Your techs are a black box.
You trust your techs. But you can't see what got done — until a customer calls about a green pool. That's an expensive callback and a reputation hit you didn't earn.
The pool software that watches the weather for you
AI catches the storm.You make the call.
PoolHelm watches the weather, plans the route, and puts proof on every pool — so nothing slips while you’re not looking. You stay in command; the busywork doesn’t.
Free for 30 days — right in the thick of the season, when it’s easiest to see the difference.
“I run well over 100 pools with three techs. I can't be at every stop. PoolHelm is the next best thing — I can see exactly what got done, when, and whether it was done right. That changes my whole business.”
Keith Hutchinson
Owner · Keith's Pool Service · Longview, Texas
Built for the owner who has to trust what he can't see.
Dispatch is still on a whiteboard.
Tech calls in sick. Storm rolling in. New customer Tuesday. Sticky notes, group texts, the whiteboard in the garage — every change is a phone call you make.
Your customers don't know what they got.
No service report. No photo proof. No alert when a stop gets skipped. Then they cancel — and you never find out why.
Why owners pick PoolHelm
Three things you won’t find together.
Weather that changes the route
Not a forecast widget, and not a blanket “move everything to Thursday.” PoolHelm times each storm against each stop’s real arrival and flags the specific pools at risk — before you leave the driveway. You make the final call on every one.
A briefing, not an inbox
Every morning at 6, PoolHelm reads your whole operation — routes, chemistry, weather, and the money you’re owed — and hands you the three to five things that actually need you. Not a dashboard you have to remember to open. It’s already waiting when you wake up.
One flat price. Never per-tech.
$149 covers every tech and every pool. The big names bill per tech, per user, or per pool, so your software bill grows every time your business does. Ours doesn’t.
Based on our review of 19 pool-service platforms, May 2026 — re-checked August 2026.
Dawn to Done
A day on PoolHelm.
You can’t be at every pool. PoolHelm is.
6:00 AM
Your day, before coffee.
An AI briefing on your phone. The 3–5 things that actually need your eyes today — a storm timed to your stops, an invoice nobody chased, a pool drifting out of range. Not a 33-alert noise wall. A short list of what's worth your time.
Good morning, Nate
Friday, May 1 · 6:02 AM
Today’s Briefing
Last reading is 9.0 ppm, well above safe range, and the customer has reported skin irritation. John is en route to Cole this morning — alert him to hold service until the reading is balanced.
8:15 AM
Route in hand. Stops in order.
Your tech opens the day to a route AI built overnight. Stops ordered for drive time. Map ready. ETAs honest.
Today's Route0 of 6 stops
Xander AbbottNew today ×
604 N Wood St, Gilmer
57°F Clear0% precip
Upcoming
2
ETA 9:00 AM
Benjamin Cole
2815 Graystone Road, Longview
57°F
3
ETA 9:50 AM
Eleanor Foster
3306 Gilmer Rd, Longview
57°F
ON-SITE
The work, with proof.
Required arrival photo. Required departure photo. Every visit is time-stamped and photographed — no “did we get to it?”, the proof is right there. Pool Health Gauges show chemistry at a glance. Recipe Cards spell out the exact dose — no calculator, no guessing, no eyeballing. Your service standards run the route, every visit.
Pool HealthEleanor Foster
Free chlorine1.4 ppm
Adjust
7-day trend
pH7.4
Total alkalinity90 ppm
Cyanuric acid40 ppm
Dose ready
Add 3 oz Cal Hypo
Bumps Free Chlorine 1.4 → 3.0 ppm
Lands in targetCalculated for 16,500 gal
11:42 AM
See what's done. From anywhere.
Tap into Today from your phone. Watch stops update as your team works the route — completed, in progress, scheduled. No texts. No calls. No guessing where anyone is.
Today· 11:42 AM
3 of 6 doneXander Abbott
Done · 8:42 AM · chemistry & vacuum
Benjamin Cole
Done · 9:35 AM · serviced — chlorine held per alert
Eleanor Foster
Done · 10:35 AM · chemistry & backwash
Amelia Carter
In progress · arrived 11:00 AM · chemistry phase
5
Isabelle Keller
Scheduled · ETA 12:30 PM
6
Zachary Cross
Scheduled · ETA 2:30 PM
STORM ETA — 2:30 PM
AI catches the storm.
You make the call.
Storm rolling in? PoolHelm flags the stops at risk and drafts the reschedule message. One tap to send — or keep the stop. You decide.
Severe weather alert — Zachary Cross
90% precipitation · Severe thunderstorms · 78°F
502 West Main Street, Henderson
Severe weather alert at this stop
90% precipitation · Severe thunderstorms · 78°F. Your safety is the priority — make the call.
Zachary Cross · 502 West Main Street, Henderson
PROOF SENT
Your customer hears from you first.
Service report lands in their inbox the moment your tech leaves the stop. Photos of what got done. Chemistry summary. Trust-building you'd never have time to do manually.
SubjectYour pool was serviced today — here's what got done
Toeleanor.foster@example.com
Pool Pros
Fri · 10:42 AMHi Eleanor,
Your pool was serviced today. Here's what got done:
Friday · May 1John
4 photos attached
Chemistry
Free chlorine3.0 ppm
pH7.4
Total alkalinity90 ppm
PoolHelm
You’re receiving this because Pool Pros services your pool. Unsubscribe
END OF DAY
Done. Proven. On record.
Every stop logged. Every photo tagged. Saturday callbacks stop happening — because Tuesday's briefing caught the drift. The "is my pool ok?" texts stop coming. Your phone goes quiet at 7pm. You sleep. The shop runs.
Today’s wrapFriday, May 1 · 5:47 PM
5 of 6 stops complete
Route closed at 5:47 PM · 1 stop rescheduled to Saturday (storm)
0
Photos auto-tagged
0
Service reports sent
0
Chemistry readings logged
0
Doses applied to target
Stops
Xander Abbott8:42 AM
Benjamin Cole9:35 AM
Eleanor Foster10:35 AM
Amelia Carter11:58 AM
For the owner
AI plans the week.You make the call.
Seven days. Every tech. Every stop. The week the way pool service should be planned — on a screen that fits it.
AI route planning
Assigns every customer to a tech, a day, and a stop order across the whole week — in one click. You approve or adjust.
Drag, adjust, save
Every AI decision is yours to override. Tech calls in sick, new customer Tuesday, route needs reshuffling — drag the day, swap a tech, save once. Changes propagate to every stop without a phone call.
Week view at a glance
Seven days, all techs, on one screen. See the whole route picture before Monday.
What you get
Built for how pool service actually runs.
Routing, dosing, weather, photos, billing — every capability here exists because an owner-operator hit a real wall. No feature padding. No trade-show theater.
Planning that thinks ahead
- Build your whole week in one click.Hit Build Best Routes and PoolHelm assigns every customer to a tech, a day, and a stop order — across the entire week — in one pass. It weighs each customer's preferred tech and day, real drive time, and how full each tech's day is, then sequences every stop. And the build always finishes, even when the mapping service is having a bad day.
- Nothing falls through the cracks.A stop that doesn't get done — skipped, rained out, or the day just ran long — moves itself to that same tech's next working day, dropped into the right spot for drive time instead of tacked on the end, and labeled 'Carried over' everywhere: your Planner, the Today board, the tech's route, the morning briefing. Missed twice? PoolHelm stops quietly moving it and puts it in front of you to decide.
- Tech out sick? Move their whole day in one tap.'Reassign all for today' hands that tech's remaining stops to the techs you choose — the entire day moves at once or not at all, so you never end up half-covered. Everyone who picks up work gets a short in-app heads-up, and your recurring weekly schedule stays exactly as it was.
- The promises you made are locked.Pin a customer to a specific tech or day and the AI treats it as untouchable — it plans around your locks, never over them. If your own pins start crowding the week, PoolHelm tells you in plain language and offers a one-tap loosen that you have to confirm. It never quietly breaks a promise you made a customer.
- New customer? AI finds their slot.Add a customer mid-week and PoolHelm proposes their best fit — which tech, which day, which slot in the order — based on preferences, drive time, workload, and your service-level rules. One tap to accept.
The 6am briefing
- Generated before coffee.Briefing and route calculation both run at 6am, every day. By the time you're awake, your day is already triaged, your routes are sequenced, and your tech's phone has the morning's first stop ready to go.
- Priorities, not alerts.Plain-English summary, not an inbox of alerts. Some mornings you'll have two things to handle; some days five. The AI only surfaces what actually needs your eyes.
- Catches drift before it's a callback.The briefing flags week-over-week chemistry trends — "FC has been trending down at Carter the last 3 weeks" — so you investigate Tuesday, not Saturday after a callback.
Weather you can act on
- Hyperlocal forecast per pool.We pull a forecast for each pool's exact GPS coordinates — not the zip code your competitor uses. When a storm is moving, you see which 3 stops actually get hit, not all 12 in the same five-mile box.
- Storm risk, surfaced first.Severe forecast change — incoming hail, dropping pressure, flash-flood watch — fires an alert that sits above today's briefing. You see the risk before you read the route.
- You see the risk, draft in hand — you send.PoolHelm shows which stops a storm will actually hit, timed to each pool's real arrival — and only calls it severe after two readings agree, so a passing blip never cries wolf. Skip & Notify or Keep, one stop at a time or all at once. The customer's heads-up email doesn't go out until you confirm it. AI catches the storm. You make the call.
Built for wet hands
- Mobile-first, not mobile-last.Designed for the truck — every screen built phone-first, then scaled up to tablet and desktop. No squinting at a desktop UI shrunk down. No menus that hide behind a hamburger you can't tap with wet thumbs.
- Buttons sized for thumbs and gloves.Every button on the tech app is sized for real-world hands — wet, gloved, holding a test reagent, juggling a phone and a chlorine tab. No precision tapping. No fat-finger frustration.
- Auto-tagged photos.Every photo labels itself by workflow step — arrival, equipment, chemistry, departure. Taken in the moment, not back at the truck. Zero effort from the tech. Every shot lands in the right slot in the service report.
Service workflow that flexes
- Visual Pool Health Gauges.pH, chlorine, alkalinity and CYA show as color-coded bands — green/amber/red — so a tech glances and knows. Tap any reading to see the last four visits and spot drift before it becomes a callback.
- Recipe Cards for dosing.Tells the tech exactly how much to add — calculated from pool volume, current reading, and target. Plus a one-line "why" so a newer tech learns on the job, not just follows orders.
- Configurable phases.Clean → Test → Treat → Equipment. Set your phase order and which phases run, once at the admin level — applied automatically across every visit.
Your customers see the work — and stay
- Branded service report after every visit.Lands in your customer's inbox the moment your tech leaves the stop. Photos of what got done, chemistry results, and reasoning where it matters — proof, not a press release.
- Arrival and departure photos, auto-tagged.Every stop has a timestamped before-and-after, attached to the service report automatically. The customer never wonders if you came or how long you stayed — they can see it.
- Feedback comes straight to you.Every service report is sent from your shop, so an unhappy customer can reply the moment something feels off — and it lands in your inbox, not a black hole. Catch them the same day, before they call to cancel.
Run the business
- Bulk onboarding.Spreadsheet import with address-checking built in: rooftop-accurate addresses are ready to route, rural ones keep your own pin, and anything bad or made-up gets flagged for you — never silently handed to a tech. Your existing list goes from CSV to live routes in an afternoon, not a week of typing.
- Monthly or per-visit billing.Set your shop's default — monthly retainers or per-visit billing. Work logs per-visit (plus chemicals and custom work), and customers can opt to consolidate charges into monthly billing. Zero re-pricing, zero migration awkwardness for your existing book.
- QuickBooks integration. Coming soon.Revenue, invoices, and customer records will sync straight into your books — no manual exports, no double entry, one source of truth.
Grow without chasing
Plan the route. Then fill it.
Your best marketing is the clean pool next door. When a customer’s happy, PoolHelm makes referring their neighbor one tap — from the same proof-of-service and invoice emails you already send. Both sides get a $25 credit on their bill once the new neighbor’s first service is paid. And because PoolHelm knows your route, it flags the referrals that sit closest to stops you already run — so growth tightens your day instead of stretching it.
- One-tap referralThe share link rides your service reports and invoices. No new tool for your customers to learn — and no login, ever.
- $25 for both, when it's realYour customer and their neighbor each get $25 off their bill — unlocked after the neighbor's first paid service, so no-shows never cost you.
- Referrals that fit your routePoolHelm surfaces which new neighbors sit near your existing stops, so a bigger book means a tighter drive — not a longer one.
SubjectYour pool was serviced today — here's what got done
Toeleanor.foster@example.com
Pool Pros
Fri · 10:42 AMHi Eleanor,
Your pool was serviced today. Here's what got done:
Friday · May 1John
4 photos attached
Chemistry
Free chlorine3.0 ppm
pH7.4
Total alkalinity90 ppm
Refer a neighbor — you both get $25
Unlocked after their first paid service
PoolHelm
You’re receiving this because Pool Pros services your pool. Unsubscribe
Money in
Get paid by card — automatically.
PoolHelm emails your customers a hosted invoice with a pay-by-card link, so you stop chasing checks and start getting paid on time. The money is yours — you connect your own Stripe account during setup, and every payment, refund, and payout runs through it. PoolHelm never holds or touches your funds; it just makes getting paid effortless.
Powered by your own Stripe account · no customer login required
SubjectYour invoice from Pool Pros is ready
Toeleanor.foster@example.com
Pool Pros
Fri · 10:42 AMHi Eleanor,
Your invoice is ready. Pay by card below:
Friday · May 1John
Monthly service$149.00
Amount due$149.00
Pay now
Powered by your Stripe
PoolHelm
You’re receiving this because Pool Pros services your pool. Unsubscribe
Who builds thisYou haven’t heard of us.
You haven’t heard of us.
Apple has.
PoolHelm is built by BorderLeap, a studio that has been shipping software for fourteen years.
Six years on Apple Arcade
Our game Patterned launched with Apple Arcade in 2019 and is still there. Apple named us in the announcement.
See itThe Van Gogh Museum
They chose us to bring over 100 of their masterpieces into a game. It is called Masterpieced.
See itWeather since 2013
Long before PoolHelm, we built a weather app called Foresee. Apple featured it on apple.com.
Fourteen years of taking something noisy and handing back the one thing that matters. That is what the 6 AM briefing is.
Simple pricing
One price. Every feature.Start free.
Unlimited techs. Unlimited pools. Every feature. No add-ons, no per-pool metering, no tier you’ll outgrow. Try it free for 30 days — about four weekly visits — before you’re charged a cent. Mid-season is the best time to start: that’s when weather-aware routing and proof-on-every-pool earn their keep, so you’ll know exactly what PoolHelm is worth before the first bill.
$149/mo
Billed monthly · cancel anytime
Less than two green-pool callbacks a month — for unlimited techs, unlimited pools, and every feature.
One flat price that never climbs when you hire. Per-seat tools do.
Start Free →No charge for 30 days. Cancel anytime before day 30 in one click and pay nothing — the card up front just keeps out fake signups.
Lock today’s price for life — rates rise as we add features, yours won’t.
Why owners are switching mid-season
Skimmer~$350/mo · $2 per pool, per month
Pool Brain~$230–260/mo · billed per tech
Pool Office Manager~$200/mo · $125 first user + $25 each additional
PoolHelm$149/mo flat · locked for life
Published pricing, re-checked August 2026, for a company running ~175 pools with four technicians. All four rows are monthly rates. Skimmer bills per pool, Pool Brain per technician, Pool Office Manager per user — so each of those bills grows as you do. Your PoolHelm price never moves.
The price you start on is the price you stay on. No surprise add-ons — ever.
Fair questions
Questions, answered straight.
How does the free trial work?
Start PoolHelm free for 30 days — full access, every feature, unlimited techs and pools. We ask for a card up front, but you're not charged during the trial.
When am I charged?
On day 30, unless you cancel first. Your trial auto-converts to the plan you picked — $149/month or $1,500/year.
Why do you need a card for a free trial?
So you can go from trial to running your business without a payment interruption — and so we keep out fake signups. No charge until day 30.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel before day 30 and you pay nothing. Cancel later and you won't be billed again — your access runs to the end of the period you paid for.
What happens at the end of the trial?
Nothing changes on your end — PoolHelm just keeps running and your first payment goes through. All your customers, routes, and history stay exactly as you left them.
What does it cost after the trial?
$149/month, or $1,500/year (works out to about $125/month). Every feature, unlimited techs, unlimited pools. No add-ons.
Is there a per-pool or per-tech fee?
No. One price covers unlimited techs and unlimited pools. The price you start on is the price you stay on.
How does getting paid work?
PoolHelm emails your customers a pay-by-card link through your own Stripe account. The money is yours — PoolHelm never holds it.
How do referrals work?
When a customer refers a neighbor, both get $25 off their bill once the neighbor's first service is paid. The share link is built into the emails you already send.
Can PoolHelm build my whole week's routes for me?
Yes. One click on Build Best Routes assigns every active customer to a tech, a day, and a stop order across the whole week — balancing drive time and how full each tech's day is, and honoring any tech or day you've locked for specific customers. It runs in the background with a real progress bar, and it always finishes, even if the mapping service is having a bad day.
What happens if a stop doesn't get done?
It carries over automatically. A skipped, rained-out, or ran-out-of-daylight stop moves to that same tech's next working day, placed where it makes sense for drive time, and labeled 'Carried over' on your Planner, the Today board, the tech's route, and your morning briefing. If a stop gets missed twice, PoolHelm stops moving it on its own and flags it for you to decide.
A tech called in sick — do I have to rebuild the day by hand?
No. 'Reassign all for today' redistributes that tech's remaining stops to the techs you choose, all in one move — all-or-nothing, so you're never left half-covered. Everyone who picks up stops gets a short in-app note, and your recurring weekly schedule is left untouched.
Will the AI override what I've promised a customer?
Never. Lock a customer to a specific tech or day and the AI plans around it — it won't move them. If your own locked preferences start crowding the week, PoolHelm tells you plainly and offers a one-tap 'loosen' that you have to confirm. It won't quietly break a promise you made.
What if a customer's address is wrong or made up?
PoolHelm checks every address when you import it. Rooftop-accurate ones are ready to route, rural addresses that mapping can't pin keep your own coordinates, and anything bad or fabricated is flagged for you — never silently handed to a tech. It keeps re-checking unresolved ones in the background.
Does PoolHelm reschedule around weather on its own?
No — and that's on purpose. PoolHelm shows you which stops a storm will actually hit, timed to each pool — and it only calls a storm severe after two readings agree, so a passing blip doesn't cry wolf. It drafts the customer message for you, but nothing reaches your customer until you confirm it. You decide whether to skip, keep, or send.
It's the middle of the season — is now a bad time to switch?
It's the best time. Peak season is exactly when weather-aware routing and proof-on-every-pool matter most, so you'll feel the payoff fast. Bringing your customers over is quick — import your list from Skimmer, Jobber, Pool Brain, or QuickBooks — and your 30 free days cover about four visits, so you can judge PoolHelm on a real, busy stretch before you're ever charged.
See it work this season — not next.
The season won’t wait, and neither should your route. Start free today and put PoolHelm to work — weather, routing, and proof on every pool — for a full month before you’re charged a thing.
Start Free →Start now and $149 is your price for life — as PoolHelm grows, your bill doesn’t.
Card required · no charge for 30 days · cancel anytime