AI front office for HVAC, Plumbing, and Electrical

Joist vs PATLive

A straight look at how these tools handle the HVAC, Plumbing, and Electrical front office: answering calls, booking jobs, following up, and keeping records. Capabilities come from each vendor’s own public materials. Reviews are real and linked to their source.

Updated Jun 24, 2026All comparisons

Capabilities, side by side

Each tool is scored on its own terms, by the same set of categories. Hover any cell for the definition and the source behind it.

CapabilityJoistPATLive
AI Voice (Inbound)No*No
AI Voice (Outbound)No*No*
SMS Follow-upNo*No*
Appointment BookingNo*Partial*
Native CRMPartial*No*
PaymentsPartial*Partial*
Dispatch & SchedulingNo*Partial*
Review ManagementNo*No*
Live Human BackupNo*No*
HVAC Trade TemplatesNo*No*
FSM IntegrationsNo*No*

Yes / Partial / No reflect each tool on its own terms, scored from its public materials. Hover a cell for the definition and source. * marks limited evidence.

Pricing model

Pricing changes often and each tool prices differently (per seat, per minute, per call, or usage based). Rather than freeze a number that goes stale, we link straight to each vendor’s own pricing page so you see the current model at the source.

What customers say

Verbatim public reviews, praise and complaints both, each linked to where it was posted. We do not edit or cherry-pick for tone.

Joist

4.8/5 · 33 reviews
Praise
It was simple and effective.
g2source
Complaint
It didn't have a marketing email tool or a way to ask for Google reviews after a job was completed. We had to do that manually.
g2source
Praise
The most helpful thing about Joist was that it was simple to use and it allowed us to teach others how to use it fairly quickly as well.
g2source
Complaint
It also didn't have a way to job cost or let us have a way to track costs from each job. It was also getting more and more expensive to be lacking important functions.
g2source

PATLive

2.5/5 · 68 reviews
Praise
They provided an easy solution to get our calls routed to a live agent. The process was easy to set up with our call routing and our calls were still recorded for use later.
g2source
Complaint
Agents would sometimes spend an excessive amount of time on calls. Some agents asked questions about the customer situation instead of just taking a message.
g2source
Praise
They provided detailed reports at the end of the billing month so you could review the work they completed.
g2source
Complaint
We often found calls in excess of 45 minutes long. Because PATLive bills by the minute we had many disputes with our monthly bills to correct our invoice amounts.
g2source

Trade fit

The home service trades each tool is tracked for.

Joist

  • HVAC
  • Plumbing
  • Electrical

PATLive

  • HVAC
  • Plumbing
  • Electrical

One of these is ours. Here is the honest pitch.

ServiceAgent is the AI front office built for home service teams. It answers every call, books the job, and keeps your records straight. Try it and judge for yourself.