Quoting apps for tradespeople compared: what businesses should look for
This guide covers German law and practice. A UK edition is in preparation.
A useful comparison of quoting apps for tradespeople checks not only features but also mandatory details, price source, data protection, follow-up and the actual workflow on site. For German trade businesses, it matters most whether the app prepares quotes with quantity, unit, price per line item, tax details and a clear source for the prices.
Quoting apps for tradespeople compared: criteria
A quoting app should take work off the business, but it must not bring uncertainty into the quote. So it is not enough to look only at the interface or the PDF export.
What matters is how a captured service becomes a line item. A usable comparison asks: are quantity, unit and price captured cleanly, or does it just produce free text that has to be broken down by hand again later?
The price source matters just as much. A quote needs traceable prices. If an app takes prices from earlier quotes, it should show where they came from. If no price is available, no fantasy figure should be inserted.
| Area | What to look for | Handschlag according to the source material |
|---|---|---|
| Input | Can the job be spoken on site, instead of being broken down into forms? | Services, quantities and prices are spoken. They become line items with quantity, unit and price. |
| Price source | Is a price spoken, taken from your own history, or does the field stay empty? | If a price is missing, the app searches the same business’s earlier quotes and shows the source. Without a spoken price and without a match the field stays empty. |
| Mandatory details | Does the app check before the PDF export whether required details are missing? | Before the PDF export the app checks the required details and blocks with a specific error message if something is missing. |
| Data protection | Where do quotes, customer data and price history live? | That data sits in a local database on the iPhone. Speech recognition and line-item recognition run on the device. |
| Follow-up | Does the app support matter-of-fact reminders after sending? | After sending, the app reminds you on the 3rd, 4th and 5th working day with ready-made text for email or WhatsApp. At most three times. |
| Availability | Is the app actually available, and for which device? | Available in the UK, the US and Switzerland; Germany and Austria are being unlocked. The requirement is iOS 26 on an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence. |
| Cost model | Are the free allowance, subscription and cancellation stated clearly? | The first three complete quotes are free, with no time limit and no watermark. After that the source material gives €24.99 a month or €199 a year, as a subscription through the App Store, cancellable at any time. |
Quoting apps for tradespeople: checking mandatory details
A trade quote needs clear business details and clear service details. According to the source material, every quote carries the full company name with legal form, the address, the tax number or VAT ID, the quote number, the date and the validity period.
Added to that are the description of the service with quantity, unit and price per line item, and net, VAT and total shown separately. For trades requiring registration under Annex A of the German Crafts Code (Handwerksordnung), the responsible Chamber of Crafts is added.
Small businesses under § 19 UStG (the German VAT exemption) show no VAT and enter the statutory note instead. For details on structure and mandatory details, read the guide Writing quotes as a tradesperson: mandatory details, structure and checklist.
Quoting apps for tradespeople compared: the price basis
The price is the most sensitive part of the quote. An app should therefore make it visible whether a price was spoken by you or comes from existing records.
With Handschlag, according to the source material, nothing is guessed. If a price is missing and the app finds no match in the same business’s earlier quotes, the field stays empty.
For your business’s price basis it also matters how you calculate your hourly rate and your line items. The guide Calculating your hourly rate as a tradesperson: how to price without made-up figures covers that.
Quoting apps for tradespeople compared: data protection and device
When comparing, settle whether the contents of the job leave the device. That covers the dictation, line items, prices, customer data and price history.
According to the source material, Handschlag works without an account, without sign-up and without a provider server. Quotes, customer data and price history sit locally on the iPhone. Speech recognition and processing run on the device.
There are explicitly named exceptions. Address search and “use location” ask Apple’s map service, purchases go through Apple, and email, WhatsApp and PDF sending only happen once the user triggers them.
Usage statistics to the provider are off by default. If they are switched on, the source material says only event names, counts and amount bands go to Amplitude: no customers, addresses, texts or amounts, with no user ID and no IP address.
Quoting apps for tradespeople compared: follow-up
Many quoting processes do not end with sending. For the business, what counts is whether open quotes get settled cleanly later.
According to the source material, Handschlag reminds you on the 3rd, 4th and 5th working day after sending, with ready-made text for email or WhatsApp. After that it stops.
That is a matter-of-fact frame: remind, settle, document. You will find more on this in the guide Following up quotes as a tradesperson: a matter-of-fact reminder that settles the job.
Quoting apps for tradespeople compared: checklist
Use this checklist before you bring a quoting app into your workflow:
- Can the job be captured directly on site?
- Does the input produce line items with quantity, unit and price?
- Does the app show where a carried-over price came from?
- Does a price field stay empty when there is no spoken price and no match in the history?
- Does the app check mandatory details before the PDF export?
- Are net, VAT and total shown separately?
- Is there a solution for small businesses under § 19 UStG?
- Is it clear where customer data, quotes and price history are stored?
- Is it visible which data can leave the device?
- Does the app support limited, matter-of-fact follow-up?
- Is it clear where the app is available?
- Do the technical requirements match the devices in your business?
Quoting apps for tradespeople compared: the limits of the information
A comparison can only work with documented information. If a provider gives no details on price source, mandatory details or data storage, that point stays open.
With Handschlag, note: the app is new on the App Store, so there are no ratings and no user numbers that could be cited reliably.
Nor should unverified industry figures be adopted. The source material explicitly points out that the figure “over 60% of quotes are never followed up” comes from industry sources with their own sales interest and should not be cited as established.
Faster with Handschlag
The Handschlag app creates the quote by voice, right on site. You speak the services, quantities and prices, and they become quote line items with your own prices. Before the PDF export the app checks for missing mandatory details and shows specific errors.
Sources
- https://handschlag.dev/llms.txt
- https://handschlag.dev/en/guide/writing-quotes-tradespeople-2026
- https://handschlag.dev/en/guide/hourly-rate-tradespeople-2026
- https://handschlag.dev/en/guide/following-up-quotes-2026