FieldproxyAI-native field service softwareChoosing software
What is the best field service software for a company with 20 to 100 technicians?
The best fit at 20 to 100 technicians is software that handles a full-time dispatcher's board, several crews or branches, commercial contracts with recurring work, a two-way accounting sync and real reporting, and that can be set up to your process in weeks, not months. Small-team apps usually strain first on reporting, inventory, permissions and per-user cost; enterprise suites strain on price, setup time and the share of features you actually use. Shortlist two or three tools, and make each vendor run your own busiest day, with your job types, contracts and invoices, before you sign.
- At 20+ technicians the dispatcher, not the owner, runs the board: test the board, not the brochure.
- Count cost at your size in two years: per-user pricing grows with every hire, office staff included.
- Commercial work needs sites, assets, contracts, purchase orders and NTEs, not just customers and jobs.
- Ask for the implementation plan in weeks, with who does the data migration.
- Check reporting with your own question, for example margin by job type for last month.
If you are under about 10 technicians doing residential work on standard job types, a small-team app is usually the cheaper and simpler choice. This page is for the stage after that.
Facts checked as of November 2026. Sources at the end of the page.
Step by step
What changes between 20 and 100 technicians
These are the jobs a system has to do at this size that it did not have to do at five technicians.
1. A dispatcher runs the day
The owner stops scheduling. One or two dispatchers place 30 to 150 jobs a day across crews, juggle emergencies and reshuffle when a job overruns. They need a board with drag and drop, drive time, skills and certifications, and who is free next, on one screen.
2. Crews, branches and roles
Teams split by trade, region or branch. Each manager should see their own jobs and numbers, technicians should see only their jobs, and some staff should not see prices or margins. Permissions stop being optional.
3. Commercial customers and contracts
One customer has many sites, each site has assets, and work arrives on contracts with recurring visits, purchase order numbers, not-to-exceed limits and SLAs. Residential-first tools model one customer with one address, which is where commercial contractors feel the gap first.
4. Inventory and purchasing
Ten vans of stock is real money. You need parts on jobs, van and warehouse stock, purchase orders and supplier prices, or materials quietly go unbilled.
5. Accounting sync without re-keying
Invoices, payments, customers and items need to move to QuickBooks (Online, Desktop or Enterprise), Xero, Sage or your ERP without someone typing them again. At this size a one-way export becomes a weekly reconciliation chore.
6. Reporting that answers management questions
Revenue per technician, first-time fix, callbacks, margin by job type, open quotes, overdue invoices. If the answer needs an export to a spreadsheet every Monday, the tool has been outgrown.
7. A process of your own
By 20 technicians most companies have their own stages, forms, checklists and approval rules, and they are usually the reason customers pick them. The software has to fit those, not the other way round.
Where it breaks
Why companies at this size end up switching
These are reasons given on our sales calls by commercial HVAC and refrigeration, electrical, crane inspection, landscaping, multi-trade and facility maintenance companies between about 15 and 60 field staff.
Reporting is too basic
A commercial HVAC and refrigeration contractor with 40 to 50 jobs a day on the board said its small-team app's reporting was not in-depth, it had no van inventory, and photos stayed stuck to single jobs instead of building a history on the customer and site.
Data is re-keyed across five systems
A crane and hoist inspection firm of about 20 technicians copied the quote's scope into the job by hand, kept inspections in a separate app and averaged around 30 days from work done to the client getting an invoice.
The dispatcher's day is eaten by scheduling
A facility maintenance firm described hours a day scheduling eight technicians; a labour provider with 35 to 40 technicians spent about an hour a day per person on one shared calendar. Both had outgrown the tool, not the people.
Spreadsheets hit their limits
A landscaping company of 55 to 60 staff at peak ran crew time, bonuses and payroll from Google Sheets with scripts and hit the sheet's function-call limits mid-season.
The big suite is more than they use
An agency serving mid-market trade businesses said its clients used only a fraction of ServiceTitan's functions and struggled with its cost. A multi-trade business of about 23 staff did not want a long contract with a legacy-style vendor to get AI features.
Commercial work does not fit
A commercial electrical contractor serving multi-state customers with hundreds of sites relied on manual tags for 'needs parts' and 'waiting', and built quotes in spreadsheets outside the system.
The options
The main kinds of software for 20 to 100 technicians
| Option | Pricing shape | Setup | Fits best |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jobber | Per plan, users added at $29/mo each; 16+ users is 'Let's chat' | Self-serve, quick | Residential and light commercial teams growing out of a small crew |
| Housecall Pro (MAX) | 8 users included, $35/mo per additional user | Self-serve with an onboarding specialist on MAX | Residential home service teams |
| Service Fusion | Flat monthly plans; 'No matter the plan you choose, you'll have unlimited users' | Vendor-led | Teams that want flat pricing on a standard workflow |
| ServiceTitan | Request pricing on every package | Its own implementation consultant describes 12 to 16 weeks, then four weeks of hypercare | Larger residential HVAC, plumbing and electrical companies that will use most of the suite |
| BuildOps | Quote-based | Vendor-led | Commercial HVAC, refrigeration, electrical, plumbing and fire contractors |
| Fieldproxy | One price per company with unlimited users (see /pricing) | Set up to your stages, forms and contracts for you, live within a day for a first version | Commercial and specialist contractors whose process does not fit a template |
As of November 2026, from each vendor's own pages (sources below). Prices and plan limits change; check them on the day you buy.
Worked example
A worked example: a 35-technician commercial contractor
Say a commercial HVAC and refrigeration contractor has 35 technicians, 2 dispatchers, 6 office staff and 3 managers: 46 people who need a login. It runs about 60 jobs a day, 40% on maintenance contracts across 300 customer sites, and plans to reach 50 technicians in two years. Made-up numbers to show the method, not results.
Cost at size: on a per-user plan, all 46 logins count, and in two years it is about 63. On Housecall Pro MAX, for example, 8 users are included and the rest are $35 a month each, so the add-on users alone would be 38 x $35 = $1,330 a month today and 55 x $35 = $1,925 in two years, before the plan itself and add-ons. Run the same arithmetic for every vendor on your shortlist, using their live price page.
Fit test: the contractor gives each vendor three real jobs to run in the demo. A P1 refrigeration call that must be on site in 4 hours; a quarterly PM visit generated from a contract, with five assets and a checklist per asset; and a job that needs a part ordered on a purchase order and an invoice that quotes the client's PO number and stays under the NTE.
Setup test: the contractor asks for a dated plan. Who moves customers, sites, assets, contracts and open jobs? When are technicians trained? What runs side by side with the old system, and for how long? A vendor that says 12 to 16 weeks is not wrong, but the contractor should decide whether that fits the season.
Reporting test: one question, asked live: 'Show gross margin by job type for last month, and the five sites with the most callbacks.' If the answer needs an export, that is what the managers will be doing every week.
Before you buy
What to check before you buy
Good signs
- The demo runs your own job types, contract visits and invoice, not a sample company.
- The dispatch board shows skills, drive time and who is free, and handles a reshuffle in seconds.
- Sites, assets, contracts, purchase orders and NTE limits are first-class records.
- Permissions by role and branch, including hiding prices from technicians.
- A two-way accounting sync you can see working in the trial.
- A dated implementation plan, with the vendor moving your data.
- Pricing you can project to your size in two years.
Red flags
- 'Let's talk' is the only answer on price at your size, with no example.
- Reports you need are 'on the roadmap' or need a separate BI tool.
- Every change to a form or status needs a paid services ticket.
- A long contract term before you have run a real week on it.
- The vendor cannot say who does the migration or how long it takes.
In Fieldproxy
Setting it up in Fieldproxy
Fieldproxy is a complete FSM set up around how your company already works. It is one honest option for this size, strongest where the process does not fit a template.
Your process, built for you
Your stages, job types, forms, checklists, statuses and approval rules are configured during setup (see /custom-field-service-management-software), with a first version live within a day and the rest refined with your team.
A board for full-time dispatchers
The dispatch board, routes and the Dispatch agent (/agents/dispatch-agent), which suggests the right technician by distance, skills, certifications and stock. See /solutions/dispatching-scheduling.
Commercial records
Customers with many sites, assets with QR codes and service history, contracts that generate recurring visits, purchase orders and NTE limits on jobs (see /solutions/maintenance-management and /solutions/contracts-invoices).
Accounting and other tools
Two-way sync with QuickBooks Online, Desktop and Enterprise, Xero and Sage, plus an open API and webhooks for the rest (see /integrations).
Reports and AI on your own data
Dashboards per branch and role (see /solutions/dashboarding-reporting); the Scheduler agent (/agents/scheduler-agent) emails a daily or weekly briefing; Command Center (/agents/command-center) answers questions such as margin by job type from live data.
Pricing that does not grow per seat
One price per company with unlimited users, so the dispatcher, office staff and every new technician are included. See /pricing.
How switching works
How switching to Fieldproxy works
We move your data over and set the system up to the way you already work. Fieldproxy replaces the old tool; it does not run alongside it.
Show us your busiest day
Walk us through a real day: the jobs, contracts, forms, price list and the reports managers ask for.We build the demo on your process
Your job types, statuses, checklists, contracts and invoice layout are set up before the demo, so you test your business, not a template.We move your data
Customers, sites, assets, contracts, open jobs and price lists come across from your current system, with free assisted migration.Go live crew by crew
Start with one crew or branch, check the week's jobs, invoices and sync, then bring the rest across.
FAQ
Questions people ask
- When have we outgrown Jobber or Housecall Pro?
- Usually when a full-time dispatcher runs the board, managers export to spreadsheets for reporting, you need van inventory or purchase orders, or per-user cost grows faster than revenue. None of these is a hard number of technicians.
- Is ServiceTitan too much for a company our size?
- It depends on how much of it you will use. It suits larger residential HVAC, plumbing and electrical companies that adopt most of the suite; its own implementation consultant describes 12 to 16 weeks to go live. Price it against the features you will actually run.
- How long does it take to switch field service software at this size?
- Plan for data cleanup, migration, training and a short period running side by side. Ask each vendor for a dated plan; the range runs from days for a configured system to several months for large suites. ServiceTitan, for example, publishes a checklist for the first 30 days after go-live.
- Per-user or per-company pricing: which is cheaper for us?
- Work it out at your size in two years, counting office staff, dispatchers and managers, not just technicians. Per-user plans look cheap at five users and expensive at fifty.
- Do we need separate software for commercial work?
- If you serve customers with many sites, contracts, purchase orders and SLAs, choose a tool that models those directly rather than adding them as notes on a residential job.
- Can we keep QuickBooks Desktop?
- Some tools only sync with QuickBooks Online. If you run Desktop or Enterprise, ask to see the sync working in the trial before you sign.
Sources
Competitor details on this page come from the vendors' own pages and documentation, checked as of November 2026. Plans and prices change, so check the vendor's current page before you decide.
- Jobber pricing: https://www.getjobber.com/pricing/
- Housecall Pro pricing: https://www.housecallpro.com/pricing/
- Service Fusion pricing and FAQ: https://www.servicefusion.com/pricing
- ServiceTitan pricing: https://www.servicetitan.com/pricing
- ServiceTitan podcast: what to expect during implementation: https://www.servicetitan.com/podcasts/mastering-servicetitan/kyle-urquart-interview-2
- ServiceTitan help: post go-live checklist, first 30 days: https://help.servicetitan.com/residential-s-r/docs/servicetitan-max-post-go-live-checklist
- BuildOps app listing, App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1459667206
- ServiceChannel: trade partner guide (SLA and NTE on commercial work orders): https://servicechannel.com/services-providers/trade-partner-guide/
Related
Keep reading
- Replacing several field service tools with one system
- Per-job vs per-user pricing
- Moving off your current field service software
- Field service software with QuickBooks Desktop
- What is the best field service software for a 5-10 person HVAC team?
- Cheaper ServiceTitan alternatives for small plumbing and HVAC companies, without payment processor lock-in