The short version: both started here, both are good, and the choice comes down to one trade-off. Tradify is the easy one. Fergus is the one that tells you what each job actually made. Pick on that, and you'll be right more often than not. One thing that has changed since most comparisons were written: Tradify was bought by the UK's Access Group in October 2024, in a deal reported at more than NZ$100 million. Fergus is still New Zealand owned. That matters to some people and not to others, so it is stated here rather than argued.
Quick disclosure, because it matters: I build custom tools and I don't sell either of these. What follows is what Kiwi tradies and reviewers report, with nothing riding on which one you pick. If one of them fits you, go buy it and skip the rest of this page.
The one-line answer
If you're a sole trader or a small team and you want something you can pick up in an afternoon, Tradify. If you're growing, running bigger jobs, and the number that keeps you up at night is margin-per-job, Fergus. That's the whole decision for most people. The detail below is for when it isn't.
Where they differ
Ease of use. Tradify wins this one in nearly every review. Gentle learning curve, clean mobile app, fast to get a crew onto. It's the most widely used job management tool in NZ trades, and being easy is most of why. Fergus does more, so there's more to learn.
Job costing and reporting. This is Fergus territory. It's built around knowing your costs, your progress claims, and your profit on each job. Reviewers consistently rate its reporting above Tradify's, which gets described as fine for the basics but light once you want to dig in.
Price. Closer than it used to be. Tradify runs around $48 per user per month plus GST on its entry plan, and Fergus starts from around $53/month plus GST for its base plan, not a per-user rate, with add-on costs for timesheet-only users. Both climb with team size, so do the maths at the headcount you'll run rather than the one-user sticker price. The full tier-by-tier breakdowns live in the Tradify pricing post and the Fergus pricing post.
Xero. Both sync to Xero so your invoices don't get typed twice. That's table stakes now. The common gripe with both, separately, is that the sync and reporting stop exactly where your business gets specific.
The third name you'll hear: ServiceM8
If you're a service trade running a high volume of smaller jobs (plumbing, electrical, HVAC, callouts and maintenance), ServiceM8 is worth a look over both. It's field-first, good at dispatching staff to jobs, and priced by job volume rather than per user, which suits that shape of business. It's Australian-built, and the per-job pricing can bite if you do lots of low-value jobs, so check the numbers against your month.
Staged residential builds, invoiced in progress claims rather than as one-off jobs, sit outside all three. That's NextMinute or Ascora territory, and I've written both of those up separately: NextMinute or Tradify for the general split, and Ascora or NextMinute if you're weighing the two staged-build specialists against each other.
When neither one fits
All three share a limit. They're built for the average trade business, and in the setups I've scoped they fit about 70% of how a business runs. The missing 30% is the part that's specific to you: the way you price, the checklist your crew runs, the report your accountant keeps asking for, the second app you bought to cover the gap.
When that gap costs real hours every week, there's a path the comparison sites skip: have the tool built around how you work, on top of the Xero you already pay for. I did exactly that for my own business. I built an overnight pipeline that finds and scores Canterbury leads while I sleep, one run turns 1,579 businesses into 355 worth calling. Yours would be scoped properly, but the economics are the same: a bigger cost upfront, then no monthly fee climbing every year and a fit instead of a workaround.
How to decide today
- Want easy and cheap to start? Trial Tradify.
- Care most about profit per job? Trial Fergus.
- High volume of service callouts? Trial ServiceM8.
- All three keep almost-fitting and the gaps are costing you hours? That's worth a conversation before you sign up to anything.
I'm Christchurch-based and the last one is the work I do. Book a free 30-minute call and I'll give you my read. If it's "just use Fergus", that's what you'll hear.
Questions I get asked about these two
Is Tradify easier to use than Fergus?
Most reviews say yes. Tradify is known for a gentle learning curve and a tidy mobile app, which is why it is the most widely used option among NZ sole traders and small teams. Fergus has more depth, and with that comes a steeper climb.
Is Fergus better for job costing?
Fergus is built around job costing, progress claims and profitability reporting, so if knowing your exact margin per job matters, it is usually the stronger pick. Tradify covers the basics but reviewers describe its reporting as lighter.
How much do Tradify and Fergus cost in NZ?
Tradify starts around $48 per user per month plus GST and Fergus from around $53 per month plus GST for its base plan, not a per-user rate. Both scale with team size, so compare the cost at the number of users you will have rather than the entry price.
What if neither Tradify nor Fergus fits my business?
If both products only fit about 70% of how you work and the gap costs you real hours every week, that is the point where a tool built around your workflow, on top of the Xero you already use, can be worth more than another subscription.