Does ServiceM8 charge cleaning businesses per user?

No. ServiceM8 states plainly that it does not charge per user. The only plan that limits user count is the Free plan, capped at 1 user. Starter ($29/mo), Growing ($79/mo), Premium ($149/mo) and Premium Plus ($349/mo) all include unlimited users at the same flat monthly price. A 3-person crew and an 8-person crew on Growing both pay exactly $79/mo — the bill only moves when you cross a job-volume cap, not a headcount cap.

What happens if a cleaning crew exceeds its monthly job limit on ServiceM8?

On Free, Starter, Growing and Premium plans, job credits reset when the monthly billing cycle resets; otherwise you are prompted to upgrade. Only Premium Plus publishes a per-job overage rate: 20 cents per job once you pass the 1,500 jobs included in that plan. For example, 1,600 jobs in a month costs $349 + (100 × $0.20) = $369; 1,800 jobs costs $349 + (300 × $0.20) = $409.

Is there a free plan for a solo cleaning operator?

Yes. ServiceM8's Free plan is $0/mo, covers 1 user, up to 30 jobs per month, and 10 AI uses per day, with self-serve support only. Paid plans start at $29/mo and move support to 24/7. A solo operator who exceeds 30 jobs a month, or who takes on a second user, has to move to Starter regardless of revenue.

Does text messaging cost extra on ServiceM8?

On the Free plan, SMS costs 10 cents per message. On Starter, Growing, Premium and Premium Plus, text messaging is listed as free. ServiceM8's pricing page notes a standard overage fee applies once a plan's monthly SMS cap is exceeded, but does not publish the cap or the overage rate for paid tiers, so high-SMS-volume operators should confirm the actual cap with ServiceM8 before relying on it.

What's the cheapest ServiceM8 plan that supports a small cleaning crew?

Starter, at $29/mo, is the cheapest paid plan and the cheapest one without a 1-user cap. It includes unlimited users and 50 jobs per month, versus the Free plan's 1-user, 30-job limit. Over a full year, Starter totals $348; over three years, $1,044, assuming no upgrade and no overage.

Cleaning Business Software: Published Prices Compared

ServiceM8 is the only cleaning-relevant field service platform whose current published pricing could be verified today. Its five plans run from a $0/mo Free tier capped at 1 user and 30 jobs a month, up to Premium Plus at $349/mo with 1,500+ jobs and no user cap. No other vendor’s live pricing page was available to check, so this article covers ServiceM8 only.

What was verified today

All figures below come from ServiceM8’s US pricing page, scraped 2026-08-14. Every number is quoted as published, with no figures carried over from memory or third-party sources.

A male window cleaner washing the exterior glass roof from above with a tool during daylight.

ServiceM8 plan pricing

Plan	Monthly price	Users	Jobs/month included	AI uses/day	Support
Free	$0	1	30	10	Self serve
Starter	$29	Unlimited	50	Unlimited	24/7
Growing	$79	Unlimited	150	Unlimited	24/7
Premium	$149	Unlimited	500	Unlimited	24/7
Premium Plus	$349	Unlimited	1,500+	Unlimited	24/7

Annualised, that’s $348/yr (Starter), $948/yr (Growing), $1,788/yr (Premium) and $4,188/yr (Premium Plus). ServiceM8 states there are no lock-in contracts, and any credit from a previous plan carries over pro-rata if you switch mid-cycle.

Total cost over time

Using ServiceM8’s published monthly prices, here is what each plan costs over 1, 2 and 3 years, assuming no plan change and no overage:

Plan	1 year	2 years	3 years
Starter ($29/mo)	$348	$696	$1,044
Growing ($79/mo)	$948	$1,896	$2,844
Premium ($149/mo)	$1,788	$3,576	$5,364
Premium Plus ($349/mo)	$4,188	$8,376	$12,564

These totals assume the base plan fee only, with no overage charges, no add-ons, and no mid-cycle upgrade. A cleaning business that starts on Starter and outgrows it partway through year one will pay less than the full-year Growing figure for that first year, then the full Growing rate from the month it upgrades. Because no plan requires a contract, there’s no penalty for moving up a tier the moment job volume calls for it, and no benefit to pre-paying for a higher tier “just in case.”

Does team size change the price?

For a cleaning business adding crew members, this is the number that matters most, and ServiceM8’s own pricing page is explicit: “we don’t charge per user.” Only the Free plan limits headcount, to 1 user. Every paid plan is flat-rate regardless of team size:

Users	Starter ($29/mo)	Growing ($79/mo)	Premium ($149/mo)	Premium Plus ($349/mo)
1	$29	$79	$149	$349
3	$29	$79	$149	$349
5	$29	$79	$149	$349
8	$29	$79	$149	$349

Adding staff does not change the bill on any paid plan. The only lever that moves price up is the number of jobs you run per month, not the number of people running them.

Because ServiceM8’s paid tiers charge nothing extra per seat, the practical planning question for a growing cleaning company isn’t “how many people do we add,” it’s “how many jobs do we run.” A five-person crew and an eight-person crew on the same plan pay the same $29, $79, $149 or $349 monthly fee — the only reason to move to a higher tier is hitting that plan’s job cap, running out of AI uses, or needing a feature (like custom forms) gated to Growing and above.

Job limits and the overage math

Job count, not user count, is what forces an upgrade. A cleaning company doing 45 jobs a month cannot stay on Free (30-job cap, and 1-user cap) and needs Starter at minimum. A company scaling past 150 jobs a month outgrows Growing and needs Premium (500-job cap) at $149/mo.

Man cleaning high-rise building windows using safety harness outdoors in daylight.

The only plan with a published per-job overage rate is Premium Plus: once you pass the 1,500 jobs included, additional jobs cost 20 cents each. On the four plans below Premium Plus, ServiceM8 does not publish a per-job overage price; instead it states that job credits reset with your billing cycle, or you’re prompted to upgrade.

Worked example: a cleaning operator running 1,700 jobs in a month on Premium Plus pays the $349 base fee plus 200 jobs × $0.20 = $40, for a total of $389 that month.

A second example: a Premium Plus customer running 1,600 jobs in a month is 100 jobs over the 1,500 included, so the bill is $349 + (100 × $0.20) = $369 for that month. At 1,800 jobs, the extra 300 jobs add $60, for a $409 total. The overage fee scales linearly with no published cap, so high-volume operators should track job count against the 1,500 threshold rather than assuming the flat $349 covers unlimited volume.

Text messaging costs

SMS pricing differs sharply between the Free plan and every paid plan:

Plan	SMS cost
Free	10c per SMS
Starter	Free
Growing	Free
Premium	Free
Premium Plus	Free

ServiceM8’s pricing page notes a “standard SMS overage fee” applies once you exceed your plan’s monthly SMS cap, but does not publish what that cap or overage rate is for paid tiers. Do not assume text messaging is unlimited on any paid plan; confirm the actual cap with ServiceM8 before relying on high SMS volume for appointment reminders.

Because the SMS cap on paid plans isn’t published, a cleaning business that relies heavily on automated appointment reminders and follow-up texts shouldn’t assume the word “free” means unlimited. The only concrete SMS figure ServiceM8 publishes is the Free plan’s 10c per message; every paid plan’s cap and overage rate would need to be confirmed directly with a ServiceM8 sales contact before committing high message volume to the platform.

Add-on costs

Two add-ons appear on the pricing page with specific figures:

Auto Time Tracking: from $19/mo, available on every plan (minimum plan: all plans).
Bundles (quoting/invoicing workflow tooling): $19/mo, available on Growing and above.

Both are flat add-on fees on top of the base plan price, not per-user charges.

Because both add-ons are flat monthly fees rather than usage-based charges, a cleaning company evaluating Auto Time Tracking or Bundles can add either cost directly onto the base plan total from the tables above without needing to estimate usage volume first. A Growing-plan customer who also wants both add-ons, for example, would budget $79 (base) + $19 (Auto Time Tracking) + $19 (Bundles) = $117/mo before any job overage.

What could not be verified

No other cleaning-relevant field service or scheduling vendor’s pricing page was supplied or checked today. That means this article cannot compare ServiceM8 against alternatives on price, and does not attempt to. If you’re evaluating options, treat any competitor numbers you see elsewhere as unverified until you check the vendor’s own current pricing page, the same way this article checked ServiceM8’s.

Three window cleaners suspended on ropes clean a modern glass building facade during the day.

Two other things ServiceM8 itself doesn’t publish a number for:

The SMS cap and overage rate on paid plans (only the Free plan’s 10c/SMS rate is stated).
The exact ceiling implied by “1,500+ jobs” on Premium Plus, beyond confirming the 20c/job overage kicks in past 1,500.

Neither the SMS overage rate for paid plans nor the exact job ceiling implied by “1,500+” appears anywhere else on the pricing page, in a linked terms page, or in a published rate card. Businesses that need those two figures locked in before committing budget should ask ServiceM8’s sales team for them in writing rather than relying on the “free” and “1,500+” labels alone.

What to check before you buy

Confirm your monthly job volume against the caps above. A crew running close to 150 jobs a month should budget for Premium ($149/mo), not Growing, to avoid mid-month upgrade prompts.
Ask ServiceM8 directly for the SMS cap on your intended plan. The pricing page confirms SMS is “free” on paid tiers but does not state the ceiling before overage charges apply.
Check whether you need Growing or higher for custom forms. Every plan, including Free, can use ServiceM8’s 250+ pre-built forms from the Form Store, but building custom forms requires Growing or above.
Factor in the $19/mo Auto Time Tracking add-on separately if GPS-based clock in/out is a requirement; it is not bundled into the base plan price on any tier.
Use the 14-day free trial to test actual job volume, since the job-count caps, not user counts, are what determine which plan a cleaning business actually needs.
Run the multi-year total against your actual growth plan. A crew expecting to double its job volume within a year should compare the cost of starting on a higher tier now against the cost of upgrading mid-year, using the per-plan monthly figures above.
Use the 14-day free trial to log real job counts before choosing a tier, then match that count against the 30/50/150/500/1,500+ caps rather than guessing which plan fits.