A Housecall Pro alternative built for home service

Housecall Pro is a field-service suite for home-service companies: estimates, scheduling and dispatch, invoices and payments, a mobile app for the crew, and a stack of optional add-ons. Puffly is a smaller, earlier piece of the day: the lead, the call you missed, and the follow-up.

If you are reading this because Housecall Pro feels like more software than you need, or because it does not yet answer the phone the way you want, this page lays out what each product publicly offers as of October 21, 2026, where Housecall Pro is the better answer, and where a free CRM with missed-call text back covers the gap.

Housecall Pro’s site describes three plans, called Basic, Essentials and MAX as of October 21, 2026. Even the entry plan lists scheduling and dispatch, estimates, invoices and payments, and review management. The higher plans add more users and more automation, and the top plan is sold through a demo. There are no long-term contracts according to the site, and a free trial is offered on the top plan.

Around the plans sits a long list of add-ons: an AI customer service rep for calls and chat, a pipeline tool, a phone system, marketing campaigns, payroll, websites, a sales proposal tool and accounting. If you want one vendor for the whole back office of a plumbing, HVAC, electrical or cleaning company, that breadth is the point, and Puffly does not compete with it.

Puffly is not a dispatch board. It is a CRM that starts with the call. A tracking number rings through to your normal phone. If you miss the call, a text goes out on its own, the caller is logged as a lead, and the thread lands in one inbox. The text respects consent and quiet hours, goes once per caller per day, and you choose the words.

Puff Voice is the AI receptionist. It answers from the services, hours and questions you give it, takes a message when it is unsure, sends you a transcript and summary, and passes the call to you if the caller asks for a person. It is a paid add-on. The CRM underneath it is free to start, with leads, contacts, deals, tasks and your own branded lead form.

Housecall Pro lists a lower rate when you pay annually and a higher one month to month, and the number of included users rises by plan. Add-ons, including the AI rep and the phone system, are billed on top, and card processing carries its own fees. Because the totals depend on which of those you switch on, we do not print them here.

To compare, write down the plan you would need, the add-ons you would actually use for calls, and your user count. Total that on their plans page, then compare it with a free Puffly CRM plus whichever Puff Voice or Puff Text plan you want. Many small shops find the answer depends on whether they need dispatch and invoicing in the same product.

Choose Housecall Pro if you run several techs, dispatch daily, send estimates from the truck and want payments in the same app. Choose Puffly if you are a smaller crew, you already have a way to invoice, and the real leak is calls and leads that go cold. Use both if you like Housecall Pro for the work and want Puffly’s lead inbox and missed-call text in front of it.