Poolside bills flat tiers locked by technician and customer caps. Paythepoolman bills a $50 base plus $15 per technician. Those meters are not interchangeable, so this page does not name a cheaper product or a winner. Figures are from vendor pages checked 2026-09-11. We have not tested either app.
Two different meters
Verified fact: Poolside pricing publishes flat monthly tiers locked by active technician count and customer count. Starter is 1 technician and up to 50 customers. Growth is up to 2 technicians and 125 customers. Pro is up to 5 technicians and 300 customers. Enterprise is custom, unlimited on both caps. The public site is trypoolside.com.
Verified fact: Paythepoolman publishes a homepage calculator of $50/mo base + $15/mo per technician. One technician is $65/mo on that calculator (2026-09-11). Technician count is the meter. Location count is not.
You cannot subtract a Poolside tier dollar from a Paythepoolman technician dollar and get a breakeven. A Poolside “customer” is not a Paythepoolman billing unit. Crossing a tech cap or a customer cap jumps Poolside. Each additional technician raises Paythepoolman.
See each Poolside and Paythepoolman 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: Public Poolside pricing, 2026-09-11. Worked examples use the published list price. The 50% first-month promo is not the ongoing floor.
| Plan | List price | Technician cap | Customer cap | Published on that tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $29.99/mo | 1 | 50 | Route management and maps; email and SMS; Quotes and Stripe pay-links; basic invoicing |
| Growth | $59.99/mo | 2 | 125 | Smart route optimization; card on file and in-app charging |
| Pro | $99.99/mo | 5 | 300 | Company-wide P&L; QuickBooks sync; failed-message tracking |
| Enterprise | Custom | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited on both caps |
Verified fact: The same pricing page advertises 50% off the first month on paid plans. That promo is a first-month discount. It is not a free trial and not the month-two price. The fetched home, pricing, features, and FAQ pages do not advertise a free trial.
Verified fact: The pricing FAQ question “Do you offer annual billing?” answers: reach out and they will set up annual billing or a custom Enterprise plan. No annual rate is published. This page does not invent one.
Verified fact: Public Paythepoolman homepage calculator, 2026-09-11.
| Line | What the page publishes |
|---|---|
| Base | $50/mo |
| Per technician | $15/mo |
| 1 technician total | $65/mo |
| Pool Junction customer app | $25/mo optional |
| Convenience fee | $1.50/transaction advertised |
| Processor percentage | Unpublished |
| Payroll | Custom pricing |
| New Business Discount | Unpublished |
| Trial | 30-day free trial advertised |
| Support | Mon–Fri 8:00am–4pm EST, free |
Worked examples use only $50 + $15 × technicians. They omit Pool Junction, the convenience fee, payroll, and unpublished discounts. Ignore third-party pages that still say $10/tech. The homepage calculator is $15/tech. The homepage 80% OFF for 3 Months banner is a promo. It is not the list floor.
| Technicians | Published math | Monthly software |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50 + $15 | $65 |
| 2 | $50 + $15 × 2 | $80 |
| 3 | $50 + $15 × 3 | $95 |
| 5 | $50 + $15 × 5 | $125 |
| 6+ | $50 + $15 × N | Formula only |
Unverified: The homepage says the Orenda calculator is included FREE with Plus. The features page repeats Orenda free with Plus. Those fetched pages do not publish a separate Plus price. Ask the vendor what Plus costs on your quote.
Units side by side
| Poolside | Paythepoolman | |
|---|---|---|
| Billable unit | Flat tier (technician cap + customer cap) | Technician (base + per-tech). Headcount meter. |
| What counts as one unit | One active technician and one customer, per the pricing FAQ | One technician on the homepage calculator |
| Published 1-unit rate | Starter $29.99 (1 tech, ≤50 customers). Growth $59.99 (≤2 / ≤125). Pro $99.99 (≤5 / ≤300). Enterprise custom | $50/mo + $15/mo per technician ($65 at 1 tech) |
| What moves the bill | Crossing a tech cap or a customer cap jumps the shop to the next tier | Each additional technician |
| What does not move the bill | Extra stops at one customer inside a customer cap | Location count |
| Office / admin seats | Not a separate published seat fee | Not separated on the fetched calculator |
| First-month offer | 50% off list. Not a free trial. Not the ongoing floor | 30-day free trial advertised |
| Annual rate | Unpublished. FAQ says reach out | Not used on this page |
| Feature gate on price | Optimizer, Stripe tools, company-wide P&L, and QuickBooks sit on different tiers | Orenda free with Plus; Plus dollars unpublished. Route optimization claimed with no published plan split |
| Processor / payment fee | Stripe pay-links on Starter; card on file on Growth. Processor percentage unpublished | $1.50/transaction advertised. Processor percentage unpublished |
| SMS | Email and SMS listed on Starter. Unit price unpublished | Invoice SMS needs text-bucket credits. Bucket dollars unpublished |
| Support hours | Not locked from the fetched pricing HTML | Homepage: Mon–Fri 8:00am–4pm EST, free |
Same-shop cells
These cells apply published formulas to the same headcount and customer-count numbers. Treat Poolside “customers” and Paythepoolman “technicians” as different published units. Optional Pool Junction (+$25/mo), card fees, SMS buckets, the Poolside 50% first month, and the Paythepoolman 80% promo are excluded.
| Shop | Poolside list | Paythepoolman published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 tech / ≤50 customers | $29.99 (Starter) | $65 ($50 + $15) |
| 1 tech / 51–125 customers | $59.99 (Growth; Starter caps customers at 50) | $65 ($50 + $15) |
| 2 techs / ≤125 customers | $59.99 (Growth) | $80 ($50 + $15 × 2) |
| 3 techs | $99.99 (Pro; Growth caps techs at 2) | $95 ($50 + $15 × 3) |
| 5 techs / ≤300 customers | $99.99 (Pro) | $125 ($50 + $15 × 5) |
| 6+ techs | Enterprise custom | $50 + $15 × N |
Editorial judgment: Read the cells as unit arithmetic, not a ranking. At one technician inside 50 customers, Poolside publishes $29.99 and Paythepoolman publishes $65. At one technician past 50 customers, Poolside jumps to Growth ($59.99) while Paythepoolman stays $65 because customer count is not its meter. At three technicians, Poolside publishes Pro at $99.99 and Paythepoolman publishes $95. At six or more, Poolside is a custom quote and Paythepoolman stays on $50 + $15 × technicians. Chemistry, routing, offline, payments, and QuickBooks copy still differ. Get both quotes.
Chemistry, routing, offline, payments, and accounting
These are published claims, not a field test.
Verified fact: Poolside home lists chemical readings in the technician app. The pricing feature lists and the fetched home, features, and FAQ pages do not name Orenda, an LSI calculator, or LaMotte. Treat those as unpublished.
Verified fact: Paythepoolman’s homepage and features page advertise the Orenda calculator as free with Plus. The features page claims LaMotte SpinTouch integration in the Plus app. Plus is not separately priced on those fetched pages.
Verified fact: Poolside Starter lists route management and maps. Smart route optimization sits on Growth and above (pricing).
Verified fact: Paythepoolman claims route optimization on the fetched home and features pages. Those pages do not publish which plan includes it. Treat the plan split as unpublished.
Verified fact: Poolside home and the FAQ claim the technician app works offline: complete stops, capture photos, and log service without a signal, then sync when back in range. We have not confirmed every workflow (invoices, signatures) while offline.
Unverified: Paythepoolman offline mobile behavior is not claimed on the fetched home or features pages. Treat offline as unknown until the vendor writes it down.
Verified fact: Poolside Starter lists Quotes and Stripe pay-links. Growth adds card on file and in-app charging. A processor percentage is not published on the fetched pricing, home, or features pages.
Verified fact: The Paythepoolman payments page advertises ACH, cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. The homepage advertises a $1.50/transaction convenience fee. A processor percentage is not published on those fetched pages.
Verified fact: Poolside’s pricing matrix lists QuickBooks sync on Pro and Enterprise, not Starter or Growth. The FAQ says “Connect QuickBooks to keep your books in sync.” Privacy names Intuit QuickBooks Online and says the product syncs accounting records such as customers, items, invoices, payments, and expenses via OAuth. Direction and the paid-invoice rule are not help-locked. This page does not invent either.
Unverified: Paythepoolman QuickBooks copy conflicts. The homepage expense section says “Say Goodbye to QuickBooks.” The features page has “QuickBooks Integrations Beta,” claiming send invoices, customers, payments, and items to QuickBooks Online, plus Desktop import. The homepage feature comparison table also lists “QuickBooks Integrations.” This page does not publish a confirmed sync or a sync direction. Ask for a written quote and see the QuickBooks guide.
Unverified: Poolside lists email and SMS on Starter. A per-message or per-thread SMS price is not published on the fetched pricing, home, features, or FAQ pages.
Unverified: Paythepoolman invoice SMS needs text-bucket credits. The fetched home, features, and payments pages do not publish the bucket price.
Editorial judgment: If daily work is Orenda, LSI, or LaMotte, Paythepoolman publishes those claims on Plus with no public Plus price, and Poolside does not. If daily work needs a claimed offline field app, Poolside publishes that claim and Paythepoolman does not. If the constraint is one technician inside 50 customers, Poolside publishes $29.99 and Paythepoolman publishes $65. Confirm chemistry, routing, offline, payments, SMS, and QuickBooks in a trial.
Who each product is for
These are fit notes against published units and documented claims. They are not awards.
Poolside is for a pool route that can live inside a technician cap and a customer cap, wants claimed chemical readings and a claimed offline app, and can accept unpublished card fees, unpublished SMS rates, and an unpublished QuickBooks direction.
Poolside is not for a shop that needs published Orenda, LSI, or LaMotte, or a shop that needs a published annual rate tonight. Starter also stops at 1 technician and 50 customers.
Paythepoolman is for a pool-only shop that can live with a $50 base plus $15 per technician and wants published chemistry tools on Plus. Model the calculator, then ask what Plus costs. Do not treat the $1.50 convenience fee as a processor percentage.
Paythepoolman is not for a shop that needs a confirmed QuickBooks sync in writing tonight, or documented offline field use. Those are unresolved on the fetched pages. Each new technician raises the published formula even if stop count stays flat.
Technician-and-customer-cap versus location: Poolside vs Skimmer. Headcount versus location: Paythepoolman vs Skimmer. Headcount versus technician-and-customer-cap: Pool Brain vs Poolside. Seat versus technician-and-customer-cap: Jobber vs Poolside. Seat versus headcount: Jobber vs Paythepoolman. Base-plus-tech versus active-field-tech: Paythepoolman vs Pool Brain. Per-user versus base-plus-tech: Pool Office Manager vs Paythepoolman. Per-user versus technician-and-customer-cap: Pool Office Manager 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
- Poolside: at my technician count and customer count, which list tier am I on, and is month two still $29.99 / $59.99 / $99.99 after the 50% first month?
- Poolside: is a customer still one customer if I visit weekly, and do multiple bodies at one address count as one customer or two?
- Poolside: which offline workflows (photos, invoices, signatures) work without cell service?
- Poolside: what objects move in the Pro QuickBooks sync, in which direction, and what is the paid-invoice rule?
- Poolside: what is the Stripe processing percentage on pay-links and on card-on-file, and what is the SMS unit price?
- Paythepoolman: at my technician count, is the monthly total still $50 + $15 × technicians, and is Plus a separate paid tier for Orenda and LaMotte?
- Paythepoolman: which QuickBooks sentence applies to my account, the homepage goodbye line or the Features Beta, and can I have objects and direction in writing?
- Paythepoolman: what is the processor percentage behind the $1.50/transaction convenience fee, and what do invoice-SMS text-bucket credits cost?
- Both: which offline workflows work without cell service, what is included in that total (texts, payments, GPS), 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 treating a Poolside customer as a Paythepoolman technician. We are not applying the 50% first month or the 80% three-month banner to worked examples. We are not publishing a Poolside annual rate. We are not inventing Orenda, LSI, or LaMotte for Poolside. We are not inventing a processor percentage. We are not inventing a Poolside QuickBooks direction or paid-invoice rule. We are not inventing a Plus price. We are not using third-party $10/tech figures. We are not confirming Paythepoolman offline. We are not confirming a Paythepoolman QuickBooks sync or inventing a sync direction. We are not inventing SMS or text-bucket prices. We are not using the New Business Discount as list price. We do not earn commissions from these vendors.
Ask for written totals at your technician count and your customer count. Then trial the chemistry step, the offline stop, and the QuickBooks objects on the same week of invoices. Buying notes: Poolside, Paythepoolman, solo-operator guide, small-team guide, QuickBooks guide, chemical tracking guide, route optimization guide. Other meters: Poolside vs Skimmer, Paythepoolman vs Skimmer, Pool Brain vs Poolside, Jobber vs Poolside, Jobber vs Paythepoolman, Paythepoolman vs Pool Brain. Poolside’s public site is trypoolside.com.