COMPARE · CHECKED OCTOBER 19, 2026
Markate vs Peak
Markate is a low-cost field service app with built-in marketing, free data migration and an AI receptionist at $1 a call. Peak's tools are free with no per-employee fee, and our team can run your marketing if you want help.
TL;DR
Pick Markate if you want a low-cost app with built-in marketing blasts, pay-per-call AI answering and free help moving your data in. Pick Peak if you want the core tools free with no per-employee fee, with an assistant that updates records for you.
Sign-up opens soon. The demo is open now, with made-up data, no sign-up needed.
SIDE BY SIDE
Markate and Peak, row by row.
What Markate's own pages said on October 19, 2026, next to what Peak does today.
| Markate | Peak |
|---|---|
| What it covers | |
| Customers, scheduling, dispatch, payments and marketing, including text and email blasts, drip texts and ringless voicemail. | Leads and customers, estimates with e-sign and change orders, invoices, projects, crews, a dispatch board, a time clock, job photos and daily logs, plus Sherpa. |
| Pricing model | |
| $49.95 a month (or $45.95 billed yearly), plus $5 per active employee. Marketing sends and AI calls are priced by use. | The software is free. No per-user fee and no contract. You pay your own texting, email, AI and payment providers directly. |
| AI | |
| Kate AI Receptionist answers calls for $1 a call. Kate AI Estimator prices jobs from photos or details. An AI proposal tool is named on its pricing page. | Sherpa looks things up and makes changes in every Peak tool, from chat or from your own AI assistant. Anything that reaches a customer or moves money waits for your OK. It runs on your own AI key. |
| Phone app | |
| iPhone app in the App Store, and its homepage links to an Android app. Employee app access is part of the $5 per employee fee. | Installs from your phone's browser to your home screen. The crew app works offline. No App Store or Google Play app yet. |
| Your data | |
| Customer export, and CSV or PDF downloads before you cancel. A REST API for approved customers who apply. We didn't find an AI connector. | When sign-up opens, your customer data lives in a database you own, not ours. Export contacts as a spreadsheet or download the whole database any time. |
| Getting started | |
| Start a free trial on your own, or book a demo. Its team moves your data in for free. | Sign in and start. Bring contacts and your price book over from spreadsheets. Texting, email, AI and payments start when you connect your own accounts, or we connect them for you (Get set up, $997 one-time). |
WHAT IT COSTS
Their published price, and ours.
Markate
- Owner Operator: $49.95/mo billed monthly, or $45.95/mo billed yearly ($551.40 a year)
- Team: $5 per active employee per month (inactive employees aren't charged)
- Kate AI Receptionist: $1 per call, no setup fee
- Marketing sends are extra: text blasts ($10 setup plus 5 cents a segment), drip texts (10 cents each), email blasts ($10 per 2,000), ringless voicemail ($10 setup plus 20 cents each)
14-day free trial with full access and no card. No contract. Its team moves your data in for free. Payment processing rates aren't published on its pricing page.
From markate.com, checked October 19, 2026. Prices change, so confirm on their site.
Peak tools
$0
Free when sign-up opens (soon). You bring your own accounts for AI, texting, email and payments. Today the tools come with every Peak service plan.
Want our team to run your marketing or lead follow-up? That's a paid service, and the tools come with it. See service pricing.
WHERE MARKATE IS STRONG
Credit where it's due.
- A low flat base price, with $5 a month per extra active employee
- Free data migration, done by its team
- An AI receptionist priced per call, with no setup fee
- Built-in marketing: text and email blasts, drip texts and ringless voicemail
- No contract
WHERE MARKATE IS AHEAD
What Peak doesn't do yet.
If one of these is a must-have, take it seriously.
- An iPhone app in the App Store, plus an Android app
- An AI receptionist that answers calls, which Peak's tools don't have
- Text and email blasts, drip texts and ringless voicemail built in
Everything not in the Peak tools yet
- iPhone and Android apps in the app stores (the tools install from your phone's browser today)
- QuickBooks and Xero sync
- Full job costing, estimate vs actual on every line
- Payroll
- A built-in AI phone receptionist
- AI takeoff from plans
WHERE PEAK IS DIFFERENT
What you get with Peak that Markate doesn't do.
- The Peak tools are free, with no per-user fee. Markate is $49.95 a month plus $5 per active employee, and marketing sends are extra.
- Sherpa looks things up and makes changes in every Peak tool. Anything that reaches a customer or moves money waits for your OK, and you can undo a change within 10 minutes.
- Your own AI assistant, like Claude or ChatGPT, can connect to Peak. We didn't find an AI connector for Markate, and its API is for approved customers who apply.
The software is free
No per-user fee and no contract for the tools. You bring your own accounts for AI, texting, email and payments, and pay those companies directly at their prices. We don't mark them up.
Your data, your accounts
When sign-up opens, your customer data lives in a database you own, not ours. Export it any time. If you leave, you take everything with you.
Sherpa does the work, inside rules
Tell Sherpa "add a note to Susan Park: gate goes on the north side." It finds her and adds it, or asks you to reply YES first when the rules say so. Anything that reaches a customer or moves money waits for your approval. You can see every rule, and you can only make them stricter.
A team if you want one
You can run the tools on your own. If you'd rather have help, our team runs the marketing, lead follow-up and AI setup for you on a paid plan.
Read every Sherpa rule on what Sherpa will and won't do.
SWITCHING
Moving from Markate to Peak.
Most of it is two spreadsheets. Run both side by side for a week if you like.
Step 1
Export from Markate
Markate's pricing page says you can download your data as CSV or PDF before you cancel, and its customer export includes linked contact info. We didn't find the exact menu steps on its public pages, so ask Markate support if you can't find it.
Step 2
Import your customers
In Peak, open Contacts and choose Import. Upload the spreadsheet and match the columns. Rows with the same email or phone merge instead of making duplicates.
Step 3
Bring your price book
The Estimator imports your items and prices from a spreadsheet. There's a template to fill in if your old export doesn't line up.
Step 4
Connect your own accounts
Hook up your texting number, email, AI key and Stripe when you're ready to send and get paid. Nothing goes out until you do.
Step 5
Finish open jobs, then switch
Let jobs already in progress finish where they are, and start new ones in Peak. Rather not do the move yourself? Our team can help.
WHAT YOU SET UP
What works the day you sign in.
The tools are free. Texting, email, AI and payments run on accounts you own, so you pay those companies directly.
Works when you sign in
- Customers, deals, notes and tasks
- Estimates with options, change orders and invoices, shared by link
- Projects, phases, crew schedules, photos and daily logs
- A customer page for each job
Needs your own account
- Texting
- Two-way texts, missed-call text-back, text review requests and texting Sherpa. Connect your own texting account (such as Twilio), with your number registered with the carriers. Nothing sends or charges until you do.
- Sending estimates, invoices and messages by email. Connect your own email sending account. Nothing sends or charges until you do.
- AI
- Sherpa and AI drafts. Connect your own AI key (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google or a compatible provider). Nothing sends or charges until you do.
- Payments
- Card and bank payments on invoices. Connect your own Stripe account. Nothing sends or charges until you do.
Rather not do it yourself? Get set up: we connect all four and import your contacts and price book, $997 one-time.
Pick Markate if
You want a low-cost app with built-in marketing blasts, pay-per-call AI answering and free help moving your data in.
Pick Peak if
You want the core tools free with no per-employee fee, with an assistant that updates records for you.
MARKATE VS PEAK
Common questions.
When we checked on October 19, 2026, Markate was $49.95 a month billed monthly ($45.95 billed yearly), plus $5 per active employee. The Peak tools are free when sign-up opens, and you pay your own texting, email, AI and payment providers.
Not in the free tools. Markate's Kate AI Receptionist costs $1 a call. Peak has missed-call text-back, which works once you connect your own texting number, and our team can set up AI phone answering as a service.
Yes. Export your customers from Markate, or download your data as CSV before you cancel. Then open Contacts in Peak and import the spreadsheet. If you'd rather not do the move yourself, our team can help.
MORE FIELD SERVICE SOFTWARE
Sources for this page (6)
- Plans, prices, Team add-on, trial, no contract, free migration, marketing and AI receptionist prices, CSV or PDF download before cancelling: www.markate.com/pricing (read October 19, 2026)
- What Markate is, trades served, Kate AI Receptionist and Estimator, demo: www.markate.com/ (read October 19, 2026)
- Customer export includes linked contact info: www.markate.com/product-updates/feature-update-additional-contact-info-now-included-in-customer-exports-41 (read October 19, 2026)
- REST API for approved customers: www.markate.com/developer (read October 19, 2026)
- iPhone app: apps.apple.com/us/app/markate-job-management/id1154246059 (read October 19, 2026)
- Android app (linked from homepage): play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.markate.markatepro (read October 19, 2026)
How we checked: we read Markate's public pages, pricing and help center on October 19, 2026, without signing up or logging in. Markate is a trademark of its owner, used here only to identify the product. Peak Engine isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Markate. Spot a mistake? Email hello@peak-engine.com and we'll fix it.
Try Peak next to Markate.
Leads, estimates, invoices, jobs and photos, with Sherpa doing the office work.
Sign-up opens soon. The demo is open now, with made-up data, no sign-up needed.