Free HVAC Software,
Forever.
· Pricing verified June 14, 2026
Charge the diagnostic fee before you roll, send tiered Good/Better/Best replacement quotes from the truck, see the moment the homeowner opens the $11K furnace estimate, invoice the second a tune-up wraps, and let Menutize text the customer a one-tap Google review link automatically. $0/month. Unlimited users. Forever.
Free CRM, invoicing & payments — forever. Save $348–$7,500+/yr vs Jobber, Housecall Pro, Service Fusion & FieldEdge subscription fees.
Free HVAC software, explained plainly
Menutize is free HVAC software for heating-and-cooling technicians, mechanical contractors, and small HVAC shops. It runs the office side of an HVAC business — customer and equipment CRM, paid diagnostic visits with credit-back logic, Good/Better/Best system-replacement proposals, invoicing, online card and ACH payments, automated Google review requests, tip collection, estimate and invoice open-tracking, recurring annual tune-up-plan billing, and two-way Google Calendar sync — for $0 per month with unlimited users. There is no monthly fee, no per-seat fee, and no credit card required to start.
That matters in this trade because HVAC is high-ticket and brutally seasonal. A diagnostic visit is $89–$149, a repair runs a few hundred dollars, and a full system replacement is commonly $8,000–$15,000 — and demand spikes hard the first 95-degree week of summer and the first hard freeze of winter, then goes quiet in the shoulder months. The tools that actually decide whether a shop runs profitable trucks in peak season are paid diagnostics that filter tire-kickers, tiered replacement proposals that close on the kitchen-table iPad, estimate-open tracking so you call at the right moment on a five-figure quote, recurring tune-up plans that smooth the slow months, and a steady flow of fresh Google reviews that keep you in the local Map Pack when a panicked homeowner searches "HVAC repair near me." Menutize was built around exactly those moments.
The paid platforms most HVAC contractors evaluate — Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan, the mechanical-trades favorite Service Fusion, and the HVAC/plumbing/electrical-specific FieldEdge — all charge a monthly subscription, most charge per additional user, and none offer a genuine free-forever plan (only 14-day trials or sales demos). For a solo tech or a one-to-three truck shop, those subscriptions add up to roughly $350 to well over $7,500 per year before a single call comes in. Menutize earns instead through a transparent 0.5% fee on payments you actually process, so the software costs you nothing in the slow months when the chipper — or in your case, the truck — isn't rolling.
One more shift worth naming: how HVAC customers find you is changing. A growing share of homeowners now start with an AI answer — asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overviews "how much does it cost to replace an AC and furnace" or "best HVAC company near me" — before they ever click a website. Those answers are assembled from structured, factual, citation-ready content and from your local presence: your Google Business Profile, your review count and recency, and your visibility in the Map Pack. The practical takeaway for an HVAC shop is that the two highest-return investments are (1) a steady, automated flow of recent Google reviews and (2) fast, photo-rich, tiered estimates that convert the leads you do get. Menutize is built to drive both, which is why it fits where local search is heading better than a heavier platform that bills you monthly for a dispatch board you'll never open.
The rest of this page covers what's free, the four HVAC-specific workflows Menutize is built around, a full side-by-side comparison against Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan, Service Fusion, and FieldEdge with verified 2026 pricing, a plain-language read on each competitor, real HVAC cost ranges, a five-question buying guide, a day-in-the-workflow walkthrough, an honest section on when a bigger platform is the right call, and the questions HVAC operators actually ask before signing up.
What's Free, Forever
Everything you need to run an HVAC repair and maintenance business — not a feature gated behind an upgrade. No credit card to start. No "trial expired" email in 14 days.
Customer & Equipment CRM
Every customer, system, model and serial photo, refrigerant reading, and note in one place. Searchable. Unlimited users, no per-seat fees.
Good/Better/Best Estimates
Send branded three-tier replacement proposals from your phone, with unlimited equipment photos. Customer approves with one tap.
Invoicing
Auto-generate clean invoices the moment a job closes. No separate QuickBooks license required.
Card & ACH Payments
Customers pay online. ACH on a $10K install runs $5 (0.8%, capped at $5) instead of ~$300 on cards. Money lands in 1-2 business days.
Estimate & Invoice Open-Tracking
See the exact moment a homeowner opens your $11K furnace replacement quote. Stop guessing when to follow up.
Recurring Maintenance Billing
Annual tune-up plans bill the card on file automatically every renewal. Recurring-revenue lifeblood, on the free plan.
Google Review Requests
Auto-text every happy customer a one-tap review link the moment you mark the job done.
Tip Collection
Built-in tip prompts at checkout. The senior couple whose furnace you got back online at 11pm wants to say thank you.
Google Calendar Sync
Bookings land on your real Google Calendar. Block time on your phone — customers can't double-book you.
Built for the way HVAC actually works.
HVAC isn't general handyman work. You're billing diagnostic visits before the truck rolls, juggling spring/fall tune-up routes against July heat-wave emergencies, sending Good/Better/Best proposals on $12K system replacements, and your dispatched tech is often a different person from the owner-salesperson on the phone. The free plan accounts for all of it.
A homeowner with a six-month-old baby and a dead AC at 96 degrees at 5pm is not the same job as a Tuesday thermostat swap, and your software shouldn't pretend it is. Most "free" small-business tools are an invoice template with a Stripe button bolted on — fine for a freelance designer, useless when a panicked customer is asking how soon you can get there and how much it'll cost. Menutize was built around the four workflows below: the ones that actually decide whether an HVAC shop runs profitable trucks in peak season or just runs trucks.
Diagnostic Visits with Credit-Back Logic
Stop driving for free quotes. Sell an $89, $129, or $149 diagnostic visit on your booking page — Menutize takes the deposit when the customer schedules, then auto-credits it toward the repair invoice if they say yes. Tire-kickers self-select out (the ones calling six HVAC companies for free quotes never book a paid one), your truck only rolls when there's money committed, and the customer feels great because the fee comes back. HVAC operators who switch to paid diagnostics typically see close rates climb from roughly 40% on free quotes to 70%+ on paid — by the time you arrive in the basement, the customer is already financially in and the conversation is "which option" instead of "should we even do this." Smart dispatch zones let you set which neighborhoods get the $89 trip and which get $149, so a 35-minute drive across town isn't priced like a five-minute call next door.
Good/Better/Best System Replacement Proposals
For full system replacements at $8K-$15K, send a digital proposal with three side-by-side options the homeowner compares on their phone. Good (entry-tier straight cool with a basic 80% AFUE furnace, 5-yr parts, around $8,500 installed). Better (variable-speed condenser with matched coil, 96% AFUE modulating furnace, 10-yr parts and labor, around $11,500). Best (inverter heat pump with smart thermostat, 12-yr parts and labor plus a Comfort Club membership, around $14,800). The homeowner taps the option they want, signs from their phone, and pays the deposit. Operators report roughly 25% of customers self-select up to Better or Best when the options are visual side by side — versus picking the cheapest when they're read aloud over a kitchen-table laminate brochure. Photo upload is unlimited, so the existing equipment, the model and serial plate, and the install location all ride along in the proposal.
Estimate & Invoice Open-Tracking
An $11,000 furnace replacement quote doesn't get signed in five minutes — it gets opened Tuesday at lunch, again Wednesday night with the spouse, a third time Saturday morning, and signed Monday. The contractor who knows when the quote was opened gets to make the close call at the right moment, not three days later when the bid's gone cold and the other guy already got the job. Menutize logs every estimate email open, every estimate page view, and every invoice open, then pushes it to your phone the moment it happens. You stop guessing and you stop chasing leads who already booked someone else. Most legacy field-service tools either don't ship engagement tracking or gate it behind a higher-priced "Pro" tier; Menutize includes it free on every estimate and invoice. For HVAC shops sending $10K+ replacement quotes regularly, this is the single feature that pays the most rent on the free plan.
Emergency Dispatch with Heat-Wave / Cold-Snap Surge Pricing
A dead AC at 4pm on a 96-degree July day or a no-heat call at 11pm in January isn't the same job as a Tuesday-afternoon thermostat install. Publish two service tiers on the same booking page: Standard (next available business day, normal rate) and Emergency (same-day, evenings, weekends, holidays, with a $200-$400 surge over standard). The homeowner sees both options the moment they realize the system is dead and self-selects. The deposit hits your account before you head out, so a 1am callout is paid before it's a callout. Most HVAC shops report the surge tier quietly funds an extra $2,000-$5,000/mo in peak season — and the customer who would've called four other companies stops shopping the moment they tap Emergency, because they've already committed. Recurring maintenance-plan members get priority dispatch automatically, which is half the reason they signed up.
Three Things Every HVAC Pro Wishes They Had
Most "free" software either nags you to upgrade or leaves out the features that actually move the needle. Menutize makes the three biggest ones core to the free plan.
Auto Google Reviews
The moment you mark an HVAC job complete, the customer gets a one-tap review link by text. No copy-paste, no "I'll do it later." HVAC runs almost entirely on Google reviews and the local Map Pack — a homeowner whose AC just quit searches "HVAC repair near me" and picks the company with the most recent five-star reviews. Review count and recency are among the strongest local-ranking signals, so automating the ask after every clean job compounds month over month.
Included free, forever.
Tip Requests at Checkout
Customers see a 15/20/25% tip prompt right at payment — the same flow they're used to from Square or DoorDash. HVAC techs on the free plan typically see 12-18% of service-call invoices come back tipped, especially after an emergency callout that saved a family with a baby in 95-degree heat or a senior couple in a cold snap. It routes to whichever account the operator picks, so the tech in the field keeps what they earned — money you were leaving on the table because nobody was asking.
Included free, forever.
Google Calendar Two-Way Sync
Every booking lands in your real Google Calendar, color-coded by service type if you want (diagnostic, tune-up, install, emergency). Block time on your phone — supply-house run, EPA refresher class, kid's game — and Menutize won't let customers book over you. Jobber and Housecall Pro reserve their richer scheduling for paid tiers; Menutize includes two-way Google Calendar sync at $0/mo.
Included free, forever.
Estimate & Invoice Open-Tracking — on the free plan.
An $11,000 furnace replacement quote doesn't get signed in five minutes — it gets opened Tuesday at lunch, opened again Wednesday night with the spouse, opened a third time Saturday morning before the kids wake up, and signed Monday. Every estimate email open, every estimate page view, every invoice email open, every invoice view — logged and pushed to your phone the moment it happens. When the homeowner opens the quote the third time on Saturday, that's the moment to call — not three days later when the bid's already gone cold and they've already accepted the other guy. Most legacy field-service tools either don't ship engagement tracking at all or gate it behind a higher-priced "Pro" tier. Menutize ships it free, on every estimate and every invoice you send, with no upgrade path required. For HVAC shops doing $10K+ system-replacement quotes regularly, this is the single feature that pays the most rent on the free plan.
Included free, forever · no upgrade required
Menutize vs Jobber vs Housecall Pro vs ServiceTitan vs Service Fusion vs FieldEdge
A feature-by-feature comparison for HVAC contractors, with pricing verified directly from each vendor's pricing page on June 14, 2026. Menutize is the only option with a genuine free-forever plan and unlimited users.
| Feature | Menutize Free | Jobber | Housecall Pro | ServiceTitan | Service Fusion | FieldEdge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $0/mo, forever | $29/mo annual ($49 m/m), Core | $59/mo annual ($79 m/m), Basic | Quote only ("Request Pricing") | $208/mo annual ($245 m/m), Starter | Quote only ("Request Pricing") |
| Most-popular / mid tier | n/a — one free plan | Grow $149–$299/mo annual ($199–$399 m/m) | Essentials $149/mo annual ($189 m/m) | Essentials — quote only | Plus $325/mo annual ($382 m/m) | Premier — quote only |
| Top tier | n/a | Plus $529/mo annual ($699 m/m) | MAX $299/mo annual ($329 m/m) | The Works — quote only | Pro $533/mo annual ($627 m/m) | Elite — quote only |
| Free-forever plan | Yes | No (14-day trial) | No (14-day trial) | No (demo only) | No (demo only) | No (demo only) |
| Users included / add-on | Unlimited, $0/user | 1–15 by tier; +$29/user/mo | 1–8 by tier; MAX +$35/user/mo | Per-technician pricing (quote) | Unlimited users (all tiers) | By plan (quote) |
| Annual contract required | No | No (annual prepay = lower price) | No (annual prepay = lower price) | Typically ~12-month contract | No (annual prepay = 15% off) | Varies (quote) |
| Paid diagnostic visit w/ credit-back | Yes (deposit + auto-credit) — free | Via deposits + manual credit (paid) | Via deposits + manual credit (paid) | Yes (paid plan) | Via deposits (paid plan) | Via deposits (paid plan) |
| Good/Better/Best tiered proposals | Yes — free | Yes (paid plan) | Yes (paid plan) | Yes (paid plan) | Yes (paid plan) | Yes (paid plan) |
| Estimate & invoice open-tracking | Yes — free | Higher tier | Higher tier | Yes (paid plan) | Limited | Limited |
| Big-ticket deposit collection | Yes (card & ACH) — free | Yes (paid plan) | Yes (paid plan) | Yes (paid plan) | Yes (paid plan) | Yes (paid plan) |
| ACH at 0.8% (capped $5) | Yes — free | Card-focused; varies | Card-focused; varies | Varies | Varies | Varies |
| Automated Google review requests | Yes — free | Add-on / higher tier | Higher tier | Yes (marketing module, paid) | Varies | Varies |
| Tip collection at checkout | Yes — free | Rarely supported | Rarely supported | Rarely supported | Rarely supported | Rarely supported |
| Two-way Google Calendar sync | Yes — free | Higher tier | Higher tier | Yes (paid plan) | Yes (paid plan) | Yes (paid plan) |
| Recurring maintenance-plan billing | Yes — free | Yes (paid plan) | Yes (paid plan) | Yes (memberships, paid) | Yes (service agreements, paid) | Yes (service agreements, paid) |
| Per-system service history (model/serial & refrigerant log) | Yes — equipment records with photos & readings, free | Basic asset notes (paid) | Equipment records (paid) | Yes, deep (paid) | Yes, equipment tracking (paid) | Yes, HVAC-specific (paid) |
| Est. 1st-year software cost (1 owner + 1 tech) | $0 | ~$348+ (Core annual; +$29/mo for 2nd user) | ~$708+ (Basic annual; 2nd user needs Essentials ~$1,788) | Quote only (3rd-party est. $245–$500/tech/mo + implementation) | ~$2,496 (Starter annual, unlimited users) | Quote only |
Pricing verified from each vendor's official pricing page on June 14, 2026. Jobber: Core $29/mo annual ($49 month-to-month), Connect $99–$149/mo annual, Grow $149–$299/mo annual, Plus $529/mo annual; +$29/user/mo; 14-day trial only. Housecall Pro: Basic $59/mo annual ($79 m/m), Essentials $149/mo annual ($189 m/m), MAX $299/mo annual ($329 m/m, +$35/extra user); 14-day trial only. ServiceTitan: tier names Starter / Essentials / The Works are published but no dollar figures are; pricing is per-technician and quote-only after a sales demo. Third-party estimates ($245–$500/tech/mo plus a one-time implementation fee) are unverified and shown for context only. Service Fusion: Starter $208/mo annual ($245 m/m), Plus $325/mo annual ($382 m/m), Pro $533/mo annual ($627 m/m); unlimited users on every plan; annual billing reflects a 15% discount; no free-forever plan. FieldEdge: tiers Select / Premier / Elite are published but no dollar figures are — pricing is quote-only and the page states it varies by features and add-ons; no free-forever plan. Card-processing fees apply on all platforms; Menutize uses standard Stripe rates plus a transparent 0.5% fee on payments processed. First-year estimates assume annual-prepay pricing and do not include processing or implementation fees.
Menutize vs each platform, in plain language
The table above is the quick scan. Here is the honest, vendor-by-vendor read for an HVAC owner deciding where to put the office work — what each tool costs, who it's actually for, and where Menutize wins or loses.
Menutize vs Jobber
Jobber is the default starter platform for home-services trades, and it's a solid product. The friction for an HVAC shop is the pricing ladder. Core is $29/mo on an annual plan ($49 month-to-month) but includes only one user. The popular Grow tier — the one Jobber's own trial drops you into — runs $149–$299/mo annually ($199–$399 month-to-month) and includes ten users, and the top Plus tier is $529/mo annually. Every additional user beyond a plan's cap is $29/mo. There is no free-forever plan; you get a 14-day trial and then the card is charged.
For a one-to-three truck HVAC business, the math rarely favors Jobber. A solo tech who just needs diagnostics, tiered proposals, deposits, reviews, and a calendar is paying $348/yr minimum on Core, or stepping up to Grow's four-figure annual cost for features Menutize includes free. Menutize matches Jobber on the core HVAC workflow — estimates, Good/Better/Best options, online payments, scheduling — and adds estimate open-tracking, tip collection, and Google review automation on the free plan rather than gating them. Pick Jobber if you want its broader integrations ecosystem and don't mind the subscription. Pick Menutize if you want the same job-winning workflow at $0/mo with unlimited seats.
Menutize vs Housecall Pro
Housecall Pro is polished and popular with residential service businesses, HVAC included. Its Basic plan is $59/mo annually ($79 month-to-month) for a single user, Essentials is $149/mo annually ($189 month-to-month) for up to five users, and MAX is $299/mo annually ($329 month-to-month) for up to eight users with additional MAX seats at $35/mo each. Like Jobber, there is no free tier — only a 14-day trial.
The catch for a small HVAC shop is that the single-user Basic plan is too thin for an owner-plus-techs operation, so most shops that need multiple logins land on Essentials at roughly $1,788/yr. That's a meaningful fixed cost for a business whose revenue swings with the weather. Menutize gives an owner and a couple of techs unlimited logins at $0/mo and includes the review automation and open-tracking Housecall Pro reserves for higher tiers. Pick Housecall Pro if you specifically want its consumer-financing and marketing add-ons for big-ticket replacements. Pick Menutize if you want to keep that $700–$1,800/yr and run the same daily workflow free.
Menutize vs ServiceTitan
ServiceTitan is the enterprise standard for large HVAC operations, and it's genuinely powerful. It does not publish prices: the Starter, Essentials, and The Works tiers each show a "Request Pricing" button, pricing is per-technician and quote-only after a sales demo, and no free trial length is stated. Unverified third-party reports place it at roughly $245–$500 per technician per month, usually on a 12-month contract plus a one-time implementation fee that can run from $5,000 to $50,000 or more.
That cost structure makes sense for a 20-truck shop with a dispatch desk, call-center integration, fleet tracking, and board-level reporting — and it's overkill, financially and operationally, for a small HVAC operation. ServiceTitan is the rare competitor we'll actively point you toward: if you've crossed into multi-truck enterprise scale, it earns its price. Below that scale, Menutize covers the job-winning workflow without a contract, an implementation project, or a per-technician bill. Pick ServiceTitan if you're a large operation. Pick Menutize if you're not yet one.
Menutize vs Service Fusion
Service Fusion is a long-time favorite with HVAC and mechanical contractors, and its biggest selling point is honest: unlimited users on every tier, no per-seat tax. Its published prices are Starter at $208/mo annually ($245 month-to-month), Plus at $325/mo annually ($382 month-to-month), and Pro at $533/mo annually ($627 month-to-month), with annual billing reflecting a 15% discount. There is no free-forever plan, only a demo.
The unlimited-user model genuinely beats the per-seat platforms once you have a few techs — but the floor is still $208/mo, about $2,496/yr on the cheapest annual plan, billed whether or not a single truck rolled that month. For a shop with strong, steady volume and a need for deeper dispatch and inventory tooling, Service Fusion is a reasonable paid choice. For a one-to-three truck shop, Menutize delivers the same unlimited-users posture at $0/mo, plus estimate open-tracking, tip collection, and Google review automation built in. Pick Service Fusion if you want its dispatch board and field inventory and have the volume to justify $2,500–$6,400/yr. Pick Menutize if you want unlimited users with no monthly bill and the estimate-deposit-review loop that wins residential jobs.
Menutize vs FieldEdge
FieldEdge is purpose-built for HVAC, plumbing, and electrical contractors, and it's best known for a deep QuickBooks Desktop/Online integration and strong service-agreement management. Its three tiers are Select, Premier (marked "most popular"), and Elite — but it publishes no dollar prices. Every plan routes to "Book a demo" or "Request Pricing," and the page explicitly says cost varies by the features and add-ons you choose. There is no free-forever plan.
Because FieldEdge's pricing is quote-only, there's no sticker number to weigh — but it is unambiguously a paid, demo-gated platform aimed at established HVAC contractors who want tight back-office accounting sync. Menutize is free, self-serve, and live in about ten minutes, with clean CSV export to hand your bookkeeper rather than a deep native QuickBooks tie-in. Pick FieldEdge if your office runs on QuickBooks and you want native two-way accounting sync and don't mind a sales call to learn the price. Pick Menutize if you want to start winning and billing jobs today at $0/mo and are happy to export to your accountant.
What HVAC work actually costs — and how to quote it fast
HVAC is one of the widest-ranging trades in home services. A price depends on the job type, the equipment efficiency tier (SEER and AFUE), the size of the home, the condition of the existing ductwork, and how urgent the call is. The ranges below reflect typical U.S. cost guidance — use them as a starting framework, then build your own line items into a Menutize service menu so you can quote on-site in two taps.
| Job type | Typical U.S. range | What moves the number |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnostic / service-call fee | $89–$149 | Drive distance and dispatch zone; often credited back toward the repair if the customer books. |
| Common repair (capacitor, contactor, blower motor) | $150–$1,200 | Part cost and labor; a $15 capacitor is a $200–$400 ticket, a blower motor or control board runs far higher. |
| Full system replacement (AC + furnace) | $8,000–$15,000 | SEER/AFUE efficiency tier, equipment brand, ductwork condition, and whether it's a heat pump vs straight cool + gas furnace. |
| Annual maintenance plan (2 tune-ups) | $150–$300 / yr | Number of visits, priority dispatch, and repair-discount perks; the recurring-revenue anchor of most shops. |
| After-hours / emergency surcharge | +$200–$400 over standard | Evenings, weekends, holidays, and peak heat-wave/cold-snap demand push emergency rates well above daytime pricing. |
These are illustrative industry ranges, not Menutize quotes — your real numbers depend on your market, your equipment costs, and the specific home. The point is structural: HVAC pricing has too many variables to quote reliably over the phone, especially on a $10K+ replacement, which is exactly why on-site tiered proposals with pre-built line items close more work than a verbal number a homeowner half-remembers. In Menutize, set up "Diagnostic visit," "AC tune-up," "Furnace tune-up," "System replacement (Good/Better/Best)," "Emergency 24/7 service," and "Annual maintenance plan" as menu items with your own base prices, then adjust per job and attach equipment photos before you send.
The same logic applies to the upsells that ride along with most HVAC work. Indoor-air-quality add-ons — whole-home HEPA media filters, dehumidifiers, UV germicidal lamps, and ionizers — each carry their own labor and material cost and belong on their own line item so the homeowner can add them with one tap instead of an awkward basement conversation. The biggest lever, though, is the Good/Better/Best frame on replacements: a "Good" entry-tier option, a "Better" variable-speed option, and a "Best" inverter-heat-pump-plus-membership option presented side by side let the homeowner choose their own scope and consistently nudge the average ticket upward, because the efficiency and warranty difference is visible on the spouse's screen at dinner instead of explained over the phone three hours earlier. That up-sell happens on the customer's schedule, not under pressure on a call — which is precisely why tiered, photo-backed proposals outperform a single verbal number in this trade.
How to choose HVAC software
Most buying guides bury the decision under a feature checklist. For an HVAC business, five questions settle it. Answer these and the right tool is usually obvious.
1. How big-ticket is your average sale?
HVAC swings from a $200 capacitor to a $14,000 system replacement. The five-figure jobs are where the year is won or lost, and homeowners deliberate them for days. That makes tiered Good/Better/Best proposals and estimate open-tracking the single highest-leverage features — far more important than dispatch routing for a small shop. Any tool you pick must let you present side-by-side options the homeowner can approve from a phone and tell you the moment that quote was opened.
2. How seasonal is your revenue?
Brutally. The first heat wave and the first hard freeze make the quarter; March and October are dead. A fixed monthly subscription is a worse fit for seasonal revenue than a pay-on-payments model, because the bill arrives whether or not a truck rolled. This is the core reason Menutize's 0.5%-on-payments model fits HVAC better than Jobber's, Housecall Pro's, Service Fusion's, or FieldEdge's flat monthly fees for a small operator — and why recurring tune-up plans, which smooth the shoulder months, matter so much.
3. How many people need a login?
Count the owner-salesperson, each dispatched tech, the install crew, and the bookkeeper. On per-seat platforms that's $29–$35 per extra user per month on top of the base plan (Jobber, Housecall Pro MAX). Service Fusion solves that with unlimited users but charges $208/mo+ to start. If you have more than one or two people touching the system, unlimited-user pricing changes the total cost materially — which is where Menutize's free unlimited seats pull ahead of both models.
4. Do you depend on Google reviews to get found?
If "HVAC repair near me" is how a panicked homeowner finds you — and for most local shops it is — then automated post-job review requests are not optional. Review volume and recency drive the local Map Pack, and the homeowner whose AC just died clicks the company with the most recent five-star reviews. A tool that fires a one-tap review link the moment you mark a job complete, included rather than bolted on as a paid add-on, compounds your local ranking month after month.
5. Do you need enterprise dispatch or deep accounting sync?
This is the honest dividing line. If you run a 20+ truck operation needing a dispatch board, call-center integration, fleet tracking, and board-level reporting, ServiceTitan is built for that. If your office is married to QuickBooks and you want native two-way accounting sync, FieldEdge specializes in it. If you're neither — a solo-to-small HVAC shop that exports to a bookkeeper — you don't need either, and a free tool that nails the diagnostic-proposal-deposit-review loop is the smarter call.
The right pick by business stage
You + maybe a helper
You're the tech, salesperson, and dispatcher. You need paid diagnostics, tiered proposals, deposits, reviews, and a calendar — not a dispatch board. Menutize Free covers all of it at $0/mo, and a fixed subscription is dead weight at your volume.
Multiple techs, one owner
Now you're coordinating dispatched techs and giving several people logins, and the tech is often separate from the owner-salesperson. Per-seat fees start to bite on Jobber and Housecall Pro. Menutize Free still fits — unlimited users, recurring maintenance plans, commercial RTU contracts — with no per-seat tax.
$5M+, 20+ trucks
Dispatch desk, call-center integration, fleet tracking, payroll and commission automation, board-level reporting. This is where a free tool stops being enough. ServiceTitan (general enterprise) or FieldEdge / Service Fusion (HVAC-specific depth) is the right investment at this scale.
A day in the workflow
It's 7:50am on the first 96-degree day of summer and your phone is already going. A homeowner across town has a dead AC and a six-month-old in the house. Instead of writing the address on a coffee-cup sleeve, you add the customer in Menutize on the way to the truck and book her into the Emergency tier — same-day, with the surge price she already saw and accepted on your booking page. The $129 diagnostic deposit hits your account before you back out of the driveway. Two more calls come in before 9am; you book one as a Standard next-day diagnostic and the other taps your maintenance-plan link to become a member on the spot, which puts her at the front of the priority queue.
At the first stop you find a seized compressor on a fifteen-year-old unit. This isn't a repair conversation, it's a replacement one. From the basement you build a Good/Better/Best proposal on your phone — an entry-tier straight-cool-plus-furnace at $8,500, a variable-speed system at $11,500, and an inverter heat pump with a smart thermostat and a Comfort Club membership at $14,800 — snap photos of the rusted-out condenser and the model/serial plate, credit her $129 diagnostic toward the job, set the deposit at 40%, and send it before you pack up. By the time you reach the second call, Menutize has notified you the homeowner opened the proposal twice.
The second job is a quick capacitor swap — a $280 ticket you invoice and collect on the spot, with the tip prompt right there on the payment screen. Mid-afternoon the first homeowner opens the proposal a third time, with her husband this time, then taps Better and pays the deposit by ACH; the $5 cap means you keep nearly the whole deposit instead of losing card-processing points on a four-figure number. The install locks onto Thursday automatically and the spring/fall tune-up plan she added rides along on the same account.
Thursday the crew sets the new system clean. You mark the job complete from the field; the auto Google review request texts her a one-tap link while the truck is still loading, and the balance clears on ACH that afternoon. The fall heat inspection is already on the calendar for October as its own recurring visit.
By Friday morning you've got a new five-star review, a paid five-figure install, an emergency diagnostic that filtered out a tire-kicker before you drove, a tip the tech wasn't expecting, and a recurring maintenance member on the books — all run from a phone, all on the free plan, with nothing billed to your card for software in the slow weeks before the next heat wave.
When not to use Menutize for HVAC
Menutize is built for solo HVAC techs and small-to-mid mechanical shops — roughly one to a handful of trucks. It is honestly the wrong tool for a large operation. If you're running $5M+ in annual revenue, 20+ field techs, a full-time dispatch desk, and you need GPS fleet tracking, automated multi-truck routing, call-center integration, commission and payroll automation, and board-level financial reporting, you should look at ServiceTitan. That depth is exactly what its per-technician, quote-only pricing and implementation onboarding are designed to deliver, and it will pay for itself at that scale.
Similarly, if your back office runs entirely on QuickBooks and you require native two-way accounting sync, or you want a deep field-inventory and dispatch board across a steady multi-truck schedule, the HVAC-specialist platforms — FieldEdge for the QuickBooks tie-in, Service Fusion for unlimited-user dispatch and inventory — were purpose-built for that and go deeper than Menutize. Menutize exports clean CSV to your bookkeeper rather than syncing natively, which is fine for most small shops and not enough for some.
For everyone else — the owner-operator who is also the lead tech, salesperson, and dispatcher — Menutize covers the workflow that wins jobs at $0/mo. Start free, and move up only if you actually outgrow it.
Why the free-plan math works in this trade
Three things the public data makes clear about HVAC economics — and why a $0/mo tool with reviews, deposits, and recurring billing built in is a structural advantage, not a gimmick.
Annual subscription you avoid
The range of first-year subscription fees across Jobber, Housecall Pro, and Service Fusion (verified pricing pages, June 2026), with ServiceTitan and FieldEdge quote-only and typically higher. Menutize's free plan removes the fixed software bill entirely — you pay only the 0.5% on payments you actually process.
Where homeowners click
Local "HVAC near me" searches are dominated by Google's Map Pack, where review count, rating, and recency are among the heaviest ranking factors per published local-SEO research. The homeowner whose AC just died picks from the top three. Automated review requests after every job are the cheapest way to climb it.
Per-seat cost across your techs
Per-seat platforms charge $29–$35 per extra user per month (Jobber, Housecall Pro MAX), and even the unlimited-user platforms start at $208/mo (Service Fusion). Menutize includes unlimited users free, so giving every tech and the bookkeeper a login costs nothing.
Figures above are composites drawn from public vendor pricing pages (verified June 14, 2026) and published local-SEO research, not testimonials from named businesses. Your results depend on your market, your pricing, and how consistently you use the review, proposal, and recurring-billing tools.
HVAC Software Questions, Answered
The ones HVAC operators actually ask before they sign up.
Is Menutize really free for HVAC contractors? What's the catch?
How does Menutize compare to Jobber for HVAC?
How does Menutize compare to Housecall Pro for HVAC?
How does Menutize compare to ServiceTitan for HVAC?
How does Menutize compare to Service Fusion for HVAC?
How does Menutize compare to FieldEdge for HVAC?
Can I charge a diagnostic fee before I roll the truck?
Can I send Good/Better/Best estimates for an $8K-$15K full system replacement?
Can I see when a homeowner opens an $11,000 furnace replacement quote?
Can I bill recurring annual maintenance plans automatically?
How does Menutize handle 24/7 emergency calls during a heat wave or cold snap?
I'm EPA 608 certified and run commercial RTUs — does Menutize handle refrigerant and equipment tracking?
Free HVAC software is finally good.
Paid diagnostics, Good/Better/Best replacement quotes, recurring tune-up plans, estimate-open tracking, payments, Google reviews, tips, calendar — all on the free plan, all the time, with unlimited users. Setup takes 10 minutes. No credit card.
Start free — no credit cardSet up in 10 minutes. Free forever. Cancel anytime (but there's nothing to cancel — no contract, no monthly bill).