Certio vs Pro Certs: Which Certificate App Suits Your Work?

Certio is the phone-first app with AI capture; Pro Certs is the established tablet and PC app with a wider certificate list and cheap team licences. Certio costs £4.99 or £9.99 a month, plus a Free plan. Pro Certs costs £9.99 a month or £19.99 a quarter, with multi-user licences from £50 per user a year (both websites, checked 4 November 2026). Certio adds board photo scheduling, voice dictation and Megger MFT-X1 screen reading. Pro Certs adds emergency lighting, fire alarm and Part F certificates, and has traded since 2011.

What is the difference between Certio and Pro Certs?

Both produce BS 7671 certificates as PDFs, both work without signal, and neither charges per certificate. The real difference is where each expects you to do the paperwork.

Pro Certs is built around a tablet or computer. You key the data in, with solid tools to speed it up: copying certificates, boards and individual circuits, reusable templates, importing and exporting distribution boards between certificates, and converting an EIC to an EICR or back. Its company has been going since 2011, which counts for something when you're trusting an app with years of records.

Certio is built around the phone in your hand at the board. You photograph the consumer unit and the schedule drafts itself, dictate readings as you take them, or point the phone at a Megger MFT-X1 so the camera reads the screen. It also suggests C1, C2, C3 and FI wording for you to check and edit. Pro adds quotes and invoices.

How do Certio and Pro Certs compare feature by feature?

Sources: certio.uk (pricing and llms.txt), procertssoftware.com and the Pro Certs App Store listing, checked 4 November 2026. "Not described" means the vendor's public pages do not mention it. It does not mean we tested the app and found it missing.

What does each one cost over a year?

The Pro Certs pricing page doesn't say whether VAT is included, so ask if that affects you. Certio's site says there is no VAT to add.

So there's no outright winner. Monthly Pro Certs and Certio Pro cost exactly the same, but Certio Pro includes quotes and invoices, which Pro Certs' pages don't mention. Pro Certs on quarterly billing is £39.92 a year cheaper than Certio Pro and £20.08 a year dearer than Starter. Starter also has only a small monthly AI allowance, so check it against your workload.

Pro Certs also sells a cloud calculator package as a separate product, at £75 a year for a single user, covering cable sizing, maximum demand and adiabatic tools. Certio Starter includes calculators and a BS 7671 reference. Compare the tools themselves if you depend on them, not just the fact that both have some. Our buyer's guide to certification software covers the wider market and the usual cost traps.

Which is quicker for getting readings on site?

On published features, Certio has more ways to get data in. Whether that saves you time depends on how you work.

The Amendment 4 model schedule runs to 31 columns, 16 of circuit details and 15 of test results. On a 12-way board that's up to 372 boxes, though plenty will be N/A. Our guide on how to fill in a schedule of test results goes through them. Pro Certs tackles that with copying and templates, which is effective on repeat work such as a block of near-identical flats. Certio tackles it with capture: the photo for circuit details, and voice or the camera for readings.

Capture needs the right kit. Camera reading only works with a Megger MFT-X1 at present, so if you carry a different instrument, voice is the capture method that applies. The board photo needs a paid plan, and you still have to check what it has drafted.

However the number arrives, you own it. A measured Zs on a B32 circuit has to be judged against 1.37 Ω in BS 7671 Table 41.3, and the usual rule is to compare a cold reading with 80% of that, about 1.10 Ω. No app can decide whether a high reading is a poor lead connection, a real fault or a C2. The limits are in our maximum Zs tables.

Does the device matter more than the features?

Often, yes, so settle this first. Pro Certs' website lists tablets and computers, and its App Store listing is for iPadOS and Apple silicon Macs. That suits an electrician who already keeps a tablet in the van, or who writes up in the office on a Windows PC.

Certio suits someone who wants everything on the phone already in their pocket, because the camera and microphone features are the point of it. In a browser it also opens on a laptop for writing up, but check the screen layout suits you before committing a whole firm to it.

Both vendors let you try before paying. Do your trial on a real job, not at the kitchen table. Write up a domestic EICR from the board position with gloves in your pocket and poor light, then see what the PDF looks like.

Which covers more certificate types?

Pro Certs, if your work goes beyond BS 7671. It lists emergency lighting to BS 5266-1, fire alarms to BS 5839-6 Grade C, D and F, Part F ventilation and domestic smoke and heat alarm certificates. If those are a regular part of your work, using one app for all of them is a genuine saving, and a Certio user would need another route for that paperwork. Our guides on emergency lighting certificates and BS 5839-6 fire alarm certificates cover what those documents need to record.

Certio, if you need portable appliance records alongside your installation certificates, as PAT isn't on Pro Certs' list. See our PAT testing guide for what a record should hold.

For a domestic electrician, the core documents are the same in both: the EICR, the EIC and the Minor Works.

Are both apps up to date with Amendment 4?

Both vendors say so. Pro Certs' listing shows version 5.3.3, dated 2 July 2026, as its "BS 7671 Amendment 4 Update". Certio's site describes its certificates as A4:2026 model-form documents. BS 7671:2018+A4:2026 was published on 15 April 2026, and the previous amendment was withdrawn on 15 October 2026.

Don't take either vendor's word for it, ours included. Produce a sample EICR and check it against the IET model form. Look for section lettering A to K, Zdb on the distribution board block, and the FI wording. Under A4, only C1 and C2 make a report unsatisfactory, and FI is advisory. Our guide to BS 7671 lists the changes.

Which should you choose?

If you're also weighing up other apps, see Certio vs Certly and Certio vs TestFast. Before moving, read our notes on certificate retention, because old records still need to be retrievable whichever app you end up with.

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 £4.99 a month, charged when you sign up.

Written by the Certio team. Last checked 4 November 2026.