The Best ServiceM8 Alternatives for UK Heating and Plumbing Firms [2026]

ServiceM8 has one of the nicest apps in field service. It has a free plan, online booking, a big add-on marketplace and unlimited users on paid plans, and its Office Agent flags outstanding quotes and overdue invoices and prepares actions for your approval. UK heating and plumbing firms run into two things: it’s Australian software with generic forms rather than UK gas records, and it prices by job volume, so a busy sole trader soon hits the caps.

We make one of the alternatives below, so read our section with that in mind. Each section, ours included, says where that product falls short. Every price comes from the provider’s own website, checked in late October 2026, and excludes VAT unless the provider doesn’t say.

The quick answer

For a heating, plumbing or HVAC firm, Mucka (free to start, then £29 a month solo or £39 per user for a team) has an approve-it-in-one-tap AI like ServiceM8’s Office Agent, built around gas, oil and F-Gas certificates and service reminders, with no job caps and an importer built for ServiceM8.

Tradify (£34 to £44 per user) and Fergus (£39 to £45 per user) are the closest general job managers. Powered Now covers gas and electrical certificates, and Gas Engineer Software and Checker are certificate specialists.

Why UK firms leave ServiceM8, and when to stay

For a heating firm, the trouble usually starts with the CP12. ServiceM8’s forms can be set up to look like a certificate, but there’s no built-in landlord gas safety record, warning notice or F-Gas record, and nothing that books next year’s check off this year’s certificate. The second reason is the job-volume pricing: Free covers 30 jobs a month and the paid plans step up by volume, from £25 to £269.

Stay on ServiceM8 if you run a large field team where unlimited users matter more than UK certificates, or you depend on apps from its add-on marketplace.

The alternatives at a glance

Software	From	UK gas certificates	F-Gas	Job caps	AI
ServiceM8	Free, then £25	Generic forms only	No	Yes, by plan	Office Agent
Mucka	Free, then £29	Every paid plan	Yes	None	Every paid plan
Tradify	£34 per user*	Pro and up	No	None	Plus only
Fergus	£39 per user	Certificate templates	Not named	None	Assistive, acts when asked
Powered Now	£23 (one user)	Middle plan up	Not named	None	Add-ons
Gas Engineer Software	£18 per user	20 types	No	None	Pro only, beta
Checker	£10.99	Every plan	Yes	None	None

Prices are per month and ex VAT; GES and Powered Now are on annual billing. ServiceM8 is priced per business by job volume. *VAT not stated by the provider.

1. Mucka: best for heating, plumbing and HVAC firms

This one is ours. Mucka is job management for heating, plumbing and HVAC firms, built around an AI engine that watches your jobs, engineers, diary and money and drafts whatever needs doing for you to approve with one tap. ServiceM8’s Office Agent works in a similar way, but Mucka watches for what a heating firm owes: the landlord check falling due, the new boiler that needs registering inside 30 days, the job still missing its certificate.

The certificates cover the CP12, warning notice, service and breakdown records, LPG and non-domestic records, all five OFTEC oil forms, five F-Gas records, heat pump records and Legionella, and they work with no signal. Each certificate’s next-check date goes into your service reminders. Your engineers can update jobs from WhatsApp, and the AI phone receptionist is answering calls now, where ServiceM8’s Phone Agent is rolling out from a waitlist. There are no job caps, and Mucka syncs with Xero, QuickBooks, Sage and FreeAgent.

The ServiceM8 importer brings every client, every job address as its own property, the job history, an invoice for each job ServiceM8 shows as billed, and a service reminder for each recurring job. Photos and completed forms aren’t in ServiceM8’s reports, so ask for those separately.

Where it falls short: no add-on marketplace on ServiceM8’s scale, and it’s priced per user, so a very large team may pay more than on ServiceM8’s unlimited-user plans. Certificates aren’t on the free plan.

Price: free plan for quotes and invoices; £29 a month for a solo owner, £39 per user for a team, apprentices £19, subcontractors free. 14-day free trial of everything, no card, no contract.

2. Tradify: best general job manager with UK gas forms

Tradify is a mature job manager with timesheets, job costing and Xero, QuickBooks and Sage sync on every plan, plus purchase orders on Plus. From Pro it has UK gas forms: landlord and homeowner gas safety records, warning notices, boiler records and the OFTEC oil forms. There are no F-Gas or heat pump records, and service reminders and the AI tools are on Plus only.

Price: Lite £34, Pro £37, Plus £44 per user a month. VAT not stated. 14-day trial.

3. Fergus: best for job costing

Fergus is built around job costing, with a financial dashboard showing live cost against quote. Fergus AI answers questions and drafts messages, quotes and invoices when you ask. Like ServiceM8 it’s built overseas, in New Zealand, and has certificate templates instead of UK gas records, and it connects to Xero, QuickBooks and MYOB.

Price: Essentials £39, Professional £45 per user a month. In October 2026 it was running a 90% off offer until December. 14-day trial.

4. Powered Now: best for gas and electrical certificates together

Powered Now is UK-built, with more than 80 forms and certificates covering gas and electrical (EICRs included), plus quotes, invoices, MTD and VAT returns. The app works offline, and customers are reminded a month before a certificate expires. Certificates and Xero or QuickBooks sync start on Professional, and its PN Receptionist is an add-on from £29 a month.

Price: Business £280 a year for one user (no certificates), Professional £320 per user a year, Premium £400 per user a year, plus VAT. 14-day trial, no card.

5. Gas Engineer Software: best for certificate-heavy gas and oil work

Gas Engineer Software has 20 record types covering domestic and non-domestic gas, LPG, catering, the OFTEC oil forms, a heat pump service record, Legionella and unvented cylinders, Bluetooth readings from Kane, Anton and TPI analysers, and more than 2,300 boiler manuals. Invoicing and service reminders start on Core, the AI features and accounts sync are Pro-only, and there are no F-Gas records.

Price: £18 to £30 per user a month billed annually. 14-day trial, no card, no contract.

6. Checker: best budget certificate app

Checker includes unlimited records on every plan: CP12s, service and breakdown records, OFTEC oil forms, F-Gas commissioning and leak testing, heat pump and electrical certificates. Forms work with no signal and readings come in from a Kane analyser. Lite has no service reminders or accounts sync, which start on Pro, and we found no AI features on its site. It’s a certificate app rather than a ServiceM8-style job manager.

Price: £10.99 to £25.99 a month plus VAT. Free trial, no card.

Which one should you choose?

• A heating, plumbing or HVAC firm that wants UK certificates, no job caps and the chasing done for you: Mucka.
• A multi-trade team that wants a general job manager with UK gas forms: Tradify.
• A firm that lives by job costing: Fergus.
• Gas and electrical work under one roof: Powered Now.
• A firm whose day is certificates end to end: Gas Engineer Software, or Checker on a tight budget.

Most of these have a free trial, so run a live job through each one you shortlist, CP12 and invoice included, before you move your clients over.