Work order apps come in three shapes: a free tier of a per-user suite, a template with the arithmetic left to you, and a tool that prices and keeps the order and stops there. The searcher comparing them is usually a shop of two to fifteen people that wants the job card on a phone without paying per seat for a dispatch board. This guide is the four questions to ask any work order app before buying, and where Jobcardo, which runs in the browser with no install and prices the order free, answers each of them.
Question one: what is behind the login?
Many work order apps put the answer behind an account from the first order, and the free tier caps users or orders. Ask what the app does before you sign in. Jobcardo's worksheets price the work order, the sales order and the service order on the page with no account, no card and no cap; the login is only for keeping the orders as records. That line is drawn on purpose and stated before you pay.
Question two: is the price on the order, as lines?
A work order app that tracks the status but keeps a typed total has half the job. Ask whether the app holds labour hours at the rate, parts at cost with the markup, the trip charge and the tax as separate lines, because those lines are what the invoice reads and what the customer questions. The work order template on this site works them on the page, and the paid plan keeps them against the customer.
Questions three and four: how is it priced, and can the data leave?
Per user per month is the norm, tiered by module: MaintainX, for one, lists a free Basic tier, Essential at $25 per user per month and Premium at $75 per user per month billed monthly, read 2026-09-02. Jobcardo Pro is $25 a month for the whole team. Then ask whether customers and orders export on your plan and after you cancel; in Jobcardo they do, while you subscribe and for 90 days after.
Questions people ask about work order apps
Which work order app is free?
Several suites offer capped free tiers behind a login. Jobcardo's worksheets are free with no account and no cap; keeping the orders as records is the paid plan at $25 a month for the team.
Do work order apps need an install?
Most are app-store apps. Jobcardo runs in the phone's browser, so there is nothing to install or update; add it to the home screen for an icon.
What does a work order app not need to do?
Estimate, invoice, take payment, schedule, dispatch, track stock or do the books. Each is its own product, and an app that does all of them does the order worst.