Tradify: Charges That Aren't in the Base Price

Tradify publishes three seat prices and one add-on figure. Lite is $47, Pro $51 and Plus $61 USD per user per month. Alongside those, the same page attaches a $12 per month line to the Pricing and Markups feature on all three tiers. That $12 is the charge that sits outside the headline number, and Tradify does not say whether it is billed per account or per seat.

Key points

• Tradify lists Lite at $47, Pro at $51 and Plus at $61 USD per user per month on its pricing page.
• A $12 per month figure appears against Pricing and Markups on every tier, with no stated billing basis, creating a $144 to $1,152 annual swing at eight users.
• The gap between Lite and Plus is $14 per user per month, which is $1,344 a year for an eight-person crew.
• SmartTools is the only feature Tradify names as Plus-only, and the pricing page does not describe what it does.
• The 14-day free trial is stated to include all the features, so Plus-only functions can be tested from a Lite-sized business.

What does Tradify actually cost at each crew size?

Straight multiplication of the three published rates. No discount is stated anywhere on the pricing page, so these figures assume list price with no volume break.

Users	Lite $47 /mo	Pro $51 /mo	Plus $61 /mo	Lite /yr	Pro /yr	Plus /yr
1	$47	$51	$61	$564	$612	$732
2	$94	$102	$122	$1,128	$1,224	$1,464
3	$141	$153	$183	$1,692	$1,836	$2,196
4	$188	$204	$244	$2,256	$2,448	$2,928
5	$235	$255	$305	$2,820	$3,060	$3,660
6	$282	$306	$366	$3,384	$3,672	$4,392
7	$329	$357	$427	$3,948	$4,284	$5,124
8	$376	$408	$488	$4,512	$4,896	$5,856
10	$470	$510	$610	$5,640	$6,120	$7,320
12	$564	$612	$732	$6,768	$7,344	$8,784
15	$705	$765	$915	$8,460	$9,180	$10,980
20	$940	$1,020	$1,220	$11,280	$12,240	$14,640

The working on any row is one line. Eight users on Plus: 8 × $61 = $488 per month. $488 × 12 = $5,856 per year. Nothing else in the published source modifies that except the $12 line handled below.

How much does the $12 add-on change the total?

This is where the base price stops being the price. Tradify’s pricing page prints “$12 per month” immediately after the Pricing and Markups description under Lite, Pro and Plus. It does not say per user. It does not say per account. It does not say which tiers include it at no charge.

Two readings are possible and they diverge fast. The table below varies both axes: crew size and the billing basis of the $12.

Users	Base Lite /yr	+ $12 flat	+ $12 per user	Gap between readings
1	$564	$708	$708	$0
2	$1,128	$1,272	$1,416	$144
3	$1,692	$1,836	$2,124	$288
4	$2,256	$2,400	$2,832	$432
5	$2,820	$2,964	$3,540	$576
6	$3,384	$3,528	$4,248	$720
8	$4,512	$4,656	$5,664	$1,008
10	$5,640	$5,784	$7,080	$1,296
15	$8,460	$8,604	$10,260	$1,944
20	$11,280	$11,424	$13,440	$2,592

Working for the eight-user row. Base: 8 × $47 × 12 = $4,512. Flat reading: $4,512 + ($12 × 12) = $4,512 + $144 = $4,656. Per-seat reading: $4,512 + (8 × $12 × 12) = $4,512 + $1,152 = $5,664. Difference $1,008.

At one user the two readings are identical, which is exactly why a sole trader will never notice the ambiguity and a ten-person shop will. The uncertainty grows at $144 per additional user per year.

The same $12 line appears under Pro and Plus on the page, so the absolute add is identical across tiers. It does not change which tier is cheapest, only the total.

What does the jump from Lite to Plus cost, and what buys it?

$14 per user per month. Lite $47, Plus $61, difference $14. Pro sits between at $51, so Lite to Pro is $4 and Pro to Plus is $10.

Users	Lite → Pro /mo	Lite → Pro /yr	Pro → Plus /mo	Pro → Plus /yr	Lite → Plus /yr
1	$4	$48	$10	$120	$168
2	$8	$96	$20	$240	$336
3	$12	$144	$30	$360	$504
4	$16	$192	$40	$480	$672
5	$20	$240	$50	$600	$840
6	$24	$288	$60	$720	$1,008
8	$32	$384	$80	$960	$1,344
10	$40	$480	$100	$1,200	$1,680
15	$60	$720	$150	$1,800	$2,520
20	$80	$960	$200	$2,400	$3,360

The only feature Tradify ties to a single tier on this page is SmartTools: “Available on our Plus plan only.” What SmartTools does is not stated on the pricing page. So the honest description of the Plus upgrade is that a five-user firm pays $840 a year, and an eight-user firm $1,344 a year, for a feature set the pricing page names but does not define.

Note also what the page repeats. Job Management, Notes and Tracking; Scheduling and Google Calendar Sync; Pricing and Markups are listed identically under Lite, Pro and Plus. On the published text alone, those three functions are not a reason to move up a tier.

Reverse calculation: how much work must the upgrade produce?

Different question. Instead of asking what a tier costs, ask what it must return.

Assume a billable rate the reader sets. The table below shows how many billable hours per year the Lite → Plus premium equals at four common electrical rates. Rates are the reader’s own input, not Tradify’s; they are stated here as assumptions so the arithmetic is transparent.

Users	Lite → Plus /yr	Hours at $75/hr	Hours at $100/hr	Hours at $125/hr	Hours at $150/hr
1	$168	2.2	1.7	1.3	1.1
3	$504	6.7	5.0	4.0	3.4
5	$840	11.2	8.4	6.7	5.6
8	$1,344	17.9	13.4	10.8	9.0
12	$2,016	26.9	20.2	16.1	13.4
20	$3,360	44.8	33.6	26.9	22.4

Working: eight users, $1,344 annual premium, $100 billable hour. $1,344 ÷ $100 = 13.44 hours a year, or roughly 1.1 hours a month across the whole business. Per person that is about 8 minutes a month.

Read the other way, the whole Plus subscription at eight users is $5,856 a year, which at $100 an hour is 58.6 billable hours, or about 7.3 hours per person per year. That is the number worth taking into the 14-day trial: the tool has to save each field user roughly a working day a year to pay for itself at that rate.

What are the two common misconceptions about Tradify’s price?

Misconception one: “$47 is the entry price, so a small crew starts at $47.” It is $47 per user per month, not per account. Tradify’s page states each figure as “USD per user/month”. A two-person operation is $94 a month, not $47. A four-person operation is $188. The distinction costs a four-person business $141 a month, or $1,692 a year, against the misread.

Misconception two: “The tiers are just more features of the same thing, so Lite is Plus with less.” On the published page the three tiers list the same three named features. The only stated exclusivity runs the other way: SmartTools is Plus-only. Everything else Tradify chose to print is common to all three. Anyone budgeting a Pro or Plus upgrade on the assumption that job management or scheduling improves is budgeting $144 to $1,344 a year against text the vendor did not write.

A third worth naming: the 14-day trial is stated to include all the features. So the trial does not tell you which tier you need. It tells you whether the product works. Tier selection has to happen separately, by asking Tradify what SmartTools is and whether it applies to your work.

When is this estimate wrong?

Concrete cases where the tables above will not match an invoice.

• Currency and region. Every figure is USD. Tradify’s site carries a Regions selector, so a business billed in another currency will see a different number that is not derivable from this page.
• Sales tax. All figures are pre-tax. US state sales tax treatment of SaaS varies and Tradify’s pricing page states no tax position.
• The $12 basis. If it is per user, every total above understates by $144 per user per year. This is the single largest source of error in the tables.
• Annual versus monthly billing. Tradify’s page shows monthly per-user rates only. If an annual prepay discount exists, it is not on this page, and the yearly columns above would be too high.
• Payment processing. Tradify lists Stripe as an add-on and markets Online Payments. Card processing fees are charged by the processor, not by Tradify, and no rate appears anywhere in the source. Any figure quoted for card fees on this page would be invented, so none is given.
• Accounting integrations. QuickBooks and Xero are listed as add-ons. Those subscriptions are billed separately by their own vendors and are not in Tradify’s price.
• Seat counting mid-month. Nothing on the page states how part-month users, seasonal labour or deactivated seats are prorated. A crew that scales from four to eight in summer cannot be modelled from the published text.
• Promotional pricing. The SmartTools block is flagged “Just Landed”. New-feature pricing is the pricing most likely to move within twelve months.

What could not be verified?

Substantial gaps. Stating them is more useful than filling them.

• The billing basis of the $12 charge. Not stated. This is the core ambiguity of the article.
• What SmartTools contains. Named as Plus-only. Not described on the pricing page.
• Feature differences between Lite, Pro and Plus beyond SmartTools. The three feature descriptions printed under each tier are the same. Whatever separates $47 from $51 is not on the page.
• User limits or minimums. No minimum seat count and no maximum appears. The 20-user rows above assume linear pricing continues, which the page neither confirms nor denies.
• Setup, onboarding, migration or training fees. None published. Tradify markets Free Support, a Help Center, Training Videos and an FAQ, but the absence of a fee on a pricing page is not proof no fee exists.
• Contract length and cancellation terms. Not on the pricing page.
• Storage caps or overage charges. Not mentioned.
• Card processing rates through Stripe. Not published by Tradify.
• Annual prepay discount. Not published.

This site does not use Tradify. Everything above is arithmetic performed on figures the vendor published on 5 September 2026, plus billable-rate assumptions clearly labelled as the reader’s own inputs. Nothing here is a report of first-hand use.

Year-on-year: what would a price rise cost?

Tradify’s page carries no historic pricing, so there is no verified prior year to compare against. What can be computed is exposure: how much a future increase would cost at each crew size. The percentages below are modelled scenarios, not vendor statements.

Users	Plus now /yr	+5%	+10%	+15%	Extra at +10%
1	$732	$769	$805	$842	$73
3	$2,196	$2,306	$2,416	$2,525	$220
5	$3,660	$3,843	$4,026	$4,209	$366
8	$5,856	$6,149	$6,442	$6,734	$586
12	$8,784	$9,223	$9,662	$10,102	$878
20	$14,640	$15,372	$16,104	$16,836	$1,464

Working: eight users on Plus is $5,856. A 10% rise gives $5,856 × 1.10 = $6,441.60, rounded to $6,442, an extra $586 a year. Per-user pricing means the exposure scales linearly with headcount, so a growing crew compounds both effects at once. A firm going from five to eight users and absorbing a 10% rise moves from $3,660 to $6,442, a 76% increase in software cost driven mostly by headcount rather than by the vendor.

What to check before buying

Five questions, all of which the published page leaves open, and all answerable in one email to Tradify before any card is entered.

1. Is the $12 Pricing and Markups charge per account or per user? At eight users the answer is worth $1,008 a year.
2. What exactly is SmartTools, and does it apply to electrical work? It is the only documented reason to pay Plus rates.
3. What separates Lite from Pro? $4 per user per month is $384 a year at eight users for a difference the pricing page does not print.
4. Is there an annual prepay discount, and what is the minimum term? Neither appears in the source.
5. How are seats prorated when crew size changes mid-month? Per-user pricing plus seasonal labour is where trade businesses get surprised.

Then use the 14-day trial for what it is good at. Tradify states the trial includes all the features, so it will not distinguish tiers, but it will show whether the product handles your job flow at all. Set the bar from the reverse calculation above: at $100 an hour and eight users, Plus needs to return about 7.3 hours per person per year to break even.

Read next

• Tradify: What the Base Plan Leaves Out
• Tradify Cost by Crew Size for Electrical Contractors
• Tradify Plan Tiers: What Lite, Pro and Ultimate Unlock
• ServiceM8 Cost When You Add Office Staff Seats

Also worth reading: Tradify Pricing for a 5-Person HVAC Shop

Also worth reading: Tradify Costs for Electricians: $47 to $61 a Seat