Ask around any trade forum: the horror story is always the same. The first big invoice clears, and the payment processor freezes the payout "for review" — for weeks, sometimes 90 days or more. SideWRK is built so that can't happen, because we're never in the middle of your money.
Aggregated processors sit between you and your money. That's convenient right up until their risk system notices your account doing something new — like a $4,000 deck invoice after months of $150 jobs. Their own terms let them delay payouts while they review, and tradespeople are exactly the profile that trips those reviews: irregular amounts, big swings, seasonal spikes. The complaints are everywhere — funds frozen with the materials already bought, deposits refunded to customers mid-job, support that answers in form letters.
For a full-time shop, that's painful. For a side business, it's the whole float. The brake parts, the lumber, the gas — that money was spoken for.
Payment requests — the money never touches anyone but you. Send a payment request and your customer pays you directly: Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, or Apple Pay. There is no processor between you, no processing fee, and nothing anyone can freeze. It's the way side work already gets paid — SideWRK just wraps it in a professional card with the invoice attached.
Card payments — your own Stripe account, not ours. When you take cards, they run on a Stripe account that belongs to you. You're the merchant of record. The money settles from Stripe to your bank on Stripe's standard schedule, and SideWRK takes no cut and holds nothing — we structurally can't, because we never possess the funds. Deposits, balances, in-person card payments: all of it lands in your account, not a platform wallet.
The same thinking runs through the pricing. No invoice caps — every plan has unlimited jobs and invoices, because metering a paid plan is a tollbooth, not a product. No per-user fees. And the working features — deposits on approval, e-signatures, automatic payment reminders, review follow-ups — are included, not dangled two tiers up the way the big field-service apps do it.
The price you join at is the price you keep. We don't raise it on you later, and we don't move features you already have behind new paywalls. If you ever leave, everything exports and your Stripe account keeps working without us.
No — structurally, it can't. Payment requests move money directly from your customer to your Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, or Apple Pay. Card payments settle into your own Stripe account, where you're the merchant of record. SideWRK is never in the middle.
Nothing. No platform cut, no application fee. Venmo/Zelle/Cash App payments have no processing fee at all; card payments carry only Stripe's standard fee, paid to Stripe. We make money one way — the flat subscription.
Their risk systems flag unusual activity, and trade work is unusual by nature — big swings, seasonal spikes, a first large invoice. Their terms allow payout delays during review, sometimes 90+ days. It lands hardest on solo operators who already spent the money on materials.
Your money and customers stay yours. The Stripe account is yours and keeps working, your customer list exports in a click, and nothing is held back. No lock-in is the point.
Estimate → approve → get paid, with the money going straight to you. 14-day free trial, from $24/mo.
Start your free trial →