Six apps, six logins, six bills.
Tick what you pay for and see it next to one Pool Founder plan.
The money
Every tool you pay for, plus what each payment loses to card fees, next to one subscription.
Skimmer and other per-pool software charge by the pool, so this moves the price.
Your route software
What you pay for on top of it
Tick everything you pay for. It all adds up.
Plus $312/mo in card fees from how you get paid below: $656.50/mo in all.
On-the-way and service-report texts. We guessed 60 pools x 4 visits x 2 texts. Included in Skimmer Scaling Up, so they add nothing here.
How you get paid
Card and bank fees are often the biggest bill. We compare Skimmer's published rates with Stripe's standard rate on Pool Founder.
60 pools x $150 a month. Change it to your real number.
Now: 80% of card payments on autopay, 0% paid by bank, $150 average payment.
Your stack
$656.50/mo
Pool Founder
$353/mo
Switching saves
$3,642 a year
$303.50 a month. Pool Founder Solo is $49 a month, plus $25 for the business phone line that carries your number and texts. Card fees: $312 a month on Skimmer, $279 on Pool Founder.
Free, no account.
Your stack, a year at a time
- Skimmer Scaling Up$120$1,440
- Card fees$312$3,744
How the card fees compare
Pass the card fee to your customer and keep all of it. We don't take a cut, and we don't mark up Stripe's rate.
On Skimmer
$312/mo
80% of card payments on autopay at 3.4% + $0.25, the rest at 2.9% + $0.25
On Pool Founder
$279/mo
2.9% + $0.30 a card payment, autopay or not
You keep $33 more a month on card fees with Pool Founder.
| Payment | Skimmer | Pool Founder |
|---|---|---|
| One-time card payment | 2.9% + $0.25 | 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Autopay card payment | 3.4% + $0.25 | 2.9% + $0.30, the same |
| Bank transfer (ACH) | 1% + $0.25, up to $10 | 0.8%, up to $5 |
| Card fee passed to the customer | The customer pays 3%. Skimmer keeps 1%, you get 2% and still pay the card fee. | Covers the 2.9% + $0.30, up to 3%. You keep all of it. |
Time back from the busywork
Fewer apps means less copying, fewer logins and fewer places to check before you can answer a customer.
- One place for the whole businessCustomers, routes, texts, reviews, quotes, invoices and payments live in the same app, so a customer is entered once.
- The visit does the paperworkWhen a tech marks a stop complete, the service report email with photos and readings goes to the customer automatically (you choose which pools get it), and the visit is billed on the job's invoice schedule.
- Calls get answered while you're on the routeThe AI phone assistant answers 24/7 on every plan, takes messages and leads, and a person approves any booking.
- The crew chat is in the same appGroup and one-on-one chats with photos and videos, on the web and in the tech app. Customers never see them.
Your own estimate. Leave it at 0 to skip.
One app on the truck
Your techs stop juggling a route app, a texting app and a group chat. Everything for the stop is in the Pool Founder app.
- The routeToday's stops in order, one tap to navigate in your maps app.
- Notes and photosGate codes and customer notes before the stop, timestamped photos during it.
- Team chatMessage the office or the crew without leaving the app.
- QuotesQuote the repair they found, right from the visit.
- InvoicesCreate, send and charge invoices from the truck.
- ChemistryReadings and dosing in your own products, even offline.
Your full stack report
Every tool line by line, card fees side by side, and what you keep a year with Pool Founder, whether you absorb the card fee or pass it on. Free, no account.
Prices are each company's public list price as of Oct 18, 2026, billed month to month where they offer it (DocuSign Standard is its annual plan, billed monthly). Taxes and one-time setup fees aren't in the monthly totals. Podium and Birdeye don't publish prices, so review requests use NiceJob.
Card fees use each company's published processing rates as of Oct 18, 2026 and Stripe's standard rates on Pool Founder, with every payment at your average size and every card treated as a credit card (debit cards can't carry a passed-on fee anywhere). A passed-on fee is figured on the bill. Pool Brain doesn't publish what the customer pays when its surcharge is on, so we assume a full 3% that you keep. Some states don't allow passing the fee on at all.
* Tracking comes from each tech's phone while a route is running. There's no hardware in the truck, and no engine diagnostics.