Search for portable toilet software and you get the same five or six names, each with a page saying it is the best. None of those pages is wrong, exactly. They are just answering a different question than the one you have, which is: which one will cost me the least trouble over the next three years?
This guide does not rank them. It gives you the six questions that separate them, and links to the pages where we have put each tool next to PortaPro with sources. Use it before a demo, not after.
Start with the shape of the price, not the number
Three pricing shapes exist in this industry, and they grow differently as you do.
- A price per company. One number whatever your fleet or headcount. PortaPro is priced this way.
- A price per truck. Tank Track publishes $180 a month for the first truck and $150 for each after it. Two trucks is one number, four trucks is another.
- A price per user. PJR Software publishes $65 a month per admin user and $45 per mobile user. Every hire changes the bill.
The other three, ServiceCore, CRO Software and Docket, do not publish a price at all; their pricing pages ask you to book a demo. That is not a mark against the product, but it is a mark against your ability to compare it from your desk. Write down what you will pay at your size today and at the size you plan to be in two years, for each tool, before you talk to anyone.
Ask how long you are signing for
ServiceCore's pricing FAQ says it is billed monthly on an annual contract. Tank Track and PJR say no contract. PortaPro is month to month. Docket and CRO do not list contract terms on their pricing pages.
A contract is not a trap if the software is right. It is a trap if you find out in month three that rental billing does not do what you need, and you still owe nine months. The way to protect yourself is a trial on your own data, which brings us to the next question.
Can you try it before you buy it
There is a difference between a demo, where someone shows you their sample company, and a trial, where you import your customers and run a real billing cycle. ServiceCore, CRO and Docket offer demos. PJR's home page offers a 14-day trial. PortaPro offers a 14-day trial on your own account and a guided 30 to 60 day trial after a demo.
Whatever you choose, use the trial for one specific test: put three real customers in, one on a 28-day cycle, one on a calendar month, one who started mid-cycle, and see what the first invoices look like. That one afternoon tells you more than any feature list.
How long until you are running on it
Published setup times vary more than any other number. ServiceCore's FAQ says setup and training typically take 6 to 12 weeks. PJR's portable restroom page says 14 to 30 days. Tank Track imports your data for free. PortaPro's import wizard shows every row of your spreadsheet before it saves, and most companies run the same day.
Setup time is really a question about your data. A customer list with the site address, the units on each site, the service day and the rate is a one-hour import anywhere. A list that lives in three places and someone's head is a project, and the software cannot shorten it. Clean the list first; it makes every tool look faster.
Rental billing is the feature that decides it
Everything else, routing, a driver app, QuickBooks, is table stakes. Rental billing is where the tools differ, because a unit on a construction site is not a job. It is a line that bills every cycle until it is picked up, prorates when it lands on a Tuesday, pauses when the site shuts for winter, and has to be checked every cycle to make sure it went out.
Ask each vendor, on the demo, to show you three things: the first invoice for a unit placed mid-cycle, the invoice for a customer with units on four sites, and the report that lists every unit that should have billed last cycle and whether it did. Our guide to 28-day versus monthly billing explains what to look for in the answers.
Card fees are a price too
If your customers pay by card, processing is a line on your P&L. Docket publishes 3.0% + 30 cents on its Grow plan and 2.8% + 30 cents on Pro, with ACH at 1%. On PortaPro, your company's own Stripe account pays Stripe's standard rate directly, and PortaPro adds nothing on top. The others do not list rates on their pricing pages. Our post on cash discount programs covers how to pass the cost on to the customer either way.
The side-by-side pages
We keep one page per competitor, each row sourced from that company's own website on the date shown, and updated when they change:
- PortaPro vs ServiceCore
- PortaPro vs CRO Software
- PortaPro vs Docket
- PortaPro vs Tank Track
- PortaPro vs PJR Software
Then take our list of questions to ask on the demo with you. The vendor that answers all of them without a follow-up email is the one that knows its own product.
