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Redline vs Simpro: before you need a stockroom.

Simpro is built for trade contractors running 5 to 50 or more techs, with inventory, supplier pricing, job costing and a setup project to get started. Redline is free to start, has its prices on a public page, and fits the owner who still quotes and dispatches. If you carry stock and bid commercial work, Simpro covers ground Redline doesn't.

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The short version

Redline is for the electrical, HVAC or plumbing shop that buys material per job and keeps prices in the owner's head. Redline's memory picks those prices up as you mention them ("we charge $185 for a service call") and uses them in quotes. Free covers the chat, contacts, pipeline, calendar and quotes. Solo at $29 a month adds invoices and deposits. Team and Team+ add the crew board, from $129 a month for 3 seats.

Simpro is field service and project management software for electrical, HVAC, plumbing, security and fire protection contractors, aimed at operations from 5 to 50 or more techs. It does detailed estimates with live supplier pricing and tenders, office-to-field scheduling and dispatch, supplier catalogs and stock tracking, job costing with WIP, labor productivity and material spend against budget, asset maintenance, and a field app. Simpro Premium is its enterprise edition.

Simpro doesn't publish prices. Its pricing page says pricing is tailored to team size and add-ons, billed monthly or annually, and that there's an initial setup fee covering onboarding, training and data migration. There's no self-serve trial; it offers a tailored demo.

Panel upgrade, quoted and booked

Quote the Morrison panel upgrade: swap the 100 amp panel for 200 amp, new meter base, grounding, permit. Labor $2,600, materials $1,450, permit $250. 25% deposit.

Drafted for Linda Morrison: 200 amp panel and breakers, meter base, grounding and bonding, permit and utility coordination. $4,300 with a $1,075 deposit. Save it?

Save it. Find a full day next week for the install.

Saved. Open full days next week: Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Tuesday is first: nothing else on the calendar. Book it?

Quotes work on every plan. Billing the deposit needs Solo or up.

Redline and Simpro, side by side

	Redline	Simpro
How you use it	Chat first. You message it ("invoice Sullivan for the roof job") and it updates contacts, jobs, the calendar and invoices, asking you to confirm before it changes customer records. Web and iPhone.	A full office platform: estimating, scheduling, inventory and job costing screens, with a field app.
Free plan	Yes. $0 with no end date: AI chat, contacts, pipeline, calendar, scheduling assistant, Quick-Sort and a Pro Page. 1 seat and 4,000 AI credits that don't refill.	No free plan and no self-serve trial. Tailored demos.
Starting price	Solo at $29 a month, or $23 a month billed yearly. 7-day free trial on the web.	Not published. Tailored to team size and add-ons, with an initial setup fee.
Seats	Free and Solo: 1. Team ($129 a month): 3. Team+ ($299 a month): 10, plus extra seats at $29 each.	Priced by team size. See their site.
Quotes	Itemized quotes by chat, including from a site photo, with an optional deposit %. Good, better and best options and tax are in the Quote composer (Solo and up). Saved as drafts; you email the customer from your own Gmail. No quote link, online approval or e-sign today.	Detailed estimates with live supplier pricing, and tenders.
Invoicing and payments	Solo and up. Branded card pay links on your own Stripe account, no Redline fee on top. Card only, US dollars. Overdue flags at day 3, 7 and 14.	Invoicing, with job costing against budget. See their site for payment options.
Scheduling	Every plan. Suggests up to 3 open slots, groups visits in the same town, sets up repeating visits with one save. No calendar sync, no online booking.	Office-to-field scheduling.
Dispatch	Team and up. Dispatch board, tech app, assign jobs by chat, crew chat. Techs tap their status; there's no GPS.	Dispatch for operations of 5 to 50 or more techs.
What Simpro has that Redline doesn't	Not in Redline today.	Inventory and stock tracking, supplier catalogs with live pricing, job costing with WIP and labor productivity, asset maintenance, tenders for bigger projects.
What Redline has that Simpro doesn't	A Free plan. Published prices. No setup fee. Self-serve signup.	No published prices. Initial setup fee. A demo instead of a trial.

Simpro details come from Simpro's own website, checked October 2026. Plans and prices change, so confirm on their site before you decide.

Who should pick which

Pick Simpro if

You stock material in a warehouse or on trucks and need to track it
You bid commercial work and want supplier pricing pulled into estimates
You report WIP and labor productivity to a bank, a partner or yourself
You maintain fire, security or HVAC equipment on service contracts
You have 5 or more techs and office staff to run the system

Pick Redline if

You're 1 to 10 people and the owner still quotes every job
You buy material per job at the supply house
You do residential service calls and small installs
You don't want a setup fee or a demo before you can try it
You'd rather type a quote than build one from a catalog

Questions contractors ask

Does Redline have inventory or a price book?

No. There's no inventory, price book, supplier catalog or purchase orders. Redline's memory saves the prices you mention, like your service call fee or hourly rate, and uses them when it drafts quotes.

What does Simpro cost?

Simpro doesn't publish prices. Its pricing page says it tailors pricing to team size and add-ons, with an initial setup fee. Redline's prices are on the pricing page, with no setup fee.

Can Redline handle service agreements?

It can schedule them: book a repeating series of visits and save the cadence as a preset. It doesn't bill them automatically and has no equipment or asset records. See HVAC maintenance agreements.

When would I outgrow Redline?

When you start carrying inventory, hire a full-time dispatcher, or need WIP and labor reports, you're into Simpro's territory. For tools in between, see Simpro alternatives.

No setup fee. No demo.

Start Redline Free and quote your next panel swap by message.