Updated Jan 10, 2023
Updated Jan 10, 2023
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If you’re ready to throw in the towel with DIY lawn care and are searching for the best lawn care service out there, you’re probably overwhelmed by many options. There are countless companies to choose from, offering programs, packages, and one-off services at varying prices. Two of the best lawn care services — and likely the ones you’ve heard about most — are TruGreen and Lawn Doctor. TruGreen is a massive national company with many services in 48 contiguous states. Lawn Doctor is smaller, covering 38 states, and provides fewer plan options from locally-owned offices.
Our House Method Reviews Team analyzed, reviewed, and compared TruGreen and Lawn Doctor on key metrics like customer reviews, services offered, availability, reputation, a-la-carte options, and more. Ultimately, we recommend TruGreen as the best lawn care service for its broad coverage, fantastic reputation, and Healthy Lawn Guarantee. This guide will go over these companies in-depth and provide insight into which one is best for your needs.
The table below is a quick breakdown of what each provider offers.
Provider | TruGreen | Lawn Doctor |
Website | TruGreen | lawndoctor.com |
Our rating | 4.9/5 | 4.2/5 |
Type | Full service | Full service |
State availability | 48 states | 38 states |
Online chat options | Yes | No |
Mobile app | Yes | No |
TruGreen and Lawn Doctor both have extensive experience in the industry, accumulating thousands of satisfied customers each. They both have a long history of success and generally positive customer feedback.
TruGreen provides customers access to five different pre-set service plans: TruComplete, TruHealth, TruMaintenance, TruSignature, and TruNatural. These plans include a good variety of services and pricing, so you’re bound to find one that works for your property and budget. The services can be basic — covering fertilization, lawn amendments, and some additional treatments — or cover your entire property — including customized lawn maintenance, pesticide application, weed control, tree care, shrub care, and much more.
TruGreen provides a customer satisfaction guarantee on all of its plans, and it also has a la carte services like core aeration, grub control, and termite and insect perimeter control. These add-on services let you further customize your lawn maintenance program.
Lawn Doctor is a national lawn service company, but each location is independently owned and operated as a franchise. Customer service can be spotty from local Lawn Doctor locations, but customer reviews are generally positive. Lawn Doctor also provides a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee, similar to TruGreen, so you can rest assured that you’re in good hands.
Lawn Doctor has three different fertilization and weed control plans, mosquito control, and tick control. It also has some add-on services, like seeding, lawn aeration, and tree and shrub care, but these aren’t available as part of its annual service plans. You’ll have to remember to schedule these in advance if you want them.
The effectiveness of a professional lawn care company often depends on the quality of its services and the value of its treatment plans. The plans offered by TruGreen and Lawn Doctor vary quite a bit, so finding the right company for your needs could be as simple as finding the right plan. We’ll take a look at each company’s offerings below.
TruGreen has five annual plans available, plus many add-on services to customize each one to your liking.
Plan | TruComplete | TruHealth | TruMaintenance | TruSignature | TruNatural |
Soil Test | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Fertilization | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Seeding | ✓ | X | X | ✓ | X |
Aeration | ✓ | X | X | ✓ | X |
Pre-emergent Weed Control | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X |
Targeted Herbicide Application | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X |
Grub Control | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ | X |
Tree Care | X | X | X | ✓ | X |
Shrub Care | X | X | X | ✓ | X |
All Natural Products | X | X | X | X | ✓ |
The pre-built plans provide varying levels of service, but each one includes the following:
The more premium plans add weed control and pest control services, tree and shrub care, aeration, and seeding to patch bare spots in your lawn and reduce soil compaction. All of TruGreen’s services and products are informed by the soil test completed on your property, so you’ll have science and a highly-trained lawn care specialist backing up your results.
TruGreen also has one-off services available. You can use these to add to your annual plan of choice or use them as standalone lawn care treatments. The a la carte services from TruGreen are listed below:
Virtually any homeowner will be able to find a combination of a service plan and a la carte services from TruGreen that meets their expectations.
Read our TruGreen Review to learn more about plans and services.
Lawn Doctor provides three plans, but only one is catered toward lawn care—the other two deal exclusively with lawn pests.
Plan | Fertilization and Weeds | Mosquito Control | Tick Control |
Soil Test | ✓ | X | X |
Fertilization | ✓ | X | X |
Pre-emergent Weed Control | ✓ | X | X |
Targeted Herbicide Application | ✓ | X | X |
Mosquito Treatments | X | ✓ | X |
Tick Control | X | X | ✓ |
Lawn Doctor only provides one annual service plan for landscaping. The others will help you keep biting insects off of your property. The fertilization and weeds plan are a bit limited in scope. However, it will help leave you with an aesthetically pleasing green lawn. The targeted weed control can help keep walkways, sideways, patios, and driveways looking clean and tidy.
Lawn Doctor also provides add-on services that you can purchase as one-off treatments or customize one of the plans above. The add-on services from Lawn Doctor include:
Although the service plans are a bit sparse, the add-on services can help you find the right balance between lawn care and insect prevention. The single-event mosquito treatment is also a great option to keep costs down but still keep your yard usable when barbecue season rolls around.
Lawn Doctor locations operate as individual local companies, so some offer specialized services like lawn mower repair, power seeding, etc.
To learn more: Lawn Doctor review.
Both TruGreen and Lawn Doctor offer affordable plan options that come with full-service lawn care. For both lawn care providers, more comprehensive programs tend to come at a larger cost than one-off or a-la-carte services.
TruGreen’s lawn care plans are cheaper for the first application but increase for the remaining visits. The most expensive plan option is TruSignature because it offers the most comprehensive lawn care. The prices below represent the full annual cost for a 5,000 sq. ft. yard.
Additional a-la-carte services can be purchased at varying prices.
Lawn Doctor pricing is a bit more difficult to come by as the provider does not have pricing on the website, and customers can only get a quote by entering their phone number and email and waiting for a representative to reach out. Each of Lawn Doctor’s programs is priced annually, and homeowners can expect a full-service Lawn Doctor plan to cost anywhere from $930 to $2,900 per year. One-off services can be purchased for an additional fee.
TruGreen and Lawn Doctor are massive national companies that service multiple states. TruGreen is larger and covers more areas throughout the states it services, but both have a strong presence.
TruGreen is available in all 48 contiguous states, plus Washington, D.C. It only doesn’t provide services in Hawaii or Alaska.
Lawn Doctor is available in 38 states. It services all states except:
Customer reviews are a great way to gauge how effective a lawn company’s treatments are and how valuable their customer service is. You’ll often see the best and the worst a company has to offer in its reviews. Below, you’ll find some honest customer reviews for each company pulled from Yelp.
“I would say the Truegreen technicians that I have experienced do truly care to improve the way my lawn looks. My house is fairly new to me. I have only been there two years, and I have been trying to fix my yard since I moved in. It is a process for sure. I have planted numerous plugs each year, and Trugreen has been there every step of the way, offering advice and providing extra fertilizing treatments. They have been giving me watering tips and yearly aeration. Finally, this year I have received multiple compliments on how my lawn looks in the neighborhood. I am proud and thank you, Trugreen, for your continued help.” –David H.
“I’m new to TruGreen. I’ve tried several different companies to get rid of a weed problem I’ve Had. After one treatment, the weeds are dead. Pricing is comparable to both other companies I tried before them. They not only notify you before they come, but they also send tracking info of where their driver is en route to you. Also, they leave a detailed lawn analysis telling what they did and what they recommend. So far, I’m seriously impressed and highly recommend.” –Lezli J.
“I have tried a few lawn care services and haven’t been satisfied with the quality of service for the price. I then found Lawn Doctor! Bill is easy to get in contact with and very professional. My crabgrass and weeds are under control, and my lawn will look great when the weather gets warmer.” –Rich G.
“They put in a new lawn. Only patches came in, and they were rude about coming back. They blamed me and my lack of water for the lawn not coming in; I watered per their instructions. My yard was covered in rocks they never removed. Now it is dead filled with weeds even after they came back to redo it. I have previously used TruGreen, and my lawn looked great. This company is awful.” –Kerri H.
TruGreen and Lawn Doctor are two of the most popular professional lawn maintenance companies. TruGreen has a massive footprint in 48 states, while Lawn Doctor’s is less impressive in 38 states. Both companies carry out soil tests and let science inform what products they use on your lawn and property, and they both offer a satisfaction guarantee.
If you’re stuck between choosing one of these companies, TruGreen is our recommendation for the best lawn care service provider. TruGreen has a much more comprehensive array of services for customizing your property and needs. It has more annual plans available, plus more add-on services covering lawn health, weed control, pest control, tree and shrub maintenance, and much more. Check out TruGreen’s plans today to see which works best for you and get a free quote.
The pricing for these two companies is comparable for similar services. TruGreen charges around $35 per application on average for its basic TruMaintenance plan, and a similar annual lawn care program from Lawn Doctor is a bit higher at around $40 per application. Note that TruGreen’s plan provides some additional services for the cost.
TruGreen has a natural lawn care plan for those looking for 100% natural products. Lawn Doctor provides a similar natural approach with its natural lawn care option.
In most cases, no. Most of the products used by both companies are not natural. However, the natural lawn care plans are safe for pets.
Yes! TruGreen provides pre-emergent weed control and targeted weed applications in most plans. Its weed control program is one of the most effective on the market.
No, Trugreen and Lawn Doctor are not the same. They are different companies with separate lawn care services, fertilization and weed control options, aeration, dethatching, and more. Lawn Doctor is only available in 40 states, whereas TruGreen offers its services in 49. Both companies have varying levels of chemical vs. organic product usage as well.
At House Method, transparency and trust are our most important values for the reader. That’s why we took the time to create an objective rating system and score each lawn company/service according to our methodology.
Our research team dug deep into the fine print of contracts, combed through more than one hundred customer reviews, and thoroughly investigated all of each lawn care service’s services, costs, and products. We’ve done the homework for you by researching nearly all of the lawn care companies on the market so you can have the information you need to make the best choice for your home.
We developed a formula to objectively determine the best lawn care companies and give each a score out of 100 based on the following criteria:
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