Tradify alternatives for a one-person trade
One Tradify login is £34 a month, which is a team rate charged for a single user, and the add-ons sit outside it. This page is the field of alternatives for a UK sole trader: what each one costs off its own pricing page, which of them handle the job-sheet and certificate side you may actually be paying for, and the case for not moving at all.
We make one of the alternatives, so read this knowing that. If you finish the page and stay put, it did its job.
Why people look for a Tradify alternative
Almost always the per-seat price. Tradify charges per user, which is the right model for a firm and the wrong one for a sole trader: you pay a team rate for a single login, and around a third of that cost buys the team features you are the only user of. The other trigger is trial expiry. Fourteen days, then a paid per-user plan, with no free tier to fall back to in a quiet month.
What Tradify costs one person
One seat on Tradify Lite is £34 a month, in pounds, off its own UK pricing page rather than converted from anything. Pro is £37 and Plus is £44, all per user. So a sole trader is not on a discounted tier for small businesses, they are on a team product paying a team rate for one login. Two costs sit outside that headline and are easy to miss when you are budgeting: the Instant Website add-on is £10 a month on top, and text messages are 10p each, which matters if reminders are the reason you bought it.
Tradify's UK pricing page, read August 2026. Every plan and the full side-by-side is on SoloDesks vs Tradify.
Who should stay on Tradify
Trades businesses with two or more people on the tools, and anyone who needs the job-sheet and certificate side of Tradify. Per-seat pricing stops being a problem the moment there are seats. If you are about to hire, staying put is the cheaper decision overall.
Tradify is priced per user and aimed at trades businesses with a few people on the tools.
What you would be giving up
The job-sheet and certificate side, which is the part of Tradify a lot of people are actually paying for and the part we do not have. If you issue gas or electrical certificates out of it, or your job sheets carry structured fields somebody downstream relies on, that is a real loss and no saving covers it. What you do not lose is anything to do with seats, because you were the only one in them.
The options, with prices
The realistic options, including staying where you are. Prices as published by each company, read on the dates shown.
SoloDesks
£12/month, flat
If you're leaving over the price for one person. Priced per business rather than per seat or per job, with a free plan that has no card and no expiry. Quotes, invoices, payment chasing and a job calendar, and nothing else. That is the trade-off. No team seats, no dispatch, no timesheets.
Jobber
From $29–$49/mo (1 user; annual vs monthly)
Jobber is built for growing teams with dispatch, a scheduling desk and staff to manage. The nearest like-for-like swap, which is also the risk: check its pricing model is genuinely different before you move, because paying the same money through a new interface solves nothing.
ServiceM8
From £0 (30 jobs/mo, 1 user)
ServiceM8 prices by monthly job volume, stepping up through tiers as you do more work. The nearest like-for-like swap, which is also the risk: check its pricing model is genuinely different before you move, because paying the same money through a new interface solves nothing.
Zoho Invoice
From £0 (500 invoices/year, 2 users)
Zoho Invoice is a genuinely free invoicing tool, capped at 500 invoices a year, with Zoho branding on the documents. A different shape of tool from Tradify, so this is a change of approach rather than a swap. Worth it only if the product was the problem, not the price.
Accounting software you already pay for
If invoicing is the only part you actually use. If you're already paying for bookkeeping software for Making Tax Digital, it almost certainly raises invoices too. One subscription instead of two. You lose the job-side of things (the calendar, the quote-to-invoice flow, the chasing), so it depends whether you were using those.
Stay where you are
If it works and the price doesn't hurt. Migrating costs you an evening of exporting, a week of muscle-memory, and the small risk of losing a client record you only notice needing in eight months. That's a real cost. If Tradify is doing the job and the bill isn't the thing that brought you here, the honest advice is to close the tab.
Before you switch anything
The order you do it in matters more than which one you pick, and getting it wrong costs more than any subscription you are leaving.
How to switch invoicing software without losing your records
Questions people ask
- What is the best Tradify alternative for a sole trader?
- It depends why you're leaving. If it's the price for one person, a flat-priced one-person tool like SoloDesks (£12/month, free plan below it) is the direct answer. If it's a missing feature, one of the other products listed above is likelier to have it than we are. And if you have people on the tools, Tradify is probably still the right call.
- Is there a free Tradify alternative?
- Several, with different catches. Zoho Invoice is free for up to 500 invoices a year, though your documents carry a Powered by Zoho Invoice line. FreeAgent is free, and is full accounting software, if you bank with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle. ServiceM8's free tier covers 30 jobs a month. Our own free plan needs no card and never expires, covering 10 quotes, 10 invoices and 10 emailed PDFs a month with unlimited clients and jobs. Pick on whichever limit you'd hit first, and check your bank before you pay anyone: FreeAgent being free is worth more than any discount on this page.
- Who shouldn't switch away from Tradify?
- Trades businesses with two or more people on the tools, and anyone who needs the job-sheet and certificate side of Tradify. Per-seat pricing stops being a problem the moment there are seats. If you are about to hire, staying put is the cheaper decision overall.
- How much is Tradify for one person?
- One seat on Tradify Lite is £34 a month, in pounds, off its own UK pricing page rather than converted from anything. Pro is £37 and Plus is £44, all per user. So a sole trader is not on a discounted tier for small businesses, they are on a team product paying a team rate for one login. Two costs sit outside that headline and are easy to miss when you are budgeting: the Instant Website add-on is £10 a month on top, and text messages are 10p each, which matters if reminders are the reason you bought it. Figures from Tradify's UK pricing page, read August 2026.
Weighing Tradify against another named app?
These compare two other products to each other. SoloDesks is the publisher, not one of the two being compared.
- ServiceM8 vs TradifyServiceM8's bill goes up when you get busier. Tradify's goes up when you hire. Work out which of those two things is about to happen to you, and the choice makes itself.
- Jobber vs TradifyJobber gets cheaper per head as the team grows, because seats come bundled. Tradify costs the same per head forever. Below about three people Tradify is simpler; above it, Jobber's bundles start doing the work.
Want the whole field rather than one swap? We keep a comparison of eight invoicing apps for UK tradespeople, with every price read off the vendor's own page and dated.
If the price for one person is the problem
That's the one we were built to solve. Start on the free plan, no card, and see whether a month of your own work fits.
Pricing shown for Tradify and other named products is as of August 2026, taken from each company's own published pricing page, linked above. Plans and prices change. Verify before you buy. All product names are trademarks of their owners; SoloDesks isn't affiliated with or endorsed by any of them, this comparison is our own, and we make one of the products listed.