The real cost of per-seat pricing
Every job-management app looks similar on a features page. The number that actually decides what you pay is hiding in the pricing model, not the feature list — and it's the one most comparison pages don't put in front of you.
Two ways to price a crew app
Per seat: the vendor charges per person, every month. Tradify: $47–61 per user. Fergus: a base fee plus roughly $26 per additional timesheet user. Add a apprentice, add a subbie who needs a login — your bill moves.
Flat: one price for the whole crew, however many people that is. FastCrew works this way. So, at a coarser level, does NextMinute — though its flat tiers still step up in price bands as you grow (3–9 users, then 10–14, then custom above that).
What it costs at real headcounts
At 10 staff:
- Tradify Pro: $510/mo ($51 × 10)
- Fergus Professional: ~$309/mo (base + 9 timesheet users)
- NextMinute Tradie Pro: $349/mo (its own flat 10–14 user tier)
- FastCrew Crew: $199/mo — flat, unlimited
That last comparison is the one worth sitting with: NextMinute already prices flat, and FastCrew still beats its equivalent tier by 43% at the same headcount. Against the per-seat vendors, the gap isn't close at all — and it only widens as your crew grows, because their price keeps climbing and ours doesn't.
Why this matters more than a features checklist
A per-seat model quietly punishes growth. Every hire is a pricing decision, not just a staffing one. A flat model means the software cost is decided once, and it stays out of the way while your business scales.
We'd rather compete on that than on who can list more checkboxes on a comparison page.