Cadi vs ConvertLabs vs AllClean: AI booking tools vs purpose-built cleaning software (2026)

TL;DR

If you run a cleaning business in the UK, neither ConvertLabs nor AllClean will work as a standalone solution. ConvertLabs is a generic booking platform built for any local service business — it could serve a dog walker as easily as a cleaning company. AllClean has a genuinely compelling AI phone agent concept, and the free plan looks attractive on the surface. But both are US-market products with USD pricing and no pathway whatsoever to UK tax compliance.

The fundamental problem is not the booking features — it is the compliance gap. MTD ITSA quarterly submissions to HMRC, GoCardless direct debit for recurring cleaning payments, and invoicing in GBP are not optional extras for a UK cleaning business. They are the infrastructure. Building your business on a platform that cannot support them means running two systems in parallel: one for operations, one for compliance. That costs money, time, and introduces risk.

Cadi is purpose-built for UK cleaning businesses. It covers scheduling, invoicing, open banking, MTD ITSA, GoCardless, a pricing calculator, and staff management — all in one place, all in GBP, all built for how cleaning businesses in the UK actually operate. It launches 1 June 2026. The waitlist is at cadi.cleaning/launch.

Quick comparison

Booking features vs compliance: what UK cleaning businesses actually need first

There is a predictable pattern in how cleaning business owners evaluate software: they search for booking features, look at the demo, get impressed by the online portal or the AI call answering, and miss the question that matters most — can this software actually support my UK tax obligations?

Marketing and booking tools are table stakes. Any competent software can take a booking, send a confirmation, and trigger an invoice. These problems were solved years ago. The harder problem — the one that US-market platforms have not solved and have no reason to solve — is UK compliance.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment (MTD ITSA) is now live for sole traders earning above £50,000 per year. Quarterly digital income and expense updates must be submitted to HMRC via an approved API. This is not optional. It is not "nice to have." If your software cannot do this natively, you are running two systems: your booking platform plus a separate accounting tool with bridging software on top. That means two subscriptions, two sets of data to reconcile, and double the admin.

GoCardless direct debit matters for cleaning businesses specifically because the income is recurring. The same clients, the same amounts, every week or fortnight. Setting up GoCardless mandates means the money collects automatically. Stripe card payments work, but they cost more in transaction fees and require clients to actively pay each invoice. For a cleaning business with twenty recurring clients, that difference in friction is significant.

GBP pricing is not a cosmetic issue either. A US tool quoting in USD creates confusion for clients, adds currency conversion complexity to your accounts, and signals immediately that the platform was not built with you in mind. UK clients paying in GBP, invoiced in GBP, reconciled in GBP — that is the only setup that makes sense for a UK cleaning business.

With that context established, here is how each tool holds up.

Cadi: purpose-built for UK cleaning businesses

Cadi was built by Mackies Cleaning — a UK cleaning business with residential, commercial, and specialist exterior arms. Every feature in the platform exists because we needed it and could not find it anywhere else. That is not a marketing claim. It is the literal reason the software was written.

The feature set covers the complete operational and compliance stack for a UK cleaning business:

• Scheduling. Recurring appointments, staff allocation, per-client job checklists, and rapid reassignment when availability changes. Built around the repeating weekly and fortnightly rhythm of cleaning work — not the one-off job model that field service tools use.
• Invoicing. Automatic recurring invoices, late payment reminders, UK-compliant formatting, and payment tracking. Invoice generation is connected to the schedule — when a job is marked complete, the invoice follows automatically.
• GoCardless direct debit. Set up mandates with recurring clients so payment collects automatically on billing day. No chasing, no manual payment requests, no card expiry issues.
• Open banking. Real-time bank feed integration so you can see your actual cash position without waiting for month-end reconciliation.
• MTD ITSA. Quarterly income and expense submissions to HMRC via the approved MTD API — built directly into the platform, HMRC recognised. Sole traders can file their own quarterly submissions and Self Assessment without needing an accountant. No bridging software, no separate tool.
• Pricing calculator. Generate consistent, margin-aware quotes based on property size, room count, frequency, and service type.
• Staff management. Track hours, allocate jobs to specific cleaners, manage rota changes as you grow beyond solo operation.

Pricing tiers: Free (core features for sole traders), Pro at £39/month (full feature set for small teams), Max at £79/month (advanced reporting, multi-arm operations, priority support), and Enterprise for larger operations. All in GBP. No transaction fees on invoices.

Cadi launches 1 June 2026. The waitlist is at cadi.cleaning/launch.

ConvertLabs: generic booking platform with limited depth

ConvertLabs (convertlabs.io) is an all-in-one booking, scheduling, and marketing platform for local service businesses. The positioning is broad by design: it serves lawn care, pet walking, cleaning, and any other service business that needs online booking and client management. That breadth is both its strength and its central weakness.

The platform does the basics of booking well. There is a polished online customer portal, recurring job management, a website builder, Stripe payment integration, and customer self-service features. If your primary requirement is "I need a way for clients to book online," ConvertLabs ticks that box. For a US service business with no specific compliance requirements, it is a reasonable option.

For a UK cleaning business, the gaps are fundamental:

• No MTD ITSA. No HMRC integration of any kind. If you need quarterly digital tax submissions — and you will, if you are above £50,000 turnover — you need an entirely separate accounting platform alongside ConvertLabs.
• No GoCardless. Stripe card payments only. For a cleaning business with recurring clients, this means more payment friction and higher transaction costs than direct debit.
• USD pricing only. The Basic plan is $67/month, Professional $197/month, Enterprise $397/month. No GBP option. You are paying in dollars for a platform that does not understand the UK market.
• Generic, not cleaning-specific. The scheduling model and workflow assumptions are built for any service business. There is no cleaning-specific depth: no per-client property checklists built around cleaning workflows, no open banking, no pricing calculator for cleaning quotes.

The review base for ConvertLabs is very small — fewer than a handful of verified reviews on major platforms as of May 2026. Some users have noted features described as not fully implemented. For a platform asking $197/month at the Professional tier, that is a meaningful risk.

The honest summary: ConvertLabs is a competent generic booking platform for US service businesses. It is not a cleaning business platform, and it is not built for the UK. If you use it, you will need a separate UK accounting solution for MTD ITSA compliance — making the real cost significantly higher than the headline subscription price.

AllClean: impressive AI, wrong market, expensive real cost

AllClean (allclean.app) is the most interesting competitor in this comparison, and the fairest thing to say is: the core concept is genuinely good. Kelly AI is an AI voice agent that answers inbound calls to your cleaning business, handles quotes, and books appointments autonomously — claiming to handle 70–80% of calls without human involvement. For a cleaning business owner who spends meaningful time on the phone fielding enquiries, an AI agent that handles those calls 24/7 is a compelling idea.

The platform also supports recurring cleaning subscriptions, consumer marketplace listings (where homeowners can get quotes from multiple cleaning companies), and standard scheduling and job management.

The problems for UK cleaning businesses are significant:

• No MTD ITSA, no HMRC features of any kind. The platform is built entirely for the US market and has no pathway to UK tax compliance.
• No GoCardless, no GBP invoicing. USD pricing throughout. The consumer marketplace is US-only.
• The Kelly AI voice agent is technically accessible but practically US-optimised. Phone handling built for US calling patterns, US business norms, and US client expectations. There is no indication it is trained or tested for UK cleaning market workflows.
• The pricing model has a sting. The free plan has 6.9% + 30¢ per transaction. The Pro plan is $499/month — a steep jump with no middle tier.

The AI voice agent concept deserves credit. It is the most differentiated feature in either of these comparisons. But for a UK cleaning business, the compliance gap is fatal regardless of how interesting the technology is. You cannot run a UK cleaning business on a platform with no MTD ITSA and no GBP invoicing.

The true cost of the AllClean free plan

The AllClean free plan deserves specific attention because it is often cited as a reason to consider the platform. "It's free" is a compelling headline. The reality is more complicated.

The free plan charges 6.9% + 30¢ per transaction. Run the numbers for a typical small cleaning business:

• £5,000/month in revenue (around 25 weekly residential clients at £200/month each): processing fees of approximately £345/month — that is more expensive than Cadi Pro (£39/month) with no transaction fees.
• £3,000/month in revenue (a smaller operation, 15 clients): processing fees of approximately £207/month — still significantly more than a paid UK alternative.
• £8,000/month in revenue (a growing team operation): processing fees of approximately £552/month — nearly as much as the $499/month AllClean Pro tier, which is itself one of the most expensive options in the market.

The AllClean Pro plan at $499/month (approximately £395/month at current rates) is more expensive than any competing UK cleaning business platform and does not include UK compliance features. It is priced for a US cleaning business that is processing significant volume and wants reduced transaction fees — not for a UK business trying to manage costs sensibly.

There is also the question of the jump from free to Pro. With no middle tier, a business that outgrows the free plan (or wants lower transaction fees) faces a choice between paying ~6.9% per transaction or jumping to $499/month. That is a gap with no sensible intermediate option for a UK cleaning business operating at typical UK market volumes.

Verdict

This is a straightforward comparison once you apply the right filter.

For UK cleaning businesses, choose Cadi. It is the only platform in this comparison built for UK cleaning businesses, the only one with MTD ITSA built in, the only one with GoCardless, and the only one priced and invoiced in GBP. Free for sole traders getting started. £39/month Pro for a working cleaning business with a small team. No transaction fees. No compliance gaps. Launches 1 June 2026 — join the waitlist at cadi.cleaning/launch.

ConvertLabs is not a UK cleaning business platform. It is a generic local service booking tool priced in USD with no UK compliance pathway. If your only requirement is an online booking portal and you have a separate UK accounting solution already in place, it will technically function. But you are paying for a fragmented stack that costs more in total and requires more admin to operate than a purpose-built UK platform.

AllClean's Kelly AI is a genuinely interesting concept — and if you are a US cleaning business looking for an AI-powered phone agent with a marketplace presence, it deserves serious consideration. For UK cleaning businesses, the compliance gap is non-negotiable. No MTD ITSA, no GoCardless, no GBP invoicing, and transaction fees that make the free plan expensive at any real volume. The Pro tier at $499/month is also significantly more expensive than the UK market requires. Wait for a UK-native AI-powered cleaning platform — which is the direction Cadi is heading.

The core lesson from this comparison: marketing and booking features are table stakes. UK compliance is the prerequisite. Any platform that cannot support MTD ITSA, GoCardless, and GBP invoicing natively is not a complete solution for a UK cleaning business — it is half a stack that requires another half to function legally.

Frequently asked questions