If you need to run a whole business — quoting, booking, invoicing, getting paid — Jobber is the strongest solo-tier buy, with Housecall Pro close behind. If you want free and don't mind a cloud account, Kickserv has a genuinely free plan, not a trial. If you only do a couple of visits a month, a spreadsheet is honestly fine. And if you already handle your own invoicing and just need a defensible, timestamped record of what you did on-site — including in basements with zero signal — Field Stub is the one-time-purchase documentation tool the rest of the category doesn't offer.
Most of this site is about passing CompTIA exams. But a lot of A+ holders don't land in a help desk seat — they go into break/fix work, MSP field roles, or hang out their own shingle as a solo IT contractor. Once you're actually driving to client sites, a new problem shows up that no exam covered: how do you document what you did? When a client questions an invoice three weeks later, "I was there for about two hours, I think" is not a record. This page compares the tools for that job. If you're still on the certification path, start with our CompTIA certification roadmap and come back when the client visits start.
Here's the thing nobody selling "field service software" will tell you: almost all of it is built for companies, not for you. The big platforms are designed around crews and dispatchers — scheduling boards, dispatch queues, routing multiple techs, customer booking portals, payment pipelines. That's real value if you have employees. If you're one person who needs a defensible record of what happened on-site, most of it is overhead you'll never touch, billed monthly forever. The category is full of business-management platforms and nearly empty of simple documentation tools. That gap shapes every recommendation below.
What actually matters when you're logging visits solo
Every option here can record that a visit happened. The differences that matter when an invoice gets disputed — or when you're standing in a server closet with no bars — come down to six things:
Defensible timestamps
A start/stop time captured at the moment of service beats one typed in from memory on Friday night. If a client disputes hours, the record's credibility is the whole game.
Proof you were there
GPS capture and photos taken on-site turn "trust me" into evidence. Not every job needs it; the one that ends in a dispute will.
Offline reliability
IT field work happens in basements, server closets, and rural sites — exactly where coverage dies. An app with view-only offline access means reconstructing the visit from memory later.
A client-ready record
Can you hand the client something professional — a clean PDF or invoice line items — or does your documentation live in a format only you can read?
Cost model
Subscriptions compound. $29-79/month is $348-948 a year, every year, whether you did four visits or forty. A one-time purchase or a free tier changes that math completely.
Where your client data lives
Visit logs contain client network details, passwords hints, photos of their infrastructure. On a vendor's cloud, that's their security posture protecting your clients. On your device, it's yours.
The honest breakdown
Jobber
Best for: actually running the business — quote, schedule, invoice, get paid
Jobber's Core plan has a real solo-operator tier: $39/month billed monthly, or $29/month billed annually, as of 2026. For that you get the full cycle — quoting, scheduling, invoicing, and payment collection — in one place. If clients book you, you send quotes, and you want invoices and payments handled inside one system, this is the strongest buy in the category, and it's the one we'd point most full-time solo operators toward.
Trade-offs: it's a subscription forever — $348-468 a year at current prices. The Core tier also lacks QuickBooks integration and GPS features, so if you need those you're climbing the pricing ladder. And most of the platform is business machinery; if all you wanted was documentation, you're paying monthly for a lot you won't use.
Housecall Pro
Best for: the same all-in-one job as Jobber, with a slightly different flavor
Housecall Pro's Basic plan is $79/month billed monthly or $59/month billed annually for one user, as of 2026, covering scheduling, dispatch, invoicing, and payment processing. It's a mature, polished platform, and if its workflow fits how you work it's a perfectly good pick for the same reader Jobber serves.
Trade-offs: pricier than Jobber at entry, and the Basic tier excludes QuickBooks sync and GPS — in practice, most users who stick with it end up on Essentials at roughly $149-189/month. That's around $1,800-2,300 a year for a one-person shop. Worth it if you're using the whole platform; painful if you mostly needed a record of your visits.
Kickserv
Best for: free — genuinely free, not a trial — if you're fine with a cloud account
Kickserv is the real budget option in this category, and that deserves to be said plainly: its free plan is permanent, supports up to 2 users, and includes estimates, jobs, invoices, a CRM, and a mobile app. A solo tech can run their whole operation on it without paying a dollar. The catch on the free tier is that it requires setting up online payments. Paid Lite tiers start around $47-60/month as of 2026 if you outgrow it.
Trade-offs: it's a cloud CRM, so you're creating an account and your client data lives on their servers — a real consideration when your job notes describe client networks. Users also report offline sync can be occasionally slow, which matters if your work takes you into low-coverage buildings. Free has a cost; here it's mostly architectural, not financial.
A spreadsheet or notes app
Best for: 2-3 visits a month — and we mean that sincerely
Free, already on your phone, zero learning curve, and your data is wherever you put it. If you're doing a couple of side jobs a month, a well-kept spreadsheet with date, client, time in/out, work performed, and parts used is genuinely adequate, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. Start here. Move on when the volume or the stakes make you.
Where it breaks down: nothing about it is defensible. There are no timestamps you can stand behind, no photo or location proof, no professional PDF to send the client — and because nothing forces you to fill it in on-site, you will eventually fill it in from memory days later, which is exactly the record that falls apart in a dispute.
ServiceTitan and other enterprise FSM platforms
Best for: dispatched crews — included here only to mark the boundary
ServiceTitan and its enterprise peers run roughly $245-500 per technician per month as of 2026. They exist for companies dispatching crews: call centers, capacity planning, fleet management, marketing attribution. They are genuinely good at that job.
The point for you: that job isn't yours. No solo contractor should be evaluating this tier — it's listed so you know where the category's ceiling is and can recognize when a "field service software" roundup is talking about a different universe than the one you work in.
Field Stub: Visit Log
Best for: a defensible offline record when you already handle your own invoicing
Field Stub is the documentation-only tool the rest of this category doesn't offer — built by a working IT tech for solo operators, not an enterprise suite scaled down. The workflow is the job and nothing else: start a visit (automatic timestamp and GPS), add notes, photos, voice memos with on-device transcription, and parts used, end the visit, and it computes time × rate + parts into a billable total you export as a professional PDF. It's local-first — everything lives on the device, with no account, no login, no cloud sync, and no servers. The App Store privacy label is "Data Not Collected," and GPS, photos, and transcription all stay local. That matters more in IT than in most trades: your visit notes describe client networks, and with Field Stub that information never leaves your phone. It's also why it keeps working at full capability in a basement or server closet with zero signal. The free tier covers up to 5 clients with CSV export; Pro is a one-time $39 — not a subscription — unlocking unlimited clients, PDF export, and voice transcription, with Family Sharing enabled.
Where it loses, plainly: it does not invoice or process payments — it produces a PDF you attach to an invoice you create elsewhere. There's no scheduling, dispatch, or team anything. No iCloud or multi-device sync: one device holds your data. Mileage is a straight-line (haversine) distance caption, not road distance, so it's not true auto-mileage. No QuickBooks or accounting integration. And it's iOS only — iPhone and iPad on iOS 17+, no Android, no web. If any of those are dealbreakers, Jobber or Kickserv above is your answer.
Get Field Stub on the App Store — free up to 5 clients →The comparison at a glance
Scroll sideways to see all columns. Prices as of 2026 — all of them change; verify before buying.
| App | Best for | Price | Offline | Invoicing | Data location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jobber | Running the whole business solo | $39/mo ($29/mo annual) | Limited — cloud-first | Yes, full cycle + payments | Jobber's cloud (account required) |
| Housecall Pro | Same all-in-one job, different flavor | $79/mo ($59/mo annual) | Limited — cloud-first | Yes, full cycle + payments | Housecall Pro's cloud (account required) |
| Kickserv | Free tier that's actually free | Free (2 users) Lite ~$47-60/mo | Sync reported occasionally slow | Yes, incl. on free plan | Kickserv's cloud (account required) |
| Spreadsheet / notes | 2-3 visits a month | Free | Yes (it's just a file) | No | Wherever you keep it |
| ServiceTitan / enterprise FSM | Dispatched crews — not solo operators | ~$245-500/tech/mo | Varies by product | Yes, full pipeline | Vendor cloud |
| Field Stub | Defensible offline visit records | Free (5 clients) Pro $39 once | Fully offline — local-first | No — exports PDF for your invoice | Your device only, no account |
Which one should you pick?
If you need to run the whole business
Choose Jobber — the $29-39/month Core tier covers quote → schedule → invoice → payment, which is the actual job of a full-time solo operation. Housecall Pro does the same job well if you prefer its workflow, at a higher entry price.
If you want free and don't mind a cloud account
Choose Kickserv's free tier. It's permanent, not a trial, and includes estimates, jobs, invoices, and a CRM for up to 2 users. Accept that your client data lives on their servers and offline sync can lag.
If you only do a couple of visits a month
Use a spreadsheet. Seriously. Revisit this page when the volume grows or the first invoice dispute makes you wish you had timestamps.
If you need a defensible offline record and already handle invoicing
Choose Field Stub. One-time $39 instead of $348-468 every year, full capability with zero signal, and client data that never leaves your device. Accept that it documents visits — it won't invoice, schedule, or sync across devices, and it's iOS only.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need field service management software as a one-person IT business?
Usually not all of it. FSM platforms are built around crews and dispatchers — scheduling boards, dispatch, routing, team permissions — which is overhead a solo operator never uses. What you actually need is a defensible record of each visit: when you arrived, what you did, proof you were there, and what it cost. Reach for a full platform like Jobber or Housecall Pro when you also want quoting, booking, invoicing, and payments in one system.
What should a visit log include to be defensible in a billing dispute?
A timestamp created at the time of service (not reconstructed later), some proof of presence such as GPS or photos taken on-site, notes describing the work, parts used, and the resulting time-and-materials total. Records filled in days later from memory are much weaker when a client questions an invoice. This is the main reason a dedicated tool beats a spreadsheet once real money is involved — apps like Field Stub capture the timestamp and GPS automatically when you start the visit, so the record exists before you could forget anything.
Is there a free way to track IT service visits?
Yes, three of them. Kickserv's free plan is permanent (up to 2 users, with estimates, jobs, invoices, and CRM), though it requires an account and setting up online payments. A spreadsheet is free and fine at 2-3 visits a month. And Field Stub's free tier handles up to 5 clients with CSV export, no account required. Prices and plan details are as of 2026 and change — verify before committing.
Jobber vs Housecall Pro for a solo IT contractor — which is better?
They're comparable all-in-one platforms. As of 2026, Jobber Core is $39/month billed monthly ($29/month annually) versus Housecall Pro Basic at $79/month ($59/month annually), so Jobber is cheaper at entry. Both entry tiers exclude QuickBooks integration and GPS, and many Housecall Pro users end up on Essentials at roughly $149-189/month. If you need the full quote-to-payment cycle, start with Jobber; confirm current pricing either way.
Can I just use a spreadsheet to log client visits?
At low volume, yes — 2-3 visits a month, a spreadsheet or notes app is genuinely fine and costs nothing. The structural weaknesses: no timestamps you can defend, no photo or location proof, no professional PDF for the client, and nothing stops you from filling it in from memory days later, which is exactly the record that falls apart in a dispute.
Why does offline support matter for visit logging?
Because IT field work concentrates where coverage is worst — basements, server closets, mechanical rooms, rural sites. Cloud-first apps with view-only or limited offline modes can leave you unable to create the record at the moment of service, so you reconstruct it from memory later. Of the options here, only a local file (a spreadsheet) and Field Stub, which is fully local-first with no server at all, work at full capability with zero signal.
Where does my client data live with each of these apps?
Jobber, Housecall Pro, and Kickserv are cloud platforms: your visit notes, client contacts, and job photos live on the vendor's servers under your account. A spreadsheet lives wherever you keep it. Field Stub is on-device only — no account, no cloud, no servers, with an App Store privacy label of "Data Not Collected." For an IT contractor whose notes describe client networks, where that data sits is a professional consideration, not just a privacy preference.
Field Stub: Visit Log — built by a working IT tech
Timestamped, GPS-stamped visit records that work with zero signal. Free up to 5 clients · Pro is $39 once, not a subscription.
Disclosure: this guide is published by IT Study Hub, which is run by Fogarty Holdings, the maker of Field Stub. We have kept the comparison honest and point to other apps wherever they fit better — if you need invoicing, scheduling, or Android, the other tools on this page are the right call. Pricing and features change, so confirm current details with each vendor before buying.