ServiceYak vs Simpro
Simpro is built for commercial contractors with stock, project stages and progress claims. ServiceYak is built for the crew that quotes, schedules, invoices and gets paid. This one is about fit, not feature counts.
Simpro and ServiceYak, side by side
Simpro is one of the best-known names in Australian trade software and it earned that. It runs multi-stage commercial projects, tracks stock across a warehouse and a fleet of vans, handles progress claims and service agreements, and goes deeper on job costing than we do. If that's the business you're running, it's a serious contender and everything below is beside the point.
ServiceYak is aimed squarely at the other end: the one-to-ten-person crew that quotes on site, schedules the week, invoices when the job's done and wants to be paid before the next BAS. One plan, $37 per user per month ex GST, every feature in it, and a 30-day trial with no card.
The honest framing is that this isn't really a feature contest. It's a question of which end of the market you're shopping in — and buying the wrong weight of system is a more expensive mistake than picking the wrong app at the right weight. If you want the long version, we wrote it up as a guide: Simpro alternatives for Australian tradies.
The question is fit, not features
A system that models cost centres, stock and contract types has to be configured before it does anything useful. With an office manager and a few weeks, that's fine — it's how the deep end of the market has always worked, and the depth is what you're buying. Without one, the setup happens at night after a full day on the tools, and a half-configured system is worse than the spreadsheet it replaced.
The clearest signal is the one Simpro's own users give: small businesses without dedicated admin staff routinely report that it's more system than they can carry, and recommend something lighter. That is not a criticism of Simpro. It's a description of who it's for.
- Do you carry stock? If not, a large share of what you'd be paying for is inventory you'll never open.
- Are your jobs days or months? Short jobs want fast quoting and dispatch. Long projects want stages, claims and retention.
- Who administers the system? If the answer is "me, on Sunday", buy something that works out of the box.
A published price against a personalised quote
Simpro's pricing page carries a single REQUEST PRICING button and no figure. Their own FAQ asks "How much does Simpro cost per month?" and answers that pricing is tailored to your team size, with an invitation to contact them for a personalised quote. Checked August 2026.
That's a normal model for configurable software and we're not going to pretend it's sinister. It does mean you can't budget before you've had a sales conversation, and you can't compare without one either. Our number is on the pricing page: $37 per user per month, or $370 per user per year, AUD ex GST, the same for everyone, on a GST-itemised invoice.
There are figures for Simpro's setup costs and contract terms circulating on third-party blogs. We haven't repeated any of them, because they don't come from Simpro. What we can tell you is our side: no setup fee, no implementation project, no minimum term. Ask Simpro directly about theirs — it's a fair question and they'll answer it on the call.
One plan against a base plus add-ons
Simpro sells a base plan that includes three Data Feeds, with further capability sold separately — Digital Forms, additional Data Feeds, Maintenance Planner, Takeoffs, SimTrac GPS and SMS are all add-ons. Billing is monthly or annual. That's a sensible way to sell a platform where no two customers want the same shape.
It also means the quote you get is a starting point rather than a price. ServiceYak has one line on the invoice: seats × $37. Quoting, scheduling, job management, purchase orders, timesheets, payments, 16 reports, AI meeting summaries and the Smart Scanner are all in it. We sell two optional extras and nothing else: the AI Suite at $12 per user per month for crews that run past the standard AI allowance, and a one-page website at $7 a month for the whole workspace.
What Simpro does that we don't
A lot, and it isn't close. These aren't gaps we're working on — they're a different product for a different customer.
- Inventory and stock control. Simpro tracks stock. We don't, and won't. If parts move between a warehouse and your vans and somebody has to account for them, that decides this on its own.
- Project stages and progress claims. Staged commercial work with claims and retention is core Simpro territory. ServiceYak has jobs, not project accounting.
- Commercial depth. Cost centres, contract types, and job costing at the level your accountant asks for on a commercial fit-out. Real capability, and real value at the scale it's built for.
- Maintenance and asset planning. Their Maintenance Planner handles preventative schedules against assets. We have recurring jobs and service reminders, which is a lighter tool for a lighter version of the same problem.
Feature comparison
| Feature | ServiceYak | Simpro | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Published pricing | $37/user/mo ex GST, on the pricing page | Not published — 'Request pricing' | You can't budget for a number you can't see. |
| How you start | Sign up, 30 days free, no card | Request a quote | Real jobs in your own trial beat a guided tour. |
| What's in the plan | One plan, every feature; AI Suite $12/user/mo and website $7/mo optional | Base plan plus add-ons — Digital Forms, Data Feed, Maintenance Planner, Takeoffs, SimTrac GPS, SMS | The quote you're given is a starting point, not a total. |
| Setup fee | None | Not published on their pricing page | Worth asking on the call. We won't put a figure on theirs. |
| Minimum term | None — monthly or annual, cancel anytime | Not published on their pricing page | Same — ask them directly rather than trust a blog. |
| Caps on quotes, jobs and invoices | None | Not published | Winning more work shouldn't cost more. |
| Compliance forms | Limited — job and visit checklists, not regulation-seeded | Digital Forms, sold as an add-on | If you need a signed SWMS off a template, they have that ground and we don't. |
| Inventory and stock control | ✗ | ✓ | If parts move between a warehouse and vans, this decides it. |
| Project stages and progress claims | ✗ | ✓ | Staged commercial work needs staged claims. We don't do them. |
| AI meeting summaries | Record on site, get a sendable recap | ✗ | The site walk-through writes itself up. |
| Free trial | 30 days, no card | Not shown on their pricing page | A month of your own work tells you more than an hour of someone else's. |
Rows marked Simpro wins are the ones where they beat us outright. Their column was checked in August 2026.
Pricing, worked
AUD per month, ex GST. ServiceYak at $37 a seat. Simpro publishes no figure at any seat count, so their column says so rather than guessing one.
| Scenario | Seats | ServiceYak | Simpro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sole trader | 1 | $37 | Quote only |
| Two-van plumbing business | 3 | $111 | Quote only |
| Small crew with office admin | 6 | $222 | Quote only |
Annual billing takes ServiceYak to $370 a seat a year — $30.83 a month. Add-ons sit on top of a Simpro quote; the only two that can sit on top of ours are the AI Suite (+$12/user/mo) and a website (+$7/mo, whole workspace). When you get their number, check what it includes and what's an add-on before you compare it to anything.
Switching from Simpro
Moving off a deep system takes more planning than moving off a light one, because more of what you'd lose is configuration rather than data.
- Export before you cancel. Clients, sites, job history and cost data, out while the subscription is live. Afterwards it's a support request, if it's possible at all.
- Screenshot the configuration. Cost centres, job types, custom fields, form templates and pricing structures took the longest to build and won't be in the export. Capture them before the account closes.
- Decide what you're deliberately leaving behind. If you're moving because the system is heavier than the business, some of what you're carrying shouldn't come with you. Stock levels, project stages and cost-centre structures have no home in ServiceYak — that's the trade, and it's worth naming before you start rather than discovering mid-migration.
- Rebuild rates and line items first. That's the asset that makes quoting fast. Load your kits and templates before you quote anything real.
- Reconnect the books and test one invoice end to end. Connect Xero or QuickBooks, raise one real invoice, and watch it land on the right account before you trust it with a month's work.
- Move at a quiet point in the year. Not mid-project, and not in December.