TapBook blog: guides for trade businesses

Is hipages worth it for tradies? The real cost per job

It can be, if you answer leads within minutes and win enough of them. hipages plans cost $139 to $649 a month plus GST, you pay in credits for each lead you accept whether you win the job or not, and most leads go to up to three tradies. Work out your cost per booked job before you sign, and read the contract terms: the first term is 6 months, then it renews for 12.

What hipages costs

hipages publishes its plans on its membership page (hipages, checked 28 September 2026). Prices are per month, plus GST.

Paying yearly takes 5% off. There's also a larger plan for businesses with 10 or more staff, and a $29 plan with job tools but no leads.

How the leads work

• Most leads are shared. "No more than three tradies can accept a job lead," hipages says (hipages FAQ). Some categories have leads only one tradie can accept.
• You pay to accept, not to win. Credits come off when you accept a lead, whether or not the customer picks you.
• The price of a lead moves. hipages says the credits a lead costs can change daily, weekly or monthly, and until the job is marked as hired.
• Bad leads can be reported. Within 7 days of accepting, you can report a lead that isn't genuine, such as a duplicate or wrong contact details. If hipages agrees, it credits it back. A lead you simply lose isn't refunded.

The contract

From hipages' business terms (dated 11 August 2026, for businesses joining or renewing from 1 June 2026):

• The first term is 6 months, then it renews automatically for 12 months. hipages sends a reminder at least 2 weeks before, and you can turn auto-renew off at any time.
• You get 7 days to cool off when you join and at each renewal, but accepting a lead waives it.
• Cancel early and the fee is the subscription for the rest of the term, due straight away.

In 2023 hipages gave the ACCC a court-enforceable undertaking after the ACCC found it had likely misled tradies about automatic renewals and early termination fees between 2018 and 2022 (ACCC). The terms are clearer now, but read them before you sign.

Work out your cost per booked job

hipages doesn't publish what a lead costs in dollars or how many leads tradies win, so you need your own numbers. The sum is simple:

Cost per booked job = what you pay a month ÷ jobs you win from it a month

An example, with made-up but realistic numbers: on the Advanced plan at $249 a month, say you accept 12 leads. With up to three tradies on most leads, winning 1 in 3 is good going: 4 jobs, or about $62 a job. Win 1 in 5 and it's about 2 jobs, or around $104 a job, before GST and your time spent quoting.

Third-party guides put the cost per lead at $25 to $80 and typical win rates at 1 in 5 to 1 in 3 (20 Minute Marketing). They're estimates, not hipages' figures.

Then compare it with what a job is worth to you. A $62 lead cost on a $3,000 switchboard upgrade is cheap. On a $150 tap washer, it's most of the margin.

When it's worth it

• You're new and need jobs before your name and reviews build up.
• You answer fast. With up to three tradies on a lead, a slow call-back often loses the job.
• Your jobs are big enough that a shared lead is still worth paying for.
• You track it. You know how many leads you accepted and how many turned into paid work.

When it isn't

• You're on the tools all day and can't return a lead within the hour.
• Your jobs are small, so the lead cost eats the margin.
• You're busy already from referrals and Google, and hipages leads mean quoting against two others on price.

What tradies say

On ProductReview.com.au, hipages has 3.7 stars from 9,395 reviews (checked 28 September 2026), most from homeowners who posted jobs. Reviews from tradies mention auto-renewals, cancelling and rising lead costs most. They're single experiences, but worth reading before you sign.

Your own channel, alongside or instead

Many tradies use hipages for volume and build their own channel alongside it: customers who find them on Google, book on their website, and come back. Those bookings aren't shared with anyone and don't cost a credit.

That's what TapBook does. Customers tap Book online on your Google profile, through Reserve with Google, or book from your website, and the job lands in your inbox. See how it works.

Missed call text back: never lose a job to voicemail

A missed call doesn't have to be a lost job. Set your business phone to divert to TapBook's assistant when you don't answer, and it takes the call, texts the caller your booking link, and lets them book a time themselves, or takes a call-back for you. You choose which calls it takes: only when nobody answers, only when the line's busy or unreachable, or every call to that number.

Why a missed call is the moment that matters

A customer who calls a trade business usually has a job that needs doing soon: a burst pipe, a car that won't start, power out to half the house. If nobody answers, most don't leave a voicemail and wait. They call the next number on the list.

You can't always answer. You're under a car, up a ladder, or driving between jobs. The fix isn't answering every call, it's making sure a missed one still turns into a booking.

How it works

TapBook's assistant sits behind your business number. You choose how calls reach it, by diverting your phone:

• No answer. Calls only go to the assistant after ringing out.
• Busy. Calls go to it when you're already on another call.
• Unreachable. Calls go to it when your phone's off or out of range.
• All calls. Every call goes straight to it, and you never see your phone ring.

Most businesses divert on no answer, so calls still reach a person first.

When the assistant takes a call, it's built from your booking page: your services, your hours, your address and phone, and answers to common questions you've set for your business. It tells the caller it's a virtual assistant and that the call's being transcribed.

For most calls, it texts the caller your booking link so they can pick a service and a time themselves. If they'd rather you called back, it takes their name and number for a call-back. It flags anything urgent for you instead of trying to handle it, so a real emergency doesn't sit in a queue.

What you see afterwards

Every call gets a summary in your TapBook inbox: how long it went, what the caller needed, and whether the link was texted, a call-back was wanted, or it was flagged urgent. You can open the transcript to read exactly what was said, for 90 days, after which it's deleted and only the summary stays. If the assistant couldn't answer at all, you get a missed-call alert instead.

That means you're never chasing "who called at lunchtime". You mark the booking as normal, from the same inbox as your Google and website bookings.

When it earns its keep

• After hours. Set it to answer everything outside your working hours, so a caller at 8pm still gets your booking link instead of a ringing phone.
• Mid-job. Divert on no answer, so calls you can't get to during a job still get a text back within a minute, not whenever you next check your phone.
• Busy periods. A morning rush of calls doesn't mean the fourth caller gives up and rings someone else.

What it isn't

It's not a call centre and it's not trying to be a human. It answers plainly, gets the caller to a booking link or a call-back, and flags what needs you. For a routine "can you fit me in this week", that's often faster than waiting for a return call.

TapBook's assistant is part of Front of house, alongside your booking page and two-way texting. See how it works.

ServiceM8 vs Tradify vs Fergus: pricing compared

ServiceM8, Tradify and Fergus are job-management tools: quoting, scheduling, invoicing and dispatch for your team. None of them are built to bring in new customers from Google or your website. ServiceM8 is the exception on booking: it has a real customer-facing booking widget built in. Tradify and Fergus don't. All three are worth running alongside a tool that handles the customer-facing side.

Prices below are from each company's own Australian pricing pages, checked 28 September 2026. Check current prices before you sign up, since plans and prices change.

ServiceM8

Unlimited users on every plan: ServiceM8 charges by job volume, not headcount. It includes an online booking feature that shows customers your services, an instant quote and available times, factoring in staff schedules and travel time, with an optional deposit. A 14-day trial needs no card, and there's no lock-in contract.

Tradify

Tradify prices per user with no unlimited-user tier, so cost climbs with headcount. It has enquiry forms for capturing leads and lets customers accept or decline quotes online, but no live-availability booking page: a customer can't pick a time slot themselves. A 14-day trial is available, month to month with no lock-in contract.

Fergus

The listed price covers a limited seat allocation; extra field staff cost roughly $26 a user a month more. Fergus has no customer-facing booking widget on its marketing pages. A 14-day trial needs no card, with a discount for paying yearly.

Where a booking tool fits in

All three help you run the job once it exists: quote it, schedule it, invoice it. None of them, except ServiceM8's own widget, give a customer searching for you on Google a way to book without calling. That's a different job: getting found, and turning that into a confirmed time on your calendar, before the work ever reaches your job-management tool.

• If you use Tradify or Fergus: neither gives customers a way to book online. A separate booking page fills that gap, and you still enter the job into Tradify or Fergus once it lands.
• If you use ServiceM8: its booking widget covers online booking well for straightforward jobs. A separate tool is worth it if you want two-way texting, automatic reminders and review requests, or an after-hours phone assistant alongside it, since ServiceM8's plans are built around job management first.

None of the three currently show a Google Business Profile or Reserve with Google booking integration on their own pages, so getting a customer from a Google search straight into a booking is a separate piece either way.

What tradies say

On Capterra, ServiceM8 sits around 4.5 out of 5 from 300+ reviews, Tradify around 4.6 to 4.7, and Fergus around 4.6 from 150+ reviews (checked 28 September 2026). Common complaints: ServiceM8 users mention support response times; Tradify users note per-user cost adding up for bigger teams; Fergus users mention slower support escalations. These are individual reviews, not a controlled study.

TapBook's place in this

TapBook is a booking page and inbox, not a job-management tool. It sits in front of whichever one you use: a customer books from your Google profile, your website, or a text after a missed call, and the job lands in your TapBook inbox with reminders, review requests and after-hours answering handled automatically. Moving that booking into ServiceM8, Tradify or Fergus for the actual job is still a manual step today. See how it works.