If you run a trades business in Canada, you probably need three things from software: a way to quote and invoice, a way to organize your crew's days, and a way to keep your books and tax filings clean. GetMarkup, Jobber, and FreshBooks each start from a different one of those jobs. Jobber is field service software built around scheduling and dispatch. FreshBooks is invoicing and accounting software. GetMarkup is a quoting, invoicing, and compliance tool built around Canadian construction rules like proper invoices, holdbacks, lien deadlines, and T5018 reporting.

This is a research-based comparison. We did not use any of the three hands-on, including GetMarkup. Everything below comes from each company's public pricing pages, help documentation, and FAQs, plus the relevant Ontario and CRA sources, all checked in September 2026.

Quick answer

Pick GetMarkup if you are a solo trades contractor or small outfit doing construction work in Canada, you mostly need quotes, invoices, and compliance paperwork (proper invoices, holdbacks, lien deadlines, T5018), you want CAD pricing, and you already have a separate way to schedule your days and keep your books.

Pick Jobber if your hardest problem is running the day: booking jobs, scheduling and dispatching a crew, sending reminders, and getting paid on site. It is the most complete field service tool of the three. It bills in USD, and its site does not document Canadian construction compliance features like holdback or T5018 tracking.

Pick FreshBooks if you want invoicing and real accounting in one place, priced in CAD, with an ecosystem of accountants who already know it. It is a better fit for trades that bill service calls or small jobs than for contractors who need lien and holdback tracking.

Plenty of businesses combine them: a scheduling tool, an accounting tool, and possibly a compliance tool. Whether that is worth paying for depends on how much of your work falls under construction payment rules.

FeatureGetMarkupJobberFreshBooks
Entry paid plan, monthly billingCAD $49 (Solo)USD $49 (Core, 1 user)CAD $26 (Lite, 5 clients)
Free planYes (2 active projects)
Billed in CAD
Free trial, no credit card28 days of Plus14 days30 days
Scheduling and dispatchNot stated
Double-entry accountingPlus plan and up
QuickBooks Online syncRoadmap, not availableConnect plan and upNot applicable (is the ledger)
Built-in payment processing
Ontario proper-invoice formattingNot statedNot stated
Holdback and lien deadline trackingPlus planNot statedNot stated
T5018 subcontractor trackingPlus planNot statedNot stated
Native mobile appNo (mobile web, app announced)
GetMarkup vs Jobber vs FreshBooks on public information. Regular monthly list prices, September 2026. Not stated means we could not find it documented on the vendor's site.

Pricing: what each costs in Canada

GetMarkup publishes three plans in CAD, with GST/HST added based on your billing province. Free is CAD $0 with 2 active projects, quotes, invoices, and clients. Solo is CAD $49/month with 10 active projects. Plus is CAD $89/month with 25 active projects and the compliance tools covered below. The pricing page says annual billing saves up to 18%, and shows a welcome offer of 50% off the first three months on monthly plans (a promotion, not the regular price). The pricing FAQ says every new account starts with 28 days of Plus and no credit card, and drops to the Free plan if you do not add a card.

The main limit is active projects. GetMarkup does not cap invoices, but it caps how many projects, quotes, invoices, and clients you can have active at once. The published plans cover up to 25 active jobs at a time.

Jobber prices in USD, and its pricing page says so. On monthly billing with one user, Core is USD $49/month, Connect is USD $139/month, and Grow is USD $199/month, with extra users at USD $29/month each. Plus is sold through Jobber's sales team. Jobber also offers a 14-day free trial of Grow features with no credit card. For the full breakdown of team bundles and add-ons, see our Jobber vs Housecall Pro comparison.

FreshBooks Canada prices in CAD: Lite at CAD $26/month for 5 billable clients, Plus at CAD $42/month for 50, and Premium at CAD $72/month for unlimited clients. Extra team members are CAD $13/month each. It offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card. FreshBooks often shows a deep first-term discount on its pricing page, which we have ignored here.

Scheduling, dispatch, and running the day

This is Jobber's strength. Jobber is built around the job schedule. Every Jobber plan includes online booking and scheduling, quotes, invoices, and a client hub. Higher plans add automated reminders, job costing, two-way texting, and on Plus, crew scheduling.

FreshBooks is not a scheduling tool. It has time tracking and projects, but it is not built to dispatch techs.

GetMarkup's public site does not describe scheduling, dispatch, routing, or a job calendar. The Plus plan includes a crew directory and timesheets, which cover people and hours rather than scheduling. If you send two or more trucks to several jobs a day, Jobber is the tool documented for that.

Quoting and client approval

All three handle quotes (FreshBooks calls them estimates).

GetMarkup describes an AI-assisted quote builder on the Plus plan: you type scope notes, it suggests line items based on your trade and labour rates, and you review every line before sending. Its FAQ says Markup is not liable for pricing errors and to confirm with a site visit. Clients open a no-login portal link to e-sign quotes and change orders and see a deposit request. Converting an accepted quote to an invoice is included from the Solo plan up, and change orders and milestone billing are on Plus.

Jobber includes quotes on every plan and a client hub. Grow adds quotes with photos, optional line items for upsells, and job costing.

FreshBooks includes estimates on every plan. Proposals and e-signatures start on the Plus plan, per its Canadian pricing page.

Accounting, payments, and your bookkeeper

FreshBooks wins on accounting depth. Its Plus plan and up include double-entry accounting, bank reconciliation, and accountant access, and it accepts card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and pre-authorized debit payments. If you want one tool that both bills clients and keeps your books, FreshBooks is the only one of the three that does both.

Jobber is not accounting software. It processes payments through Jobber Payments and syncs with QuickBooks Online and Xero from the Connect plan up. Its QuickBooks Online sync is documented as available in Canada.

GetMarkup is also not accounting software, and says so plainly: its about page states it is not a general ledger and does not replace your accountant or bookkeeping software. It does not process payments at all. Its FAQ says customers pay you directly by e-Transfer, cheque, card, or cash, and you mark the invoice paid, so Markup charges no transaction fee. It also means there is no built-in online card payment through GetMarkup. For your books, every plan exports invoices, payments, and clients as CSV, Solo adds an expense tracker, and Plus adds read-only accountant access and a GST/HST return working paper by filing period. A direct QuickBooks connection is listed as on the roadmap.

What GetMarkup does that the others don't

This is the reason GetMarkup exists, so it is worth being precise about the rules it is built around, what the law actually says, and what GetMarkup claims to track.

Proper invoices and the 28-day payment clock (Ontario)

Ontario's Construction Act defines a "proper invoice" in section 6.1. It must include your name and address, the invoice date and the period or milestone it covers, the contract or purchase order it relates to, a description of the services or materials, the amount payable and payment terms, and who payment should be sent to. Under section 6.4, an owner must pay a proper invoice no later than 28 days after receiving it, unless within 14 days they give you a notice of non-payment explaining what they dispute and why. Since the 2024 amendments, an invoice missing required details is deemed proper unless the owner tells you in writing what is missing within 7 days.

GetMarkup says every invoice is formatted to qualify as a proper invoice under section 6.1, and province-aware proper-invoice formatting is listed on every plan, including Free. It also sends late-payment reminders at days 7 and 14. Jobber and FreshBooks let you customize invoices, but neither documents Construction Act proper-invoice formatting.

These rules apply to construction contracts under Ontario's Act. Other provinces have their own payment legislation, and some parts are not yet in force, so check the rules where you work.

Holdbacks and lien deadlines

Section 22 of Ontario's Act requires each payer on a contract or subcontract to retain a holdback equal to 10% of the price of services or materials supplied. Liens also expire if you do not preserve them in time: under section 31, a contractor's lien generally expires 60 days after the contract is completed, abandoned, or terminated (or after substantial performance is published), and a subcontractor's can run from the date they last supplied services or materials.

GetMarkup's Plus plan lists holdback tracking (Ontario and BC, 10%) and a lien deadline tracker for every province. Its homepage says the holdback is tracked as its own liability. Neither Jobber nor FreshBooks documents holdback or lien deadline tracking on its pricing page.

T5018 subcontractor reporting

The CRA requires businesses whose primary source of income is construction (more than 50% of business income) to report payments to subcontractors on a T5018 when the total paid to a subcontractor in the period is more than $500, not counting GST/HST. The return is due six months after the end of the reporting period.

GetMarkup's Plus plan lists T5018 subcontractor tracking with CSV export and a subcontractor payment log. Its FAQ says Plus generates CRA-ready T5018 reports. Neither Jobber nor FreshBooks documents T5018 reporting.

WSIB and WCB clearance

GetMarkup's Plus plan also lists a WSIB/WCB clearance tracker, for keeping track of your subcontractors' workers' compensation clearance certificates. Neither competitor documents this.

When another tool fits better than GetMarkup

We make it, so here are the cases where we think another tool is the better fit:

  • You dispatch a crew. GetMarkup's site does not describe scheduling or dispatch. Jobber does this and GetMarkup does not claim to.
  • You run more than 25 active jobs at once. The top published plan caps at 25 active projects, quotes, invoices, and clients.
  • You want online card payments built in. GetMarkup does not process payments. Jobber and FreshBooks both do.
  • You want one tool for invoicing and bookkeeping. GetMarkup is not a ledger. FreshBooks is.
  • You need a QuickBooks sync today. GetMarkup lists it as on the roadmap. Jobber documents one that works in Canada.
  • You want a native mobile app. GetMarkup runs in the phone browser. Its FAQ says native apps are coming, with no date. Jobber and FreshBooks have iOS and Android apps.
  • You do mostly service calls, not construction contracts. If you are a residential cleaner or a lawn care company, holdbacks, liens, and T5018 may never apply to you, and you would be paying for tools you do not use.
  • You work in Quebec or need French. GetMarkup's site is in English, and it has province pages for Ontario, BC, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Atlantic Canada, but none for Quebec. Confirm before you sign up.
  • You want a long track record. GetMarkup is a newer, smaller product than Jobber or FreshBooks, with a more focused feature set and no public integration marketplace.

GetMarkup pros and cons

GetMarkup

Strengths

  • Invoices formatted as Ontario proper invoices on every plan
  • Holdback, lien deadline, T5018, and WSIB/WCB tracking on Plus
  • Priced in CAD with a free plan and a 28-day Plus trial, no card
  • No transaction fees, since it does not handle your money
  • Toronto-based company

Good to know

  • Focused on quotes, invoices, and compliance; scheduling and dispatch not described
  • Works alongside your accounting software via CSV; QuickBooks sync is on the roadmap
  • Customers pay you directly, so there are no built-in online payments
  • Plans cover 2, 10, and 25 active projects
  • Runs in the mobile browser; native apps announced
  • Newer and more focused than Jobber or FreshBooks, and it is our product

GetMarkupOur product

4.0
Visit GetMarkup

Jobber pros and cons

Jobber

Strengths

  • Full field service workflow: booking, scheduling, quotes, invoices, payments
  • Headquartered in Edmonton
  • QuickBooks Online sync documented as available in Canada
  • Built-in payment processing
  • 14-day free trial, no credit card required

Good to know

  • Billed in USD
  • Holdback, lien, and T5018 tracking not documented
  • QuickBooks sync starts on the Connect plan
  • Crew scheduling is on the Plus plan

Jobber

4.5

FreshBooks pros and cons

FreshBooks

Strengths

  • Priced in CAD by a Toronto company
  • Double-entry accounting and bank reconciliation from the Plus plan
  • Built-in online payments
  • Proposals and e-signatures on Plus
  • 30-day free trial, no credit card required

Good to know

  • Built for invoicing and accounting rather than scheduling or dispatch
  • Construction compliance features not documented
  • Lite covers 5 billable clients and Plus covers 50
  • Extra team members cost CAD $13/month each

FreshBooks

4.5

Can you use them together?

Yes, and for some businesses that is the realistic answer. Jobber can run your schedule and sync to QuickBooks Online. FreshBooks can be your books. GetMarkup does not integrate with either on its public site today, so pairing it with another tool means entering jobs twice or moving data by CSV. Factor that in, and start with the one tool that solves your most expensive problem. If you are still choosing books, our FreshBooks vs QuickBooks comparison and best invoicing software for Canadian contractors review cover the options.

Our verdict

If you dispatch a crew to several jobs a day, choose Jobber: it is the only one of the three built for scheduling, and it syncs with QuickBooks Online in Canada, though it bills in USD. If you want invoicing and bookkeeping in one CAD-priced tool and do not need construction compliance tracking, choose FreshBooks. If you are a contractor working under construction contracts and your pain is getting paid on time, protecting lien rights, tracking holdbacks, and filing T5018s, GetMarkup is the only one of the three that documents those features, and its free plan and 28-day trial make it cheap to check. We build GetMarkup, so weigh that last recommendation accordingly, and try each tool with a real job before you commit.

Frequently asked questions

Is GetMarkup a replacement for Jobber?

Not for most crews. GetMarkup's public site describes quoting, invoicing, and compliance tracking, but it does not describe scheduling, dispatch, or route planning. If you dispatch techs to several jobs a day, Jobber covers that and GetMarkup does not say it does.

Is GetMarkup a replacement for FreshBooks or QuickBooks?

No. GetMarkup's own about page says it is not a general ledger and does not replace your accountant or bookkeeping software. It exports CSV files and gives your accountant read-only access on the Plus plan. A direct QuickBooks connection is listed as on the roadmap, not available.

Which of the three bills in Canadian dollars?

GetMarkup and FreshBooks Canada publish prices in CAD. Jobber is headquartered in Edmonton but its pricing page says all prices are in USD.

What is a proper invoice under the Ontario Construction Act?

Section 6.1 of the Act lists what a proper invoice must contain, such as your name and address, the invoice date and billing period, the contract reference, a description of the work, and the amount and payment terms. Under section 6.4, the owner must pay a proper invoice within 28 days unless they send a notice of non-payment within 14 days.

Do I have to file a T5018?

If more than 50% of your business income comes from construction activities and you pay a subcontractor more than $500 in the reporting period (not counting GST/HST), the CRA says you must report those payments. The return is due six months after the end of the reporting period.

Sources