If you work on your own or with one or two others, you don't need enterprise software. You need something that gets quotes out, invoices paid and your diary straight, without costing a fortune or taking a week to learn.
We've compared five popular options used by UK sole traders and small trade businesses. Yes, Tradeways is one of them, and yes, we make it. We've tried to be fair: each app has things it does better than the others, and the right choice depends on how you work.
Prices checked October 2026 from each provider's website. Prices change, so confirm before you buy.
Quick comparison
| App | Starting price | Pricing model | Free trial | Built in | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YourTradebase | £29/month + VAT | Flat, extra users £15 | 30 days, no card | UK | Simple quoting and invoicing for small teams |
| Powered Now | £28/month + VAT (1 user) | Per user on team plans (£32–£40) | 14 days, no card | UK | Sole traders who want MTD built in |
| Tradify | £34/user/month | Per user (£34–£44) | 14 days, no card | New Zealand | Service trades that need accounting sync |
| Fergus | From about £35/user/month | Per user | Yes | New Zealand | Growing teams with heavy job costing |
| Tradeways | £24/month for 2 staff seats | Tiered, plus optional seat add-ons | No (Tier 1 intro offer £19.20 for 3 months) | UK | Builders who find admin hard, including dyslexic and ADHD tradespeople |
What a sole trader actually needs
Before comparing features, be clear about what matters. For most one- or two-person trade businesses, that's:
- Quotes and invoices from your phone, with your logo and terms.
- Card payments so clients can pay on the spot.
- Payment reminders you can send without rewriting the email.
- A diary you can share with a mate or subbie.
- Expense and receipt tracking, ready for your accountant and Making Tax Digital.
- Something you'll actually use. The best app is the one you open every day.
Everything else is a bonus. Our guide to choosing software for a small trade business goes deeper on this.
YourTradebase
UK-built and long-established, YourTradebase keeps things simple: quotes, job scheduling, invoices and card payments, with Xero and QuickBooks connections. At £29 a month plus £15 per extra user, it's predictable for small teams, and its 30-day trial is the longest here.
Good for: builders who want straightforward quoting and invoicing and already use Xero or QuickBooks. Watch out for: fewer extras such as risk assessments, design tools or marketing features.
Powered Now
Powered Now's Business plan is aimed squarely at sole traders: £28 a month for one user, with quotes, invoices, expenses, a diary and Making Tax Digital for Income Tax built in. That last point matters now that MTD applies to sole traders over £50,000, dropping to £30,000 in April 2027. It also works offline, which is handy in lofts and basements.
Good for: sole traders who want MTD handled without a separate accounting package. Watch out for: features such as automatic chasing, drag-and-drop scheduling and the customer portal sit on the £40-per-user Premium plan.
Tradify
Tradify is one of the best-known names, with strong scheduling, quoting and two-way sync with Xero, Sage and QuickBooks Online. Its pricing is per user: £34 on Lite, £37 on Pro and £44 on Plus, which adds AI tools for bills and writing.
Good for: electricians, plumbers and service trades with several engineers and an accountant on Xero. Watch out for: per-user pricing adds up quickly, and features like progress invoicing, reminders and subcontractor scheduling start on Pro.
Fergus
Fergus, also from New Zealand, is popular with growing trade businesses that want detailed job costing, purchase orders and supplier integrations. Pricing is per user, with UK prices listed from around £35 a month. Check Fergus's UK site for current figures.
Good for: teams running many jobs at once who care about material costs and margins. Watch out for: more than many sole traders need, and the per-user cost grows with your team.
Tradeways
Tradeways is UK-built for micro builders and sole traders, with one big difference: it's designed for people who find admin hard. Speech to text works in the text fields, with about 100 minutes a month on Tier 1 and Tier 2, and the plans include screen tints, a dyslexia-friendly font, a simplified mode and clutter-free screens. Beyond that, it covers quotes and proposals, invoices with Stripe card payments, scheduling, time tracking, expenses, cash-flow forecasting, RAMS and compliance certificate reminders, a client portal and an included accountant seat.
Tier 1 is £24 a month for two staff seats, with an introductory £19.20 a month for the first three months, then £24. Tier 2 is £40 a month. It includes five staff seats and higher limits: 50 live clients, 100 active jobs, 25 GB of storage and 50 contractors, against 20 clients, 20 jobs, 2 GB and 20 contractors on Tier 1. If you only need more staff, a £7.99 a month add-on on Tier 1 raises the staff limit to 5, which is £31.99 a month in total. An unlimited staff add-on is £9.99 a month. Seats are priced by tier and flat add-ons, not per person, so a two-person business pays the Tier 1 price. These are the monthly prices on the Tradeways pricing page.
Good for: builders, renovators and fitters who've bounced off other apps, and anyone dyslexic, ADHD or simply fed up with paperwork. Watch out for: there's no free trial yet (you can book a demo), and direct Xero, QuickBooks and Sage integrations are not available yet. You can export data, including expenses as CSV, for your accountant in the meantime. Design tools sit on a higher tier that is not on sale yet.
Which should you choose?
- Simplest quoting and invoicing: YourTradebase.
- Making Tax Digital built in: Powered Now.
- Service trade with a team on Xero: Tradify.
- Detailed job costing: Fergus.
- Admin is the hardest part of your job: Tradeways.
Whichever you pick, use the trial or demo on a real job, not a test one. You'll know within a week whether it fits.