Certio vs Checker App: Certificate App or Job Manager?

Certio and Checker App solve different problems for a UK electrician. Certio is a certification app: EICR, EIC, Minor Works and PAT records, with a phone-camera read of a Megger MFT-X1 screen (that model only for now), voice dictation of readings and an AI board scan that fills the circuit schedule from one photo. Checker App is multi-trade job management for gas, plumbing, oil, F-Gas and electrical work, with electrical forms sitting beside a diary, CRM, reminders and accounts links. As of 25 September 2026, Checker starts at £10.99 a month plus VAT; Certio has a Free plan, Starter at £4.99 and Pro at £9.99 with no VAT added. Which is right depends on whether your bottleneck is the testing or the office.

All competitor facts below come from checker.app's public pages on 25 September 2026. Prices change; check both sites before you commit.

What is Checker App and who is it for?

Checker App describes itself as job management software for UK and Ireland trades. It runs on phone, tablet and desktop, works without signal and syncs when you are back in range. The electrical forms it lists are the Electrical Installation Certificate, the Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate and the Electrical Installation Condition Report, plus emergency lighting inspection reports and smoke alarm design and commissioning reports. Its own wording is that "the forms follow BS 7671 layouts".

The rest of the product is the office. Every plan includes quotes and invoices with CIS, VAT and domestic reverse charge handled, a customer record that holds properties, jobs, reports and payments, and appointment reminders. Pro adds a diary, CRM, automated chasers for quotes and overdue invoices, and annual renewal reminders for EICR and PAT. Pro and Pro+ connect to Xero (two-way for invoices and payments), QuickBooks and Sage. Pro+ adds unlimited sub-users at £10.99 a month each so every engineer has a login under one business account.

That is a strong pitch for a firm that also issues gas safety records or OFTEC reports and wants one customer history across trades. It is a less obvious fit for a sole-trader electrician whose real time sink is the 40 rows of a schedule of test results.

What is Certio and who is it for?

Certio is built by a working UK electrician for electricians, and it does one job: produce BS 7671 certificates with as little typing as possible. It covers EICR, EIC, Minor Works and PAT testing records, laid out to the current BS 7671:2018 model forms, and the app is being updated for Amendment 4 ahead of Amendment 2 being withdrawn on 15 October 2026.

Three features set it apart from a forms-and-invoices product. First, live Megger MFT-X1 screen reading: point your phone camera at a Megger MFT-X1 while you test, and the app reads the displayed Zs, R1+R2, insulation resistance or RCD trip time into the right cell. This is Megger MFT-X1 only at the moment, with other testers to follow. Second, voice dictation: say the reading and circuit and it lands on the schedule, which matters when you are on a ladder with both hands on probes. Third, AI board photo circuit schedules: photograph the consumer unit and Certio reads the ways, device types and ratings into the schedule, leaving blank anything it cannot read rather than guessing. On top of that it suggests C1, C2, C3 and FI observation wording, which you edit and own.

The Pro plan adds quotes, invoices with CIS and reverse charge VAT, card payment links and receipts. There is no diary, CRM or accounts package sync, and Certio does not issue gas, oil or F-Gas records. See Certio Fact Sheet: What the App Is, Who Makes It, What It Costs for the full feature list.

How do the prices compare?

Both vendors publish their prices, so this is the easy part. Figures are correct as of 25 September 2026.

A sole trader paying Checker Lite monthly spends £131.88 a year plus VAT, or £158.26 with VAT. Certio Pro monthly is £119.88 a year with nothing to add, and Certio Free is £0 if you can live with a small Certio mark on the PDF and no AI features. That is not the whole story, because Checker Lite includes a customer record and follow-up reminders Certio does not have, but on price for certificates alone the gap is clear.

Which features matter on site, and who has them?

The table below is limited to features each vendor states publicly. Where Checker's pages say nothing, the cell says so rather than guessing.

Read that honestly and the split is obvious. Checker wins on breadth of office tooling and on trades outside electrical. Certio wins on the part of the job that happens with the MFT-X1 in your hand. Neither vendor claims scheme approval, and no software can: NICEIC and NAPIT assess you and your work, not your app.

Which one saves more time on an EICR?

IET Guidance Note 3 sets out the tests you record on a condition report: continuity of protective conductors, ring final continuity, insulation resistance, polarity, earth fault loop impedance, and RCD operation, per circuit. On a 12-way domestic board that is comfortably over 100 individual readings before you write a single observation. With a forms-first product, every one of those is typed from the instrument display into a cell on a phone screen, often with the instrument balanced on the stairs.

Certio's approach is to cut that transcription. Camera reading of the MFT-X1 removes the typing for whichever readings you point the phone at; voice dictation covers the rest; the board scan fills the circuit descriptions, device types and ratings before you start. Certio's own guide at How to fill in a schedule of test results, column by column walks through the sheet row by row if you want to see where the time goes.

Checker's pitch is different and equally real: the time it saves is after the job, when the EICR turns into a remedial quote, then an invoice, then a reminder five years later under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020. If your diary and your chasing are the mess, that is the time worth buying back.

What about compliance and form accuracy?

Both vendors say their forms follow BS 7671. Checker's wording is "the forms follow BS 7671 layouts". Certio's forms follow the BS 7671:2018 model forms in Appendix 6 and are being updated for Amendment 4 before Amendment 2 is withdrawn on 15 October 2026. Neither page we checked states an Amendment 4 completion date, so if A4-format certificates matter to your scheme assessor, ask each vendor directly and get it in writing.

Two things do not change with software. Regulation 644.1 of BS 7671 still requires the certificate to be compiled and signed by the competent person responsible for the inspection and testing, so the app is a pen, not a signatory. And Electrical Safety First's guidance for landlords is that an EICR should be issued by a qualified and competent person, which means the market value of your report comes from your registration and your work, not the PDF template. For retention, see Electrical Certificate Retention and GDPR for Electricians; both apps keep PDFs against the customer, but you remain the data controller either way.

Who should choose which?

Choose Checker App if you are a multi-trade business issuing gas or oil records alongside electrical certificates, if you want Xero two-way sync or a CRM with automated chasers, or if you need several engineers under one account and are happy paying per seat. Its price is higher, but you are buying an office, not a form.

Choose Certio if you are an electrician, sole trader or small firm, whose main pain is the schedule of test results and observation writing. The MFT-X1 camera reading, voice dictation and board scan are aimed squarely at that, the Free plan lets you issue real certificates without a card, and Pro at £9.99 with invoicing covers most one-van businesses. If you later outgrow it on the office side, Certio's export and the migration help at switching to Certio mean you are not locked in.

For the wider field, Best Electrical Certification Software UK (2026): 6 Apps Compared covers Tradecert, iCertifi, EasyCert and others, and Certio vs Quickler: WhatsApp Reports or a Certificate App? looks at a WhatsApp-based alternative.

How Certio helps

Certio produces the EICR, EIC, Minor Works certificate and PAT records on the BS 7671 model forms and turns them into branded PDFs. Photograph the consumer unit and the circuit schedule drafts itself; point the phone camera at a Megger MFT-X1 and the reading goes straight into the schedule of test results, or dictate it while your hands stay on the probes. Suggested observation wording with the regulation reference is there for you to check and confirm. The judgement stays yours; the typing goes. Starter is free for 7 days, then £4.99 a month.

Written by the Certio team. Last checked 25 September 2026.