The Pledge — Six Promises in Writing (No Contract Trap)
OptitechAutomation is no contract trades software, by design. Seven promises, signed in writing in your subscription agreement. If we break any of them, you can cancel that day with no exit fee and we will refund your last month. The whole point of OptitechAutomation is to be the one platform that doesn't trap you — written down by Cristian, in Torbay, Devon.
Because the trades software market has earned its reputation.
Before writing a line of code, I read 60+ verified complaints about ServiceTitan, Jobber, Housecall Pro, SimPRO, BigChange and Commusoft on the ScrewFix Community Forum, Reddit, and Trustpilot. The pattern was the same: contracts that won't let go, paywalls in front of basics, support that vanishes the day you sign, "data export fees" on the way out, and a renewal notice that lands 30 days too late to cancel.
I'm Cristian, the founder of OptitechAutomation, based in Torbay, Devon. I built no contract trades software because I'd been on the wrong side of contract software myself — Checkatrade, MyBuilder, two ill-fated CRMs, and a £4,200 annual lock-in I couldn't get out of without small claims court. The Pledge is the document I wished existed when I was buying. Now it does.
Seven things we will not do.
Each one in plain English, with the reasoning behind it. Each one written into your subscription agreement. Each one cancellable-with-refund if we break it.
No exit fees. Ever.
Cancel any time, in one click, no phone call, no retention script. Your subscription ends at the end of the month. Done. Reasoning: exit fees exist to extract money from customers who have already decided to leave. They damage trust without changing the outcome. We'd rather earn the renewal.
Your data leaves with you.
Customers, jobs, invoices, photos, certs — exportable as CSV and PDF in one click, even after cancellation. Available for 90 days post-cancellation. Reasoning: your customer list is your business. We are a tool, not the landlord. No contract trades software should hold your business hostage.
Transparent pricing.
Three plans (plus Empire), every feature listed. No 'premium add-ons' required to make basics work. No surprise hikes 12 months in. Reasoning: the standard trick is to land you on a low price and then upsell or hike. Founders' Cohort customers lock in the launch price for the lifetime of the subscription.
Works in a cellar.
The worker app saves jobs offline and syncs when signal returns. Steel frames, basements, rural Devon lanes — no lost notes. Reasoning: 30% of the UK has patchy 4G. A trades booking platform that fails the moment you can't see the cloud is not a UK trades platform. It's a cloud demo.
Xero on day one.
Two-way Xero sync from launch. Your accountant doesn't have to type invoices out of a notebook anymore. Reasoning: Xero is the de-facto UK accountant standard. Charging extra for the integration (Jobber, ServiceTitan) is a £30/month tax on running a proper UK business.
No card to try.
A free trial means free. No 'card on file just in case.' No automatic billing if you forget to cancel. Reasoning: "card on file to start your trial" is dark-pattern billing. If we have to trick you to keep you, we've already lost.
Human support. Not a chatbot.
One person reads your messages — Cristian, the operator. UK hours, weekends off, but always nearby. No support queue, no ticket system. Reasoning: the moment we hide behind a queue, we've become the platforms we were trying to replace.
The enforcement clause, in plain English.
A pledge that has no consequence for breaking it is marketing copy. The OptitechAutomation pledge has a real enforcement mechanism, written into clause 9 of your subscription agreement. Here is how it works.
If we introduce an exit fee
You may cancel that day, regardless of where you are in the billing month, and we refund your last full month's subscription. Your data export is unaffected.
If we charge for data export
Same as above. Cancel and refund. The export feature stays free for 90 days post-cancellation as a matter of policy, not a paid bolt-on.
If we hike the price beyond what's published
Founders' Cohort customers are immune to price hikes entirely. For non-cohort customers, we may adjust pricing with 90 days written notice. If you don't accept the new price, you can stay on the old price for one renewal cycle (12 months) and then cancel without exit penalty. We have committed to a maximum of one price adjustment per 24-month period.
If we sell to a US private equity firm
All Founders' Cohort customers may cancel that day with a full pro-rata refund of the current month and 90 days of continued data access. This is the most aggressive clause in the pledge, and it exists because acquisition-driven price hikes are the single most common way customers get burned in trades SaaS.
If we stop being the operator-supervised platform we claim to be
If Cristian stops personally supervising the platform — for example, if we grow to a point where a dedicated support team is needed — we will tell you 60 days in advance, in writing, and give Founders' Cohort customers the option to cancel that day with a full month refund. This isn't about avoiding growth. It's about being honest when the shape of the service changes.
Five years of price stability for the first 50 customers.
No contract trades software is only as honest as its renewal pricing. The Founders' Cohort rate-lock is in writing: the first 50 customers to go live (Founders' Cohort 1-50 at the strongest rate, 51-100 at the second band) keep their launch price for as long as the subscription stays continuous. We have committed not to alter Founders' Cohort prices for a minimum of 5 years from launch (May 2026 → May 2031). After that, the lock continues unless we provide 12 months written notice — at which point Founders' Cohort customers may cancel without exit penalty.
This is the single most important clause in the OptitechAutomation pledge for owner-operators thinking about a 3-5 year horizon. You can model your software cost flat for 5 years and not be wrong.
Cristian, Torbay, Devon.
The pledge is signed by name, with a postcode and a registered company number. OptitechAutomation (Cristian Moise, Sole Trader) is a UK Limited Company, registered in England and Wales, VAT-registered, ICO-registered, with a Torbay, Devon, registered office. I'm Cristian — the founder, the operator, and the person who reads your messages.
You can contact me directly, you can read about how this started, you can compare us to Checkatrade or MyBuilder, or you can just book the 20-minute call below.
Signed,
Cristian
Founder & Operator · OptitechAutomation (Cristian Moise, Sole Trader) · Torbay, Devon · May 2026
Twenty minutes. No sales script.
The pledge is the document. The booking call is the conversation. Let's see whether OptitechAutomation is the right fit for your trade — and whether no contract trades software actually solves the problem you came here with.