Dubsado vs. 17Hats - Which CRM is the best for your business?
The fact of the matter is that all service-based businesses need a CRM, which stands for Client Relationship Manager. It’s impossible to do it all in your head or, even though you may think you have it down pat, old-fashioned with a paper and pen. Having a CRM software means that you have a digital database for all the things pertaining to your clients, both prospective and signed.
CRMs offer an easier and more streamlined approach to sending contracts, proposals, forms, invoices, and other documents, all the while maintaining a consistently branded and professional image.
The thing about CRMs is that there are a lot of them, and it can make choosing the right one a very difficult decision. Three of the main top dogs in the CRM game right now are Dubsado, 17Hats, and Honeybook. Even though we’re hardcore Dubsado lovers, we believe in fair game for all, so to help you decide if it’s the best CRM for your business, we’ll be comparing it to 17Hats today and Honeybook next week.
Let’s dive in, shall we?
Dubsado vs. 17Hats Free Trial
A huge factor we look at before investing in any platform is the free trial that’s offered. With Dubsado, your first 3 clients are free, meaning there are no time constraints on your trial. However long it takes you to book 3 clients is how long you have until needing to upgrade to a paid plan. You also aren’t required to enter any payment information until it comes time to upgrade!
17Hats doesn’t currently offer a free trial of their full platform, although they do have The Free CRM, which gives you basic Contact and Project features and the ability to send invoices. They also offer a 30-day money back guarantee on their full pricing, so that you can receive a refund if you don’t like the platform.
For this part of the comparison, Dubsado is the winner for us.
Dubsado vs. 17Hats Pricing
Pricing between these platforms is very similar. Here’s 17Hats’ pricing tier for their full platform (not including their plans, which we’ll talk about later):
And this is Dubsado’s pricing:
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Although 17Hats’ monthly pricing costs more than Dubsado’s, their annual pricing allows you to save 30% more per month than you would with Dubsado’s annual plan. 17Hats also offers a two year plan for only $45 more than Dubsado’s annual plan, which equates to a 63% saving per month.
For this part of the comparison, even though their monthly pricing is a bit more, 17Hats offers the best savings on their annual plans, so we give the win to them on this one.
REFERRAL INCENTIVES
Since this is a part of pricing, let’s talk about their referral incentives. For a standard Dubsado user, people that sign up with your referral link will receive 20% off their first month or year, and you’ll receive another free month added to your plan for each person who signs up. However, when you sign up with our link, you receive 30% off your first month or year, knocking the price down to $17 your first month or only $150 your first year.
17Hats offers what they call a 50/50 deal. When someone signs up with your referral link, you receive a $50 Amazon gift card, and they receive up to 50% off an annual membership when they purchase one year and get one free for $300.
Both incentives are awesome for the referee, although the person who uses your referral link will find the cheaper deal with Dubsado’s incentive. However, the differences between the two are a personal preference, so while Dubsado wins us over on this part, you might find 17Hats’ incentive more appealing!
Dubsado vs. 17Hats Plans
17Hats has three levels of plans that you can choose from and pricing varies. You can learn more about those plans here where it gives a full breakdown of the features that are included and not included with each one. These plans could be a great option if you only want the features that you really need versus having access to all of the more robust features.
Dubsado has no plan tiers at all, so there are no features that are limited depending on how much you pay. Their standard monthly and annual pricing is the same, and you get access to all of the features they have to offer.
So for this part of the comparison, we give the win to Dubsado for not placing any limits on what features are available to their users.
Dubsado vs. 17Hats Interface
Their interfaces upon first glance are actually pretty similar.
In our opinion, Dubsado’s interface is more appealing to the eye, and the bolder colors help with finding things. Both platforms also offer a client portal that work very similarly in the sense that clients can pay invoices, complete forms, sign contracts, etc. One of the main differences we’ve found is that 17Hats does offer more native integration options outside of Zapier and Quickbooks.
Dubsado also has functions that 17Hats doesn’t, like:
Custom domain URLs
Task boards
Client file uploader
Upsells in proposals
Public company roadmap
Workflow overview
For this part of the comparison, we don’t really have a clear winner! Of course, we prefer Dubsado’s aesthetic and functionalities over 17Hats, but the similarities are so close that it’s more a matter of personal preference.
AND THE WINNER IS..
We’re going to have to go with Dubsado for this one! The unlimited features, referral incentives, interface, and free trial win us over every time. All in all, though, we do think it’s important for you to try these platforms out for yourself so that you can decide the final answer for yourself as to which is the best CRM for your business.
Stay tuned for next week’s blog post where we’ll be comparing Dubsado vs. Honeybook! If you want to learn more about Dubsado, you can do so right here.
