SimPro is one of the most powerful field service management platforms available for UK trades businesses. It serves over 9,000 businesses and 250,000 users globally, has deep job costing capabilities, and is trusted by complex commercial operations with 20+ staff. If you’re running a multi-trade business with detailed quoting, inventory management, and asset tracking needs, SimPro’s feature breadth is hard to argue with.
But SimPro doesn’t publish its pricing, locks customers into multi-year contracts with built-in annual price escalations of 8–12%, and charges thousands upfront for onboarding. For a growing number of UK businesses, those commercial realities are prompting a different question: what would a custom-built application actually cost, and what could it do instead?
This is an honest comparison of both options.
What SimPro Actually Costs
SimPro’s pricing page shows only a “Request Pricing” button. Every quote is customised. This opacity is itself informative — among major field service platforms, SimPro is the only one that doesn’t publish its prices at all.
Third-party estimates and user reports provide a clearer picture. For a business with 5–10 users, expect £300–£600 per month in licensing alone. Implementation and training typically add £1,000–£5,000 for smaller businesses and £10,000–£50,000+ for larger ones. One forum contributor referenced trying to recover “the 10K” after a failed implementation. A business with 8 technicians “might spend over $10,000 in the first few months” before the system is fully operational.
Add-ons compound the cost further. Maintenance Planner, Digital Forms, Takeoffs, GPS fleet tracking (Simtrac), SMS messaging, and BI Reporting all cost extra on top of the base subscription. Multiple Capterra reviewers confirmed: “additional forms you may require are an additional cost, along with most of the features.”
Then there are the contracts. Recent reviews — particularly from 2024 and 2025 — consistently report SimPro offering 3 or 5-year lock-in contracts with an annual price escalation of 8% (CPI + 5%) as the “favourable” option, or 12% per year without a long-term commitment. One Australian reviewer described this directly as monopolistic behaviour, linking it to SimPro’s acquisition of competitor AroFlo — now part of the same Simpro Group that also owns BigChange. Early exit from a SimPro contract is expensive: one UK Trustpilot reviewer paid £5,000 to exit after half a day of implementation when the software proved unsuitable.
A £500/month SimPro subscription with 8% annual increases becomes approximately £680/month within five years and £735/month within six. Over five years, that’s over £36,000 in licensing — before training, add-ons, or implementation.
What a Custom App Costs — and What You Own
A custom business application for a trades or field service business of five to twenty people typically costs from £10,000 to build, with a monthly maintenance retainer of £200–£400. No per-seat fees. No annual escalators. No features gated behind add-on pricing. No lock-in contracts.
For a business currently spending £500/month on SimPro, the five-year subscription cost alone approaches £36,000 with compounding increases. A custom build starting from £10,000 with a maintenance retainer of £200–£400/month compares favourably over the same period — but delivers a system built precisely for your workflow, owned outright, with no renewal risk and no exit fees. Research from Retool found that 35% of businesses have already replaced at least one SaaS tool with a custom build, with the economics being the primary driver.
Features: Where SimPro Excels
SimPro’s core strengths are genuine and well-documented:
- Job costing depth — real-time cost tracking, cost centres, estimated-versus-actual comparisons across service, project, and maintenance workflows
- Quoting — multi-option quotes, digital signatures, vendor catalogue syncing for live material pricing, variation management, and online customer acceptance
- Inventory management — real-time stock tracking across warehouses and service vehicles, purchase orders generated from jobs, and supplier catalogue imports
- End-to-end workflow — from lead through to invoice with strong accounting integrations (Xero, QuickBooks, MYOB)
- Asset management — creation, QR/barcode scanning, service history, and failure-point tracking
For a 20–50 person commercial trade business with complex jobs, multiple cost centres, and detailed quoting requirements, SimPro’s depth can deliver genuine operational value.
Features: Where SimPro Falls Short
SimPro’s limitations are also well-documented. The platform is consistently described by users as rigid — “you must do it their way, or it’s the highway.” Quote form flexibility is limited. Revising an invoice requires deleting it entirely and sending a new one. The purchase order system demands exact serial numbers and prices for every component, which is impractical for businesses sourcing from variable-price suppliers like Screwfix or Amazon.
The mobile app is the platform’s weakest link. It is “clunky,” reported to freeze or crash daily, and requires a full reinstall after every update — regularly losing field data in the process. One Irish reviewer noted SimPro “syncs with literally no sales, marketing or customer service tool — HubSpot? No chance. Salesforce? Nope.” Everything requires Zapier bridges.
On Trustpilot, SimPro holds a 2.2 out of 5 with 84% of reviews rated one star. The platform’s unclaimed Trustpilot profile suggests they don’t actively manage it. A SimPro trainer reportedly told one customer that “the sales team had been promising things left right and centre that they can’t deliver.”
Features: What a Custom App Delivers Instead
The fundamental difference between SimPro and a custom application is the direction of adaptation. With SimPro, your business adapts to the platform. With a custom build, the platform adapts to your business.
When we built a custom portal for Nestflow, a European fintech company managing home equity release deals across four countries, we replaced a Google Sheets-based workflow with an 11-stage deal management pipeline — automated credit checks via API, AI-generated underwriting memos produced in minutes rather than hours, role-based access controls, stage-based permissions, a full audit trail, and GDPR-compliant data handling. No generic platform would have accommodated that workflow. You can read more about that transformation in detail.
For CME Heating, we built a mobile-first application that replaced paper timesheets, van inspection logs, and mileage records with automatically generated weekly records, automated submission reminders, and real-time office visibility. Crucially, the mobile interface was designed specifically for engineers working in the field — not a generic app struggling with patchy signal and photo uploads.
For Luelle Property Group, we built structured job workflows with three-channel notifications, compliance document collection, video upload capability, and a management dashboard — all purpose-built for coordinating contractors across a renovation portfolio.
None of these businesses are locked into a 5-year contract. None will receive an 8% price increase email. And none of their systems require workarounds because the platform doesn’t quite fit. See more examples on our custom business apps page.
The Lock-In and Data Question
SimPro’s T&Cs confirm you own your data — but give SimPro a licence to use it for analytics and improvement purposes. After termination, you have 30 days to export your data. After day 31, SimPro reserves the right to permanently delete everything. One Trustpilot reviewer warned: “They will take your money, roll you into a contract and not let you go even when it’s their system that’s the problem.”
With a custom application, you own the code and the data outright. There is no termination window. There is no vendor with a unilateral right to delete your operational history. Our post on bespoke versus off-the-shelf software covers this distinction in detail.
Which Is Right for Your Business?
SimPro is likely the better choice if:
- You run a 20–50+ person commercial trade operation with complex job costing requirements
- Detailed quoting with vendor catalogue integration is central to your workflow
- You need multi-site inventory management and asset tracking at scale
- You’re comfortable with a 3–5 year contract and annual price escalations
- You have dedicated resource for a multi-month implementation
A custom business app is likely the better choice if:
- You have 5–20 staff and processes that don’t fit a generic platform
- You want to own your software rather than rent it indefinitely
- Multi-year lock-in contracts with built-in price escalators are a concern
- Mobile reliability is critical and current app performance is frustrating your team
- You’ve been told a feature is included, then found out it’s a paid add-on
Our guide on when to replace your SaaS stack with a custom application and our post on the real cost of business app subscriptions can help you work through the numbers for your own situation.
Isn’t it nice when things just work?
Find Out More or Get Started
- See what a custom business app looks like
- Learn about our app development service
- Industries we work with
- Request a quote
- Get in touch to discuss your project
Talk to Webshape Design about building something better →
Frequently Asked Questions
How Much Does SimPro Cost Per Month?
SimPro doesn’t publish its pricing. Third-party estimates suggest £300–£600/month for 5–10 users in licensing alone, plus £1,000–£5,000+ in onboarding costs. Many features require paid add-ons on top of the base subscription. Expect total first-year costs of £15,000–£20,000 for a mid-sized trades business.
Does SimPro Lock You Into a Contract?
Yes. Recent users consistently report being offered 3 or 5-year contracts with annual price escalations of 8–12%. Early exit requires paying the full remaining contract value. One UK user paid £5,000 to exit after half a day when the software proved unsuitable.
Can SimPro Be Customised for My Workflow?
SimPro offers configuration options, but multiple users describe it as fundamentally rigid — you must work within the platform’s structure rather than the other way around. Custom reports require a paid BI Reporting add-on. A custom application is built around your exact process from the ground up.
What Happens to My Data If I Leave SimPro?
You have 30 days after termination to export your data. After that, SimPro reserves the right to permanently delete it. This 30-day window is a significant switching risk for businesses with years of operational data.
How Does a Custom App Compare to SimPro on Cost Over Five Years?
A £500/month SimPro subscription with 8% annual increases totals over £36,000 over five years — before add-ons or implementation. A custom build starting from £10,000 with a maintenance retainer of £200–£400/month compares favourably over the same period, but with no further increases and no lock-in risk.
Is SimPro Right for Small Trades Businesses?
SimPro is primarily designed for larger, more complex operations. Multiple users describe it as “overbuilt” for smaller teams — requiring significant setup time, dedicated resource, and months of implementation before delivering value. For businesses with 5–15 staff, simpler platforms or a custom-built application typically offer better value and faster adoption.
