Running a small business can get overwhelming, especially with those daily tasks that aren’t necessarily difficult, but that take up valuable time. This is where a Customer Relationship Management tool (aka. a CRM), comes in handy. A CRM can help you to organize, manage, and automate those tasks that stack up in client-based businesses. Two popular CRMs that we’re looking at today are 17hats and Dubsado.
What is 17hats?
17hats is a robust CRM tool focusing on project-based businesses, like photographers and event planners. It bundles up client management, sales pipelining, scheduling, bookkeeping and more, all with the goal of helping you to automate the repetitive parts of your business. 17hats is able to do this through numerous templates and automation workflows.
What is Dubsado?
Dubsado is a business management solution catered towards a wide range of small business owners, such as bookkeepers, photographers, and virtual assistants. Dubsado comes with all the right tools, like automations, invoicing, and a client portal, all to make your life easier as a business owner while creating a professional experience for your clients.
17hats vs. Dubsado: How Are They Similar?
Integrations
17hats features a wide range of integrations, like Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, QuickBooks, Zapier, N-Vu, Fundy, ProSelect, ShootProof, The Knot, WeddingWire, Zoom, and over 20,000 banks. All of this helps tremendously to automate tasks and centralize your business into one place.
Dubsado excels in this area as well, integrating with Google, QuickBooks, Xero, and Zapier. Their conferencing integrations are available once you connect a calendar and will automatically include a meeting link from Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, GoToMeeting, and/or 8x8.
Automations
17Hats has robust automations to help complete repetitive tasks. It comes with templates that you can start using immediately, or you can build your own from scratch.
Dubsado comes with automations as well, but takes it one step further through simplicity. Dubsado features a long list of templates, or you can build your own. When building your own, the automation workflow editor seamlessly stitches together each action and presents it in an organized list.
Worldwide Availability
Dubsado and 17hats are both based in the United States, and are both available to customers and their clients worldwide.
Interface
When logging in to a new account with 17hats and Dubsado, the initial homepage feels similar in both. Each one features a dashboard where you see an overview of your business – calendar, revenue, invoices, and tasks. Also, both have a navigation bar on the left side that is easy to read and clear.
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17hats vs. Dubsado: How Are They Different?
Pricing
17hats has 3 tiers for pricing, Essentials, Standard and Premier that range from $15/mo. to $60/mo. The Essentials pricing tier comes with the core features of CRM and invoicing, but does not come with any workflow automations. If you’re looking at 17hats, then you’ll have to upgrade to the Premier tier for those automation workflows and other premium features, like an integration with Zapier.
On the other hand, Dubsado only has 2 tiers for pricing, Starter and Premier that are $20/mo. and $40/mo. respectively. Similar to 17hats, automated workflows are only available as part of the Premier tier.
Multiple User Support
17hats supports multiple users on one account, but only as part of their Premier package.
Dubsado also supports multiple users, but it is much simpler. Dubsado allows you to purchase additional brands and users for a discounted rate so that you can manage multiple businesses or or share accounts easily.
Client Portal
Dubsado’s client portal serves as a place to store all of a client’s information and enable clients to access it as well. Everything like business information, emails, forms, invoices, and project updates can be viewed through the client portal. Dubsado’s client portal is available with all pricing packages, whereas 17hats’ client portal is only available for their premium packages.
Financial Reporting
17hats comes with lots of financial reporting to manage your bookkeeping, expenses, and invoices. Also direct integrations with 20,000+ financial institutions helps to ensure that you get paid on time.
Dubsado has financial reporting too, for things like invoices. But, its reporting is more centered around project reporting and tasks.
What Do They Lack?
Dubsado: Automatic Invoices and Expenses
Dubsado only allows you to manually send invoices and import expenses. If you are processing lots of paperwork, then this could be a problem for you.
17hats: Customizable Templates
17hats does not allow for any customization in its templates. The most you can do is add a logo, but there is not much else to make the templates feel like your own.
Deciding Between Dubsado and 17hats
17hats and Dubsado are both great tools depending on your business’s goals and each engagement is project-based. Strong financial reporting, client portals, and automations are what set these two apart from the rest.
But if you’re running a client-based business and need a CRM that actually helps you manage those client relationships, then check out Practice — client management software for businesses of one. Practice features a client portal with messaging and audio notes, as well as automated workflows, and intuitive payment processing.
You can try Practice out for free for 7 days.
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