Jobber bills per seat. Pool Brain bills per active field technician. Those meters are not interchangeable, so this page does not name a cheaper product or a winner. Figures are from vendor pages checked 2026-09-07. We have not tested either app.
Two products
Verified fact: Jobber is general field-service software. It publishes a pool service software industry page. That page is marketing for a general FSM, not a pool-native spec.
Verified fact: Pool Brain markets pool company software: scheduling, billing, chemicals, alerts, and technician management. Public pricing is built around active field technicians, not mixed home-service trades.
See each Jobber and Pool Brain profile for documented functions, still without a field test. Third-party operator snippets already on those profiles are not new quotes and not a PoolProStack test.
How you pay
Verified fact: Jobber bills per seat. Live Jobber pricing for 1 user, 2026-09-07. The page title still says plans from $29/mo. Core, Connect, and Grow 1-user rows were visible in the fetched HTML:
| Plan (1 user) | No commitment | 1-year monthly | Billed annually |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core | $49 | $39 | $29 |
| Connect | $139 | $119 | $99 |
| Grow | $199 | $169 | $149 |
The same page lists 5, 10, and 15-user prices on Connect, Grow, and Plus. This page quotes the 1-user row unless a same-shop cell names a 5-user card. A $29-per-additional-user add-on is not published on the fetched pricing HTML. Extra seats appear as those team-size cards, or as a “Let’s chat” custom row.
Verified fact: Card processing on Jobber pricing: cards 2.9% + 30¢, Tap to Pay 2.7% + 30¢, ACH 1%, instant payouts an extra 1%.
Verified fact: Jobber’s trial is 14 days on Grow, no credit card (pricing FAQ).
Verified fact: Pool Brain pricing bills per active field technician at $65/tech. That is the only HTML-locked dollar amount on the fetched page. The page does not define “active.” It states unlimited office users. Office-user and base totals are unpublished in the HTML.
Verified fact: The public picker labels start at 5, 10, 15, and continue through 50. There are no 1–4 technician presets on the fetched page. The heading is ALL FEATURES + FREE SETUP.
| Field techs | What is published | What this page will not treat as the monthly plan |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unit price $65/tech. No preset. Total unpublished. | $65 as a 1-tech monthly plan |
| 5 | Picker includes 5. $65 × 5 = $325 is line arithmetic only. | $325 as the published monthly plan |
Editorial judgment: Use $65/tech as a unit, not as a checkout total. Do not treat $65 as a solo plan. Do not treat $325 as the five-tech plan. Ask Pool Brain for a written quote at your actual tech count, including how they define “active” and what office users cost.
You cannot subtract a seat dollar from a tech-line dollar and get a breakeven. A Jobber user is not a Pool Brain active field technician.
Units side by side
| Jobber | Pool Brain | |
|---|---|---|
| Billable unit | Seat / user | Active field technician |
| What counts as one unit | One user on the published plan cards | “Active” is not defined on the fetched page |
| Published 1-unit rate | Core $49 / $39 / $29. Connect $139 / $119 / $99. Grow $199 / $169 / $149 | $65 per active field technician. 1-tech monthly total unpublished |
| What moves the bill | Each additional published seat card, or a custom quote | Each additional active field technician |
| What does not move the bill | Customer count; extra stops at one account | Customer count; extra stops at one account; extra office users as stated |
| Office / admin seats | Count as users on the seat meter | Unlimited office users stated; HTML totals unpublished |
| Public calculator presets | 1, 5, 10, 15-user cards on named plans. Core 1-user plus a custom row | Picker starts at 5, 10, 15 … 50. No 1–4 presets |
| First-month offer | 14-day Grow trial, no credit card | Home: 30-day free trial. Pricing CTA: “Start free trial” with no day count. Do not merge those. |
| Feature gate on price | QBO listed on Connect, not Core. Chemistry tools are not claimed on the pool page | Pricing heading: all features + free setup |
Same-shop cells
These cells apply published formulas to the same headcount. Jobber “users” and Pool Brain “active field technicians” are different units. Optional add-ons and card fees are excluded.
| Shop | Jobber published | Pool Brain published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 person in the field | Core 1-user: $49 / $39 / $29 | Gap. No 1-tech preset. Monthly total unpublished. Not $65 as a plan. |
| 5 people in the field | Connect 5-user: $199 / $169 / $149. Grow 5-user: $299 / $259 / $229. Those are seat cards, not a tech meter. | $325 is the $65 × 5 tech component only. Not the monthly plan. |
Editorial judgment: Read the cells as unit arithmetic, not a ranking. At one person, Jobber publishes Core and Pool Brain does not publish a checkout total. At five people, Jobber publishes 5-user Connect and Grow cards and Pool Brain’s public page only locks the $325 tech line. Chemistry, offline, payments, and QuickBooks copy still differ. Get both quotes.
Chemistry, offline, payments, and accounting
These are published claims, not a field test.
Verified fact: Pool Brain Orenda claims a native Orenda calculator and predicted LSI. Pool Brain LaMotte claims Spin Touch import. Pricing puts those on the all-features $65/tech unit.
Verified fact: Jobber’s pool page documents field notes for chemicals and pool dimensions. It does not claim LSI, Orenda, or LaMotte. Connect lists job-documentation checklists on the pricing matrix. Checklists are field notes, not an LSI calculator.
Verified fact: Pool Brain home and features claim the technician app works offline with no signal. We have not confirmed every workflow (invoices, signatures) while offline.
Verified fact: Jobber’s pool page does not claim offline. Offline is not claimed.
Verified fact: Pool Brain features claim automatic billing via credit card or ACH, with a retry if a card declines. A processor percentage is not published on the fetched home, features, or pricing pages.
Verified fact: Jobber NEW QBO connect help (updated April 8, 2026; opened 2026-09-07) documents ongoing Jobber-to-QBO item sync and a one-time QBO-to-Jobber import at connect. The live pricing feature matrix lists QuickBooks Online sync on Connect, not Core. The NEW QBO FAQ was Cloudflare-blocked on 2026-09-07, so this page does not lock a Desktop sentence from that FAQ tonight. Desktop is not mentioned on the Connect article we opened.
Verified fact: Pool Brain features claim two-way QuickBooks Online sync (customers, invoices, payments, refunds, products/services, and more). QBO help documents two-way sync with exceptions, including bundle-line invoices that do not take QBO edits back. The sync fee is unspecified.
Verified fact: Pool Brain home advertises a 30-day free trial. The pricing CTA is “Start free trial” with no day count on that page. Those are different published lines. This page does not merge them.
Editorial judgment: If daily work is Orenda, LSI, or LaMotte, Pool Brain publishes those claims and Jobber does not. If daily work is quotes, a client hub, and mixed trades, Jobber’s published surface is the general FSM. If the constraint is one person in the field, Jobber publishes Core and Pool Brain does not publish a 1-tech total. Confirm chemistry, offline, payments, and QuickBooks in a trial.
Who each product is for
These are fit notes against published units and documented claims. They are not awards.
Jobber is for a shop that sells pool work as one line among other home-service trades, wants client-hub booking, and can pay by seat. Core is the 1-user floor. Connect is the plan that lists QBO on the public matrix.
Jobber is not for a pool-only route that needs a claimed LSI/Orenda/LaMotte workflow or documented offline field use. Those are not claimed on Jobber’s pool page.
Pool Brain is for a pool-only shop that can live with per-technician billing and wants published chemistry tools, offline field copy, and documented two-way QBO. Model the $65/tech unit, then ask for a written total. Do not treat $65 as a solo checkout.
Pool Brain is not for a mixed-trade shop that wants one general FSM and seat-based billing. Each new active field technician raises the published unit even if stop count stays flat. A solo tech has no published monthly plan on the public picker.
Seat versus location is a different comparison: Jobber vs Skimmer. Per-user versus seat: Pool Office Manager vs Jobber. Per-user versus technician: Pool Office Manager vs Pool Brain. Location versus technician: Skimmer vs Pool Brain. Headcount versus technician-and-customer-cap: Pool Brain vs Poolside. Solo-operator notes, forever-free plans, and QBO object lists stay on the solo-operator guide, free software guide, and QuickBooks guide.
Questions for sales or a trial
- Jobber: at my real user count, which published card am I on, and is month two still the no-commit / 1-year / annual row above?
- Jobber: does QBO stay on Connect for my account, and what objects move after the one-time import?
- Jobber: is there an LSI, Orenda, or LaMotte workflow in writing, or only field notes?
- Pool Brain: what is the monthly total for my actual number of active field technicians, and how do you define “active”?
- Pool Brain: what do unlimited office users cost on that quote?
- Pool Brain: is the trial 30 days as the home page states, or the uncounted CTA on pricing, and what is month two?
- Pool Brain: what is the processor percentage on card and ACH auto-pay?
- Both: which offline workflows (photos, invoices, signatures) work without cell service, and what happens to my data if I cancel?
What we are not claiming
This page does not rank a winner. We have not tested either app. We are not publishing a Pool Brain 1-tech monthly plan. We are not treating $65 as a solo checkout total. We are not treating $325 as the five-tech plan. We are not inventing an office-user dollar amount. We are not inventing a $29-per-extra-Jobber-user add-on. We are not inventing Orenda, LSI, or LaMotte for Jobber. We are not inventing Jobber offline. We are not inventing a Pool Brain processor percentage. We are not locking a Jobber Desktop sentence from a FAQ we could not open on 2026-09-07. We are not merging Pool Brain’s 30-day home line with the pricing CTA. We do not earn commissions from these vendors.
Ask for written totals at your seat count and your technician count. Then trial the chemistry step, the offline stop, and the QuickBooks objects on the same week of invoices. Buying notes: Jobber, Pool Brain, small-team guide, QuickBooks guide, chemical tracking guide. Other meters: Jobber vs Poolside, Jobber vs Paythepoolman, Paythepoolman vs Pool Brain.