ServiceM8 vs the SitesAI App for an earthmoving business

ServiceM8 is the app a lot of earthmoving businesses are already running, usually because it is what the plumber recommended. It is genuinely good, it publishes its prices, and for some readers it is the right answer — so this page will say so plainly.

Figures below come from ServiceM8's Australian pricing page on the date shown.

Two different shapes of business

ServiceM8 is built around the job as a visit: a client rings, you quote, someone attends, the work is done, you invoice, they pay. Many jobs, short cycles, one or two people per job. Its pricing follows that shape exactly — you pay for jobs per month, and users are unlimited on paid plans.

The SitesAI App is built around the job as a contract: you quote a scope, it is accepted, a site exists for weeks or months, crews and machines are rostered onto it, work is recorded against scope lines, variations get approved along the way, and you claim progressively. Fewer jobs, longer cycles, more people and plant per job.

That single difference decides most of the rest.

Where ServiceM8 wins

It invoices and takes payment. Quotes, invoices, card payment in the app, and a sync to your accounting package. We do none of this. If "quote, do the job, get paid" is the whole loop you need closed, ServiceM8 closes it and we do not.

Unlimited users on paid plans. A ten-person crew on the $79 plan costs $79. Our equivalent is $50 a month at ten licences and grows with the crew. For a labour-heavy business doing lots of small jobs, their model is simply cheaper.

Accounting integration. Clients, items, invoices and payments sync. Ours is a manual handover.

SMS to clients, built in. Useful, and often the thing that stops the "what time are you coming" phone calls.

Maturity. Years of polish, a large Australian customer base, and support that knows trades.

Where the SitesAI App wins

The site, not just the job. Sites with geofences, inductions, document requirements, subcontractor grants, tags, crews rostered by shift with accept, reject, reassign and a no-show check. ServiceM8 schedules staff to jobs; it does not model a worksite with other companies on it.

Plant. An asset register with serials, service intervals by machine hours, daily prestarts that raise a triage task on a defect, and a maintenance history. Earthmoving businesses live and die on plant availability, and it is not what ServiceM8 is for.

Compliance as a register. Tickets, insurances and SWMS held in a wallet, required per site, with expiry and a who-is-non-compliant report. See Site compliance: a document wallet.

Progressive claiming. Scope of work, variations the client approves by link and typed name, and progress claims that freeze what they reported. A civil sub claiming monthly against an agreed scope is doing something ServiceM8's invoice-per-job model does not describe.

Dockets built for plant hire. One per truck, signed by the customer on their own phone via a QR code, out as a branded A4 PDF with the lines frozen at signature.

Offline that is designed rather than hoped for. Taps queued on the device, replayed with the server refereeing every event. See Clock-in that works where there is no signal.

An AI over the whole business, 142 tools plus a REST API, flat $38 a month for the company rather than per seat.

Who should pick ServiceM8?

Being direct, because a refund is worse than a lost sale. Choose ServiceM8 if:

• You do many small jobs rather than a few long ones.
• Invoicing and getting paid inside the app is the point.
• You are mostly labour and a ute, not crews and plant on a worksite.
• Nobody asks you for inductions, site documents or progress claims.

And choose the SitesAI App if the words scope, variation, claim, prestart, induction or subcontractor appear in your week.

Some businesses run both: ServiceM8 for the small maintenance work, this for contract jobs. That is not a cop-out, it is what the shapes suggest.

Start free

Ten licences, every feature, no job limit, no card. Sign in with Google, Microsoft or Apple at app.sitesai.net, or read Running a small civil crew from one app.