Comparison
WorkPilotvs the field.
30 capabilities, compared honestly against Commusoft and ServiceM8 — including the rows where we don't lead. The pattern is consistent: the depth a compliance-led contractor needs is included here and billed separately elsewhere.
- 0
- Capabilities compared
- 0
- Where WorkPilot leads
- 0
- Categories
01 — The short version
Three products, three different bets.
WorkPilot
This oneOperational depth, included
Certificates, site reports, PPM, price books, job costing, stock and document control ship in the core licence. Built for contractors whose work is inspected.
Best fit
Regulated trades — electrical, fire, mechanical — running contracts across multiple sites.
Commusoft
Mature, tier-gated
A well-established field service suite. Much of the operational depth exists, but it climbs the plan ladder — the capabilities that matter to a compliance-led contractor sit on the upper tiers.
Best fit
Businesses comfortable buying into a higher plan to reach the features they need.
ServiceM8
Light core, add-on marketplace
Genuinely excellent at getting a small team from quote to payment quickly. Depth arrives through a marketplace of add-ons, each with its own monthly cost.
Best fit
Teams of one to ten doing reactive work with light compliance obligations.
02 — The gap
Eight things
you'd buy twice.
These are the capabilities where the difference is sharpest — not because the competition can't reach them, but because reaching them means another add-on, another tier, or another system bolted onto the side of the one you just bought.
A real certification engine
Not a form builder wearing a certificate's clothes
WorkPilot ships regulated certificate types as first-class documents with their own schemas, validation and print layouts — EICR, minor works, emergency lighting, fire alarm, fire extinguisher and PAT. Circuit schedules calculate. Inspection schedules carry presets. Output is a branded PDF an engineer can hand over on site.
- Per-certificate validation rules, not free-text fields
- Circuit grid with live calculation and quick-add templates
- Inspection schedule presets per document type
- Company-branded PDF export straight from the job
Structured site reports and surveys
Configurable question builder, consistent output
Fire risk assessments, fire-door surveys and drain-blocking reports run off structured templates with a configurable question builder — so twelve engineers produce one house style, and the report is queryable data rather than a photo album with captions.
- Template-driven with per-field default handling
- Configurable question builder per report type
- Photo capture bound to the question, not the job
- Client-facing report portal for handover
PPM contracts that generate their own work
The maintenance book runs itself
Planned maintenance contracts auto-generate their jobs on schedule, carry task histories across visits, and raise renewal reminders before the contract lapses. Recurring revenue stops depending on somebody remembering.
- Auto-generated jobs from the contract schedule
- Task history carried visit to visit
- Renewal reminders ahead of contract expiry
- Service plans modelled separately from one-off jobs
Price books and labour rates
Priced correctly before it reaches the customer
Maintained price books with labour rates and customer-specific pricing, so a quote is built from the commercial reality of that account rather than typed from memory at the kitchen table.
- Central price book with labour rate bands
- Customer-specific pricing overrides
- Rates flow into quotations and invoices automatically
- Consistent pricing across every estimator
Job costing and overhead allocation
Know the margin, not just the invoice total
Internal cost tracking with overhead allocation per job. You see what the work actually cost against what it billed — the number that decides whether a contract is worth renewing.
- Labour, materials and overhead tracked per job
- Internal cost separated from customer-facing price
- Margin visible before the job closes
- Reporting across jobs, sites and contracts
Stock, tools and part kits
Assets tracked against people and jobs
Stock items and transactions, part-kit placements, and tool assignment against individual officers. Van stock and calibrated tooling stop being an oral tradition.
- Stock items with a full transaction ledger
- Part kits placed against jobs
- Tool assignment tracked per officer
- Uniform and equipment issue records
Document centre with access control
Folder-level permissions, not a shared drive
Docu Center gives folder-level access control over job packs, O&M manuals and certificates, plus a client-facing job report portal — so a customer sees exactly their documents and nothing else.
- Folder-level access control
- Documents bound to jobs, sites and contracts
- Client-facing job report portal
- Certificates filed automatically on issue
Site intelligence across the estate
Multi-site contracting, modelled properly
Clients, sites, and jobs are distinct layers, so a facilities customer with sixty sites behaves like one account with sixty asset histories — not sixty unrelated customers who happen to share a name.
- Client → site → job hierarchy
- Asset and certificate history per site
- Site-level reporting and document filing
- Quotation visits scheduled against the site
03 — The full matrix
Every row, including ours.
Filter by category, or flip to differences only. Cells carry a note explaining the claim — hover to read it.
| Capability | WorkPilot | Commusoft | ServiceM8 |
|---|---|---|---|
Compliance & certificationWhere regulated trades win or lose the contract | |||
Regulated compliance certificates EICR, minor works, emergency lighting, fire alarm, PAT, fire extinguisher | Included Six certificate families ship as first-class document types with their own validation and print layout. | Higher tier | Add-on |
Circuit schedules with live calculation Circuit grid, quick-add templates, calculated results | Included Circuit calculations, column presets and quick-add templates are built into the certificate editor. | Partial | Not available |
Inspection schedule presets Pre-built inspection items per document type | Included Preset item libraries per certificate type, editable per job. | Partial | Not available |
Structured site reports & surveys Fire risk assessment, fire-door survey, drain-blocking | Included Template-driven reports with a configurable question builder and per-field defaults. | Higher tier | Add-on |
Configurable question builder Build your own report schema without a developer | Included | Higher tier | Add-on |
Company-branded certificate PDFs Issue-ready documents carrying your branding | Included Branding applied from company settings at export. | Included | Add-on |
Planned maintenance & contractsRecurring revenue that does not depend on memory | |||
PPM contracts Planned preventative maintenance agreements | Included Contracts auto-generate jobs, retain task history and raise renewal reminders. | Higher tier | Add-on |
Auto-generated jobs from contract The schedule creates the work | Included | Higher tier | Add-on |
Task history across visits What was done last time, on this asset | Included | Partial | Not available |
Contract renewal reminders Flagged before the agreement lapses | Included | Higher tier | Add-on |
Service plans Modelled separately from one-off jobs | Included | Partial | Not available |
Commercial controlMargin visibility, not just invoice totals | |||
Price books & labour rates Central rate card driving every quote | Included Price book with labour rate bands feeding quotes and invoices. | Included | Not available |
Customer-specific pricing Negotiated rates held per account | Included | Higher tier | Not available |
Job costing Labour, materials and cost against billed value | Included | Higher tier | Paid tier |
Overhead allocation True cost per job, not just direct spend | Included | Partial | Not available |
Internal cost tracking Cost separated from the customer-facing price | Included | Partial | Not available |
Multi-option quotations Good / better / best on one document | On roadmap Single-option quotations ship today; customer-selectable options are in delivery. | Included | Included |
Stock, tools & assetsVan stock and calibrated tooling, tracked | |||
Stock items & transactions A ledger, not a spreadsheet | Included | Higher tier | Add-on |
Part kits & placements Kits allocated against jobs | Included | Partial | Add-on |
Tool assignment per officer Who is holding which tool, right now | Included | Not available | Not available |
Uniform & equipment issue Issued items recorded per member of staff | Included | Not available | Not available |
Documents & client accessControlled handover, not a shared drive | |||
Document centre Job packs, O&M manuals, certificates in one place | Included | Partial | Not available |
Folder-level access control Permissions per folder, per role | Included | Not available | Not available |
Client-facing job report portal Customers see their documents, and only theirs | Included | Higher tier | Add-on |
Client → site → job hierarchy Multi-site estates modelled correctly | Included | Included | Partial |
Core field serviceThe table stakes — where everyone is level | |||
Mobile field app Full job lifecycle on the engineer's phone | Included | Included | Included |
Scheduling, diary & timesheets Dispatch board and time capture | Included | Included | Included |
Quotations & invoicing Quote to invoice in one thread | Included | Included | Included |
Staff leave & holidays Absence visible on the dispatch board | Included | Included | Included |
Customer & site records Contact, history and asset context | Included | Included | Included |
Showing 30 capabilities
“Add-on” means the capability is reached through a first- or third-party add-on at additional cost. “Higher tier” means it is gated behind a more expensive plan. Hover a cell for the substantiating note.
04 — The commercial shape
The sticker price
is not the price.
A low entry cost is easy to publish when the operational depth is sold separately. By the time a compliance-led contractor has assembled the stack they actually need, the monthly figure looks very different — and it is now spread across several vendors with several renewal dates.
WorkPilot's position is simply that these six things are not extras for the businesses we build for. They are the job.
Get a like-for-like quote05 — Straight answers
Including the
awkward ones.
Is WorkPilot just a cheaper Commusoft?
No — the difference is structural rather than a discount. Commusoft is a mature suite that tiers its operational depth across plans. WorkPilot puts certification, PPM, costing and stock in the core product because those are the reason a regulated contractor buys a system at all, not an upsell opportunity.
ServiceM8 has an add-on for almost everything. Isn't that the same outcome?
Functionally similar, commercially and operationally different. Add-ons are separately priced, separately configured, and integrated to varying depths — so a certificate produced by an add-on does not necessarily know about the job costing, the site history or the document permissions. Native modules share one data model.
Where does WorkPilot not lead?
Multi-option customer-selectable quotations are on the delivery roadmap rather than shipping today, and ServiceM8's add-on marketplace is broader than anything we offer. We would rather state that plainly here than have you discover it in week three.
How current is this comparison?
WorkPilot rows reflect the shipping product. Competitor rows are drawn from publicly available product and plan documentation and are reviewed periodically. If you believe a cell is out of date, tell us on the demo call and we will correct it.
Can you migrate our existing job and certificate history?
Yes. Customers, sites, jobs, quotes and invoices import from structured exports, and historic certificates can be attached to the sites they belong to so the document trail survives the move.
Bring the comparison to the call.
Point at any row you don't believe and we'll show you the product behind it — or correct the page.