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See how HelloGrowthCRM bundles dialer, AI scoring, WhatsApp & sequences at one price — compare features, pricing, and fit for your team.
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ServiceM8 prices by job volume, not by seats. In Australia the free plan covers 30 jobs a month for one staff member with no SMS allowance. Starter is $29 a month for 50 jobs and 100 SMS. Growing is $79 for 150 jobs and 300 SMS. Premium is $149 for 500 jobs and 1,000 SMS. Premium Plus is $349 for 1,500 or more jobs and 3,000 SMS. All figures are AUD, and paid plans allow unlimited staff logins. Extra SMS is charged per message, and the ServiceM8 Phone add-on is reported to start around $19 a month. Check the current ServiceM8 pricing page before you budget, because tiers and allowances change.
That model suits a small crew running a lot of short jobs. It gets awkward if you do high volumes of tiny callouts, because a $90 job and a $9,000 job consume the same allowance.
HelloGrowthCRM charges per user: $12 per user per month billed monthly, or $10 per user per month billed annually. There is a free forever plan. Job count never affects the bill. A three-person sales and admin team on annual billing pays $30 a month, and that includes the dialer with call recording and AI call summaries, AI lead scoring, email sequences, SMS and WhatsApp, the quote builder, invoicing, web forms, reporting dashboards and integrations.
The honest read: these two bills are not directly comparable. ServiceM8 charges you for running jobs. HelloGrowthCRM charges you for the people chasing work. Plenty of trade businesses pay both, and that is a sensible outcome rather than a failure to choose.
HelloGrowthCRM bundles AI lead scoring, a built-in dialer, WhatsApp, and email sequences in one plan—no separate add-ons for core sales workflows. Use the pricing snapshot and feature table above to compare total cost, then start a free account to move your pipeline without losing momentum.
Teams that switch usually want fewer tools to bill, faster follow-up from one inbox, and clearer forecasting. If that matches your goals, book a demo or migrate on your timeline—we help teams consolidate from ServiceM8 every week.
Most tradies should not switch away from ServiceM8. They need something in front of it. ServiceM8 starts working once a job exists. It is not built to work a lead that has not booked yet, or to chase a $9,000 quote that has been quiet for eleven days. HelloGrowthCRM covers that stage: it scores the lead, dials it, records the call, writes the summary and runs the follow-up sequence until you get a yes or a no. It also ships a full Android app, so half your crew is not stuck on a cut-down version.
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ServiceM8 is an Australian job management platform aimed at small trade and service businesses: plumbers, electricians, locksmiths, pest control, cleaners. It has been built around the Apple ecosystem since launch, and that shows in how polished the iPhone and iPad experience is. The workflow is job-centred. An enquiry becomes a job card, and that card carries the quote, the schedule, the site photos, the forms, the materials and the invoice, then closes out to Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks Online. For a two-van operation that lives out of the ute, it is hard to beat on the work itself. ServiceM8 is widely used across Australia and New Zealand and has a large network of local partners who will set it up for you.
The pricing is unusual and worth understanding before you commit. ServiceM8 does not charge per seat. It charges by how many jobs you create in a month. The free tier covers 30 jobs for a single staff member with no SMS allowance. Paid tiers run from $29 a month AUD for 50 jobs up through $79, $149 and $349 for 1,500 or more jobs, with SMS allowances stepping up alongside. Paid plans allow unlimited staff logins, which is generous if you have a big crew. The catch is that a small job and a large job cost you the same. Businesses doing high volumes of short callouts feel the tiers tighten fast, while a builder running a handful of large projects gets very good value.
The platform question comes up constantly. The full ServiceM8 application runs on iOS and iPadOS. There is a browser-based office experience on Mac and PC, but the field app most people mean when they say ServiceM8 is an Apple app. ServiceM8 later released ServiceM8 Lite for Android, and the company describes it as a simple, fast app for technicians, subcontractors and temporary workers, for cases where handing out an iPhone is not practical. It covers core work: jobs, scheduling, quoting, invoicing, forms and payments. It is deliberately not the full product. If your apprentices, subbies and casuals are on Android handsets, you either buy iPhones or live with two different experiences across one team. That is a real cost, and people underestimate it.
None of that addresses the thing most trade businesses actually lose money on, which is the front end. Job management software starts working once a job exists. It is not designed to sit on an enquiry that has not booked, chase a quote that has been unanswered for a fortnight, or tell you which of last month's enquiries is worth ringing again. That is sales work. It needs a pipeline, a dialer, call recording, lead scoring and follow-up sequences that fire without anyone remembering to fire them. HelloGrowthCRM does that part for $10 to $12 per user per month, on both iOS and Android, with a free forever plan to start on. Most tradies who add it keep ServiceM8 for the work.
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| Feature | ✦ HelloGrowthCRM | ServiceM8 |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per user: $12/user/month monthly, $10/user/month annual | Per job volume, not per seat. Free 30 jobs/month up to $349/month AUD for 1,500+ jobs |
| Free plan | Free forever plan | Free plan: 30 jobs a month, 1 staff member, no SMS allowance |
| What your bill scales with | Number of users | Number of jobs created each month, plus SMS usage |
| Native Android app | Yes, full app on Android and iOS | ServiceM8 Lite only. The full app is iOS and iPadOS |
| Lead and pipeline management | Yes, stages, owners and next actions | No sales pipeline. Work is organised as job cards |
| Built-in dialer, call recording, AI call summaries | Yes, included | ServiceM8 Phone is a paid add-on, reported from about $19/month AUD |
| AI lead scoring | Yes | No |
| Email sequences and automated follow-up | Yes, multi-step sequences | Job-triggered emails and SMS, not sales follow-up sequences |
| SMS and WhatsApp messaging | Yes, both | SMS by monthly plan allowance, extra messages charged. No WhatsApp |
| Quote builder | Yes, with automatic follow-up reminders | Yes, quotes and proposals attached to the job |
| Invoicing | Yes | Yes, including progress invoicing on paid plans |
| Accounting sync for Xero and MYOB | Via native connectors, Zapier or API. No purpose-built Xero or MYOB module | Yes, direct Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks Online sync |
| Technician scheduling and dispatch board | No | Yes, this is the core of the product |
| Timesheets and staff time tracking | No | Yes |
| Materials, inventory and job costing | No | Yes, including job profitability on higher plans |
| Field forms, site photos and asset management | No | Yes |
Trade businesses bleeding money on quotes nobody chases. Teams with Android phones in the field. Anyone who wants a real sales pipeline, a dialer with recording and follow-up sequences running alongside their existing job management tool.
Start freeTradies whose main problem is the work itself: scheduling technicians, dispatching from the office, tracking time on site, costing materials and raising invoices from the van. If your crew runs iPhones and iPads, ServiceM8 fits well.
Get a practical checklist for moving from ServiceM8 without losing data quality or team momentum.
ServiceM8 wins job management outright. It schedules, dispatches, tracks time and costs jobs. HelloGrowthCRM does none of that and never claims to. HelloGrowthCRM wins the sales side: pipeline, dialer, call recording, AI call summaries, lead scoring, sequences and WhatsApp, on iOS and Android, at $10 to $12 per user. If your quotes go cold and callbacks get missed, that is a sales problem, not a scheduling one. Run both.
A useful CRM comparison should go beyond feature checklists. Teams should evaluate total cost of ownership, day-to-day adoption, how quickly data becomes trustworthy, and whether the platform fits the motion they actually run. Some products win on ecosystem breadth or calling depth, while others win on simplicity, bundled capability, and faster operational rollout.
In this comparison, the main trade-off is straightforward: Trade businesses bleeding money on quotes nobody chases. Teams with Android phones in the field. Anyone who wants a real sales pipeline, a dialer with recording and follow-up sequences running alongside their existing job management tool. On the other side, Tradies whose main problem is the work itself: scheduling technicians, dispatching from the office, tracking time on site, costing materials and raising invoices from the van. If your crew runs iPhones and iPads, ServiceM8 fits well. Those differences often matter more than a single feature row because they affect implementation effort, reporting quality, and the amount of operational support your team needs after the software is purchased.
The best way to decide is to test both systems against your real workflow: import sample accounts, run a few stages of your pipeline, inspect reporting, and confirm how easy it is for reps and managers to stay aligned. A CRM should not only look good in a demo. It should make your process cleaner every week after adoption.
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