Stairkey vs Housecall Pro
Housecall Pro wins for US home-service companies that want built-in payments (rates as low as 2.59%), marketing and review tools, and a mature dispatch workflow. Stairkey wins if you want the books built in — real double-entry with native HST/GST — at a flat capped price, especially in Canada.
Housecall Pro is one of the strongest US home-services platforms: scheduling, dispatch, built-in card processing at competitive rates, review management, and marketing automation. Like Jobber and Workiz, it stops at the ops layer — the ledger lives in QuickBooks, synced from the Essentials tier up. Stairkey's trade is narrower ops polish for a native ledger and a hard price cap.
Bias declared: this page is written by the Stairkey team. Housecall Pro's numbers below match its published pricing at our last verification, and the concession section is specific about where it's simply ahead of us.
At a glance
| Housecall Pro | Stairkey | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $79/mo (Basic, monthly) or $59/mo billed annually, 1 user | $20/mo, capped at $100 |
| Built-in accounting | No — QuickBooks sync (Essentials tier+) | Yes — native double-entry GL (+$20/mo add-on) |
| Sales tax (HST/GST) | Line-item, US-oriented | Native HST/GST, year-end package |
| Payments processing | Built-in — rates as low as 2.59% | Via Stripe — no in-house processor |
| Marketing & reviews | Yes — strong US toolset | No |
| Estimating & takeoff | Estimates | Line items OR measured takeoff + approvals |
| Scheduling & dispatch | Yes — mature | Yes — calendar, tasks, crew portal |
| AI features | Marketing/automation features | Photo/voice → tasks, workspace AI |
| Real estate / deal module | No | Yes — buying, listing, deal P&L |
| Best for | US home-service companies | Small contractors wanting one tool, books included |
Who each one is for
you're a US home-service business (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, cleaning) that wants built-in payments at posted rates, review and marketing automation, and a mature dispatch board — and you'll run QuickBooks alongside it (sync starts on the Essentials tier at $149/mo annual).
you want the whole loop — estimate, schedule, invoice, and real double-entry books with native HST/GST — in one capped-price workspace, and payments through Stripe are acceptable instead of an in-house processor.
Pricing
Prices verified July 2, 2026. Quote-gated vendors change pricing without notice — confirm before you buy.
Essentials $149/mo annual ($189 monthly, up to 5 users) is where QuickBooks sync starts; MAX $299/mo annual. Add QuickBooks itself for the books.
Accounting add-on +$20/mo (=$40/mo); usage capped at $100/mo. First month free, no credit card.
Where the others win
Housecall Pro is ahead of us in real ways: built-in payment processing with posted rates as low as 2.59% (Stairkey takes cards through Stripe, with Stripe's standard pricing); a serious US marketing stack — review generation, postcards, email automation — that we don't have at all; an optional bookkeeping service; and years of scale in US home services with a large support and content ecosystem. Its dispatch workflow is deeper than ours for multi-tech shops. Stairkey is newer and smaller, has no telephony/SMS, no payroll (contractor tax slips and year-end only), and is strongest on Canadian HST/GST rather than multi-state US sales tax. If US-market payments and marketing are your priorities, Housecall Pro is the better buy.
Common questions
Which is cheaper in practice?
Stairkey: $20/mo core (accounting +$20/mo, capped at $100/mo total) versus Housecall Pro from $59–$79/mo for one user plus QuickBooks (from $38/mo) for the books — roughly $97–$117/mo before add-ons. The honest caveat: Housecall Pro's built-in payments and marketing tools may earn their cost back for a US shop that uses them hard.
Does Housecall Pro work in Canada?
It has Canadian customers, but its tax handling, payments rates, and marketing tools are built US-first. Stairkey is built North-America-wide with native HST/GST, Canadian year-end workflows, and contractor tax slips — that's our strongest differentiator for Canadian trades.
Can Stairkey do dispatch like Housecall Pro?
Stairkey covers scheduling, task assignment, and a phone-first crew portal with offline caching, which is enough for small crews. A high-volume multi-technician dispatch board with live tech tracking is Housecall Pro's territory — we don't claim parity there.