Colobbo vs Simpro

Summary

Simpro is a mature, end-to-end platform for commercial trades — quoting, inventory, supplier catalogues, accounting and claims, all in one place. It is priced by quote, sold on multi-year terms, and since the May 2026 Lightning launch existing customers face a 25% uplift on their contracts. Colobbo is built for teams of 10–15+ people running complex, multi-stage field projects: jobs, inspections, GIS maps and data, and progress claims are native, the subcontractor portal is free, and customisation is done by our engineers per client, not by configuration alone. If you need deep inventory and wholesaler integration, Simpro is the stronger product. If you need to run projects on a map, keep claims and variations tidy, and stop paying for tiers and add-ons, Colobbo is the better fit.

At a glance

Detailed comparison

Product scope: trades ERP vs Connected Field Platform

Simpro positions itself as an "AI-first Operating Platform for Field Service Trades," and that is accurate. Its Premium plan covers quoting, scheduling, a field app, inventory and purchasing, invoicing, CRM and BI dashboards, with paid add-ons for digital forms, maintenance planning, takeoffs, GPS fleet tracking, SMS and VoIP. Reviewers consistently praise the end-to-end coverage and job-costing visibility.

Colobbo is narrower by design: one platform to run jobs, inspections, GIS maps and data, and claims — the operational core of a complex project — without disputes. We are not your stock room or your accounts package. That focus is why Decon Technologies (201 users) and OneWire (15 users) run their field operations on it.

Bottom line: if your biggest problem is materials, purchasing and margin per job, Simpro's breadth wins. If your biggest problem is coordinating crews, subcontractors and inspections across multi-stage sites, Colobbo's depth wins.

Inspections

In Simpro, inspections live in Simpro Digital Forms, a separately priced add-on with its own mobile app. The builder is solid — conditional logic, PDF overlays, forms routing back to the job — but safety and asset inspections (SWMS, JSA, plant checks) mostly come through marketplace partners such as SafetyCulture or Safetyminder: another subscription, another sync.

In Colobbo, inspections are native to the job. The crew opens the job, runs the inspection, and the result sits on the same record the claim is built from. Nothing to bolt on, nothing extra to license.

GIS maps and data

This is the clearest difference. Simpro's map capability is Simtrac: live vehicle GPS, nearest-technician dispatch and geofence alerts. Useful for a service fleet, but it is not GIS — there are no GIS map layers and no GIS data on the job of the kind utilities, environmental and infrastructure contractors work with.

Colobbo has GIS maps and data built in. Jobs, inspections and assets sit on GIS maps, and the GIS data stays with the job record so the office and the field are looking at the same thing. No competitor in the Australian market offers this natively.

Progress claims and variations

Credit where it is due: Simpro's claims are mature. It generates deposits, progress, final and retention claims, handles standard variations on project jobs, and reports estimated versus actual with WIP. If you run claims in Simpro today, you will not lose capability moving to Colobbo.

Colobbo's claims and variations are native and included, and built with disputes in mind: every claim line traces back to jobs, inspections and the GIS record of the work. The advantage is not a longer feature list; it is that claims, evidence and tasking live in one system without an enterprise budget.

Subcontractor portal

Simpro's Contractor Portal lets subcontractors see work orders, schedules and invoices, update status and add notes. It works; Simpro does not publish how it is licensed.

Colobbo's subcontractor portal is free. Bring in as many subcontractors as the project needs, no per-seat charge, and they get the same jobs, inspections and GIS maps and data your own crews use.

Customisation

Simpro customisation is configuration: custom fields, quote and invoice templates, custom BI reports, a form builder and a public REST API with iPaaS options like Zapier and SyncEzy. A capable toolkit — but if the workflow you need does not exist, you wait for a roadmap now set from Miami for a global trades customer base.

Colobbo customises per client. If your head contractor needs a specific claim format or your inspection regime needs a workflow Simpro would call "not supported," our engineers build it, and clients lodge feature requests directly with engineering. No feature tiers, so nothing is locked behind an upgrade.

Ease of use and support

Simpro's most common complaint across G2, Capterra and GetApp is complexity: "clunky and non-intuitive at first," training that is "quite costly," setup that "tends to go in circles." Mobile-app stability and accounting-sync issues recur across years of reviews. Simpro's answer is a strong network of independent implementers — Platinum Consultants, Modus Operandi, TradiePad — whose day rates are an additional cost.

Colobbo onboards you directly. The team that builds your workflows is the team that supports them.

Integrations

Simpro wins on breadth: a 161-app marketplace with native Xero and MYOB, payroll, 30+ Australian wholesalers (Rexel, L&H, Middy's, Reece), safety tools, Power BI and CRMs. Colobbo covers the integrations complex-project teams ask for and builds others per client, but we do not match Simpro's catalogue depth today.

Pricing comparison

Neither company publishes a rate card, so this is the fairest picture we can give.

Worked example, 12-user team: on the third-party estimates above, Simpro lands between A$1,800 and A$3,600 a month before the setup fee, forms add-on and any Lightning uplift. Colobbo prices the same team at one per-user rate with inspections, GIS maps and data, claims and the subcontractor portal included, no setup fee. Ask for a quote and put it next to your Simpro renewal.

Who Simpro is best for

• Electrical, plumbing, HVAC, fire and security contractors whose margin depends on purchasing, stock control and wholesaler catalogue pricing.
• Multi-division businesses with 50 to 500+ staff and a dedicated admin team to run the system.
• Companies that want quoting, payroll, accounting and job management from one vendor and will pay for implementation and training.

Who Colobbo is best for

• Australian field-operations companies of 10–15+ users in infrastructure, utilities, environmental services, facilities, electrical and construction.
• Teams running multi-stage projects where work is assigned by location or asset and progress must be proven on a map.
• Businesses submitting progress claims and variations to head contractors who want evidence attached, not disputed.
• Operators who rely on subcontractors and will not pay per seat for them.
• Anyone holding a Simpro renewal with the Lightning uplift who wants the capability without the enterprise price or the multi-year term.

Moving from Simpro to Colobbo

A migration is real work. Here is what it looks like.

1. Export your data. Simpro exports customers, sites, jobs and assets to CSV, and its REST API can pull history. We map these into Colobbo with you. Quotes and inventory history usually stay in Simpro as an archive.
2. Parallel run. Keep Simpro live for open jobs and start new projects in Colobbo, typically for four to six weeks. Nothing is cut over until your crews are confident.
3. Subcontractor onboarding. The portal is free, so we invite your subcontractors during the parallel run and they are live on day one of the first Colobbo project.
4. Claims cut-over. New projects claim from Colobbo; in-flight claims finish in Simpro.

Avoid your busiest claim cycle, and check your Simpro contract end date first — that date, not the software, usually sets the timeline.