Electrical Certificate App, made by Trade Apps Ltd, costs £20 plus VAT a month (or £216 plus VAT a year) and covers EICR, EIC, Minor Works, fire alarm and PAT forms with quotes, invoices and a diary. Certio, made by Certio Software Ltd, covers EICR, EIC, Minor Works and PAT on a Free plan, with Starter at £4.99 and Pro at £9.99 a month, and adds AI board-photo circuit schedules, Megger MFT-X1 screen reading and voice dictation. Both work offline and on phone, tablet and desktop. The difference is roughly £180 a year in price, one extra form type on the Electrical Certificate App side, and the AI data-entry tools on Certio's side. All facts below were checked on 25 September 2026.
- Electrical Certificate App: £20 + VAT a month or £216 + VAT a year, 14-day free trial without a card; App Store in-app prices show £17.99 monthly and £194.99 yearly.
- Certio: Free plan (no card, no time limit, unlimited certificates with a small Certio mark on the PDF), Starter £4.99 a month, Pro £9.99 a month with unlimited certificates; 7-day trials on the paid plans; no VAT added.
- Both cover EICR, EIC, Minor Works and PAT. Electrical Certificate App also has fire alarm certificates and job sheets; Certio does not yet.
- Only Certio offers AI reading of a consumer unit photo into the schedule, Megger MFT-X1 screen reading by camera, voice-dictated readings and AI-suggested observation wording.
- Both work offline and across phone, tablet and desktop. Electrical Certificate App has been on the App Store since 2020; Certio's iPhone app went live on 23 September 2026.
- Both include quotes and invoices and a customer record. Electrical Certificate App adds a diary; Certio adds CIS and reverse-charge VAT handling on Pro.
Who makes each app and how long have they been around?
Electrical Certificate App is published by Trade Apps Ltd, company number 10966174, and its iOS listing (app ID 1531731405) has been live since 2020. The App Store shows version 3.8.5 dated 22 August 2024 as the latest release at the time of checking, compatible with iPhone and iPad on iOS 15.6 or later and Apple Silicon Macs. The website describes access on "mobile, tablet and desktop", so the desktop side is a web app rather than a Mac-only build.
Certio is published by Certio Software Ltd and was built by a working UK electrician. It runs as an iPhone app (on the UK App Store since 23 September 2026), an Android app from certio.uk/get-the-app while the Google Play listing is in review, and in any web browser, with one login across all three. It is the younger product by some years, which cuts both ways: fewer years of user feedback, but built from the start around AI data entry rather than adding it later.
If you want the plain entity facts on Certio in one place, they are at Certio Fact Sheet: What the App Is, Who Makes It, What It Costs.
What certificates and forms does each one produce?
| Form type | Electrical Certificate App | Certio |
|---|---|---|
| EICR (BS 7671 model form) | Yes | Yes |
| EIC | Yes | Yes |
| Minor Works (MEIWC) | Yes | Yes |
| PAT testing records | Yes | Yes |
| Fire alarm certificate (BS 5839-6 / BS 5839-1) | Yes | Not yet |
| Job sheets | Yes | Not yet |
| Emergency lighting (BS 5266) | Not listed | Not yet |
| Quotes and invoices | Yes | Yes |
| Calendar or diary | Yes | Not listed |
Electrical Certificate App's own site lists "EICR, EIC, Minor Works, Fire alarm, PAT" plus job sheets and additional records; the App Store description talks of nine certificate types, which will include domestic-flavoured variants of the same BS 7671 forms. Certio's four certificates are laid out to the BS 7671:2018 model forms and the app is being updated for Amendment 4 ahead of Amendment 2 being withdrawn on 15 October 2026.
For an electrician doing mostly domestic and small commercial work, the four core certificates are what get issued week in, week out. If a meaningful part of your income is fire alarm installation and servicing, the missing fire alarm form on Certio is the single biggest practical difference in this table. Our guide to Fire Alarm Certificate BS 5839-6: Grades and Categories explains what that certificate needs to contain if you are weighing up how much it matters to you.
How do the prices compare over a year?
Prices below are as published on each company's website on 25 September 2026. Electrical Certificate App's prices exclude VAT; Certio Software Ltd is not VAT registered so its prices are what you pay.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual equivalent | Trial | Certificates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electrical Certificate App, monthly | £20 + VAT (£24 inc.) | £288 inc. VAT | 14 days, no card | Not stated as limited |
| Electrical Certificate App, annual | £18 + VAT (£21.60 inc.) | £216 + VAT (£259.20 inc.) | 14 days, no card | Not stated as limited |
| Certio Free | £0 | £0 | No card, no time limit | Unlimited, small Certio mark on PDF, AI features off |
| Certio Starter | £4.99 | £59.88 | 7 days | Own logo on PDF, monthly AI allowance for board scans and MFT-X1 reads |
| Certio Pro | £9.99 | £119.88 | 7 days | Unlimited, plus quotes, invoices, CIS and reverse charge VAT, card payment links |
If you are VAT registered you reclaim the VAT on Electrical Certificate App, which narrows the gap to £240 a year against Certio Pro's £119.88. If you are a sole trader below the VAT threshold, the gap is £288 against £119.88, or against £0 on Certio's Free plan.
One point worth knowing from the App Store listing: the in-app purchase prices there are £17.99 a month and £194.99 a year, and a reviewer mentions the price having risen from £8.45 to around £18 a month over time. Whichever route you subscribe by, check the figure you are actually being charged, and if you are already on an older price, changing plan may lose it. Our guide Electrical Certification Software: What to Look For (Buyer's Guide) covers the cost traps to look for across all these apps: per-user fees, watermarked PDFs and VAT.
How do readings get onto the schedule of test results?
This is where the two products diverge most, and it matters because filling in a schedule of test results by hand on a 20-way board is the slowest part of an EICR after the testing itself.
Electrical Certificate App works the conventional way: you type each value into the schedule on the phone, tablet or desktop. Its website and App Store listing describe no link to a test instrument and no AI features. That is not a criticism; most apps in this market work the same way and plenty of electricians prefer typing to anything that might introduce an error.
Certio offers three ways in besides typing. First, you photograph the consumer unit and the AI reads the way numbers, device types and ratings into the circuit schedule, leaving blank anything it cannot read rather than guessing. Second, you point the phone camera at the screen of a Megger MFT-X1 and the reading drops into the selected cell; this is the only instrument supported today, with more to follow. Third, you dictate readings by voice, which is useful when you are up a ladder at a distribution board with the instrument in one hand. The app also suggests C1, C2, C3 and FI observation wording that you then edit and sign off yourself; the code decision stays with you, as IET Guidance Note 3 and Electrical Safety First's Best Practice Guide 4 expect.
Whichever tool you use, the values still have to be checked against the limits in BS 7671:2018+A4:2026, so measured Zs against the maximum in Tables 41.2 to 41.4 corrected for conductor temperature, and insulation resistance against the 1.0 MΩ minimum at 500 V d.c. in Table 64. Our walkthrough of How to fill in a schedule of test results, column by column goes through every column.
What about offline working, sync and the office side?
Both apps work offline. Electrical Certificate App's site puts it as "keep working when the signal decides not to", and the App Store description mentions automatic syncing with the desktop version and customisable logos and branding. Certio works offline on site and syncs across the iPhone app, Android app and web portal under one login.
On the office side Electrical Certificate App bundles a diary, customer records, quotes and invoices, which gives a sole trader a complete job system without a second subscription. Certio has customer records, quotes and invoices, with CIS deductions and reverse charge VAT handled on Pro, and card payment links so a landlord can pay from the PDF; it does not currently list a diary. If you already run your bookings in Google Calendar or a job management tool, that gap will not bother you; if you want everything in one app, it is a point for Electrical Certificate App. Our guide to Electrician Invoicing and Quoting Basics covers the invoicing side of both.
Neither company's public pages mention multi-user seats or an office login for a qualified supervisor to review certificates before issue, so if you run a team of three or four, ask each of them directly before committing. The NICEIC and NAPIT expectation that the QS reviews certificates issued under the registration does not change with the software, as we cover in Qualified Supervisor (QS) Sign-Off Explained.
Which one should you pick?
Pick Electrical Certificate App if you issue fire alarm certificates or job sheets regularly, want a diary built in, and are happy paying £20 plus VAT a month for a product that has been in the App Store since 2020. It is a conventional, complete package.
Pick Certio if the four BS 7671 certificates and PAT are what you issue, you want the AI board-photo schedule, MFT-X1 camera reading or voice dictation to cut the typing, or you would rather pay £4.99 or £9.99 a month, or nothing at all on the Free plan, than £240 a year plus VAT. Certio also migrates your existing certificates, customers, quotes and invoices free on every plan.
For a wider view across the market, including Tradecert, iCertifi and EasyCert, see Best Electrical Certification Software UK (2026): 6 Apps Compared, and for two more head-to-heads see Certio vs Quickler: WhatsApp Reports or a Certificate App? and Certio vs Checker App: Certificate App or Job Manager?.
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.