United States. HVAC field service management
Which HVAC field service software handles your compliance?
Every field service platform will schedule a job and raise an invoice. What separates them for an HVAC contractor is whether the record a technician leaves behind will stand up: EPA Section 608 puts real recordkeeping duties on appliances with a full charge of 50 pounds or more, with leak rate thresholds that differ by equipment type and a 30 day clock on repairs. We read five US platforms' own pages on 15 August 2026 and set them against those 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, which is a finding rather than a gap in our reading, and it means the EPA duties on this page are questions to put to a salesperson rather than 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 independent site operated by Ellul Solutions Ltd. 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, and 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 has to do to satisfy it, so a software demo can be tested against the regulation rather than against 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?
For appliances with a full charge of 50 or more pounds, the leak rate trigger is 10% for comfort cooling, 20% for commercial refrigeration and 30% for industrial process refrigeration, each over a 12 month period. Once a leak is discovered it must be repaired within 30 days, or a retrofit or retirement plan developed within 30 days and completed within one year with a copy kept on site. Owners exceeding the trigger rate must conduct initial and follow-up verification tests at the conclusion of repair efforts.
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; it means you are asking whether something can be built rather than whether it exists. The test to run in a demo is to ask for the rolling twelve month leak rate for a single appliance, produced live from data entered during the demo.
Why does an appliance record matter more than a job record?
Because every Section 608 threshold is measured per appliance over a rolling twelve months. A system recording refrigerant against a JOB can tell you what was used on a given visit but cannot tell you whether unit three at a site has crossed 10% in the last year, which is the question the regulation asks. So the first thing to test is whether an appliance exists as its own record, carrying its full charge, with refrigerant added and recovered attaching to it 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, and it places them on its top MAX tier at $299 a month rather than on Basic at $59. A maintenance-led firm therefore cannot buy the entry plan. The other four do not publish agreement handling at any tier, which means you cannot price it without a sales call.
How much does HVAC field service software cost?
Two of the five publish a rate card. ServiceM8 runs a free tier at $0 for 30 jobs a month and one user, then $29, $79, $149 and $349 by job volume, with unlimited users on every paid plan. Housecall Pro publishes $59, $149 and $299 a month billed annually. ServiceTitan, FieldEdge and FieldPulse publish no figure at all, showing a Request Pricing button or offering a custom quote instead.
Do these platforms work without a signal?
None of the five publishes its offline behaviour on the pages we read, which matters more in HVAC than in most trades because the work happens in plant rooms and basements. Test it directly in a trial: put the phone in airplane mode, complete a job with readings, then reconnect and confirm nothing was lost. If a technician cannot record refrigerant readings offline, they will be written down and typed up later, which undoes the compliance case for the software.
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 rather than the job, so the useful control is a scheduler that knows who holds it and when it expires. It is worth asking for, because the alternative is a dispatcher remembering, and dispatchers are the busiest people in the building.
Sources
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.