Contractor software splits down trade lines. Roofers run AccuLynx or JobNimbus with EagleView for aerial measurement. General contractors run Buildertrend for residential or Procore for commercial. HVAC and plumbing run ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, or Jobber as service-trade FSMs. Three tools cross every trade — CompanyCam, QuickBooks, and an AI receptionist. Pick your trade below.
2 trade hubs live with full stack picks, calculators, and quizzes. 5 on the build queue — newsletter signup below for ship notifications.
Aerial measurement + insurance supplement workflow
JobNimbus, AccuLynx, EagleView, CompanyCam, AI receptionists. Retail roofing and insurance restoration stacks by company size.
Inside the hub
Subcontractor compliance + AIA billing + selections workflow
Buildertrend, Procore, Contractor Foreman, subcontractor compliance, lien waivers, change orders. Residential vs commercial GC stacks.
Inside the hub
Service plans + dispatch + recurring maintenance revenue
Service plan automation, dispatch, after-hours emergency response, recurring maintenance workflow.
Emergency dispatch + after-hours AI receptionist
Service trade FSM, dispatch, recurring service plans, AI receptionist for emergency plumbing.
Permit workflow + commercial-vs-residential FSM split
Service-trade FSM, residential service vs commercial wiring split, permit + inspection workflows.
Color-matching photo workflow + exterior measurement
Residential painting CRMs, color-matching photo workflow, exterior estimating with measurement tools.
Xactimate workflow + CAT response + supplement-heavy revenue
Water, fire, mold restoration software — Xactimate integration, CAT response, supplement management.
Seven trades, six categories, one matrix. Each cell shows what most operators in that trade actually run — not what vendor marketing claims. Where two products dominate, both are listed. Where a category isn't relevant to a trade, it's flagged. Live trade-hub columns have an emerald dot on the header; the rest are patterns we've researched ahead of shipping the dedicated hub.
| Category | Roofing | General Contractor | HVAC | Plumbing | Electrical | Painting | Restoration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CRM / PM Platform | JobNimbus / AccuLynx AccuLynx for insurance | Buildertrend / Procore Procore for commercial | ServiceTitan / Housecall Pro FSM with dispatch | ServiceTitan / Housecall Pro HCP for residential | ServiceTitan / FieldEdge FSM + permit workflow | Jobber / PaintScout PaintScout for estimating | DASH / Albiware Xactimate-integrated |
| Photo Documentation | CompanyCam Universal | CompanyCam + OpenSpace Plus 360° for commercial | CompanyCam (basic) Service-call photos | Optional Less critical | CompanyCam Panel + permit photos | CompanyCam Color match + before/after | Encircle / CompanyCam / Matterport Encircle for restoration-native docs; Matterport for 3D scan |
| Measurement / Takeoff | EagleView / Hover Aerial measurement standard | PlanSwift / Bluebeam Drawing takeoff (commercial) | Manual Load calcs in CRM | Manual Field-measured estimates | Manual / Accubid Accubid for commercial bids | Hover Exterior measurement | Matterport / DocuSketch 3D scan + floor plan |
| AI Receptionist | Smith.ai / Rosie Storm-season critical | Smith.ai / Rosie Long sales cycle | Smith.ai / Ruby After-hours emergency | Smith.ai / Ruby After-hours emergency | Smith.ai / Ruby After-hours emergency | Rosie / Upfirst Lower call volume | Smith.ai / Ruby CAT response 24/7 |
| Marketing Automation | GoHighLevel Paid ads + review automation | GoHighLevel Residential remodelers only | GoHighLevel Service plan upsell | GoHighLevel Lead capture + dispatch | GoHighLevel Lead capture + dispatch | GoHighLevel Portfolio-driven | Less common Adjuster relationships matter more |
| Accounting | QuickBooks Class-based job costing | QuickBooks / Sage Sage for AIA commercial | QuickBooks Standard | QuickBooks Standard | QuickBooks Standard | QuickBooks Standard | QuickBooks + Xactimate Job-cost reconciliation |
The Electrical column reflects the industry-standard pattern — service-trade FSM closest to plumbing, with permit and inspection workflow overlaid (Accubid for commercial bids). The dedicated trade hub ships in a future sprint; the matrix will re-rank if our research surfaces a different operating reality.
The "best contractor CRM" doesn't exist as a single answer. The right CRM for a roofer doing storm restoration looks nothing like the right CRM for a general contractor running a custom-home build, and neither looks like the right CRM for an HVAC operator dispatching service techs. The market splits because the underlying work splits — and the gap between trades is bigger than most generic-software marketing pages admit.
Roofers run inspection → measurement report → estimate → supplement request → carrier payment. GCs run lead → design → selections → contract → draws → punch list → close-out. HVAC runs call → dispatch → service ticket → recurring plan. These aren't variations of the same workflow — they're different operating models.
AccuLynx integrates natively with EagleView, Xactimate, SRS Distribution, Beacon, ABC Supply. Buildertrend integrates with QuickBooks, Houzz, Plaid, Square. ServiceTitan integrates with FleetSharp, fleet GPS systems, parts wholesalers. The integration partner lists barely overlap because the operational stacks they plug into don't overlap.
Project-driven trades pay per seat (Buildertrend $499/mo flat, JobNimbus $225 + per-role tiered seats). Service-driven trades pay per technician with dispatch (ServiceTitan $245+/seat, Housecall Pro $49-$349/mo tiered). Commercial GC pays as percentage of ACV (Procore typically ~1%). The pricing model reflects what work the platform is optimized to run.
Every contractor stack has two layers. The universal layer — photo documentation, accounting, call answering — runs the same across every trade. The trade-specific layer — CRM/FSM, measurement, marketing — splits by what work you actually run. Get the universal layer right early; get the trade-specific layer right per trade.
Tools that work the same way across every contractor trade. Pick once, deploy across the whole operation, and stop revisiting these decisions.
Tools that fit your trade and your trade only. Mismatches here cost more than mismatches on the universal layer — open your trade hub for the picks.
The practical implication: when you change trades or expand into a new lane, the universal layer carries over but the trade-specific layer needs a full rethink. Operators who try to force a roofing CRM onto remodel work — or run commercial GC on residential PM tools — almost always end up running two stacks within 12 months.
Every trade has a defining workflow — the thing the rest of the stack revolves around. Get the signature workflow right and the stack falls into place. Get it wrong and you're paying for software that doesn't fit how the work actually runs.
Aerial measurement + insurance supplements
The roof report drives the estimate; supplements drive 15-40% of insurance revenue. Stack revolves around EagleView (measurement source-of-truth) and AccuLynx or JobNimbus (supplement workflow). Storm season multiplies missed-call risk — AI receptionist is non-negotiable.
Stack anchors
AccuLynx · JobNimbus · EagleView · CompanyCam
Subcontractor compliance + AIA billing + selections
GCs lose jobs over expired COIs and homeowners over unbilled change orders. Residential runs Buildertrend (selections + client portal). Commercial runs Procore (AIA billing + RFI + submittals). The line splits at AIA billing requirements and ~$5M revenue.
Stack anchors
Buildertrend · Procore · Contractor Foreman · CompanyCam
Service plans + dispatch + recurring revenue
Service agreements are 20-40% of revenue at maturity — the FSM has to handle multi-year PM-plus-repair plans natively. Dispatch matters more than estimating. After-hours emergency response builds recurring customer lifetime value.
Stack anchors
ServiceTitan · Housecall Pro · GoHighLevel
Emergency dispatch + after-hours AI
Plumbing leads come in spikes — burst pipe, backed-up drain, water heater failure. The operator who answers first wins the job. AI receptionist + 24/7 dispatch tooling outweighs everything else in the stack at sub-$5M revenue.
Stack anchors
ServiceTitan · Housecall Pro · Smith.ai · GoHighLevel
Permit workflow + residential/commercial split
Permit + inspection tracking is the workflow generic FSMs miss. Residential service-and-repair runs FSM (Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan). Commercial wiring runs project-PM hybrids closer to GC stacks. The split is wider than other trades.
Stack anchors
ServiceTitan · FieldEdge · permit-tracking add-ons
Color-matching photo workflow + exterior measurement
Photo documentation tied to color selection is the differentiator. Exterior repaints use Hover-style measurement; interior runs on photo-with-job documentation. Lower call volume than service trades — cheaper AI receptionist tier fits.
Stack anchors
Jobber · PaintScout · Hover · CompanyCam
Xactimate + CAT response + supplement-heavy revenue
Different beast entirely. Xactimate is the operating system; everything else is a peripheral. Supplements drive 30-60% of net revenue. CAT response speed determines whether a storm chase pays back travel cost. Adjuster relationships matter more than marketing automation.
Stack anchors
DASH · Albiware · Xactimate · Encircle · Matterport
Six questions contractors ask most about trade-specific software — why stacks split by trade, what's universal, where multi-trade tools fit, and how CRMs differ from FSMs.
HVAC, plumbing, restoration, and the rest are queued up. One email per hub launch, plus the cross-trade comparison updates and stack-pick re-evaluations as new products land. About one email a month.
