Both of these tools sell the same promise: one login for your leads, contracts, invoices and follow-up, instead of five apps taped together. On the pricing pages they look like a coin flip. Dubsado Premier is $525 a year, 17hats is $600. Case closed?
Not quite, because the cheaper Dubsado plan, Starter at $335 a year, doesn’t automate anything. Its pricing page leaves Flows, the scheduler and public proposals to Premier. And 17hats’ $600 is a starting point, since several features you would assume are standard are metered add-ons.
So this comparison ignores headline prices and asks a narrower question: what does each platform cost, per year, at the point where it actually automates your business? I read both pricing pages on 30 October 2026 (Dubsado’s pricing page and 17hats’ pricing page) and every figure below comes from them or from simple arithmetic on them. Where a page didn’t state something, I left it out.
What each one costs, as of 30 October 2026
17hats sells a single all-inclusive plan with three ways to pay. Dubsado sells two tiers, Starter and Premier, and its page lists annual prices only (it mentions two months of savings for paying annually but shows no monthly rate, so I won’t quote one).
| Plan | Price | Per year | Automation included? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dubsado Starter | $335/yr | $335 | No: no Flows, no scheduler, no public proposals |
| Dubsado Premier | $525/yr | $525 | Yes: Flows, scheduler, Zapier, bookkeeping integration |
| 17hats, monthly | $60/mo | $720 | Yes, all features on one plan |
| 17hats, yearly | $600/yr | $600 | Yes |
| 17hats, two-year prepay | $800 per two years | $400 | Yes |
Read the last row twice. Prepaid over two years, 17hats works out to $400 a year, the cheapest automating plan on this page and $125 a year less than Dubsado Premier. 17hats’ page also advertises 50% off the first year if you skip the trial and buy now ($300 for yearly, $400 for the two-year plan). That is a promotion with no dates or terms shown, so treat it as a bonus, not a plan.
Dubsado Starter is not the plan you think you’re buying
This is the mistake the pricing page does least to prevent. Starter gives you unlimited projects and clients, invoicing and payment plans, contracts and form and email templates, client portals, calendar and email connections and the mobile app. That is a complete client-admin system.
What it does not give you:
- Flows, Dubsado’s automated workflows. Premier only.
- Scheduling. No built-in scheduler, so you pay for a separate one on top. Our roundup of scheduling tools for freelancers covers the free options, but it is still another login.
- Public proposals, the shareable pick-your-package page most people picture when they hear “proposal software”.
- More than one active lead-capture form, a hard ceiling if you sell two different services. Premier is unlimited.
- Zapier and the bookkeeping integration.
If your bottleneck is that you keep forgetting the follow-up, Starter does not fix it. Starter fixes “my paperwork is scattered”. Those are different problems with a $190-a-year gap between them.
What 17hats charges extra for
17hats’ one-plan pitch is simpler, but “one plan” is not “one price”. Its pricing page lists these as separate monthly add-ons:
- Bank connection, basic online scheduling, time tracking and QuickBooks Online: $5 a month each.
- Advanced online scheduling and recurring billing: $10 a month each.
- Users beyond the 3 included: $5 a month each. Brands beyond the 2 included: $10 a month each.
Here is what that does to the comparison. At list, the yearly plan ($600) already costs $75 a year more than Dubsado Premier. Add one $5 module and the gap is $135 a year. If you bill retainers and book calls, recurring billing ($10) plus basic scheduling ($5) adds $180 a year, and 17hats lands at $780 against Dubsado Premier’s $525, which already includes a scheduler and Flows.
Dubsado charges for growth too: additional brands are $10 a month each, and the user tiers go from free for a few extra seats to $25 a month for 4-10 users. Neither is a solo problem. But if you run two business names out of one account, check how many brands each plan includes before you assume either price.
The three-year math nobody runs
Software comparisons almost always stop at the monthly number. Since both companies discount for paying ahead, here is what each option costs over one and three years. The figures are my own arithmetic on the published prices above, assuming no price change and, for 17hats’ two-year option, one yearly renewal in year three.
| Option | Year 1 | 3-year total | Effective per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dubsado Starter, annual | $335 | $1,005 | about $28 |
| Dubsado Premier, annual | $525 | $1,575 | about $44 |
| 17hats, monthly | $720 | $2,160 | $60 |
| 17hats, yearly | $600 | $1,800 | $50 |
| 17hats, two-year prepay, then yearly | $400 (averaged) | $1,400 | about $39 |
Three things fall out of that table. First, Dubsado Premier undercuts 17hats’ yearly plan by $225 over three years, so the headline gap is real. Second, 17hats’ two-year prepay flips it: $1,400 is $175 less than Premier. Third, and least intuitive, Dubsado Starter costs $1,005 over three years and still hasn’t automated a single thing.
The two-year prepay is also the riskiest line in the table. $800 up front on a tool you have used for a week is a bet, not a bargain. Take it in year two, not year one.
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Intake and forms: where Dubsado earns Premier
Dubsado’s reputation rests on letting you build a genuinely structured intake process: forms, Flows that fire on a trigger and chain actions together, and an unlimited number of lead-capture forms on Premier. If your sales process is “lead fills in a form, gets the right proposal, signs, pays a deposit, gets an onboarding packet”, Premier is built for exactly that chain.
The cost of that power is setup time. Expect to spend a weekend building it, not an evening. We go through the head-to-heads against its closest rivals in Dubsado vs HoneyBook and the wider best proposal software for freelancers roundup.
One caveat on Starter: because public proposals are Premier-only, a Starter user who wants a proper package-selection page needs standalone proposal software alongside it, which usually costs more than the $190 upgrade to Premier would have.
Daily admin, and the case for 17hats
17hats is less ambitious and more finished. Everything is switched on from day one under one plan, so there is no tier-shopping and no discovering mid-project that the feature you need is one plan up (with the exception of those add-on modules). For a freelancer whose sales process is “someone emails me, I send a quote, they say yes”, that simplicity is the point: contracts, invoices, a client portal and a follow-up sequence you set up once.
It is also the easier tool to hand over. If you eventually bring in a VA, “follow the workflow” is a short training. A branching Flow architecture is not.
Trials, guarantees and lock-in
The trials are structured differently, and this is where the old advice on both tools needs an update. Dubsado’s trial is 21 days of full Premier access with no credit card required, which is long enough to take one real client from enquiry to final invoice. 17hats gives you 7 days with all features and support, says you can restart the trial once it ends, and backs the paid plans with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Practical advice: start either trial only when you have a live enquiry to push through it. A week spent poking at a demo account tells you nothing about whether the workflow fits your business.
On lock-in, neither pricing page says what you can export. Before you commit, ask each company’s support what leaves with you, and assume your templates, forms and automation logic do not. That rebuild is the strongest argument for testing properly and not prepaying two years on either tool.
Who should buy which
Buy Dubsado Premier if…
Your intake is the bottleneck. You sell more than one service, you want the form, proposal, contract and deposit to fire as a chain, and you will spend a weekend building it. At $525 a year it is the most capable automation on this page for the money, and the 21-day trial lets you prove it works first.
Buy 17hats if…
You want one plan with everything on and no tier anxiety, and you don’t need the metered modules. $600 a year at list, or $400 a year equivalent if you prepay two years once you are sure. It suits anyone who will eventually delegate the admin.
Consider Dubsado Starter if…
Your problem is filing, not follow-up. Contracts, invoices, payment plans and a client portal for $335 a year is a fair deal, as long as you know you are buying a system of record, not an assistant, and you have a separate scheduler.
Skip both if…
You have three or four long-running retainer clients and no real intake funnel. A client-relationship platform (the category Wikipedia calls CRM) with an automation engine is overhead you will pay for and never use. A lighter setup, such as an open-source invoicing tool (see our Invoice Ninja review) plus a contract app, may be all you need. Our guides to invoicing software and the best CRM for freelancers cover those setups.
More head-to-heads and reviews in this silo are on our proposals, contracts and CRM category page.
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Frequently asked questions
Is 17hats cheaper than Dubsado?
Not at list price on the yearly plans. 17hats is $600 a year against $525 for Dubsado Premier, so Dubsado is $75 a year cheaper. 17hats only wins on its two-year prepay ($800, or $400 a year) or on its first-year sale. Dubsado Starter at $335 a year is cheapest overall, but it has no automation.
Does Dubsado’s Starter plan include workflows?
No. According to Dubsado’s pricing page, Flows (its automated workflows), the scheduler, public proposals, Zapier and the bookkeeping integration are Premier-only, and Starter allows one active lead-capture form. If automation is the reason you are buying, Premier at $525 a year is the entry price.
Which one has the better free trial?
Dubsado’s is longer and easier to judge: 21 days of full Premier access, no credit card required. 17hats gives you 7 days, and its page says you can restart the trial once it ends, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee. Either way, start the clock only when you have a live enquiry to run through it.
Are there extra costs on top of the plan?
On 17hats, yes: bank connection, basic scheduling, time tracking and QuickBooks Online are $5 a month each, advanced scheduling and recurring billing are $10 each, and extra users and brands cost more. On Dubsado, extra brands are $10 a month and the 4-10 user tier is $25 a month.
Can I move my data from one to the other?
Neither pricing page says what exports, so ask support before you commit. Assume your templates, forms and automation logic have to be rebuilt by hand in the new tool, and avoid long prepayments until you have run a real client through it.
Prices and trial terms checked 30 October 2026 on dubsado.com/pricing and 17hats.com/pricing. Software pricing changes; check the current pages before you buy.