Landscape Lighting Business Software: Prices and Fit

What does a landscape lighting business need from software?#

Four things for the landscape side, and four more if you hang holiday or permanent lights too. For landscape lighting: a proposal priced by fixture with good, better and best options, the transformer and wire on the quote, a property record that remembers the system for the next service call, and maintenance plans that bill themselves.

For the roofline side the list changes. Holiday and permanent lighting is priced per foot by run type (roofline, ridge line, peak, jump), with premiums for steep pitch and second storeys, and the controller as its own line. Every seasonal install needs a takedown job. Multi-year leases need each season's jobs created on their own. And the re-book in August is the most valuable message you send all year. Some makers already sell both halves: Haven Lighting's site lists its X Series permanent roofline beside its landscape and hardscape lines.

Very few tools do both halves well, which is why this page exists. Service Business Academy's June 2026 roundup of landscape lighting software, for example, covers ten tools and does not address holiday lighting workflows at all.

What do the field service CRMs cost?#

Jobber, Housecall Pro and LMN are the whole-business choices, and their prices depend on users and term. Jobber's pricing page lists Core at $49 a month month to month, with Connect from $139 and Grow from $199 for one user, extra users at $29 each, and lower rates on annual terms. QuickBooks Online sync and automated quote follow-ups start at Connect. The trial is 14 days on Grow, no card.

Housecall Pro lists Basic at $59 a month billed yearly or $79 monthly for one user, Essentials at $149 or $189 for five, and Max at $299 or $329 for eight, with extra users at $35. Its trial is also 14 days, no card. LMN, built for landscape companies, lists Starter at $297 a month for one office or crew lead plus five crew, and Professional at $648, both after a one-time onboarding fee the page does not price. Its estimating carries overhead recovery, custom price lists and material and labour calculators.

Our Jobber for Christmas light installers page covers where a field service CRM stops on a lighting quote.

What do the lighting-trade tools do?#

TrustPro and QuoteIQ are built closer to the fixture. TrustPro's outdoor lighting page describes fixture-by-fixture proposals with transformer sizing, wire runs and timers itemized, Kichler, FX Luminaire, Volt and Unique lines on the proposal, deposits at signing, a property record for service calls, maintenance plans billed to the card on file, and QuickBooks Online sync on every plan. Plans are $29, $149 and $299 a month, with card processing at 3.1 percent and a 14-day trial, no card.

QuoteIQ's landscape lighting page shows Good, Better, Best options with three fixture tiers on one estimate, MapMeasure Pro measuring driveways, walkways and bed edges from satellite, AI before and after previews, and invoice subscriptions for maintenance. It also bundles permanent lighting, holiday installs and maintenance into one package estimate. Plans run from $29.99 a month for one user to $699.99 for twenty, with e-signatures on every plan. More on how it handles Christmas lights is on our QuoteIQ for Christmas lights page.

Where GlowBid fits, and where it does not#

GlowBid fits the roofline. It does not fit the fixture.

Where it fits. You draw runs by type (roofline, ridge line, peak, ground, tree, jump) on a photo you own, set the scale from a known length such as the garage door, and the footage, bill of materials and price all come from that drawing. The rate card holds product lines for track, no-track and C9 seasonal, plus custom lines and run types, kits, premiums, add-ons, a minimum job and a deposit rule. Each measurement carries a source tag and a confidence level, and the quote says photo measurements are estimates confirmed on site. The homeowner e-signs on their phone and pays the deposit through Stripe. There is no per-quote fee; deposits go through Stripe Connect and carry Stripe's processing plus a GlowBid platform margin under 1 percent, shown before you connect Stripe. Seasonal service and multi-year lease agreements create each season's install and takedown jobs. Pro adds the pipeline with Takedown and Re-book stages and follow-up sequences.

Where it does not. There is no fixture catalogue and no manufacturer SKUs. It does not size transformers, calculate voltage drop or plan wire runs. You can list a transformer or a fixture as an add-on line at a unit price, but that is a line on a quote, not a design tool. There is no automatic maintenance-plan billing, no QuickBooks sync, no importer from another CRM, and it is an installable web app, not an app store app. If landscape lighting is most of your revenue, GlowBid should not be your main system.

Worked example: a landscape customer adds a permanent roofline#

A homeowner you lit last spring asks about permanent lights on the front. One photo from the street, the 16 ft garage door as the reference: 110 ft of roofline, two gables with 24 ft of peaks, two jumps totalling 10 ft, one controller. GlowBid's default track line, US dollars before tax; installers set their own rates. You can draw this house in the free roofline tool.

That is $29.05 per lit foot over 134 lit feet, and it clears GlowBid's default $1,500 minimum job. The footage came from a photo, so the quote says it is an estimate confirmed on site. Now the software cost of running both halves for a solo owner:

The same split with Jobber Core at the month-to-month rate is $588 plus $299, or $887 a year. One roofline job like the one above pays for either stack many times over. The question is not cost; it is which tool each quote belongs in.

When to choose them instead#

Choose TrustPro if fixtures, transformers and maintenance plans are most of your work and you want QuickBooks Online on the cheapest plan.

Choose QuoteIQ if you run several trades, want satellite measuring before the visit, and want one tool to bundle landscape, permanent and holiday work in one estimate.

Choose Jobber or Housecall Pro if lighting is one service among many and the calendar, crews and payments for all of them need one home.

Choose LMN if you are a landscape company first, with crews, budgets and job costing, and lighting is an add-on line.

Add GlowBid when holiday and permanent rooflines are a real share of your season and you want them priced per foot from a drawing, with takedowns and leases handled.

How do you run GlowBid beside a landscape CRM?#

Split by job type, and the seam is the signed quote. Landscape lighting proposals, fixtures, maintenance plans and bookkeeping stay in your CRM. Rooflines, Christmas lights, takedowns and leases go in GlowBid.

1. Set up the rate card once. Per-foot rates by run type for each product line you install, premiums, the controller as an add-on, minimum job, deposit and tax.
2. Quote the next roofline. Address, live Street View preview to confirm the house (display only, never stored or measured), your own photo, scale, draw, send.
3. Customers as you go. There is no importer. Enter holiday customers from the address as you quote them.
4. Type one number across. After signing, put the signed total in your CRM if it handles the books. That is one field per job.

Mistakes landscape lighting companies make with holiday work#

• Pricing rooflines per fixture. A roofline is footage. Price it per foot by run type, with peaks at their own rate.
• Forgetting the takedown. A seasonal install without a takedown job booked is a January phone call. Create both when the quote is signed.
• Burying the controller. On permanent work the controller is its own line, always.
• Taking any remote measurement as final. Gables and jumps are easy to misread from a distance. Measure from a photo or a tape, and confirm on site.
• Running holiday work through maintenance billing. A multi-year lease has its own season schedule and end-of-term terms. Treat it as an agreement, not a subscription.
• Two tools, two prices. If the same job is quoted in both systems, they will disagree. One quote, one home.

Where that leaves you#

For the fixtures, use a lighting CRM or a landscape platform from the table. For the rooflines, GlowBid draws the runs on your photo and turns that drawing into the footage, the price and the signed quote. Core is $69 a month or $299 a year, Pro $119 or $499, Ultimate $169 or $699 (yearly saves up to 65%), with a 7-day trial, no card, and a 30-day money-back on a first yearly payment; a yearly price holds while the subscription stays continuous. See the plans on the pricing page, compare the lighting CRMs on our best CRM for a Christmas light business page, and try the drawing in the free roofline measuring tool.