What does Markate publish about itself?

Markate calls itself a Service Operations Platform for field service businesses, covering jobs, scheduling, invoicing, payments and customer communication. Its pricing page charges a base price for an owner operator plus a per-employee fee, with many extras priced separately.

When may Markate fit better than Apex?

Markate may fit better if your needs stay inside its base plan and you want a low entry price, or you want an AI call answering service billed per call and optional direct mail or voicemail add-ons. Apex is early access, with one business as its only tenant, and is newer and narrower.

Apex Flow Scheduler vs Markate

Facts read from Markate’s own pages on 2026-10-07. Prices and terms change: verify before buying. Reviewed 2026-10-07.

What Markate isMarkate calls itself a Service Operations Platform for field service businesses, covering jobs, scheduling, invoicing, payments and customer communication ^[1]. Its pricing page charges a base price for an owner operator plus a per-employee fee, with many extras priced separately ^[2]^[3]^[4].

What Markate publishes

Markate describes a Service Operations Platform for field service businesses that covers jobs, scheduling, invoicing, payments and customer communication in one system. (positioning; source, read 2026-10-07)
Owner Operator is $49.95 per month billed monthly, or $45.95 per month billed yearly as one payment of $551.40, and the page calls the yearly option an 8 percent saving. (price; source, read 2026-10-07)
Each employee adds $5.00 per employee per month on top of the base price. (price; source, read 2026-10-07)
Paid add-ons listed include online booking, a branded portal, review features and Zapier at $10 per month each, and the Connect API at $50 per month. (price; source, read 2026-10-07)
The Kate AI receptionist is listed at $1 per call, SMS drip campaigns at 10 cents per SMS, and SMS blasts at a $10 setup fee plus 5 cents per SMS. (price; source, read 2026-10-07)
The pricing page offers a 14 day trial with all features and no credit card, and states there is no contract with monthly or annual billing. (policy; source, read 2026-10-07)
The page says there are no refunds for early cancellation within the billing period. (policy; source, read 2026-10-07)
Base features listed as included are leads, job pipeline, scheduling, customer management, invoicing, payment processing, employee management and expense tracking. (feature; source, read 2026-10-07)

Side by side

Markate as published, and Apex by design. Apex status badges come from our feature audit.
Topic	Markate says	Apex does by design	Apex status
Plans and price	A base price for an owner operator plus a per-employee fee, shown on its pricing page ^[2]^[3].	User-based tiers: $59 for 1 user, $99 for 2 to 5, $129 for 6, then $10 per extra user. AD08No per-user fees(In progress)	In progress
Add-ons	Online booking, branded portal, reviews, Zapier and API access are priced as add-ons ^[4].	Online booking and request mode are part of the design. Texts and AI are not included in any plan. BK01Online booking page (hosted)(Built, rolling out) BK11Booking requires owner approval (request mode)(Built)	Built, rolling out
Texting	SMS campaigns are charged per message ^[5].	Texting needs your own provider account or a prepaid wallet that is rolling out, plus carrier registration. CM01Two-way SMS from business number(In progress) CM0210DLC / registration handled for you(Rolling out)	In progress
AI phone answering	The Kate AI receptionist is priced per call ^[5].	AI phone answering is partly built and is charged per AI minute on your own provider or the wallet. AI01AI receptionist answers calls(In progress) AI13Metered phone usage with caps(Built, rolling out)	In progress
Contract and cancelling	No contract is stated, and no refunds within the billing period are stated ^[6]^[7].	Month-to-month with in-app cancel is designed and partly built. Data export on cancel is also partly built. AD09Month-to-month, cancel in-app(In progress) AD10Data export on cancel(In progress)	In progress
Trial	A 14 day trial with no credit card is offered ^[6].	A 14 day free trial with no card. OB01Guided setup wizard (under 10 minutes)(Built, rolling out)	Built, rolling out

A blank in the first column means we did not verify it. We make no claim about features Markate does not publish.

When Markate may fit better

Markate may fit better if your needs stay inside its base plan and you want a low entry price ^[2], or you want an AI call answering service billed per call ^[5] and optional direct mail or voicemail add-ons. Apex is early access, with one business as its only tenant, and is newer and narrower.

How Apex is designed differently

Apex is designed so the price depends on the number of users, with $59, $99 and $129 monthly tiers. Online request handling is part of the design rather than an add-on, and a request stays pending until the owner confirms it. Texts and AI use your own provider account or a prepaid wallet that is rolling out.

This is a statement about Apex design, not a claim that Markate falls short. Apex Flow Scheduler is early access, its only tenant is Apex’s own first business, and many features are still rolling out.

What we could not verify

Customer export format and location were not verified. Check the vendor help center.
Mobile app listings were not read.
An accounting integration was not verified on the pages we read.
Prices change. Verify on the vendor pricing page before buying.

How to switch from Markate Price comparison page Apex pricing

Official site: markate.com. All other compared vendors: comparison index.