Koira vs ServiceTitan for a solo or small shop

ServiceTitan comes up in almost every conversation about trade software, and for good reason: it is a deep, serious system used by large HVAC, plumbing and electrical companies. It is also built for a different size of business than most one-truck shops. This page compares the two for a shop of one to three people, using only what ServiceTitan's own public pages say, checked October 8, 2026, and what Koira's pricing and feature pages say.

Who ServiceTitan is built for

ServiceTitan's homepage calls it "the #1 software for commercial and residential trades" and "AI software for commercial and residential trades." It lists a wide range of trades: HVAC and mechanical, plumbing, electrical, roofing, landscaping, pest control, refrigeration, fire and life safety, kitchen equipment service, water treatment, garage doors, chimney sweeps, septic, irrigation and painting. It has dedicated solutions for franchises and private equity backed groups, and its pricing page says it is trusted by over 100,000 contractors.

Its menus list solutions for service and replacement, construction, commercial and residential work, along with accounting, marketing and reporting. Its packages are built around call booking, dispatching, payroll, commissions and memberships. Those are the jobs of a front office with several people in it.

How ServiceTitan is priced

ServiceTitan's pricing page lists three packages, all priced per technician, each with a "Request Pricing" button and no dollar amount:

• Starter: dispatching, scheduling, call booking, invoicing and pricebook.
• Essentials: Starter plus mobile estimates and payroll management.
• The Works: adds configurable payroll, advanced reporting, commission tracking and customizable memberships.

Add-ons are sold as Pro products: Marketing Pro, Contact Center Pro, Pricebook Pro, Fleet Pro, Scheduling Pro, Dispatch Pro, Field Pro and an AI Virtual Agent. None showed a price on October 8, 2026. Third-party pages estimate the per-technician price, but those are not ServiceTitan's numbers. Our ServiceTitan pricing guide lays out what the page says, what third parties estimate and the questions to ask on the sales call.

What Koira does differently

Koira starts from a different question. Not "how do we give a big office better tools" but "how does a one-truck shop get the work of an office done without hiring one." The big outfits have a front desk, a dispatcher and a billing clerk. Most small contractors have a phone in the truck and a pile of things to do after dinner. Koira does that work, for the same monthly price whether you run alone or with fifteen people.

• The front desk. On Grow, Koira answers on your number and texts back missed calls in about a minute with three open times, in English or Spanish. AI receptionist.
• The dispatcher. Booked visits land on your day plan in driving order. Customers book by replying to one of three times that fit your route. Today and routes.
• The estimator. Snap the job and Koira drafts up to three options from your price list. The customer signs and pays the deposit on one page, and Koira follows up on day two and day four. Estimates and signing.
• The billing clerk. Tap done and the invoice is sent. Customers pay by QR code, card or phone wallet at the door. Invoices and pay at the door.
• The marketer. A website built from your business on every plan, review asks after every paid job, matching Google and Bing listings, and cards mailed to the neighbors after a job. Contractor website.

Every action is a rule you can see, and anything Koira sends can be pulled back for ten minutes. The AI only reads a message, pulls out a name or a date, or phrases a sentence. It never invents a price.

Side by side, by what you need done

ServiceTitan column from servicetitan.com and servicetitan.com/pricing, checked October 8, 2026. Koira column from Koira's pricing page and feature pages.

The cost question for a small shop

We cannot give you ServiceTitan's price, because it does not publish one. What we can say is how the two are built to charge. ServiceTitan charges per technician, so the bill grows with every person you add in the field, and add-ons are priced separately. Koira charges per shop: Office is free, Grow is $249 a month plus usage at cost (texts, call minutes and emails), and Front Office is $499 a month with usage included. Adding a helper never adds a bill.

Card payments on Koira go to your own Stripe account, with Stripe's processing (2.9% plus 30¢ for a US card) and Koira's share of 2% on Office, 1% on Grow or 0.5% on Front Office. Ask ServiceTitan for its processing rates on the same call where you ask for the package price.

When ServiceTitan is the better choice

ServiceTitan is the better pick for a lot of businesses. It likely fits you better if:

• You have a dispatcher or a call center. Its packages and Pro products, like Contact Center Pro and Dispatch Pro, are built for people whose job is booking and routing calls all day.
• You run payroll with commissions. Payroll management, configurable payroll and commission tracking are core to its packages. Koira does not do payroll or commissions.
• You manage a large membership program with many customers and visits, and want reporting built around it.
• You do construction project work alongside service. Its homepage lists construction among its solutions.
• You are a franchise or a multi-location group. It has dedicated solutions for franchises and private equity backed groups.
• You want deep accounting and advanced reporting in the same system as your dispatch board.

If several of those describe your shop, a ServiceTitan demo is worth your time.

When Koira is the better choice

• You are one to three people. Nobody sits at a desk. The phone rings while you are working.
• You want a price you can see. Koira's prices are on its pricing page, and the plan does not change when you add someone.
• You need to get found, not just run jobs. Every plan includes a website built from your business, a page for every town you work and review asks after every paid job. See contractor SEO.
• You want to start today. Type your business name, get your free AI report, and Koira builds your site from it. No contract, nothing to install.
• You want to see the return. Koira shows the dollars paid on jobs it touched first, next to what Koira cost.

A simple way to decide

Write down the three jobs that take most of your time outside the actual work. If they are answering the phone, chasing estimates and sending invoices, Koira is built to do those for you. If they are managing a dispatch board, running commissions and reporting across many techs, ServiceTitan is built for that.

Start with the free AI report to see where calls and jobs are slipping today. If you run a service trade, see how it works on Koira for HVAC, plumbing, electrical or roofing.

Questions contractors ask