Dubsado vs. HoneyBook - The Best CRM for Creatives
We’re back with the second (and final) post in this comparison game between the three top CRMs in the game: Dubsado, 17Hats, and HoneyBook! Last week, we compared Dubsado vs. 17Hats. If you want to find out who our personal winner was, head here to check out that blog post.
Today, we’ll be diving into Dubsado vs. HoneyBook, so you can make an informed decision about which platform would be the best CRM for your business. Let’s get started!
Dubsado vs. HoneyBook Free Trial
We know how important free trials are for every software out there, so we definitely want to make sure we cover this aspect of the comparison. Neither Dubsado or HoneyBook require a credit card to start your free trial, which is a huge plus in our eyes! The main difference is that HoneyBook offers a 7-day trial where Dubsado offers your first 3 clients for free, so there’s no time limit.
While we’re all for timed trials, when it comes to service-based businesses using a CRM, we don’t think 7 days is nearly enough time to really try out the platform in terms of booking clients. We’re positive that some of you are client-booking badasses, but for newer business owners who may still be getting their processes set up, 7 days may not be long enough to book your first client and make sure you really like the software before paying.
When it comes to the free trial, Dubsado definitely wins!
Dubsado vs. HoneyBook Pricing
Dubsado and HoneyBook’s pricing is very similar. Here’s Dubsado’s pricing:
And this is HoneyBook’s pricing:
They both go by the same sort of “style” of pricing you could say. Dubsado is $35 monthly and $350 annually, and HoneyBook is $39 monthly and $390 annually. This means that both Dubsado’s and HoneyBook’s annual pricing equals a little over 16% savings versus their monthly plan.
However, we think that one interesting thing Honeybook does, as you can see above, is that they offer a starter plan for only $9 per month. You still get access to all of the features they have to offer, only you’re limited to $10k in total transactions, and you only receive up to 6 months of concierge support. We do think those limits are totally fair given how inexpensive the price is, though.
So, technically, even though HoneyBook’s free trial is only 7 days long, you still have an awesome and very inexpensive transition period before paying for the full program. Plus, we think 6 months of concierge support is long enough to really get settled into the platform before upgrading.
As for Dubsado, their starter plan is $20 per month without access to all features, however as a beginner, you would find plenty use with what features the start plan gives you without all of the advanced tools like scheduling, workflows, Zapier integration, etc. So for beginners, we think the starter plan is fair.
It’s super hard to choose a winner here! Although HoneyBook has a cheap starter plan, you don’t have to pay at all for however long it takes you to get settled into Dubsado and need to book a fourth client, plus you still have access to their support with no time limit. For this reason, we think we’ll go with Dubsado as the winner, but know that it was a very close win.
REFERRAL INCENTIVES
Referral incentives are technically a part of pricing, so we’ll cover them here! 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 $28 your first month or only $280 your first year.
HoneyBook’s referral program is a bit more complicated. From what we’ve read at the time of this blog post, it goes like this:
For each referred customer that purchases an annual plan and stays for 60 days, or that purchases a monthly plan and stays for 12 months, you’ll receive either $25 if they purchase the Starter Plan or $100 if they purchase the Unlimited Plan (We’ll dive into the plans next)
If you’ve transacted $2,000 or more with Clients or Vendors, HoneyBook will raise that referral payment to $50 for Starter Plan purchases or $200 for Unlimited Plan purchases
You’re limited to a total of $10,000 in payouts unless HoneyBook enrolls you in their Educator program
While HoneyBook gives you the opportunity to pocket some cash, its terms can be a bit confusing. We prefer the simplicity of Dubsado’s referral program (and we didn’t have to go hunt down the Terms & Conditions for it), so we’re going to dub them the winner of this part of the comparison.
Dubsado vs. HoneyBook Plans
We touched on this a bit above, but HoneyBook has three plans: Starter, Unlimited Monthly, and Unlimited Annual. Their monthly and annual plans have the exact same access to all of the features, and we went over the starter plan in the pricing section of this post.
Once again, they’re both very similar when it comes to this aspect as well because Dubasdo also allows you to have full access to all of the features whether you pay monthly or annually. In this way, they tie! There’s no clear winner here.
Dubsado vs. HoneyBook Interface
Let’s just start off by saying that Dubsado and HoneyBook’s features are scarily similar. Both platforms have:
Project statuses
Form templates
Workflows
Calendar with the ability to integrate with Google Calendar
Scheduling
Tasks
Time tracker
Simple bookkeeping tools
Canned emails
Client portal
Custom domain URL
3-step proposal/contract/invoice sending
As far as the interface goes, they’re both unique in their own ways. Dubsado’s bold colors can be helpful for visual learners, while HoneyBook is a bit more muted. However, they’re both just as easy to navigate.
They do still have their differences, though, and here are just a few we noticed right off the bat:
FORMS
Dubsado has a drag-and-drop builder that you can use in all of your forms to add images, text, questions, dropdown menus, a file uploader, code blocks, and more. This allows you to make your forms really branded and, well, pretty.
The length of HoneyBook’s form customization depends on the type of form you’re creating. With proposals, you’re only able to customize the proposal cover photo, line items included in their package, the invoice payment schedule, and the contract. They also have a template for what they call “brochures”, which are the most versatile and customizable form option. With these, you’re able to basically build whatever type of document/form you want. However, your section options are limited to text, images, and questions.
PROJECTS
This is one of the most distinct differences between Dubsado and HoneyBook in our opinion. In HoneyBook, there’s an Activity tab that acts sort of like a newsfeed in a way that shares activity between you and the client. It shows emails that you’ve sent and that the client has sent, as well as when a form was sent, invoice was paid, contract was signed, etc.
In Dubsado, you’re able to see all email threads and send/receive them, then in a separate “Forms” tab you can view all forms and when they were sent. HoneyBook also has this option, but we really like that news feed-like feature of the Projects page.
TASKS
Both Dubsado and HoneyBook have a page to view and create tasks, but we really enjoy Dubsado’s task boards capability. You’re also able to share tasks with your clients in Dubsado so that they can either just view the progress of a project from their portal whenever they please, or you can assign tasks to them to complete.
CLIENT PORTAL
Both of their client portals have very similar features and capabilities, the two main differences being that clients can upload files directly inside their client portal, and they can also respond to messages. Although clients in Dubsado can view files in their portal, they can’t upload. They can also view emails between the two of you, but they can’t send any from their portal.
You do have more customization options for the client portal in Dubsado, though. You’re able to display or hide your logo, add a mobile and desktop banner image, display or hide a custom welcome message. If you don’t want to upload a banner image, you’re also able to change and edit it to a solid color, and change your tab colors. Dubsado also provides code for you to embed the portal on a page of your website.
And the Winner Is…
OK, this was the absolute closest win ever. If you read our comparison between Dubsado and 17Hats, we originally said that was close, too, but this is even closer. There are many things to consider, but all in all, we’ve got to give it to Dubsado. They have more features available that we care about, like the overall customization of your client experience.
If you want to take Dubsado for a test run to see if you like it, head here to learn more about the software and save 30% on your first month or year!
