LoadingLoadingLoadingLoadingTradify works well for a one-to-five-person trade business. The reasons people switch to Cushty cluster around what happens after that — when a template-led app, per-user pricing and shallow management views stop scaling with the team.
Tradify is good at being Tradify. The reasons people switch are usually about scale, configurability and predictability — not about basic features.
| Criterion | Tradify | Cushty |
|---|---|---|
| Best fit | Solo and small teams (1–5) | Growing UK service businesses (10–30) |
| Setup mindset | Template-led — configure within fixed limits | Configured to your workflow during onboarding |
| Pricing model | Per user, per month — grows with hires | Per business — doesn't punish growth |
| Support | Tickets and help articles | Real onboarding by people who care whether it works for you |
Most of these reasons aren't about features. They're about the gap between 'this works for me on my own' and 'this works for a team that's growing'.
Tradify assumes every trade business runs the same way. For a sole trader, that's a feature — it's fast to set up and you don't need anything more. For a 15-person team with its own quoting process, dispatch logic, approval steps and reporting questions, the template starts to feel like a cage. Cushty is configured to how your business actually works during onboarding — not the other way around.
Every time you hire, the bill goes up. Hiring is the moment a tool should make life easier, not the moment your software bill jumps. Cushty's pricing is per business, so the cost of running operations doesn't track the size of your team — and the decision to hire isn't subtly slowed by software cost.
Tradify is built mobile-first for the tradesperson on the job. That's right for the field, but it leaves office managers, dispatchers and owners with limited views, light reporting and weak workflow controls. Cushty treats the field, the office and the owner as three different roles with three different views — built for the work each one actually does.
Once you're trying to answer 'which jobs lost money', 'which engineer is over-quoting', or 'where is cash actually stuck', Tradify's reporting runs out of road. Cushty's reporting is built for the operational questions a growing business actually asks — and it's not gated behind a higher tier.
The honest version. Where Tradify is competitive, we say so.
| Feature | Tradify | Cushty |
|---|---|---|
| Job and work-order management | Solid basics, simple linear workflow | Configurable workflow, multi-stage approvals, custom statuses |
| Scheduling and dispatch | Calendar view, manual drag-and-drop | Calendar + map + dispatch rules, team- and skill-aware allocation |
| Quoting | Standard templates, basic line items | Multi-page quotes, scope notes, variations, signed acceptance |
| Invoicing and CIS | Good basic invoicing, CIS supported | Invoicing with CIS, retentions, applications for payment, staged billing |
| Client and site records | Contact-style, light history | Full CRM with notes, job history, site records, asset register |
| Reporting | Standard reports out of the box | Custom reports, profit-by-job, engineer profitability, cash-flow views |
| Onboarding | Self-serve, help articles | Real onboarding done with you, configured to your workflow |
| Pricing model | Per user, per month | Per business, doesn't punish hiring |
Not every business should switch. Here's where Tradify wins and we'll tell you so on a discovery call.
Tradify is designed for this end of the market and it's good at it. You don't have the volume or complexity to justify a configured tool, and a template-led app that works out of the box is the right call. Come back to us when you're hiring your fifth person.
If your business runs on a clean 'quote → job → invoice' line with no variations, approvals or sub-contractors, Tradify covers that workflow well and switching to a more configurable tool is overkill. Configurability has a cost — only pay it if you'll actually use it.
If your Xero or QuickBooks flow is humming, your team knows the app, and the only complaint is occasional friction, switching for the sake of switching isn't worth it. Migrate when there's a real reason — a team-size step-change, a new service line, or a reporting question you genuinely can't answer.
A realistic version of the first 90 days. No fairy tale.
Discovery call. Honest assessment of whether Cushty is the right move. If it isn't — and we tell you that — you've spent 45 minutes and got a second opinion on your operational stack. If it is, we scope the configuration to your actual workflow before any data moves.
Configuration and data import. Your jobs, clients and quote history come across. Your workflow gets reflected in the tool — your statuses, your approval steps, your dispatch rules. Each role on your team gets trained on the views built for that role, not the same generic dashboard.
Quoting and invoicing live, jobs running in Cushty, Tradify wound down. Reporting starts surfacing the questions you actually couldn't answer before. You stop being the bottleneck for things that should run on rules. A realistic timeline — not a marketing claim.
Book a 30-minute walkthrough — we'll show you how Cushty fits your business. No commitment, no contract until you choose to subscribe.
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