Top 10 Tree Care Routing Software of 2024

Are you a tree care business owner managing your daily operations manually?

If YES, you must have faced the following challenges at some point:

• Frequent scheduling errors like double-booking or overlooking priorities
• Inability to track your crew’s work progress in real time
• Delays in route planning and dispatching to field agents causing service delays
• Inaccurate job estimation, invoicing errors, and payment delays

So, how do you overcome them all?

The answer lies in implementing feature-rich tree care routing software.

Tree service software helps simplify your daily tree care operations, such as route scheduling, dispatching, or invoicing, and makes them faster and more efficient compared to the traditional approach.

However, considering a switch to a tree care routing solution is only half the battle won. Another half lies in ensuring that we do not get overwhelmed by the plethora of software solutions available for this industry and picking the most appropriate one.

To simplify this selection journey for you, we are here with a blog on the top 10 tree software. It discusses the salient features, pros, and cons of each software solution and also compares their prices. By the end of this blog, you’ll be able to determine which software can suit your tree care business requirements.

10 Best Tree Care Software to Consider in 2024

Tree Care Routing Software	Key Features	Overall Rating
Upper	Multi-constrained route planning & optimization Route scheduling GPS tracking (Detailed live tracking) Customer notifications Actionable reports & analytics Open API integration Vehicle capacity constraints	Capterra – 4.5 (18 reviews) G2 – 4.7 (5 reviews)
Arbostar	GPS tracking Scheduling Employee management Extensive integration support	Capterra – 4.9 (44 reviews) G2 – 4.6 (68 reviews)
RealGreen (by WorkWave)	Dynamic routing Integrated payment processing Marketing automation Virtual measurement	Capterra – 3.4 (44 reviews) G2 – 4.2 (61 reviews)
Jobber	Quoting Scheduling Job management Payment management	Capterra – 4.5 (752 reviews) G2 – 4.5 (255 reviews)
SingleOps	Crew management Real-time tracking Job costing Digital work orders	Capterra – 4.4 (79 reviews) G2 – 3 (3 reviews)
ArborGold	Sales pipeline visualization Customer service Work order management Flexible scheduling	Capterra – 4.5 (58 reviews) G2 – 4.3 (3 reviews)
Commusoft	Tree service estimation Online communication Customer communication Custom forms	Capterra – 4.8 (374 reviews) G2 – 4.8 (31 reviews)
Kickserv	2-way synchronization with QuickBooks Online Client tracking Lead management Payment collection & management	Capterra – 4.4 (374 reviews) G2 – 4.4 (154 reviews)
TreePlotter	Location-independent management Customizable add-ons Integrations Data visualization	Capterra – 4.6 (120 reviews) G2 – 4.5 (2 reviews)
Arbornote	Flexible proposal designing Sales pipeline visualization ArborNote crew app Robust scheduling	Capterra – 4.8 (10 reviews)

1. Upper

Upper is one of the best tree care routing software solutions, suitable for planning your multi-stop tree service routes. Even if you have more than 100 stops to cover, Upper lets you upload their addresses and optimizes routes based on traffic, time windows, and staff availability for field agents to reach them fast. 

This multi-constrained route planner also excels at scheduling your service appointments with regular clients for months and weeks in advance. It also helps assign your route schedule among your team members based on their start and end points to avoid last-minute scheduling hassle.

Talking of GPS tracking capabilities, Upper provides active live tracking. It not only shows your service agents’ accurate locations but also saves their location coordinates every 10 seconds, even when they go off-grid. This makes it easy to trace back their movements once they are online and identify discrepancies.

Key Features:

1. Unlimited routes: Upper enables you to create unlimited routes while accommodating varying schedules and locations.
2. Proof of delivery/service (POD): This feature allows you to capture your customers’ digital signatures, photos of work done, and additional notes for service confirmation.
3. One-click dispatch: This functionality facilitates sending optimized routes to multiple drivers via email, text, or directly to the driver’s app. You can then print route manifests for non-tech-savvy drivers to complete their schedules efficiently.
4. Customer notifications: This keeps your customers informed of their service request statuses and helps inform them of the estimated times of arrival to ensure transparency and enhance customer satisfaction.
5. Actionable reports and analytics: They provide insights into the total service stops covered or missed per technician to initiate focused improved measurements.
6. API integration: Upper provides open API integration, allowing you to integrate multi-stop routing into your existing business systems effortlessly. 
7. In-app navigation: It lets your field agents navigate their routes from within the driver app, reducing the dependency on third-party navigation apps and eliminating the need to switch between them.

User reviews

User reviews

Pricing:

1. Essentials: $119 per month for 3 users (billed annually) – Save 20%

Includes: 250 stops, route optimization and planning, priority stops, and one-click dispatch

2. Growth: $239 per month for 5 users (billed annually) 

Includes: Adds custom reports, export to Garmin, and detailed live tracking to Essentials

3. Enterprise: Not publicly available

Includes all the features of Essentials and Growth and offers a dedicated support manager + technical consulting

2. ArboStar

ArboStar is a premium tree care service software solution ‘designed by arborists for arborists’. This software has dozens of modules to manage each aspect of your tree service company and automates tasks like invoicing and SMS messaging to enhance your business efficiency.

We liked tree mapping. The tree inventory software it provides helps you enter your client’s site to view the tree(s) that need service and the type of service, as well as estimate service costs accurately. This information lets your tree care professionals equip themselves fully with all the tools they need at the site. 

However, this cloud-based software provides fewer features in its mobile app than its desktop version. For instance, you cannot generate invoices for partial amounts nor view partially paid invoices in reports using their app.

Key Features: 

1. GPS tracking: This functionality leverages location intelligence, such as live maps, to provide visibility into teams’ and vehicles’ movements and manage them efficiently. 
2. Scheduling: This module allows you to schedule new jobs based on the nearby leads and assign them to competent technicians to ensure on-time and top-notch service.
3. Employee management: This feature enables you to manage your employees’ time shifts as per their work schedules or leaves and automates payroll calculations.
4. Extensive integration support: This facilitates integration with multiple programs, such as VoIP, SMS, QuickBooks, and Xero, to produce an all-inclusive business management platform that boosts agility and flexibility.

User reviews

User reviews

Pricing: 

Not publicly available. Differs as per your specific business needs and the number of users and modules you need.

3. RealGreen (by WorkWave)

Designed ‘specifically for the green industry,’ this all-in-one tree service business software provides you with solutions to schedule your jobs, generate quotes, create routes for your on-field workers, and send invoices. 

We were impressed by the color-coded calendars this tree care business software provides. It enables viewing employees by route, distance, or service to ensure scheduling the right person for each job. 

However, we did not find the emailing process as effective as other software like Service Autopilot on the list. We also found that it was difficult to set up, especially for beginners. 

Key Features: 

1. Dynamic routing: This functionality lets you plan your routes, considering factors such as job cost, number of customers, distance, or size of your client’s site.
2. Integrated payment processing: This module consolidates quoting, billing, and invoicing into one platform to make payments faster and more efficient. 
3. Automation of marketing campaigns: This tree care software comes with a built-in marketing tool, the “Find Neighbors” functionality, to help you market your tree service business to your neighbors.
4. Virtual measurement: This measure assistant enables you to determine the size of any property virtually with a few clicks of your mouse and eliminates the need for time and effort required in manual measurement.

User reviews

User reviews

Pricing:

1. Emerging: 

Suitable for a team of 1-9 employees. Includes full CRM, online measuring, scheduling & work orders, mobile app, customer portal, email marketing, and sales chatbot.

2. Strategic: 

Suitable for a team of 10-199 employees. Includes everything in Emerging plus capital solutions, advanced reporting, and API integration.

3. Enterprise: 

Suitable for a large team of over 200 employees. Includes everything in Strategic plus advanced analytics integrations, professional services, and acquisition support.

4. Jobber

With over 30 years of experience developing software for field service executives, Jobber is a leading name in the tree care industry. It lets you handle estimating, invoicing, CRM, and customer communications all from a single centralized location. 

Jobber’s USP lies in its invoicing functionality. It provides customer-friendly invoice templates that you can personalize to align with your branding. The invoice is generated instantly after the job is complete, and you can send it to your customers via text or email. 

Jobber’s software also lets you generate the shortest and most fuel-efficient route based on the incoming job requests by assigning it to the closest team members as per their GPS locations. However, it doesn’t save or show the path your crew members followed if they go offline, unlike Upper. 

Key Features: 

1. Quoting: It helps you generate professional quotes with pre-built customizable templates to expedite quoting. This also allows you to view the margin on your quotes and make edits to prices accordingly.
2. Scheduling: This feature enables your customers to book an appointment online. You can then view your team members’ schedules to see who’s available to take up the job and assign it to them in a tap.
3. Job management: This lets you send an automated message to your customers to inform them of your crew members’ estimated arrival times. It also helps you track the time your team members spend on a job for easy payroll processing.
4. Payment management: This feature provides your customers with multiple payment methods, including debit/credit cards or online bank transfers. It enhances the flexibility and convenience of payments to boost instant payouts.

User reviews

User reviews

Pricing:

1. Grow: Allows up to 15 users and costs $200/month (billed annually) for the first year.

Includes: Quote add-ons, job costing, automated quote follow-ups, and two-way text messaging.

2. Connect: This service allows up to 5 users and costs $104/month (billed annually) for the first year.

Includes: Automated reminders, automatic payments, and online booking.

3. Core: Allows only 1 user and costs $40/month (billed annually) for the first year.

Includes: Scheduling and managing jobs, 24/7 client self-serve hub, and digital payments.

Free trial: 14 days

5. SingleOps

Rated as America’s no. 1 tree service software, SingleOps empowers you to create an efficient workflow to organize and automate manual tasks. Its ease of use and accessibility from anywhere make it stand out from competitors. It is also highly configurable to cater to tree care companies of all sizes.

Out of the multiple modules that SingleOps provides to take care of different aspects of a tree care company, we loved the cloud-based customer relationship management platform. Using it, we could easily visualize each lead’s progress through the sales pipeline to personalize decisions for more conversions.

The ‘playback’ feature, which enables viewing each day’s activities and tracking vehicle specifics, like speed or direction, is a plus. However, testing revealed some glitches when customers enter information. Moreover, GPS tracking, route optimization, and business reporting are available in their most expensive plan only.

Key Features:

1. Crew management: This feature lets your in-office or on-field team members enter, clock in, start or complete work, complete tasks or visits, and clock out from their own devices. It lets you check and ensure their punctuality and efficiency. 
2. Real-time tracking: This functionality provides real-time visibility into your vehicles and equipment and sends alerts when a driver starts or stops a vehicle or enters or leaves a client’s side to track their job progress and ensure compliance. 
3. Job costing: This module provides detailed insights into the differences between the initially estimated hours and actual hours to complete each client’s job. It helps you make your pricing decisions accordingly to avoid underestimating or overestimating a job’s costs.
4. Digital work orders: They enable you to create digital work orders filled with detailed, crew-specific notes and site photos to help your staff obtain all the desired machinery equipment for the job, deliver top-notch service, and boost customer satisfaction.

User reviews

User reviews

Pricing:

All plans are based on an annual agreement (paid monthly) and include unlimited crew members.

• Essential: Starts at $200 per month. Allows 1 officer or sales user + $50 per additional user. Includes dedicated implementation specialist, dedicated customer success manager, industry-leading technical support, mobile access, and flexible scheduling
• Plus: It starts at $350 per month and allows 1 officer or sales user + $100 per additional user. It includes everything in Essential and mobile timesheets, real-time job costing, Google Calendar integration, job site mapping, and advanced estimating. 
• Premier: It starts at $500 per month and allows 1 officer or sales user + $125 per additional user. It includes everything in Plus, along with route optimization and memorization, business insights and reporting, purchase orders and inventory, and automations.

6. Arborgold

Founded by Jon and Donna Garner in 1994, this arborist and tree care company’s business management software has been a leading name among green professionals. It also provides a mobile app for you to run your tree care business processes, including scheduling or fleet dispatching on the fly.

Arborgold’s tracking functionality helps track your staff members in real time and assign jobs to them based on their proximity to the client’s site, availability, and skills. It also allows you to create accurate estimates that show the options your potential customers discussed with you. 

However, users reported that the UI was not as interactive as it could be, as our internal testing corroborated. Another problem is frequent updates that make it hard to learn and adapt to, making the learning curve steep.

Key Features: 

1. Sales pipeline visualization: This helps you track all your bids, messages, meetings, and site visits to make sure that you don’t miss any and maximize your sales. 
2. Customer service: This module allows you to respond promptly to inbound calls, website visits, or queries through an integrated message center. You can also leverage the 24/7 client portal to reduce your service calls and improve your customer experience.
3. Work order management: It lets you fetch every estimate as a work order instantly and automate follow-ups with leads to increase your conversions and sales. 
4. Flexible scheduling: This feature helps schedule and edit your tree care service schedules easily through the easy drag-and-drop functionality to maximize your crew’s utilization.

User reviews

User reviews

Pricing: 

Provides three different pricing plans: Starter, Professional, and Enterprise. The base price for any plan starts at $129/month. For full details, you may contact their sales team.

7. Commusoft

Popular as dynamic tree care business software, they boast of having helped increase their clients’ tree care jobs by 60%. They stand out for smart scheduling algorithms that let you create the best schedule for your appointments, considering service requests, drive times, and crew members’ availability. 

Its flexibility in handling planned and unplanned job orders is commendable. While Commusoft helps you track your customers’ planned maintenance schedules and assign competent technicians, it also enables flexible scheduling based on customer bookings. 

However, you may sometimes face storage issues, requiring you to delete old photos/videos manually. Testing also found synchronization issues with accounting solutions, which, in some cases, required manual intervention. 

Key Features:

1. Tree service estimation: This module allows you to create estimates based on the type of job for both commercial or residential trimmings, plantings, or tree or stump removals from either within your office or through mobile devices when in the field. 
2. Online booking: This feature lets your clients book an appointment on your website, attach photos and notes to help your crew members understand the type of service, and equip themselves with all the desired machinery.
3. Customer communication: This functionality enables you to send reminders about upcoming appointments and ‘on-the-way’ messages with precise estimated times of arrival to your customers so that they can stay prepared.
4. Custom forms: They provide customizable templates for different types of forms, including safety assessment or inspection, with a variety of questions to collect information easily and accurately.

User reviews

User reviews

Pricing:

Provides plans in two different categories, Jobs and Sales

The three plans in Job Management are: All-in-one, Customer Journey, and Field Automation.

The three plans in Sales Management are: Sales Starter, Sales Growth, and Sales Team.

Pricings not publicly available

8. Kickserv

Kickserv is 100% customizable so that you can customize it to your specific business needs and requirements. Equipped with flexible scheduling, this service software helps tree care businesses schedule multiple workers for each job in one go. 

We also like how it enables canceling and rescheduling jobs due to priority changes or inconducive weather conditions. This software’s customer center enables your customers to submit appointment requests and pay invoices easily.

However, testing revealed the reports to be less user-friendly and comprehensive. Some Kickserve forms are not modifiable and have too small a font to be legible.

Key Features:

1. 2-way synchronization with QuickBooks online: This capability allows you to exchange data between Kickserv and QuickBooks, providing a complete and unified view of your daily tasks and operating costs.
2. Client tracking: This feature lets you view your clients’ accounts and make detailed notes, including the types of services and equipment required to manage them effectively.
3. Lead management: This software helps you configure rule-based scheduling and messaging and estimate generations to engage your potential customers and make informed decisions at each stage of the sales funnel to increase your paying customers.
4. Payment collection and management: This helps collect your customers’ digital signatures for approval of online invoices and provides multiple digital options to capture payments from them.

User reviews

User reviews

Pricing:

1. Free: Starts at $0 per month (billed annually).

It is suitable for small teams and allows up to 2 users. Includes estimates, jobs, pages, smart search & filters, iPhone and Android apps, and tap to pay.

2. Lite: Starts at $47 per month (billed annually). 

Suitable for small teams and allows up to 5 users. Includes everything in Lite plus embedded contact form, expense tracking, time tracking, and automated email and text notifications

3. Standard: Starts at $95 per month.

Suitable for growing teams and allows up to 10 users. Includes everything in Lite plus dispatch mapping, GPS check-ins, and custom data fields.

4. Business: Starts at $159 per month. 

Suitable for established businesses and allows up to 20 users. Includes everything in Standard plus custom templates

5. Premium: Starts at $239 per month.

It is suitable for large businesses and allows unlimited users. Includes everything in Business plus live GPS tracking and advanced tech performance reporting.

9. TreePlotter

Tree Plotter is the leading tree and asset management software for urban forest managers. Built on a web-based GIS platform and equipped with a mobile app, it is preferred among regional governments, private businesses, and non-profit organizations globally.

TreePlotter’s USP is that it allows you to color-code trees based on a specific attribute like height, species, or type of service. You can also configure and save filters to visualize only the trees that meet specific filter criteria on your map.

However, testing revealed that it slows down while clicking a picture and attaching it to multiple trees. Furthermore, you may face some loss of data due to occasional crashes that this software goes through.

Key Features: 

1. Location-independent management: This feature enables updating risks, updating the work done, or generating work orders in real time, whether you are online or offline. 
2. Customizable add-ons: TreePlotter offers a plethora of customizable add-ons, including offline collector, work order management, and advanced or quantified risk assessment, so you can choose only what you need.
3. Integrations: This software allows for easy information exchange by integrating with cloud-based enterprise systems, such as Esri, asset management, and customer service request systems.
4. Data visualization: This functionality lets you view easily comprehensible reports on various performance metrics, including cost per client and return on investment, to inform your decisions. 

User reviews

User reviews

Pricing:

• Monthly: $200/month
• Yearly: $2000

10. Arbornote

Claiming itself to be the premier all-in-one solution for your tree care business. ArborNote helps simplify and streamline each aspect of your entire business, including scheduling, inventory management, and sales tracking.

With over 2000 clients worldwide, this software stands out for its ease of onboarding and use. We liked how it makes it easy to share individual tree details and explain an emergency with a couple of taps. Another feature that left us impressed is that it enables providing read-only access to projects to ensure security.

However, we could not integrate this software with our accounting software. Moreover, testing also revealed that the dots on the GPS map were not as accurate on maps when loaded from templates.

Key Features:

1. Flexible proposal designing: This functionality lets you design proposals and plans based on your preferences through user-friendly tree mapping, even without a tree inventory.
2. Sales pipeline visualization: This feature enables the maintenance of a comprehensive customer database containing customer details, job history, and preferences, as well as the customization of sales emails to boost conversions.
3. ArborNote crew app: This is a simple application for clocking your staff members in and out, tracking their completed work, scheduling extra jobs, and monitoring profitability on the go.
4. Robust scheduling: It allows you to create calendars for each yard and crew. You can drag and drop your approved proposals into your calendar to turn them into work orders instantly. Re-scheduling jobs is also easy through the simple drag-and-drop abilities.

User reviews

User reviews

Pricing: 

Not publicly available

5 Benefits of Tree Care Software

Using tree care service software helps coordinate and streamline multiple operations related to tree care services. 

It provides the following benefits.

1. Enables efficient scheduling and job management

Scheduling jobs for tree care using traditional methods like sticky notes, spreadsheets, or Google Calendar is not only time-consuming but also more prone to human errors like double entries or missed details. 

Tree management software helps optimize your scheduling and job management processes to ensure your teams stay organized and utilized effectively. It provides a mapping tool to view and assign your unscheduled jobs to competent staff members based on their locations, helping you manage your jobs more efficiently.

2. Enhances communication and collaboration

Tree management software provides a centralized platform for communicating with your team and customers in real time. It helps you keep your staff informed about upcoming jobs, job updates, schedule changes, and extra safety measures. 

Your crew members can also inform you of their assignments and document their job details. Using arborist software, you can also remind your customers of their appointments or payment due dates to enhance their satisfaction.

3. Improves inventory & equipment management

Tree management software helps you track your equipment and inventory levels to determine whether they are in optimal working condition. This proactive monitoring helps facilitate timely purchases of new machinery and maintenance of existing tools to ensure readiness for a new job at all times.

When you can track which tools need maintenance and when you can schedule proactive maintenance to prevent unwanted costs associated with heavy repairs. Having the equipment in the right condition also helps you prevent the last-minute hassle of looking for the right tools, dispatch crews faster, and ensure timely service completion.

4. Facilitates informed and data-driven decision-making 

Tree care routing software helps analyze your key performance indicators, including utilization rate, profitability per job, seasonal revenue fluctuations, and total jobs completed in a given period. These insights help identify areas of improvement and take proactive decisions to eliminate them.

You can also use this software to track seasonal fluctuations in demand for certain services, such as fall leaf cleanup, and adjust your prices accordingly, considering your local market and competitors’ rates for the same.

5. Increases overall profitability and customer retention rates

Implementing tree service software helps create optimal routes for your crew members, reducing the unwanted miles they travel on the road. Minimizing these extra miles contributes to slashing fuel costs per mile along with wear/tear of vehicles and associated maintenance/repair costs, thereby maximizing profitability.

Creating efficient routes also helps ensure your staff reaches your client’s site on time and delivers timely service. Moreover, customer service tools like a self-serve portal help customers book appointments or make payments themselves, adding to their convenience and flexibility and elevating satisfaction and retention rates.

Now that you understand how beneficial tree care software is let’s understand what you should seek in your ideal software.

7 Features to Look for in Tree Care Software

The features you may want in tree service software may vary as per your unique requirements. It can also depend on your budget and the pain points you may want to address.

However, you can still consider some essential functionalities in the software you choose.

1. Scheduling and dispatching

Your tree service software should allow you to assign jobs, view your workers’ schedules, and centrally track their progress in real time. This plays a crucial role in improving your time management, maximizing your daily productivity, and boosting revenue and profitability. 

2. Multi-constrained route optimization 

On-time arrivals are imperative to build your customer’s loyalty and trust. Creating the most efficient routes is vital to achieving them. So, make sure your software allows you to optimize your routes based on traffic, service window, priority stops, and technicians’ availability.

3. Effective inventory management

Your tree care software must allow you to track your essential equipment, tools, and supplies. It should enable monitoring their inventory levels to initiate timely replenishment or maintenance and prevent delays in dispatching your crew for service fulfillment.

4. Mobile accessibility

Mobile access is integral for your on-field crew members to stay abreast of changes and communicate with you or your clients. Therefore, your software must provide mobile apps for both iPhone and Android devices. It should allow your field staff to view work orders, track schedule changes, and clock in or out on the fly. 

5. Robust integration capabilities

Integration with existing systems is pivotal to exchanging data and information seamlessly. Therefore, your arbor software must offer robust APIs to facilitate integration with your existing enterprise systems and workflows. This helps manage customer information, communication history, and service preferences efficiently. 

6. Invoicing and payment processing

Streamlining invoicing and payment collection is crucial to realizing your revenue quickly and managing your cash flow. Hence, your software must automate invoice generation once a job is ‘Complete’ and provide multiple payment options to increase flexibility in making payments. 

7. Reporting & analytics 

Comprehensive analytics reports are crucial to evaluate your team’s overall performance. Therefore, your software must provide analytical reports with detailed insights into average service completion time, daily appointments, and sales per visit to identify inefficiencies and eliminate them.

Tree Care Service Software: Your Key to Streamlining Tree Service Operations

Tree care service management software is indispensable for tree care professionals as it provides all the essential tools to streamline and automate your entire business process workflow. 

Whether you need to handle incoming service requests, convert them into work orders, assign them to field agents, generate invoices, or collect payments, tree service software transforms your workflow. 

Choosing the right tree service software solution from a multitude of options available in the market can be challenging. However, you can clearly note down your expectations and unique business requirements beforehand. You can then leverage online reviews and this list of the best arborist software to pick a few solutions that you think can fulfill them. 

You can then test each of them and compare them based on price, customer support, and ease of use. You can also request a free demo or sign up for a free trial to determine which software suits you the most. Eventually, you can pick the most suitable software for your business.