Dubsado vs Honeybook: which CRM is right for you?
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When I first started my freelance business back in 2015, I was just an ambitious, creative-minded employee looking to create some freedom in my life & career.
I was 28 at the time and I still had 30-40 years of work before hitting retirement. At my then-current 9-5, I had no retirement plan, no savings account, and no benefits, –who was I kidding? Retirement?! Never gonna happen.
The thought dawned on me that if I stayed there, I might have to work until I died, because my federal retirement benefits would be based on the highest amount I made at any job, which at that salary was not going to cut it –then, or in 40+ years.
I decided to DO this freelance thing, and just DID IT. But when I did, I had no idea that processes & client management was even a thing. 😂
None of my college graphic design program was dedicated to teaching how to run a freelance business...
📌 Pin it!
So I was taking every project that landed in my inbox, sending invoices via PayPal and did not have a contract because no one in college or otherwise had ever mentioned that it'd be wise to have one! 🤦🏼♀️
By 2016, I'd figured some of it out from reading blog posts & attending free webinars. Luckily I love to learn, so this was fun new material to soak up and apply! 👩🏼💻
Soon I started using an app for invoicing & sometimes for contracts too. By early/mid 2017, I was taking on even more projects, but the I had, the more features I realized I needed and what I was using just wasn't working.
How do I accept split payments?
How do I remind them of due dates?
Since I worked nights/weekends, how did I hold a boundary on my free time vs freelance hours?
Should I send an email at 9:36pm and allow them to know I was working that late? Did it matter? Could I schedule it to send at a later date/time?
And sooo many more questions. Each answer just led to another question.
If that sounds like you...
Whether it’s end-of-the-year prep for new year’s resolutions 🤓 or prepping for grand plans to be more organized next year 🦸🏻♀️ or just the realization that this year has been a cluster & it’s finally time to DO something about it 😩 it's time to set up a good CRM.
Don’t know what that is? Read all about what a CRM is and why you need one in your business.
As far as CRMs go, I've personally used both Bonsai* and 17Hats before switching to Dubsado in 2017.
Bonsai was great & affordable, but it’s not as robust or customizable as Dubsado; however, they've added a lot of helpful features since I last used it in 2016, but to my knowledge, it still lacks the full suite of features & capabilities that Dubsado currently offers. If you want a simpler UI and a true all-in-one that even includes banking, this is a great starter option!
17Hats was horrendous back in 2015/2016. It was also confusing to use as a CRM newbie and the UI was SOOO ugly back then; it appears they've changed a lot since then, but I can't speak to how it is to actually use because I haven't logged in since I switched.
Spoiler alert! This isn’t an unbiased opinion, …it’s just my opinion and you should know I’m (still) a big fan of Dubs.
As I mentioned in the previous post about using Dubsado AND Quickbooks Online in my business, I’m a long-time Dubsado user but I’d been struggling with CRM options since adding Quickbooks to the mix.
Once I reached a point in my business where Dubsado’s lite accounting features were no longer cutting it, I had to introduce a new system to manage finances.
…But when I did, things got tricky with syncing & redundancies & duplicate entries, not to mention (what felt like) existential questions like ‘where do I invoice vs send proposals now?’ ‘Is Dubsado even worth having now?’ (Hint: yes!)
If that’s where you’re at, then stop right now and click over to that Dubs vs QBO post, so you can crawl out of that hell hole.
Not you? That’s okay! Moving on.
So while I was floundering around trying to decide what to do about my CRM and my accounting softwares… I also researched Honeybook, wondering if it’d work better with my new changes.
Back in 2017, I’d researched Honeybook too, before deciding on Dubsado. In 2017:
the price difference between the two was big, with Honeybook costing almost double what Dubsado charged per month.
I’d also ‘heard tell,’ as “they” say in the South, that client-interaction with Honeybook could be confusing because emails from the service provider using Honeybook were not white-labeled and so they had Honeybook’s branding. Not sure why that’d be confusing; it’s obviously just a tool being used by the service provider, but people said it was & that’s all that mattered to me.
HB did seem more modern and user-friendly
HB had a better UI design than Dubsado, but…
Dubsado had more features in the end, with more features coming down the pipeline +plus it was more affordable & so that’s what I went with.
I didn’t question my Dubsado choice again until 2021, when QBO entered the stage.
In a frustrated huff, I’d decided maybe it was time to research Honeybook again? So I did!
Now, TBH I did not create a free HB trial and actually get in there to poke around for myself, mostly because:
their free trial is extremely time-limited and I didn’t want to be stuck paying for a month by accident if I didn’t end up liking it.
I really wanted to know what OTHER people were saying about using HB now vs what I’d seen/heard back in 2017.
I also didn’t want (or have the time) to spend on setting up a similar system to what I have in Dubsado, in HB just for testing purposes, especially on such a short free trial.
So, I started by doing what any other lazy entrepreneur does when they begin researching apps they’ve never used before: watching videos on YouTube of other people’s experiences.
I did make sure these videos were made within the last year or close to that, because let’s face it, technology moves fast & anything older than 6-12 months could easily be out of date, depending on the company.
Here’s what I found:
Honeybook vs Dubsado:
the pros and cons
3 holy-shit-I-didn’t-know-that dealbreakers for me & Honeybook
❶ A SHARED, COLLABORATIVE DATABASE
Sounds good, right? Usually, it would be. In this case? Not so much.
They have some sort of mass-shared client system for all vendors using Honeybook, so any other service provider that also uses Honeybook to work with your client too, even in another industry & via another project, can see each other’s projects in a list associated with their client.
🤯
And here’s the kicker: to top off this collaborative effort, these other service providers somehow also (unbeknownst to them) have the ability to archive your project if they think it's an error, not realizing it's just not their project!
I watched a few YouTube videos, one in particular,* which covered this well, that all mentioned actually seeing other providers’ projects in relation to their client so that much does happen. Though it seems rare for someone to archive a project that isn’t theirs (despite not recognizing it & may be wondering why it’s there)…
But the fact that it could happen was a hands-down, –batshit CRAZY– glaringly absurd issue for me; I don’t care how rare it may be.
This is a HUGE oversight for Honeybook; if they’re going to continue the mass-shared database structure for projects across their platform, then they also need to give service providers permissions control to maintain the security & privacy of their projects in that collaborative space.
*(Source: skip to 4:15 time-stamp: https://youtu.be/RCWp9i4Hodc?si=Gn4SRL7B3qvqc7Yc&t=256)
❷ FEWER AUTOMATION FEATURES & CAPABILITIES
Their automation/workflow options are not anywhere near as customizable or comprehensive as the Dubs.
In Dubsado you can apply a single automation/workflow to a project or 20, and within each you have a long list of available tasks that can be automated, potentially allowing you to run your business even more efficiently and save even more of your time by not having so much admin work to do per client.
Workflows in either can help you make SURE you never miss a step in that long (& maybe complicated) process you go through with each client, so having a good set of options is VERY important.
❸ FORMS AREN’T AS CUSTOMIZABLE
You can do more & create more, with near free-reign, in Dubsado’s forms.
Forms in Honeybook are divided into 6 types:
Invoices, Contracts, Proposals, Brochures, Questionnaires, and Timelines.
While that is a robust list, and offers a couple additional options that are different than Dubsado (Brochures & Timelines), each form is nowhere near as customizable as it would be in Dubsado.
On the one hand, the lack of this customization can make setup & editing much simpler/quicker, but on the other it’s limiting if you’re wanting to achieve something creative or specific to your processes and how you work best or how your clients want to see the information, which can vary wildly between industries.
Forms in Dubsado are divided into 5 types:
Contracts, Sub-Agreements, Questionnaires, Proposals, and Lead Captures.
(Dubsado doesn’t count Invoices in this list, as a “form.”)
One big thing working in our favor here is that there are TWO types of forms with legally binding signatures: contracts and sub-agreements. The contract is the main legal document in the project (and there can only be one contract in a single project), but multiple sub-agreements can be added to handle other things in the project that you’d want a signature on, like rescheduling agreements, cancellations, proof approvals, and more.
Proposals can provide a financial tally at the bottom totaling the options selected, visually link to the contract, and generate an invoice (if you want it to). All 3 (proposal, contract & invoice) can be sent in a single link, manually, or with a workflow automation (which seems similar to Honeybook).
ALL forms in Dubsado can be HEAVILY customized, with code, with various click-and-drag block types to add text, images, file uploaders, form fields, and more. It can look like an invoice, a website, or a brochure, depending on how savvy you are. There are even several shops that sell design templates specifically for Dubsado forms too, so if you want something heavily branded, pretty & unique, but still functional, you can definitely achieve it.
Read more: How to install custom fonts in your Dubsado forms
For basically the same price now, those 3 dealbreakers made my decision easy: I wanted to stay with Dubsado.
What are the pros & cons for Dubsado? Let’s start with the cons, because there aren’t many, and we’ll end on a high note with the pros!
Dubsado’s cons
❶ Unlike Honeybook, it doesn't have an app (yet) & that doesn't seem to be something on the immediate roadmap, though it is on the ‘planned’ but not active list. However, their entire site is responsive so it can still be used pretty easily on any device. I have a bookmark to it on my iPhone for quick access which feels a lot like an app, just without the push notifications (& I’m just sayin’ how many push notifications would I want anyway? I have enough already… 😂)
❷ Honeybook’s UI is a little more user-friendly & is definitely 'prettier' than Dubsado’s. Dubs’ is clean and clear though, which makes it simple to learn & navigate once you know where everything is; main menu items are always on the left & easy to get to. You can also customize a bit of the dashboard & the accent colors, which I appreciate!
❸ Because Dubsado is SO robust, it can definitely feel overwhelming at first, –if you let it. If that’s you & you feel overwhelmed & ready to jump ship, reach out!
There’s a whole community of support, in their free Facebook group
You have access to tons of education in their Dubsado university portal with courses for every user level (more on that in pro #3, below),
Their awesome support staffers are always there to answer any question you may have, no matter how “stupid” you think it is.
Also remember: you don’t have to build your Dubsado account from top-to-bottom right away! Just use it for what works for you right now, and build the rest as you need it, and get more comfortable with it! That’s the beauty of how Dubs works.
❹ Dubsado (nor Honeybook) is not a Project Management app, and even though Dubs has a lite task manager built-in, it’s probably not going to offer the features you need in order to manage large projects. That means you will ALSO NEED a PM tool, but the good news is that most of those offer free plans, so this extra app doesn’t have to cost anything extra.
What PM tool is right for you? That’s a whole other can of worms, but you can read an overview for some of the most popular Project Management apps
Which PM tool do I use in my business? Notion!! I’m obsessed, and if you try it, you might be too.
Dubsado’s pros
❶ You get locked into whatever rate you sign up at. I signed up in 2017 at $20/mo, so I still pay $200/yr. As I assume their pricing will continue to increase, this is a huge perk!
❷ They are releasing new features, updates, and functionality expansions ALL the time (literally), and have an expansive road map of things still in the works or planned in the future to add to their already robust current feature list.
❸ Support is super helpful, responds quickly, and they offer a lot of free setup support + they also have a Dubsado university type thing, where they educate on how to use the software which is free for anyone with a Dubsado account.
❹ It's a very robust platform, but most of its features aren't mandatory to use if they aren’t applicable for you (yet). It’s likely to scale well with your business growth (ie: use the basics until you need the rest and set up as you need them).
❺ Again, it's SO customizable! With 5 form types: contracts, sub-agreements, questionnaires, proposals, and lead captures, you have everything you need to manage client scheduling, onboarding & offboarding. Contracts & sub-agreements are both legally e-signable. Proposals can (but don't have to) generate an invoice so they can look like a simple Estimate, or a brochure-slash-order form for custom work requests, Questionnaires are great for long-form surveys or feedback forms to send clients, and of course, lead capture forms can be embedded on your website as the contact form. All of those forms can be customized with code, or with images –in other words, they don't have to look boring and can be heavily branded and customized to match your company.
❻ It has a lot built-in: from scheduling to invoicing, to time-tracking, to contracts with legally binding signatures, to proposals/estimates, to email, to client portals, lite accounting & task management. It even syncs with your Calendar (Google, Apple, etc).
❼ They have a great affiliate program! When you sign up you automatically get an affiliate link and you can decide what your "code" will be, right in your Settings inside your account. When you share it and someone signs up for a paid account, you get a free month. I have a few blog posts sharing my affiliate code & link, and even though I don't push signups all the time, I still get enough ‘payouts’ that I rarely ever pay for a full year of Dubsado, it's even been totally free.
❽ You can white-label everything, which means your client doesn't have to know you're even using Dubsado. Your share-links can be white-labeled to be a subdomain of whatever your custom domain is (ex mine is: my.launchthedamnthing.com/.......). All the forms can be branded pretty well, especially with custom fonts installed. It links up with Google Workspace email pretty simply so even the emails sent from within Dubsado are from my own hi@launch... email address.
