Phlostate next to the other photography CRMs.
Someone asked for the list, so here it is: what each product includes, what happens to a client’s payment on the way to you, and what a year actually costs. Public facts only, taken from each company’s own pricing page on September 2, 2026. If one of them changes something, tell us and we’ll fix the row.
What’s in the box
The honest version of this table is that everyone does the core well. Where they differ is how much of the rest of your week lives in the same app.
| Phlostate | HoneyBook | Dubsado | Studio Ninja | Távenow VSCO Workspace | Sprout Studio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leads, projects, inbox | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Contracts with e-signature | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Invoices with installments and autopay | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Client galleries | Yes | Added July 2026 | No | Via ShootProof / Pic-Time | Via integrations | Yes |
| Print store in the gallery | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Public booking page and scheduler | Yes | Yes | Premier plan only | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Website, built and hosted | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| AI assistant | Phlo — runs the back office, 150+ actions | Drafting, lead alerts, meeting notes | No | No | No | Email and blog writing |
| Talk to it out loud | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| QuickBooks / Zapier integrations | No | Essentials plan and up | Premier plan only | No | Yes | Zapier |
| Team seats | 3 on Pro | Unlimited on Premium | Add-on pricing | Unlimited on Master | 2 to 10 by plan | By plan |
| Free trial | None — 15% off your first 3 months instead | 7 days | 21 days | 7 days | 30 days | Yes |
What a client’s payment costs you
A processor takes a fee everywhere; that’s the cost of taking cards. The question is whether anyone sits between you and the processor. Phlostate, Dubsado, Studio Ninja, Táve and Sprout Studio connect your own account, so you pay the processor’s published rate and nothing on top. HoneyBook processes payments itself and bills its own schedule.
| Phlostate | HoneyBook | Dubsado | Studio Ninja | Távenow VSCO Workspace | Sprout Studio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform fee on client payments | 0% — clients pay you direct through your own Stripe | Built into their processing rates | 0% — your own Stripe, Square or PayPal | 0% — your own Stripe, Square or PayPal | 0% — your own Stripe | 0% — your own Stripe, Square or PayPal |
| Credit card, client-entered | 2.9% + 30¢ (Stripe) | 2.9% + 25¢ | Your processor’s rate | Your processor’s rate | Your processor’s rate | Your processor’s rate |
| Card on file / autopay | 2.9% + 30¢ (Stripe) | 3.4% + 9¢ | Your processor’s rate | Your processor’s rate | Your processor’s rate | Your processor’s rate |
| Bank transfer (ACH) | 0.8%, capped at $5 (Stripe) | 1.5%, no cap | Your processor’s rate | Your processor’s rate | Your processor’s rate | Your processor’s rate |
| Client can be billed the fee | Yes — on by default, per payment method | Manual line item where legal | Card surcharge in supported regions | No | No | No |
| Subscription, from | $100/mo | $36/mo | $335/yr | $16/mo | $22.49/mo | $17/mo |
A year of twenty weddings at $4,000
Paid by bank transfer, which is what clients choose when the fee is theirs to pay. Entry plan of each product, billed yearly. Subscription plus payment fees, nothing else.
| Subscription | Payment fees | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| PhlostateStandard, billed yearly; Stripe ACH $5 a transfer | $1,020 | $100 | $1,120 |
| HoneyBookStarter, billed yearly; 1.5% ACH | $348 | $1,200 | $1,548 |
| DubsadoStarter; Stripe ACH $5 a transfer | $335 | $100 | $435 |
| Studio NinjaStarter; Stripe ACH $5 a transfer | $192 | $100 | $292 |
Read it plainly: Phlostate is not the cheapest subscription on this page, and against the products that also connect your own Stripe the payment side is a wash. The gap is real against a 1.5% bank-transfer rate, and it is real once you count the gallery tool, the scheduling app and the website host the Standard plan replaces.
Where the others are stronger
- Price of entry. Studio Ninja, Sprout Studio, Dubsado and Táve all start well under Phlostate’s Standard plan. If you only need contracts and invoices and you already pay for galleries elsewhere, they may be the better deal.
- Trying before buying. Dubsado gives you 21 days and Táve 30. Phlostate has no free trial; founding members get 15% off their first three months instead.
- Accounting and automation integrations. HoneyBook and Dubsado connect to QuickBooks and Zapier; Phlostate doesn’t yet.
- Bigger teams. HoneyBook Premium and Studio Ninja Master have unlimited users. Phlostate is built for one photographer, with three seats on Pro.
- Track record. Every product on this list is older than Phlostate. That counts for something, and we’d rather say so than pretend otherwise.
What one Phlostate plan replaces
| Your CRM — leads, projects, contracts, invoices, inbox | The same surfaces, with Phlo working inside them |
| Your gallery tool | Galleries with favorites, downloads, passcodes and a print store |
| Your scheduling app | A public booking page that syncs both ways with Google Calendar |
| Your website builder and its host | A site built and hosted in the app, on your domain |
| The fee between your client and your bank | Nothing — clients pay you direct through Stripe |
If you came here from a gallery tool
Pixieset and Pic-Time start from the gallery and have grown invoices and contracts around it. They are very good at delivery. Two things to weigh: their free tiers take a commission on print sales (Pixieset’s is 15% until you upgrade), and the CRM half is a second app with a second login. Phlostate’s galleries are a room in the same house as the inquiry that booked the wedding.
See it with your own work in it
Create an account, connect Stripe, and send your next invoice from here. If it isn’t better than what you have, you’ll know by the first payment.
Sources, checked September 2, 2026
- HoneyBook pricing · HoneyBook payment fees · HoneyBook galleries, PetaPixel, July 2026
- Dubsado pricing and trial
- Studio Ninja pricing
- Táve pricing (G2)
- Sprout Studio pricing (Capterra)
- Pixieset pricing
- Stripe pricing — the rates Phlostate passes through unchanged
Phlostate’s own numbers on this page are read from the same code that runs the product, so they can’t drift from what you’d be charged.