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Markate vs HighLevel: Which CRM is Right for Your Home Service Business?
If you run a home service business, you already know how important it is to keep everything organized. From talking to customers to sending estimates and getting paid, having the right tool matters. That’s where CRMs come in—tools that help you manage your customers, jobs, and marketing all in one place. Two big names in the home service CRM space are Markate and HighLevel. Both have helpful features, but they work in different ways. Let’s take a good look at both to help you figure out which one fits your business best.
In this article, we compare Markate and HighLevel, focusing on how they handle job management, customer follow-up, team coordination, and online marketing. We’ll also talk about where each CRM shines and where it might come up short. Whether you’re a solo contractor or running a crew, this guide will help you understand which CRM can save you time and earn you more from each job.
What is Markate? Built for Contractors and Home Service Pros
Markate is a CRM tool made for everyday tradespeople—like plumbers, cleaners, handymen, and HVAC techs. If your business depends on visiting customers’ homes and finishing jobs on-site, Markate was built with that kind of work in mind. It runs on both your computer and phone, helping you stay organized even if you’re always on the go.
With Markate, you can schedule jobs, send invoices, and take payments all from one place. You can also send reminders, track reviews, and even sell bigger jobs by offering customer financing. While its interface may not be the prettiest out there, it gets the job done with features focused on tasks home service workers care about. More than 25,000 professionals already use it to keep their businesses running smoothly without paying for stuff they don’t need.
What is HighLevel? A Marketing-Focused CRM for Agencies and Advanced Users
HighLevel is a bigger tool that’s focused more on marketing and customer communication than job tracking. It started out as a way for marketing agencies to help their clients, but many home service businesses began using it for its powerful messaging, form building, and website tools.
The HighLevel platform helps you send bulk text messages, email follow-ups, and even build full websites and landing pages. You can also keep track of people who visit your site and automatically follow up with them to turn them into new jobs. But when it comes to things like job dispatching, calendar management for field teams, and job costing, it isn’t as strong compared to tools focused just on home services.
Job Scheduling and Team Management: Who Does It Better?
When your day is filled with appointments and team members heading to different homes, you need a calendar system that’s easy and fast. Markate was designed with that use in mind. You can see your whole week at a glance, click on a time slot, and drop in a new job. It lets you assign workers, send them reminders, and even update things like checklists or photos for each job right from your phone.
HighLevel has some calendar tools, but it wasn’t built specifically for job scheduling in the field. You can book appointments and send invites, but the process might feel clunky if you’re trying to move fast between jobs or manage a crew. That’s why many contractors use HighLevel just for leads and marketing, and rely on another CRM like Markate to actually manage job flow and send out work orders.
Customer Communication and Follow-Up
Keeping customers informed is a big part of running a home service business. From reminders about appointments to updates when workers are on the way, staying in touch builds trust. Markate lets you send out text and email reminders before and after jobs, collect reviews, and even offer a secure customer portal people can log into 24/7.
HighLevel takes customer contact to another level—with drip campaigns, automatic texts, emails, voice drops, and more. If you want to send bulk messages or create different messages based on the type of customer or job, HighLevel offers a lot of flexibility. It’s smarter when it comes to marketing, but setting everything up can take some learning. Markate, on the other hand, keeps things simple and focused on service professionals.
Marketing Features That Drive New Jobs
If your main job is to fix pipes, mow lawns, or clean gutters, you may not want to spend hours writing emails or building websites. Markate gives you some basic tools to send postcards, emails, and texts to your customer list for a small fee. You can also connect review sites like NiceJob or ResponsiBid for extra help. Marketing tools cost about $10 per feature per month, so you can pick only what you want.
HighLevel is a marketing powerhouse. It includes funnels, website builders, pop-ups, and review capture under one roof. You can post on social media, assign marketing tasks, and even set up ads. It’s better suited for those who want full control over how they market their services. If you’re working with an agency or have time to manage your own campaigns, HighLevel gives you all the tools in one place.
Mobile App Experience
Many home service pros live on their phones. You book jobs between stops, answer texts from new leads, and type up quotes while standing in a client’s yard. Markate knows this and gives you a strong mobile app that helps you do most of what the desktop version does. From writing an estimate to snapping before-and-after photos, it works well on the move.
HighLevel also has a mobile app, but it doesn’t always feel as friendly for field service teams. It’s more about checking in on leads or sending marketing messages. If you’re focused on day-to-day job work rather than long-term marketing, the HighLevel app may come up short. Combine both apps if you want the best of both—do marketing with HighLevel and schedule work with Markate.
Pricing and Add-Ons
One of the biggest reasons small businesses like Markate is its price. The Owner Operator plan starts at $49.95 a month and includes most of what a solo contractor needs. If you have a team, you can pay for each employee with more features based on your needs. You only pay for the add-ons you want, like job rescheduling, lead pipeline tracking, or SMS marketing. Add-ons are sold at about $5 or $10 extra per month so you’re not overpaying.
HighLevel pricing is a bit higher, usually starting around $97 a month for basic access, and up to $297 per month if you want all the marketing and agency tools. You get a lot for the price, especially when it comes to marketing and emails. It’s a good deal if you’re replacing multiple tools with just one. But if all you need is scheduling and invoicing, it may feel like too much.
Integration Power and Automation
Integrations help tools talk to each other so you don’t have to enter everything twice. Markate connects with tools like QuickBooks, Zapier, and even YacDaddy. That way, when a lead fills out a form or calls you, your CRM and marketing software already knows who they are. It also includes tools for auto job creation, SMS notices, and even tracking where your revenues came from.
HighLevel is built for connecting with everything. It supports voice, email, forms, Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads, and more. The automations are almost endless—set up once and let the system do the rest. YacDaddy plugs into HighLevel too, allowing you to turn call transcriptions into blogs, track call sources, and send content to websites hosted on HighLevel.
Which One Should You Choose?
If most of your work involves field jobs, team management, scheduling, invoicing, and handling real-time changes, Markate is probably the better fit. It’s simple to use, affordable, and built for workers who are always moving. The biggest wins are its mobile tools and pay-as-you-go structure, especially if you’re a small business just getting started or want to keep costs low.
If you already have those systems and want to grow fast through marketing, HighLevel brings more power. It offers tools most other CRMs don’t, like texting thousands of customers in one click, building your own website, or setting up a sales funnel in under an hour. But it takes learning and setup time that many business owners might not have without help from a marketing expert.
How YacDaddy Works with Markate and HighLevel
At YacDaddy, we work closely with both Markate and HighLevel to help home service businesses turn leads into more booked jobs. If you use Markate, our app pulls in new jobs and fills in project info—saving you time typing it all in. Plus, if someone fills out a form on your website or Facebook page, that contact info shows up in Markate and YacDaddy automatically.
With HighLevel, it gets even better. YacDaddy hooks into the phone system to turn call transcripts into FAQ blogs so your website answers real customer questions. If your site is hosted on HighLevel, we post your reviews, projects, and content blogs there, right from our app. Both platforms give you data on where your leads came from—so you know what’s bringing in money.
Final Thoughts
Markate and HighLevel each aim to help different parts of your business. Markate is focused on job tracking, invoicing, and keeping things simple for people in the field. It’s easy to get started, works well on mobile, and is priced right for smaller shops. HighLevel is more for marketing-heavy businesses or those working with an agency. It helps you grow your reach, track leads, and set up full sales funnels. The choice depends on how you run your business today and what you’re planning for tomorrow.
Whichever you choose, YacDaddy is ready to connect you
