HoneyBook Invoicing Review 2024 (2024)
Our Research
HoneyBook is an all-in-one client platform created for independent business owners. In addition to basic CRM features such as sales pipeline management, you can use HoneyBook as an end-to-end client management tool to handle things including invoices, proposals, contracts, scheduling and more. HoneyBook costs between $16 and $66 per month, billed annually, and is currently offering a 50% discount with a money-back guarantee.
The tool is intuitive and easy to use, good for small and solo business owners. It’s especially well-suited for creative professionals such as graphic designers, photographers and artists thanks to its suite of smart tools for small business management.
HoneyBook Pros & Cons
Pros
- All-in-one client management tool
- Automate custom tasks
- Accept online payments
- Create proposals and contracts
- Customizable sales pipeline
- Intuitive and easy to use
Cons
- No free tier
- Missing some CRM features
- Limited reporting metrics
HoneyBook at a Glance 9.3 Editor Score
Integrations
9.1
Products
9.9
Promotions
7.5
Features
9.9
9.3 Editor Score
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What Is HoneyBook?
- HoneyBook is an end-to-end client management platform for independent business owners and small businesses.
- It’s particularly good for creative professionals who need a flexible client platform to help manage their business while they focus on providing services they love.
- The tool scored 4.0 out of 5 in our rating of the best CRM software, ranking it ninth on our list out of 15 total.
- The tool has three pricing tiers between $16 and $66 per month, paid annually; it is currently offering a 50% discount for annual payments. It also offers monthly payment plans starting at $19 per month, with the first two months starting at $1 each.
- HoneyBook offers an all-in-one client management tool with features including proposals, contracts, online scheduling, invoicing, task automation and third-party integrations.
- HoneyBook has an easy-to-use dashboard that helps independent business owners manage their pipeline, book clients, manage ongoing projects and get paid.
How HoneyBook Works
HoneyBook is an all-in-one client management CRM that offers lead-gen forms to generate leads, a sales pipeline to nurture leads and a host of features to manage the post-sale client relationship. It helps you automate workflows, close deals, manage projects and accept online payments. It even offers customizable templates for things such as invoices and contracts. HoneyBook is an end-to-end client management tool perfect for small businesses with clients.
What Sets HoneyBook Apart
HoneyBook’s client management tools are ultimately what set this CRM apart from its competitors. While some options may provide a wider range of CRM features for salespeople to manage their pipelines, HoneyBook focuses on helping you manage your end-to-end client relationships. This includes lead generation forms and sales pipeline features, but also includes robust proposal, contract and payment management.
HoneyBook is also easy to use with a clean user interface and design when compared to some of its competitors. It also offers favorable pricing starting at $16 per month, paid annually, with as much as a 50% discount. HoneyBook is great if you’re an independent business owner like a creative professional looking for a full-service CRM to help manage your ongoing clients.
HoneyBook Features
HoneyBook’s powerful yet easy-to-use client management features help you manage your client relationships. Its features are particularly useful for independent business owners who need to create proposals, send contracts, schedule online bookings, accept online payments and manage their overall workflow. Let’s take a look at the top HoneyBook features and what makes the tool unique:
Invoices
HoneyBook offers professional invoices you can send to your clients for prompt online payment. The tool’s invoicing software reduces the number of steps for a seamless payment experience and lets you access your funds quickly. Start by creating your invoice with your brand style and payment terms. Then, send for online payment and set follow-up reminders. HoneyBook charges transaction fees starting at 2.9% plus 25 cents per credit card transaction or 1.5% per bank transfer or ACH payment.
Contracts
HoneyBook lets you create, customize and e-sign professional online contracts that protect your client services business. Its digital contracts walk signees through the process and let them sign from any device. Customize legally vetted templates with your brand style, auto-populate client details, send for a signature and track its progress.
Proposals
With HoneyBook, you can combine contracts and payments into a seamless client proposal that outlines your terms, asks for a signature and collects your first payment. You can use one of HoneyBook’s pre-built proposal templates that showcase your brand. If you’d like to send an invoice or contract independently, you can do that as well using the features listed above.
Scheduling
Get a custom scheduling link that syncs with your calendar and lets clients book meetings based on your availability. Select whether you’ll meet in person, over the phone or on a video call. Then, set your meeting duration and availability and add any time buffers before or after meetings. You can even customize the booking page with your brand style for a seamless client experience.
Ease of Use
HoneyBook is intuitive and easy to use with a user-friendly dashboard and bright design. On the front end, it provides a professional experience that makes it easy for clients to sign contracts, schedule meetings and pay invoices. On the back end, it gives users a fully integrated experience, helping them manage all aspects of their client relationships with ease.
Customization
HoneyBook offers a customizable sales pipeline that helps you track client leads. It also offers customizable invoices, contracts and project proposals that you can tailor to your brand. Included with HoneyBook are workflow automations as well as third-party integrations that help you customize the tool for your needs. However, the reporting is somewhat limited with only basic reporting customizations.
Workflows and Automations
Create automated messages and tasks based on specific triggers. For example, you can send automated emails to clients that include questionnaires, marketing materials or a scheduling link. Create tasks based on client behaviors or dates and get reminders as tasks become due. You can even use HoneyBook’s workflow automations to onboard or off-board clients.
Third-Party Integrations
HoneyBook integrates with many of the small business tools you use. In addition to email and calendar sync, you can integrate with third-party tools such as Zoom, QuickBooks, Calendly, Zapier and Meta ads. Create an all-in-one client management experience by linking these tools together so you can work more efficiently.
HoneyBook Pricing & Plans
| Starter | Essentials | Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $16 per month, paid annually (currently offering a 50% discount) | $32 per month, paid annually (currently offering a 50% discount) | $66 per month, paid annually (currently offering a 50% discount) |
| Number of Users | One | Up to two team members | Unlimited team members |
| Free Trial Length | Seven days | Seven days | Seven days |
| Contact Management | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lead Management | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Opportunities Management | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lead Scoring | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Analytics and Reporting | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customizable Workflows | No | Yes | Yes |
| Automations | No | Yes | Yes |
| Team Collaboration | No | Yes | Yes |
| Third-Party Integrations | Two | Seven | Seven |
| Customer Support | Yes | Yes | Priority Support |
Starter
HoneyBook’s Starter tier gives independent business owners everything they need to manage a great overall client experience. Manage your clientflow with unlimited clients and projects, project pipelines, contact forms, online schedulers, time and task tracking, online payments and basic integrations. Take advantage of custom branding across your invoice, contract and proposal templates. Starter begins at $16 per month, paid annually, and is currently offering a 50% discount.
Cost: $16 per month, paid annually (currently offering a 50% discount)
- Unlimited clients and projects
- Create invoices and accept online payments
- Create custom-branded proposals and contracts
- Calendar sync and appointment booking
- Professional templates for invoices, contracts, proposals and more
- Client portal for all of your clients
- Basic client reporting
Essentials
The Essentials tier offers collaboration tools for up to two team members and includes advanced productivity tools. In addition to everything in the Starter tier, it also has robust scheduling, workflow automations and additional third-party integrations for QuickBooks and more. Get access to advanced finance and reporting features such as expense tracking and profit and loss statements. You can even remove the HoneyBook branding for a professional client experience.
Cost: $32 per month, paid annually (currently offering a 50% discount)
- Everything in the Starter tier
- Advanced online scheduler
- Trigger-based workflow automations
- QuickBooks Online and other advanced integrations
- Up to two team members with collaboration features
- Expense management and profit and loss statements
- Remove “Powered by HoneyBook” for company branding
- Standard client reporting
Premium
The Premium tier offers collaboration features for unlimited team members and companies. Get a dedicated onboarding specialist as well as a dedicated account manager with priority support. Pricing starts at $66 per month, paid annually with a 50% discount. This tier is great for growing small businesses that need to scale up over time with priority support help.
Cost: $66 per month, paid annually (currently offering a 50% discount)
- Everything in the Essentials tier
- Unlimited team members and companies
- Get a dedicated onboarding specialist
- Get a dedicated account manager with priority support
- Advanced client reporting
HoneyBook Customer Service and Support
HoneyBook offers live chat help to all of its customers, directing you to helpful resources as well as allowing you to interact with a live agent. It doesn’t offer a customer service phone number to call but does have an expansive knowledge base with training videos and live tutorials. Also offered is a marketplace of certified HoneyBook pros you can hire for setup, brand design, sales, marketing and more. They even have a robust blog with e-books, templates, podcasts and more.
HoneyBook Additional Features Worth Noting
The primary features that set HoneyBook apart from other CRM systems are its client management features for independent business owners. Take advantage of the tool’s proposal, contract and invoicing features that you can customize to fit your brand style. Accept online payments and schedule online bookings using HoneyBook’s calendar integration features. You can even manage your expenses and create robust workflow automations.
HoneyBook Alternatives & How They Compare
| HoneyBook | Zoho CRM | Salesforce CRM | Zendesk Sell | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ratings | ||||
| Starting Price | $16 per month, paid annually (currently offering a 50% discount) | Free | $25 per user per month, paid annually | $19 per user per month, paid annually |
| Number of Users | One to unlimited users | Three to unlimited users | 10 to unlimited users | Unlimited |
| Free Trial Length | Seven days | 15 to 30 days | 30 days | 14 days |
| Contact Management | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lead Management | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Opportunities Management | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lead Scoring | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Analytics and Reporting | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customizable Workflows | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automations | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Team Collaboration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Third-Party Integrations | Seven | Supports many integrations (not specific) | 1,000-plus | Supports many integrations (not specific) |
| Customer Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
HoneyBook vs. Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is a leading sales tool that offers a free tier for up to three users as well as paid tiers starting at $14 per user per month, billed annually. Its paid tiers offer unlimited users, something that HoneyBook only provides in its highest tier. Zoho CRM is more of a traditional CRM when compared to HoneyBook, best for salespeople and sales teams needing to manage their sales pipelines.
Zoho CRM offers advanced custom reporting and workflow automations for email marketing and PPC advertising. You can integrate the tool with unlimited native Zoho integrations and up to 50 third-party marketplace integrations. This is many more than HoneyBook’s seven total integrations, making it great for those needing an advanced sales pipeline tool with robust customizations. Still, HoneyBook offers better client management tools.
HoneyBook vs. Salesforce CRM
Salesforce CRM is a leading enterprise-level sales tool known for its robust automations and reporting. It offers a Starter tier at $25 per user per month, paid annually for up to 10 users. Its paid tiers range from $80 to $330 per user per month, billed annually. This is much more expensive than HoneyBook, but Salesforce CRM offers many advanced features and integrations not offered by HoneyBook.
In addition to core CRM features such as contact, lead and opportunity management, it also offers robust tools including forecast management, advanced sales pipeline management, process automations, custom reporting and a built-in AI. This makes Salesforce CRM a good alternative for larger businesses with sales teams that manage a lot of contacts and leads. That said, for independent business owners who manage ongoing clients, HoneyBook is a better option.
HoneyBook vs. Zendesk Sell
Zendesk Sell is the CRM offered by Zendesk, which also offers an industry-leading customer service help desk. Annual subscriptions for Zendesk Sell start at $19 per user per month, with its highest annual tier starting at $115 per user per month. The tool offers customizable sales pipelines as well as custom sales dashboards, sales forecasting and a price book for your products. It even has an app marketplace for robust integrations.
This makes Zendesk Sell great for businesses that need a customizable solution to manage their sales pipelines as well as support customers with a live help desk. This differs from HoneyBook, which is better for smaller businesses that manage a core group of ongoing clients.
Is HoneyBook Right for Me?
HoneyBook is an all-in-one client management tool that offers features to manage leads and ongoing client relationships. This differs from more traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipeline management. This means that HoneyBook offers key tools such as proposal creation, online invoicing and contract management that are great for those with recurring clients. However, while it offers basic pipeline management and reporting tools, it’s not as robust as other CRM options.
HoneyBook Is Best For:
- Those needing an all-in-one client management and CRM solution
- Independent business owners who send contracts and proposals and collect invoices
- Small businesses that need to manage their ongoing company expenses
- Those looking for an intuitive and easy-to-understand client management tool
- Solo business owners who need to automate client management workflows
- Creative professionals who want to focus on providing services they love
HoneyBook Is Not Recommended For:
- Larger or enterprise-level businesses needing a robust CRM
- Businesses and sales teams that want to manage more complex sales pipelines
- Those needing advanced sales workflow automations
- Salespeople who need robust reporting dashboards
- Those who don’t need to manage ongoing clients
- Businesses that provide a product instead of an ongoing service
Bottom Line
HoneyBook is a powerful business management tool with excellent invoicing features. With it, you can create custom invoices using a selection of pre-designed templates. You can also accept online payments, use automations to streamline workflows, and take advantage of numerous other features.
What’s more, I was particularly impressed by how easy HoneyBook was to use. The user interface is intuitive and self-explanatory, and the mobile apps are great. It’s also a rather affordable option, and I’d recommend taking advantage of the seven-day free trial to give it a go!
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