Residential HVAC / Plumbing FSM: Pick By Tech Count

The wrong FSM at your size either overpays or breaks at 8 techs. Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan, and Workiz each dominate a band. Here's which band is yours.

60-second chooser

1-5 techs, solo-owner-dispatcher. You invoice from the truck and want the lightest lift to go digital.
-> Jobber ->

5-15 techs, dedicated dispatcher. You need price-book, recurring maintenance, and real scheduling.
-> Housecall Pro ->

15+ techs, multi-location, or chasing a sale. You need full CRM + marketing attribution + call-booking.
-> ServiceTitan ->

Budget shop, 1099 techs, high turnover. Mobile-first, hourly-tech friendly.
-> Workiz ->

Affiliate disclosure: links pay us a referral if you subscribe. That's why the comparison is honest - mis-sizing you gets a 30-day cancellation and no commission.

Two mistakes that cost $50k/yr: (1) Buying ServiceTitan at 3 techs because of the sales demo - you'll pay $8-12k/yr and use ~20% of it. (2) Trying to run 10+ techs on Jobber - dispatcher-side features start to break at scale and you'll migrate anyway.

Side-by-side

Factor	Jobber	Housecall Pro	ServiceTitan	Workiz
Sweet-spot size	1-5 techs	5-15 techs	15+ techs	1-10 techs
Starting price (US)	~$49/mo	~$65/mo	$400+/seat, custom	~$65/mo
Dispatch board	Basic	Strong	Enterprise	Good
Price book	Limited	Yes	Deep + dynamic	Yes
Recurring maintenance	Yes	Yes	Yes (with PM plans)	Yes
Marketing attribution	Light	Good	Full call-tracking	Light
Onboarding time	Same day	1-2 weeks	4-8 weeks	Same day
Contract	Month-to-month	Month-to-month	Annual, 1-year min	Month-to-month

The tech-count rule

Every FSM is built around an assumption about who's doing dispatch. Jobber assumes the owner. Housecall Pro assumes a part-time office manager. ServiceTitan assumes a full dispatcher plus a marketing manager. Match the tool to the role you already have, not the role you hope to hire.

Common exception: if you're in a 5-10 tech shop but you're about to sell to a PE roll-up in the next 12 months, go straight to ServiceTitan. Buyers discount offers for shops not on it.

Trust / who we are

We maintain comparison pages and run small-ops affiliate relationships with each vendor. The pricing and sweet-spot bands above reflect general public plans and talking-to-real-contractors field notes - not sponsored content.

If you're a 2-truck shop and a ServiceTitan rep is quoting $10k/year, that's probably wrong for you. Walk and revisit when you're at 12+ techs.

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