SuiteDash vs Dubsado pricing breakdown
SuiteDash and Dubsado use different pricing structures. SuiteDash charges a flat rate with unlimited users on every plan. Dubsado charges a base rate with additional fees as teams grow beyond 3 members.
SuiteDash Pricing (2026)
- Start: $19/month ($15/month annual). CRM, invoicing, project management, client portal, scheduling, file sharing, and white-label branding. Unlimited users and contacts.
- Thrive: $49/month ($40/month annual). Adds email marketing with drip sequences, additional automations, and more storage.
- Pinnacle: $99/month ($80/month annual). Adds learning management system (LMS), internal wiki, and priority support.
Dubsado Pricing (2026)
- Starter: $35/month ($335/year). Unlimited projects and clients, invoicing with payment plans, form and email templates. No scheduling, no workflows, no proposals. Up to 3 users included.
- Premier: $55/month ($525/year). Adds scheduling, automated workflows, public proposals, multiple lead captures, and Zapier integration. Up to 3 users included.
- Additional users: 4-10 users add $25/month. 11-20 users add $45/month. 21-30 users add $60/month.
- Additional brands: $10/month per extra brand.
The real cost: what teams actually pay
SuiteDash's flat-rate model becomes noticeably cheaper for teams. A 5-person team on SuiteDash Start costs $19/month total. The same team on Dubsado Premier costs $55/month plus $25/month for the extra 2 users beyond the included 3, totaling $80/month. A 10-person team on SuiteDash still costs $19/month while Dubsado Premier runs $55 plus $25 for the extra users, totaling $80/month. Since neither platform handles the full project workflow, most users add supplementary tools:
- Project management: Trello Free or Asana Starter ($0-11/month)
- Time tracking: Toggl or Clockify ($0-12/month per user)
- Standalone scheduling: Calendly for Dubsado Starter users ($0-12/month)
A typical multi-tool stack runs $50-130 per month for a solo service business, higher for teams. All-in-one platforms like Plutio start at $19/month for solo users with proposals, projects, time tracking, and invoicing in one subscription with no per-user fees.
The verdict: SuiteDash is significantly cheaper for teams due to unlimited users on every plan. Dubsado's additional user fees make team scaling more expensive. Both require supplementary tools for real project management and time tracking, which inflates the total cost beyond either platform's base price.
Which tool fits your business type?
SuiteDash and Dubsado serve overlapping audiences but from different angles. SuiteDash leads with feature breadth and white-labeling. Dubsado leads with workflow automation and form customization.
Agencies managing multiple clients
SuiteDash fits agencies that prioritize white-labeled client portals. Agencies can set up a custom domain where each client logs in, views project updates, signs documents, and pays invoices under the agency's brand. The unlimited user model means adding team members and clients costs nothing extra. Dubsado has per-project automation, but the lack of a branded portal means clients see Dubsado's interface rather than the agency's. For agencies positioning as premium service providers, brand consistency across every touchpoint matters.
Creative freelancers (photographers, designers, wedding planners)
Dubsado fits this audience because the workflow automation handles the booking-to-completion pipeline that creative freelancers repeat dozens of times per year. A photographer can automate the entire booking process: inquiry form, welcome email, contract, deposit invoice, pre-shoot questionnaire, and post-shoot follow-up. Building that workflow takes time upfront, but once running, each booking that used to need 20-30 minutes of manual follow-up happens automatically. SuiteDash can handle similar steps, but each one requires more manual triggering.
Consultants and coaches billing hourly
Neither platform supports hourly billing natively. SuiteDash has no built-in time tracker that connects to invoicing. Dubsado similarly lacks time tracking. Consultants who bill by the hour end up tracking time in a separate app and manually entering totals into invoices. For anyone whose revenue is primarily hourly, platforms with task-level time tracking that flows into invoice line items handle the workflow without the manual handoff.
Course creators and education businesses
SuiteDash is the only option here. The built-in LMS on the Pinnacle plan ($99/month) lets businesses create courses, assign them to clients, and gate content behind a paywall. Dubsado has no learning management features at all. For businesses that deliver training alongside client services, SuiteDash removes the need for Teachable, Thinkific, or another course platform. The LMS has fewer features than dedicated course platforms, but for supplementary training materials or onboarding courses, the LMS connects directly to the client portal without a separate login.
Small teams (3-10 people)
SuiteDash costs less for teams because every plan includes unlimited users. A 10-person agency on SuiteDash Start pays $19/month total. The same team on Dubsado Premier pays $80/month ($55 base plus $25 for extra users). Neither platform has granular role-based permissions or contractor-specific access levels, so team collaboration features are basic on both. For teams that need real collaboration tools alongside client management, dedicated team platforms cover both.
What both tools are missing
SuiteDash and Dubsado both cover the client-facing side of service businesses: CRM, contracts, invoicing, and some automation. But once the contract is signed and task assignments begin, most users find themselves opening additional apps for Kanban boards, time tracking, and file management.
No task-level time tracking
Neither SuiteDash nor Dubsado has built-in time tracking that connects to invoicing. Consultants, coaches, and agencies that bill hourly need to track time in a separate app, then manually enter hours into invoices. Each billing cycle involves exporting time data from Toggl or Clockify, calculating totals, and creating invoice line items by hand. Across 15-20 clients per year, that manual transfer consumes 20-40 hours annually. Platforms with task-level time tracking generate invoice line items from logged hours automatically.
Project management stops at task lists
SuiteDash has task lists with assignments and due dates. Dubsado has minimal to-do lists within projects. Neither has Kanban boards for visual workflow, Gantt charts for timeline planning, subtasks with nesting, or task dependencies that reschedule automatically when something slips. For a simple 1-week project, task lists work. For a 3-month website build with multiple phases, deliverables, and client approvals, a separate project management tool runs alongside, and project details get duplicated between systems.
Limited reporting and analytics
SuiteDash tracks basic financials: revenue, expenses, and payment status. Dubsado tracks payment history but lacks dashboards or visual analytics. Neither platform shows profit-per-project, team utilization rates, or revenue forecasting. For businesses making decisions about pricing, staffing, or which services are most profitable, the data lives in spreadsheets rather than in the platform. Business dashboards that pull from projects, time tracking, and invoicing in one view handle reporting without the spreadsheet layer.
No subscription billing with automatic charges
Both platforms support recurring invoices, but neither charges clients automatically on a schedule. Each recurring invoice requires the client to manually approve payment. For retainer-based businesses with 5-15 monthly clients, chasing payments and tracking who paid consumes 2-3 hours per month. Platforms with built-in subscription billing handle automatic recurring charges and payment recovery without the manual follow-up.
Integration ecosystems are small
SuiteDash has minimal native integrations, relying on its built-in tools rather than connecting to external apps. Dubsado connects to Zapier on the Premier plan, plus direct integrations with Stripe, Square, PayPal, and QuickBooks. Neither has the deep integration ecosystem that larger platforms offer. For businesses that rely on Google Workspace, Slack, accounting software, and file storage, the lack of native connections means either manual data transfer or paying for Zapier as a bridge.
What users do when neither tool is enough
When SuiteDash or Dubsado cannot handle the full workflow alone, users take one of two paths: build a multi-tool stack and accept the manual handoffs, or move to a platform designed for the complete client lifecycle.
The typical workaround stack
Most users end up assembling a combination like this:
- SuiteDash or Dubsado for CRM, contracts, and invoicing ($19-55/month)
- Trello, Asana, or ClickUp for project management ($0-25/month)
- Toggl, Clockify, or Harvest for time tracking ($0-12/month per user)
- Calendly or Acuity for scheduling (Dubsado Starter users) ($0-12/month)
- Google Drive or Dropbox for file sharing ($0-15/month)
That is four or five subscriptions totaling $50-130 per month for a solo service business, with multiple logins to manage and constant manual data transfer between each tool.
The hidden cost: time spent on handoffs
The subscription cost is the visible expense. The hidden cost is the workflow friction. When a contract gets signed in Dubsado, someone has to manually create a project in Asana, set up time tracking in Toggl, then copy completed hours into a Dubsado invoice at the end of the engagement. Each handoff takes 5-15 minutes. Across 15-20 clients per year, that is 25-40 hours annually spent on data transfer that software should handle automatically.
The single-platform path
All-in-one platforms exist that handle proposals, project management, time tracking, and invoicing in a single system. The trade-off is learning a new interface versus maintaining an existing multi-tool setup. For users who have invested weeks configuring SuiteDash's white-label portal or Dubsado's workflow automations, migration feels like starting over. For users already juggling four apps and spending hours on handoffs each week, switching to a single platform can recover 2-4 hours per week.
What one platform looks like in practice
Plutio is one platform that covers the complete workflow. Proposals convert into projects with Kanban boards. Time tracking happens at the task level and flows directly into invoice line items. Clients access a portal on a custom domain, not the software vendor's. The comparison table below shows exactly where Plutio fills the gaps that SuiteDash and Dubsado leave open, and where each platform still has strengths.
Final verdict: SuiteDash vs Dubsado
SuiteDash and Dubsado both handle the client-facing side of service businesses well: CRM, contracts, and invoicing. The core difference is whether feature breadth with white-labeling (SuiteDash) or workflow automation with form customization (Dubsado) matters more for a specific business model.
SuiteDash leans toward:
- White-labeled client portals with a custom domain. SuiteDash has custom domain portals and a branded mobile app, but the portal design feels dated and layout options are limited.
- Flat-rate pricing with unlimited users. Every SuiteDash plan covers unlimited team members and contacts, so the cost stays fixed as the team grows.
- A built-in LMS or internal wiki. SuiteDash's Pinnacle plan ($99/month) includes course creation and knowledge management that Dubsado does not offer, but $99/month is steep for a supplementary LMS.
- Scheduling included from day one. SuiteDash includes booking pages on all plans, while Dubsado reserves scheduling for the $55/month Premier tier.
The trade-off: The interface feels cluttered with so many modules packed into one platform. Page loads slow down under heavy data. There is no Kanban board for visual project management. Setup takes days for most new users, and the 4.6/5 ease-of-use rating on Capterra reflects the learning curve.
Dubsado leans toward:
- Workflow automation as the primary need. Dubsado's visual workflow builder supports conditional branching and triggers, but building each workflow takes 2-4 hours and requires the $55/month Premier plan.
- Form customization for the client experience. Dubsado's forms can combine contracts, payments, scheduling, and questionnaires into a single branded document.
- Solo creative freelancers with a repeatable client process. Photographers, designers, and wedding planners who book the same type of client repeatedly use Dubsado's automation most, but the lack of a mobile app and the complex setup process mean weeks of configuration before any time savings kick in.
The trade-off: The Starter plan at $35/month lacks scheduling, automation, and public proposals, so most users need the $55/month Premier plan to access scheduling, automation, and public proposals. There is no mobile app. The 3.6/5 ease-of-use rating on Capterra reflects a genuinely complex setup process. Team scaling adds cost beyond 3 users.
Consider moving to a single platform if:
- Managing three or more tools to run the client workflow is eating into productive hours every week.
- Manual data transfer between CRM, project management, time tracking, and invoicing creates errors or delays in billing.
- Projects are complex enough to need Kanban boards, timelines, or task dependencies rather than basic checklists.
- The business bills hourly and needs time tracking that flows directly into invoice line items.
- The team is growing beyond 3-5 members and per-user or tiered pricing does not make sense.
The reality: Switching means learning a new system and migrating existing data. For most users, the migration takes a focused weekend. The ongoing time savings typically recover that investment within a month.
The bottom line: SuiteDash packs more features into one platform with white-labeled portals and flat-rate pricing, but the interface is cluttered and setup takes days. Dubsado has a visual workflow builder for automating client journeys, but the $55/month Premier plan is required and there is no mobile app. Both handle contracts and invoicing but stop there. Task boards, time tracking, and progress updates happen in other apps. If the workflow already spans multiple tools and the handoffs between them feel like wasted time, the comparison table below shows how all-in-one platforms like Plutio stack up against both.
Research & Sources
This comparison is based on official documentation review, pricing page verification, and analysis of user feedback across review platforms. All data was verified in February 2026.
Research methodology
Each tool was evaluated through official feature documentation, pricing pages, and analysis of user reviews across Capterra, G2, AppSumo, and TrustRadius. The focus was on common pain points from lower-rated reviews where users share honest limitations rather than promotional praise.
Platform ratings (February 2026)
- SuiteDash: 4.8/5 on G2, 4.9/5 on Capterra (608 reviews), 4.54/5 on AppSumo (279 reviews). Praised for feature breadth, white-labeling, and flat-rate pricing. Criticized for slow page loads, cluttered interface, steep learning curve, and email deliverability issues.
- Dubsado: 4.2/5 on Capterra (60 reviews), 3.6/5 ease of use on Capterra. Praised for workflow automation and form customization. Criticized for complex setup, no mobile app, basic reporting, and invoicing rigidity.
- Plutio: 4.6/5 on G2 (200+ reviews), praised for all-in-one coverage, task-level time tracking, and white-labeling.
Common user complaints (from 1-3 star reviews)
SuiteDash users frequently mention: "Pages load slow, especially with more data." "Interface is cluttered and takes time to learn." "Emails sent through SuiteDash sometimes land in spam." "No Kanban board for visual project management."
Dubsado users frequently mention: "Setup is so complex that there are people who specialize in Dubsado setup as a career." "No mobile app makes managing clients on the go impossible." "Invoicing features are hard to navigate." "Reporting is basically non-existent beyond payment tracking."
Pricing sources (verified February 2026)
- SuiteDash: Official pricing page
- Dubsado: Official pricing page
- Plutio: Official pricing page
Feature verification
- SuiteDash Capterra reviews (608 reviews)
- Dubsado Capterra reviews (60 reviews)
- SuiteDash features page
- Dubsado official site
- Dubsado workflow documentation
If you find any inaccuracies or outdated information, please let us know so we can investigate and update.
