Ah, the Weed Man vs. TruGreen debate rages on. Wondering which one of these lawncare juggernauts is the better pick?
So we were. That’s why we set out to create the best comparison available. Read on to see who wins.
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About the Companies
TruGreen is one of the best-known names in lawn care, and Weed Man is becoming a recognizable company, too. Let’s look at each company and what they offer so we can compare the two.
About TruGreen
TruGreen is headquartered in Memphis, TN, and has been around since 1974. It’s the largest residential lawn care company in the United States (200+ locations per state!).
They offer complete lawn care services, from weed control to fertilization, insect control, aeration, overseeding, and tree and shrub care.
TruGreen hires horticulturists and agronomists with PhDs to tailor their fertilization and lawn care approaches after reviewing client soil tests.
TruGreen is also the official lawn care provider for the PGA, so you know they’re offering high-quality, pro-level lawn services. Finally, we found out that TruGreen has a yearly skills program for their technicians called TruExpert.
Here, their technicians learn new concepts and participate in additional skills training. So when a TruGreen technician shows up at your home, you won’t have to wonder if they know what they’re doing.
About Weed Man Lawn Care
Weed Man Lawn Care is headquartered in Ontario, Canada, where it was founded 51 years ago. They have around 300 franchise locations in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, so there are a lot fewer overall Weed Man locations than TruGreen.
This means it’s going to be much harder to find a Weed Man location near you if you’re looking for lawn care services. For example, there are 12 Weed Man locations in Ohio, but only one in Montana.
Weed Man expanded from Canada into the U.S. in 1996. Since then, they’ve been offering complete lawn care services, including weed control, fertilization, overseeding, aeration, insect control, and more.
Unlike TruGreen, Weed Man Lawn Care doesn’t offer standard-priced lawn care plans. Instead, they send technicians out to your address to analyze your lawn care needs and provide a free quote. You can also get a free quote for their lawn care services online.
Comparing TruGreen and Weed Man Lawn Care so far, we’re leaning toward TruGreen. It’s nice to be able to choose a complete lawn care plan directly from their website without requesting a quote.
Weed Man leaves customers in the dark a bit about how much they can expect to pay for lawn care services without service plans or packages. You’re left to build your own service plan, and if you don’t know much about lawns or your lawn care needs, it’s hard to do that.
Weed Man vs TruGreen Services
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We’ve very briefly looked at the services offered by Weed Man vs. TruGreen. Let’s dive in a little deeper to get a better sense of what lawn care services each company provides.
Trugreen Services
Trugreen offers a complete range of lawn care services to meet the needs of most homeowners. At any of their thousands of locations, you can build a plan with any of the following services:
- Pre-emergent and targeted weed control
- Lawn aeration
- Lawn fertilization
- Overseeding
- Tree and shrub care
- Tick and flea control
- Mosquito control
- Grub control and prevention
- Soil testing and analysis
- Soil amendment
As you can see, TruGreen goes far beyond weed control and management. They’re all about ensuring total lawn health, from the soil pH to controlling pesky insects that destroy lawns.
Their soil analysis and amendment service is designed and managed by TruGreen plant scientists with PhDs. They develop precise fertilizer and pH balancing plans for lawns based on nutrients the soil is lacking or overabundant in.
It’s worth noting that they also offer tree and shrub care services—a real rarity in the lawn care service world.
Most of the time, you have to find another company to service trees and shrubs. So TruGreen really makes things convenient by offering services that cover all your lawn care needs.
Weed Man Services
Weed Man Lawn Care also offers a wide range of services to customers, though not quite as extensive as TruGreen. Here are the services offered by Weed Man:
- Lawn fertilization
- Lawn aeration
- Overseeding
- Weed control
- Surface insect and grub control
- Flea and tick control
- Mosquito control
- Soil testing and analysis
- Soil amendment
These Weed Man services cover most, but not all, of the average homeowner’s lawn care needs. They don’t offer as many tree and shrub care services as TruGreen does, but they do have a good range of lawn care services available.
One important thing to note is that Weed Man states their weed control services “…may [our emphasis] involve both pre-emergent and post-emergent applications.”
So you’re not guaranteed to get those preventative pre-emergent weed control applications with Weed Man. Overall, the service offerings of TruGreen and Weed Man are pretty similar, with TruGreen once again getting the edge.
Their services are truly complete lawn care because they cover your trees and shrubs, too. One lawn care service that neither company provides is mowing. You’ll have to do this yourself or hire a local company to cover mowing.
Weed Man vs TruGreen Plans and Pricing
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Let’s take a look at Weed Man and TruGreen plans and pricing to see how they compare. If you’re looking for the most affordable lawn care service, the way a company prices their services is very important.
TruGreen offers four different lawn care plans at different price points. Weed Man offers a range of services without standard plans.
TruGreen Plans and Pricing
TruGreen has four different service plans to ensure there’s one to meet your needs. When you choose your service plan, TruGreen lawn pros will visit your home every 4-6 weeks according to your plan.
If you need additional service anytime in between scheduled visits, they’ll come out for no additional charge.
- TruHealth: Basic weed control, fertilization, and tailored lawn treatment (grub control, lime treatment, and pH balancing) applied 8 times per year
- TruComplete: Weed control, fertilization, tailored lawn treatment, aeration, and overseeding applied 8 times per year
- TruSignature: Weed control, fertilization, tailored lawn treatment, aeration, overseeding, and tree and shrub care eight times per year
- TruMaintenance: Healthy lawn analysis, fertilization, and weed control applied 7 times per year
The TruHealth plan is the lowest-priced plan available, and current estimates online say this plan starts at $29.95 for lawns under 5,000 square feet.
ConsumerAffairs got pricing quotes from TruGreen for an undisclosed location. Here’s what they shared:
- $29.95 for the first TruComplete, TruHealth, or TruMaintenance Lawn Plan application
- $39.95 for TruCare Mosquito Defense first application
- $49.95 for first-time tree and shrub care
- $80.95 for Tick and Flea Control’s first application
Pricing does vary by location since there are so many TruGreen locations across the nation. Be sure to click the button to get a free quote on their website to find out how much you can expect to pay for services in your area.
TruGreen Discounts
TruHealth runs a special 50% off introductory offer for new customers. You get 50% off your first application when you sign up for an annual plan.
You can also get special introductory low pricing offers on other TruGreen services like mosquito control and flea and tick control. Just make sure to sign up online or call and mention the introductory offer to your TruGreen representative.
TruGreen may also offer local discounts at the locations nearest you. We recommend checking online or calling your closest location to see what discounts they may be offering!
Weed Man Plans and Pricing
Weed Man does not offer annual plans or pricing information on their website. Instead of selecting from service plans that are created to meet your needs, you’ll need to look through their available services and choose the ones you think your lawn needs.
If you’re a lawn care expert, that should be simple. But since most of us homeowners aren’t lawn care experts, we expect our lawn care companies to analyze our lawns and tell us what we need.
Weed Man falls short on that by making homeowners build their own service plan. Today’s Home Owner requested service quotes from Weed Man for an address in Pennsylvania.
Here’s what they were quoted (these are 2020 prices):
- $728 for custom annual lawn care package including 4x fertilization, 3x weed control, and one-time lawn inspection
- $208 for one-time lawn aeration
- $166 for one-time grub OR flea and tick control
- $104 for one-time lime application
The prices you are quoted by Weed Man could be much higher or lower than these quoted prices due to your location.
If you are interested in learning exact pricing information for Weed Man services, you’ll have to enter information about your address and lawn care needs to get a free quote online.
Weed Man Lawn Care Discounts
Weed Man says they offer a lower price when you sign up with an annual contract rather than a one-time service. They don’t reveal how much the discount is. You can also get discounted Weed Man Lawn Care services by referring people to the service.
When you send a new customer to Weed Man and they pay for services, you can earn lawn care credits and discounts. Again, they don’t reveal how much of a discount or the value of credits.
Weed Man vs TruGreen Customer Reviews
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When you’re comparing companies like TruGreen and Weed Man that offer many of the same services, sometimes the customer reviews are the official tie-breaker.
When we looked at customer reviews online for both TruGreen and Weed Man through the BBB, TrustPilot, and Google Reviews, a clear winner emerged.
TruGreen Reviews
TruGreen is accredited by the Better Business Bureau. They are rated A+ with the BBB, which indicates a trustworthy business with lots of satisfied customers. Let’s take a look at some of TruGreen’s customer reviews online.
“I have had nothing but a great experience with TruGreen. This is my second year and I can see a big difference and now I can stripe my lawn and make it look good…All this company does is kill weeds and fertilize grass and also they aerate and plant seed…but you have to do your part to have a beautiful lawn.” -5 stars from Josh Davis, Google Reviews
“I’ve been a TruGreen customer for decades and am 100% satisfied with the company and the results. Scott W. was here today and was very informative as to what to do w/i the next 24h to optimize results. I couldn’t be happier.” -5 stars from Steve Falk, TrustPilot
“I’ve recently signed up and have had 2 services. In one word… excellent. They are very good and notifications about upcoming service. A thorough job is done and then feedback on results is complete and much appreciated. Great job! My yard has a long way to go but am confident that TruGreen can help me get there.” -5 stars from Kathy, ConsumerAffairs
“The experience I had with Travis and Trey was superior. Within 48 hours of my call, both were at my home with informed and concise guidance. I must say their knowledge of the types of grass, weeds, and diseases were impressive. I had the pleasure of discussing the recommendations going forward. I had a great deal of pride in what they did. Thank you, Travis H, and Trey; because of them, the grass is greener at my house. God Bless.” -5 stars from Anissha Blackwell, TrustPilot
“TruGreen does a good job on keeping the grass and shrubs healthy and looking good. But can be pushy about adding services.” -4 stars from Roland Smith, Google Reviews
“The sales agent Mark Norell did a great job of getting me signed up and three days later my yard was sprayed. However the service guy did not spray my backyard and I can tell. I called the sales rep back and they were back out to take care of my concerns. I have requested the service guy knock on the door when he arrives so I can see the work being done.” -4 stars from Thomas Haskins Jr., TrustPilot
TruGreen gets mostly 4 and 5-star reviews from customers who have used their services. Keep in mind that customer reviews are typically talking about individual locations, not the company as a whole.
Still, with each TruGreen location getting such good reviews, it’s clear this is a customer-oriented company with a great reputation.
Weed Man Reviews
Weed Man is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau. They do have customer reviews and ratings through the BBB. Their overall BBB rating is A. But they have a dismal 1.5 out of 5 star rating from BBB customer reviews.
BBB ratings are sometimes lower because unhappy customers tend to flock there to submit their complaints.
So we checked TrustPilot and Google Reviews to see if Weed Man’s customer ratings were any higher there. We found a curious mix of scathing 1-star reviews and a few glowing 5-star reviews.
“I hired Weed Man in March. I cannot even begin to express my disappointment with this company. I paid them to come out and treat my yard. My yard is EMBARRASSING!!! Then in August I was duped into buying a treatment to get rid of grub worms in my yard.. I thought it was a one time treatment… NOPE they tacked on another 30.00 a month for that service over the last 4 months. My backyard doesn’t look horrible like the front so I was curious as to why my front yard looked so horrible. I got another company to come out and assess the yard. According to this yard service all grass is not the same. Whatever they used on my grass in my front yard was not correct!!! So, now I am left with this yard that truthfully looked better with the weeds than it does now. Lesson Learned. We will do it ourselves, for a lot less!!!” -1 star from Patti Strang, Google Reviews
“I had their annual service for about 8 months. At first they were good, but then they wouldn’t come out when they said they would, this happened at least 15 times. When they finally did come out to aerate my lawn (this was after they told me 6 times previously they were coming), they kept trying to come out within 2 days to spray weed killer. This kills the grass seed they literally just spread. I called six times to straighten this out and each time they said they fixed it. Then one day later, I’d get another text saying they planned on coming out the next day. Look, they are polite, but the left hand certainly doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. I paid for a service to not have the burden of having to deal with all this on my own. Turns out having their service is more work than doing it myself. Check around before you settle.” -2 stars from Matthew Listovitch, Google Reviews
“I love these guys!! My Lawn has never looked better in the last 3 years…I called them just because I saw a lawn sign. My techs Anthony and Josh are AWESOME. Each of them took time to speak with me and explained everything about my lawn and answered my annoying questions. And if I have an issue I have the owner’s cell number and he ALWAYS ANSWERS!!! I highly recommend this company!!!” -5 stars from Drew T., BBB reviews
“They have unscrupulous business practices. Over the few years I have used then they would recommend core aeration of the yard. I would agree or pass. This year I heard noises outside and Weedman was aeration [aerating]. I informed the person that I had not requested it and I would not pay for a service I did not request. I ask that they take the $82 charge off of my account as I did not request the service. They refused to do so. This should be illegal as there is nothing stopping them from coming to your house and doing any non-requested work at any timing and charging the customer. I contacted customer service several times, their dispute manager and spoke to them several times. Each time they refused to credit my account and they began adding late charges. This whole operation almost seems like a scam.” -1 star from Richard G., BBB reviews
“When I scheduled an appointment, they said someone would be out in the next 7 days, it’s been about 2 weeks now, still no service. No type of follow up, I no longer desire any service from them.” -1 star from Gerald Pittman Sr., Google Reviews
“The weed control is absolutely horrid. Even after a year there was no progress with our yard. Extremely dissatisfied with the so-called “final” result. Would not recommend this care to anybody. If I could, I would give them a lower review than one star.” -1 star from Blanka Logo, Google Reviews
The majority of reviews we saw for Weed Man were poor ratings. We saw a lot of 1 and 2 star reviews from customers in different locations. It could be an indicator that some of these locations are being run inefficiently with poor customer service.
In any case, if reviews are important to you, Weed Man does not have a great track record with customers. TruGreen’s customer reviews are much better and show their dedication to customer service.
Weed Man vs TruGreen: The Winner
We’ve put Weed Man Lawn Care head to head with TruGreen in terms of company practices, services offered, plans and pricing, and customer reviews. Which one comes out on top as the winner?
The better lawn care service is TruGreen, hands down. Here’s why.
When we looked at Weed Man and TruGreen on a company-wide level, TruGreen rose to the top due to their number of locations in the U.S. and service coverage.
Abundant Locations
While both companies have been in business for around 50 years, TruGreen has expanded a lot more during that time. You can get TruGreen lawn care services in almost every area of the United States.
Weed Man has only around 300 locations scattered across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. This means you’re less likely to find a Weed Man location near you.
Wider Range of Services
When we compared the services offered by Weed Man and TruGreen, TruGreen was once again on top thanks to their wider range of services.
Both companies offer the basics: Weed control, lawn aeration and fertilization, soil testing and amendment, grub, tick, and flea control, mosquito control, and overseeding.
But only TruGreen offers tree and shrub care services to customers. This makes TruGreen the better option when it comes to service selection.
Lower Pricing
When we compared plans and pricing for both lawn care companies, TruGreen’s overall pricing seems to be lower than Weed Man’s. You might pay an average of around $60/month for Weed Man annual plan.
And that doesn’t include aeration, overseeding, or insect control. But new TruGreen customers can get their first application from any lawn plan for just $29.95.
After the first time application, the prices are similar to Weed Man. But TruGreen includes many more services than Weed Man with their plans, like aeration and overseeding.
Positive Customer Reviews
Finally, in terms of customer reviews, TruGreen was again the winner. With tons of positive reviews from real customers online, we found that TruGreen’s customer service and lawn results just seem to be better than Weed Man.
Weed Man reviews were mostly poor with a few positive ones sprinkled in. We’re big proponents of letting a product speak for itself. Or rather, letting the customers using the product speak for themselves.
And unfortunately, in this case, the overall trend online is that customers tend to rate the company negatively. We’re sure that there are also handfuls of happy customers, but they haven’t yet shared their positive experience.
We partnered with Networx to help you find local lawncare companies. Click to below to get a FREE quote.
TruGreen vs Weed Man: The Clear Winner
TruGreen is the clear winner in this head-to-head matchup. For affordable lawn care services that span beyond the weed control and fertilization basics, you can’t beat TruGreen.
Their range of annual plans with discounts for first-time customers are excellent. And customer reviews indicate that TruGreen is a trustworthy company that always does right by their customers.
If you’re ready to show weeds, insects, and lawn problems the door, head over to TruGreen and get your free quote now.