Quote Desk is made by the Talk of the Trade team, so this comparison is our own. Every fact about another product links to that product's own page.

The short answer

There is no single best quoting app; there is a best one for how you work. If you want one system for quoting, scheduling and invoicing and you work alone or with a crew, ServiceM8 is hard to beat on price, because its Free plan for one person already chases quotes and its paid plans include unlimited users. If you want a quoting tool and nothing more, Quotient gives you 100 quotes a month for A$33, and Quote Desk sends the follow-ups for you. If you already pay for Xero and your customers answer quickly, the quotes inside Xero may be all you need.

Quote Desk is on this list under the same rule as every other tool, and that rule puts it second, not first.

How we chose and ordered the list

We included tools that sell quoting to small Australian trade businesses and publish their prices on their own pages. We left out suites with minimum team sizes or no public price; AroFlo, for example, starts at A$80 per user a month with a minimum of three users, and its page does not state GST. This is not every quoting tool on the market.

The order is one rule: the monthly cost, for one person, of the cheapest plan that sends follow-ups on unanswered quotes without you pressing anything. Tools whose pages do not list automatic quote follow-ups come after, ordered by their cheapest paid plan. We picked that rule because chasing is the part of quoting that is easiest to forget, and the part where these tools differ most, as the table shows. If price per quote or accounting sync matters more to you, the table lets you re-sort by eye.

We have not used every product here day to day. Every fact comes from the company's own pages, which we read in October 2026.

The table

#	Tool	Cheapest paid plan, as published	Free plan or trial	Automatic quote follow-up	Texts to customers	Invoicing	Accounting links	People on the cheapest paid plan
1	ServiceM8	Starter A$29 a month inc GST, 50 jobs	Free plan: 1 user, 30 jobs a month. Trial 14 days, no card	Every plan, Free included	Yes; 100+ texts a month on Starter	Yes	Xero, QuickBooks Online	Unlimited
2	Quote Desk	Starter A$39 a month, 60 quotes. No GST: we are not registered for it	Free plan: 5 quotes a month, no follow-ups, paid for by a marketing consent (we and a named partner may email and phone you). No trial	Starter and up: three emails at 2, 5 and 10 days	No	No	None	One login
3	Tradify	Lite A$48 per user ex GST, A$52.80 inc GST	Trial 14 days, no card. No free plan	Pro and up, A$57.20 per user inc GST	Add-on, A$0.20 a message	Yes	Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks Online	Per user
4	Jobber	Core US$49 a month, about A$69.66, ex sales tax	Trial 14 days, no card. No free plan	Connect and up, US$139 a month, about A$197.61	Two-way SMS on Grow and Plus	Yes	QuickBooks Online from Connect; Xero on Connect and Grow	1, extra users US$29 each
5	Chippie	Professional $25 a month; currency and GST not stated	Free plan: 1 user, 20 jobs a month	Not listed	Listed as coming soon	Yes	Xero on Professional	2
6	Quotient	Solo A$33 a month, 100 quotes; GST not stated	Trial 21 days, no card. No free plan	No: dashboard alerts, you press send	Not listed	Creates the invoice in Xero or QuickBooks	Xero, QuickBooks	1
7	Fergus	Essentials from $53 a month per user; GST not stated	Trial 14 days, no card. No free plan	Not listed	Add-on, $15 per 100 texts	Yes	Xero, QuickBooks, MYOB	Per user
8	Xero	Comprehensive A$107 a month inc GST, the cheapest plan priced on its pricing page	None listed	Not listed	Not listed	Yes	It is the accounting software	Not compared here

Jobber bills in US dollars; conversions use the Reserve Bank's October 2026 rate of 0.7034. Several companies were running introductory discounts in October 2026; we used their usual prices.

1. ServiceM8

Job management for trades, from sole traders up. Quoting, online acceptance, automated quote follow-up, scheduling, invoicing, deposits and Xero or QuickBooks Online on every plan, Free included. Paid plans are priced by jobs a month (50 on Starter, 150 on Growing at A$79, 500 on Premium at A$149), not by people. A quote uses a job credit. Its full app is for iPhone and iPad, with a lighter Android app for field staff.

Where ServiceM8 is the better choice: most businesses that want quoting and invoicing in one system, and any crew, since users are unlimited on paid plans. It is also the cheapest way on this list to have quotes chased, at nothing for one person doing 30 jobs a month or fewer.

2. Quote Desk (ours)

A quoting tool, not job management. A price list, a quote of up to twenty lines, an accept link the customer opens on their phone, three reminder emails at 2, 5 and 10 days on Starter and Crew, and a forwarding address for enquiry emails. Crew, at A$99, removes the quote limit and adds a form for your own website. It does not invoice, take deposits, schedule, text customers or connect to accounting software, and the follow-up wording and timing are fixed. One login per account.

Where Quote Desk is the better choice: a tradie who invoices from accounting software already, sends up to 60 quotes a month, and wants the chasing done without configuring anything. It works in any phone browser with nothing to install. See plans and limits.

3. Tradify

Job management priced per user. Lite covers quoting, invoicing, scheduling, payments and Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks Online sync; Pro adds online acceptance, quote and invoice reminders by email or text, quote options, templates, timesheets and an enquiry form with an email inbox. Supplier price lists import from a CSV file. Apps for iPhone, iPad and Android.

Where Tradify is the better choice: a busy sole trader who needs job management and MYOB, because one Pro user pays the same however many quotes they send. See Quote Desk vs Tradify.

4. Jobber

Broad field service software, sold on an Australian page in US dollars. Core sends quotes and invoices for one user; automated quote follow-ups arrive on Connect, which also adds QuickBooks Online sync and automated client reminders. Grow adds visual quotes with optional add-on lines and two-way SMS. Contracts can be month to month, monthly with a 12-month minimum, or annual paid upfront.

Where Jobber is the better choice: a business that wants a client hub, online payments and texting in one app and is comfortable paying in US dollars. See Quote Desk vs Jobber.

5. Chippie

A small app with a Free plan for one user and 20 jobs a month that covers quote to invoice, scheduling, offline use and BAS reports. Professional at $25 a month adds Xero sync and automatic reminders on unpaid invoices for two users; Team at $45 covers four. MYOB and SMS are listed as coming soon. Its pages do not describe automatic quote follow-ups.

Where Chippie is the better choice: a sole trader or a pair who want quote-to-invoice and BAS reports for little money, and who work where the phone signal drops out, since Chippie says jobs and quotes open and edit offline.

6. Quotient

The closest tool to Quote Desk: quoting only, priced in Australian dollars. Solo is A$33 for 100 quotes, Team A$54 for up to five people. Customers click to accept, Quotient tracks whether a quote has been opened, and an accepted quote creates a Xero or QuickBooks invoice. Follow-ups are alerts on your dashboard at 12 hours unopened, 3 days and 14 days; its help centre says the emails are never sent automatically.

Where Quotient is the better choice: anyone sending more than 60 quotes a month who wants a quoting tool, not job management, or who wants an accepted quote to flow into Xero as an invoice. See Quote Desk vs Quotient.

7. Fergus

Job management priced per user, with supplier price books, saved quote templates, quotes with several pricing tiers, and online approval from an email link. Xero, QuickBooks and MYOB on both listed plans. Texts are an add-on at $15 per 100. Its quoting page does not describe automatic reminders for unanswered quotes.

Where Fergus is the better choice: a trade business that prices from supplier price books, offers customers more than one pricing tier on a quote, and keeps its books in MYOB.

8. Xero

Accounting software whose plans include sending quotes. Customers accept or decline online and can comment; an accepted quote becomes an invoice with one click; quotes carry your logo. Its quotes page does not list automatic reminders, and quote reminders are an accepted but undelivered request on Xero's ideas forum.

Where Xero is the better choice: a business already paying for Xero whose customers answer quotes without being chased. See Quote Desk vs Xero quotes.

Questions people ask

Which quoting apps have a free plan?

Three on this list. ServiceM8 Free covers one user and 30 jobs a month. Chippie Free covers one user and 20 jobs a month. Quote Desk Free covers 5 quotes a month without follow-ups, and is paid for by a marketing consent rather than money. Tradify, Jobber and Fergus offer 14-day trials; Quotient offers 21 days.

Which ones chase quotes automatically?

On their own pages: ServiceM8 on every plan, Quote Desk from Starter, Tradify from Pro and Jobber from Connect. Quotient reminds you to follow up and drafts the email, but you send it. Chippie, Fergus and Xero do not list it.

Which ones bill in Australian dollars?

ServiceM8, Tradify, Quotient, Xero and Quote Desk say so. Jobber bills in US dollars. Chippie and Fergus show dollar prices without naming the currency.

Do I need job management software or just a quoting app?

If you want the quote, the booking, the invoice and the payment in one place, job management (ServiceM8, Tradify, Jobber, Fergus, Chippie) is the right kind of tool. If your invoicing already works and the problem is getting quotes out and answered, a quoting tool (Quotient, Quote Desk) costs less and asks less of you.

How we checked

Each fact in the table and the eight sections was read on the maker's own website in October 2026, and the Jobber conversion uses the Reserve Bank of Australia's published rate for that month. Tell us if one of them has changed and we will fix the page.

Best quoting apps for tradies in Australia