Most contractor software guides are sales pitches dressed up as reviews. This one walks through the categories, what each does, and what to actually look for — whether you end up on FieldKrew, a competitor, or pieces stitched together.
A contractor CRM combines leads, quotes, jobs, scheduling, photos, customer history, and payments in one app. The category leaders are Jobber, Housecall Pro, JobNimbus, Buildertrend, and FieldKrew. Pick on price, mobile experience, and how well the quoting flow matches your trade.
QuickBooks Online is the industry default and what your accountant and bookkeeper expect. Wave is the free alternative. Whatever you pick, make sure your CRM syncs to it so you're not double-entering invoices and payments.
For most trades the CRM's built-in quote builder is enough. Roofers benefit from a dedicated takeoff tool (FieldKrew includes one for free). Larger commercial work justifies dedicated tools like PlanSwift or Bluebeam.
If your CRM doesn't process card payments cleanly, you're handling them via a separate Stripe or Square account — which means manual reconciliation. Pick a CRM that processes payments natively (most modern ones do).
Dedicated scheduling apps, project management tools (Asana/Monday/etc.), and customer review platforms — your CRM should do all of this. Stacking specialty tools on top of a CRM is how solo contractors end up spending $400/month on software they only half-use.
$30-$200/month for a solo contractor is reasonable. The CRM is the biggest line item; accounting is $20-50/month. Most other tools should be integrated into the CRM, not separate subscriptions.
No. Modern contractor CRMs include calendar/scheduling. Adding a dedicated scheduling tool on top creates double-entry and confusion.