5 Best FieldEdge Alternatives for Trade Service Businesses & Contractors

FieldEdge is a popular field service management software (FSM) and app used by service businesses and contractors in the trades. While they technically serve both residential and commercial service businesses, historically their product has been more focused on serving the residential sector.

If you’re considering FieldEdge, or wanting to explore other possible alternatives, you should know that there are certain features that are important to service businesses that FieldEdge either lacks or has limited functionality for. As a result, it may not have all of the features you need or want in your FSM.

In our in-depth comparison of FieldEdge versus our product, ServiceTitan, we did a deep dive into their feature gaps and limitations that ServiceTitan offers solutions for. 

Specifically, we covered differences in capabilities for:

• Residential service businesses

  • Workflow efficiency for certain fundamental business processes

  • Allowing customers to book appointments without the need to speak to a CSR

  • Providing improved customer experiences 

  • Clarity and customizability of essential reporting data

• Commercial service businesses

  • Easily implementing customer-specific pricing

  • Managing inventory with greater efficiency

  • Providing customers with greater self-serve access to job histories

  • Monitoring job costs and managing longer term projects

  • Leveraging forms for key day-to-day workflows

In this post, we’ll summarize the feature differences that we discussed in our head-to-head comparison. And then we’ll share links to in-depth comparisons that we’ve written on 4 other brands of field service software, so you can weigh other options and figure out which software solution would be best for your business. In total, we’ll cover 5 FieldEdge alternatives.

Best FieldEdge Alternatives

1. ServiceTitan

2. Housecall Pro

3. Jobber

4. Service Fusion

5. Kickserv

Want to see how ServiceTitan helps to streamline workflows for field service companies? We specialize in helping HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and other trade service businesses grow revenue, work smarter, and keep their businesses on track. Schedule a call to get a free, live, one-on-one walk-through of how our platform works.

1. ServiceTitan

FieldEdge and ServiceTitan both offer comprehensive sets of features to help field service companies streamline business processes. This includes:

• Scheduling and Dispatching

• Customer Experience

• Customer Database and Customer Management (CRM)

• Technician Route Optimization

• Estimates and Proposals

• Work Order Management

• Billing and Invoicing

• Payment Processing 

• QuickBooks Integration

• Time Tracking

• And more

However,as we mentioned above, ServiceTitan offers certain essential features that FieldEdge either doesn’t offer or offers limited functionality for. 

In this section, we’ll provide further detail on these features. First, we’ll cover the features most relevant to residential service businesses, and then we’ll cover the features most relevant to commercial service businesses.

How ServiceTitan Better Serves Residential Service Businesses

Improved Workflow Efficiency for Fundamental Business Processes

Adjustable Capacity Planning

Scheduling is a key feature that’s offered by nearly every FSM on the market. However, ServiceTitan has unique functionality called Advanced Capacity Planning that allows service contractors to define, automate, and implement a capacity planning strategy, which optimizes their schedules for profitability.

Depending on the time of year, many businesses in the service industry increase or decrease their capacity for certain job types. For example, they may increase capacity for maintenance agreement visits during slow seasons, or decrease capacity for maintenance visits during busy seasons, reserving more tech availability for emergency service and repair, system replacements, etc.

However, while many service business owners want their CSRs to schedule jobs based on these sorts of factors, it’s often difficult for CSRs to execute in practice. But with ServiceTitan, businesses can set rules within their scheduling settings that allow them to implement these strategies automatically—i.e. when CSRs select a certain job type during the booking process, they’ll only see availability based on the strategy you’ve defined. 

This can have an immense impact on profitability, and this feature isn’t currently available with FieldEdge. To implement such strategies, CSRs need to use their memories and other parts of the system which makes this process more challenging (and less likely to happen). 

Note: To learn more about our scheduling features and drag-and-drop dispatch board, check out this previous post on our field service dispatch app. 

Maintenance Agreement Management

From ServiceTitan’s call booking screen, CSRs can automatically view job histories, maintenance agreement details, and other key customer information when existing members call in. This offers a number of advantages that make CSRs’ jobs easier while enabling them to provide increased customer satisfaction. 

Specifically, when members call in, CSRs can easily view and access details, such as:

• Membership type

• Membership expiration date

• Previous and upcoming scheduled visits

This provides greater ease of use to CSRs when scheduling maintenance visits, and saves time from having to look up membership details in other parts of their system.

In contrast, FieldEdge users do not automatically see membership information upon an incoming call. They need to leave the call booking screen and go to another part of the system to find those details, which can lengthen call times and increase the number of steps it takes for CSRs to serve customers.

Allowing Customers to Book Appointments Without the Need to Speak to a CSR

Out of all the marketing channels available to service businesses, Google Local Services Ads is the most useful for two key reasons:

1. It allows you to reach the right people at the right time. Local Services Ads show up only for people in the geographic area that you service, just as they’re experiencing an issue and searching for a service provider.

2. You only pay for actual leads—calls or scheduled appointments. Unlike other online advertising where you pay for views or clicks of your ads, with Local Services Ads, you only pay when a prospective customer actually calls or schedules an appointment with your business. 

However, within Local Services Ads, the default option for customers to contact your business is to call you. In today’s market, many customers want the option to book an appointment online without the need to call and speak with a representative.

With ServiceTitan’s Local Services Ads integration, prospects see another icon that allows them to view your schedule and book an appointment on the spot. 

This functions to a) satisfy the booking preferences of a wider range of customers and b) free up time for your CSRs to attend to other pressing customer support matters.

At present, FieldEdge does not offer this integration, so you won’t be able to offer prospective customers this booking option through Local Services Ads.

Providing Improved Customer Experiences with Real-Time Technician Tracking

Many field management platforms, including FieldEdge, offer SMS notification features that allow techs to let customers know when they’re on the way. But with ServiceTitan’s mobile app (compatible on both iOS and Android devices), customers can see and track their technician on a map. 

This allows them to view their technician’s location in real time, providing them with more accurate arrival times—and an overall improved customer experience. As an added benefit, this GPS tracking also allows business owners and managers to more clearly see how technicians spend their time when en route from job to job, which fosters more accountability and transparency within the company.

Greater Clarity and Customizability of Essential Reporting Data

While both FieldEdge and ServiceTitan offer reporting capabilities, ServiceTitan’s reporting features are more flexible and advanced. Specifically, we offer:

1. Greater customizability: ServiceTitan reports are more customizable. For example, if you want the flexibility to create really specific reports—like a scorecard for a single technician working on a specific business unit in a specific area—you have the power to do so with ServiceTitan.

2. Greater drill-down capabilities: ServiceTitan allows businesses to drill down into their reports and identify exactly where the information is coming from. Users can click on any metric being reported, and trace it all the way back to the specific job, technician, etc.

For contractors looking to grow their residential service businesses, granular reporting can make a tremendous difference in your ability to spot issues and opportunities that either hinder or facilitate growth. If you want greater visibility and control over your business, ServiceTitan reporting can offer that.

How ServiceTitan Better Serves Commercial Service Businesses

Easily Implement Client-Specific Pricing

ServiceTitan has built-in features for offering customer-specific pricing to commercial customers. For example, if you’re working with a particular chain of big-box stores or restaurants, and you want to offer them special rates, you can create custom rules for pricing and markups for that specific customer.

In most FSMs, including FieldEdge, creating customer-specific pricing requires manual processes and workarounds to set up. For example, you may have to export your pricebook to create these options or changes, and re-import it to your system to offer client-specific pricing. And this can be burdensome on your staff, particularly if you work with a lot of commercial customers.

Manage Inventory with Greater Efficiency

While FieldEdge technically offers inventory management, you need to bounce back and forth between their platform and QuickBooks to view and manage your inventory. This decreases workflow efficiency, and requires users to have equal competency and familiarity with both platforms and the ways they work together.

In contrast, with ServiceTitan, you can manage your inventory directly within our platform. This helps to further streamline your workflows and ensure inventory is always accurate and up-to-date.

Appointed staff can access and leverage a suite of tools to optimize inventory and purchase order management, including:

• Inventory Overview: At a glance, users can view all items that they’ve added to track with ServiceTitan inventory. For each inventory item, this view displays an item name, code, description, along with quantities available, on hold, on order, and on hand, plus the average cost per unit and total value of the stock. You can see big-picture numbers, such as total inventory valuation and total number of items. Or you can drill down into individual inventory items for further detail.

• Replenishment: To track equipment and materials in your trucks and warehouse, our replenishment feature automatically updates to reflect the number of items needed in a given location. As items are added to invoices or purchase orders, these are automatically reflected in your inventory data. And users can be prompted to replenish to maintain necessary inventory. 

• Purchase Orders: Users can initiate the requisition of equipment and materials for jobs right from within the estimate screen. They can then create and send purchase orders to the appropriate vendors, and track those orders through fulfillment. Inventory data automatically updates to reflect all PO’s.

• And more: This feature set also includes workflows for managing adjustments, returns, warranty parts tracking, and more. 

Provide Customers with Greater Self-Serve Access to Job Histories via a Robust Customer Portal

With ServiceTitan’s customer portal, customers have a number of convenient self-serve options available to them. For example, customers can:

• View complete job histories

• View past estimates and invoices

• Make online payments directly through our portal

In contrast, while FieldEdge offers customer portal functionality through a third-party integration, customers can only view quotes and make payments on those specific estimates. Customers are unable to view complete job histories, which can be inconvenient. 

Easily Monitor Job Costs and Manage Long Term Projects

If you’re working on a commercial installation that takes place over weeks or months, you need a different set of tools than for a short-term residential service and repair job. 

For example, it’s essential to have real-time visibility into your project financials as you progress through the job. Without a clear view into your job costing, you can easily find yourself losing control of your costs, and not making any profit—or worse, finishing a job at a loss.

With ServiceTitan, commercial service businesses can view their project financials in real-time via the project page. For any given project, they can view a set of financial tables including:

• Project Summary: An overview table containing the high-level details of their project, such as the amounts and percentages completed of their contract sum, expenses, cost to complete, total earned, total retainage, total invoiced, etc.

• Budget vs. Actual: An in-depth look at budgeted versus actual expenses, including the variance and percentage of the budget used.

• Expense Details: A detailed breakdown of all expenses for the project, and the ability to drill down into individual line items to track expenses at a granular level. 

These tables are updated automatically throughout the project as expenses occur, work is completed, invoices are received, etc. And from this same page, contractors can take a variety of key actions that include building estimates, adding invoices or applications for payment, requisitioning equipment and materials, and more.

With these tools, commercial service businesses have a significant leg up for maximizing efficiency and profitability on longer term-projects. 

And while FieldEdge offers some project management capabilities, they don’t currently offer the equivalent of ServiceTitan’s project-tracking page.

Robust Form Capabilities for Improved Day-to-Day Workflows

Compared to FieldEdge, ServiceTitan has a number of features that offer greater flexibility and efficiency when it comes to form management. For example:

• Ability to Upload PDF Forms: ServiceTitan users can upload PDF forms that were created outside of ServiceTitan, and then host and use them in our platform.

• Easily Duplicate Forms: If a technician needs to complete multiple copies of the same form for a job, they don’t need to re-create the same document multiple times. They can duplicate the initial document and customize it accordingly.

• Leverage Dynamic Forms: Dynamic forms use conditional logic to update form fields based on information that’s populated. For example, if a water heater is tankless, the form automatically updates to only display questions related to tankless water heaters. 

With our advanced form functionality, businesses can better ensure techs and office staff follow best practices when executing day-to-day workflows, as well as ensure the right information is documented for every job. 

Want a Live Walk-Through of ServiceTitan’s All-In-One Platform?

The features we’ve discussed throughout this section are just some of the areas where ServiceTitan offers more to service businesses than FieldEdge. 

To see why our software is trusted by 100,000+ service professionals, schedule a call to get a free, live, one-on-one walk-through of how our user-friendly management platform can help you grow revenue, work smarter, and keep your business operations on track. 

2. Housecall Pro

Housecall Pro is a mobile field service management software solution for home service businesses. Similar to ServiceTitan, it offers a wide range of features outside of invoicing, such as scheduling and dispatching, estimates, QuickBooks integration, and more. 

However, when compared to Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan offers:

• Greater native pricebook functionality

• Ability to drill down further into reporting metrics and trust your numbers

• Automated tagging features that help increase revenue

• Gated work sequences and customizable forms to facilitate accountability across the organization

• Offline functionality that allows techs to use our mobile app when out of cell service zones

For more details on these differences, check out our complete comparison article: Housecall Pro vs. ServiceTitan

3. Jobber

Jobber is a field service scheduling software that also offers a wide range of other features for field service business management. Like ServiceTitan, it offers functionality for estimating, quotes, scheduling, invoicing, and more.

However, when compared to Jobber, ServiceTitan offers:

• More robust, native pricebook functionality

• In-app access to top industry supplier equipment catalogs

• Extensive marketing functionality that reduces the need for third-party marketing hires

• More flexibility and customization for membership plans and recurring services

• Offline functionality for our mobile app that allows techs to work seamlessly (even when they’re out of cell service zones)

• Deeper reporting capabilities that allow business owners to drill down into the sources of their data

For more details on these differences, check out our complete comparison article: Jobber vs. ServiceTitan. 

4. Service Fusion

Service Fusion describes itself as an “All-In-One Field Service Management Software.” Like ServiceTitan, it offers a wide range of features, including estimates, customer management, scheduling and dispatching, and more. 

However, when compared to Service Fusion, ServiceTitan offers the following as a part of our base product (while Service Fusion charges extra for many of these features):

• Robust membership billing capabilities (bulk membership billing, and automated monthly or annual billing options)

• Scheduled report automations

• Call booking automations for easier job booking and better customer experiences

• Property data to spot sales opportunities and drive revenue

For more details on these differences, check out our complete comparison article: Service Fusion vs. ServiceTitan. 

5. Kickserv

Kickserv is another field service management software offering a variety of tools for large and small businesses. Like other FSM software, they provide a mobile app as well as desktop features for job management, scheduling, managing your workforce, and more. 

However, when compared to Kickserv, ServiceTitan offers:

• Mobile app with customer convenience features with stable offline functionality

• Customizable forms and pricing tools in the field

• Two-way SMS text messaging for customer inquiries and scheduling changes

• Pre-appointment GPS Tech Tracking for accurate arrival times

• End-to-End presentation mode: A visual pricing tool and estimate builder with good, better, best options

• And more

To view these and other differences, check out the feature comparison chart on our comparison page: Kickserv vs. ServiceTitan