Here's what the plans cost on monthly billing today:

• Basic: $79 a month, or $59 billed annually. One user included. It has online booking, scheduling and dispatch, estimates and invoicing, payments, a price book, job costing and review management.
• Essentials: $189 a month, or $149 billed annually. Five users included. It adds routes, flat-rate pricing, checklists, photo reports, employee GPS tracking from the tech's phone, commissions and QuickBooks Online sync.
• Max: $329 a month, or $299 billed annually. Eight users included, then $35 a month for each extra user. It adds a sales proposal tool, recurring service plans, route optimization, open API access and a dedicated onboarding specialist.

Housecall Pro doesn't require a long-term contract, and you can downgrade at the end of a billing period. That's fair and worth saying. Card processing on their side starts at 2.59%, and bank payments carry a 1% fee.

What does Swivl's free plan actually include?

Swivl Starter is $0 a month and it's free forever, not a trial. Every plan, Starter included, comes with these at no charge (Swivl pricing, checked October 12, 2026):

• Unlimited users. Every tech, every sub, everyone in the office.
• Unlimited customers, plus unlimited invoices and estimates you write yourself.
• The full scheduler and dispatch board.
• The iOS and Android app for the whole crew.
• Your price book, inventory, reports and dashboards.
• Email automations, which are unmetered.

In Swivl the job is the folder for the work. The estimate, the scheduled visits, the invoice and the photos all live inside it, so when a customer calls about last spring's water heater you open one job and see the whole history.

Every new account starts with 14 days on Scale Pro, with no card required, then drops to Starter unless you choose a paid plan. You don't lose your customers or jobs when the 14 days end.

What costs money in Swivl, and what do you give up on Starter?

Credits pay for the features that cost us money to run. They're never free, and I'd rather you know that up front. The rates are the same on every plan:

• AI Estimator: about 60 credits an estimate. Writing an estimate yourself is always free.
• Text messages: 1 credit each. Email costs nothing.
• GPS tracking: 5 credits an hour per tech, only while they're clocked in.
• AI Receptionist: 10 credits a minute while it's on a call.
• AI Website Builder: 200 credits a month while the site is live.
• Job photos, videos and documents: 10 credits per GB.

Starter includes 250 credits a month. That's about 4 AI estimates, or 250 texts, or 50 hours of GPS. Starter can't buy top-up packs, so if you go past 250 you'd move to Growth at $49 a month with 1,500 credits. Card payments carry the processor's fee, the same as anywhere.

So the trade is plain. If you write your own estimates and mostly email customers, Starter covers a small shop at $0. If you want AI estimates on every call and text reminders on every visit, budget for Growth.

When is Housecall Pro the better pick?

Housecall Pro is a capable tool with more than 200,000 pros on it, and for some shops it's the right call:

• You want consumer financing, payroll and a bookkeeping service from the same company you schedule with. Housecall Pro sells all of those.
• Your crew works in Spanish. Their app has a Spanish option and they have a Spanish-speaking support team.
• You run a lot of maintenance agreements and want recurring service plans, route optimization and an open API in one package. That's their Max plan.
• You want live phone support. It's included on every Housecall Pro plan.

If that's you and the money is there, pay for it. If what you need is a schedule, estimates, invoices and an app your guys will open, you're paying $79 to $329 a month for a lot you won't touch. More on the wider field in Housecall Pro alternatives and what field service software costs.

Why did I build Swivl with no contracts and pay-for-what-you-use pricing?

When I ran the plumbing company we never had software to switch from. Everything I found cost an arm and a leg, so we started building our own, piece by piece.

The one thing we did sign up for was Salesforce. I thought it would help us do better outreach to customers, and we'd use it as our CRM. I made the mistake of signing a one-year contract. There was so much in it that I couldn't figure out how to navigate it, and that's what I was paying for. That drove me crazy. When I didn't want to continue, they did not like it. I got a lot of letters from their lawyers.

That's really the basis of our pricing. You aren't charged for things you don't use, and we don't lock you into a contract. In my mind a contract like that is insulting. It's like you're in chains.

What do small shop owners say about paying for software?

Matt Navin runs AAA Rooter, the drain company his grandfather started in Berlin, Connecticut. On his Swivl Sessions episode he talked about why most plumbing software doesn't fit a drain cleaning company.

Matt uses Swivl's free plan, and the clip below is about the time he needed help he wasn't paying for. Support is the same on every Swivl plan, Starter included: help articles, email, live chat and a dedicated contact, plus a free 30-minute onboarding call.

A 44-second clip with Matt Navin of AAA Rooter, a plumbing business in Berlin, Connecticut, on Swivl's free plan. He describes what happened when he needed help he wasn't paying for.

If you want to see the invoice side before you sign up, this short shows an invoice going out by text and the customer paying from her phone.

Short on invoicing in Swivl: send the invoice by text in one tap, the customer pays from her phone, and the deposit lands before you're back in the truck. The description says invoicing is free in Swivl.