← Back to Bead BoardJobber vs Bead Board
Welders sometimes end up on Jobber because it ranks for "small business job management" and the demo video looks pretty. Then they try to run a welding shop out of it for a week and realize it was built for a completely different kind of work.
Jobber isn't bad. It's just not for fab shops.
Jobber is good software. It runs tens of thousands of HVAC, plumbing, landscaping, and home services businesses. The whole thing assumes the same shape of work: a customer calls, you schedule a crew, the crew drives to the customer's house, does the job, marks it complete, and Jobber sends the invoice. The address is the job. Routes matter. The same customers come back every other week for another visit.
Welding shops don't work like that. Custom fab comes to the shop. It sits on the floor for days or weeks. It moves through stages like quote, approved, in progress, done, invoiced. The welder doesn't drive to the job. The job gets delivered to the shop. Route optimization is useless. Recurring weekly visits aren't a thing. Jobber's entire interface is built around an idea of work that doesn't match yours, and you'd be fighting it every day.
Side by side
Jobber pricing verified April 2026 at getjobber.com/pricing. Team plans shown because solo Core ($29) and Connect ($99) don't apply once you've got a crew.
The math nobody runs before they buy
Jobber prices by the user. Bead Board doesn't. This is where the sticker on the box stops matching the receipt at checkout.
A 5-person shop on Jobber Team is $149 a month. Add three more welders next spring and you're at $236. Hit ten people and you're at $299. Fifteen people is $529 a month, every month, forever.
Bead Board is $99 flat. Five welders, ten welders, fifteen welders, the boss, the estimator, the guy answering the phone, your wife at the kitchen table. Everybody's included. Growing doesn't cost extra. If your shop doubles in the next two years, Jobber's bill doubles too. Bead Board's stays put.
When Jobber actually is the right tool
One real exception: mobile welders. If your business is driving a rig out to ranches, farms, job sites, and highway pullouts to weld trailers, cattle gates, ag equipment, and pipe repairs on location, then your work actually is "schedule, drive, finish, invoice." Jobber fits that. Route optimization is real for you. Recurring visits to the same customers are a thing. The customer's address is the job.
If that's you, Jobber will work for you and Bead Board won't. Go buy it at getjobber.com. Bead Board is for the shop that sits still and builds things, not the one that drives out to the work.
Questions welders ask about Jobber
Can I use Jobber to track welding jobs in my shop?
You can, but it was built for field service businesses: HVAC, plumbing, electrical, lawn care. The dispatch and routing features are the centerpiece. If your welders are at a bench or a booth all day, you are paying for features you do not use and missing features you need, like material markup and offline photos.
Why does Jobber charge per user when Bead Board does not?
Different business model. Jobber prices per user because their customers (field service companies) have lots of techs in trucks. Bead Board charges $99 flat for the whole shop because welding shops are small, everyone needs to see the board, and charging per seat punishes you for growing.
Does Bead Board have dispatch and route optimization like Jobber?
No. Bead Board is not a dispatch tool. If your business drives to the work (mobile welding, field repair), Jobber or ServiceTitan is probably a better fit. Bead Board is for the shop that sits still and builds things.
Is Jobber good for a welding shop with no field work?
It works, but you will be fighting the UI. Jobber assumes every job has a site address, a drive time, and a scheduled visit. A fab shop that builds in the booth and ships does not think that way. You end up filling in fields that do not apply and skipping features that do not exist.
Also worth reading: welding spreadsheet • QuickBooks for the shop floor • WeldTrace (code welding) • the whiteboard • offline mobile app.