An honest comparison, including where the others are stronger. In short: if you mostly do quick call-outs, use a job app made for trades. If you run building jobs that last weeks or months, costin is made for you — and costs a lot less for a team.
There are some well-made, popular job apps for electricians, plumbers and other trades. They're built around lots of shorter jobs; costin is built around fewer, longer building jobs.
| costin | A typical trade job app | |
|---|---|---|
| Made for | Building firms: extensions, lofts, refurbs | Trades doing many shorter jobs: electrical, plumbing, heating, maintenance |
| How it's priced | One price for the firm: £25 for 1 login, £30 for up to 3, then £10 a login | Per person, often £30–45 a user a month |
| 5 logins, a month | £50 | Often £150–225 |
| 10 logins, a month | £100 | Often £300–450 |
| Reading supplier bills, purchase orders | Included | Sometimes only on the dearest plan |
| Customers pay invoices by card online | Not yet | Usually yes |
| Scheduling and calendar | Not yet — on the way | Usually yes |
| App Store and Google Play apps | No — installs to your home screen from the browser | Usually yes |
Based on the published prices of popular UK trade job apps, October 2026. Check any app's own price list, as prices change and VAT is often added. costin has no VAT to add.
Whatever you use now, these are worth asking about. They're the reasons costin exists.
If it suits you, stay with it. But if you’re paying for every person who logs in, can’t see which part of a job the money went on, or do CIS and the reverse charge somewhere else, try costin on your next job. We’ll bring your customers and price list across from a spreadsheet export.
Spreadsheets are free and you already know them. But they don't email a quote, read a supplier invoice, warn you a subbie's insurance has run out or tell you a job's going over while there's time to act. Most building firms run on spreadsheets, WhatsApp and a diary — and we'll bring your spreadsheets in for you.