Cheapest Viable Setup Under $100 a Month

Under $100 a month, a plumbing crew has three published options. ServiceM8 Starter at $29 a month covers unlimited users and 50 jobs. Kickserv Start at $60 a month covers 5 users. ServiceM8 Growing at $79 a month lifts the job cap to 150. Tradify starts at $47 per user per month, so it clears $100 at two users and stops being an option.

Key points

• ServiceM8 publishes a $0 Free plan for 1 user and 30 jobs a month, with SMS at 10c each, making it the only genuinely free tier of the three vendors here.
• Kickserv Start is $60 a month and includes 5 users, which computes to $12 per user at full crew and is the cheapest per-seat rate under $100 in this set.
• Tradify is the only per-user vendor here at $47 (Lite), $51 (Pro) and $61 (Plus) per user per month, so a 2-person crew costs $94 to $122 a month.
• ServiceM8’s paid plans cap jobs, not people: 50 jobs on Starter ($29), 150 on Growing ($79), 500 on Premium ($149).
• Kickserv states annual billing saves 20%, which brings Run (10 users) from $119 to a $95.20 monthly equivalent, the only way a 10-user seat count fits under $100 here.

What does each vendor actually publish?

Straight from the three pricing pages, as of 2026-09-02. Every figure below is quoted, not estimated.

Vendor	Plan	Published price	Users included	Job cap
ServiceM8	Free	$0/mo	1	30/mo
ServiceM8	Starter	$29/mo	Unlimited	50/mo
ServiceM8	Growing	$79/mo	Unlimited	150/mo
ServiceM8	Premium	$149/mo	Unlimited	500/mo
ServiceM8	Premium Plus	$349/mo	Unlimited	1500+/mo
Kickserv	Start	$60/mo	5	not published
Kickserv	Run	$119/mo	10	not published
Kickserv	Scale	$199/mo	20	not published
Tradify	Lite	$47/user/mo	per user	not published
Tradify	Pro	$51/user/mo	per user	not published
Tradify	Plus	$61/user/mo	per user	not published

Two structural differences drive everything below. ServiceM8 sells job volume and gives away headcount. Kickserv sells headcount in blocks of 5, 10 and 20. Tradify sells headcount one seat at a time.

Assumptions behind every number on this page

State these up front, because they are what changes the answer:

1. All prices are the monthly published rate in USD, not annual-equivalent, unless the row says otherwise.
2. Kickserv’s “Save 20% with annual subscription” is applied as list price x 0.80 to give a monthly equivalent. Kickserv does not publish the dollar annual figure, so this is arithmetic on its stated discount, not a quoted price.
3. A “user” means one login. Tradify and Kickserv price on that. ServiceM8 states it does not charge per user on paid plans.
4. Add-ons are excluded from base tables and handled separately. ServiceM8 lists Auto Time Tracking from $19/mo and Bundles at $19/mo. Tradify lists SmartTools on the Plus plan and several $12 per month line items.
5. Job counts mean new jobs created per month. Only ServiceM8 publishes a job cap, so only ServiceM8 rows carry one.

What does each vendor cost at 1, 3, 5 and 8 users?

This is the table most readers came for. Find your crew size, read across.

Working, per vendor:

• ServiceM8 paid plans: price is flat. 1 user and 8 users pay the same. Free plan is excluded past 1 user because it caps at 1 user.
• Kickserv Start includes 5 users, so users 1 to 5 all cost $60 total. At 6 users you must move to Run at $119, because Kickserv publishes no per-seat add-on price.
• Tradify: seats x rate. 3 x $47 = $141. 5 x $47 = $235. 8 x $47 = $376.

Plan	1 user	2 users	3 users	5 users	8 users
ServiceM8 Free	$0	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
ServiceM8 Starter	$29	$29	$29	$29	$29
ServiceM8 Growing	$79	$79	$79	$79	$79
ServiceM8 Premium	$149	$149	$149	$149	$149
Kickserv Start (5 users)	$60	$60	$60	$60	not available
Kickserv Run (10 users)	$119	$119	$119	$119	$119
Tradify Lite	$47	$94	$141	$235	$376
Tradify Pro	$51	$102	$153	$255	$408
Tradify Plus	$61	$122	$183	$305	$488

Rows under $100 shrink fast. At 1 user, five options clear $100. At 2 users, four do. At 3 users and above, only ServiceM8 Free (no, capped at 1), ServiceM8 Starter, ServiceM8 Growing and Kickserv Start survive. That is three plans, from two vendors.

What does it cost per person?

Same data, divided by heads. This is the number that tells you whether you are being charged for software or for a headcount.

Plan	1 user	3 users	5 users	8 users
ServiceM8 Starter $29	$29.00	$9.67	$5.80	$3.63
ServiceM8 Growing $79	$79.00	$26.33	$15.80	$9.88
Kickserv Start $60	$60.00	$20.00	$12.00	n/a
Kickserv Run $119	$119.00	$39.67	$23.80	$14.88
Tradify Lite $47/user	$47.00	$47.00	$47.00	$47.00
Tradify Pro $51/user	$51.00	$51.00	$51.00	$51.00

Tradify’s row is flat by construction. Every other row falls. At 8 users, ServiceM8 Starter costs $3.63 a head against Tradify Lite’s $47.00, a 12.9x gap on the same crew.

Where is the break-even between flat and per-user pricing?

Answer: at 2 seats against Kickserv, and at 1 seat against ServiceM8.

Working:

• Tradify Lite vs ServiceM8 Starter: $47n vs $29. At n = 1, $47 > $29. ServiceM8 wins at every crew size including solo.
• Tradify Lite vs Kickserv Start: $47n vs $60. Break-even at n = 60/47 = 1.28 seats. So 1 seat favours Tradify ($47 vs $60, a $13 saving). From 2 seats, Kickserv wins ($94 vs $60).
• Tradify Lite vs ServiceM8 Growing: $47n vs $79. Break-even at n = 79/47 = 1.68 seats. Solo, Tradify Lite is $32 cheaper. At 2 seats, ServiceM8 Growing is $15 cheaper.
• Tradify Plus vs ServiceM8 Premium: $61n vs $149. Break-even at n = 149/61 = 2.44 seats. At 3 seats, ServiceM8 Premium is $34 cheaper.

The only crew size where a per-user vendor is the cheapest published option is one person, and only against the larger flat plans. Add a second van and flat pricing takes over.

Two axes at once: crew size against job volume

Crew size alone does not decide it, because ServiceM8 also caps jobs. Vary both. Cells show the cheapest published plan meeting both constraints, with its monthly price.

Jobs per month	1 user	3 users	5 users	8 users
Up to 30	ServiceM8 Free, $0	ServiceM8 Starter, $29	ServiceM8 Starter, $29	ServiceM8 Starter, $29
31 to 50	ServiceM8 Starter, $29	ServiceM8 Starter, $29	ServiceM8 Starter, $29	ServiceM8 Starter, $29
51 to 150	ServiceM8 Growing, $79	ServiceM8 Growing, $79	Kickserv Start, $60	ServiceM8 Growing, $79
151 to 500	ServiceM8 Premium, $149	ServiceM8 Premium, $149	Kickserv Start, $60	Kickserv Run, $119
501 to 1500	ServiceM8 Premium Plus, $349	ServiceM8 Premium Plus, $349	Kickserv Start, $60	Kickserv Run, $119

Note what the bottom-left corner does. A solo operator running 200 jobs a month pays ServiceM8 $149, five times what a solo operator running 40 jobs pays. Meanwhile Kickserv publishes no job cap at all, so a 5-user shop at any volume in this table stays at $60. Read that as a caveat, not a win: Kickserv simply does not publish a volume limit, and absence of a published cap is not the same as a stated unlimited.

Under $100 a month, this table has exactly two answers above 150 jobs: Kickserv Start at $60 for up to 5 users, or nothing.

Reverse calculation: what fits inside $100?

Work backwards from the budget instead of forwards from the crew.

Budget line	Largest crew that fits	Plan	Monthly cost	Headroom left
$100/mo, monthly billing	5 users	Kickserv Start	$60	$40
$100/mo, monthly billing	Unlimited users, 150 jobs	ServiceM8 Growing	$79	$21
$100/mo, monthly billing	Unlimited users, 50 jobs	ServiceM8 Starter	$29	$71
$100/mo, monthly billing	2 users	Tradify Lite	$94	$6
$100/mo, annual billing	10 users	Kickserv Run at 20% off	$95.20	$4.80
$100/mo, annual billing	5 users	Kickserv Start at 20% off	$48.00	$52.00

The annual rows use Kickserv’s stated 20% discount: $119 x 0.80 = $95.20 and $60 x 0.80 = $48.00. Those are computed, not quoted.

The single largest crew that fits under $100 in this data is 10 users, via Kickserv Run on annual billing at a $95.20 monthly equivalent. On monthly billing, Run is $119 and does not fit.

What happens when you add the add-ons?

$100 is a budget, not a base price. Add-ons eat headroom.

ServiceM8 publishes Auto Time Tracking from $19/mo and Bundles at $19/mo. Tradify publishes several items at $12 per month. Adding both ServiceM8 add-ons:

Base plan	Base	+ Auto Time Tracking $19	+ Bundles $19	Total	Under $100?
ServiceM8 Starter	$29	$48	$67	$67	Yes
ServiceM8 Growing	$79	$98	$117	$117	No, once both added
ServiceM8 Premium	$149	$168	$187	$187	No

ServiceM8 lists Bundles as available in Growing and up, so the Starter row’s Bundles figure is arithmetic on the published $19 rate rather than a purchasable combination. Treat that column as an upper bound on what $19 add-ons do to a bill, not as a quote.

The practical reading: Growing at $79 has $21 of headroom, which one $19 add-on consumes almost exactly. Starter at $29 has $71 of headroom and absorbs both.

What could not be verified?

All three vendors published prices we could read today, so none are excluded from the tables. What is missing is narrower, and it matters:

• Kickserv job limits. The Start, Run and Scale plans publish user counts only. No job cap appears on the page. We do not claim there is none.
• Kickserv Run feature list. The scraped page shows the Run tier as “10 users, $119/mo” with a truncated feature list and a stray “$50/m)” fragment. We do not know what that fragment refers to, so it is not used anywhere above.
• Kickserv Premium. Kickserv’s Kickback section names a “Premium” plan alongside Start, Run and Scale, but no Premium price or user count is published on the pricing page. It is left out of every table.
• Tradify feature differences. The scraped Lite, Pro and Plus feature lists are near-identical in the source text. The $47, $51 and $61 rates are published; what separates the tiers is not, beyond SmartTools being stated as Plus-only.
• ServiceM8 SMS caps on paid plans. ServiceM8 publishes 10c per SMS on Free and “Free” on paid plans, but its FAQ also refers to “your plan’s monthly SMS cap” and a standard overage fee. The cap number and the overage rate are not published on the page.
• Payment processing fees. None of the three pages publishes a card processing rate. Kickserv names Stripe as an integration and ties its Kickback discount to online payment volume, but the processing percentage is not stated. Any processing cost you pay sits on top of every figure above.

When is this estimate wrong?

Concrete cases where the tables above will not match your invoice:

• You exceed a ServiceM8 job cap. ServiceM8 states you will be prompted to upgrade, or wait for the monthly reset. A 3-person crew budgeted at $29 that hits 51 jobs in a busy month is looking at $79, a 172% jump, not a small overage.
• You are on ServiceM8 Premium Plus. Additional jobs are charged at 20c each beyond the included 1500+. No other plan publishes a per-job overage rate.
• You take the Kickserv Kickback. Kickserv publishes a 5% discount on monthly fees for processing a minimum volume: $1,000/mo on Start, $2,000/mo on Run, $3,000/mo on Scale. That computes to $57.00 on Start, $113.05 on Run and $189.05 on Scale. Miss the minimum in a slow month and you pay full list.
• You stack Kickback with annual billing. Kickserv states annual plans multiply the monthly minimum by 12, so Start’s annual threshold computes to $12,000 of processing.
• You need Auto Time Tracking on ServiceM8. It is “from $19/mo” on every plan including Free. “From” means the figure can go up, and the ceiling is not published.
• You grow past 5 users on Kickserv. There is no published per-seat add-on. Your sixth user moves you from $60 to $119, a 98% increase for one person.
• Prices changed after 2026-09-02. Every figure here was read on that date. Check the vendor page before you commit.

Two things contractors get wrong about this

Misconception 1: “Unlimited users means unlimited everything.”

ServiceM8’s unlimited-user claim is real and its FAQ states plainly that only the Free plan limits users. But the price you pay is set by jobs, not people. A solo plumber running 200 jobs a month pays $149 on Premium. An 8-person outfit running 45 jobs a month pays $29 on Starter. The 8-person shop pays 81% less than the solo operator. Headcount is not the meter. Job volume is.

Misconception 2: “Per-user pricing is fine for a small crew.”

At one seat, Tradify Lite’s $47 is $13 cheaper than Kickserv Start’s $60, so it looks reasonable. Add one apprentice. Tradify goes to $94, Kickserv stays at $60. Add a third. Tradify is $141, Kickserv is still $60. By 5 seats Tradify Lite is $235 against Kickserv Start’s $60, a difference of $175 a month, or $2,100 across twelve months, for a crew that fits inside a single Kickserv plan. Per-user pricing is only “fine” while you have exactly one user.

Which plan should a plumbing crew pick under $100?

Match your binding constraint, not your headcount:

• Solo, under 30 jobs a month: ServiceM8 Free at $0. SMS costs 10c each. Budget $3 for 30 texts.
• Solo to 8 people, under 50 jobs a month: ServiceM8 Starter at $29. Nothing else in this data is close.
• Up to 5 people, volume above 150 jobs: Kickserv Start at $60, on the understanding that no job cap is published rather than that none exists.
• Any crew, 51 to 150 jobs, wanting one flat number: ServiceM8 Growing at $79, with $21 of headroom before $100.
• 10 people on a strict $100 ceiling: Kickserv Run, annual only, computed at $95.20 a month. Monthly billing at $119 misses.

What to check before you buy

1. Ask Kickserv for its job or invoice limits in writing. The pricing page publishes user counts only. Get the volume terms before you assume there are none.
2. Ask ServiceM8 for the SMS cap and overage rate on your plan. The FAQ confirms both exist. The numbers are not on the page.
3. Get the payment processing rate from whoever will process your cards. No vendor here publishes one, and on $20,000 a month of card volume the processing fee will exceed every software price in this article.
4. Confirm what “from $19/mo” means for ServiceM8 Auto Time Tracking at your crew size. The word “from” is doing work.
5. Ask Tradify what Lite, Pro and Plus actually differ on. The published rates are $47, $51 and $61. The published feature lists in the source text are nearly identical.
6. Use the trials. ServiceM8 publishes a 14-day free trial, Kickserv publishes 30 days, and Tradify publishes 14 days with all features included. Run your real job volume through one before you pick a tier, because on ServiceM8 the tier is the job count.

Read next

• Tradify vs ServiceM8: Solo Plumber Annual Cost
• Cheapest Service Fusion Setup for a Budget-Conscious Plumber
• ServiceM8 vs Kickserv: Cost for a 10-Person Plumbing Crew
• Kickserv vs FieldPulse: Setup Fees for Plumbing Companies

Also worth reading: ServiceM8 SMS and Add-On Charges Explained