Skimmer meters serviced location-months. Pool Brain meters active field technicians. Those units are not interchangeable, so this page does not name a cheaper product or a winner. Figures and vendor claims were checked 2026-09-21; this is a pricing-unit and workflow refresh, not a hands-on test. We have not tested either app.
Two different meters
Verified fact: Skimmer pricing and the help FAQ bill per serviced location per month. A serviced location is a location or service address that received service or repairs that month, not a visit. One address can contain multiple pools, spas, or fountains and still counts as one location. The FAQ says Skimmer does not charge each time a pool is visited and does not charge for a location that received no work in that month.
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. The office/base dollar span and “Your monthly plan” amount are blank in the fetched HTML.
You cannot subtract a location-month dollar from a technician-seat dollar and get a breakeven. The meters count different things.
| Skimmer | Pool Brain | |
|---|---|---|
| Billable unit | Serviced location / month | Active field technician |
| What counts as one unit | One address that received work that month (multiple bodies still one location); not per visit | “Active” is not defined on the fetched page |
| Published rate | Getting Started $49/mo including 49 locations, then $1/location. Scaling Up $98/mo including 49, then $2/location | $65 per active field technician. 1-tech monthly total unpublished |
| Office / admin seats | Unlimited technicians and admins stated on both public plans; seats are not the meter | Unlimited office users stated; HTML totals unpublished |
| Public calculator presets | Location count on the plan | Selector labels 5, 10, 15 … 50. No 1–4 presets |
See each Skimmer and Pool Brain profile for documented functions, still without a field test.
Skimmer published prices
Verified fact: Public Skimmer pricing, 2026-09-21.
| Plan | Published floor | Per additional location | Included locations | Marketed band |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Getting Started | $49/mo | $1/mo | 49 | 0–49 pools/month |
| Scaling Up | $98/mo | $2/mo | 49 | 50–1,000 pools/month |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Over 1,000 pools/month |
Both public plans list unlimited technicians, unlimited admins, and unlimited visits per location. The floor is not a 1-tech plan.
Let N be the number of serviced locations that received work in a month. If N <= 49, Getting Started is $49 and Scaling Up is $98. If N > 49, Getting Started is $49 + (N − 49) × $1 and Scaling Up is $98 + (N − 49) × $2.
These calculations illustrate the vendor’s published floor and rate. They are not a hands-on billing test. They assume every counted location received work that month. Getting Started is marketed for 0–49 pools/month, so this page does not treat the extended arithmetic as a reason to pick that tier for a larger route.
| Serviced locations in month (N) | Getting Started | Scaling Up |
|---|---|---|
| 49 | Floor: $49 | Floor: $98 |
| 80 | $49 + 31 × $1 = $80 | $98 + 31 × $2 = $160 |
| 100 | $49 + 51 × $1 = $100 | $98 + 51 × $2 = $200 |
| 150 | $49 + 101 × $1 = $150 | $98 + 101 × $2 = $300 |
Verified fact: The Skimmer help FAQ confirms the same floor formula, including the 80-location illustration of about $80 on Getting Started and about $160 on Scaling Up. That is confirmation of the published math, not a third promo.
Verified fact: Plan gates on Skimmer pricing. Getting Started lists route builder, invoicing, online payments, financial reporting, service reports, customer portal, surcharging, and unlimited visits, technicians, and admins. Scaling Up adds quotes/estimates, job management, schedule, Orenda-powered LSI & dosing, LaMotte integration, recurring work orders, unlimited service texts, route optimization, required checklist items, broadcast emails, and live phone support. Service texts are $0.029/message on Getting Started and unlimited on Scaling Up. AI Phone is listed at $99/month under Getting Started add-ons.
Route builder on Getting Started is not the Scaling Up route optimizer. Orenda LSI & dosing and LaMotte sit on Scaling Up, not Getting Started.
Pool Brain published component
Verified fact: Pool Brain pricing (2026-09-21) renders ($65 per tech) next to 5 Active Field Technicians. Unlimited office users are labeled; the office/base dollar amount is empty in the fetched HTML. “Your monthly plan” is blank. The visible technician labels are 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50. There are no 1–4 technician presets and no published 1-tech monthly total.
The rows below show only the published technician component. They are not full monthly plan totals. This page does not invent an office or base fee.
| Technician count shown by the pricing selector | Published component math | Office/base | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | $65 × 5 = $325 | Unpublished in pricing HTML | Unpublished |
| 10 | $65 × 10 = $650 | Unpublished in pricing HTML | Unpublished |
| 15 | $65 × 15 = $975 | Unpublished in pricing HTML | Unpublished |
Editorial judgment: Use $65/tech as a unit, not as a checkout total. Do not treat $325, $650, or $975 as the monthly plan. Ask Pool Brain for a written quote at your actual tech count, including how they define “active” and what office users cost. The missing one-tech and base totals stay missing until the vendor writes them down.
Chemistry, routing, offline, payments, and accounting
These are published claims, not a field test.
| Dimension | Skimmer | Pool Brain |
|---|---|---|
| Chemistry | Pricing places LSI & Dosing Calculator powered by Orenda and LaMotte integration on Scaling Up. Technician features describe readings, dosages, real-time LSI calculations/dosing recommendations, and Bluetooth test-result sync. Getting Started does not list those chemistry tools. | Features say technician-entered readings trigger automatic dosing recommendations and that chemical use/cost is tracked. The same features material describes range-target and LSI methods. Vendor claims; no hands-on dosing test. |
| Routing | Getting Started includes Route Builder. Scaling Up lists Route Optimization. The features page describes calendar/map scheduling, assignments, a route dashboard, and optimizer behavior. | Features claim one-click route optimization, drag-and-drop scheduling, one-time moves, and real-time progress indicators. |
| Offline field work | The technician and offline Q&A pages say techs can complete stops, log readings, take photos, and finish checklist items without signal, then sync after reconnecting. That is documented field-stop workflow, not a claim that every billing or portal action works offline. | Features say the app works with no signal and syncs job data when signal returns. Vendor claim about app operation, not an independent test of every workflow. |
| Payments / fees | Pricing and features list online card/debit/ACH payments. Online payments are subject to fees from the payment processor and Skimmer; those pages do not publish a percentage or rate. Offline cash, check, and other payments are described as not subject to transactional fees. Surcharging is listed but unavailable in Minnesota, California, New York, Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. | The payment-services fee schedule (last updated August 17, 2026) lists card 3.2% + $0.25/transaction; ACH 1% + $0.25/transaction, capped at $15; and Pool Brain Payments $20/month. It also lists manually entered cards at 3.5% + $0.25, next-day card funding at an additional 0.50%, international cards at an additional 1%, and $15 dispute/return fees in the stated cases. Customer-specific rates may apply. These are payment-service charges, separate from the unpublished software total. |
| QuickBooks Online | The features page says every Skimmer transaction is automatically reflected in QBO upon being paid. That page does not establish reverse or two-way sync. This page uses that narrower statement. | Features and QBO help claim two-way automatic sync for customer information, invoices, payments, refunds, products/services, categories, and more, subject to documented toggles and edge cases. The help article notes exceptions such as bundle edits and deletion behavior. Vendor claim; not independently tested. |
Editorial judgment: If daily work is Orenda, LSI, or LaMotte, Skimmer publishes those tools on Scaling Up and Pool Brain publishes dosing-from-readings claims on its features page. If the constraint is a 1-person shop, Skimmer publishes Getting Started and Pool Brain does not publish a 1-tech total. Confirm chemistry, routing, offline stops, payment fees, and QuickBooks objects in a trial.
Trial and first-month terms
Keep Skimmer’s three published lines separate. Do not collapse them into one trial promise.
Verified fact: Skimmer pricing advertises a one-month-free Scaling Up promotion for new users on the designated link. The free month includes up to 49 locations. Usage above 49 is billed in arrears after the trial. The page says users may cancel during the trial to avoid charges, and that standard pricing after the promotion is $98/month base + $2/month per additional location.
Verified fact: The same pricing FAQ states a 30-day risk-free guarantee: cancel and request a subscription-fee refund within the first 30 days.
Verified fact: The help FAQ has a separate first-month sentence: the first month is a flat $49, with standard subscription fees beginning in month two. That sentence is not the Scaling Up free-month promotion.
Verified fact: Pool Brain pricing shows a Start Free Trial CTA. The fetched pricing-page HTML does not state a trial day count or a card requirement. Pool Brain’s vendor-owned Skimmer comparison says “30 day free trial” and was marked last updated 7/18/26. That 30-day claim is from the dated comparison page, not from the current
/pricing/HTML. Confirm current enrollment terms at signup.
How to compare
Breakeven is blocked until Pool Brain writes down a one-tech total and an office/base amount. Skimmer can be modeled at 49, 80, 100, and 150 serviced locations from the public formula. Pool Brain’s 5/10/15 rows are technician-component arithmetic, not the published plan.
Count the serviced locations that actually received work in a typical month. Count active field technicians. Name the chemistry and routing tools you need, including whether Skimmer’s Scaling Up gates apply. Then ask Pool Brain for the missing one-tech and base total in writing.
Editorial judgment: Do not pick a product from a homemade 1-tech versus 80-location spreadsheet. The missing Pool Brain total is the gap. Get both quotes, then compare.
Questions for sales or a trial
- Skimmer: at my serviced-location count, am I on Getting Started or Scaling Up, and is a location still one address if I visit weekly?
- Skimmer: which first-month line is on my quote, the Scaling Up free month, the 30-day refund guarantee, or the FAQ $49 first month, and what is month two?
- Pool Brain: what is the monthly total for my actual number of active field technicians, including office/base, and how do you define “active”?
- Pool Brain: is the trial the uncounted Start Free Trial CTA on pricing, or the dated 30-day line on the vendor comparison page, and what is month two?
- Both: which offline workflows (readings, photos, checklists, invoices) work without cell service?
- Both: what is included in that total (texts, payments, QuickBooks), what is the processor percentage on my account, 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 inventing an office-user or base dollar amount. We are not treating $325, $650, or $975 as a monthly plan. We are not inventing a Skimmer payment-processing percentage. We are not claiming reverse or two-way QuickBooks sync for Skimmer. We are not merging Skimmer’s free-month promotion, 30-day refund, and FAQ first-month $49 sentence. We are not presenting a 30-day Pool Brain trial as if it appears on the current pricing HTML. We do not earn commissions from these vendors.
Ask for written totals at your serviced-location count and your active-field-technician count, including Pool Brain’s unpublished office/base amount. Then trial the chemistry step, the route, the offline stop, and the QuickBooks objects on the same week of invoices. Primary pricing: Skimmer, Pool Brain. Buying notes: Skimmer, Pool Brain, solo-operator guide, small-team guide, QuickBooks guide, chemical tracking guide. Other meters: Paythepoolman vs Skimmer, Poolside vs Skimmer, Pool Brain vs Poolside, Jobber vs Pool Brain, Paythepoolman vs Pool Brain, Pool Office Manager vs Skimmer, Pool Office Manager vs Pool Brain, Pool Office Manager vs Paythepoolman.