The short answer
FieldPulse is solid general field-service software. Its mobile app works offline, it handles maintenance agreements, inventory and a customer portal, it syncs with QuickBooks, and its Operator AI books jobs over the phone. If you ran an HVAC or plumbing shop, this would be a closer call.
You run a pool company, and two things decide this before you reach a feature list. First, FieldPulse no longer has a pool product page: fieldpulse.com/pool/ returns a 404, and their own April 2026 blog post credits chemical tracking to PoolBrain and Skimmer rather than to FieldPulse. Second, you can't see what FieldPulse costs without a sales quote. Pool Founder publishes its price, $49 to $249 a month flat, and puts water chemistry, AI phone answering and route optimization on every plan.
Every FieldPulse fact on this page was checked against FieldPulse's own website on October 9, 2026. If something has changed, tell us and we'll correct it.
Pool is a keyword there, not a product
FieldPulse used to have a pool industry page. It now returns a 404. What's left is blog content, including an April 2026 roundup of pool service software in which FieldPulse pitches itself on scheduling and invoicing and names PoolBrain and Skimmer as the tools with chemical tracking. We found no water readings workflow, no LSI and no dosing anywhere on their site. When a company's own blog sends you elsewhere for chemistry, believe it.
Pool Founder puts chemistry at the center of the visit, on the $49 Solo plan:
- Readings with automatic LSI on every stop, plus "higher than usual" flags.
- A dosing calculator that gives each dose in your own products, scaled to the pool's gallons and the product's strength. It runs on the phone, works offline, and uses no AI.
- Test-strip scanning: photograph a strip and the app fills in pH, free and combined chlorine, alkalinity, hardness, CYA, salt and more.
- Voice-filled visits: the tech talks through the stop and the app fills the checklist, readings, chemicals and notes.
- Automatic alerts after each visit when chemistry is out of range, filter pressure is more than 10 psi over baseline, or chemical use looks off.
None of that needs custom forms or setup, because the software already knows you clean pools.
Pricing: published vs quote-only
FieldPulse's pricing page shows no prices and no named tiers. It's priced per seat by quote, and the add-ons are named but not priced: the Engage phone system, Operator AI, Chat AI, Payments, Financing and Fleet. You learn your number in a sales conversation.
Pool Founder's price is on the website. You pay by the number of technicians who run routes: $49/month for one, $99 for up to three, $179 for up to six, $249 for up to ten. Office-only staff are free. Every software feature is on every plan, and the only extra is an optional $25/month business phone line for a number of your own and two-way texting. It's month to month, there's no sign-up fee, and the price you sign up at is the price you keep. We don't offer an annual discount, so what you see is what you pay.
| Before you buy | FieldPulse | Pool Founder |
|---|---|---|
| See a price | Request a quote | Published: $49–$249/month |
| Cost at 3 techs | Whatever your quote says | $99/month |
| Cost at 6 techs | Whatever your quote says | $179/month |
| Cost at 10 techs | Whatever your quote says | $249/month |
| AI phone answering | Operator AI add-on, price not published | Included on every plan |
| Try it | Talk to sales | 30-day free trial, no credit card |
AI: theirs books jobs, ours answers the phone and does the office work
Credit where it's due: FieldPulse's Operator AI answers calls and books jobs onto the calendar. Pool Founder's phone assistant does not book, quote or transfer calls, and it speaks English only. If an AI that books the job is what you need, that's a real point for FieldPulse.
What Pool Founder's assistant does, 24/7 and included on every plan: it recognizes customers and returning leads by caller ID, tells a customer when their next visit is, what they owe and what was done on recent visits, takes down new leads, flags urgent messages at critical priority, and gives you a full transcript of every call. It works through free call forwarding from the number you already have, so you don't need the $25 line to use it.
Then there's George, the AI assistant in your dashboard. George doesn't just answer questions: he prepares the actual change, such as rebuilding routes when a tech's hours change, importing a spreadsheet, adding a customer and scheduling their pool, or building a quote from photos, and shows it on an approval card before anything happens. You choose which actions he can take without asking, changes can be undone for 15 minutes, he works within each person's permissions, and he never moves money: no charges, refunds or voids.
Billing built for pool contracts
Pool billing has its own shape, and Pool Founder handles it on every plan:
- Per-visit or flat monthly billing, recurring line items, chemical billing, and consolidated invoices that bundle an HOA or multi-property owner into one bill.
- Card, debit and ACH through Stripe, autopay that retries a failed charge after 1 day, 3 days and 7 days, and reminder schedules you pick from Gentle to Aggressive.
- Pay by Zelle with a QR code or link on invoices and reports, and cash or check payments recorded by hand.
- Card-fee pass-through you turn on per invoice, job or service, credit cards only, with state caps and no-surcharge states handled for you. ACH is free for your customer.
- Techs with permission create, send and charge invoices from the truck.
- Two-way QuickBooks Online sync for customers, items, invoices, payments, refunds and estimates.
Add Route Fit, which prices a new lead from real drive time, time on site, labor and chemical cost, and profitability by route, tech and customer, and you know what each pool actually earns you.
You talk to the people who build it
Pool Founder is founder-owned. Corey is a working pool tech who runs Peachy Pool Service, and he built it with his co-founder Zach. Every bit of engineering points at one industry. When you write in, the person reading it can change the code.
- Techs said logging readings with wet hands was the worst part of every stop. Voice-filled visits and test-strip scanning shipped.
- Companies asked to invoice from the truck instead of waiting on the office. Invoicing and charging from the tech app shipped.
- Owners asked for help with the phone. The AI phone assistant shipped, included on every plan.
We publish what we ship on our product-updates page, and setup help is free: send us your customer list, or a spreadsheet or even a screenshot from your old software, and we'll help you get it in.
What FieldPulse genuinely does well
FieldPulse's mobile app works offline. Pool Founder's does too for the visit itself (checklists, photos, readings and dosing), but starting or finishing a route and the AI features need a signal, so FieldPulse may be the safer bet if your crews work long stretches with no coverage.
Maintenance agreements are a strength, with a rolling twelve months of jobs. FieldPulse also offers fleet tracking and customer financing as add-ons; Pool Founder has neither. And again, its Operator AI books jobs, which ours does not.
If you run HVAC, plumbing or electrical crews, or a mixed-trade shop where pools are a sideline, FieldPulse belongs on your shortlist. If pools are the business, you want software whose roadmap still includes them.
Pricing Comparison
Pool Founder
30-day free trial · No credit card required
FieldPulse
All-in-one field service management
Pros & Cons
Pool Founder
FieldPulse
Final Verdict
Pool Founder is best for
Pool service companies that want chemistry built into every visit, a price they can read before talking to anyone, and AI phone answering and office help included.
FieldPulse is best for
HVAC, plumbing, electrical or mixed-trade shops that want an offline app, AI that books jobs, fleet tracking and financing, and are fine with a quote-based sales process.
Bottom Line
FieldPulse is good general field-service software, and its AI that books jobs, offline app, fleet tracking and financing are real. But its pool page is gone, its own blog sends pool companies elsewhere for chemistry, and you can't see a price without a quote. Pool Founder publishes its pricing, $99/month for three techs and $249 for ten, includes LSI, dosing and a 24/7 AI phone assistant on every plan, and lets you try it for 30 days without a card.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does FieldPulse cost?
FieldPulse doesn't publish prices. As of October 9, 2026 its pricing page shows no tiers or dollar amounts: it's quote-only, per seat, and add-ons like Engage phone, Operator AI, Chat AI, Payments, Financing and Fleet are listed without prices. Pool Founder's pricing is published: $49/month for one tech, $99 for up to three, $179 for up to six and $249 for up to ten, with office staff free.
Is FieldPulse good for pool service?
It can schedule and invoice a pool route, but it isn't built for one. Its pool page now returns a 404, we found no water readings, LSI or dosing on its site, and its own April 2026 blog credits chemical tracking to PoolBrain and Skimmer. Pool Founder has automatic LSI, dosing in your own products, test-strip scanning and chemistry alerts on every plan.
Does Pool Founder have an AI phone agent like FieldPulse's Operator AI?
Yes, and it's included on every plan. It answers 24/7, recognizes customers by caller ID, tells them their next visit, balance and recent visit history, takes new leads, flags urgent messages and saves a transcript of every call. It works by forwarding your existing number for free. The difference: FieldPulse's Operator AI books jobs, and ours never books, quotes or transfers calls, and speaks English only.
Does the Pool Founder tech app work offline?
For the visit, yes: techs can view their route and job details, complete checklists, take photos, enter readings and use the dosing calculator with no signal, and changes sync when they're back in range. Starting or finishing a route, creating new customers, jobs or invoices, and AI features like voice fill and strip scanning need a connection.
What would Pool Founder cost my company?
It's based on technicians who run routes, not office staff: $49/month for one, $99 for up to three, $179 for up to six and $249 for up to ten, with Enterprise pricing above ten. Every software feature is included. The only extra is an optional $25/month business line if you want a number of your own and two-way texting.
How hard is it to switch from FieldPulse to Pool Founder?
Export your customers to CSV or Excel, or even take a screenshot of the list, and Pool Founder's import maps the columns and creates customers, service locations and recurring jobs in one pass. Setup help is free, and you can do the whole move during the 30-day trial before you pay anything. Plan to double-check service days and tech assignments, since exports from other software don't always carry them.