United States. HVAC field service management
Which HVAC field service software handles your compliance?
Every field service platform schedules jobs and invoices. For an HVAC contractor, what separates them is whether a technician's record stands up to EPA Section 608. We read five US platforms' own pages on 15 August 2026 against its duties.
50 lb
full charge at or above which EPA leak repair rules apply
30 days
to repair a leak from the date it was discovered
| Option | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FieldEdge Established multi-truck HVAC contractors who want guided onboarding | Not published on the pricing page. Its three tiers, Select, Premier and Elite, are described by support level and scale rather than by data model. | Not published as a named feature, though the tiers are explicitly pitched at multi-truck operations, which is where maintenance agreements live. | Nothing published. Ask specifically whether a leak rate can be calculated per appliance across a rolling 12 months, because that is the EPA test and a generic notes field will not produce it. | Not published. | Not published. It states plans can be customized with add-ons so pricing varies. | HVAC, plumbing, electrical, locksmith and appliance repair. It is the only vendor here to state it offers NO free trial, because it prefers guided onboarding, and the only one publishing a contract term: downgrades only at the end of the current period. |
| ServiceTitan Large HVAC operations with an agreed implementation budget | Not published. | Not published as a named tier feature. | Nothing published on the pricing page. | Not published. | Not published. Three tiers, Starter, Essentials and The Works, each carrying a Request Pricing button in place of a figure. | Aimed at larger multi-truck contractors and priced per technician, which is the most expensive basis if your office staff outnumber your vans. |
| Housecall Pro Smaller HVAC firms that want the ladder priced in public | Not published as a named feature. | Recurring service plans are named, and they sit on the top MAX tier at $299 a month rather than on Basic at $59. For a maintenance-led HVAC firm that decides the plan. | Nothing published. Photo reports and checklist automations are named on Essentials, which is the nearest published mechanism for capturing a technician's readings in a fixed format. | Not published in detail; employee GPS tracking appears on Essentials. | Yes, and in full. Basic $59 a month billed annually, Essentials $149, MAX $299, each saving $20 to $40 a month against monthly billing. | Names HVAC and electrical explicitly. States no long term contracts and a 14 day free trial with no credit card. |
| FieldPulse Teams with more office staff than vans | Not published. | Not published as a named feature. | Nothing published. Custom Forms is offered as a priced add-on, which is the shape a refrigerant log would take, but no figure is published for it. | Seat based, and it distinguishes full access seats from limited field seats, the only vendor here that prices an office administrator differently from a technician. | Not published. Pricing is stated to be customized to team size and setup. | Names HVAC and electrical in its industry solutions. Add-ons including Operator AI, Pricebook, Payments, Financing and Fleet Tracking are priced per line or per license. |
| ServiceM8 A small HVAC crew growing headcount faster than job count | Not published as a named feature. | Not published as a named feature. | Nothing published. | Unlimited users on every paid plan; the pricing page states plainly 'we don't charge per user!'. | Yes, and the only free tier here: $0 for 30 jobs a month and one user, then $29 for 50 jobs, $79 for 150, $149 for 500 and $349 for 1,500 or more. | Trades and service contractors broadly, naming plumbing and gardening rather than HVAC. Billed by jobs a month rather than by people, so hiring is free and getting busy is not. |
How we chose these, and how they are ordered
Five US field service platforms bought by HVAC contractors. Pricing and capability statements were read from each vendor's own pages on 15 August 2026. The regulatory duties they are judged against come from the EPA's own guidance on Section 608, cited in full below.
Order runs by how squarely the vendor aims at HVAC specifically, rather than at trades in general, because that is the axis this page exists to compare. Price is deliberately NOT the ordering: comparehvacsoftware and hvacsoftwarepicker.com answer different questions, and that one compares what each vendor charges FOR.
The compliance column is the honest part, and it is mostly the words nothing published. No vendor here publishes refrigerant leak-rate tracking as a named feature; that is a finding, not a gap in our reading. So the EPA duties on this page are questions to put to a salesperson, not boxes any vendor has ticked.
We do not score features we cannot verify. Where a vendor does not address something on the pages we read, the cell says so instead of carrying an inference.
- FieldEdge FieldEdge, pricing
- ServiceTitan ServiceTitan, pricing
- Housecall Pro Housecall Pro, pricing
- FieldPulse FieldPulse, pricing
- ServiceM8 ServiceM8, US pricing
Compare HVAC Software is an information site. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the EPA or any software vendor named here, and nothing on it is legal, regulatory or contractual advice. The regulatory summaries here quote EPA guidance read on the date shown and are a starting point: the detailed recordkeeping provisions live in 40 CFR Part 82 Subpart F and compliance is the appliance owner's duty, not the software's. We take no commission from any vendor and carry no paid placements.
What EPA Section 608 asks of an HVAC contractor, and what that asks of a job system, 2026
Last updated
Refrigerant compliance is a recordkeeping problem before it is an engineering one. The records have to come off a technician's device in a fixed shape. This table sets each published duty beside what a job system must do to satisfy it, so a software demo can be tested against the regulation, not a feature list.
The duty column quotes the EPA's own guidance on stationary refrigeration leak repair requirements under Section 608 of the Clean Air Act, read on 15 August 2026 and cited in full below; the EPA directs readers to 40 CFR Part 82 Subpart F for the detailed recordkeeping provisions and this page does not paraphrase those. The right-hand column is our own statement of what the duty implies for a job system, and is reasoning rather than regulation, which is why it is labelled separately. No vendor is scored against these rows: none of the five publishes refrigerant leak-rate tracking as a named feature, so this is a list of questions to ask rather than a scorecard we could fill in.
| Duty under EPA Section 608 | What the EPA states | What that asks of your job system |
|---|---|---|
| Which appliances are covered | Appliances with a full charge of 50 or more pounds | An asset record per appliance, at an address, carrying its full charge |
| Comfort cooling leak rate | Trigger rate of 10% over a 12 month period | Refrigerant added and recovered per appliance, dated, so a rolling rate can be computed |
| Commercial refrigeration leak rate | Trigger rate of 20% over a 12 month period | The same, with the threshold varying by equipment type rather than by customer |
| Industrial process refrigeration | Trigger rate of 30% over a 12 month period | An equipment classification on the asset, not a note in a job description |
| Repair deadline | Repair leaks within 30 days from the date the leak was discovered | A discovery date that starts a clock and a task that cannot be closed without a repair record |
| Retrofit or retirement alternative | A plan within 30 days, completed within one year, with a copy kept on site | Document storage attached to the asset, reachable from a van |
| Verification testing | Initial and follow-up verification tests at the conclusion of repair efforts | Two linked visits recorded against one leak event, not two unrelated jobs |
| Technician certification | Section 608 certification required to service, maintain or dispose of covered appliances | Certification held against the engineer record, with an expiry the scheduler respects |
- EPA leak repair requirements apply to appliances with a full charge of 50 or more pounds of refrigerant.
- The leak rate trigger differs by equipment type: 10% for comfort cooling, 20% for commercial refrigeration and 30% for industrial process refrigeration, each over a 12 month period.
- A discovered leak must be repaired within 30 days, or a retrofit or retirement plan developed within 30 days and completed within one year.
- Owners exceeding the trigger rate must conduct initial and follow-up verification tests at the conclusion of repair efforts.
- None of the five US HVAC platforms compared publishes refrigerant leak-rate tracking as a named feature.
Cite this page
“What EPA Section 608 asks of an HVAC contractor, and what that asks of a job system, 2026”, Compare HVAC Software, https://comparehvacsoftware.com/ (updated 2026-08-15). The duty column quotes the EPA's own guidance on stationary refrigeration leak repair requirements under Section 608 of the Clean Air Act, read on 15 August 2026 and cited in full below; the EPA directs readers to 40 CFR Part 82 Subpart F for the detailed recordkeeping provisions and this page does not paraphrase those. The right-hand column is our own statement of what the duty implies for a job system, and is reasoning rather than regulation, which is why it is labelled separately. No vendor is scored against these rows: none of the five publishes refrigerant leak-rate tracking as a named feature, so this is a list of questions to ask rather than a scorecard we could fill in.
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Straight answers
What does EPA Section 608 require for refrigerant leaks?
From 50 pounds of full charge up, the yearly trigger is 10% comfort cooling, 20% commercial refrigeration, 30% industrial process refrigeration. A leak must be fixed within 30 days of discovery, or a retrofit or retirement plan made by then and done within a year, copy on site. Owners over it must run initial and follow-up verification tests after repair.
Does HVAC field service software handle EPA 608 records?
None of the five US platforms we read on 15 August 2026 publishes refrigerant leak-rate tracking as a named feature. That does not mean it cannot be configured; you are asking whether it can be built, not whether it exists. In a demo, ask for one appliance's rolling twelve month leak rate, produced live from data entered during the demo.
Why does an appliance record matter more than a job record?
Every Section 608 threshold is measured per appliance over a rolling twelve months. A system recording refrigerant against a JOB shows what a visit used, not whether unit three crossed 10% in the last year, the regulation's question. Test first whether an appliance is its own record, with its full charge and refrigerant added and recovered attached by date.
Which HVAC software handles maintenance agreements?
Housecall Pro is the only one of the five publishing recurring service plans as a named feature, on its top MAX tier at $299 a month, not Basic at $59. So a maintenance-led firm cannot buy the entry plan. The other four do not publish agreement handling at any tier, so you cannot price it without a sales call.
How much does HVAC field service and business software cost?
Across the wider index we read on 12 October 2026, 24 of 48 HVAC software vendors publish a price. Their 23 published USD figures have a median of $75 a month, with quartiles of $39 and $99 and a range of $12 to $249. The full table is in our HVAC FSM pricing index.
What do the five platforms here charge?
Two of the five publish a rate card. ServiceM8 is free for 30 jobs a month and one user, then $29, $79, $149 and $349 by job volume, unlimited users on paid plans. Housecall Pro publishes $59, $149 and $299 a month, billed annually. ServiceTitan, FieldEdge and FieldPulse publish no figure, showing a Request Pricing button or a custom quote.
Do these platforms work without a signal?
None of the five publishes its offline behaviour on the pages we read. That matters more in HVAC, where work happens in plant rooms and basements. Test it in a trial: airplane mode, complete a job with readings, reconnect, check nothing was lost. Readings that cannot be recorded offline are written down and typed up later, undoing the compliance case.
Can the software stop an uncertified technician being dispatched?
No vendor here publishes that capability. Section 608 certification is required to service, maintain or dispose of covered appliances, and it belongs to the individual, not the job. So the useful control is a scheduler that knows who holds it. Ask for it: the alternative is a dispatcher remembering, and dispatchers are the building's busiest people.
Sources
This site's own datasets, every figure quoted from its source and dated:
- The HVAC FSM Pricing Index carries 25 published figures read from 20 sources' own pages; the 22 published figures given without a breakdown run from 12 to 2,999 USD (25 sources publish a figure), read 11 November 2026.
- The median published figure in the HVAC Trade Cost Benchmark is 61,010 USD across 1 source's own page in USD (range 61,010 to 61,010 USD; 3 sources publish a figure), read 11 November 2026.
- EPA, Stationary Refrigeration Leak Repair Requirements
- EPA, Section 608 of the Clean Air Act
- eCFR, 40 CFR 82.152, Definitions (leak rate, leak inspection)
- EPA, Section 608 technician certification requirements
- Housecall Pro, pricing
- ServiceTitan, pricing
- FieldEdge, pricing
- FieldPulse, pricing
- ServiceM8, US pricing
Compare on the record it leaves behind
Five US HVAC platforms set against the EPA Section 608 duties, what each publishes, and the questions no vendor has answered in public.