Most heating, plumbing and electrical firms do not lose work because the work is bad. They lose it because nobody picked up the phone at 6:40pm on a Tuesday, when the boiler had stopped and the homeowner was already dialling the next number on the list.
That is the gap AI is being sold into. In 2026 the market has settled into three shapes: helpers inside the job-management software a firm already runs, AI phone answering bolted onto that software, and standalone AI receptionists that sit in front of it. Each is priced differently, and few vendors publish a number at all.
Every price below was read from the vendor's own website in October 2026. Where a vendor publishes nothing, this article says so rather than guessing.
The three kinds of AI in a trade business
The first kind is workflow AI inside the platform. It drafts quotes and invoices, writes the follow-up message to a customer, builds a report from a plain-English request, or reshuffles the dispatch board when a job overruns. ServiceM8, Smart Service and ServiceTitan all sell this, and it is the kind most likely to be included in the subscription rather than billed separately.
The second is AI phone answering attached to the platform: it takes the call, books the visit and logs the job. The third is a standalone AI receptionist that sits in front of the software you already have — the most expensive per month and the fastest to switch on.
1. Housecall Pro — AI answering attached to a mainstream platform
Housecall Pro is the default choice for small home-service teams, and it publishes its prices: Basic $59 a month billed annually, or $79 monthly; Essentials $149 ($189) with five users; MAX $299 ($329) with eight, then $35 a month each.
The plan comparison sits on the vendor's own Housecall Pro pricing page.
The AI is focused on the phone: Customer Service Rep AI answers calls and chats day and night and books the job, and MAX lists “AI team members” among its features. Add-ons are optional, so confirm at checkout which AI is bundled at the tier you buy.
Why it made the list: the strongest mix of published pricing and live AI answering, with a free trial and no contract.
2. Service Fusion — per-company pricing with AI answering as an add-on
Service Fusion prices by company rather than by seat, and every tier includes unlimited users. Starter is $208 a month billed annually, or $245 month to month. Plus is $325 or $382. Pro is $533 or $627.
All three tiers are listed side by side on Service Fusion's pricing page.
ServiceCall.ai, the AI phone answering layer, sits in the add-on list on each tier rather than the included features, next to GPS fleet tracking. The headline price buys unlimited users, not necessarily the AI that answers the call.
Why it made the list: at ten or fifteen technicians, unlimited users changes the arithmetic completely.
3. Smart Service — the deepest AI, with a five-user floor
Smart Service starts at $129 per user per month with a five-user minimum, so the real entry price is $645 a month. The rate is the same for desktop and cloud, annual billing saves 15% and a three-year contract 30%.
The vendor states the minimum plainly on its pricing page.
It is also specific about the AI: a Mission Control dispatch board with forecasting and optimisation, a reporting layer called The Oracle, an AI writing assistant and an AI knowledge centre.
Why it made the list: the most AI features of any vendor here, and the least suitable for a two-van operation.
4. ServiceM8 — real AI from $29 a month
ServiceM8 keeps its whole table on the page: free for one user and 30 jobs a month, then $29 for 50 jobs, $79 for 150, $149 for 500 and $349 for 1,500 or more. Every paid tier includes unlimited users.
The plans and the feature list behind them are on ServiceM8's pricing page.
AI Smart Helpers appear on every tier, including the free one: a writing helper for customer messages, AI Quote and Invoice which drafts a job description and its billing lines, a Smart Report Helper and an AI assistant for taking actions. Phone features start at $19 a month extra.
Why it made the list: the cheapest way to put AI quoting in front of real jobs, with a genuinely free tier to test on.
5. Kickserv — what the software costs without any AI
Kickserv publishes three team-sized plans: Start at $60 a month for five users, Run at $119 for ten, and Scale at $199 for twenty, with 20% off on annual billing. QuickBooks Desktop integration is $50 a month on top. Neither its homepage nor its pricing page claims any AI.
The tiers are published in full, with processing minimums, on Kickserv's pricing page.
Why it made the list: a fair baseline — it shows how much of a competitor's price is software and how much is the AI.
6. Sameday AI — an AI receptionist from $449 a month
Sameday AI is not field-service software and does not try to be. It answers the phone, books the work and hands it to the system you already run.
Launch starts at $449 a month for 500 minutes, unlimited users and three locations. Scale starts at $789 a month for 1,000 minutes, unlimited locations, voice cloning and scheduling integrations with systems including ServiceTitan.
The minute counts and tier inclusions are set out on Sameday AI's pricing page.
Why it made the list: it turns the missed-call problem into a line item you can price against one recovered job.
7. Avoca AI — the AI-first pitch, without a price
Avoca sells an AI workforce rather than a platform: calls answered, appointments booked and follow-up handled by AI agents built for service businesses. It announced a $125M Series B at a $1B valuation.
Its pricing page returns a 404, so there is no tier to compare without a conversation.
The product claims are on Avoca AI's site — the numbers are not.
Why it made the list: the most credible AI-first option here, if you are willing to sit through a sales process.
8. ServiceTitan — per-technician, enterprise, quote only
ServiceTitan is what large HVAC, plumbing and electrical firms tend to run. Packages are priced per technician across Starter, Essentials and The Works, and every route ends at a demo request rather than a checkout.
The AI layer is Atlas, which has its own entry in the product navigation.
The package structure is described, but the figures are not, on ServiceTitan's pricing page.
Why it made the list: the ceiling of this market — useful to know what the big shops run, not worth buying for the AI alone.
The vendors that publish nothing
Podium sells Jerry, an AI employee that answers and books, as an add-on to any plan, with no tier prices published on its pricing page. Workiz names Genius Answering, Genius Phone and Genius Marketing, then sends every tier to a request form. FieldEdge publishes no prices and claims no AI on its own homepage or pricing page.
Broadly's page contradicts itself: the hero and FAQ describe a single $799-a-month AI Workforce Package with no setup fees, while the plan cards below list $399, $699 and $999 a month plus $350 onboarding. Individual products start at $139. Ask which applies before signing; Broadly's pricing page carries both sets of numbers.
How to choose between them
Do the per-technician versus per-company sum first. At ten technicians, Service Fusion's Starter tier is $208 a month flat, while Smart Service at $129 a user works out at $1,290. At three technicians the comparison flips, but the five-user minimum means Smart Service still costs $645.
Then decide whether you are buying software or a phone line. If the software is fine and the calls are the leak, a standalone receptionist is the smaller change. If you are replacing the software anyway, check the add-on price first — “AI included” often means the phone layer is not — and ask what happens on minute overage and handoff.
The Honest Takeaway
AI in the trades is currently a phone-answering product with a software subscription attached. The workflow helpers are real — drafted quotes, tidier reports, a dispatch board that reshuffles itself — but firms buy because of the call they would otherwise miss.
If you want the cheapest useful test, ServiceM8 at $29 a month puts AI quoting in front of real jobs. If missed calls are costing you work you can name, Sameday AI at $449 is the clearest comparison to make. When a vendor will not publish a price, that is information too.
Cover photograph: Wolfmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.