Honest Comparison
This page is not a hit piece. Tradify is a solid product. Jobber is well built. Powered Now works for thousands of trades businesses. But there is a specific type of trades business for which none of them are enough — and if you have found your way here, you probably already know which type you are.
“Before I built OpsDeck I was using separate tools that each did one thing. They were fine in isolation but none of them talked to each other and none of them did the complex part — the quoting. I needed something that did the entire job that my business specifically needed to function at its highest level. So I built it.”
Rob France, founder of OpsDeck and owner of Infascape Ltd — a Sheffield landscaping company. Built OpsDeck after experiencing exactly this problem in his own trades business.
Job management for trades. Highly rated in the UK.
What it does well
Tradify is genuinely good at what it does — tracking jobs from enquiry to invoice, scheduling, and syncing with accounting. For an electrician or plumber doing straightforward jobs with standard pricing, it works well and the price is reasonable.
Where it falls short
Quoting is manual. You enter your materials and it saves them — but there is no automation. Every quote still requires you to manually key in the job. No productivity rates, no area calculations, no logic that works the quote out for you. For complex trades, you end up back in a spreadsheet for the hard part anyway.
Built for high-volume field service teams.
What it does well
Jobber excels at customer communication and scheduling — client self-service portals, automated follow-ups, and real-time job tracking. For businesses doing a high volume of quick, repeatable jobs it is a strong choice.
Where it falls short
It is built around a standard job type. If your quoting involves complex material calculations, site measurements feeding into pricing logic, or trade-specific productivity rates — Jobber does not accommodate that. You are forced to work around it rather than with it.
The UK's self-described number one job management software for trades.
What it does well
Powered Now is mobile-first and popular with smaller trades businesses in the UK. Good for day-to-day organisation, quote and invoice management, and drag-and-drop scheduling.
Where it falls short
Like Tradify, it is built for the average trade. The quoting tool works for simple jobs. For trades where the quote itself is the complicated part — where materials need calculating by area, depth, or volume — the tool runs out of capability and you are back doing the complex bit manually.
The real difference — manual entry vs automation
Every tool on the market will save your materials list. That is table stakes. The difference is what happens when you start a new quote.
With Tradify or Jobber — you select your materials, enter the quantities manually, and build the quote line by line. Every time. The tool remembers what you charge for things. It does not work anything out for you.
With OpsDeck — you enter the site measurements. The platform calculates the materials required based on your productivity rates, works out the quantities automatically, applies your margins, and generates a complete quote. The intelligence is built in. You provide the numbers from site. The platform does the rest.
20 to 45 minutes per quote
Under 1 minute per quote
An honest note
We will always tell you honestly if OpsDeck is not the right fit. If you do simple, repeatable jobs with standard pricing — an electrician quoting two hours labour and parts, a plumber doing a boiler service — Tradify or Jobber will serve you well at a lower cost. Bespoke automation is most valuable when the quoting is complex and the admin is eating your time. If that is not you, save your money.
Birdwell Insulation Ltd — Sheffield
Before
Previously using Excel for pricing and manual document creation for every quote. 15 minutes per quote done in batches. Generic tools could not replicate their quoting logic.
Result
Drag and drop the Excel file, branded professional quote in 30 seconds. Same day turnaround on every enquiry.
Hi-Point Access Ltd — Scaffolding
Before
Using separate tools for pipeline, scheduling, and communication. Nothing joined up. Operatives briefed by phone. Completion notes chased manually.
Result
One platform. Operatives receive a WhatsApp job sheet every morning. Photos and completion notes upload directly into the job file from site.
Book a free 30-minute consultation. We will look at your current process and tell you honestly what we can automate — and whether the cost is justified for your business.
Book a free consultation