2026 roundup

The best quoting software for trades in the UK in 2026

We tested the leading UK quoting software for trades on price, features, client experience, and setup time. Here is how the top five shake out for a solo trader or small team.

Most trades still quote in Word or Excel, email a PDF, and chase the client by text for a week. The best quoting software for trades in the UK replaces that with a one-link quote the client can accept in a tap - and gives you a record of when they opened it. The five tools below are the ones we rate in 2026 for UK trades.

How we picked

UK-first pricing and compliance

Native GBP, VAT handling, Late Payment Act-compliant terms, and a familiar quote-then-invoice flow. No USD conversion, no US-only tax fields.

Total monthly cost at your team size

Not just headline price - what does it actually cost once you add an apprentice, a second tradesperson, or an office admin? Per-user pricing stacks up fast.

Client-facing experience

Does the client get a branded portal to view, accept, and pay - or a PDF they have to dig out of their inbox? The former closes jobs faster and stops chase-up phone tag.

CMA

Our pick

Flat £49/month, client portal built in, UK-first from day one.

Strengths

Single flat price (£49/month) covers the whole business - unlimited users, unlimited quotes, unlimited clients.
Branded client portal included: clients view, accept, and pay quotes without emailing you back.
UK VAT, GBP, Late Payment Act terms, Xero sync - nothing to reconfigure.
Sign up and send your first quote inside 2 minutes, no sales call needed.

Trade-offs

Newer product than Tradify or Powered Now - smaller review count to point to yet.
No mobile app today (mobile web works well, native app is on the 2026 roadmap).

Pricing: £49/month flat - 14-day free trial, no credit card needed.

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Tradify

Polished, feature-rich, but priced per user.

Strengths

Mature product with a deep feature set for job management beyond quoting.
Strong mobile apps for iOS and Android.
Xero, QuickBooks, and MYOB integrations.

Trade-offs

Priced around £34/month per user - a two-person team already costs more than a CMA flat subscription.
Client communication is PDF-first - no built-in client portal for self-service quote acceptance.
New Zealand-built, so UK-specific workflows (VAT flat-rate, CIS) need manual setup.

Pricing: From ~£34/month per user - free trial available.

Read the full Tradify comparison →

Powered Now

UK-built, strong on mobile and VAT, but tiered.

Strengths

UK company - VAT, CIS, and MTD handling is tight out of the box.
Very strong native mobile experience for on-site quoting.
Good scheduling and forms features bundled in.

Trade-offs

Tiered pricing with feature paywalls - the client portal and online acceptance sit on higher plans.
Pricing also scales with user count on most tiers.
UI can feel dense for a single-tradesperson business that just wants to send a quote.

Pricing: Tiered from around £18/month - client portal is a premium-tier feature.

Read the full Powered Now comparison →

YourTradebase

Clean UX, solo-trader focus, limited client portal.

Strengths

One of the simplest UIs on this list - quote-heavy tradespeople get up and running fast.
UK-built with VAT and Stripe/GoCardless baked in.
Reasonable single-user price point.

Trade-offs

Client-facing experience is PDF + web-quote view - no full branded portal with messaging, files, and payment history.
Team plans add per-user cost.
Less active product development in recent years than the top two.

Pricing: From around £29/month single user - team seats extra.

Read the full YourTradebase comparison →

Workever

Field-service heavy - more than a quoting tool for most trades.

Strengths

Dispatch, route planning, and technician scheduling are first-class.
Customer portal, signatures, and Stripe payments are included.
Good fit for trades with a fleet or dispatch operation.

Trade-offs

Field-service-first product - the quoting workflow is buried inside a much larger tool.
Overkill and pricier than needed for a solo trader or small team whose primary pain point is quotes.
Longer onboarding - expect a demo call and setup time before you send your first quote.

Pricing: Per-user pricing with setup requirements - sales-led rather than self-service.

Read the full Workever comparison →

Frequently asked questions

What is the best quoting software for trades in the UK?

The five credible options for UK trades in 2026 are CMA, Tradify, Powered Now, YourTradebase, and Workever. The best fit depends on team size and pricing-model preference - CMA at £49/month flat covers unlimited users and is the lowest-total-cost option for 2+ trades; Tradify at ~£34/user/month suits permanent solo traders; Powered Now is UK-built and strong on mobile but uses tiered pricing; YourTradebase has the simplest UI; Workever is field-service-heavy and best for 5+ engineer dispatch operations. The ranked comparison below covers all five against shared criteria.

What should I look for in quoting software for a UK trade business?

Start with UK-first pricing, VAT handling, and Stripe or GoCardless payment support. Then weigh the client-facing experience - a branded portal where the client can view, accept, and pay beats sending a PDF every time. Finally, check what the total monthly cost looks like once you add a second person: per-user pricing can double your bill overnight, while a flat-fee tool stays at one number regardless of team size.

Is free quoting software any good?

Free tools are fine for a one-off quote. For a running trade business they usually lack VAT handling, an accept-online flow, a client record, and any audit trail of who saw what and when. The £29-£49/month a paid tool costs pays itself back the first time a client "never received" the quote and you can prove the link was opened on a Tuesday at 4:17pm.

Can I just use Word or Excel?

You can, and many tradespeople still do. The hidden cost is time: rebuilding a template each job, manually VAT-ing every line, emailing a PDF the client opens once and loses, then chasing by text for a week. Modern quoting software sends a branded, one-link quote the client can accept in a tap, records when they viewed it, and rolls straight into an invoice once approved. Most tradespeople recoup the monthly fee in the first week from time saved on chase-up calls.

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