Free lawn care business software and apps: 9 free plans compared (2026)

Published November 10, 2026 · Every free plan read on the vendor's own pages November 10, 2026

• I run Deepsel, free estimate, invoice and scheduling software for contractors, which has a free plan and is sold to lawn care businesses among others. So Deepsel isn't in the table, the list or the picks. It gets a section of its own near the end, with what it lacks for lawn care.
• I didn't sign up for any of these apps. Every fact about them comes from the vendor's own pricing, help or app store page, read on November 10, 2026, and links to it in the sources.
• This page is for people who run a mowing or lawn care business. Apps for looking after your own yard are a different list.

Short version: Yardbook's free Starter plan covers the most for $0 (repeat jobs, estimates, invoices, route optimization and lot measuring) if you can work from an Android phone or a computer and live with ads and an extra 1% on card payments. ProBase gives everything away, route optimization and crew logins included, works on iPhone, and earns its money when you take marketplace jobs, but its site only goes back to December 2025. Working alone and mostly need the schedule and the bill? Lawn Buddy Lite or LawnPro Solo, as long as you can live with Lawn Buddy's 4.8% + 30¢ card rate or LawnPro's 25-customer cap. Jobber, GorillaDesk, Service Autopilot and Housecall Pro have trials, not free plans, and LMN sells through a demo.

Every free plan is paid for somehow, and how it's paid for tells you what it will cost you later. Yardbook runs ads and adds 1% to online card payments.^{2, 3} Lawn Buddy funds its free plan through a higher card rate.⁸ ProBase takes a commission on the LawnStarter, Lawn Love and Home Gnome jobs you pick up through it.⁵ LawnBoss keeps $1 of every invoice a customer pays by card.¹⁵ ServiceM8, Zoho, LawnPro, CrewNest and LawnBook cap the free plan and sell the upgrade.

What counts as free here

A tool made the list if it has a plan that costs $0 with no end date, and on that plan a lawn business can put customer visits on a schedule and send invoices. A 14-day trial doesn't count. Neither does an app that's free to download and sells its plans inside the app. Nine tools passed. Free tools that do one piece of the job (Square for invoices, Connecteam and Homebase for crew hours) and the big names that only offer a trial have their own sections below, so you can see why they're not in the table.

Nothing here is "tested": it's what each vendor says its free plan includes, read against what lawn owners on Reddit and LawnSite say they need. Where a vendor's page leaves something out (card fees, mostly), the table says so.

Best free apps for a lawn care business, by situation

• Solo on an Android phone or a computer, after the most features for $0: Yardbook Starter. Plan to pass the card fee to customers or pay $34.99 for Business once card payments pass about $3,500 a month.
• One to five crews on iPhones who want route optimization and crew logins free: ProBase, with a customer export kept somewhere safe, because it's under a year old.
• Solo, mostly mowing on a schedule, wants someone to pick up the phone: Lawn Buddy Lite, which includes phone support, QuickBooks sync and automatic invoicing on the free plan. No estimates until Standard at $12 a month.
• Just starting, under 25 customers, sends quotes: LawnPro Solo. Customer 26 means Startup at $39 a month, or $29 billed annually.
• Mowing plus pressure washing or snow, quoting from satellite: CrewNest Free, with 10 satellite measurements and 3 estimates a month for one user.
• A crew where several people need logins but volume is low: Zoho FSM Free, with 20 users but 30 appointments and 30 invoices a month and no repeat rule.

The 9 free plans side by side

Read on each vendor's own pages on November 10, 2026. "Since" is the oldest date I could check for the product: a copyright line, an App Store release date or the domain registration.¹⁷

What lawn care owners say a free app has to do

I read 62 threads from r/LawnCarePros, r/landscaping, r/lawncare and r/smallbusiness, most of them from 2024 to November 2026, plus 13 LawnSite threads, including the two Google ranks for these searches. I quote owners only and left out anyone selling an app, which in 2025 and 2026 is a lot of the posters. A LawnSite owner in July 2026 said the market is "completely flooded with people who think they are gonna develop the best software and save us all from invoicing or measuring a yard."⁴⁸

The wish list is short:

• A client list in route order with a weekly or biweekly repeat. One owner ran 150 recurring lawns from his phone's notes: "I listed lawns in order (my route) on a master list." Another keeps an Excel grid: "I put a check in the box of we mowed it, a dash through it if we skipped it, and I have a separate column to mark if they paid or not."³¹
• A quick way to move a rained-out day (more on that in the scheduling section).
• One bill a month per customer, or a card on file charged after each cut.
• A low price. A solo owner taking payments through Cash App said he'd pay for "a bare bones type service without bells and whistles," at "$20-30 a month."³⁰

Yardbook is the free app owners name first, in threads from 2016 to 2026. In May 2026, on Reddit: "I've personally used the free version of Yardbook for my one-man mowing operation in a Chicagoland suburb. Going on my 5th season now. I currently have 36 biweekly or weekly mowing clients."³² An owner with "1500 customers and over 30 employees" told a beginner to "use Free Yardbook to get started."³³ The complaints are about the phone: "No "official" app for it on IOS," and "having to constantly log back in after every property" (2024);³⁰ "terrible mobile device integration for owner and employees," from an owner with four full-time crew members (December 2025).³⁴

Free plans also change or go away. An owner wrote in October 2025 that LawnPro was free "up until you have over 50customers"; its pricing page says 25 now.^{37, 9} Another had used "the free version of QuoteIQ but they recently discontinued the free edition of the service" (May 2025).³⁶ And on LawnSite in 2016: "I put my eggs in a free one; learned it, used it, loved it...and its shutting down this month."³⁵ Whichever you pick, keep a copy of your customer list outside the app.

I found almost nothing from owners about ProBase, LawnBoss, CrewNest or LawnBook yet, and one owner who'd tried Lawn Buddy: "I have used yardbook, jobber, and lawn buddy. I like all but have gone back to yardbook for the price."³⁸

The nine free plans, one at a time

The order is my call: how much of a mowing business each free plan runs before you hit a cap or a fee, then how long the tool has been around. If your situation weights those differently, the table above is there to re-sort.

Yardbook Starter: the most for $0, with ads and a card fee

Yardbook's free Starter plan lists customer management, jobs and scheduling, estimates, invoices, routing, expenses, reports, lot measurement, employee access, credit card payments, snow removal and a product catalog.¹ Jobs can be scheduled once or set to repeat, and the routing is pitched as "one-click route optimization."² No customer or job cap appears on the plan page. Yardbook says the free plan runs on "a sponsored ad business model similar to Google and Facebook," and its $49.99 Enterprise plan is billed as "Quickbooks sync, no ads."^{1, 2}

Three catches. Online card payments go through Stripe at 2.9% + 30¢, and Yardbook adds a 1% processing fee on accounts that aren't premium, so a card payment on the free plan costs 3.9% + 30¢ (you can pass it to the customer).³ GPS tracking, automatic invoice reminders and bulk texts are on Business at $34.99 a month, which also waives the 1%.¹ And the plan page lists web access and an Android app; Yardbook's help center says the iPhone app "is currently in Beta" and you email support for an install link.^{1, 2} Yardbook claims over 20,000 companies on it, and its copyright line starts in 2013.^{1, 2}

ProBase: everything free, paid for by marketplace jobs

ProBase has one plan and it costs nothing: scheduling and route management, quotes and estimates, invoicing and online payments, tip collection, customer records, service history, Google review requests and team access for crew members.⁴ You set a mowing schedule once and "ProBase pre-builds the whole season," weekly, biweekly or on a custom interval, and the scheduler has "drive-time optimization built in."⁶ The home page promises no customer cap, no credit card and both iPhone and Android, with payments through your own Stripe account at "standard processing rates only."⁶

How it stays free, in its own words: "We're a marketplace, not a software company." ProBase is connected to LawnStarter, Lawn Love and Home Gnome, shows their jobs on your schedule next to your own customers, and takes a commission on the ones you accept. Taking them is optional.⁵ Its "honest note" says it's leaner than Jobber, with "no enterprise dispatch," and aims at "1–5 crews and 50–200+ stops a week."⁵ Weigh the age, though: probaseapp.com was registered in December 2025,¹⁷ so nobody has a full season on it yet. Its FAQ says your customer data exports as CSV, so export it now and then.⁵

LawnBoss: no subscription, $1 per card-paid invoice

LawnBoss says everything is free: scheduling, the customer records, invoicing, QuickBooks sync, AI property estimates from satellite imagery, crew payroll, fleet tracking, estimates, contracts, route optimization, review requests and referrals. Its scheduler handles recurring jobs and promises to "auto-reschedule around rain in one tap."¹⁵ There's no subscription. When a customer pays an invoice by card, LawnBoss gets $1 on top of the normal processing fee, and part of that $1 goes back to users who refer others.¹⁵

The founders say they're four lawn care owners funding it themselves, and that "approximately $19 remained" in its operating account at the end of 2025.¹⁵ That's unusually open, and it's also the risk: a free tool run on founder money and $1 fees lasts as long as the founders want it to. The lawnboss.app domain dates from August 2025.¹⁷

Lawn Buddy Lite: free for one person, paid for in card fees

Lawn Buddy's Lite plan is "free forever, not a trial," needs no card, and covers "the basics for one person: customers, scheduling, invoicing, and QuickBooks sync."⁸ On Lite, jobs can be recurring, one-time or multi-day, a finished job can send its invoice automatically, and customers can prepay or go on a subscription.⁷ Phone support from its team in Wichita comes with the free plan, and they'll import your customer list for you.⁸

The card rate is how Lite pays for itself: 4.8% + 30¢ per card payment, against 3.8% on Standard ($12 a month) and 2.9% on Pro ($39) and Exclusive ($78). You can pass it to the customer.^{7, 8} Lite has no estimates; those start on Standard, along with aerial site measuring. Route optimization, crew logins and crew GPS start on Pro, which has unlimited users.^{7, 8} The app has been on the App Store since February 2017, with 222 ratings averaging 4.0 on November 10.¹⁷

LawnPro Solo: quotes and a client portal, up to 25 customers

LawnPro's Solo plan is $0 for one user and up to 25 customers, with recurring and one-time scheduling, quotes, invoices with online payments, a client portal, time tracking, level billing (flat monthly billing contracts), reporting and the mobile app. No credit card. QuickBooks sync and one-click route optimization are paid add-ons on Solo.⁹

Twenty-five customers is a part-time route. Customer 26 means Startup at $39 a month, or $29 billed annually, with unlimited customers and 3 employee logins; optimized routes come included on Grow at $129 ($99 billed annually), where the DeepLawn measuring add-on is offered too.⁹ The pricing page doesn't list card fees. Its footer reads "© 2003–2026," the oldest of the nine.⁹ Owner reports are few and mixed: one recommended the free plan to a beginner in October 2025, and a LawnSite owner on it in December 2024 complained of "so many issues" and that "they just switched to a different payment company instead of stripe."³⁷

CrewNest Free: satellite measuring on the free plan, 3 estimates a month

CrewNest is lawn care, pressure washing and snow removal software from Kinetic Labs in Oakville, Ontario. Its free plan has unlimited customers and jobs, invoicing with online card payments, an online booking page and customer portal, recurring jobs and route planning, and up to 3 estimates and 10 satellite measurements a month, for one user, as an installable web app. Online card payments cost 2.9% + 60¢ on USD invoices.¹⁴

Three estimates a month is the limit you'd hit first, in spring, when the quotes go out. Pro is $29.99 a month or $290 a year with unlimited estimates, measurements and team members; its 14-day trial asks for a card.¹⁴ The domain was registered in January 2026.¹⁷ If snow is the reason you're looking, the prices come before the app: snow removal pricing has a calculator for per push and seasonal contracts.

ServiceM8 Free: 30 jobs a month, and how to count them

ServiceM8 isn't a lawn app. It's general field service software from Australia, but its Free plan is real: one user, 30 new jobs a month, quotes, invoices, scheduling and payments, with the recurring-jobs add-on and the Auto Routing add-on (one click to reorder a staff member's day) on every plan, Free included. Every card payment you take through ServiceM8 earns a bonus job credit, with no cap.¹⁰

The cap counts job numbers, not visits. ServiceM8's help center: "you can schedule, invoice or quote a job as many times as you like and it will only incur one fee."¹¹ So one job card per lawn, kept open for the season and booked each week, fits 30 customers. The recurring-jobs add-on works the other way: it re-creates the job each time,¹⁰ so a weekly lawn set up that way takes 4 or 5 credits a month, and 30 credits cover about 7 lawns unless card payments top them up. Starter is $29 a month for 50 jobs with unlimited users.¹⁰ More on its plans is in the ServiceM8 pricing breakdown.

Zoho FSM Free: 20 users, 30 appointments, no repeat rule

Zoho FSM's free edition is "a free-forever plan" with up to 20 users and 30 appointments and 30 invoices a month, plus requests, estimates, work orders, invoicing and payments, and the mobile app.¹² Twenty free logins is a lot for a crew.

It's built for appointment-based service work, and that shows on a mowing route. The free edition has no map view (that's Standard) and no maintenance plans, Zoho's scheduled repeat work, which start on Professional.¹³ So each weekly cut is an appointment someone books by hand, and 30 a month is about 7 weekly lawns. Standard is $30 a month for 60 appointments; Professional, with maintenance plans, is $45.¹³

LawnBook Free: a sample, with the cheapest paid step

LawnBook is an app for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, on the App Store since March 2026.^{16, 17} Its free plan is a sample: up to 15 clients, 10 jobs and 5 invoices a month, with estimates, scheduling and map measurement included. Route optimization, the web version and Stripe card payments start on Pro at $9.99 a month or $79.99 a year.¹⁶ It meets the rule, so it's here, but a real route runs on Pro, the cheapest paid step of the nine.

Free lawn care scheduling apps: recurring mowing and the route

A mowing schedule is the same stops every week, and the work is in the exceptions: the rain day that pushes Tuesday into Wednesday, the customer who skips a week in August, the new lawn that has to fit between two old ones. A free scheduling app has to do three things: build the season once from a repeat rule (weekly, every other week), move a day without rebuilding it, and put the stops in a sensible order.

Rain is what owners ask about. "Say I have a yard to cut on Tuesdays and it rains. Do I push it back to the next dry day then resume the following Tuesday?" The answers: "I push it to the next day," with Fridays left open to catch up, or a window you give customers up front, "7-10 days depending on weather" for weekly lawns and "12-16 days" for biweekly.³⁹ In a wet spring none of it holds: "It rained 21 of 31 days in May ... Just impossible to keep a schedule this year."³⁹ On route order, one owner said Yardbook's optimizer "works great," then: "I don't think it takes traffic or busy streets into account though, so you may need to refine it a bit."⁴⁰

On repeat rules, eight of the nine free plans have one. Zoho's free edition doesn't, and ServiceM8's add-on spends a job credit per visit. On route order, Yardbook, ProBase and LawnBoss put route optimization on the free plan, ServiceM8 offers its Auto Routing add-on on every plan, and CrewNest has route planning. Lawn Buddy keeps it for Pro at $39 a month, LawnPro sells it as an add-on or includes it from Grow, and LawnBook keeps it for Pro.^{1, 6, 7, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16} For rain, only LawnBoss's page promises a one-tap reschedule.¹⁵ For the others, try moving a whole day in the first week, before the route depends on it.

Free lawn care estimate apps and measuring a lawn

When I checked Google's results for "free lawn care estimate app" on November 9, 2026, two of the top three were YardQuote Pro and Deep Lawn, measuring and quoting tools that charge for their plans. Deep Lawn, the satellite measuring and online quoting tool, starts at $120 a month for 40 property searches, then $2.50 each.²⁷ QuoteIQ, which sells satellite measuring inside a field service app, starts at $29.99 a month after a 14-day trial.²⁶ YardQuote Pro is a free download whose plans are in-app subscriptions: Basic $2.99, Pro $9.99 and Unlimited $19.99 a month, with a 7-day trial on Pro.²⁸

The free way to measure is Google Earth: its measure tool draws a shape around the lawn on the satellite image and gives you the area and the perimeter.²⁹ Some free plans have measuring built in, so the square footage lands on the customer record: Yardbook Starter (lot measurement), CrewNest Free (10 satellite measurements a month), LawnBook Free (map measurement) and LawnBoss (AI estimates from satellite imagery).^{1, 14, 16, 15} Lawn Buddy puts aerial measuring on Standard at $12 a month, and LawnPro offers DeepLawn as an add-on from Grow.^{8, 9}

Owners mostly measure for free and still drive by. "Google earth to get area and perimeters then dump it into excel formulas. Along with viewing the property for any other variables."⁴¹ On Yardbook's built-in tool: "Much easier than Google Maps imo."⁴¹ In an April 2026 thread on measuring, another owner: "The only way to quote is to see it with your own eyes. Ease of mow matters more than sq footage."⁴¹ And when a LawnSite owner's measuring service went to "$99 a month plus," the reply was: "You can use google earth pro online version and its free. Never pay for a measuring service."⁴²

Measuring gives you square feet; the price per cut is a separate job. The lawn care pricing chart has what owners charge per cut by lot size, per application and per acre, and a free sheet that works your price out from your minutes and costs. To turn one lawn's square footage into minutes per visit and a season quote, use the free lawn care quote template.

Invoicing and getting paid on a free plan

Lawn owners bill one of two ways: per cut, or a flat monthly amount spread over the season. The free plans handle both differently. LawnPro Solo has level billing (flat monthly contracts), Lawn Buddy Lite has subscriptions, prepay and an invoice that sends itself when the job is done, and ProBase sends a payment link with every completed job.^{9, 7, 6} Yardbook keeps its automatic invoice reminders for Business.¹

Owners split on how. "I charge per cut and send an invoice at the end of the month. Usually there are 4 to 5 cuts on it."⁴³ "Have done monthly billing for the last 10 years and have rarely had anyone pay later than 30 days."⁴³ Others want the card: "Card on file. Automatically charge after each visit," because with monthly billing, "if someone does screw you over, they got 4-5-6 services for free before you decide to stop cutting." In the same July 2026 thread, a 20-year mower: "I let them pay however they want to, cash, Venmo, check at the end of the month. I've never had any problems in over 20 years of mowing."⁴⁴ On card fees, in an October 2026 thread about weekly billing: "You're supposed to pass that along to the Customer," from an owner with "over 100 clients set up that way." A solo owner with 91 accounts on fixed annual pricing: "I don't take cards."⁴⁵

Card fees are where several free plans make their money, so it's worth doing the sum on a typical bill. On a $180 monthly mowing bill paid online by card:

• Lawn Buddy Lite, 4.8% + 30¢: $8.94.⁷
• Yardbook Starter, Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ plus Yardbook's 1%: $7.32.³
• Square's free plan, 3.3% + 30¢ on invoices paid online: $6.24.¹⁸
• CrewNest, 2.9% + 60¢: $5.82.¹⁴
• Stripe's standard 2.9% + 30¢, which is what Yardbook Business and Lawn Buddy Pro charge: $5.52. ProBase says "standard processing rates" without printing the number.^{3, 7, 6}
• LawnBoss: its processing fee plus $1.¹⁵

Yardbook and Lawn Buddy let you pass the fee on to the customer on the free plan; CrewNest's page says its fee comes out of your payout.^{3, 7, 14} A check or Zelle costs you nothing in any app, and Square's free plan charges 1% (minimum $1) when a customer pays an invoice by bank transfer.¹⁸

Free apps that cover one piece: Square, Connecteam, Homebase

Connecteam and Homebase rank on Google's first page for these searches, and owners bring up Square in billing threads. Each is free for real. None of them runs a mowing route on its own, which is why they're not in the table.

Square is the free invoicing option. Its free plan sends unlimited invoices, sets up recurring invoices on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly schedule, does estimates, and keeps a card on file, at 3.3% + 30¢ for cards paid online.¹⁸ A monthly lawn bill fits it well, and one owner likes that it "adds or removes the card fee as needed plus gives them an option for a tip."⁴⁵ It has no route and no crew schedule built for one, so the schedule lives somewhere else.

Connecteam's Small Business Plan is free for up to 10 users with a time clock, job scheduling for your employees and forms.¹⁹ Homebase's Basic plan is free for one location and up to 10 employees, with basic scheduling and time tracking.²⁰ Both are for the crew side: who works when, and for how many hours. Neither sends a customer a quote or an invoice.

No free plan: Jobber, GorillaDesk, Service Autopilot, LMN, Housecall Pro

The best-known lawn care software has no free plan. If someone tells you Jobber is free, they mean the trial.

• Jobber: a 14-day trial with the Grow plan's features and no card. Core is $29 a month billed annually or $49 month to month, for one user, and each extra user is $29 a month.²¹ Every plan and user band is in the Jobber pricing breakdown.
• GorillaDesk: a 14-day trial, no card. Priced per route: Basic is $49 a month for the first route, with basic routing up to 25 stops.²² More in the GorillaDesk pricing breakdown.
• Service Autopilot: a free trial, then Startup at $49 a month plus a sign-up fee, at annual rates; route optimization is on Pro at $199.²³
• LMN: Starter from $297 a month for one office or crew lead license and five crew member licenses, sold through a demo.²⁴
• Housecall Pro: from $59 a month, with a 14-day trial.²⁵ Plans and per-user fees are in the Housecall Pro pricing breakdown.

A trial is still useful: two weeks is enough to load a route and see whether the schedule fits how you work. Start one in the off-season and the clock runs out before the first cut of the year.

When a free plan stops being enough

Three things end a free plan, and you can see each coming.

The cap. A weekly lawn is 4 or 5 visits a month, so a cap on visits, jobs or invoices goes fast. Zoho's 30 appointments and ServiceM8's 30 jobs (with the recurring add-on) both run out at about 7 weekly lawns. LawnPro Solo stops at 25 customers, LawnBook Free at 15 clients and 5 invoices a month, CrewNest Free at 3 estimates a month.^{13, 10, 9, 16, 14} Yardbook, ProBase, LawnBoss and Lawn Buddy Lite have no customer or invoice cap on their pages.

The second person. Lawn Buddy Lite, LawnPro Solo, ServiceM8 Free and CrewNest Free are one login. The first helper who needs the day's stops on their own phone moves you to Lawn Buddy Pro at $39, LawnPro Startup at $39 ($29 annually) for 3 employees, ServiceM8 Starter at $29, or CrewNest Pro at $29.99.^{7, 9, 10, 14} Yardbook, ProBase, LawnBoss and Zoho (up to 20) let more people in for free.

The card fee. On the plans that fund themselves through card payments, the "free" plan gets more expensive as more customers pay by card. Take a route of 40 lawns at $180 a month, all paid by card: $7,200 a month. Yardbook's extra 1% is $72 a month, about double the $34.99 Business plan that removes it; the break-even is about $3,500 a month in card payments. Lawn Buddy Lite's 4.8% against Pro's 2.9% is $136.80 a month on that route, against Pro's $39; the break-even is about $2,050 a month, or $1,200 a month for Standard at $12 and 3.8%. LawnBoss's $1 per card-paid invoice is $40 a month on 40 monthly bills.^{1, 3, 7, 15}

Owners tell the same story. On Yardbook's fee: "If your charging over 3500$ per month then sign up for yardbook premium for 35$ per month and save the 1% fee that they charge for their strip integration."³³ Another: "I was using the free version up until my third season, then I added a subscription to reduce processing fees."³² Others left for features. One switched to Jobber "so customers could log in and view their service schedule and invoices"; another "used yardbook for a long time and it worked great. Just got too much work now and need better systems."⁴⁶ The paid step is where small routes balk: "Jobber entry level plan at $60 mo after the 1st year discount is also ridiculous for a basic plan."³⁸ And a solo Service Autopilot user on LawnSite, in September 2026: "it has went from 76 a month to like 240 a month."⁴⁷

Run your own numbers before the season. If the upgrade costs less than the fee or the workaround, it's time.

Deepsel, our own software, and why it isn't in the list

We build Deepsel, so it sits here and not in the table or the picks. A ranking that puts the writer's own product on top isn't worth much. Deepsel is free estimate, invoice and scheduling software for home-service contractors, lawn care among them: scheduling and dispatch, quotes, invoicing, card and bank payments, customer and equipment records, and checklists your crew fills in at each visit.

The free plan has unlimited users, 30 estimates and 30 invoices sent a month (the shop's calendar month), unlimited customers and every core feature, with no card to sign up. Weekly or every-other-week mowing runs as a recurring job series on Free: you set the repeat rule on the job once, the visits are made 12 months ahead, and when you move one you choose this visit only or this and the following ones. Pro, at $29 a month, takes the caps off estimates and invoices and adds online booking, Google review requests, estimate templates and the service plans module, which bills a treatment program monthly or yearly to a card on file and counts the rounds owed against the rounds done. Max, at $59, adds texting with customers.

Where the free plans above beat it for lawn care:

• No route optimization, at any price, and no crew GPS. Yardbook, ProBase and LawnBoss put route optimization on the free plan.
• No lawn measuring or property map. Yardbook, CrewNest and LawnBook measure on their free plans; with Deepsel you measure in Google Earth and work the price out yourself.
• One invoice per finished visit. A series invoices each cut on its own, and one invoice for a month of cuts isn't built yet. On Free, a weekly lawn billed per cut uses 4 or 5 of the 30 invoices a month, so the cap covers about 7 weekly lawns. Yardbook, ProBase, LawnBoss and CrewNest don't cap invoices.
• Card payments cost 3.3% + 30¢ online on every plan: less than Lawn Buddy Lite's 4.8% or Yardbook Starter's 3.9%, more than the Stripe rate of 2.9% that Yardbook Business and Lawn Buddy Pro pass through. Bank payments are 1%, capped at $15.
• No iPhone or Android app yet: it runs in the phone's browser, and the apps are coming to Max. No QuickBooks sync yet (also coming to Max), and no texting on Free or Pro.
• It's newer than all nine tools above, so you won't find years of LawnSite threads about it.

Where it fits: a lawn business with a few people who each need a login, a small route billed per cut, and quotes that go out in spring, all on Free. Past about 7 weekly lawns billed per cut, Pro is $29 a month with unlimited users and no caps on estimates or invoices. Lawn Buddy Pro, at $39, has route optimization, which Deepsel doesn't. Prices are on the pricing page, and the free field service software comparison covers free plans across trades.

How this comparison was made

On November 10, 2026, I read the pricing page, plus the help or FAQ pages where the pricing page left a gap, for every tool on this page, and for the App Store apps the store listing. The rule for the table: a $0 plan with no end date on which a lawn business can schedule customer visits and send invoices. For the owners' side I read 62 Reddit threads and 13 LawnSite threads and quoted owners only, not anyone selling software. The columns are the things those owners ask about: repeat jobs, route order, quotes, measuring, card fees, the phone app and what the first upgrade costs. "Since" comes from the copyright line on the vendor's site, the App Store release date, or the domain's registration date, whichever is oldest and checkable. I signed up for nothing, so where a page didn't say (card fees on LawnPro and ServiceM8, ProBase's exact rate), the table says so. I build Deepsel, which is why it's out of the table and the picks and has its own section. If a fact here is wrong or out of date, email me and I'll fix it.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a completely free app for a lawn care business?

Yes, a few, and each is paid for some other way. Yardbook's Starter plan has scheduling, estimates, invoices, routing and lot measuring for $0, with ads and an extra 1% on online card payments. ProBase has no paid plan at all and earns a commission when you take LawnStarter, Lawn Love or Home Gnome jobs through it. LawnBoss has no subscription and keeps $1 of every invoice a customer pays by card. Lawn Buddy Lite, LawnPro Solo, ServiceM8, Zoho FSM, CrewNest and LawnBook have free plans with a cap on users, customers, jobs or estimates.

Is Jobber free for lawn care?

No. Jobber has a 14-day free trial with the Grow plan's features and no card, then Core starts at $29 a month billed annually or $49 month to month, for one user, with each extra user $29 a month. GorillaDesk, Housecall Pro and QuoteIQ also have 14-day trials. Service Autopilot offers a free trial and charges a sign-up fee on its plans, and LMN sells through a demo.

What's the best free app to measure a lawn for an estimate?

Google Earth on a computer measures an area from satellite imagery for free, and that's what a lot of owners quote from. Inside a business app, Yardbook's free plan has lot measurement, CrewNest's free plan gives 10 satellite measurements a month, and LawnBook's free plan has map measurement. Deep Lawn, a paid satellite measuring and online quoting tool, starts at $120 a month for 40 property searches.

Is Yardbook really free?

The Starter plan is free with no end date and no customer cap on its plan page. Yardbook pays for it with ads and a 1% processing fee on top of Stripe's 2.9% + 30 cents when customers pay online. Business, at $34.99 a month, adds GPS tracking and automatic invoice reminders and drops the 1% fee; Enterprise, at $49.99, adds QuickBooks sync and removes the ads. There's an Android app; the iPhone app is in beta, by request from Yardbook support.

When should a lawn care business pay for software?

When the free plan's cap or its card fee costs more than the upgrade. On Yardbook, the 1% card fee passes the $34.99 Business plan once customers pay about $3,500 a month by card. On Lawn Buddy, Lite's 4.8% card rate costs more than Pro at $39 once card payments pass about $2,050 a month. On capped plans it's the day the route outgrows the cap: 25 customers on LawnPro Solo, about 7 weekly lawns on Zoho's 30 appointments, or the first helper who needs a login on a one-user plan.

Sources

1. Yardbook pricing page - Starter "FREE": "Customer Management, Jobs & Scheduling, Estimates, Invoices, Routing, Expenses, Reports, Lot Measurement, Employee Access, Credit Card Payments, Snow Removal, Product Catalog"; Business $34.99/month: "Bulk Emails, Bulk Text Messages (Twilio Integration), GPS Tracking, Automatic Backup, Automatic Invoice Reminders, Multi-step Chemical Program, Customized Lead Capture, Yardbook Processing Fee Waived"; Enterprise $49.99/month: "Quickbooks Sync, no ads," "Branded Company Portal"; "All plans include web & desktop access, and Android mobile app access"; "©2013-2026 Yardbook." yardbook.com/pages/pricing, retrieved November 10, 2026.
2. Yardbook home page: "OVER 20,000 COMPANIES ARE USING YARDBOOK"; "Yardbook has a sponsored ad business model similar to Google and Facebook." yardbook.com. Route optimization page: "Schedule one job at a time or repeat," "One-click route optimization." yardbook.com. Help center, "iOS App for iPhones": "Yardbook has an Android app and an iOS app. The iOS app is currently in Beta. Please contact our support team for an install link." support.yardbook.com. All retrieved November 10, 2026.
3. Yardbook help center, "Credit Card Payments": "Stripe charges 2.9% for credit card processing and 30 cents per swipe"; "For premium paid accounts (Business Plan and Enterprise Plan), this is the only fee"; "Yardbook will charge a 1% processing fee for online payments for non-premium accounts. This is in addition to the Stripe fees"; fees can be passed on to customers. support.yardbook.com, retrieved November 10, 2026.
4. ProBase pricing page: "$0 per month, forever"; "One plan. Everything included"; "Scheduling & route management, Invoicing & online payments, Tip collection, Quotes & estimates, Customer management, AI service notes, Service history & job records, Google review requests, ... Team access — add crew members"; "No credit card · No expiration · No upgrade needed." probaseapp.com/pricing, retrieved November 10, 2026.
5. ProBase, "Why Is ProBase Free?": "We're a marketplace partner"; marketplace integration with LawnStarter, Lawn Love and Home Gnome, "Picking up a job is optional," "When you do take a job, ProBase earns a share of it"; "Honest note: ProBase is leaner than Jobber, Skimmer, or Pool Brain — fewer bells and whistles, no enterprise dispatch"; "If you're running 1–5 crews and 50–200+ stops a week, ProBase covers what you actually use every day"; "Your customer data exports as CSV." probaseapp.com, retrieved November 10, 2026.
6. ProBase home page: "Free forever. No trial. No credit card"; "No customer cap"; "Works on iPhone and Android"; "Drag-and-drop scheduling with drive-time optimization built in"; "Standard processing rates only, no surcharge"; "Every completed job sends a payment link." probaseapp.com. Scheduling page: "Set up a mowing schedule once and ProBase pre-builds the whole season. Weekly, bi-weekly, or custom intervals." probaseapp.com. Both retrieved November 10, 2026.
7. Lawn Buddy features and pricing page: Lite $0, "4.8% plus $.30 on all CC payments," Standard $12 (3.8%), Pro $39 and Exclusive $78 (2.9%), each "can be passed to purchaser"; on every plan: recurring, one-time or multi-day jobs, automatic invoicing, subscriptions, prepay, QuickBooks integration; route optimization, crew assignment and crew GPS on Pro and Exclusive; site measurement and estimate options from Standard. lawnbuddy.com, retrieved November 10, 2026.
8. Lawn Buddy FAQs: "The Lite plan is free forever, not a trial"; "Lite covers the basics for one person: customers, scheduling, invoicing, and QuickBooks sync. Standard adds aerial site measurement ... Pro adds crews — route optimization, real-time crew tracking, and unlimited users"; "The way Lite is funded is through card processing"; "Starting on our Standard plan, you can build project estimates"; "Phone support is included on every plan, including the free Lite plan"; free customer import. lawnbuddy.com/faqs, retrieved November 10, 2026.
9. LawnPro pricing page: Solo $0, "1 user," "Up to 25 customers," job scheduling, quotes, invoices and online payments, client portal, time tracking, "Level Billing & Service Contracts" ("flat-rate monthly billing contracts"), mobile app; "The Solo plan is completely free — no credit card required"; Startup $39/month ($29 billed annually), unlimited customers, 3 employees; Grow $129 ($99), "Optimized Routes & Route Analytics," "AI Measurements (DeepLawn) – Add-on"; Optimized Routes and QuickBooks Sync listed as add-ons on lower plans; "© 2003–2026 LawnPro Software." lawnprosoftware.com/pricing, retrieved November 10, 2026.
10. ServiceM8 free plan page: "1 User," "Create up to 30 new Quotes & Work Orders each month, or earn unlimited jobs"; "every time you take a card payment via ServiceM8 & Stripe (in the app, or online), you earn a Bonus Job credit"; recurring jobs: "Create a job once and set it to re-create and schedule itself over time, automatically." servicem8.com/us/free-plan. US pricing page: Free $0, Starter $29 with 50 jobs and unlimited users; Recurring Jobs and Auto Routing ("optimise a staff member's route and schedule for the day") "Available in All Plans"; "iOS & Android apps." servicem8.com/us/pricing. Help center, "How to use ServiceM8 for Android": "The ServiceM8 iOS and Android apps are nearly identical." support.servicem8.com. All retrieved November 10, 2026.
11. ServiceM8 Help Center, "What counts as a job credit?": "you are charged one job credit per job number. This means you can schedule, invoice or quote a job as many times as you like and it will only incur one fee." support.servicem8.com, retrieved November 10, 2026.
12. Zoho FSM, free edition page: "Our Free Edition is a free-forever plan"; "This edition supports up to 20 users and includes 30 appointments and 30 invoices every month." zoho.com/fsm. Pricing page: Free plan with requests, estimates, work orders, invoicing and payments, mobile app. zoho.com/fsm/pricing. Both retrieved November 10, 2026.
13. Zoho FSM plan comparison: Map View from Standard; Maintenance Plans (scheduled maintenance) from Professional. zoho.com/fsm. Zoho help, "Editions and Pricing": Standard 30.00 USD, Professional 45.00 USD, Premium 55.00 USD billed monthly, for 60 appointments a month. help.zoho.com. Both retrieved November 10, 2026.
14. CrewNest pricing page: Free Forever $0/month: "Up to 3 estimates/month, Up to 10 satellite measurements/month, Unlimited customers & jobs, Invoicing & online card payments, Online booking page & customer portal, Recurring jobs & route planning, ... Installable mobile app (PWA), 1 user only"; Pro $29.99/month or $290/year, unlimited estimates, measurements and team members; "The Pro trial asks for a card"; "Online card payments cost 2.9% + USD 0.60 for USD invoices"; "CrewNest is a product of 1001545511 ONTARIO LIMITED, operating as Kinetic Labs, Oakville, Ontario." crewnest.app/pricing, retrieved November 10, 2026.
15. LawnBoss, "Free Lawn Care Software & CRM": "Scheduling, the customer CRM, invoicing, QuickBooks sync, AI property estimating, crew payroll, fleet tracking, estimates, contracts, route optimization, review requests, and referrals are all included at no cost"; "Schedule recurring jobs ... auto-reschedule around rain in one tap." lawnboss.app. "Why Is LawnBoss Free?" (last updated 2026-10-01): "When a LawnBoss contractor's customer chooses to pay an invoice by credit card, LawnBoss receives $1"; "Normal credit-card processing fees are separate"; "LawnBoss has four owners"; "At the end of 2025, approximately $19 remained in LawnBoss's operational budget/account." lawnboss.app. Both retrieved November 10, 2026.
16. LawnBook home page, pricing and plan comparison: Free "$0 Forever," "Up to 15 clients, Up to 10 jobs, 5 invoices per month"; invoicing and estimates, job scheduling, "Map measurement & mulch calculator" on Free; "Route optimization & copy schedule," "LawnBook on the web" and "Stripe Connect payments" from Pro, $9.99/month or $79.99/year; "iPhone, iPad & Mac," "Android." lawnbook.app, retrieved November 10, 2026.
17. Track-record dates, checked November 10, 2026: App Store release dates and ratings from Apple's iTunes Search API (US store): ServiceM8 July 31, 2010; Lawn Buddy Management Software February 28, 2017 (222 ratings, 4.0); Zoho FSM June 30, 2020; LawnBook March 6, 2026; YardQuote Pro March 11, 2026. Domain registration dates from RDAP: probaseapp.com December 4, 2025; lawnboss.app August 12, 2025; crewnest.app January 17, 2026. Copyright lines: Yardbook "©2013-2026" (source 1), LawnPro "© 2003–2026" (source 9).
18. Square, Invoices pricing: Square Free $0/month; "Send unlimited invoices ... Set up recurring invoices to send on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly schedule"; estimates; card on file; online card payments "3.3% + 30¢" on Free; ACH bank transfer via invoice "1%, $1 min." squareup.com, retrieved November 10, 2026.
19. Connecteam pricing: "Small Business Plan ... all hubs and all features*, entirely free for up to 10 users," "$0 Free for life"; the Operations Hub includes "Time Clock, Job Scheduling, Forms." connecteam.com/pricing, retrieved November 10, 2026.
20. Homebase pricing: Basic "$0 / location / month for 1 location, up to 10 employees," "Basic scheduling, Basic time tracking." joinhomebase.com/pricing, retrieved November 10, 2026.
21. Jobber pricing page: "For 14 days you get full access to all of Jobber's features on the Grow plan—no credit card required"; Core, 1 user, $49/mo with no commitment, $29/mo billed annually; "Add users for $29/mo each." getjobber.com/pricing, retrieved November 10, 2026.
22. GorillaDesk pricing page: "GorillaDesk is priced per route, not per user ... 14-day free trial, no credit card"; Basic $49/mo for the first route; "Basic Routing (limited to 25 stops)." gorilladesk.com/pricing, retrieved November 10, 2026.
23. Service Autopilot pricing page: "All pricing is based on annual subscription rates"; "Get FREE Trial"; Startup $49/mo "+ sign up fee"; Pro $199/mo "+ sign up fee," with route optimization. serviceautopilot.com/pricing, retrieved November 10, 2026.
24. LMN pricing page: LMN Starter "Starting at $297 /mo*," "Includes 1 office/crew lead license & 5 crew member licenses"; "Book a Demo." golmn.com/pricing, retrieved November 10, 2026.
25. Housecall Pro pricing page: "From $59/mo — 14-Day Free Trial." housecallpro.com/pricing, retrieved November 10, 2026.
26. QuoteIQ pricing page: "QuoteIQ pricing starts at $29.99 per month"; "Every plan has a 14-day free trial." myquoteiq.com/pricing, retrieved November 10, 2026.
27. Deep Lawn pricing page: Launch $120/month, 40 monthly searches, extra searches $2.50 each; "Every property you quote uses one search." deeplawn.com/pricing, retrieved November 10, 2026.
28. App Store, "YardQuote Pro: Lawn Estimator" (F&N Lawn Care Solutions LLC): "Free · In-App Purchases"; Basic $2.99, Pro $9.99, Unlimited $19.99; version 1.4.0 notes "Added a 7-day free trial for Pro." apps.apple.com, retrieved November 10, 2026.
29. Google Earth Help, "Measure distances and areas in Google Earth." support.google.com, retrieved November 10, 2026.
30. r/LawnCarePros, "What do you dislike about your current lawncare management software?", May 25-26, 2024: "I currently just use cashapp since it's free but I wouldn't mind paying for something like that. Even if you did a bare bones type service without bells and whistles for loke $20-30 a month" (reddit.com); on Yardbook: "having to constantly log back in after every property. No "official" app for it on IOS." (reddit.com). Checked November 10, 2026.
31. r/LawnCarePros, "How do lawn businesses usually handle recurring schedules?", February 4, 2026: "I maintained 150 lawns on a reoccurring basis ... I used my notes on my phone. I listed lawns in order (my route) on a master list" (reddit.com); "I put a check in the box of we mowed it, a dash through it if we skipped it, and I have a separate column to mark if they paid or not" (reddit.com). Checked November 10, 2026.
32. r/LawnCarePros, "Yardbook vs jobber," March 2025 to May 2026: "I've personally used the free version of Yardbook for my one-man mowing operation in a Chicagoland suburb. Going on my 5th season now. I currently have 36 biweekly or weekly mowing clients." (May 18, 2026, reddit.com); "I was using the free version up until my third season, then I added a subscription to reduce processing fees." (March 9, 2025, reddit.com). Checked November 10, 2026.
33. r/LawnCarePros, "Wanna start a lawn care business - need advice from yall," January 2026: "If your charging over 3500$ per month then sign up for yardbook premium for 35$ per month and save the 1% fee that they charge for their strip integration." (reddit.com); "We have 1500 customers and over 30 employees ... use Free Yardbook to get started." (reddit.com). Checked November 10, 2026.
34. r/landscaping, "CRM suggestions?", December 14, 2025 (an owner with four full-time crew members): "Yardbooks has terrible mobile device integration for owner and employees." reddit.com, checked November 10, 2026.
35. LawnSite, "Any good (preferably free) lawn care iphone apps?", February 2016: "I put my eggs in a free one; learned it, used it, loved it...and its shutting down this month." lawnsite.com, read November 10, 2026.
36. r/LawnCarePros, "What invoicing service do you guys use?", May 2, 2025: "I've got like 10-15 clients and previously used the free version of QuoteIQ but they recently discontinued the free edition of the service." reddit.com, checked November 10, 2026.
37. r/LawnCarePros, "Advice for just starting business," October 21, 2025: "I use lawnprosoftware free up until you have over 50customers." reddit.com. LawnSite, "Copilot CRM???", December 23, 2024: "I'm currently using Lawn Pro, but as we all know they have so many issues and they just switched to a different payment company instead of stripe." lawnsite.com. Both read November 10, 2026.
38. r/LawnCarePros, "looking for new software": "I have used yardbook, jobber, and lawn buddy. I like all but have gone back to yardbook for the price." (October 29, 2024, reddit.com); "Jobber entry level plan at $60 mo after the 1st year discount is also ridiculous for a basic plan." (March 8, 2025, reddit.com). Checked November 10, 2026.
39. r/LawnCarePros, "Question about scheduling," May 6, 2024: "Say I have a yard to cut on Tuesdays and it rains. Do I push it back to the next dry day then resume the following Tuesday?" (reddit.com); "I push it to the next day ... I also leave Fridays open." (reddit.com). "rain and rain outs," April 15, 2025: "I tell my weekly clients 7-10 days depending on weather. I tell bi-weekly clients 12-16 days depending on weather." (reddit.com). "Wet grass," June 17, 2025: "It rained 21 of 31 days in May ... Just impossible to keep a schedule this year" (reddit.com). Checked November 10, 2026.
40. r/LawnCarePros, "Need some help on best route planning software," March 2, 2024: "Yardbook works great. I don't think it takes traffic or busy streets into account though, so you may need to refine it a bit." reddit.com, checked November 10, 2026.
41. r/LawnCarePros, "How do you guys estimate square footage for new quotes?", April 8, 2026: "The only way to quote is to see it with your own eyes. Ease of mow matters more than sq footage." (reddit.com); "Google earth to get area and perimeters then dump it into excel formulas. Along with viewing the property for any other variables" (reddit.com). "AI Lawn Measurement Tools," March 9, 2026: "Yardbook has a yard measurement feature built into the free version. Much easier than Google Maps imo" (reddit.com). Checked November 10, 2026.
42. LawnSite, "Lawn Measuring Apps," February 2025: "I've been using go ilawn for years but they are raising their prices to $99 a month plus."; reply: "You can use google earth pro online version and its free. Never pay for a measuring service." lawnsite.com, read November 10, 2026.
43. r/LawnCarePros, February 14, 2026 (the post has since been deleted; the comment is live): "I charge per cut and send an invoice at the end of the month. Usually there are 4 to 5 cuts on it." (reddit.com). "Monthly Billing," May 5, 2025: "Have done monthly billing for the last 10 years and have rarely had anyone pay later than 30 days." (reddit.com). Checked November 10, 2026.
44. r/LawnCarePros, "Looking for advice from experienced lawn care/business owners: what are your best practices for making sure customers pay on time?", July 25, 2026: "Card on file. Automatically charge after each visit." (reddit.com); "I let them pay however they want to, cash, Venmo, check at the end of the month. I've never had any problems in over 20 years of mowing." (reddit.com). Checked November 10, 2026.
45. r/LawnCarePros, "Weekly lawn billing is where the card fees add up," October 27, 2026: "Why are you eating the fee? You're supposed to pass that along to the Customer. ... I have over 100 clients set up that way nobody says anything." (reddit.com); "All my accounts are on fixed annual pricing. 5% discount if they pay upfront. I am solo with 91 accounts which is max. ... I don't take cards." (reddit.com); "We use square, so it adds or removes the card fee as needed plus gives them an option for a tip and just the tips can be an extra $1000 a month." (reddit.com). Checked November 10, 2026.
46. r/LawnCarePros, "Billing, receiving payment, invoicing," November 4, 2025: "swapped to Jobber so customers could log in and view their service schedule and invoices" (reddit.com); r/LawnCarePros, April 26, 2026 (the post has since been deleted; the comment is live): "I used yardbook for a long time and it worked great. Just got too much work now and need better systems" (reddit.com). Checked November 10, 2026.
47. LawnSite, "Business Management Software," September 26, 2026 (a solo operator): "i've used service auto piolt for the past 12 years or so. solo operation. it has went from 76 a month to like 240 a month." lawnsite.com, read November 10, 2026.
48. LawnSite, "How do you handle invoicing and payments? (research, not a pitch)," July 6, 2026: "this mafket is completely flooded with people who think they are gonna develop the best software and save us all from invoicing or measuring a yard" lawnsite.com, read November 10, 2026.