Project Management by Team · Researched comparison

Best Project Management Software for Electrical Contractors

TaskReports may earn a fee from some links on this page, and some placements are paid and labelled. Neither one decides the order. See our disclosure.

On this page

Key takeaways

  • Electrical contractors need estimating, job costing, change orders, crew scheduling, materials tracking, and invoicing in one place, and few tools cover all six without add-ons.
  • Four of the nine tools in this guide publish no price at all, so budget for a sales call and a written quote before you compare them on cost.
  • The lowest published starting prices are monday.com Basic and Smartsheet Pro at $9 per user per month billed annually, while Fieldwire Pro starts at $39.
  • JobTread and Knowify publish flat monthly prices that include a set number of users, which can work out cheaper than per-user pricing once your office team grows past ten people.
  • If most of your work is service calls and maintenance contracts, pick a tool with dispatch and recurring job templates; for commercial build-outs, pick one with strong change order and progress billing support.

Comparison

How these compare
ToolBest forPrice rangeFree plan
ProcoreLarge commercial electrical contractorsquote onlyNo
SimproTrade contractors mixing service and project workquote onlyNo
eSUBCommercial subcontractors focused on change ordersquote onlyNo
JobTreadSmall to midsize contractors wanting one flat price$199 per month (includes 1 internal user)No
KnowifyQuickBooks-based contractors needing job costing$99 per month (billed annually)Free trial (14 days)
FieldwireField crews working from drawings and punch lists$39 per user/month (billed annually)Yes
BuildertrendResidential builders managing client communicationquote onlyNo
monday.comSmall teams wanting flexible boards and scheduling$9 per user/month (billed annually)Yes
SmartsheetOffice teams tracking jobs in sheets and Gantt charts$9 per user/month (billed annually)Free trial (30 days)

How we choose

We reviewed each vendor's own pricing page and feature pages on 2026-11-12, comparing coverage across estimating, job costing, change orders, crew scheduling, materials tracking, invoicing, service work, and mobile field access. Prices in this guide come from the vendor pricing pages listed in Sources, and where a vendor publishes no price we say quote only. We checked which features sit on higher tiers, because the starting price often excludes the job costing an electrical contractor needs. No numeric scores or star ratings appear in this guide. Confirm the current price with the vendor before buying, since prices and plan names change.

Our full method

The shortlist

★ Best overall

The best project management software for electrical contractors

2

Procore

Best for large commercial electrical contractors

Website: https://www.procore.com/

Best for: large commercial electrical contractors

Starting price: quote only

Free plan: No

Pros: deep project financials and change order controls; unlimited users with no per-seat charge

Cons: no published price and annual contracts priced on construction volume; no free plan or free trial is offered

Procore is a construction management platform built for large general contractors and the specialty contractors who work under them. For an electrical contractor on commercial work, its strongest fit is project financials, submittals, RFIs, drawings, and change order management.

Pricing is based on annual construction volume rather than headcount, so every electrician can have access without the bill rising per login. We reviewed Procore's pricing page on 2026-11-12 and it lists no figures; every customer receives a custom quote, and the contract is annual. Ask for the full first-year cost in writing before you sign.

3

Simpro

Best for trade contractors mixing service and project work

Website: https://www.simprogroup.com/

Best for: trade contractors mixing service and project work

Starting price: quote only

Free plan: No

Pros: job costing across labor, materials, contractors, and equipment; maintenance planning for service contracts

Cons: no published price and no free plan or free trial advertised; pricing is quoted per business, so a sales call is needed to learn the cost

Simpro is built for trade contractors, including electrical firms, that run service jobs, maintenance contracts, and projects on one platform. Its job management tools cover quoting, scheduling, inventory, and job cost forecasting across labor, materials, contractors, and equipment. For electrical work, the useful pieces are take-offs from plans, pre-built price lists, and a maintenance planner for recurring client visits.

Pricing is the main drawback. We reviewed Simpro's pricing page on 2026-11-12 and it lists no figures; pricing requests go to a demo, so your number comes out of a sales conversation. Reports describe multi-year contracts with annual increases, so get the term and renewal terms in writing. Simpro suits a growing firm with mixed project and service revenue.

4

eSUB

Best for commercial subcontractors focused on change orders

Website: https://esub.com/

Best for: commercial subcontractors focused on change orders

Starting price: quote only

Free plan: No

Pros: change order and time and materials tracking built for subcontractors; document control and correspondence templates

Cons: no published price and no free plan, with pricing by quote only; no free trial is advertised

eSUB is a cloud-based platform built for commercial subcontractors, including electrical, mechanical, drywall, and plumbing firms. Its core strength is the work that happens after the contract is signed: change orders, time and materials tickets, progress billing, RFIs, and document control. For an electrical contractor, the change order workflow matters most, because extra circuits, panel upgrades, and owner-directed changes need a paper trail tied to the original estimate.

The limit is transparency. We reviewed eSUB's site on 2026-11-12 and found no published price; the site routes buyers to a demo and a sales conversation. There is no free plan, and marketplace per-user figures are not vendor figures, so we do not repeat them here. eSUB fits a commercial electrical subcontractor that lives on change orders and progress billing.

5

JobTread

Best for small to midsize contractors wanting one flat price

Website: https://www.jobtread.com/

Best for: small to midsize contractors wanting one flat price

Starting price: $199 per month (includes 1 internal user)

Free plan: No

Pros: one plan with every feature included and a published price; free unlimited portal users for customers, vendors, and subcontractors

Cons: no free trial, and anyone who tracks time counts as an internal user; the $199 base covers only one internal user, so extra users add to the bill

JobTread is built for project-based contractors, and its pricing is the most transparent in this guide. The pricing page lists one plan at $199 per month, which includes one internal user and every feature, with additional internal users at $20 each per month for users 2 to 10, then $15, $10, and $5 as headcount rises. Annual billing saves 20 percent. There is no free trial, but monthly plans carry a 30-day money-back guarantee.

JobTread covers estimating, budgeting, take-offs, change orders, job costing, scheduling, daily logs, purchasing, and invoicing, with AIA-style pay applications and a two-way QuickBooks Online sync. The catch is the user rule: anyone who tracks time counts as an internal user, so a crew of electricians clocking in each day adds to the monthly bill. Work out the cost for your full time-tracking headcount, not just the office team.

6

Knowify

Best for QuickBooks-based contractors needing job costing

Website: https://knowify.com/

Best for: QuickBooks-based contractors needing job costing

Starting price: $99 per month (billed annually)

Free plan: Free trial (14 days)

Pros: native two-way QuickBooks sync with real-time job costing; AIA-style G702 and G703 pay applications

Cons: job costing and work in progress reporting start on the Advanced plan at $329 per month; no free plan beyond the 14-day trial

Knowify is job management software built for trade contractors, including electricians, with a deep QuickBooks connection. It is the official QuickBooks Online construction partner, with a real-time two-way sync across QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Time, and QuickBooks Payroll. For a firm that already runs its books in QuickBooks, that sync removes double entry: estimates, time, change orders, and invoices move between the two systems without rekeying.

Pricing is published. Core is $99 per month billed annually, or $149 month to month, and includes one user, with extra users at $29 per month. Advanced is $329 per month billed annually, or $399 month to month, and includes ten users plus job costing and real-time work in progress reporting. Service dispatch is a Service Pro add-on at $99 per month billed annually. Every plan includes a 14-day free trial.

7

Fieldwire

Best for field crews working from drawings and punch lists

Website: https://www.fieldwire.com/

Best for: field crews working from drawings and punch lists

Starting price: $39 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: free Basic plan for up to 5 users and 3 projects; plan viewing with tasks pinned to drawing locations

Cons: change orders, RFIs, submittals, and budget tools sit on Business Plus at $89 per user per month; the free Basic plan caps at 5 users and 3 projects

Fieldwire, now Fieldwire by Hilti, is a jobsite platform built around drawings, tasks, and punch lists. An electrician can open the current plan set on a phone, drop a pin on a panel location, attach a photo, and assign the fix to a teammate. The platform covers plan viewing and markups, task management, checklists, specifications, files and photos, and daily reports. The sheet compare tool highlights what changed when a revised drawing set arrives mid-project.

Pricing is published and per user. Basic is free for up to 5 users, 3 projects, and 100 sheets. Pro is $39 per user per month billed annually and adds reports and exports, sheet compare, and project templates. Business is $64 and adds custom forms, app integrations, and a BIM viewer. Business Plus is $89 and adds RFIs, submittals, change orders, and budget tracking. Fieldwire has no estimating or invoicing, so it works best beside an office system.

8

Buildertrend

Best for residential builders managing client communication

Website: https://buildertrend.com/

Best for: residential builders managing client communication

Starting price: quote only

Free plan: No

Pros: unlimited users and projects with strong scheduling and client portal tools; estimating, change orders, and selections in one place

Cons: no published price and no free trial, with pricing by custom quote; pricing is quoted on annual construction volume, so costs rise as the firm grows

Buildertrend is built for residential home builders and remodelers, and it suits electrical contractors who work mainly on residential projects. It covers scheduling, daily logs, to-do lists, proposals, change orders, estimating, purchase orders, and a client portal where homeowners can see progress and message the team. For panel upgrades, rewires, and new residential work, the client portal and the daily log keep homeowners informed without a stream of phone calls.

The drawback is pricing transparency. We reviewed Buildertrend's pricing page on 2026-11-12 and it publishes no figures; the page asks for builder type and annual construction volume and routes buyers to a sales quote. That means an electrical contractor cannot budget Buildertrend without a sales conversation, and should ask for the full annual cost, the renewal terms, and what is included in onboarding before signing.

9

monday.com

Best for small teams wanting flexible boards and scheduling

Website: https://monday.com/

Best for: small teams wanting flexible boards and scheduling

Starting price: $9 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: free plan for up to 2 users and flexible boards for scheduling crews; wide range of templates and integrations

Cons: Basic has no automations or integrations; there is no native job costing or electrical estimating

monday.com is a work management platform that electrical contractors can shape into a scheduling and tracking system with boards and timelines. A board can hold a job list with columns for the client, the site address, the assigned crew, the scheduled date, the permit status, and the invoice status, while a timeline view shows crew availability across the week. Templates cover project tracking and team scheduling, and the platform connects with common accounting and file storage tools on the higher tiers.

Pricing is published. Basic is $9 per seat per month billed annually, Standard is $12, and Pro is $19, with a 3-seat minimum on the subscription tiers, so the smallest monthly bill on Basic is $27. The limit is that monday.com is a general tool, not a trade tool. Basic includes no automation or integration actions, and there is no native estimating, job costing, or change order workflow.

10

Smartsheet

Best for office teams tracking jobs in sheets and Gantt charts

Website: https://www.smartsheet.com/

Best for: office teams tracking jobs in sheets and Gantt charts

Starting price: $9 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Free trial (30 days)

Pros: familiar spreadsheet layout with Gantt, board, and calendar views; 250 automations a month on Pro

Cons: Pro is capped at 10 members; there is no free plan for new signups

Smartsheet is built on spreadsheets, and it suits electrical contractors whose office team already thinks in rows and columns. A sheet can track every active job with columns for the estimate, materials ordered, labor hours logged, change orders approved, and the amount invoiced, while a Gantt view shows the schedule.

Pricing is published. Pro is $9 per member per month billed annually, or $12 billed monthly, for 1 to 10 members, with unlimited free contributors who can view, comment, and attach files. Business is $19 per member per month billed annually for 3 or more members. There is no free plan for new signups, only a 30-day trial. Pro stops at 10 members, so an 11-person office must move to Business, and resource management and Control Center are separate add-ons. Smartsheet has no native estimating, dispatch, or invoicing.

What to check before you buy

Start with your work mix. A firm that does mostly service calls needs dispatch, recurring job templates, and fast invoicing, while a firm that does mostly commercial build-outs needs change orders, progress billing, and submittal tracking. Count every person who will log in, including apprentices who track time, because per-user pricing multiplies fast. Check whether the plan you are quoted includes job costing, because several tools keep costing or change orders on a higher tier than the starting price. Ask for the full first-year cost in writing, including implementation, training, and data migration.

The figures in this table are arithmetic from the list prices on the vendor pricing pages, and they exclude taxes, add-ons, and implementation. A per-user tool looks cheap at five users and costly at twenty, while a flat-price tool looks costly at five users and steadier at twenty, so run the numbers at your real headcount, not at the headline rate.

FAQ

What is the best project management software for an electrical contractor?

There is no single best choice, because the right tool depends on your work mix. Simpro and Knowify fit firms that mix service calls with project work, Procore and eSUB fit large commercial subcontractors, and JobTread fits a firm that wants one flat price with every feature included. Pick the tool that covers your estimating, job costing, and change order needs first.

How much does project management software cost for an electrical contractor?

Published starting prices in this guide run from $9 per user per month billed annually for monday.com Basic and Smartsheet Pro to $39 per user per month for Fieldwire Pro, while JobTread starts at $199 per month including one user and Knowify Core starts at $99 per month. Four tools publish no price and quote each customer, so their cost is unknown until you request a quote.

Do I need job costing, or is scheduling enough?

Scheduling alone is enough if you only need to know where crews are each day, but most electrical contractors also need to know whether each job made money. Job costing ties labor hours, materials, subcontractor costs, and change orders back to the estimate, so you can see which job types are profitable. If you bid fixed-price work, job costing is the feature that protects your margin.

Can one tool handle both service calls and construction projects?

Yes, and Simpro and Knowify are the strongest fits in this guide for that mix. Both cover service dispatch and recurring maintenance work beside project estimating, scheduling, and job costing, so a firm does not need two systems. JobTread also handles both, with scheduling and invoicing for project work and repeatable job templates for service work. General tools like monday.com and Smartsheet can track both kinds of work, but they lack native dispatch.

What should I check in a free trial before buying?

Run two real jobs through the trial from estimate to invoice, including a change order, a materials order, and a time entry from a phone on the jobsite. Check that the accounting sync moves invoices and costs correctly, that the mobile app works offline, and that reports show job profitability by cost code. Invite the people who will use it daily and ask them whether the workflow is clear.

Is per-user pricing or flat pricing better for an electrical firm?

Per-user pricing is usually cheaper for a small office team, since a five-person firm on monday.com Basic pays $45 a month billed annually, while flat pricing is steadier as the team grows, since JobTread at 20 users costs $529 a month billed monthly. The deciding factor is how many people track time, because some tools count every time tracker as a full user.

Sources we checked

  • https://www.procore.com/pricing
  • https://www.simprogroup.com/pricing
  • https://esub.com/pricing
  • https://www.jobtread.com/pricing
  • https://knowify.com/pricing
  • https://www.fieldwire.com/pricing
  • https://buildertrend.com/pricing
  • https://monday.com/pricing
  • https://www.smartsheet.com/pricing
How we score

Need the method behind these picks?

We publish the criteria and the weights, so you can disagree with them.

The best project management software for electrical contractors#1 PICK