CRM for UK plumbers: prices compared

Short answer: Unavoidable CRM costs £29 a month for a one-person plumbing business and includes an AI receptionist, missed-call text back, quotes that chase themselves and invoices in one place. The trade apps plumbers usually shortlist, ServiceM8, Tradify and Powered Now, start from £0 to £34 a month, but call answering is an add-on or not listed.

That is the real difference. Most plumbing software is built to run jobs once you have them. The work you lose usually goes earlier, when the phone rings under a sink and nobody answers, or when a quote goes out and nobody follows it up. This guide compares the four on published UK prices (checked October 2026) so you can pick the one that fixes the problem you actually have.

Prices side by side (October 2026)

	Unavoidable CRM	ServiceM8 (UK)	Tradify (UK)	Powered Now
How you pay	Per business	By jobs per month	Per user	Per user (Business plan is one user)
Sole trader price	Solo £29 a month, 1 user, 1,000 contacts	Free for 30 jobs a month; Starter £25 for 50 jobs	Lite £34 a user a month	Business £28 a month ex VAT
Small team	Team £149 a month, 5 users	Growing £59 (150 jobs), unlimited users	Pro £37, Plus £44 a user a month	Professional £32, Premium £40 a user a month ex VAT
Answers your calls	AI receptionist included, minutes at cost (10p to 15p a minute)	ServiceM8 Phone from £15 a month (call routing and recording; no AI receptionist listed)	Not mentioned on the pricing page	PN Receptionist add-on, £29 or £39 a month
Automatic quote chasing	Every plan	Not shown on the pricing page	Pro and Plus	Premium
Certificates	Issued and stored against the customer and job	Not shown on the pricing page	Pro and Plus	Professional and Premium
Texts	Provider cost, about 4p to 5p a UK text, no markup	Allowance on paid plans, then 5p each	10p a message	Unlimited on Professional and Premium
Free trial	14 days, no card	14 days, plus a free plan	14 days, no card	14 days, no card

Competitor prices are from each company’s own UK pricing page, checked October 2026. Powered Now states its prices exclude VAT; ServiceM8 and Tradify do not say either way, so check before you buy. Offers and promotions change often and are not included.

What does a plumber actually need from a CRM?

A plumbing business needs four things from its software:

Every enquiry caught. Emergency callers ring the next plumber on the list if you do not pick up. A missed call at 9am can be a lost boiler job by 9.05.
Quotes that do not go cold. Bathroom refits and boiler swaps are often quoted against two or three other firms. The one who follows up politely tends to win.
A diary and job records you can run from a van, with notes, photos and certificates kept against the customer.
Getting paid without spending Sunday evening chasing invoices.

All four products here handle the last two well. The difference is mostly in the first two.

Where ServiceM8, Tradify and Powered Now are strong

ServiceM8 has a free plan for up to 30 jobs a month and unlimited users on paid plans, which suits a busy team doing lots of small jobs. It is a mature field app with a long track record among trades.
Tradify has a deep job management feature set on its Pro plan, including compliance certificates, recurring jobs, timesheets, progress invoicing and quote and invoice reminders, with Xero, Sage and QuickBooks sync.
Powered Now includes Making Tax Digital and VAT return submission on its higher plans, and offers an optional receptionist add-on that answers calls and captures leads. Its Business plan at £28 a month is the lowest paid entry price in this list.

If you already get every call answered, by a partner in the office or a call handling service, any of these will run your jobs well.

Where Unavoidable CRM is different

The phone is answered for you. The AI receptionist picks up when you are on a job, takes the caller’s details, books a visit or puts urgent calls straight through to your mobile. If someone hangs up, they get a text back so the lead is not lost.
Quotes follow themselves up. Send a branded quote from your phone and it is chased automatically if the customer goes quiet, then turned into an invoice in one click.
One price, every feature. Solo, Team and Agency have exactly the same features. You do not move up a tier to get chasing, certificates or call answering, and there are no job limits.
Usage at cost. Texts, calls and AI receptionist minutes are paid to the provider at their price, with no markup. A UK number is about £2.65 a month.

To be fair about the trade-off: our usage costs sit on top of the £29, so a busy month of calls costs more than a quiet one. As a rough guide, 150 minutes of AI receptionist time at 10p to 15p a minute is £15 to £22.50. If you need very specific gas or electrical certificate templates, test each one in a trial.

What does it cost a one-person plumbing business?

Using the published prices above, a sole trader who wants both job management and calls answered would pay roughly:

Unavoidable CRM: £29 a month, plus call minutes and texts at provider cost.
Powered Now: £28 Business plus £29 PN Receptionist Speech, so £57 a month ex VAT. Automatic quote and invoice chasing needs Premium at £40, which makes £69.
ServiceM8: £0 to £25 depending on job volume, plus ServiceM8 Phone from £15. That gives you calls on your system but not an AI receptionist.
Tradify: £37 for Pro with quote reminders and certificates; you would need a separate answering service.

Which should you choose?

Ask yourself one question: where does work slip away? If calls are handled and you mainly need a tidy diary, job sheets and invoices, ServiceM8’s free plan or Tradify’s Pro plan are sensible choices, and Powered Now is worth a look if you want MTD built in. If you are a one or two person firm that misses calls while working and forgets to chase quotes, Unavoidable CRM is built for exactly that, and at £29 a month it is one of the cheaper ways to get calls answered.

The best test is a real week. Every product here offers a 14-day trial, so run your actual calls and quotes through one and see how many you would have lost otherwise.

FAQs

What is the cheapest CRM for a plumber in the UK?

On published prices checked October 2026, ServiceM8 has a free plan for up to 30 jobs a month, and Powered Now Business is £28 a month ex VAT. Unavoidable CRM Solo is £29 a month and is the only one of the four that includes an AI receptionist on its base price, with minutes billed at cost.

Can a CRM answer my phone while I am on a job?

Some can. Unavoidable CRM’s AI receptionist answers, takes details and books visits, and Powered Now sells a receptionist add-on from £29 a month. ServiceM8 Phone routes and records calls, and Tradify’s pricing page does not mention call answering.

Do plumbers need Gas Safe certificates in their CRM?

If you do gas work it saves time to issue and store records against the job. Tradify Pro, Powered Now Professional and Unavoidable CRM all handle certificates. Check that the exact forms you need are available during your trial.

Is per-user or per-business pricing better for a plumbing firm?

For a sole trader it makes little difference. Once you add an apprentice or a second engineer, per-user plans grow with every login, while Unavoidable CRM’s Team plan covers five users for £149 a month.

Is there a contract?

Unavoidable CRM is monthly and you can cancel any time, with 20% off if you pay yearly. Tradify and Powered Now both state no contract on their pricing pages.

CRM for plumbers: answer every call and chase every quote