ServiceTitan memberships vs service agreements is one of the most common questions businesses face when building a recurring-revenue program — and the answer is rarely as simple as "residential uses memberships, commercial uses service agreements."
What ServiceTitan recommends
ServiceTitan provides clear guidance on the intended use of each tool. In general, Memberships are positioned as the preferred option for residential service businesses, while Service Agreements are positioned for commercial service businesses. That distinction is useful for understanding how the software was designed and the workflows each tool supports.
After working with more than 100 ServiceTitan customers across a range of industries, though, I've found that focusing only on residential vs. commercial often oversimplifies the decision.
A better question than residential vs. commercial
A more valuable question is: how unique does your maintenance program need to be?
For some businesses, a Membership is simply a name, a recurring billing schedule, a discount, and one or two recurring services. Every customer gets essentially the same experience, which makes Memberships efficient and scalable.
For others, becoming a member is a completely different customer experience — customized maintenance schedules, unique pricing, specialized service offerings, or equipment-specific coverage. In those cases, the flexibility of a Service Agreement often becomes more valuable than the simplicity of a Membership.
The customer relationship matters too. If the goal is to enroll customers into a standardized program, Memberships are usually the most efficient choice. If you want customers to review and sign a formal agreement that outlines services, responsibilities, pricing, and expectations, Service Agreements provide that structure through contract documents and electronic signatures.
Core questions to ask first
Instead of starting with "Is this customer residential or commercial?", start with:
- How standardized is our maintenance program?
- How often do we create exceptions for customers?
- Do we need customer-specific pricing or service schedules?
- Do we want a formal agreement that customers review and sign?
- Does the customer experience stay the same, or change significantly, when someone becomes a member?
Determining the best fit
Memberships are typically the better fit for companies seeking simplicity, consistency, and scalability. Service Agreements are typically the better fit for companies seeking flexibility, customization, and a more formal contractual relationship.
Ultimately, the most successful implementations aren't the ones that follow a residential-versus-commercial rule. They're the ones that align the chosen tool with the customer experience the business is trying to deliver.