Cleaning is not a trade job.
Tell us how your recurring work runs. We will shape the software around that, not around a quote.
hello@crayon.softwareTRADES AND FIELD SERVICE
Fergus is a New Zealand product with real local standing and 25,000 plus trades businesses on it. The question for a cleaning company is whether a trades platform is the right shape for recurring service work.
Last checked 17 September 2026
Fergus is built in Auckland for trade businesses: electricians, plumbers, builders, HVAC and roofers. Basic starts from $53 a month and Professional from $75, with Enterprise for 10 or more staff quoted on request. Timesheet users, contractor users, SMS and certificates are charged on top.
Crayon is built around recurring service delivery rather than the trade job. The local advantage Fergus has is genuine. The model advantage is the other way around.
THE DIFFERENCE
Every product on this page is a fixed shape. Where it matches how you work, it works well. Where it does not, you change how you work, pay a developer, or bolt on another tool. Crayon is the proven core for bookings, customers and payments, and the AI changes it when you ask. Rename what things are called. Add the field every job has to carry. Change what a button says.
SIDE BY SIDE
Figures come from each vendor’s own pricing page, read on the date shown. Entry price is the cheapest published plan.
| Fergus | Crayon | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Trades: electrical, plumbing, building, HVAC, roofing | Service businesses, operations first |
| Entry price | From $53 a month | $99 a month for the first year |
| Charged on top | Timesheet users, contractor days, SMS, certificates | Included in the plan |
| Core workflow | Quote, materials, purchase orders, job phases | Recurring cleans, extras and packages |
| Change the software itself | Settings and feature requests | Ask, review the change, approve it |
| Strongest at | New Zealand trades, local trust, large installed base | Fitting a business that does not run standard |
OUTGROWING IT
Fergus is very good at what it is for. The mismatch shows up as constant small translation.
A trades platform used by a cleaning company works, in the way that a van works as a removal truck. Crayon starts from recurring service delivery, and anything still named or shaped wrong is a sentence away from being changed.
PRICING
Figures come from each vendor’s own pricing page, read on the date shown. Entry price is the cheapest published plan.
Fergus publishes these figures without stating a currency on its pricing page.
USD. Crayon is in early access, so this is founding pricing.
THE HONEST PART
KEEP COMPARING
Strong local trades product with unlimited users. Priced by jobs per month, which is the wrong meter for recurring cleaning.
Compare →Auckland built and well liked, priced per user. A cleaning team is the most expensive kind of team to buy seats for.
Compare →Commercial and project heavy. Publishes no prices at all: every number comes from a sales conversation.
Compare →The biggest name in the trades. Does not list cleaning among the industries it serves, and does not publish a price.
Compare →Or see every comparison, what Crayon costs on pricing, and how changing it works on the AI.
Every figure above about Fergus comes from these pages, read on 17 September 2026.
Tell us how your recurring work runs. We will shape the software around that, not around a quote.
hello@crayon.software