The 10 Best Scheduling Apps for Landscaping & Gardening Businesses: Free and Paid Tools to Shape Up Your Job Management

No matter where you live in the United States, residents and businesses require someone to handle their lawn care, landscaping, and gardening needs. Landscaping and gardening businesses run the gamut from mowing and plant maintenance providers to nurseries to full landscaping and arborist providers.

Even with all that diversity, each of these businesses has something in common: they must all schedule client jobs.

That shared commonality is also a weakness. Any business that’s unable to accurately schedule projects, track time, estimate job durations, and the like is doomed to failure. Thankfully, there are plenty of tools out there to help. We’ve created a list of the 10 best scheduling apps that work for landscaping and gardening businesses, so you never need to worry about projects getting lost in the weeds.

However, before we jump into that discussion, let’s address a few other pertinent points.

The impact of poor scheduling on gardening and landscaping businesses

Poor scheduling has a direct impact on your business. It drives customers away, leads to negative reviews, and damages your brand. Eventually, you’ll have destroyed your reputation to the point that new potential customers go elsewhere and current customers cancel their contracts. Let’s look at a few interesting stats.

• According to Aspire, the single most common reason for landscaping and gardening businesses to fail is a lack of business knowledge, including an inability to schedule.

• Inadequate business planning is the third most common reason, including an inability to plan jobs, schedule projects, maintain equipment, and more.

Poor scheduling leads to a host of problems. For instance, you might find that you’ve double-booked a time slot and must serve one customer while telling the other that you’ll be late or have to reschedule for another day entirely. A lack of scheduling capabilities can also lead to over and understaffing.

What do you think happens when you’re not able to deliver a positive customer experience? They go elsewhere. They also tell their friends, family, and coworkers about their negative experiences (people are much more likely to share negative experiences than positive ones).

The direct impact on your business? Loss. Over time, that can become significant. And no business can thrive when customers continually defect to competitors and their reputation is continually tarnished.

The solution is simple: adopt a scheduling tool. You already understand the importance of having the right tool for each job at a client’s location. Scheduling apps are no different. They empower you to structure each day, deliver better customer experiences, and can even improve profitability and employee morale.

The 10 best scheduling apps for landscaping and gardening businesses

We’ve collected a wide range of scheduling apps well-suited for landscaping and gardening businesses. These run the gamut from free to paid, and there’s something here to fit every budget and every need. 

1.Workwave

Workwave is a tool designed to help streamline operations and improve the scheduling and booking of lawn and landscaping companies. The app is designed to make job and crew management easy, provide integrated scheduling for clients, and offer real-time views of jobs in progress and bookings as they happen. You can even run your business on the go with mobile apps for Android and iOS. 

Workwave has been in business for almost 40 years, offering field service software solutions to help companies outpace the competition. From service delivery and appointment scheduling to marketing and sales, this tool will allow you to handle everything, including client booking, from one place. The key highlights of this platform include:

• Free option? No

• Price: By quote only

• Real-time scheduling

• Dispatch and routing

• Dedicated home services solutions

• Automate scheduling and repeat jobs

• Payment integrations

• Customer booking and online support

2. Service Autopilot

Service Autopilot is a tool that is designed specifically for lawn care and landscaping businesses, as well as other service organizations and companies. The app offers solutions for businesses of every size, including tools for lead management, client management, mapping and routing, dispatching and field management, and more. 

Service Autopilot includes an automatic invoicing feature, cloud storage for scalability and remote data access, custom dashboards, training, asset tracking, and more. There is an online knowledgebase along with dedicated support, and users will find plenty of ways to customize and set their own scheduling rules. The cloud-based app is secure and offers features like:

• Free option? No

• Price: $49 per month to start

• Client and job management

• Dispatching and routing

• Job scheduling 

• Training and support

• Custom dashboards

3. Jobber 

Jobber is designed as a field service management tool specifically for home services and businesses like landscapers. It offers a tool to manage scheduling, field staff, and operations and is accessible through the mobile apps and the desktop website and dashboard interface. Jobber can provide solutions for over 50 industries, including landscapers, and offers an integrated CRM, real-time dispatching and scheduling, billing and invoicing, self-service client resources, and more. 

You can use Jobber to schedule jobs, create a scalable booking system, generate automated reminders, and track time and job schedules. This can help improve job and project management, which means you’re getting more than just better scheduling. Jobber offers several integrations, and highlights like:

• Free option? No, but there is a trial

• Price: $69 per month

• File attachments

• Custom field creation

• Work history and billing integration

• Client approvals and scheduling tools

• Dedicated Android and iOS apps

• Calendar importing and exporting

4. Housecall Pro 

Housecall Pro is designed specifically for home services, including landscapers and gardening businesses. With robust scheduling features, including real-time appointment booking and updated calendars that integrate with other platforms, there are several features to love. Housecall Pro even has integrations for payments and invoicing, marketing automation, and other tools. 

Landscapers will appreciate that Housecall Pro can be used on the go with native Android and iOS apps, as well as that it offers an internal chat feature for businesses to keep in touch with their teams out in the field and keep everyone on the same page about jobs. This is not one of the cheaper options on the list, but at just $49 a month to start, it’s worth the money. The highlights of Housecall Pro include:

• Free option? No

• Price: Starts at $49 per month

• Full suite of products and tools for scheduling and management

• Cloud-based 

• Customizable features

• Marketing automation features

• Pricing based on users and features

• Enterprise option includes a dedicated account manager

5. Service Fusion

Service Fusion is a cloud-based management tool for home service contractors that need a dedicated scheduling and field management platform. This tool includes payment processing integrations, GPS fleet tracking, mobile apps, customer and job management, job creation, estimates, and more. You will enjoy access to several integrations and dedicated mobile apps for Android and iOS. 

Service Fusion offers product catalogs, sales and commission reporting, integrated SMS and voice messaging reminders and communications, time tracking, customer email broadcasting, and other features. This is a total service suite that allows you to create your own scheduling rules and generate the booking solutions that your clients need. The highlights of this app include:

• Free option? No, but there is a free demo

• Price: $166 per month

• No contracts or setup fees

• Personalized onboarding tools

• No-contact tools for improved safety

6. Aspire

Aspire is field service software built to scale as your business grows. You’ll also find that it is specifically designed for three particular industries: janitorial services, cleaning companies, and landscaping/gardening businesses. As such, it provides a lot of features and capabilities that you won’t find with general scheduling apps.

Aspire allows you to easily update or change the schedule, move tickets to a new day, split tickets between days, extend jobs, and more. You can reassign jobs, add multiple crews, toggle between weekly and monthly views, and get insights about route optimization, among many other features.

• Free option? No

• Price: By quote only

• Assign, reassign, and split jobs

• Add or remove crews easily

• Route optimization

• Cloud, SaaS, and web-based access

7. Lawn Love 

The name really does say it all with this one. Lawn Love is all about, well, supporting lawncare providers and related businesses. The app offers plenty to love, from schedule management to routing strategies, and more. You can check into jobs from the app and even get paid through the mobile interface.

However, there’s more to Lawn Love than just scheduling. This platform also helps connect lawn care, gardening, and landscaping companies with customers across the US. Currently, Lawn Love has an audience of over 35,000 customers who partner with them to get direct access. However, you’ll need to submit an application and get approval before you can do that.

• Free option? The service is free, but Lawn Love takes a percentage of each job completed

• Price: Contractors give Lawn Love 15-20% of each job completed

• Calendar management

• Job scheduling

• Process credit cards

• Access to 35,000 customers in 110 cities

8. SimplyBook.me

If you’re looking for a platform focused on delivering the best in booking solutions, SimplyBook.me should absolutely be on your list. This platform is dedicated to mobile scheduling and real-time appointment booking tools to optimize the schedule of your business. You can reduce the risk of no-shows and cancellations, integrate with payment processing tools, and more. 

The SimplyBook.me platform offers online booking through Google, social media, and even your own custom-branded app. Intake forms, templates, and other custom tools are available, and scheduling and appointment management are automated. You can even set your own rules and scale the app to suit your needs. The highlights of this scheduling app include:

• Free option? Yes, for up to 50 bookings

• Price: Starts at $8.25 per month for paid plans

• Two months free with annual membership/payment

• Open API

• Email and SMS notifications and reminders

• Customized scheduling rules and availability

• Real-time scheduling

9. Sign In Scheduling

Sign In Scheduling, formerly 10to8, is a scheduling and management app that was designed specifically for service businesses. This tool focuses on providing a simple, straightforward solution to scheduling so that your business runs more smoothly, and your clients are more satisfied. You can dictate exactly how the booking works, including requiring manual approval of appointments if you’d like. 

There’s even a cool feature in Sign In Scheduling that can help identify appointments that may be likely to cancel or no-show, giving you the heads-up or perhaps even saving you the hassle of booking in the first place. The pricing is affordable and straightforward, with a free option for those who want to give it a try before they get too invested. Check out the highlights of this app, including:

• Free option? Yes

• Price: $460 per year

• Tailored online booking system

• Increased client and team engagement

• Online booking

• Better outbound returns

• Integrates with Microsoft, Apple, Google, and other tools and software

10. Square Appointments

For landscapers using the Square platform, Square Appointments is a great integration. Of course, you can also opt to use just the booking and appointments feature of this platform, which offers impressive scalability and customization options, among other features. This app includes a free booking website specifically for appointment scheduling and automated reminders for clients and your team alike. 

The Square Appointments app features plenty of options for cancellation fees or prepayment to ensure that you aren’t dealing with a ton of cancellations and no-shows, which allows you to guarantee that your time is not going to waste. You can get access for up to 10 users for just $90 per month, while the version for single users is free. The highlights of Square Appointments include:

• Free option? Yes

• Price: starts at $29 per month

• Automated reminders

• Free website for appointment booking

• Integrated with payment solutions

• Includes customization options for scheduling

• Manage availability from the mobile app

• Invoicing options

Add more efficiency with the workflows from Smith.ai

The right scheduling app will help you stay on top of jobs and create more satisfied clients. However, don’t think that this is the only option that can help. At Smith.ai, our live virtual receptionists help ensure that your phones are answered 24 hours a day so that you and your crews can dedicate more time to getting each job done right.

In addition to our 24/7 answering service, we can also help streamline other business processes for you. For instance, we can book appointments, accept and process payments, transfer calls even if you’re in the field, and so much more.

To learn more, schedule a free consultation. If you’re ready to step up your scheduling game, we’re ready to help at hello@smith.ai or by reaching out to (650) 709-2710.

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