Ask an electrical contractor what software they use and you'll get one of two answers. Either they're juggling three or four apps that don't talk to each other, or they're still running everything out of spreadsheets and a filing cabinet. Both cost real money.
The problem is that most "contractor software" wasn't built for electrical work. It was built for HVAC, plumbing, or general home services and then marketed to every trade under the sun. That means you're paying for features you don't need and missing the ones you do — like NEC-compliant estimating, AIA billing, or a way to coordinate with your GC that doesn't involve 47 emails.
I've spent time with most of the tools on this list. Here's an honest breakdown of what works, what doesn't, and what actually fits electrical subcontractor work in 2026.
Field Service Management — Residential
If you run a residential electrical shop doing service calls, panel upgrades, and small remodels, these are the platforms you'll hear about first. They handle scheduling, dispatching, quoting, and invoicing.
Jobber is the most popular starting point for small shops with one to ten techs. Pricing starts at $39/month and goes up to $599/month depending on features. The interface is clean, quoting and invoicing work well, and it's easy to get up and running. The downside is that Jobber has no built-in pricebook for flat-rate pricing, no permit tracking, and no electrical-specific features. It treats your business the same as a lawn care company.
Housecall Pro is the main Jobber alternative, starting at $59/month. It has a better mobile app and includes a built-in pricebook for presenting tiered options in the field. Marketing automation is a nice bonus if you're trying to grow a residential book. The catch is that QuickBooks integration requires the mid-tier plan, and it's still a residential service tool at heart. If you do any commercial work, you'll outgrow it.
FieldPulse gets high overall ratings but scores poorly for electrical fit specifically. The workflows are more customizable than Jobber or Housecall Pro, but it's still a generic trades platform. Pricing isn't published — you have to talk to sales — and there are reports of unexpected price increases after the first year.
Service Fusion has one compelling feature: unlimited users on every plan, starting around $165/month. No per-user fees. If you have a larger crew, the math works out. But the mobile app is unreliable — photos don't upload, it struggles without cell service — and that's a dealbreaker when your techs live on their phones.
Field Service Management — Enterprise
Once you're past ten techs and doing over a million in revenue, the options get expensive fast.
ServiceTitan is the 800-pound gorilla. It does everything — scheduling, dispatching, CRM, inventory, marketing automation, phone tracking, reporting. But "everything" comes at a cost. Pricing runs $250 to $500 per tech per month, implementation is a project in itself, and the learning curve is steep. It's built for large operations. If you're a five-person crew, you'll spend more time configuring ServiceTitan than using it.
BuildOps is purpose-built for commercial MEP contractors and it shows. The dispatch board is excellent, the PM tools handle real commercial workflows, and customer service is rated highly. But implementation takes months, the interface is overwhelming, and pricing starts around $245 per tech per month before add-ons. This is enterprise software for enterprise budgets.
Construction Project Management
These are the platforms your GC probably uses. You might be forced into them whether you like it or not.
Procore is the gold standard for construction documentation — RFIs, submittals, document control. GCs love it. The problem is that it's shaped entirely around GC workflows. Sub-specific needs like job cost tracking by phase, change order billing, and WIP schedules are secondary or absent. You'll use Procore because your GC requires it, not because it helps you run your business.
Buildertrend fills a similar role on the residential builder side. It's good for what builders need, but subs are an afterthought. Pricing runs $499 to $1,099 per month, and multiple users have reported 50 to 65 percent price hikes at renewal. Not great.
Electrical Estimating
If estimating is your main pain point, there are dedicated tools with deep electrical databases. These handle conduit runs, wire quantities, fixtures, panels, and labor units at a level no general FSM platform can touch.
Trimble Accubid is the industry standard for large electrical contractors. Over 40,000 items in the database, 9,500 assemblies, and a bi-directional link to Trimble's graphical takeoff tool. It's powerful but enterprise-priced and has a steep learning curve.
ConEst IntelliBid has been around for over 30 years and covers electrical, low voltage, datacom, and solar. Three editions let you scale up as needed. The software works, but it feels like legacy software and pricing isn't transparent.
McCormick Systems offers four tiers based on company size, from one-person shops to large contractors. They claim 75 percent faster estimates versus manual takeoffs. Pricing starts around $300 per month with additional upfront fees.
The thing all three have in common is that they're estimating only. They don't connect to your scheduling, invoicing, or job management. You estimate in one system and then re-enter everything somewhere else.
Commercial Subcontractor Tools
This is the category most electrical subs actually need and the one with the fewest options.
Knowify targets commercial subs and remodelers with detailed job costing, AIA-style progress billing on G702/G703 forms, change order management, and GPS-verified time tracking. It starts at $99 per month. If you do commercial electrical work, Knowify fills gaps that Jobber and Housecall Pro can't. But it's not electrical-specific — it's built for all commercial subs.
Point Solutions
CompanyCam deserves a mention for photo documentation. GPS-tagged photos organized by project, real-time sharing with your crew and GC, annotations. It starts at $57 per month billed annually with a three-user minimum. It does one thing and does it well, but it's another app in the stack.
The Real Problem
Look at this list and you'll notice a pattern. Residential FSM tools don't understand commercial electrical work. Enterprise platforms are overbuilt and overpriced for most subs. Estimating tools live in their own silo. GC platforms serve GCs, not you. And none of them were built specifically for electrical subcontractors.
That means most electrical subs end up stitching together three or four tools — one for estimating, one for scheduling, one for invoicing, maybe a shared drive for documents — and spending hours every week on data entry that shouldn't exist.
What you actually need is one place to estimate a job, convert it to a schedule, track time and costs against it, send AIA invoices, manage documents, and give your GC a portal to check status without calling you. That's what we built Faraday to do.
Faraday is purpose-built for electrical subcontractors. Estimating with NEC-compliant calculators and wire sizing tools. Job management with scheduling, time tracking, and cost tracking in one view. AIA billing and invoicing that pulls from your actual job data. Document management with OCR and search. And a GC portal so your general contractors can see project status, review documents, and approve change orders without a single phone call.
No per-user pricing games. No six-month implementation. No features you'll never touch because they were built for plumbers.
If your current setup involves copying numbers between three different apps, give Faraday a try. You'll know within a week whether it fits.