Tradify Review 2026: Is It Worth It for UK Electricians?
Quick Verdict
Tradify is the most straightforward job management tool for UK electrical contractors under 20 people. It won't win awards for reporting depth or compliance paperwork, but it does the core job — quote, schedule, invoice, sync to Xero — without requiring a training course to get started. Most users are quoting real jobs through it within their first afternoon.
The catches are real. Every email Tradify sends on your behalf carries a branded footer. You can't attach on-site photos to invoices or customer reports. It needs internet signal to function at all. None of these are dealbreakers for domestic work, but they matter on commercial jobs with professional clients or unreliable site connectivity.
What Tradify Actually Does
Tradify replaces the quote-on-paper, job-on-whiteboard, invoice-on-spreadsheet workflow that most small electrical businesses run until the admin becomes unbearable. Everything lives in one place: customer records, quotes, active jobs, engineer schedules, timesheets, purchase orders, and invoices. The quoting system is the part most users highlight first — build a quote from a saved price list or imported supplier catalogue, send it to the client directly from the app, and convert it to a live job in one tap when they approve it.
The mobile app is the same experience on Android and iOS — not a cut-down version — which matters for electrical teams where not everyone is on the same phone. Engineers on-site can view job details, log time, add photos, record materials used, and update job status without calling the office. Job costing updates in real time as you quote, so you can see margin before you send anything.
Accounting sync is one of Tradify's genuine strengths. Connect to Xero, Sage, or QuickBooks and invoices push across automatically, customers and contacts stay in sync, and purchase orders flow through to bills. Tradify's Xero connection in particular is considered the most reliable in this category — one electrician on Trustpilot described it as "it just runs quietly in the background, the accountant barely knows it's there."
Pricing: What You Actually Pay
| Plan | Price | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | £34/mo per user | Quoting, jobs, invoicing, scheduling, timesheets, Xero/Sage/QBO sync, mobile app (Android + iOS) |
| Plus | £54/mo per user | Everything in Starter plus AI quoting assistant, supplier price list import, purchase order automation |
| Premium | £74/mo per user | Everything in Plus plus advanced reporting, custom branding, priority support |
14-day free trial, no credit card required. Cancellation is straightforward and you keep your data — unlike some competitors that lock accounts immediately on cancellation. There are small additional charges for SMS reminders (optional) and the Instant Website add-on if you want a basic web presence. No setup fee, no implementation cost.
The AI quoting assistant on the Plus plan is worth understanding. Upload your supplier price lists — Tradify supports imports from major UK electrical wholesalers — and it auto-populates materials when you build a quote. For anyone pricing multiple jobs a week against fluctuating cable and component costs, that alone can cover the difference between the Starter and Plus price.
How It Works on a Real Job
A landlord calls about an EICR on a four-bed HMO in your area. Here's the Tradify workflow from that call to payment:
You create the customer record in Tradify on your phone while you're still on the call — name, address, contact details. You build a quote from your EICR price template (which you set up once and reuse), add your materials, and send it by email within two minutes of hanging up. The client gets a professional-looking quote with your logo. When they confirm by email, you tap "convert to job," assign it to the diary, and it appears in your engineer's schedule automatically.
On the day, the engineer opens the job on their Android or iPhone, sees the job address and any notes you've added, logs their start time, records any additional materials used on-site. When the EICR is complete — the documentation itself is done separately, Tradify doesn't produce electrical certificates — they mark the job done. Back at base you raise the invoice from the completed job in about 90 seconds, it pushes to Xero, and the payment reminder goes out automatically if the client hasn't paid within your terms.
That workflow is where Tradify earns its subscription. The gap is the certificate itself — you'll still be using a separate tool or paper forms for the actual EICR documentation. Powered Now produces those certificates natively. Tradify doesn't.
The Catch
The email footer. Every quote, invoice, and job confirmation sent from Tradify includes a "sent from Tradify" footer. Multiple users on Capterra have flagged this as unprofessional for commercial clients. Tradify's workaround is to download and send documents manually from your own email — but that eliminates a large part of what you're paying for. This has been a complaint for several years and Tradify has not addressed it.
No photo reports or certificates. You can attach photos to jobs and add notes, but there is no way to send a customer a site report with photos embedded, or produce compliance certificates. One Software Advice reviewer specifically noted: "our contractors want a detailed report from site with pictures which this system doesn't allow." If commercial clients or facilities managers expect photo evidence as part of your invoice package, you're back to a manual process.
Needs signal. Tradify is entirely cloud-dependent. No offline mode. On commercial sites with locked-down WiFi and poor 5G — common in basements, plant rooms, and some rural areas — engineers are working blind until they're back in coverage. If this is a regular part of your work, Powered Now's offline capability is a meaningful differentiator.
Reporting is shallow. Multiple reviews on G2 and Capterra note that while the basic profitability-per-job view is useful, the reporting dashboard lacks depth for anyone who wants to track performance by engineer, job type, or customer segment without exporting to Excel. For a small business this is rarely a blocker, but it's worth knowing before you grow into needing it.
How It Compares
Against Powered Now: Tradify has the better Xero integration and the cleaner quoting UI. Powered Now wins on compliance certificates, offline working, and CIS handling. If your work involves regular EICRs, Minor Works certificates, or working in areas with poor connectivity, Powered Now is the more complete solution. If your bottleneck is quoting speed and getting invoices out faster, Tradify is simpler to learn and use daily.
Against ServiceM8: Tradify is the right choice for any team with Android users — full stop. ServiceM8's Android app is a lite version that excludes key features including time tracking. Beyond that, Tradify charges a flat per-user monthly rate while ServiceM8 charges per job completed, which becomes expensive at higher volumes. ServiceM8's client communication automations are more powerful, but that's only relevant if you're on iOS across the board.
The Tradesman's Math
Tradify Starter costs £34/mo. At a £55/hr labour rate — conservative for a qualified electrician in 2026 — you need to save roughly 37 minutes of admin per week to break even. One avoided invoice re-send, one quote built from a template instead of from scratch, one payment chased automatically rather than by phone — that's your month covered. Most Tradify users report saving significantly more than that, particularly in the first month when the reduction in double-entry across multiple tools is most noticeable.
For a two-person operation at the Starter tier: £68/mo combined. At that point you need closer to 75 minutes of combined admin saved per week. Still very achievable if both people were previously managing jobs across paper and spreadsheets. Less convincing if you're running one or two straightforward domestic jobs a day with no scheduling complexity.
Who This Is NOT For
Sole traders doing one or two simple domestic jobs a day. If your admin genuinely takes less than 30 minutes a day, a free tool like Invoice Ninja handles the invoicing without the monthly cost. Tradify earns its keep when job volume, team scheduling, or quoting complexity makes the admin genuinely time-consuming.
Anyone who regularly produces compliance certificates. EICRs, Minor Works, Electrical Installation Certificates — Tradify doesn't produce these. You'll still need a separate tool or paper forms. If certificate production is a core part of your workflow, Powered Now integrates it into the same system.
Teams working in areas with unreliable signal. If you're regularly in commercial basements, remote rural properties, or sites with no public WiFi access, Tradify's cloud dependency is a real operational problem. Powered Now is the answer.
Businesses at 20+ field staff. The scheduler becomes hard to read and manage at scale. Commusoft and SimPRO are built for larger operations, though both are considerably more expensive and complex to implement.
14-day free trial — no card required. Most users are quoting through it within the first afternoon.
Try Tradify free →Frequently Asked Questions
Does Tradify work in the UK?
Yes. Tradify is widely used by UK electricians, plumbers, and builders. It supports VAT, integrates with UK accounting software (Xero, Sage, QuickBooks), and is priced in GBP. It's a New Zealand product but well-established in the UK market.
Does Tradify handle CIS?
Tradify handles CIS through its Xero integration rather than natively. Create a CIS-format invoice in Tradify, push it to Xero, and Xero manages the deduction recording. This works but requires Xero to be configured with the correct domestic reverse charge VAT codes first — ask your accountant to confirm this before relying on it.
Can I cancel Tradify easily?
Yes. Tradify has no minimum contract period on monthly billing. You can cancel at any time and retain access until the end of your paid period. Data export is available on cancellation, unlike some competitors that lock accounts immediately.
Does Tradify work offline?
No. Tradify requires an internet connection to function. If you regularly work in commercial basements, rural properties, or sites with restricted WiFi, this is a real operational constraint. Powered Now is the alternative with full offline capability.
How does Tradify compare to Powered Now?
Tradify has faster quoting and better Xero integration. Powered Now wins on UK compliance — EICR certificates, CIS support, MTD, and offline working are all native. If compliance paperwork is your main headache, Powered Now is the stronger choice. See the full comparison.