Looking for a ServiceM8 alternative in the UK?
ServiceM8 charges per job with unlimited users, so for a team of five or more running steady volume it is usually cheaper than Gafferly and hard to beat on price. Where it falls short for UK firms is compliance paperwork: neither CP12 gas safety records nor EICR certificates are named anywhere on its feature or tour pages. If you are a gas or electrical firm issuing certificates, that gap is the whole decision. If you are not, ServiceM8 is a strong product and we would rather say so.
Prices and features below come from ServiceM8's own public pages, checked 2026-08-26. How we compare products.
Entry tier, list prices excluding VAT, assuming 30 jobs per person per month.
- Gafferly
- ServiceM8
Show the numbers behind this chart
| Monthly cost | 1 user | 3 users | 5 users | 10 users |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gafferly | £29 | £87 | £145 | £290 |
| ServiceM8 | £0 | £59 | £59 | £119 |
Entry tier for each product. ServiceM8 is priced by jobs per month rather than by seat, so its figure depends on volume rather than headcount. Feature differences between tiers are a separate question, covered in the table below.
Source: ServiceM8's pricing page. Checked 2026-08-26.
Feature by feature
Checked against each vendor's own feature and documentation pages. Where a vendor advertises a capability without naming it specifically, this table says "not stated" rather than guessing.
| Feature | Gafferly | ServiceM8 |
|---|---|---|
| CP12 gas safety records | Yes | NoNo UK gas certificate is named on the feature or tour pages. |
| EICR certificates | Yes | NoNo UK electrical certificate is named on the feature or tour pages. |
| Custom forms and checklists | YesBuild your own forms and checklists in the form builder. | YesQuestion and answer forms that produce PDF reports. |
| Quotes signed on the customer's phone | Yes | YesClient signature captured for job approval. |
| Xero sync | YesCrew plan and above. | YesAlso integrates with QuickBooks Online. |
| Card payments | Yes | Yes |
| See where the team is | YesFrom the engineer's phone. No tracker is fitted to the van. | YesStaff shown on a map for dispatch. |
| Free trial | 30 daysCard required | 14 days |
| VAT | No VAT added. Gafferly Group Ltd is not currently VAT registered. | Not stated on the pricing page. |
Sources: gafferly.com/features and www.servicem8.com/uk/tour. Checked 2026-08-26.
Where ServiceM8 is the better buy
Unlimited users on every paid plan
ServiceM8's limit is jobs per month, not seats. Add office staff, apprentices and a bookkeeper without the bill moving. On a per-user product like Gafferly each of those people costs another £29 or more every month, which adds up fast past about four people.
It is genuinely cheaper for most teams above four people
On our own comparison, a ten-person firm running around 300 jobs a month pays roughly £119 on ServiceM8 against £290 on Gafferly's entry tier. That is not a small gap and no feature list makes it disappear.
A free plan actually exists
One user and 30 jobs a month costs nothing. If you are a sole trader testing whether software helps at all, that is a better starting point than any trial.
QuickBooks as well as Xero
Gafferly syncs to Xero only. If your accountant is on QuickBooks Online, ServiceM8 connects to it and Gafferly does not.
Where Gafferly is the better buy
CP12 and EICR certificates are built in
Gas and electrical firms issue certificates constantly, and ServiceM8 names neither CP12 nor EICR on its feature or tour pages. You would be building them yourself as custom forms and maintaining them as the standards change.
Thirty days to try it, not fourteen
Two weeks is not long enough to run a real month of work through a new system. Thirty days covers a full billing cycle, which is when you find out whether it actually fits.
No VAT to add
Gafferly Group Ltd is not currently VAT registered, so the price shown is the price paid. If your firm is below the VAT threshold and cannot reclaim it, that is a genuine saving. If you are VAT registered you reclaim it either way and this does not matter.
Your own Stripe account
Card payments land in your bank directly rather than being held and passed on. ServiceM8 takes payments in the app but does not state the merchant arrangement on its tour pages.
Choose ServiceM8 if
- You have more than about four people who need to log in
- Your job volume is steady and predictable
- You do not issue gas or electrical certificates
- Your accounts run on QuickBooks rather than Xero
Choose Gafferly if
- You are a gas or electrical firm issuing CP12s or EICRs
- You run one to four vans
- You want a full month to test it properly
- You are not VAT registered and cannot reclaim VAT
Common questions
Is Gafferly cheaper than ServiceM8?
For one or two users, roughly the same. Above that, no. ServiceM8 charges per job with unlimited users, so a ten-person firm doing around 300 jobs a month pays roughly £119 against £290 on Gafferly's entry tier. Gafferly's case against ServiceM8 is UK certificates and the longer trial, not price.
Does ServiceM8 do CP12 or EICR certificates?
Neither is named on its feature or tour pages as at 26 August 2026. ServiceM8 does have customisable question and answer forms that produce PDF reports, so a certificate could be built by hand, but it is not a supplied, maintained certificate the way it is in Gafferly or Tradify.
Can I move my data from ServiceM8 to Gafferly?
Customers, jobs and history can be brought across. Get in touch before you start and we will tell you honestly what will and will not transfer cleanly rather than promising a perfect migration.