Dubsado

Runs a service business's client workflow end to end — lead forms, contracts, invoices, scheduling — with automated follow-up so nothing depends on you remembering.

Money & invoicing Apps

Checked 25 Sep 2026

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What you'd use it for

Chasing a client from first inquiry through signed contract, invoice and payment without manually re-sending the same forms and follow-ups each time.

Send a legally binding contract for e-signature through a client's own branded portal
Turn a signed proposal into an invoice and a payment plan with automatic reminders and autopay
Capture leads through an embedded intake form that feeds straight into the client pipeline
Chain steps so a signed contract fires the next email, invoice or booking link on its own
Track project tasks and basic bookkeeping reporting alongside the client-facing side

The verdict

Dubsado does one job well: it runs the propose-contract-invoice-follow-up sequence for a one-person or small service business, and it does not try to be a general CRM or accounting system. The catch is that the tier most buyers actually need for the reason they came here - workflows that fire the next step on their own - is Premier, not the cheaper Starter plan most searches surface first. Starter is a genuinely useful, organised client database with real contracts and invoicing, but it will not stop you forgetting to follow up, which for many buyers is the whole point. Pay for Premier from the start if automation is why you are here; anything less and you are still doing the chasing yourself.

What it costs

Tier	Price	For	Includes
Starter	$335/year	A solo service provider handling their own client pipeline.	Email integration, unlimited projects and clients, invoicing and payment plans, form and email templates, client portals, calendar connection, mobile app access, 1 active lead-capture form.
Premier	$525/year	A business ready to automate the handoffs between lead, booking and invoice.	Everything in Starter, plus bookkeeping integration, scheduling, automated workflows, public proposals, Zapier integration, unlimited active lead-capture forms.

Read from Dubsado's own pricing page on 25 Sep 2026. Vendors change prices without notice.

What you need to start

A payment processor account (Stripe, Square or PayPal) to accept payments through invoices
An email account to connect for client communications
The Premier plan rather than Starter, if automated workflows are the reason you are buying it

Fifteen to twenty minutes to plan your client process and connect email and payment accounts gets the account itself running; independent setup guides put a fully configured account, templates included, together in under three hours.

Your first run The first concrete result is a client receiving a branded proposal, contract and invoice as one package through their own portal, reachable in the same sitting you connect your email and payment processor and build one template, per Dubsado's own getting-started guide.

Where it breaks

Both tiers are billed annually only, with add-on pricing for extra brands ($10/month each) and extra users (from $25/month for 4–10 users up to $60/month for 21–30) — a team beyond the base seat count should price the add-ons in before comparing this to a per-seat competitor.

Browser-based, with a 21-day free trial on full Premier features and no credit card required to start.

First entry in this reference. There is no previous check to compare it against.

When not to use it

Not for a business already running a general CRM or accounting system it is happy with, since Dubsado replaces the client workflow rather than sitting alongside a fuller platform doing the same job twice. Also not for anyone unwilling to commit to annual billing, as there is no monthly plan, or a growing team where per-seat add-on costs (from $25/month for 4-10 users) change the maths against a per-seat competitor.

Dubsado’s audience is specific and the product is built tightly around it: photographers, coaches and other one-person or small-team service businesses that run the same client sequence repeatedly — inquiry, proposal, contract, invoice, follow-up — and want that sequence automated rather than manually chased through email every time.

The gap between the two tiers is really the gap between “record-keeping” and “automation.” Starter gives you unlimited clients and projects with invoicing and portals, but the workflows that actually fire on their own — a contract triggering an invoice, a signed proposal triggering a scheduling link — live behind Premier. For a business whose actual pain point is forgetting to follow up, Premier is the tier that solves it; Starter is closer to a well-organised client database.

What Premier actually adds

Automated workflows — the sequencing that turns “step 2 happened” into “step 3 sends itself,” which is the core promise of the category.
Bookkeeping and Zapier integration, connecting Dubsado’s invoicing to accounting and to everything else in a business’s stack.
Unlimited lead-capture forms, versus Starter’s single form — relevant the moment you are running more than one intake channel.

Where it fits

This sits in the same category as HoneyBook and other client-workflow tools built for solo service providers rather than larger sales teams — the comparison worth making before buying is feature-for-feature against those, not against a general CRM, since Dubsado is purpose-built for the propose-contract-invoice sequence and not much else.

Alternatives

Money & invoicingAgents

HoneyBook

Proposals, contracts, invoices and payments in one client-management system built for independent service businesses, with AI drafting each document.

Checked 25 Sep 2026

Money & invoicingAgents

Bonsai

Contracts, proposals, invoices and basic tax tracking for freelancers in one place, with AI drafting the first version of each document from a short brief.

Checked 25 Sep 2026