What's the cheapest ServiceM8 plan for a solo electrician?

The Free plan at $0/mo, limited to 1 user and 30 jobs per month, with 10 AI uses per day. Once a solo electrician runs more than 30 jobs in a month, the next tier is Starter at $29/mo, which raises the cap to 50 jobs per month and removes the user limit.

Can a solo electrician buy just one Kickserv user seat?

No. Kickserv's cheapest published plan, Start, is priced for up to 5 users at $60/mo whether one person uses it or five do. There is no lower-priced single-user tier listed on Kickserv's pricing page.

How does Kickserv's Kickback discount work?

Kickserv gives a 5% discount on the monthly plan fee to Start, Run, Scale and Premium users who process a minimum amount in online payments each month. The published minimums are $1,000/mo for Start, $2,000/mo for Run and $3,000/mo for Scale. On annual plans the monthly minimum is multiplied by 12.

Does ServiceM8 charge per user?

No. ServiceM8 states it does not charge per user. The only plan that limits user count is Free, capped at 1 user to help sole traders get started. Every paid plan (Starter, Growing, Premium, Premium Plus) allows unlimited user logins at one flat monthly price.

What happens if a solo electrician sends more texts than ServiceM8's Free plan allows?

ServiceM8's Free plan charges 10 cents per SMS. All four paid plans (Starter through Premium Plus) include free text messaging with no per-SMS charge listed, so a business texting customers often may end up cheaper on a paid plan than on Free.

Kickserv vs ServiceM8: Cheapest Way to Run a Solo Electrician Business

For a solo electrician, ServiceM8’s Free plan at $0/mo (1 user, 30 jobs a month) is the cheapest option outright, and Starter at $29/mo (unlimited users, 50 jobs a month) is the cheapest paid tier if you outgrow Free. Kickserv has no single-user plan; its cheapest tier, Start, is $60/mo and is built around 5 user seats regardless of how many people actually use it.

Kickserv Pricing for a Solo Electrician

Kickserv publishes three plans on its pricing page, and all three are priced around a user allowance rather than a per-seat fee:

Electricians wearing safety gear work on power lines using lifts against a clear blue sky.

Start — up to 5 users, $60/mo, includes an embeddable contact form, automated email and text reminders, over 20 business reports, time tracking, expense tracking and QuickBooks Online integration
Run — up to 10 users, $119/mo
Scale — up to 20 users, $199/mo

Kickserv also mentions a “Premium” tier in its Kickback discount terms, but no price for Premium appears anywhere on the pricing page (see “What We Could Not Verify” below).

For a one-person electrical business, Start is the only realistic entry point at $60/mo, since Kickserv doesn’t sell a smaller tier. You’re paying for headroom to add four more users you may never use.

Kickserv also offers 20% off any plan when billed annually. Applied to the monthly sticker price, that works out to:

Start: $60/mo → $48/mo effective on an annual plan
Run: $119/mo → $95.20/mo effective on an annual plan
Scale: $199/mo → $159.20/mo effective on an annual plan

ServiceM8 Pricing for a Solo Electrician

ServiceM8’s pricing page is built around job volume and AI usage, not user seats, with five tiers:

Plan	Price/mo	Users	Jobs/month	SMS
Free	$0	1	30	10¢ per SMS
Starter	$29	Unlimited	50	Free
Growing	$79	Unlimited	150	Free
Premium	$149	Unlimited	500	Free
Premium Plus	$349	Unlimited	1500+	Free (20¢/job over cap)

ServiceM8 states plainly on its pricing page that it does not charge per user — the Free plan is the only tier that limits users, capped at 1 to help sole traders get started. Every paid tier, starting at Starter for $29/mo, allows unlimited user logins.

Cost at 1, 3, 5 and 8 Users

A solo electrician is one user today but may hire help later. Here’s what each vendor’s cheapest qualifying plan costs as headcount grows, based on the published user caps:

Electricians in San José, Costa Rica, repairing power lines from a cherry picker.

Users	Kickserv cheapest plan	Kickserv cost/mo	ServiceM8 cheapest plan	ServiceM8 cost/mo
1	Start (5-user cap)	$60	Free (1-user cap)	$0
3	Start (5-user cap)	$60	Starter (Free is 1-user only)	$29
5	Start (5-user cap)	$60	Starter	$29
8	Run (10-user cap, Start caps at 5)	$119	Starter	$29

The arithmetic: Kickserv’s cost is flat at $60/mo from 1 to 5 users because you’re paying for the Start tier’s full 5-seat allowance either way, then jumps to $119/mo the moment you add a 6th user and need Run. ServiceM8’s cost is $0/mo exactly at 1 user on Free, then jumps straight to $29/mo the moment you add a 2nd user (Free is capped at 1), but stays flat at $29/mo all the way up to unlimited users on Starter, since ServiceM8 doesn’t charge per seat.

Job Volume and Overage Costs

Both vendors cap jobs or add per-unit fees somewhere in their plans, and this matters more than user count for a solo operator:

ServiceM8 Free: 30 jobs/month. The pricing FAQ states that if you exceed your monthly job allowance, your plan either resets on the next billing cycle or you’re prompted to upgrade — no per-job overage fee is published for Free.
ServiceM8 Starter: 50 jobs/month for $29/mo, works out to roughly 58 cents per job credit if you use the full allowance, though ServiceM8 doesn’t itemize it that way.
ServiceM8 Premium Plus: 1,500+ jobs/month included, with additional jobs beyond that billed at 20 cents each. This is the only tier with a published per-job overage rate.
Kickserv: no job-count limit is mentioned in the pricing page; its constraint is user seats, not job volume.

Texting adds up differently. ServiceM8’s Free plan charges 10 cents per SMS with no free allowance stated. A solo electrician sending 200 appointment confirmation or reminder texts in a month on Free would pay $20 in SMS fees alone (200 × $0.10), on top of the $0 plan fee, for a total of $20/mo. At that texting volume, Starter at $29/mo (free SMS) is only $9/mo more but includes unlimited users going forward and a 50-job cap instead of 30.

Kickserv’s Kickback Payment Processing Discount

Kickserv offers a program called Kickback: Start, Run, Scale and Premium plan users get a 5% discount on their monthly plan fee if they process at least a set amount in online payments through Kickserv each month.

Electricians repairing power lines at sunset, showcasing teamwork and safety.

Start: process at least $1,000/mo in payments → 5% off → $60/mo becomes $57/mo
Run: process at least $2,000/mo → 5% off → $119/mo becomes $113.05/mo
Scale: process at least $3,000/mo → 5% off → $199/mo becomes $189.05/mo

On annual plans, the monthly minimum is multiplied by 12 to set the annual processing threshold. For a solo electrician invoicing card payments through Kickserv, hitting $1,000/mo in processed payments is realistic on a handful of typical residential jobs, which would bring Start down from $60/mo to $57/mo.

What We Could Not Verify

Kickserv Premium plan price: Premium is named in the Kickback discount terms as eligible for the 5% payment-processing discount, but no monthly price, user cap or feature list for Premium appears on Kickserv’s pricing page. We cannot state what it costs.
Kickserv per-job or job-volume limits: the pricing page does not mention a job cap for any Kickserv plan, so we cannot say whether one exists.
ServiceM8 overage pricing for Starter, Growing or Premium: the plan comparison table shows a dash (”-”) for additional job fees on these three tiers, meaning no per-job overage rate is published for them. Only Premium Plus states an explicit 20-cents-per-job overage.

Do not assume pricing on these based on the neighbouring tiers. Ask the vendor directly before budgeting around them.

What to Check Before You Buy

Confirm your actual monthly job count against ServiceM8’s caps (30/50/150/500/1500+) before picking a tier — going over on Free or Starter means an upgrade prompt, not a small overage charge.
If you plan to grow past one user, model Kickserv’s plan jump: staying under 5 users costs $60/mo, but a 6th user forces Run at $119/mo, a $59/mo jump for one extra seat.
Ask Kickserv directly for current Premium plan pricing since it isn’t published.
If you send frequent appointment texts, compare ServiceM8’s Free plan SMS fees (10¢ each) against a paid plan’s flat rate before assuming Free is cheapest overall.
If you plan to accept card payments through Kickserv, check whether your expected monthly processing volume clears the $1,000/$2,000/$3,000 Kickback thresholds, since that changes your effective monthly cost.