FieldEdge is a well-regarded field service management platform. It serves HVAC, plumbing, and electrical contractors effectively. If your company runs elevator maintenance alongside a large HVAC service line, FieldEdge may already be in your stack.
But if elevator maintenance is your primary business, the trade-specific mismatch shows up quickly.
Feature comparison
| | LiftGrid | FieldEdge | |---|---|---| | Built for elevator companies | ✅ Purpose-built | ❌ HVAC / plumbing focus | | Offline-first mobile app | ✅ Fully offline | ❌ Online-required | | EN-81 / A17.1 checklists | ✅ Built in | ❌ Not available | | OEM-certified dispatch | ✅ Built in | ❌ Not available | | Per-elevator contract billing | ✅ Native | ⚠️ Requires configuration | | Turkish e-Invoice (e-Fatura) | ✅ Built in | ❌ Not available | | Pricing model | Flat monthly plan | Per user / month | | Users included | 3 / 10 / 30 by plan | Per-user billing | | Free trial | ✅ 14 days | Demo only |
Where the gap is most visible
Offline mobile capability
This is the most operationally critical difference for elevator field work.
FieldEdge's mobile app requires an active internet connection for most functions. This is a real problem for elevator technicians — machine rooms, basement shafts, and equipment areas routinely have no cellular coverage.
LiftGrid's Android app was designed offline-first from day one. Complete jobs, run EN-81 checklists, capture photo evidence, log parts, and collect signatures — all without signal. Everything syncs when connectivity returns.
EN-81 inspection compliance
FieldEdge has no native EN-81 or A17.1 inspection workflow. It can display custom forms, but building a compliant elevator inspection checklist requires manual configuration, ongoing maintenance as standards evolve, and acceptance that the output may not match the formatting expectations of regulatory audits.
LiftGrid ships EN-81 and A17.1 checklists as defaults. No setup required. Completed inspections are stored per job, per elevator, and are exportable for audit.
Pricing for elevator operations
FieldEdge charges per user. Full-featured plans typically run $100 or more per user per month. For a company with 15 technicians and 5 office staff, that is $2,000+/month before adding mobile features or premium integrations.
LiftGrid charges a flat monthly plan — not per user or per elevator. A team of 16 on the Business plan pays $79/month — compared to $1,600+/month on a per-user model.
Example — 12 technicians, 4 office staff, 300 elevators:
| | FieldEdge (estimated) | LiftGrid Business | |---|---|---| | Monthly cost | ~$1,600+ (16 users × $100) | $79 (flat plan) | | Users included | 16 (paid per seat) | 30 users | | EN-81 checklists | ❌ Not available | ✅ Built in | | OEM-certified dispatch | ❌ Not available | ✅ Built in | | Offline mobile app | ❌ Online required | ✅ Fully offline | | Per-elevator billing | ⚠️ Requires configuration | ✅ Native |
At similar price points, LiftGrid includes the elevator-specific features FieldEdge does not offer — because it was built for elevator companies, not HVAC contractors.
EN-81 compliance documentation: a closer look
For elevator companies operating in Turkey or Europe, EN-81 compliance documentation is not optional — it is a legal requirement for periodic safety inspections. The difference between how FieldEdge and LiftGrid handle this is significant in practice.
FieldEdge allows custom forms to be created within the platform. In theory, a team can build an EN-81 checklist using FieldEdge's form builder. In practice:
- Someone on your team needs to build the form from the standard — this is a multi-day task if done properly
- The form needs to be maintained as EN-81 editions are updated
- The output format may not match the structured documentation format that TÜRKAK-accredited inspection bodies or building management companies expect
- Completed inspections are stored as work order attachments, not as structured per-elevator records exportable by audit period
LiftGrid ships EN-81 inspection sequences as defaults within the technician mobile app. The technician works through the required steps, captures photo evidence at mandatory checkpoints, and collects the customer's digital signature. The completed inspection record is stored against the specific elevator record — not just the work order — and is retrievable by elevator, by date range, or by inspection type for regulatory audit purposes.
For companies that currently manage EN-81 records in PDFs or spreadsheets alongside FieldEdge, this is typically the most operationally significant difference.
OEM dispatch matching in practice
The OEM certification matching issue is worth examining beyond the feature checklist.
In a typical multi-brand portfolio, a company managing 200 elevators might carry KONE, Otis, Schindler, ThyssenKrupp, and Mitsubishi units across its buildings. Not every technician is certified for every brand. Sending the wrong technician — one whose certification does not cover the equipment brand on-site — creates real problems:
- The job cannot be completed, requiring a second dispatch
- The warranty on OEM-specific parts may be voided
- If a regulatory audit traces an inspection to an uncertified technician, the documentation is invalid
FieldEdge's dispatch system has no concept of OEM brand certification at the job-technician matching level. Dispatchers carry this knowledge informally or in external reference sheets.
LiftGrid's dispatch engine stores OEM certifications per technician (KONE, Otis, Schindler, ThyssenKrupp, Mitsubishi, Hitachi) and enforces matching when jobs are assigned. It is not possible to assign a KONE job to a technician with no KONE certification — the system prevents it. For companies managing multiple OEM brands, this eliminates a category of dispatch error entirely.
Per-elevator contract billing: why it matters
Elevator maintenance contracts are structured around a billing unit that most field service management software was not designed to handle natively: the elevator.
A typical maintenance contract covers a building with 4 elevators at a monthly rate per unit, billed regardless of how many service calls occurred that month. Some contracts have tiered pricing (silver / gold / platinum), some have SLA response time clauses that trigger penalty credits, and some bundle annual inspections into the recurring fee.
FieldEdge was designed to bill service agreements, not per-asset recurring maintenance contracts. Making per-elevator billing work in FieldEdge typically requires:
- Setting up each elevator as a separate service agreement
- Manually reconciling completed work orders against contract terms at the end of each billing period
- Using a QuickBooks or accounting software integration to generate the actual invoices
- Maintaining a separate tracking system for SLA compliance and penalty credit calculations
This is workable — elevator companies using FieldEdge have made it work — but it is not native. Every billing cycle involves manual steps.
LiftGrid's billing module was built around the per-elevator contract model. Contracts define the billing unit (per elevator), the tier, the billing cycle, and SLA terms. At the end of each period, invoices generate automatically from completed work orders matched against contract terms. Tier credits and SLA penalty adjustments are calculated automatically. The accounting team receives clean, reconciled invoices without manual intervention.
For companies billing 100+ elevators across multiple buildings and contract tiers, the cumulative time saved in monthly billing reconciliation is significant.
When FieldEdge still makes sense
FieldEdge makes sense for elevator companies that:
- Run HVAC or plumbing service lines at significant scale alongside elevator work
- Already have FieldEdge deployed for other trades and want one platform across the business
- Have a team in place to configure and maintain custom form workflows
For companies where elevator is the sole or primary trade, the per-user cost and elevator-specific feature gap typically makes a purpose-built alternative the better choice.
Switching from FieldEdge to LiftGrid
LiftGrid's 14-day trial is full-access with no credit card required. Most companies import their elevator portfolio on day one and run a complete live job — including EN-81 checklist, photo capture, and dispatch — by day two.
What the transition looks like:
- Day 1: Import buildings, elevator records, and OEM model data. LiftGrid's onboarding team assists.
- Days 2–5: Set up technician profiles with OEM certifications and configure maintenance contract terms. EN-81 checklists are already built in — no custom form work required.
- Days 6–10: Run a pilot with a subset of your active jobs. Technicians test the Android app in real field conditions, including offline in basement locations.
- Day 14: Full go-live. Billing, dispatch, and compliance documentation running on LiftGrid.
Companies that run both platforms in parallel for the trial period consistently find the same thing: the FieldEdge workflows that required custom configuration and manual workarounds for elevator-specific needs are handled automatically in LiftGrid.
The EN-81 checklists are already there. The OEM dispatch matching runs automatically. The per-elevator billing generates invoices without a monthly reconciliation step. The offline mobile app works in the basement machine room without a workaround. These are not premium add-ons in LiftGrid — they are the defaults, because the platform was designed for elevator companies, not adapted for them after the fact.