Markate vs ServiceTitan: What’s the Best CRM for Home Service Businesses?
When it comes to running a home service business, choosing the right software matters a lot. Whether you’re a small team or a big operation, having the right tools can help you work smarter and stay organized. Today, we’ll walk through two big names in home service software: Markate and ServiceTitan.
Both Markate and ServiceTitan help with job scheduling, client management, and keeping your team on track. But they serve different types of businesses. While Markate is simple and affordable for smaller operations, ServiceTitan is packed with tools that work better for large teams and companies that offer many types of services. Let’s break it down so you can see which one fits your company better.
Getting Started: Setup and Support
One of the first steps in choosing a software is figuring out how long it takes to get going. Markate has a fast setup process. You can get started in about 10 minutes, and they offer a 14-day free trial. There’s no credit card required to try it, making it easy to just dive in and see how it works. Markate also promises to move your data over from another system smoothly in 1 to 3 business days.
ServiceTitan, on the other hand, takes longer to set up. That’s because it has more features and tools packed into the system. While they do offer support to help with setup, you’ll need to work with their team to start using the platform. There isn’t a free trial listed on their site. You usually have to contact them for a demonstration and pricing.
In terms of support, Markate is available Monday to Friday, from 9 AM to 5 PM MST. Their support is based in the United States and can assist via chat, phone, or email. It’s direct and personal, which is good for smaller businesses who need a helping hand.
ServiceTitan goes big with their support system. They offer training help, a learning system called Titan Advisor, and access to webinars, forums, and a massive help library. This is useful for big companies with a full office team who can take time to explore new tools and settings.
Who These Platforms Are Built For
Markate is made for small to medium home service businesses. It’s great if you’re just starting out or if you have a small team. It’s simple to use and doesn’t require special training. You can manage all your jobs, communication, and billing in one place. The pricing is also budget-friendly for smaller shops. Many plumbing, cleaning, and handyman companies use it.
ServiceTitan, however, is best for larger companies that have five or more employees. It’s made for businesses that want to manage detailed employee tasks, inventory, customer financing, and large-scale commercial jobs. It works well for HVAC, plumbing, pest control, and even big electrical firms. If your company has a back office team and field techs who work on large projects, ServiceTitan has the power to manage all of that.
Keeping Track of Jobs and Teams
Markate keeps job management simple and clear. You can set jobs on a calendar and move them around easily with a drag-and-drop tool. If you need to reschedule, it only takes a few clicks. Technicians get alerts via text or email, and you can track photos, electronic signatures, and job checklists.
The jobs management tool also supports repeated work and organizing photos, checklists, and payments. It’s a perfect balance for small teams where the business owner might also be the one doing the work.
ServiceTitan offers job tracking with even more depth. It lets larger teams assign jobs, track payroll, and manage field reports automatically. Every part of a job, from scheduling to payment, is recorded. It also allows for job costing, which means you can break down how much profit you’re making on each project. Fleet tracking and commercial project tools make it great for bigger crews on the move.
Mobile Apps and On-the-go Business
Both Markate and ServiceTitan come with mobile apps that keep your team connected outside the office. For Markate, the app lets users set up estimates, track workers, talk with clients, and take payments. It also works offline and supports time tracking and GPS location tools. Smaller teams benefit a lot from being able to manage customer communication straight from their phones.
ServiceTitan’s mobile app is heavier, but also more powerful. It gives field techs access to everything from inventory levels to photo uploads and project notes. The app is designed to work at the same scale as the desktop version. If your techs need to see deep customer histories or upload reports fast, the ServiceTitan app can give them that control.
Customer Communication and Scheduling
Markate offers 24/7 online booking tools. Customers can go to your website, request a time, and even pay upfront. They also get automatic reminders via SMS and email. The system makes it easy for customers to leave reviews after jobs are done, and it supports drip campaigns to follow up by email or text.
You can also use add-ons like “Customer Finder 360” to send out promotions, review requests, or ringless voicemails. All of these tools help businesses stay in touch with new and existing customers without having to send messages manually.
ServiceTitan also has customer tools, but on a more advanced level. It offers call booking software which tracks where the call came from and what marketing caused it. You can listen to calls and even convert them into jobs. That way, if an office person books a job over the phone, everything from that call can be saved to a customer profile. It also offers customer financing inside the app, so customers can break up big payments into smaller ones.
Reporting and Analytics
With Markate, you have access to dashboards where you can see your profits and expenses all in one place. It shows key numbers like which employees close the most jobs or where most of your sales are coming from. For smaller companies, this gives clear goal tracking without feeling too complex.
Markate has a business performance tracker included with its pricing. It also has lead conversion and sales pipeline tracking. For just $10/month as an add-on, you get lead notifications, contact forms, and email tracking tools.
ServiceTitan’s reporting tools are deeper. Their “Titan Intelligence” system helps big teams analyze customer behavior, technician performance, and marketing data. The system breaks down everything, even phone call recordings, into trends and ideas your company can act on. It’s a powerful tool if you’re ready to look at data to grow your company.
Marketing Tools and Automation
With Markate, you get solid marketing tools at a smaller price. They offer tools like email blasts, SMS campaigns, postcard delivery, and ringless voicemail drops starting at just a few dollars. Everything is pay-as-you-go, so you can decide what to use based on your budget.
Markate also helps you send automatic emails to customers after services are done. This way, reviews and feedback can come in smoothly. Their $10/month review automation tool links with platforms like NiceJob.com so you can gain more online reviews without asking each customer by hand.
ServiceTitan has built-in marketing automation tools too. It manages service reminders, email marketing, and helps you run Local Services Ads. One major marketing tool they offer is pricebook management. This lets businesses create fixed prices that techs can use in the field to quote jobs with full confidence. Sales tracking tools help you see which services are working best.
Payment and Financing Features
Markate accepts many forms of payment directly in the app, including online payments and ACH transfers. Everything is built to be easy for both the business and the customer. One awesome feature is that Markate allows you to offer financing to customers. This can help you upsell big jobs like full system replacements or long-term contracts, and get paid faster.
Invoicing tools include automated reminders to collect payment, recurring billing, and full integration with QuickBooks. If you’re a one-person shop or managing a couple of crews, these tools make getting paid simple and fast.
ServiceTitan also supports instant payments, email billing, and customer financing. But their system goes further by tying payments back to inventory and job data. You can track order numbers, delivery dates, and due dates, all inside the platform.
Pricing: Simple or Custom?
Markate has simple, visible pricing. If you’re a solo owner, it costs $49.95/month. For teams, you pay $39.95/month plus $35.95 per extra employee. They also offer a bunch of add-ons – like job costing, lead management, proposals, or automation – each for $10/month. This keeps your spending in control because you only pay for what you use.
ServiceTitan doesn’t share pricing on their website. You have to contact their team to learn more, since the platform is highly customized to fit your business. While this makes it flexible for large businesses, it also means smaller companies might find the cost too high or the process too slow.
Integrations with YacDaddy
If you’re already using YacDaddy, good news – we work well with both platforms! With Markate, whenever you create a new job, it pre-fills project info in the YacDaddy app automatically. New leads from your site or Facebook go straight into the system without needing to copy and paste. We also track all your calls and show you how much money each job brought in.
For ServiceTitan, our integration includes call system syncing and photo imports. When you close a job, photo content posts without extra uploading. YacDaddy uses your call trans
