Guide
What actually limits you: jobs, users, seats or technicians
Updated
Every plan in this category has a ceiling, and the ceilings are not the same shape. One vendor caps jobs and gives away users; one caps users and ignores jobs; one splits office seats from field seats; one counts technicians. Working out which ceiling you will hit first is the single most useful thing you can do before comparing prices.
The four ceilings
ServiceM8 caps jobs a month and states outright it does not charge per user, giving unlimited users on every paid plan. Kickserv caps users in blocks of 5, 10 and 20 and does not cap jobs at all. FieldPulse charges by seat and separates full access seats from limited field seats. ServiceTitan charges by technician.
Housecall Pro caps neither explicitly: its tiers are drawn on features, and it does not specify a user count per plan. FieldEdge does not publish a ceiling of any kind.
Why the office staff number decides it
Most electrical firms count vans when they price software and then discover the bill includes the office. On a per technician model an administrator may cost nothing, because they are not a technician. On a bundled user model they consume one of your five. On a seat model they cost a full access seat, which is likely the dearer of the two seat types.
FieldPulse's split is the only structure here that prices the difference honestly, and it is also the one you cannot see without a sales call. That is a genuine trade: the fairest published model in this category is not published.
Growing into a ceiling is not the same as growing out of one
A job cap and a user cap fail differently when you hit them. Exceeding ServiceM8's Premium Plus allotment costs 20c a job, so the bill bends rather than breaking; you overrun gradually and pay for it.
A user cap is a wall. Hiring a sixth electrician on Kickserv's Start plan means moving to Run at $119, nearly double, for one extra person. The cost of that hire is not $11.90, it is $59 of plan plus the person.
Two questions to ask before you sign
Ask what happens on the day you exceed the limit: does the system stop, warn, or bill you. And ask whether you can move back down. FieldEdge is the only vendor here publishing an answer to the second question and the answer is restrictive: downgrades are permitted only at the end of the current contract period.
That matters more than it looks for electrical contractors, whose headcount moves with the contract book. Buying for your busiest quarter and paying for it all year is a common and avoidable mistake.