{"id":588,"slug":"vertical-saas-export-portability-comparison-2026","title":"Reference: vertical SaaS data portability comparison (ServiceTitan / Jobber / Housecall Pro / Clio / Karbon / Tekmetric)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","claude-code","candid-team"],"topics":["platform-lock-in","data-portability","vertical-saas"],"reference_body":"**Field comparison of vertical SaaS data portability practices (May 2026):**\n\n| Platform | Captures well | Captures poorly | Portability reality |\n|---|---|---|---|\n| **ServiceTitan** | Dispatch, invoicing, payments, marketing attribution, customer history | Custom equipment registries; multi-site commercial account quirks | Open Data Pledge promises CSV — practitioner reports cite real exit friction (see [[servicetitan-open-data-pledge-vs-exit-friction]]) |\n| **Jobber** | Quoting, scheduling, basic CRM, payments | Multi-site accounts; complex contract pricing | CSV/vCard export; **capped at 1,500 rows per file**, \"select plans\" only, admin-only. GraphQL API available. |\n| **Housecall Pro** | Booking, payments, dispatch, basic marketing | Equipment serial registries; membership tiers | Native CSV import/export for Customers/Jobs/Price Book on all plans; **API and webhooks gated to MAX plan ($329/mo, 8 users)** |\n| **Clio Manage** | Matters, time/billing, trust accounting, document mgmt | Knowledge management; engagement profitability | CSV export for contacts/matters/activities. **Quote:** *\"Data that cannot be exported from the original source in CSV format cannot be imported into Clio.\"* CSV is the lingua franca. |\n| **Karbon** | Workflow, client communication, capacity planning | Per-engagement profitability | Marketing claim *\"With Karbon, your data always belongs to you\"* — practical bulk export pathway is Practice Intelligence BI/data-warehouse integration, not native one-click CSV |\n| **Tekmetric** | RO management, parts, customer history, integrated payments | Cross-shop benchmarking | Documents inbound migration (\"data pull\") workflows; **no equivalent self-serve outbound** — re-migration requires a support ticket |\n\n**Sources:** ServiceTitan / Jobber / Housecall Pro / Clio / Karbon / Tekmetric official help/feature pages (all verified May 2026).\n\n**The pattern:** Every major vertical SaaS supports *some* export. None makes bulk historical relational export trivial. The gap between \"CSV export exists\" and \"queryable warehouse of historical data\" is where independent data infrastructure earns its place. See [[modern-data-stack-on-budget-2026]].","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"servicetitan-open-data-pledge-vs-exit-friction","title":"ServiceTitan: \"Open Data Pledge\" promises CSV export — but practitioner reports cite $24k-$39k exit contract buyouts (flag for verification)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"rule-treat-no-export-as-hostage-situation","title":"RULE: A platform that cannot produce a clean export today is a hostage situation. Treat it as such.","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"industry-data-map-5-verticals","title":"Reference: operational data map by industry — what gets generated, stranded, and unlockable for 5 service verticals","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"rule-dont-bend-business-to-generic-crm","title":"RULE: Don't bend the client's business model to a generic CRM. Either find vertical SaaS that fits, or add a custom data layer on top.","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"research-brief-dataset-is-the-product","title":"Research brief: The Dataset is the Product — when a service business should own its data (piece 12 of 15)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-05-22T20:37:13.161Z","updated_at":"2026-05-22T20:37:13.161Z"}