Lawn Buddy vs Yardbook: Pricing and Features Compared

Last updated: August 2026

Lawn Buddy vs Yardbook is a closer contest than most software comparisons, because both are built specifically for lawn care and both have a genuinely free plan. Yardbook has been around since 2012 and is based in Phoenix. Its free tier covers scheduling, invoicing, estimates, and time tracking.

What Yardbook’s free plan does not include is QuickBooks sync, an ad-free interface, or a phone number you can call.

Where the two diverge is how the free plans are funded. Yardbook’s free tier is ad-supported and adds roughly 1% on top of card payments processed through Stripe; the ads come off at $49.99/month and the extra 1% comes off at $34.99/month. Ours is funded through a higher card processing rate — 4.8% plus $0.30 on Lite against 2.9% on Pro — with no advertising and no commission on top. Both companies have to pay for a free product somehow; it is worth knowing which way each does it.

The other significant gap is QuickBooks. Yardbook puts QuickBooks sync on its top plan at $49.99/month. We include it on all four plans, including the free one — so if syncing your books is the reason you are shopping, that is the difference between $0 and roughly $600 a year.

Pricing at a glance

Where Lawn Buddy is the better choice

On cost and transparency

• You want a free plan with no advertising. Yardbook’s free tier is ad-supported, and the ads only come off on its $49.99/month plan. We will never put advertising in Lawn Buddy, on any plan, including the free one. If you turn the screen around to show a customer their estimate, or hand a crew member a phone at a job site, you decide what is on it.
• You use QuickBooks. QuickBooks sync is on every Lawn Buddy plan, including the free one. On Yardbook it is on the $49.99/month Enterprise plan — their most expensive tier. If your bookkeeper needs the data in QuickBooks, that is about $600 a year for the same outcome.

On what the software does

• You need to know where your crews are right now. Our crew tracking updates in real time on Pro and Exclusive. Yardbook’s location data syncs roughly every four hours. When a customer calls asking how far out the truck is, four-hour-old data cannot answer that. Real-time can.
• You want to know the price before signing up. Our four plans are on our pricing page in plain numbers, with the card processing rate for each. Yardbook requires you to create an account before it will show you what its paid plans cost.
• You want to pay annually and save. Annual billing saves up to 23% here. Yardbook bills monthly only.

On who you are dealing with

• You want to reach a person when something breaks. Both products have written and video tutorials. The difference is what happens when the tutorial does not cover your situation. Yardbook handles support through a ticket system — no phone line, no email. We answer the phone on every plan including the free one: call (316) 247-2184 during business hours and you get someone in Wichita who knows the software. Onboarding is free too, and we import your customer list for you.
• You want aerial property measurement. Measure lawns from satellite imagery and calculate mulch or gravel volume, included from Standard at $12/month.

Where Yardbook is the better choice

• You want route optimization without paying. Yardbook includes it on its free plan; we start it on Pro at $39/month.
• You use Xero, Mailchimp or Zapier. Yardbook connects to those. We integrate with QuickBooks, Stripe, EVO, and AfterPay financing, so if your stack is built around accounting and payments we cover it — but our list of marketing and automation integrations is shorter.
• You want a longer public review history. Yardbook launched in 2012 and has more reviews on the software directories than we do.

Lawn Buddy vs Yardbook: which should you choose?

Choose Lawn Buddy if you use QuickBooks, you need to see where crews are during the day, you want to compare prices before creating an account, or you want someone to set the whole thing up with you on the phone.

Choose Yardbook if you are solo, you want route optimization at no cost, or you rely on Xero or Mailchimp.

Both have free plans with no time limit, so you can run them side by side and decide from experience rather than from a comparison page — including this one. That is the honest recommendation: try both.

If you do try ours, you will not be doing it alone. Onboarding is free on every plan, we will import your customer list for you, and you can call (316) 247-2184 and talk to someone in Wichita who knows the software. That offer stands whether you end up paying us or not.

Frequently asked questions

Yardbook pricing and features shown here were checked in August 2026 and may have changed. Yardbook does not publish its paid pricing publicly, so figures come from third-party sources. Yardbook is a trademark of its respective owner. This comparison is published by Lawn Buddy.