Search for free HVAC software and you mostly find free trials. Most HVAC platforms are built for service companies with a dispatcher and several technicians, and they are priced that way: per technician, by team size, or by quote. If you run a small HVAC shop, an owner and a few techs doing service calls and installs, you need fewer of those features and you feel every monthly fee.
This guide covers the free options that exist, the paid HVAC platforms worth knowing, and what each one is built for. Prices were checked October 2026 from vendor sites and pricing guides. Several vendors now quote prices only on request and sources disagree, so check each vendor before you decide.
What an HVAC Shop Needs From Software
- Estimates and bids: equipment, labor and materials priced with your margin, for both installs and repairs
- Change orders: extra work on an install priced the same way and approved before you do it
- Job costing: labor, equipment and materials tracked against the estimate, so you see the margin on each job while it is open
- Invoicing: progress or milestone billing for installs, and time-and-materials billing for service work
- Scheduling and dispatch: who goes where today (for shops running many service calls a day)
- Flat-rate pricing and maintenance agreements: a price book and recurring service plans (common on larger service teams)
- Accounting: getting invoices and costs into QuickBooks without retyping them
Small shops usually need the first four every week. Dispatch boards, flat-rate price books and membership programs matter more as the service side grows, and that is where most of the cost of the bigger platforms goes.
Free Option: PunchProfit
PunchProfit is free: no monthly fee, no per-user fees, no tiers and no credit card. It is built around the job and its margin rather than the dispatch board. For an HVAC shop it covers:
- Estimates with margins set per category (labor, equipment and materials, subcontractors), contingency, and Fixed Price contracts with a payment schedule
- Change orders attached to the estimate; the client answers in a no-login portal and you confirm, and approved change orders update the job value
- Job costing on installs and service work: approved time (priced from each person's cost rate) and expenses against the estimate, with Budget vs. Actual and live margin
- Invoices: time and materials (labor at its billing rate, equipment and materials at cost plus your markup) and milestone invoices for Fixed Price installs
- A schedule of milestones with a Gantt view, daily logs with photos and a punch list on each job
- Team roles for an Owner, project managers and technicians, with time and expense approvals
- QuickBooks Online: send clients, invoices, time and expenses with the Sync buttons (a one-way push)
What PunchProfit does not do: there is no dispatch board, route planning or GPS, no flat-rate price book, no maintenance agreement or membership billing, no online booking, and no card payments on invoices. If your business runs on those, one of the paid platforms below will fit better.
Free Option: ServiceM8 Free Plan
Price: Free plan; paid A$29–A$349/mo. Flat monthly plans by job volume (priced in Australian dollars). Free plan: 1 user, 30 new jobs a month.
Best for: Very small service shops that want job cards, quotes and invoices on a phone and can live within a monthly job cap.
HVAC Software at a Glance
PunchProfit and ServiceM8 have free plans; the rest are paid. Scroll the table sideways to see every option. Where a vendor only quotes on request, the table says so.
| Feature | PunchProfit | ServiceTitan | Housecall Pro | Jobber | ServiceM8 | Service Fusion | FieldEdge | Workiz | Successware |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Custom quote | $79–$329/mo | $49–$699/mo | Free plan; paid A$29–A$349/mo | About $208–$627/mo | Quote only | Quote only | Quote only |
| Free plan | Everything, no user cap | — | — | — | 1 user, 30 new jobs a month | — | — | — | — |
| Pricing model | Free; no per-user fees | Priced per technician | Monthly plans by team size; free trial, no free plan | Monthly plans by team size and features; free trial, no free plan | Flat monthly plans by job volume (priced in Australian dollars) | Flat monthly plans with unlimited users; some add-ons extra | Quoted per company, in tiers that scale with the number of technicians | Quoted plans; phone, texting and payments typically billed on top | Quoted per company |
ServiceTitan
Price: Custom quote. Priced per technician.
Strongest at: Enterprise-grade dispatch, call booking, marketing attribution, and payroll for large residential service operations.
Housecall Pro
Price: $79–$329/mo. Monthly plans by team size; free trial, no free plan.
Strongest at: Strong marketing automation, review management, and franchise/multi-location support for home service businesses.
Jobber
Price: $49–$699/mo. Monthly plans by team size and features; free trial, no free plan.
Strongest at: GPS fleet dispatch and route optimization for large field-service crews.
Service Fusion
Price: About $208–$627/mo. Flat monthly plans with unlimited users; some add-ons extra.
Best for: Growing HVAC service companies with several techs that want one flat price instead of paying per user.
FieldEdge
Price: Quote only (users report about $100–$150 per user a month). Quoted per company, in tiers that scale with the number of technicians.
Best for: Established HVAC and plumbing service companies with several technicians that want dispatch and flat-rate pricing in one system.
Workiz
Price: Quote only (earlier in 2026 it listed plans at about $225–$325 a month). Quoted plans; phone, texting and payments typically billed on top.
Best for: Service businesses that book most work by phone and want calls, scheduling and invoicing together.
Successware
Price: Quote only. Quoted per company.
Best for: Larger residential HVAC, plumbing and electrical service companies with office staff, ready for a quoted, sales-led setup.
HVAC Job Costing and Change-Order Profit
Most HVAC shops know their revenue and very few know their margin per job. Installs are where it goes wrong: equipment prices move, a job takes an extra day, and a change order gets a verbal yes and no price. A few habits keep it visible:
- Price installs from itemized cost (equipment, labor hours at your real cost rate, materials) plus your margin, not from last year's number
- Track labor and equipment against that estimate while the job is open, not after it is invoiced
- Price every change order the same way as the original estimate and get it approved before the work
- Keep service work and installs as separate jobs so a profitable service week doesn't hide a losing install
HVAC Markup vs. Margin
Markup is added to cost; margin is the share of the price you keep. They are not the same number. Margin = markup ÷ (1 + markup), and markup = margin ÷ (1 − margin). For the same job:
- A 25% markup on cost is a 20% margin on the price
- A 33.3% markup on cost is a 25% margin on the price
- A 50% markup on cost is a 33.3% margin on the price
- A 66.7% markup on cost is a 40% margin on the price
- A 100% markup on cost is a 50% margin on the price
Example: equipment and labor cost you $4,000. A 50% markup prices the job at $6,000, and your margin is $2,000 ÷ $6,000 = 33.3%, not 50%. If you need a 30% margin, price at $4,000 ÷ (1 − 0.30) = $5,714.29.
How to Choose
- Count the features you use every week, not the ones on the pricing page
- Ask for the full price in writing: per-user fees, add-ons (phone, texting, payments, GPS) and the renewal price
- If most of your work is installs and small service runs, start with job costing and invoicing; add dispatch software when the service board needs it
- Make sure you can get your data out (exports and accounting sync) before you commit
PunchProfit is free to start, with no credit card or sales call, and there is a sample-data demo at punchprofit.com/sandbox. Build one install estimate with your margins and watch its Budget vs. Actual as time and expenses come in.