InvoiceAdept vs Tradify (2026): free alternative for UK trades

Tradify is a job management app that also invoices. InvoiceAdept is invoicing software that does not pretend to be your diary, your certificate pad, or your van schedule. Roundups still put them in the same shopping tab because both say "trades" and both produce a PDF. That is a bad way to spend £34 a month.

The useful split is this. If you need jobs, photos, timesheets, certificates and a scheduler in one login, Tradify is built for that and InvoiceAdept is not. If you need to raise a proper UK invoice, send it where the customer already is, and get paid, InvoiceAdept is the cheaper, narrower tool. Paying Tradify prices for invoicing alone is how sole traders fund features they open twice a year.

Tradify UK public pricing was re-checked live on 9 September 2026 on tradifyhq.com/uk/pricing: Lite £34, Pro £37, Plus £44 per user per month (same figures as our 28 August 2026 check). Confirm VAT treatment and any promo at checkout on Tradify's pricing page. InvoiceAdept prices and Stripe's published UK card rate were checked the same day. CIS rules are from GOV.UK and from Tradify's own help centre, not from either marketing homepage.

The short version

Pick Tradify if you run more than one person, you want quoting, scheduling, job photos, certificates and invoicing in the same app, and you already (or will) connect Xero or Sage for CIS. Budget from £34 per user per month on their Lite plan, before add-ons.

Pick InvoiceAdept if invoicing and getting paid is the actual problem. Free is 5 invoices a month. Pro is £7.99 a month excl. VAT for unlimited invoices, WhatsApp send, Stripe with no extra InvoiceAdept platform fee, reminders, quotes and expenses. CIS sits on Pro+ at £12.99 excl. VAT.

Skip both, for invoicing, if you only need unlimited free PDFs and CIS on the invoice: InvoiceFree does that at £0, with a 1% platform fee if you collect cards through their Stripe links. That comparison is a separate article: InvoiceAdept vs InvoiceFree.

Neither InvoiceAdept nor Tradify, on its own, is HMRC-recognised software for filing Making Tax Digital for Income Tax quarterly updates. Tradify syncs to Xero, Sage and QuickBooks. InvoiceAdept keeps digital records and exports. Filing is still a different product. See MTD invoicing software for UK tradespeople.

What each product actually is

Tradify sells job management for trades. The Lite plan, re-checked 9 September 2026, lists job notes and tracking, scheduling with Google Calendar, quoting and invoicing, pricing and markups, online and card payments, email tracking, and sync to Xero, Sage and QuickBooks Online. Pro adds branding, an enquiry inbox, job photos, recurring jobs, progress invoicing, timesheets, subcontractor scheduling and compliance certificates. Plus adds AI SmartRead and SmartWrite, purchase orders, bulk invoicing, kit bundles, service reminders and extra reporting. That is a workshop operating system. Invoicing is one module.

Their pricing page also prints a first-party rating of 4.8 / 5 from 9,000+ ratings and reviews. That is Tradify's own figure on that page, not an independent count we verified. We are not inventing a review count for InvoiceAdept to match it.

InvoiceAdept sells invoicing for UK trades. Free is a 5-invoice trial of the template, email and PDF. Pro is the "get paid" plan: unlimited invoices, up to 3 users, Stripe, automatic reminders, WhatsApp invoice delivery, branding, recurring invoices, quotes and expenses. Pro+ adds CIS, bank reconciliation, cashflow, reports, an audit log and unlimited users. There is no job scheduler, no certificate engine, and no claim that we replace Tradify's diary.

If you open both apps on a Monday morning, Tradify wants to know who is on which job. InvoiceAdept wants to know who has not paid.

Pricing compared (re-checked 9 September 2026)

InvoiceAdept states that all prices exclude VAT, with annual billing advertised as a 20% saving. Tradify lists Lite / Pro / Plus as £34 / £37 / £44 per user per month on tradifyhq.com/uk/pricing (live check 9 September 2026; unchanged from 28 August 2026). That page does not print a VAT line next to those figures. Confirm at checkout. Tradify also sells an Instant Website add-on at £10 per month and SMS quotes, invoices and reminders at £0.10 per message.

Sources: InvoiceAdept pricing, Tradify UK pricing (re-checked 9 September 2026).

A sole trader on Tradify Lite is £34 a month before VAT and SMS. The same person on InvoiceAdept Pro is £7.99 excl. VAT. That gap is not a rounding error. It is the price of a scheduler you may not open.

What the monthly numbers actually buy as you hire

Two users on Tradify Pro is £74 a month. InvoiceAdept Pro still lists up to 3 users at £7.99. A five-person firm on Tradify Pro is £185 a month. InvoiceAdept Pro+ at £12.99 is not trying to be that firm's job app. If you need five people on a scheduler, Tradify is in a different conversation, and you should price it against other job apps, not against an invoicing subscription.

Add Tradify's Instant Website (£10) and a realistic SMS volume (say 40 messages at 10p = £4) and the sole-trader Lite bill can land nearer £48 before VAT. InvoiceAdept does not sell SMS or Instant Website; WhatsApp send is included on Pro.

Worked example: what the extra £26 actually buys

Take a one-van plumber who sends 12 invoices a month, mostly to homeowners, and is not issuing gas certificates from the same app.

• InvoiceAdept Pro: £7.99 excl. VAT. Unlimited invoices, WhatsApp send, Stripe with no extra platform percentage, reminders.

• Tradify Lite: £34 per user. Jobs, schedule, quotes, invoices, email tracking, accounting sync. No recurring jobs on Lite. CIS still needs Xero or Sage.

The extra £26.01 (before VAT on InvoiceAdept, and before whatever VAT Tradify charges at checkout) buys the job layer. If that plumber already runs the week in Google Calendar and WhatsApp, they are paying £26 for a second diary. If they currently lose jobs in a paper pad, Tradify Lite can be cheap against a missed booking.

Now put CIS on the same plumber, billing a main contractor.

• InvoiceAdept Pro+: £12.99 excl. VAT, CIS calculated in the product.

• Tradify: still £34+ per user, plus a Xero or Sage subscription, because Tradify's help centre says it is not HMRC-recognised for CIS invoices on its own.

The CIS path on Tradify is a stack, not a toggle. Price the stack.

A £1,200 bathroom invoice paid by a standard UK card through InvoiceAdept: Stripe's published UK rate (checked alongside this page) is 1.5% + 20p (stripe.com/gb/pricing), so £18.20. InvoiceAdept does not add a platform fee. Tradify lists "online and credit card payments" on every plan; they do not print the acquirer rate on that pricing page. Do not assume it is Stripe's 1.5%. Read their checkout or payments help before you treat card take-home as equal.

Feature matrix: invoicing first

This table is the invoicing column only. Job features sit in the next section so we do not pretend InvoiceAdept ships a scheduler.

Job management features InvoiceAdept does not ship

This is the part comparison posts usually skip, because it makes InvoiceAdept look small. It should look small. That is the point of the price.

If you are a heating engineer who needs the certificate in the same system as the invoice, Tradify (or Powered Now, or another job app) is the category. Do not buy InvoiceAdept hoping certificates will appear on Pro next month. If we add them, it will be described as that kind of product and priced like it.

If you already have a certificate app, a paper van pack, or you are not in a certifying trade, you are looking at Tradify's invoice module and asking whether it is worth £34. For a lot of one-van domestic work, it is not.

CIS: native on InvoiceAdept Pro+, bolted on in Tradify

Under the Construction Industry Scheme, contractors deduct money from a subcontractor's labour and pay it to HMRC. GOV.UK's subcontractor page is the rule: 20% if you are registered, 30% if you are not, materials out of the labour deduction, gross payment status if HMRC has granted it.

InvoiceAdept puts that calculation on Pro+. Pro at £7.99 does not include it. The pricing FAQ says Pro+ includes CIS deduction tracking and monthly return assistance. That is the invoice side, not a substitute for the contractor's CIS300. InvoiceAdept does not file CIS300 returns to HMRC for you.

Tradify's own help centre is blunt. In Can I create a CIS/Reverse VAT Invoice in Tradify? they say Tradify is not recognised software by HMRC for CIS invoices, and you cannot create a CIS invoice in Tradify unless you are connected with Xero or Sage Business Cloud. A companion article, Can I create Reverse VAT/CIS Invoices without an accounting platform in Tradify?, says they have no native Reverse VAT / CIS tax options. QuickBooks Online is listed with a restriction: you raise the invoice in Tradify, send it to QuickBooks, then edit it there to make it CIS.

So:

• InvoiceAdept: CIS in the app, on Pro+.

• InvoiceFree: CIS on the free plan, if you would rather not pay us £12.99.

• Tradify: CIS if you already pay for Xero or Sage, and you have turned it on in that package.

If CIS is the only reason you opened a comparison tab, Tradify is the expensive way to get there. A job app with a Xero bill on top is a reasonable setup for a contractor who also needs the scheduler. It is a poor setup for a subcontractor who just wants 20% shown correctly on a PDF.

For the accounting-suite side of the same decision, see InvoiceAdept vs Xero.

WhatsApp, email, SMS: how the invoice actually leaves the van

UK domestic work is sold in WhatsApp. InvoiceAdept Pro sends the invoice from the app into that thread, with a pay link on the document. There is a standalone walkthrough at How to send a WhatsApp invoice in the UK (also live under /blog/invoicing/whatsapp-invoicing-uk/).

Tradify's UK pricing page does not list WhatsApp as an invoice delivery channel. What they do list is email tracking (who opened what) on Lite, quote and invoice reminders on Pro, and text message quotes and invoices at £0.10 per message as an add-on. That is SMS, billed per send, not a logged WhatsApp delivery.

Email still wins for anyone with a purchase-order process. A limited company's accounts payable clerk is not in your job group chat. Tradify is built around that office workflow: enquiry forms, branded inbox, email tracking, certificates attached to the job. InvoiceAdept is built around the homeowner who will tap a link in the same chat where they sent a photo of the leak.

If your unpaid invoices are sitting in Gmail, Tradify's tracking and reminders are the closer match. If they are sitting in WhatsApp because that is where the job lived, InvoiceAdept Pro is the closer match.

Card payments: Stripe's fees are Stripe's

InvoiceAdept does not charge an extra platform percentage on top of Stripe. Card take-home is Stripe's published UK rate (commonly 1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards - confirm on stripe.com/gb/pricing on the day you charge). Free plan does not include card collection through InvoiceAdept.

Tradify lists online and credit card payments on Lite, Pro and Plus. Their public pricing page does not print the acquirer rate. Treat that as unknown until you read Tradify checkout or payments help. Do not copy Stripe's 1.5% onto Tradify in a spreadsheet and call it equal.

Neither product replaces bank transfer. Many UK trades still get paid by Faster Payments against the invoice total. Card is optional convenience, not the product.

VAT at £90,000 - ignore stale £85k pages

The VAT registration threshold is £90,000 of taxable turnover on a rolling 12 months, or if you expect to go over it in the next 30 days. That is GOV.UK. Do not use outdated £85,000 figures still floating around older blogs and printouts.

Both products can put VAT on an invoice. Neither of them is your VAT return. Tradify's route to a VAT return is "sync to Xero / Sage / QuickBooks and file there". InvoiceAdept's route is "export the records". InvoiceAdept does not file VAT returns.

MTD for Income Tax: records versus filing

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is a filing obligation, not an invoice skin. HMRC's who and when page is the source: sole trader or landlord on Self Assessment, income from self-employment or property, qualifying income over the published thresholds. Qualifying income is turnover before expenses. Use HMRC's checker, not a blog.

HMRC's software finder is the list that matters for quarterly updates and the return. InvoiceAdept keeps digital records. We do not send those updates. Tradify's accounting sync can feed software that does, if you actually connect it and your accountant uses that package. Syncing to Xero is not the same as tapping Submit in Tradify.

There is a longer, honest version of this split in MTD invoicing software for UK tradespeople.

InvoiceAdept's own pricing page may still use looser "MTD-compliant" language than this article. Believe this article and HMRC, not the slogan. Records are necessary. Filing is a different job. Neither InvoiceAdept nor Tradify files MTD Income Tax quarterly updates on its own.

Quotes, deposits, progress and late payment (brief)

Tradify Pro is strong on quote options with online acceptance, progress invoicing (deposits, stage payments, retentions) and appointment reminders. That is job-linked commercial paperwork.

InvoiceAdept Pro raises quotes and recurring invoices. You can invoice a deposit or a stage as a line on an invoice. You do not get Tradify's job-linked progress engine, retention schedule tied to a job card, or certificate pack.

If a business-to-business customer pays late, UK statutory interest under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts framework is Bank Rate + 8%. Checked alongside this page: Bank of England Bank Rate 3.75% (held 30 July 2026; next MPC decision due 17 September 2026), so statutory interest is currently 11.75% simple, plus fixed compensation bands. That route does not automatically apply to private homeowners. InvoiceAdept does not file Money Claim Online for you. Mention it once, then get back to choosing software.

Who should pick which

Choose Tradify if:

• You need a job diary, not just a bill.

• More than one person has to see the same schedule.

• Certificates, job photos, timesheets or progress invoicing are weekly work, not a nice-to-have.

• You already pay for Xero or Sage, and CIS through that link is acceptable.

• £34 to £44 per user is a cost you have already decided to carry.

Choose InvoiceAdept if:

• The pain is unpaid invoices, not a messy calendar.

• You want WhatsApp delivery from the app.

• One to three people need to raise invoices, not run a full job board.

• CIS in the product at £12.99 beats CIS via a second accounting bill.

• You will actually use Pro's reminders and pay links. If you will not, do not pay for them.

Choose InvoiceFree instead of both if: you want unlimited invoices and CIS at £0, you are happy to email or paste a link, and most customers pay by bank transfer. Read InvoiceAdept vs InvoiceFree.

Skip InvoiceAdept if: you already live in Tradify, the invoices go out, and the unpaid ones get chased. Switching invoicing tools to save £26 only pays if you will actually send faster. A second system you forget to open is not a saving.

Using both tools without double-counting income

You can use InvoiceAdept and Tradify together. You should not raise the same job twice. Typical split: Tradify (or a diary) for the work, InvoiceAdept for the bill and the pay link, accountant's software for HMRC. If Tradify already invoices and you get paid, adding InvoiceAdept is clutter.

Duplicate income figures across three systems is how VAT gets declared twice. Pick a source of truth for turnover. Export once. Tell your accountant which app is canonical.

What we are not claiming

InvoiceAdept is not a Tradify killer. We do not schedule jobs. We do not issue compliance certificates. We do not have 9,000 reviews on our pricing page, and we are not going to invent a number to look like we do. Free is 5 invoices, not unlimited. CIS is Pro+, not Pro. We do not file CIS300, VAT returns, or MTD Income Tax quarterly updates.

Tradify is not "overpriced invoicing". It is priced as a job platform. For a firm that uses the scheduler and the certificates, £37 a user can be rational. For a sole trader who opened Tradify because Google said "best invoicing app for trades", it is usually the wrong aisle.

Stripe is not free on InvoiceAdept. The rate is Stripe's. We do not add a second percentage. Tradify's card fee is whatever they and their payment partner charge; we are not printing a figure their pricing page did not show on 9 September 2026.

Related comparisons and guides

• InvoiceAdept vs FreshBooks UK

• InvoiceAdept vs InvoiceFree

• InvoiceAdept vs Xero

• InvoiceAdept vs SumUp Invoices UK

• WhatsApp invoicing UK

• MTD invoicing software for UK trades

• InvoiceAdept pricing

• Tradify UK pricing (confirm live)

Frequently asked questions

Is InvoiceAdept a Tradify alternative?

For invoicing and getting paid, yes. For job management, no. If your shortlist is "Tradify vs ServiceM8 vs Powered Now", InvoiceAdept does not belong on it. If your shortlist is "I just need to invoice UK customers without paying £34", it does.

How much is Tradify in the UK?

On 9 September 2026 their UK pricing page listed Lite £34, Pro £37 and Plus £44, each per user per month, plus optional Instant Website at £10 and SMS at 10p a message. Those figures match our 28 August 2026 check. Confirm VAT and any current promo at checkout on tradifyhq.com/uk/pricing. There is a 14-day trial with all features.

How much is InvoiceAdept?

Free: 5 invoices a month. Pro: £7.99 excl. VAT (unlimited invoices, up to 3 users, WhatsApp, Stripe with no InvoiceAdept platform fee, reminders, quotes, expenses). Pro+: £12.99 excl. VAT (adds CIS, bank rec, cashflow, reports, audit log, unlimited users). Annual billing is advertised with a 20% saving on the pricing page. Confirm live at invoiceadept.com/pricing.

Does Tradify do CIS?

Not by itself. Tradify's help centre says they are not HMRC-recognised for CIS invoices and you need Xero or Sage Business Cloud connected (CIS/Reverse VAT article; without accounting platform). QuickBooks Online cannot create the CIS invoice inside Tradify; you edit it in QuickBooks after sync. InvoiceAdept calculates CIS on Pro+. InvoiceFree calculates it on the free plan. Neither InvoiceAdept nor Tradify files your CIS300 for you.

Can I send a WhatsApp invoice from Tradify?

Not as a listed in-app send on the UK pricing page checked 9 September 2026. They offer email, and SMS as a 10p add-on. InvoiceAdept sends via WhatsApp on Pro and Pro+. You can still paste a Tradify PDF into WhatsApp by hand, the same way you can with any PDF. See WhatsApp invoicing UK.

I am a one-van trade. Is Tradify Lite worth £34?

Only if you will use the job layer: schedule, quotes tied to jobs, email tracking, accounting sync. If you will raise invoices and ignore the rest, InvoiceAdept Pro at £7.99 excl. VAT, or InvoiceFree at £0, is the adult comparison. Do the 14-day Tradify trial if you are unsure. The trial is the honest test; a blog is not.

Do either of them file my MTD updates or VAT returns?

InvoiceAdept does not. Tradify does not, on its own; it syncs to accounting software that might. Check HMRC's software list for the package that actually sends the quarterly update. VAT returns similarly sit in accounting software or with your accountant. Longer guide: MTD for UK trades.

Can I use InvoiceAdept and Tradify together?

You can. You should not raise the same job twice. Typical split: Tradify (or a diary) for the work, InvoiceAdept for the bill and the pay link, accountant's software for HMRC. If Tradify already invoices and you get paid, adding InvoiceAdept is clutter.

Are InvoiceAdept prices including VAT?

No. The pricing page says all prices exclude VAT. Tradify's public per-user figures did not show a VAT line on 9 September 2026. Stripe fees are separate from either subscription.

What is the UK VAT registration threshold in 2026?

£90,000 of taxable turnover on a rolling 12 months (or if you expect to exceed it in the next 30 days), per GOV.UK. Ignore stale £85,000 figures. Software does not change the threshold.

Does InvoiceAdept replace Tradify for certificates and scheduling?

No. InvoiceAdept does not issue Gas Safe or electrical certificates, does not put engineers on a map, and does not store before-and-after photos against a job card the way Tradify Pro does. Recurring invoices are not recurring jobs. Buy a job app if that is the job.

How do card fees compare?

On InvoiceAdept Pro/Pro+, you pay Stripe's published rates; InvoiceAdept adds no platform percentage. Tradify lists card payments but does not print the acquirer rate on the public pricing page - confirm with Tradify before comparing take-home pound for pound.

Is there a free Tradify plan?

No free forever plan. Tradify offers a 14-day trial with all features. InvoiceAdept Free is capped at 5 invoices a month with no card required to start.

Should I compare Tradify to FreshBooks or SumUp instead?

Different aisles. FreshBooks is general small-business invoicing with client caps on lower tiers - see vs FreshBooks UK. SumUp Invoices sits beside card readers - see vs SumUp Invoices. Tradify is the job-management comparison. Keep the shortlists separate.

About this comparison

Written by InvoiceAdept Editorial for UK trades comparing a job app to an invoicing app. Last reviewed 9 September 2026. Tradify UK list prices re-checked live on tradifyhq.com/uk/pricing (Lite £34 / Pro £37 / Plus £44 per user; Instant Website £10; SMS £0.10). InvoiceAdept Free / Pro £7.99 / Pro+ £12.99 excl. VAT confirmed against invoiceadept.com/pricing. CIS claims cite Tradify help centre articles linked above and GOV.UK CIS pages. VAT threshold £90,000 per GOV.UK. Bank Rate 3.75% / statutory late-payment interest 11.75% mentioned only for B2B late payment context (next MPC 17 September 2026). No fabricated review counts or traffic stats. Confirm any price or tax figure on the source page before you subscribe.

If you want the invoicing half without the job-app bill, start on InvoiceAdept's free plan: five invoices, no card required. If those five go in a week, you already know you need Pro, not a second calendar.