Markate is a contractor CRM with marketing automation bolted on. Drip campaigns, review-request sequences, lead-nurture rules. If marketing is your bottleneck, that's genuine value. But for most contractors the real bottleneck is running the job after the lead converts. Here's the honest side-by-side.
Last verified May 23, 2026 against markate.com/pricing. Markate's Owner Operator plan is $39.95/mo annual ($49.95 month-to-month) with a $5/month surcharge per additional employee. Optional add-ons (Online Booking $10/mo, Automated Lead Capture $10/mo, SMS Campaigns $10 setup + $0.05/segment, Kate AI Receptionist $1/call) are billed separately. 14-day free trial, no credit card. Verify current pricing before deciding.
| Feature | Workhand | Markate |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Entry-tier price | Free / $29/monthFree covers 1 user, $29 covers 5 | $39.95/mo annual ($49.95 monthly)Owner Operator base, 1 owner |
| Per-employee fee over the base | No5 users in Pro, 15 in Team, all flat | +$5/employee/monthEach added crew member |
| 5-employee total (annual billing) | $29/mo (Pro covers up to 5) | $59.95/mo$39.95 base + 4 × $5 employees |
| 5-employee with 2 add-ons (online booking + lead capture) | $29/mo (Pro, included) | $79.95/mo$59.95 + 2 × $10 add-ons |
| Mid-tier price | $89/month flatUp to 15 users + QBO + portal | $84.95/mo$39.95 + 9 employees + 2 add-ons (10-person crew) |
| Top tier | Custom for 16+ usersEmail [email protected] | Scales with employee count$5/mo per added employee, no cap |
| Free trial | 14 days, no card required | 14 days, no card required |
| Free data migration | Pro and Team plans | ✓Included on all paid plans |
| Estimates & invoices | ||
| Estimates with e-signature | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi-language estimates (en/es/pt) | ✓ | × |
| AI line-item suggestions | ✓Trained on your past jobs | × |
| Online invoice payments | ✓Stripe Connect, keep 100% | ✓ |
| Recurring invoices | ✓ | ✓ |
| Good-better-best estimate options | Manual | ✓ |
| Field operations | ||
| Per-job team chat with photos | ✓WhatsApp-style | Notes only |
| Daily logs with photos | ✓Customer-visible optional | × |
| Photo annotations | ✓ | × |
| Time tracking | ✓ | Basic |
| Mileage tracking + IRS write-offs | ✓ | × |
| Punch list | ✓ | × |
| Customer selection sheets | ✓Finishes, fixtures with signoff | × |
| Materials catalog + bid manager | ✓ | × |
| Drag-and-drop scheduling | Calendar view | ✓ |
| Customizable job tabs per job type | ✓ | × |
| Marketing & CRM (Markate's home turf) | ||
| Email marketing campaigns | × | ✓Best-in-class for contractor email |
| SMS drip campaigns | × | ✓ |
| Lead-nurture automation rules | Sales pipeline | ✓ |
| Customer review automation | ✓Google funnel built-in | ✓ |
| Sales pipeline / CRM | ✓ | ✓ |
| Contact segmentation | Tags + filters | ✓ |
| Public profile page (lead capture) | ✓workhand.app/c/your-name + reviews | Landing pages |
| Subs & team | ||
| Subcontractor invitations + insurance tracking | ✓ | × |
| Sub bidding workflow | ✓ | × |
| 1099 export | ✓ | × |
| Accounting | ||
| QuickBooks Online sync | ✓Built into Team plan | ✓ |
| Job costing + profit per job | ✓ | Basic |
| Onboarding & support | ||
| Self-serve sign-up | ✓90 seconds, no card | ✓ |
| Mobile app (iOS + Android) | ✓Real apps, not a web wrapper | Web + mobile views |
| Annual contract required | ×Month-to-month | ×Annual discount available |
Apples-to-apples for the core CRM + estimates + invoices + customer portal.
At the 5-person crew baseline without add-ons, Markate ($59.95/mo annual) is about 2x Workhand Pro ($29/mo). With 2 typical add-ons, Markate is closer to 2.75x. If you need email/SMS drip campaigns that Workhand doesn't have, Markate is doing real work for that money. If you just want to run the job, Workhand at $29 or $89 flat (no add-ons, no per-employee surcharge) is dramatically simpler.
Be honest first: if drip campaigns and lead-nurture automation are driving real revenue, don't drop Markate without a replacement. Most contractors who switch are using maybe 20% of Markate's marketing tools and find they can replicate that 20% manually.
Markate's strength is contractor-specific marketing automation: email drip campaigns, SMS sequences, review-request automation, and lead-nurture workflows. If your main constraint is converting leads to booked jobs, Markate has more depth on that one workflow. Workhand has review requests and a public profile lead form, but it isn't trying to be a full marketing automation suite.
Run the actual job. Workhand has estimates with e-signature, invoices with Stripe payments, scheduling, crew chat, daily logs with photos, punch lists, mileage tracking, materials catalogs, subcontractor insurance tracking, and QuickBooks sync. Markate is a CRM with marketing on top; once a lead becomes a job, Markate isn't doing the field work.
Markate's Owner Operator plan is $39.95/month with annual billing (or $49.95/month month-to-month, saving 20% on annual), plus $5/month per additional employee. Add-ons run separately: Online Booking $10/mo, Automated Lead Capture $10/mo, SMS Campaigns $10 setup + 5 cents per segment, Kate AI Receptionist $1/call. A solo owner with 2 add-ons is $69.95/mo annual. A 5-employee shop with 2 add-ons is $89.95/mo annual. Workhand is $0 / $29 / $89 flat per month, no per-employee fees, no add-on charges. For most small crews, Workhand Pro at $29/mo covers more of the daily field workflow than Markate's base plan.
Yes. Some crews use Markate as the front-end for lead capture and email/SMS nurture, then push booked jobs into Workhand for estimates, invoices, daily logs, and crew chat. There's no native integration; you'd hand off leads manually or via Zapier.
Yes. Markate supports CSV export of customers, jobs, and invoices. We help with first-time migrations on Pro and Team plans. Email [email protected] and we'll walk you through it. Email marketing campaign templates and automation rules don't transfer since Workhand doesn't have a campaign engine.
Try Workhand on a real job. Free plan handles your first job at $0/month.
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