Tuesday, 7:40 a.m. Your best HVAC tech is under a house on a slab-leak referral that turned into a plumbing job, your second truck is on a no-cool call across town, and the office phone has rung four times since you turned the lights on. Two of those calls went to voicemail. One of them was a new customer with a dead compressor and a credit card in her hand. By the time you call her back at 9:15, she has already booked the company that picked up.
That morning is the whole Workiz vs FieldPulse decision. Both platforms exist to make sure that call gets answered and that job lands on a truck. They go about it differently, they cost different money, and one of them lets you test it on your own techs before you pay a dime.
Workiz wins this comparison for HVAC, plumbing, garage door, locksmith, and appliance repair shops running 3 to 10 techs. FieldPulse takes it for multi-trade operations, shops on QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, or MYOB, and anyone whose customers call in a language other than English, Spanish, or French.
The Deciding Factor: A 7-Day Trial and a Skill-Filtered Board vs. Trades Most FSMs Won’t Touch
The single biggest gap between these two is what happens before you sign. Workiz gives you 7 days, no credit card, with the full platform live: put your real schedule on the dispatch board, send your techs into the field with the app, and let Genius Answering pick up the phone while you watch. FieldPulse gives you a demo and a custom quote, then you buy seats for a contract term.
That gap matters more here than in most comparisons because both platforms have a reliability complaint you need to check for yourself. For Workiz, it is the built-in phone system. For FieldPulse, it is sync. You can pressure-test the Workiz phone system during the trial. You cannot pressure-test the FieldPulse sync until you have already paid.
On the other side of the ledger, FieldPulse is the platform for shops that do not fit the HVAC-plumbing-electrical template. Its customer roster includes septic companies, a glass shop, a senior-care operation, a millwright, and a grave-and-vault service. Workiz is built for the core residential service trades plus garage door and appliance repair, and it says so. If your trade is on FieldPulse’s list and not on Workiz’s, stop reading and book the FieldPulse demo.
What Each One Costs at 3, 5, and 10 Users
Neither company publishes a clean price sheet as of September 2026, so this section carries two flags.
Workiz. When we verified pricing in April 2026, Workiz published five tiers: Lite free for 2 users, Kickstart at $225/month for 3 users, Standard at $275/month for 5 users, Pro at $325/month for 5 users, and a sales-quoted Ultimate tier. Extra users ran $46/month on Standard and $54/month on Pro with annual billing, or $55 and $65 month-to-month. Genius Answering sat inside Pro. Those are the numbers in our Workiz review and in the table below.
Workiz’s pricing page changed over the summer. As of September 2026 it shows three tiers, Standard, Pro, and Ultimate, each with a Request Pricing button and no dollar figure. Lite and Kickstart are gone from the page. Genius Answering and Genius Marketing now appear under an Add-ons heading marked “sold separately.” The 7-day trial is still there, and the page still advertises an annual discount of “$400+.” Treat the April figures as the last published floor, and get the current sheet in writing before your trial ends.
FieldPulse. No published pricing, ever. The pricing page says seat-based, custom quote, and lists Engage (VoIP), Operator AI, Chat AI, Pricebook, FieldPulse Payments, FieldPulse Financing, and Fleet Tracking as premium products on top of the core platform. Third-party aggregators consistently report Essentials around $65 per user per month, Professional around $90, and Premium around $115, on annual billing. FieldPulse does say what you are quoted is what you pay, and that seats can be added mid-term at the quoted rate.
| Team size | Workiz (last published, April 2026, annual) | FieldPulse Professional (third-party estimate) |
|---|---|---|
| 3 users | Kickstart $225, or Pro $325 for AI and inventory | ~$270 base |
| 5 users | Pro $325 flat | ~$450 base; $700–$900 all-in per our review |
| 10 users | Pro $595 ($325 + 5 × $54) | ~$900 base, plus add-ons |
| 15 users | Pro $865 ($325 + 10 × $54) | ~$1,350 base, plus add-ons |
The shape of the two models is the real story. Workiz charges a flat base with 3 to 5 seats included, then per-seat past that. FieldPulse charges per seat from the first tech.
At 5 users the last-published Workiz Pro price is $325 flat against roughly $450 for FieldPulse before a single add-on. At 10 users the gap is $595 against about $900, and at 15 it is $865 against about $1,350. FieldPulse never catches up on headcount alone.
What can flip the math is the add-on stack. One FieldPulse Capterra reviewer reported spending over $1,000 on add-ons after assuming calling, texting, and email came with the base plan. Workiz’s phone system is bundled, but if Genius Answering now carries its own fee, the April “Pro includes AI” advantage shrinks by whatever that fee turns out to be. Price both quotes with the AI receptionist and the phone system on the same line.
Payment processing. Workiz Pay rates are not published; ask for a written rate sheet, because a 0.4 percent difference on $30,000 a month in cards is $1,440 a year. FieldPulse routed all card processing through Square at 2.9 percent plus $0.30 when we reviewed it, with no Stripe option. The pricing page now calls it FieldPulse Payments, so ask whether the processor or the rate changed.
On transparency this round is a wash. Both platforms are sales-quoted as of September 2026, so the old “Workiz publishes, FieldPulse hides” argument is gone. Workiz keeps the structural edge only if the quote confirms a flat base with seats included and tells you what Genius Answering costs on top. If Workiz comes back per-seat with the AI as a separate fee, run the numbers again at your headcount before assuming it is cheaper.
Dispatch Board: Who Runs the Day Better?
Both dispatch boards score 4.6 in our field service management ratings, and on a normal Tuesday either one will get the right truck to the right house. The differences show up when the day goes sideways.
Workiz’s board filters by tech expertise and shows live truck GPS through Linxup, so when the 2 p.m. emergency comes in, the dispatcher sees the nearest qualified tech instead of scanning a list. Capacity gates stop you from double-booking a tech who is still on a job, and the board warns you when you try to put a 9 a.m. downtown call on a tech who is 45 minutes away at 8.
Filters persist in the URL, so a dispatcher can bookmark “morning HVAC” and “afternoon plumbing” as two tabs. Genius Scheduling suggests slots based on drive time, and the same engine books the calls Genius Answering takes. In the critical Capterra reviews, the board is the feature nobody complains about.
FieldPulse’s board does the same core job with technician swim lanes, multi-day views, color-coding by trade, Azuga GPS, and capacity-aware double-book prevention. Where FieldPulse pulls ahead is what happens after the job is assigned: ClearPath walks the tech through the standard steps for that job type on his phone, from confirm equipment to collect signature. For a multi-trade shop where the plumber occasionally runs an HVAC maintenance call, that guidance is worth more than a slightly smarter filter.
Andy Rhinefort, third-generation owner of Rhinefort Co, an HVAC company in Burleson, Texas, describes the FieldPulse dispatch GPS as delivering “pinpoint accuracy” with crystal-clear visibility on active jobs, in FieldPulse’s Rhinefort Co case study.
This round goes to Workiz, narrowly. Single-trade dispatchers will like the skill filter and Genius Scheduling. Multi-trade shops should weight ClearPath heavily and may call it the other way.
Phones and AI Answering: Genius vs. Operator
Workiz ships a phone system inside the FSM. FieldPulse sells one, called Engage, as an add-on. That is the first thing to know, because the phone system is the biggest recurring complaint against Workiz and a separate bill on FieldPulse.
The Workiz phone system includes call recording, Call Insights transcription with upsell flags, and Smart Messaging that drafts replies from customer history. It also has the dominant one-star pattern on Capterra: multiple reviewers describe calls connecting to hold music with nobody on the line, and support telling them nothing was wrong. Test it hard during the trial. Call your own number from three phones at once and see what happens.
Genius Answering, the AI receptionist, went live in December 2024. It answers in English, Spanish, or French, identifies returning customers by caller ID, asks the qualifying questions you scripted, books from live availability on the dispatch board, and texts you a summary with the recording. Workiz’s own data puts the booking time around two minutes per call, with three concurrent calls supported. It has more months in production than any competing AI dispatcher at this price level.
FieldPulse’s Operator AI launched later in 2025 and won the 2025 NECA Innovator Award, which carries weight because NECA is the electrical contractors’ trade association, and they do not hand that to slideware. It answers in 30-plus languages, including Vietnamese, Mandarin, Korean, Tagalog, and Russian. It routes urgent keywords such as “burst pipe” or “no heat” ahead of routine calls, and it lets you build a press-1-for-emergencies phone tree without an outside IVR vendor. Chat AI does the same job on your website in the same languages. What Operator AI lacks is Genius’s production mileage, and edge-case polish shows up in reviews as a result.
Complaints about AI accuracy are absent from the critical reviews of both platforms.
Workiz has the edge for an English or Spanish market with routine call volume. FieldPulse has the edge in a Houston, Los Angeles, or Toronto customer base where the third language on the caller ID decides whether the job books. Both AI receptionists are separate line items now, so put them on the quote.
Estimating, Pricebook, and the Quote That Closes on the Porch
FieldPulse wins estimating, and the gap is bigger than the dispatch gap.
Workiz’s estimating is solid for service work: build from the pricebook on the phone, present it, show Wisetack or Sunbit financing as an as-low-as monthly figure right on the estimate, take the signature, convert to invoice. For a $6,000 condenser replacement, the in-line financing offer is the feature that moves close rates, and Workiz does it well. Inventory and equipment tracking sit on Pro.
FieldPulse layers more on top. Pricebook is a premium product with supplier integrations to Reece, Winsupply, City Electric Supply, and The Granite Group, which means the parts cost on your estimate comes from the counter price instead of a spreadsheet somebody updated last spring. Good-better-best proposals run inside ClearPath so every tech presents the same three options the same way. Financing covers Wisetack, an Acorn Finance marketplace of 30-plus lenders for loans to $100,000, and FieldPulse Capital for the business itself.
The best evidence is a named customer. Sal Gutierrez, owner of Fair Comfort Solutions, an HVAC company, says in FieldPulse’s case study:
“Before FieldPulse, it took me four to eight hours for one quote. With FieldPulse now, I’d say about four to eight minutes.”
Four hours to four minutes is the kind of number that only happens when the pricebook and the supplier feed are doing the work. A shop that quotes ten replacements a week can put a dollar figure on that.
Estimating goes to FieldPulse. Budget for the Pricebook add-on, because the supplier integrations are the reason to pick it.
Accounting Sync and Back-Office Reach
FieldPulse syncs QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, MYOB, and QuickBooks Time. Workiz syncs QuickBooks Online, and that is the list.
For the majority of American service shops on QuickBooks Online, this is a tie. Workiz’s QBO sync is two-way for invoices, payments, customers, and items, and it is one of the cleaner ones in the category. FieldPulse’s QBO sync is also two-way and reviewers rate it as the reliable one of their accounting connectors.
For everyone else, FieldPulse is the only option here. Shops still on QuickBooks Desktop, smaller operations and Canadian shops on Xero, and Australian shops on MYOB have no native path into Workiz. The caveat is the one in the FAQ: FieldPulse’s Desktop sync is the connector that gets called buggy, and sync reliability is the top complaint in its negative reviews. Have the rep push a week of your actual invoices through Desktop during the demo.
FieldPulse also carries a native GoHighLevel integration, which almost no FSM offers, plus Angi, Mailchimp, NiceJob, and CompanyCam. Workiz covers CompanyCam, NiceJob, Mailchimp, Angi, Thumbtack, and Reserve with Google, and the Google booking link is a lead source FieldPulse does not have. Neither one integrates with JobNimbus or ServiceTitan.
Accounting goes to FieldPulse. Integrations overall are a tie, depending on whether you run GoHighLevel or live on Google Business Profile bookings.
Support: The Cleanest Win on the Page
FieldPulse’s Capterra customer-service score is 4.7 across 427 reviews, the highest support mark of any SMB field service platform we track, and 93 percent of reviewers rate the in-app chat support positively. Workiz’s is 4.3 across its Capterra base, and the critical reviews carry a specific pattern: one reviewer counted roughly six account managers assigned in a single year.
Workiz’s support is not bad. Five-star reviews consistently praise onboarding responsiveness. Louis A. F., president of a construction company who switched from Housecall Pro, wrote on Capterra:
“Invoicing customers is very easy and can be sent via email and SMS texting which is a great feature.”
The problem is the other tail. When the phone system issue hits, several one-star reviewers say support told them nothing was wrong.
Heather Aila, office secretary at Qualified Plumbing LLC in Keaau, Hawaii, says in FieldPulse’s case study that “the online platform has helped us tremendously with everything from reporting to communication.”
Support goes to FieldPulse, clearly. If a dedicated implementation contact is a deal-breaker for you, that is the strongest argument on this page for paying more per seat.
Best Pick by Trade
HVAC
Workiz, at 3 to 10 techs, for the skill-filtered board, Genius Answering on tune-up season call volume, and the JB Warranties integration that sells extended service contracts at install. Workiz is also a preferred FSM for Trane and American Standard dealer networks. Switch the pick to FieldPulse when HVAC is one of three trades, or when service agreements and supplier pricing from Winsupply matter more than the phone system.
Plumbing
Workiz for drain, water heater, and repair shops that live on inbound calls. FieldPulse for plumbing plus septic, or any shop that buys through Reece and wants counter pricing inside the estimate.
Locksmith
Workiz. Locksmith calls are high-volume, routine, and time-sensitive, which is exactly the call pattern Genius Answering handles best, and Workiz publishes named locksmith case studies.
Garage Door
Workiz. Garage door is one of the five trades Workiz names on its own site, the dispatch filter handles residential and commercial door techs on one board, and the tap-to-pay invoicing closes the spring replacement at the truck.
Appliance Repair
Workiz. Same logic as garage door: routine calls, parts tracking on Pro, and an AI receptionist that can book a dishwasher call without a human.
Multi-Trade Shops
FieldPulse, without much argument. If you run HVAC plus electrical plus solar, or plumbing plus septic plus junk removal, ClearPath keeps every tech on the standard procedure and the custom forms let you configure the trades Workiz does not template. The 30-plus-language receptionist and the accounting breadth are the same story: FieldPulse is built for the shop that does not fit the mold.
Commercial Service
FieldPulse, on the strength of multi-location management on the Premium tier, custom forms for site-specific documentation, the REST API on Enterprise, and the deeper accounting connectors commercial bookkeeping tends to need. Above 25 techs in HVAC, plumbing, or electrical, both lose to ServiceTitan, and our ServiceTitan alternatives page ranks Workiz third and FieldPulse fifth for shops leaving it.
How to Run This Decision in Two Weeks
Do these in order. Most shops know by the end of Step 3.
Step 1: Start the Workiz 7-day trial and load your real price book. No card required. Import your customer list, build your top 20 SKUs, and connect QuickBooks Online on day one so the sync gets a full week of real invoices. Put your worst dispatch day of last month on the board and see whether the skill filter would have saved a truck roll.
Start the Workiz 7-day free trial or read the full Workiz review.
Step 2: Request the FieldPulse quote the same day, in parallel. Ask for the per-seat price in writing, the year-two price, and a separate line for every add-on you will run: Operator AI, Engage, Pricebook, Fleet Tracking. Bring your QuickBooks Desktop or Xero file and have the rep sync a week of real invoices while you watch. Ask what FieldPulse Payments costs per swipe.
Request a FieldPulse demo or read the full FieldPulse review.
Step 3: Run one real week of dispatch on Workiz. Send two techs out with the app, let Genius Answering take the after-hours calls, and call your own office number from three phones at once to test the phone system critical reviewers complain about. Before day seven, get the current price sheet and the Workiz Pay rate card in writing, with Genius Answering as its own line.
Step 4: Put both quotes on one page at your headcount. Same seat count, AI receptionist and phone system on both, processing rate on both. A single-trade or two-trade shop on QuickBooks Online in an English or Spanish market should see Workiz win that page. Three or more trades, books on Xero, MYOB, or QuickBooks Desktop, or callers in Vietnamese or Mandarin, and FieldPulse earns the higher per-seat number.
Step 5: Sign for one year. Reviewers of both vendors report price changes after the first term, so keep the next negotiation on your calendar.
If neither fits, our Jobber alternatives page ranks both of these against Housecall Pro, ServiceM8, and QuoteIQ, and the field service management category hub has the full scoring for every platform we cover.
