Best Scheduling Software for HVAC Companies (2026 Comparison)

If you’re running an HVAC company, scheduling is the operation. A blown schedule doesn’t just annoy your dispatcher — it cascades into overtime, missed appointments, unhappy customers, and techs sitting in traffic when they should be on a job.

The right scheduling software should make your dispatcher’s life easier, not harder. Let’s look at what’s actually out there, what matters depending on your team size, and where the off-the-shelf tools start to struggle.

What to Evaluate (Before You Look at Any Software)

Every scheduling platform will tell you they handle HVAC. Most of them were built for generic field service and bolted on HVAC features later. Here’s what genuinely matters for HVAC operations:

• Drag-and-drop scheduling — Your dispatcher needs to move jobs around 30 times a day. If rescheduling takes more than two clicks, the tool is fighting you.
• GPS tracking — Not for micromanaging. For knowing which tech is closest when an emergency call comes in at 2pm on a Friday in January.
• Tech skill matching — Your apprentice can handle a filter change. He shouldn’t be dispatched to a VRF commissioning. The software should know the difference.
• Emergency job handling — HVAC is reactive. A system that can’t slot in an urgent no-heat call without blowing up the rest of the day’s schedule is useless in winter.
• Customer communication — Automated “your tech is on the way” texts. If your office staff is still making those calls manually, that’s hours per week you’re burning.

The Main Players

ServiceTitan

The big one. ServiceTitan is built for residential and commercial service companies, and it shows. The scheduling board is genuinely good — drag-and-drop, colour-coded by job type, with a map view that shows tech locations in real time.

Where it shines: dispatching intelligence, integrated customer history on every job, and a mobile app that techs actually use. The reporting is deep enough to show you revenue per tech per day.

Where it hurts: price. You’re looking at $250+ per tech per month, and the implementation takes weeks. For a 5-person team, that’s a serious line item. Also, ServiceTitan is opinionated — it wants you to run your entire business through it. If you’ve got existing systems you like, expect friction.

Housecall Pro

A more approachable option, especially for smaller teams. The scheduling is clean and simple. Online booking, automated reminders, and a straightforward mobile app.

Good for teams of 3-15 techs who want something that works without a 6-week rollout. The drag-and-drop calendar is intuitive, and it handles recurring maintenance agreements well.

The limitation: it’s built for simplicity, which means it lacks depth. Skill-based routing is basic. Reporting is surface-level. If you run a mix of residential and commercial, you’ll feel the constraints.

Jobber

Similar territory to Housecall Pro, with better quoting and invoicing workflows. Jobber’s scheduling is solid for straightforward operations — assign a tech, set a time, send a notification.

It handles crew scheduling (multiple techs on one job) better than most at this price point. Good for HVAC companies that also do installation work where you’re sending 2-3 people to a site.

The gap: limited dispatch intelligence. There’s no smart routing or automatic assignment based on proximity or skills. Your dispatcher is still doing the thinking.

FieldEdge

Purpose-built for HVAC, plumbing, and electrical. FieldEdge integrates tightly with QuickBooks (if that matters to you) and has a dispatch board designed for service companies.

The tech skill matching is more granular than Housecall Pro or Jobber. You can tag techs with certifications and the system will flag mismatches. Emergency job handling is decent — you can see open slots and tech proximity on one screen.

Downside: the interface feels dated compared to ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro. The mobile app gets mixed reviews from techs. And like ServiceTitan, it’s not cheap.

Team Size Changes Everything

5 techs or fewer: Housecall Pro or Jobber. You don’t need dispatch AI — you need a clean calendar, automated customer texts, and mobile access for your techs. The dispatcher (probably you, or your office person wearing four hats) can keep the whole schedule in their head. Spending $250/tech/month on ServiceTitan at this size is overkill.

10-25 techs: This is where it gets interesting. Your dispatcher can no longer hold the full picture mentally. You need skill matching, GPS-based assignment, and a system that helps with decisions rather than just recording them. ServiceTitan or FieldEdge start earning their cost here.

25-50 techs: At this scale, the off-the-shelf tools start showing cracks in unexpected places. Not in scheduling itself, but in the gaps between scheduling and everything else — your custom pricing rules, your specific SLA requirements, your maintenance contract logic that doesn’t fit any platform’s template.

When Off-the-Shelf Isn’t Enough

Here’s the pattern we see repeatedly with HVAC companies in the $5M-$30M range: they buy ServiceTitan or FieldEdge, use maybe 60% of the features, and then spend increasing amounts of time working around the other 40%.

The workarounds look like this:

• A spreadsheet next to the scheduling board tracking which techs are certified for specific equipment brands
• A WhatsApp group for emergency rerouting because the software’s process is too slow
• Manual data entry between the scheduling tool and their quoting system
• A paper form that techs fill out because the mobile app doesn’t capture the fields they need for warranty claims

Each workaround is small. Together, they’re a second operating system running alongside the software you’re paying for.

Making the Decision

Start with what you can afford and what your team will actually adopt. The fanciest scheduling system in the world is worthless if your techs won’t use the app and your dispatcher goes back to the whiteboard.

For most HVAC companies under 15 techs, a solid off-the-shelf platform handles the job. Get your team using it consistently before you worry about optimising.

For larger operations, pay attention to where the workarounds accumulate. That’s your signal. When you’re spending more time compensating for your software’s limitations than benefiting from its features, it’s time to consider something built around your operation rather than the other way around.