What software should a small plumbing business use?

A small plumbing shop needs one app that handles scheduling, estimates, invoices and getting paid, with a phone app your plumbers will actually open. Price it for the whole crew, because many tools charge per user. Swivl's Starter plan covers those basics for $0 with unlimited users. Jobber starts at $49 a month for one user.

I ran a plumbing company for years before I built Swivl. Most of the software questions I get from plumbers come down to two things: what do I actually need, and what will it cost me once the whole crew is on it?

You need one place where a job lives from the first call to the paid invoice, and an app your plumbers can run from the truck. Everything past that is nice to have until you're bigger.

What does a small plumbing shop actually need from software?

For a shop with one to five trucks, I'd want these covered before anything else:

• A schedule the office and the plumbers both see, so a 9pm drain call can go on tomorrow's board without three phone calls.
• Estimates you can write on site, from your own price book, with your real costs behind the price.
• Invoices that go out the day the work is done, which the customer can pay online.
• Job history by address, so when a customer says "you fixed this two years ago" you can see what you did.
• A mobile app for every plumber and helper, with no seat fee that makes you think twice about adding one.

In Swivl the job is the folder for the whole project. The estimate, the scheduled visits, the invoice, the photos and the job costs all sit inside it, so nobody has to hunt across three apps to answer a customer. The walkthrough below follows a 50-gallon gas water heater replacement through one job.

A full walkthrough of a job in Swivl, following a real 50-gallon gas water heater replacement. It shows where the scheduled visits, estimate and invoice live inside the job, how labor and vehicle costs are captured when a tech clocks in and out on the mobile app, how GPS shows drive time and supply-house stops, and how the Job Cost card compares estimated with actual costs. Jump to job costs at 1:41.

Where do small plumbing shops lose money that software can catch?

In my experience it was two places: pricing jobs without knowing our costs, and waiting on money we'd already earned.

A lot of our work was for property management companies, and apartment complexes are notorious for paying late. We had a lot of capital tied up in receivables. For the first dozen years I did collections myself. I'd get a pot of coffee, all the caffeine I could take, and make a million phone calls.

What actually worked was a system. Customers knew where our hard lines were. Between those lines we'd work with them, but once a line was crossed it was out of our hands, because that was the system. In Georgia we used lien rights. If a customer crossed the final line, after we'd already decided we'd never work for that ownership again, we filed and perfected the lien and went after it in court. We got paid every single time.

When customers needed longer terms (never officially), we priced that into higher rates. So the collections system itself made us more money. The lesson I learned: decide your lines ahead of time and let the system hold them, so you're not making it up on the phone.

Software can't make that call for you, but it can hold the lines once you've set them. Send the invoice the day the job is done, keep every invoice and payment on the job, and send reminders on a schedule. In Swivl, email reminders cost nothing and text reminders are 1 credit each.

How do you keep track of maintenance agreements and repeat work?

Recurring work is the steadiest money a small shop has: water heater flushes, backflow tests, drain maintenance for a restaurant. It's also the easiest to lose track of when it lives in your head.

Lee Killingsworth runs Lee's Unlimited, an HVAC, septic and home contracting company in Huntsville, Texas. He has about 800 clients, and 227 of them are on maintenance agreements, with septic inspections every four months. On his Swivl Sessions episode he explained how Swivl reminds his team when each one is due.

A short clip from Swivl Sessions. Lee's Unlimited has about 800 clients, and 227 of them are on maintenance agreements with septic inspections every four months. Lee Killingsworth explains how Swivl reminds his team when each one is due, so he's not keeping it all in his head.

What does plumbing software cost for a 4-person shop?

Say you have three plumbers and someone in the office. That's four users. Here's what each tool charges on monthly billing, from their pricing pages today:

• Swivl: Starter is $0 a month and Growth is $49, both with unlimited users and no contract. (pricing, checked October 7, 2026)
• Jobber: Core is $49 a month for one user, and extra users are $29 a month each, so $136 for four. There's a 14-day trial and no free plan. (pricing, checked October 7, 2026)
• Housecall Pro: Basic is $79 a month for one user. Essentials is $189 a month, or $149 billed annually, with 5 users included. There's a 14-day trial, and it doesn't require a long-term contract. (pricing, checked October 7, 2026)
• ServiceTitan: pricing is per technician and isn't published. You request pricing from their team. (pricing, checked October 7, 2026)

The gap grows as you hire. On Jobber Core, each new plumber adds $29 a month. Housecall Pro Essentials covers you up to five users, and its Max plan adds $35 a month for each user past eight. Swivl has no per-seat or per-technician charge on any plan, so adding a helper doesn't change the bill.

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

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

• Jobber Core includes online booking, a website builder and an app marketplace with 100+ tools. If you're solo and want those in one $49 plan, it's a good fit. Job costing is on its Grow plan.
• Housecall Pro Basic includes a price book and job costing, and Essentials adds routes, flat-rate pricing and employee GPS tracking. Its Max plan adds recurring service plans for maintenance agreements. It's a capable tool for a shop that wants those packaged in.
• ServiceTitan's plans include payroll management, commission tracking, call booking and customizable memberships. If you run a big dispatch board with call takers and commissioned techs, that's the kind of shop it's priced for.

For a one-to-five truck shop that mostly needs to schedule, estimate, invoice and get paid, I think those plans charge you for more than you'll use.

Short from Swivl Sessions: Matt Navin of AAA Rooter tried five software companies. Plumbing apps forced a workflow that didn't fit a drain cleaning company, and custom systems cost thousands plus a monthly fee. Hear the full episode.

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

Free on every plan: unlimited users, customers, estimates you write yourself and invoices, plus scheduling and dispatch, the mobile app, the price book, inventory, reports and email automations. Starter is free forever, and every new account starts with 14 days on Scale Pro.

Credits pay for the features that cost us money to run. The AI Estimator is about 60 credits an estimate. Texts are 1 credit each, 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 and Growth includes 1,500. Card payments carry the processor's fee.

More on what to look for: plumbing business software and the features plumbing management software should have.