The short version: Fergus prices by plan, not by seat, from $53 a month for Basic. Tradify's flat per-user rate, ServiceM8's job-volume tiers, simPRO's quoted project pricing and NextMinute's crew bands each solve the same job differently, and a Microsoft 365 build is the fifth option once a firm already pays for the licence.
Why crews look beyond Fergus
Two things in Fergus's own plan structure send people shopping, and neither is a complaint, they're both stated on the vendor's own pricing page. The first is the Enterprise cliff: Fergus publishes Basic and Professional pricing, but businesses over ten staff move to custom Enterprise pricing, so growth past that point trades a fixed number for a negotiated one. The second is the seat mix itself: every Fergus price is a "from" figure, Basic from $53 a month, Professional from $75, timesheet-only users from $26 each, and the real bill depends on how many of each seat type a crew buys rather than one number you can quote from memory. A crew that wants a flatter, easier-to-forecast bill has reason to look at the four below.
The alternatives, priced side by side
All figures are NZD ex GST, verified on this site's own pricing posts for each tool.
| Alternative | Published price | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Tradify | $48 to $62 a user a month (Lite, Pro, Plus) | A crew that wants one flat per-user rate with no plan cliff to grow into. |
| ServiceM8 | $29 to $349 a month by job volume, unlimited users | Small crews running high job counts, locksmiths and appliance techs among them. |
| simPRO | Quoted per business, no published price | Staged commercial work, maintenance contracts across sites, and stock control. |
| NextMinute | $199 a month for 3 to 9 people, $349 for 10 to 14 | Crews of five or more, where the band beats a per-user rate outright. |
| Build on Microsoft 365 | Dataverse NZ$32.40 a user a month, Power BI Pro NZ$22.60, typically $8,000 to $18,000 to build | Firms already on M365 that want to own the job tracker rather than rent one. |
The job list, quoting record and a WIP view can be built directly on the Microsoft 365 licence a firm already pays for: Dataverse at NZ$32.40 a user a month, with Power BI Pro at NZ$22.60 for whoever reads the report. A build like that typically runs $8,000 to $18,000. It does not replace Xero or the accounting sync each of the four tools above ships with, that stays exactly where it is; what it replaces is the subscription itself, a one-off cost against an ongoing per-seat bill.
Common questions
What are the cheapest alternatives to Fergus for a small NZ crew?
On a straight published number, ServiceM8 is cheapest for a small crew doing normal job volumes, from $29 a month with unlimited users, and NextMinute's $199 band is cheapest once a crew reaches five people or more. Tradify's flat $48 a user a month sits in between and is simplest to budget for a crew of three or four. simPRO has no published price at all, it's quoted per business for heavier project and stock work.
Does Fergus get more expensive than these alternatives as a crew grows?
It can. Fergus's published Basic and Professional pricing only runs to ten staff, past that it moves to custom Enterprise pricing, so a growing crew loses the fixed number the other four options keep publishing. NextMinute and ServiceM8 in particular are built to keep publishing a number well past ten people.
Can a Microsoft 365 build replace Fergus?
For the job list, quoting record and reporting, yes: a build on Dataverse, NZ$32.40 a user a month, with Power BI Pro at NZ$22.60 for whoever reads it, typically runs $8,000 to $18,000. It does not replace the accounting sync Fergus and the others ship with, Xero or MYOB stays exactly where it is.
Work out which one fits your crew
If you're stuck between plans, or between any of these and a build, book a free 30-minute call. Bring your crew size and how your jobs flow, and run the numbers yourself first with the ROI calculator if a custom build is even on the table.