Cost breakdown
What a plumber's software actually costs in South Africa (2026)
Real rand prices for a one-van trades business: accounting, job tracking, card fees, email and WhatsApp, with totals for one person and for five.
· 4 min read · prices checked 14 September 2026
Every “best software for plumbers” list is written for the United States and quotes dollars. This one is for a South African trades business, in rand, from the vendors’ own price lists, checked on the date above. Where a vendor bills in dollars we say so, because that changes with the exchange rate every month.
We make Boetbook, so we appear in one row. We’ve kept our thumb off the scale everywhere else.
The stack most one-van businesses end up with
You need five things: somewhere to keep clients and jobs, a way to quote and invoice, a way to take card payments, an accounting package for your accountant and SARS, and email that isn’t a Gmail address. WhatsApp is the sixth, and it’s free.
| Need | Common choice | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clients, jobs, quotes, invoices | Boetbook Free | R0 | 2 seats, 100 clients, 5 invoices a month, quotes unlimited |
| Boetbook Professional | R299/month flat | 25 seats, unlimited invoices, inventory | |
| Jobber Core | $49/month billed monthly ($29 annual) | 1 user included, $29 per extra user, billed in dollars | |
| Accounting | Sage Accounting Start | from R240/month | Single user, listed by Sage’s SA resellers, VAT included |
| Sage Accounting Standard | from R435/month | 2 users | |
| Xero Starter | R450/month after a 3-month intro at R90 | 20 invoices and 5 bills a month, VAT included | |
| Xero Standard | R795/month after intro | Unlimited invoices | |
| Card payments | Yoco Khumo 2 | R699 once, then 2.3% per tap (ex VAT), falling to 1.2% with volume | No monthly fee, no contract |
| Business email | Google Workspace Business Starter | about $7 per user per month, billed in dollars | Roughly R130 to R180 depending on the rand that month, plus VAT |
| Messaging | WhatsApp Business | R0 | The app, not the API |
Sage’s own pricing page blocks automated readers, so the Sage figures come from its listed South African resellers on the same day. Everything else is from the vendor’s own page.
Worked total: one person, one van
Most solo tradespeople don’t need paid job software at all, and they don’t need Xero Standard.
| Item | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Boetbook Free | R0 |
| Sage Accounting Start | R240 |
| Yoco fees on R40,000 of card takings at 2.3% plus VAT | about R1,060 |
| Google Workspace, one user | about R170 |
| WhatsApp Business | R0 |
| Total | about R1,470 a month, of which R1,060 is card fees |
The thing that jumps out is that card fees dwarf every subscription. If a third of your customers pay by EFT instead, the card line drops by a third. Putting your bank details and a reference on every invoice is worth more than any software choice on this page.
Worked total: five people, two vans
At five people the per-user tools start to bite, and the per-business tools don’t.
| Item | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Boetbook Professional (covers all five, and the next twenty) | R299 |
| Sage Accounting Standard | R435 |
| Yoco fees on R150,000 of card takings, blended around 1.8% plus VAT | about R3,100 |
| Google Workspace, five users | about R850 |
| Total | about R4,700 a month |
For comparison, five people on Jobber Core is $49 plus four times $29, so $165 a month, billed in dollars. At R18 to the dollar that’s close to R3,000 for the job software alone, before accounting or email. On Jobber Grow, which is the tier with the scheduling most teams actually want, it’s $199 plus $116, or about R5,700.
Where the money really goes
- Card fees, always. Negotiate volume rates once you pass R100,000 a month, and push EFT for large invoices.
- Per-user email. Google Workspace is fine, but at five people it costs more than your accounting package. Not everyone on the crew needs a mailbox.
- Accounting tier creep. Xero Starter’s twenty-invoice cap forces busy businesses to Standard at R795. Sage Start has no invoice cap. If your accountant doesn’t insist on Xero, that’s R555 a month.
- Per-user job software. This is the line Boetbook exists to remove, so weigh our oboetbook accordingly, but the arithmetic is on the page.
What we’d tell a friend
Start on free tools: Boetbook Free, WhatsApp Business, a Yoco machine, and a spreadsheet for the accountant if you’re under the VAT threshold. Pay for accounting software the month your accountant asks for it. Pay for job software the month you hit the invoice cap or hire someone. Pay for business email when a customer’s spam filter eats a quote.
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