Dubsado costs $20 or $40, depending on which plan you go for. But when adding 4-10 users for your agency, it would cost $250 more with $25/user. The cost gradually increases as you add more users.
But as a Dubsado alternative, Agency Handy only costs $99 for 10 users. For single users, it’s just $19 that comes with more features than Dubsado. There are other Dubsado alternatives as well which are discussed in the article.
Reasons Why You Should Look for a Dubsado Alternative
From our experience of using countless CRMs and client portal software, Dubsado has some limitations that other tools address with affordable pricings. Below are the reasons why you can consider a Dubsado alternative –
Limited Starter Plan
Their core feature is automated workflow, which is missing in the Starter plan. Apart from this, you can only onboard clients, create invoices, and projects. $20/month costs way higher for such basic functionalities.
Expensive Per Seat Cost
Depending on plans, you will have to pay $25-$60 to add additional team members. Considering both the pricing of the plan and additional cost for added users, the overall cost goes pretty high. There are cheaper alternatives for agencies to onboard their internal users.
Lacks Feedback Annotation Tools
Even though Dubsado is recommended for photographers, there’s no annotation tools for feedback. For designing and visual related services, having annotation tools help clients to pinpoint exact changes they want in tasks.
Steeper Learning Curve
Dubsado offers deep customization. But it comes with a price. The platform is complex to figure out. The interface itself has a steep learning curve according to many of their users.
Quick List of 8 Dubsado Alternatives
- Agency Handy: All-in-one agency tool to automate client onboarding to project delivery with client and team management centric features.
- ManyRequests: Platform for managing productized services through a sleek, white-label client portal.
- Bonsai: Toolkit for freelancers to manage proposals, contracts, projects, invoices, and business finances.
- HoneyBook: Automates clientflow, combining proposals, contracts, and invoices into one booking experience.
- Plutio: Customizable all-in-one business management platform for freelancers and small teams.
- Bloom: Studio management platform for creatives, featuring lead management, booking, and stunning client galleries.
- SuiteDash: A white-label “business OS” with CRM, projects, marketing, billing, and advanced client portals.
- 17hats: The all-in-one system for solopreneurs to manage leads, booking, workflows, and bookkeeping.
Comparison Table of Top 8 Dubsado Alternatives
We’ve found and tested 10 Dubsado alternative tools for freelancers, agencies, and businesses. Depending on your purpose and requirements, you will find the most suitable alternative below –
| Tool | Pricing (Monthly) | Project Management | Lead Management | Unique Feature |
| Agency Handy | $19 – $199 | Kanban board, user roles | Lead nurturing CRM | Service catalog and feedback management |
| ManyRequests | $49 – $399 | Kanban board, user roles | Basic CRM | Annotations |
| Bonsai | $15 – $39 | Kanban board | Automated CRM | Tracks profit |
| HoneyBook | $36 – $129 | Basic | Basic | SMS reminders, AI assistance |
| Plutio | $19 – $99 | Kanban board | N/A | Integration |
| Bloom | $9 – $39 | Basic | Forms | Image galleries |
| SuiteDash | $19 – $99 | Kanban board | Sales data-driven | Email marketing |
| 17hats | $60 | Basic | Integrated lead capture | All-in-one documents |
1. Agency Handy
Most people use Dubsado to streamline their client onboarding journey like taking care of proposals, payments, and project creation. Agency Handy comes with all these, and offers even more for both freelancers and agency owners.
You can automate client onboarding with more functionalities, clients self-checkout, and creating projects as per the order form. All these without needing to move a needle from the admin end.
As a freelancer, you can manage clients. For agency owners, it’s designed for seamless agency operations. If you sell productized services, it can handle service management and subscriptions. Most importantly, all your projects stay organized and clients get automatic updates.
Agency Handy comes with features and tools like time tracking, feedback with annotations, internal and client messaging, custom email domain to take your agency operations to the next level. Considering all these, it stands to be the best Dubsado alternatives for both freelancers and agencies.
Agency Handy Features
Whether you’re an one man army or work with a team, following features will streamline operations –
Service Catalog
The very first thing with potential clients is to show them what services you provide. With Agency Handy, you can organize all your services in a catalog view with multipackage options for each service. Potential clients can see everything from one place, and they can purchase and continue right from here.
Whereas with Dubsado, you can just list your services with price and a bit of details.
Lead Management
When you embed a public form on your website, and potential clients fill it out, you get their information as leads. Agency Handy allows you to organize these leads as per their status – contacted, waiting, sent a proposal to, working, etc.
This comprehensive lead management tool makes sure no leads are overlooked.
Order Forms
Depending on what service you provide, Agency Handy allows you to create custom order forms with all necessary inputs to make the form custom tailored.
Add your necessary services with multipackage pricing aimed for any particular type of clients. You can even include add-on services. Clients can even redeem coupon codes if you give any right on the order form.
Invoice and Self Checkout
Your clients can proceed from the order form and generate invoices and make payment without any help from the admin side.
Payment and Subscriptions
Clients can make payment through PayPal, Stipe, Wise, and manual banks. For subscriptions, you can manage both one-time and recurring payments. Clients have to input their card details once, and recurring payment will be made on due time.
Client Onboarding Automation
From clients landing on your order from or public from, they can proceed to selecting services, generating invoices, and making payment. As per their order list, tasks will be generated.
This onboarding process doesn’t involve your team at all. It’s fully automated. You will have to set things up for the first time.
Project Manager
As mentioned earlier, when your clients make any purchase, project management tools automatically create tasks as per the order list. It got a kanban board view to let you know which tasks are pending, which are in-progress, and which are waiting for clients for reviewing.
You don’t have to send clients project updates. They can check their project updates from the client portal.
Client Portal
Agency Handy client portal is far superior than Dubsado client portal. Clients can upload files, give feedback with annotation tools, communicate with task assignee on task threads, purchase services and complete payment without admin’s help.
As soon as the payment is made, you hand over client portal credentials to clients. This is the place where they can upload files related to their projects. They can also message assigned teams for their tasks.
Add Team and Assign Roles
Depending on which plan you go for, you can add 10 or 30 team members to Agency Handy client management software. You can set their roles to admin, super admin, manager, and assignee based on their responsibilities.
File Feedback and Annotations
When a task is done from the team’s end, it goes for the client’s review. The client can give feedback with annotation tools adding remarks, annotate areas with comments, and do more cool stuff. This lets your team understand exactly what changes the client is expecting.
With Dubsado, clients can only send comments to the task thread.
Custom Email and Custom Domain
Of course you get a complete white-label branding all across the forms, proposals, invoices, and client portals. Also, you get support for custom email and custom domain from Agency Handy to make your agency management look professional.
Even though Dubsado allows white-label branding, you get no custom email support from them.
Add Up to 5 Workspace
With Agency Handy Business Pro plan, you can add up to 5 different workspaces or brands to work with. This is extremely useful if you have multiple businesses. You can set a different platform environment with a completely different internal team.
Other notable features from Agency Handy includes
- Unlimited clients and orders
- Up to 10,000 leads
- Up to 30 internal users
- Employee time-tracking
- CRM
- White-label
- Up to 10 TB file storage
- Coupon and discount
- Client grouping
- Service grouping
- Multiple currencies
- Multiple languages
- SMTP setup
- API key
- Multi-support channels
Who It’s Best for
- Small to Large Businesses and Agencies who need to streamline their client onboarding process.
- Content Creation agencies that deal with content will find file annotations and version control extremely useful to work with.
- Design and Creative agencies can track tasks progress, use annotation feedback, and control file versions.
- Video Editing agencies can get up to 20 TB of storage for storing big files.
- Web Development agencies can break projects into tasks and manage from the Kanban board.
- Consultants can manage their leads through CRM and automate client onboarding steps.
- IT Service Providers can manage support tickets, assign tasks to team members, and track progress.
What Users Say About Agency Handy
G2: 4.9 out of 5
“I really like how Agency Handy keeps everything in one place—it makes managing tasks and tracking team hours super easy. The proposal tool is awesome too. It lays out all the package options in a way that makes sense to clients, and then it automatically creates tasks for my team based on what they select. It honestly saved me so much time.” – Sheena S.
Capaterra: 4.5 out of 5
“Agency Handy is an all-in-one solution that has streamlined our operations, improved client satisfaction, and boosted team productivity. It’s an indispensable tool for any digital agency looking to scale their business efficiently.” – Priyanka P.
Agency Handy Pricing
- $19/month Freelancer Plan for freelancers and solopreneurs
- $99/month Team Starter for small agencies
- $199/month Business Pro for large agencies
2. ManyRequests
For agencies that focus on designing and other creative work, Manyrequests proves to be a good alternative to Dubsado.
One of the key differences between Dubsado and ManyRequests is the cost per seat for internal users. ManyRequest charges $15/month per seat. Whereas, it’s at least $25 for 4-10 seats. If you want to add more internal users, you will have to pay $45-$60.
With their starting plan, you can handle unlimited clients and projects. It also includes a custom domain. But for a fully white-labeled experience and to get a custom email, you will have to go with their top-tier plan.
As we pointed out, ManyRequests is made for designers. It is equipped with annotation tools to make the feedback process between your team and your client both precise and efficient.
Key Features of Manyrequests
ManyRequests includes the following features:
- CRM: With ManyRequests, you can handle basic CRM stuff such as creating intake forms, collecting client information, and creating tasks from that info.
- Project Management: Both your team and your clients have the ability to create tasks. You can assign a specific team member to be responsible for each task.
- Time-tracking: Since ManyRequests is made for team collaboration, they’ve put in a time-tracking feature to monitor your team’s work time and efficiency.
- Analytics: You can check your team’s overall response rate, see how long it takes to finish certain kinds of tasks on average, and so on.
- Feedback and Annotations: This client portal software, focused on designers and creative agencies, also offers annotation and feedback features.
Other worth mentioning features from ManyRequests include:
- Unlimited clients
- Catalog view of services
- Time tracking
- Affiliate program
- Flexible file storage
- Client portal
- API access
- Quickbook native integration
Pros
- Dashboard highlights agency insights
- Great team collaboration features
- Showcases services
- Order form includes add-ons
- Coupons can be added
Cons
- Project management is less convenient
What Clients Say About ManyRequests
G2: 4.5 out of 5
Capaterra:
Pricing
- Starter plan $99/month
- Core plan $49/month
- Pro plan $399/month
3. Bonsai
Ideal for freelancers and small agencies, Bonsai is a solid alternative to Dusado, despite similar pricing.
One of the key differences is that Bonsai allows time tracking even with their entry-level plan. Similar to Dubsado’s pricing, Bonsai offers expense and income tracking for $19. You can schedule meetings as well.
The key difference is the user cost. Bonsai costs $9-$49/user/month, depending on the plan you choose. Whereas with Dubsado, it’s $25-$60/user/month.
Bonsai Features
The following are the main features Bonsai has to offer –
Automated CRM Workflow
Bonsai automates your client onboarding process at a comparatively lower cost than Dubsado. You can send custom-made forms and contracts to all your leads.
Project Management
Compared to Dubsado, Bonsai’s project management tool is significantly better, featuring a Kanban board view. You’re able to organize projects by their status, assign your team, and add all the details for the project.
White-label Branding – Remove “Powered by”
Bonsai allows you to white-label your brand across the platform and in the client portal.
Reports
You have the option to send clients reports based on the specific projects you’ve been working on for them. Also, Bonsai will give you financial reports that are based on how much your clients are paying you versus how much you are paying your team.
Bonsai also comes with the following features –
- Unlimited projects
- Service library
- Custom forms and templates
- Zapier, QuickBooks, Hubspot, Xero integration
- Expense and income tracking
- Profit and productivity reports
- Real-time product updates
- Client collaboration
Pros
- Provides valuable business insights
- Detailed project management
- Great integration support
- Automates client onboarding
- Tracks profit and revenue
Cons
- Subscriptions can’t be managed
- Not suitable for mid-sized agencies
What Users Say About Bonsai
- G2: 4.3 out of 5
- Capaterra: 4.6 out of 5
Bonsai Pricing
Basic
- $15/month billed monthly
- $9/month billed yearly
Essentials
- $25/month billed monthly
- $19/month billed yearly
Premium
- $39/month billed monthly
- $29/month billed yearly
4. HoneyBook
Being extremely popular among freelance photographers, small, and even management agencies, HoneyBook is a comparatively better alternative with added costs for more features.
Even though the HoneyBook Starter plan costs $29/month annually, you can send proposals and contracts, which isn’t available in Dubsado’s $20/month Basic plan.
Their Essential $49/month, annually billed plan allows you to onboard 2 internal users. You can automate client onboarding with scheduling advantage. If QuickBooks matters for your small agency, HoneyBook comes with it as well at a comparatively low price point.
HoneyBook Features
Below are the key features you will get from HoneyBook for individual client and agency management –
Proposals and Contracts
Similar to Dubsado, HoneyBook is reliable among its users for proposals and contracts features. There are templates, and you can customize as per your clients’ needs and requirements.
Client Onboarding
HoneyBooks helps you automate client onboarding from sending proposals, scheduling meetings, creating contracts, and so on. Based on trigger and action-based automation, the possibilities are endless.
Time Tracking
You can track how many hours each employee is working using the HoneyBook time tracker. Also, you can pay them an hourly rate, calculating the total worked hours on projects.
HoneyBook also comes with the following features –
- Invoices and payments
- Client portal
- SMS reminder
- Financial reports
- HoneyBook AI
Pros
- Automates client onboarding
- Tracks employee time on projects
- Tracks expenses and revenue
- Zapier integration for web applications
- Sends SMS reminders about payments
Cons
- Cuts charges when clients send payment
- Expensive for small agencies
What Users Say About HoneyBook
- G2: 4.5 out of 5
- Capterra: 4.7 out of 5
HoneyBook Pricing
Starter
- Monthly: $36/month
- Yearly: $29/month
Essentials
- Monthly: $59/month
- Yearly: $49/month
Premium
- Monthly: $129/month
- Yearly: $109/month
5. Plutio
Plutio is built with the needs of freelancers and agencies in mind. It comes with an elegant and clean interface, making it easy to use even for freelancers who are just getting started. When it comes to pricing, you’ll find it is more affordable than Dubsado.
The key advantage of Plutio over Dubsado is that their plans come with a predefined number of users. $39, the Studio plan allows adding up to 10 users.
If you need to add more of your team members, the additional cost would be $5/user/month.
Plutio Features
Following are the key features you will get from Plutio –
Custom Forms
When you’re onboarding a new client, it’s important to keep all of their information in one place. To help with this, Plutio gives you customizable forms with a variety of input fields, embeds, payment details, and signature boxes.
Customized Proposals
Plutio provides customization options to make sure your proposals truly stand out.
In the proposal itself, you can also add your service packages with their pricing to make everything clear and straightforward before signing. As soon as a proposal is approved, Plutio will automatically create a project for you using your preferred templates.
Project Management
For project management, they got advanced tools, including a Kanban board.
It’s effortless to add any team members, clients, and files that are required for your projects. Your team and clients can also have conversations and provide comments as feedback on project deliverables.
Client Portal
Your customers are given a client portal that is fully customizable and granular. They will be able to see project updates, tracked time, billing details, and invoice information, as well as add notes, and much more.
Compared to Dubsado, this client portal is a lot better in terms of both usability and functionality.
Other notable features of Plutio includes –
- Unlimited clients
- Up to 100 team members
- White-label branding
- Customized contracts and agreements
- Schedule meetings and appointments
- Invoicing and payments
- Time tracking
- File management
Pros
- User-friendly interface
- At a glance, updates on projects from the project management board
- Customizable forms, contracts, proposals, and agreements
- Automates proposal acceptance and task creation
- Easy file management with folders
Cons
- Doesn’t have a lead management feature
- Limited mobile experience
What Users Say About Plutio
G2: 4.3 out of 5
Capterra: 4.6 out of 5
Plutio Pricing
- Solo: $19/month
- Studio: $39/month
- Agency: $99/month
All plans have a free trial period. No credit cards needed.
6. Bloom
For creative freelancers looking for an all-in-one platform, Bloom presents itself as a very strong alternative to Dubsado. It is designed to be a complete studio manager that helps you automate your business and also increase your income.
What makes Bloom really stand out as a Dubsado alternative are a few unique features you won’t find natively in Dubsado, like built-in image delivery galleries and website portfolios.
If you’re looking to consolidate your tools and subscriptions even further, Bloom is definitely worth considering.
Key Features of Bloom
Bloom is packed with features designed to manage your entire creative business as follows –
Invoicing and Payments
Bloom is one of the few invoicing tools that lets you get paid through popular solutions like Cash App, Venmo, Zelle, and PayPal. You can also auto-charge payments for deposits and final balances. Bloom offers ACH transfers at a very low rate to help you bypass high credit card fees.
Instant Booking & Onboarding
With Bloom, clients can select a package, sign a contract, schedule their date, and even make a payment all in one go. The lead capture forms also help automate your onboarding by creating new leads you can track and follow up with.
Website Portfolio & Image Delivery
Unlike Dubsado, Bloom comes with its own built-in tools for showcasing your work. You can create a simple and elegant website portfolio using their templates.
You also get stunning image galleries to deliver your work, which keeps the entire project in one place.
Workflows & Automations
Similar to Dubsado, Bloom offers powerful automation to save you time. You can create unique workflows for all the different services you offer.
The system can send out automated emails for things like payment reminders, birthday messages, or follow-up campaigns, letting you make money and maintain great customer service even while you sleep.
Bloom also comes with following features –
- Meeting scheduling
- Contract signing
- Client portal
- Lead management
- Workflow automation
- QuickBook, Zoom, and Google integration
Pros
- Instant booking forms save time
- Automates contract and invoice process
- White-labeling on all plans
- Built in portfolio and image galleries
Cons
- No financial analytical tools
What Users Say About Bloom
G2: 4.5 out of 5
Capterra: 4.3 out of 5
Bloom Pricing
Starter
- $9/month for 3 months – Monthly billed
- $7/month for 12 months – Yearly billed
Standard
- $22/month for 3 months – Monthly billed
- $17/month for 12 months – Yearly billed
Plus
- $39/month for 3 months – Monthly billed
- $33/month for 12 months – Yearly billed
7. Suitedash
SuiteDash stands out as one of the very few client management apps that has an insanely low cost compared to others. And it’s also packed with helpful business management features.
If your work is centered on business operations, SuiteDash is an ideal Dubsado alternative that you should consider.
The client onboarding process with SuiteDash is automated, saving your team time that would be spent on repeated admin tasks.
For project management, this tool provides a Kanban board. You can set or update the status of projects just by dragging and dropping them into the pending, on-going, and complete boxes.
Key Features of SuiteDash
Being one of today’s most affordable CRMs, SuiteDash includes the following features –
Web Apps Integration
SuiteDash brings all of your essential apps together into a single place. This not only saves you money on different subscriptions but also simplifies your entire workflow.
White-label Client Experience
This is one of those rare client management apps that offers white-labeling starting with its basic plan (which begins at $19/month). Your clients will get their own dedicated online space that is totally branded with your agency’s specific look and feel.
Automates Client Onboarding
SuiteDash makes the client onboarding process super easy because it automates the whole thing. From sending out contracts to collecting the initial info, the platform guides new clients along so you can get to work much faster.
Tracks Payments and Predicts Cash Flow
SuiteDash lets you handle your billing, subscriptions, and client payments directly within the portal. The tool also sends out automatic payment reminders to clients. In addition, it keeps you informed of your predictable cash flow.
- Unlimited internal users
- Service Listings via Funnels
- Client portal
- Custom Intake Forms
- Complete Project & Task Management
- Automation via Flows & Triggers
- Proposal & Contract Builder
- Support tickets
Pros
- Automates admin tasks
- Faster Client Onboarding
- Organized Client & Sales Data
- Personalized Client Experience
- Consistent Cash Flow
Cons
- Limited template designs for email marketing
- Interface isn’t that clean compared to others
What Users Say About SuiteDash
G2: 4.8 out of 5
Capterra: 4.9 out of 5
SuiteDash Pricing
Start
- $19/month billed monthly
- $180/year billed annually
- $2,240 for a lifetime
Thrive
- $49/month billed monthly
- $480/year billed annually
- $3,940 for a lifetime
Pinnacle
- $99/month billed monthly
- $960/year billed annually
- $6,840 for a lifetime
8. 17hats
For solopreneurs and small business owners, 17hats is a business management platform that stands out for its stability and experience. With over a decade in business, it’s a solid alternative to Dubsado with primary focus on deep automation rather than visual customization.
Key Features of 17hats
17hats is a comprehensive platform that comes with the following features –
Automation & Workflows
This platform comes with advanced, multi-step workflows to automate your client process. A unique feature is that one workflow can trigger another. This will give you complete control over leads to project completion.
All-in-One Documents
To make proposals and payments easier, 17hats offers a 3-in-1 document. It combines the Quote, Contract, and Invoice into a single package, so a client can select options, sign, and pay all in one go.
For questionnaires, you can also use if/then logic to ask better follow-up questions.
Lead Management & Scheduling
You get tools to capture and manage new leads. Lead Capture Forms on your website can automatically trigger workflows and send auto-responder emails. This workflow is integrated with their Online Scheduling tool, for booking, asking questions, and accepting payments for sessions.
Financials & Reporting
17hats comes with a dedicated section for business reporting. It can automatically generate reports for Sales Tax, Profit/Loss, and Client Sales. This gives you a clear snapshot of how your business is doing financially.
Pros
- Strong focus on deep automation
- All-in-one quote, contract, invoice
- Integrated online scheduling tool
- Has a dedicated mobile app
Cons
- Branding customization is limited
What Users Say About 17hats
G2: 4.4 out of 5
Capterra: 4.4 out of 5
17hats Pricing
- $60/month
- $600/year
- $800/two years
Dubsado Reviews
Dubsado seems really good on paper with their workflow automation and stuff.
For sending proposals, contracts, and creating invoices, freelancers and small agencies find Dubsado really useful.
But when it comes to using it, even tech savvy persons find it quite difficult to set things up for their business –
Considering their plan pricing and per user cost for adding team members, CRM like Dubsado it’s quite expensive than other CRMs and client portal software.
Dubsado’s customer support seems to be of no good. When clients need a quick solution, they have to wait for hours to get it resolved.
Dubsado Alternatives Reddit
When it comes to collecting leads, users complain about mi
Complicated Lead Collection Process
Dubsado uses Zaiper integration to collect leads from your service website. Then through SMTP, it sends leads to your email and Dubsado leads.
Users complained that they have to frequently check both their email and Dubsado leads so that no leads are missed. Often there are bugs in Zapier and SMTP that make this process a headache.
Multiple redditors complained about this issue. Here’s one of them that said, “It comes down to having a form on my website that I have to have hooked up through zapier and SMTP so I can have everything go to both dubsado leads and my email. It’s just honestly a mess and breaks every month or so.” r/weddingPhotography
No Lead Management
After going through a complicated process, after leads are collected, Dubsado doesn’t have anything to nurture those leads. You can’t say which leads you’ve contacted, which ones are eligible to work with.
This is what a current user suggested, “Need tools and features specifically dedicated to building and nurturing client relations.” r/WeddingPhotography
User Interface
Even though Dusado comes with useful features, users don’t find the interface user-friendly. They often get confused.
This is what a redditor had to say, “I hate the user interface. I find it confusing and awkward. I’m hoping that I get used to it, but … so far it’s just annoying.” r/videography
Conclusion
Being the best Dubsado alternative, Agency Handy is the most suitable one for both freelancers, solopreneurs, and small agencies. Considering features, cost per user, and client centric portal features, you can’t go wrong if you need to switch from Dubsado.
FAQs
Is dubsado worth it?
Dubsado is worth it if all you need is to automate client onboarding. But this tool comes with flaws like complicated lead collection process, high cost per user, a bit awkward user interface.
What are the benefits of Dubsado?
Dubsado comes with benefits like automated client onboarding, simple and clean invoice and proposal templates, scheduling meetings, Zapier integration and more.
What is the difference between Agency Handy and Dubsado?
For freelancers, Agency Handy offers more features than Dubsado at a low price point. For agencies, Agency Handy allows adding more internal users, comes with essential tools and features like client portal, lead management, task management, feedback annotation etc at an affordable cost.
Does Dubsado do email marketing?
Through Zapier integration, Dubsado can do email marketing. However, they don’t have any native email marketing tool or reporting feature.
Who uses Dubsado?
Freelancers, solo photographers, and small agencies mostly use Dubsado to automate their client onboarding through collecting leads, sending proposals, creating invoices, etc.
