HoneyBook is a fine client-management tool for a solo creative. People start looking for an alternative when the price climbs, when a team outgrows it, or — most often for venues — when they realize it manages the client and stops dead at the contract, leaving the actual event in spreadsheets. Here's an honest shortlist, with what each one costs and who it genuinely fits.
Prices verified July 2026. Every figure links to the source on each tool's own comparison page.
If you're leaving HoneyBook, the real question is whether your work ends at the signed contract or starts there. A solo photographer may just want a cheaper, leaner CRM. A venue or caterer wants the operational half HoneyBook never had — and payments landing in its own account.
HoneyBook and Runshow cost about the same and answer different questions. HoneyBook manages a client relationship; Runshow manages a client relationship and the event. If your work ends when the contract is signed, HoneyBook is enough. If your work starts there — a BEO, a run sheet, guest counts, rooming, vendor COIs — HoneyBook has none of it, and the spreadsheets you keep alongside it are the actual cost.
The rest of the field, honestly — what each is, who it fits, and what it starts at. No tool is right for everyone.
Dubsado is a client-management and CRM platform for creative freelancers and small service businesses — a leaner, more customizable alternative to HoneyBook.
Best for: A solo creative or planner who wants deep, hand-built workflows and forms at a low flat price and doesn't mind a steeper learning curve.
Runshow vs Dubsado →GoHighLevel is a white-label marketing and CRM platform built for agencies to resell to their clients.
Best for: A marketing agency running campaigns for many businesses at once. Venues usually meet it because an agency set it up for them, or because a course sold them a template.
Runshow vs GoHighLevel →Perfect Venue is event management software built for venues and restaurants — leads, proposals, BEOs and payments for private events.
Best for: A restaurant or hotel selling private dining and corporate events, where the same room turns over several times a week and the food and beverage minimum is the product.
Runshow vs Perfect Venue →Planning Pod is event and venue management software covering bookings, BEOs, floor plans and payments.
Best for: Event planners and venues that want a broad operational toolset and are comfortable with a denser interface.
Runshow vs Planning Pod →Aisle Planner is wedding-planning software built for professional planners — timelines, checklists, design boards, guest lists and client collaboration — priced by how many active weddings you're running.
Best for: A wedding planner juggling many weddings who wants planning and design tools and doesn't need venue operations like BEOs, rooming or spaces.
Runshow vs Aisle Planner →* Reported pricing — that tool doesn't publish a full rate card; see its comparison page for detail. Prices as published on HoneyBook's own pricing page, checked July 2026.
For a venue specifically, the gap in HoneyBook is event operations. Runshow covers the same client side — proposals, contracts, invoices, portal — and adds the BEO, run sheet, guest counts, rooming and floor plans a venue actually runs on, with payments to your own Stripe. For a solo creative who never touches a floor plan, Dubsado is a leaner, lower-cost CRM in the same lane as HoneyBook.
Dubsado runs about $28/month billed annually, close to HoneyBook's entry tier. Runshow's Essential is $29 and includes the scheduler and uncapped lead forms HoneyBook places on its higher plan. Cheapest isn't the whole story, though — what each includes at that price matters more than the number.
Yes. Most tools, Runshow included, import your contacts and projects from a HoneyBook CSV export — and Runshow's migration is free, bringing your clients and message history across for you.
Migration is free and includes your clients and your message history. Add your name and we'll move you across.
No spam, ever. Just your invitation when a place opens.
Runshow opens to a small, curated group at a time. Add your name to the list — and share your link to move up it.
No spam, ever. Just your invitation when a place opens.