Service Fusion vs FieldEdge

Unlimited users at flat monthly rate ($245 Starter / $382 Plus / $627 Pro). Community operators — including one who runs 10 techs since 2016 (r/ProHVACR, HVAC_MAN_93) — cite this flat fee as the primary reason to choose SF over FieldEdge. A locksmith operator confirmed their boss switched from FE to SF specifically because "FieldEdge is significantly more expensive" (r/Locksmith, lockpickingpatrolman).

Per-seat pricing, not published on the vendor website — all three tiers (Select / Premier / Elite) require a sales call. Community estimates place FE at "around half of ServiceTitan" (~$175/tech/mo rough estimate) based on 2023 Reddit reports. Annual contract required; downgrades only allowed at contract end. No published pricing is itself a documented community frustration (r/HVAC, 2023: "driving me crazy how these programs do not list their prices").

Consistently poor across all crew sizes. Legacy Android app rated 2.5/5 (473 Play Store reviews): no offline capability, photo upload failures and crashes, no push notifications for job assignments, battery drain. New React Native app (2.7/5, 12 reviews) is faster but breaks camera zoom and equipment sections. Multiple Reddit HVAC/locksmith operators confirm their techs "absolutely hate" the field app (r/ProHVACR, Disastrous_Swim4381; r/Locksmith, RelevantArmy3466). Office-side dispatching is well-regarded; the field experience is the trade-off.

Equally poor or worse. Play Store app rated 1.8/5 (279 reviews). Recurring complaints: keyboard forces app relaunch, work summary won't attach to invoice, sync failures between field and office, pricebook randomly disappears for techs, app crashes requiring delete/reinstall cycles, quotes lost without signal, signatures not held offline. Multiple Reddit threads document techs actively switching to ServiceTitan specifically for mobile reliability (r/HVAC, 2024: "switching over to Service Titan at the end of the month and I can't wait").

QuickBooks sync is cited as a migration driver and functions reliably across multiple crew sizes. Auto-population of QB praised by HVAC operators (r/HVAC, BraIVd); Serchen reviewer Lucas specifically migrated to SF because of its QB relationship and called support "fantastic." Reporting and filtering described as "horrible" by a long-tenure user (r/ProHVACR, HVAC_MAN_93, using SF since 2016).

QuickBooks integration present but pricebook editing is severely constrained — once a task category is created, it cannot be changed, and items cannot be exported, updated, then re-imported (r/HVAC, 2025). Reddit HVAC operator reported the pricebook migration from ServiceTitan to FE was "super messed up" and still not resolved months later. QB Desktop Enterprise required for the Warehouse Inventory Management add-on (legacy requirement).

Vendor offers 60-day dedicated onboarding rep, free data import, and no setup fee (servicefusion.com/pricing, verified 2026-06-20). Month-to-month contract option lowers lock-in risk. Community: one locksmith operator who migrated from FieldEdge to SF described it as "took some getting used to, but overall I do like it." Setup called "daunting initially but absolutely fantastic once integrated" (r/Locksmith, MisterSafe).

Annual contract mandatory with no mid-term downgrade option. Data is held hostage on exit unless the customer pays for it (Software Advice, 2023: "when you leave the program, you lose all of YOUR information, unless you are willing to pay for it"). Multiple reviewers document features promised in the sales process that didn't exist at launch (Software Advice, 2024). One documented case of phone number porting failure lasting 6 months with $10/mo compensation offered. No free trial offered; vendors explicitly stated "trial demos are not offered" in contrast to what the contract itself says.

Month-to-month or annual prepaid. No setup fee. No data-hold-hostage practices documented in community. One Reddit caution: migrating away from SF "can take months and cost more than a year of workarounds" due to platform entrenchment — but that is about operational complexity, not contractual data lock-in.

Annual contract standard; downgrades only at contract end. Data export requires payment on exit (multiple Software Advice reviewers). Clearent (same parent company) is the mandatory payment processor; documented case of CC rate promised at 2.7% but charged at 3.4% from day one, with a contract discount quietly removed at 10 months (Software Advice, 2024).

Confirmed HVAC, plumbing, locksmith, electrical, cleaning, landscaping. Strong at 5–20 techs; used since 2016 by one 10-tech HVAC operator. Scheduling, dispatch, invoicing, QB sync, site maps, parent accounts, and PDF attachments all confirmed from community. Reporting and advanced filtering are persistent gap areas.

Positioned for HVAC and plumbing at 2–20 techs. Software Advice reviewer (3-4 man shop) calls it "good starter software" but notes it runs out of room — "didn't offer enough systems." Multiple Software Advice reviewers at 11-50 employees give split results: one 5-star outlier, but the dominant pattern is platform lock-outs, insufficient reporting, and mobile reliability failures. "Works for small-medium, not for large" is the community consensus pattern.