5 Best HoneyBook Alternatives in 2026 for Solopreneurs

In February 2025, HoneyBook raised its prices across every plan. Starter jumped from $19 to $36 a month. Essentials went from $39 to $59. Premium went from $79 to $129.

Existing members got a 20% discount to soften the landing. That discount expired in February 2026, which means a lot of long-time members met the full price for the first time this year, on renewal, with no announcement moment to react to.

If you mainly open HoneyBook to send an invoice and chase the people who have not paid it, you are renting a whole clientflow suite for two jobs. Here are five alternatives worth considering in 2026.

Disclosure: We built LeaveItToBumBum, so our own tools appear in this comparison. Our recommendations reflect publicly documented product features and intended use cases. We have not conducted controlled hands-on testing of every competitor. External vendor plan details were reviewed in November 2026.

Quick comparison

1. Leave It to Bum Bum: Best for chasing invoices and follow-ups

Leave It to Bum Bum is a toolbox of small, single-purpose tools. Two of them cover the jobs most people actually open a suite for: the Invoice Chaser, which drafts and tracks your payment nudges, and the Client Follow-Up Tracker, which keeps every promised follow-up visible until it is done.

There is no clientflow pipeline to configure and no tier wall around automations. You start free, and you only use the tools you need.

Why consider it?

• Chase late invoices without a suite subscription
• Track client follow-ups so none slip
• Free to start, one flat plan when you outgrow it
• No setup project: each tool does one job
• The same account covers your other everyday tools

Where HoneyBook wins: A complete clientflow in one place: inquiries, proposals, contracts, payments, and scheduling, with an established name in creative industries. If you genuinely use all of that weekly, a suite earns its price.

Best for: Freelancers and solopreneurs whose suite usage is really invoicing plus follow-ups.

Try the Invoice Chaser

2. Dubsado: Best for contracts and client portals

Dubsado is the closest like-for-like replacement: forms, contracts, invoices, and client portals, with workflow automation on its Premier plan ($55 per month; Starter is $35). Expect a real setup project. Reviews consistently describe a steep learning curve, so budget time to configure it before it saves you any.

Best for: Established studios that want deep workflows and will invest the setup hours.

3. Bonsai: Best simple all-in-one for freelancers

Bonsai covers proposals, contracts, invoicing, and time tracking. Its Basic plan ($15 per month) does not include invoicing; Essentials ($25 per month) is the first tier a solo can actually bill from. Bonsai was acquired by Zoom in late 2025, and its own blog says capabilities will be incorporated into Zoom over time, which is worth weighing if you want a stable standalone product.

Best for: Freelancers who want one tidy workspace for the whole engagement.

4. Moxie: Best lower-cost suite

Moxie starts at $12 per month, with Pro at $25, and it is genuinely well liked (4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot across hundreds of reviews). Automations and the client portal sit on the higher tiers, but if you want a suite and HoneyBook's renewal shocked you, Moxie is the calmer price.

Best for: Solopreneurs who still want a suite, at a saner price.

5. Wave: Best free invoicing and accounting

Wave's Starter plan is free and covers invoicing and accounting. The catch: unrestricted automatic payment reminders require the Pro plan ($19 per month), and several features that used to be free, like bank auto-import and receipt scanning, moved behind Pro in 2024 and 2025.

Best for: Solos who need real accounting and send a modest number of invoices.

Is HoneyBook worth it in 2026?

At $36 per month for Starter (billed monthly) with no automations, and $59 for Essentials where automations live, HoneyBook now costs $432 to $708 a year before transaction fees. That is defensible if the full pipeline, from inquiry to contract to payment, runs your business.

It is much harder to defend if your week inside HoneyBook is: send invoice, send reminder, check who owes you. That is a follow-up problem, not a clientflow problem.

Our recommendation: Choose Dubsado or Moxie for a full clientflow suite, Wave for free accounting, and Leave It to Bum Bum when the job is chasing invoices and follow-ups.

Chase the invoice, skip the suite

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free alternative to HoneyBook?

Yes. Wave has a free starter plan for invoicing and accounting, and Leave It to Bum Bum has a free tier for tools like invoice chasing and client follow-up tracking. Full clientflow suites like Dubsado and Bonsai offer trials rather than free plans.

Why are people leaving HoneyBook?

HoneyBook raised prices in February 2025: Starter went from $19 to $36 per month, Essentials from $39 to $59, and Premium from $79 to $129. A temporary 20% discount for existing members expired in February 2026, so long-time members felt a second increase on renewal.

Does Leave It to Bum Bum replace HoneyBook?

No. Bum Bum does not do contracts, proposals, or client portals. It covers the follow-up layer: chasing late invoices and tracking client follow-ups. If that is most of what you open HoneyBook for, you may not need the full suite.

What is the cheapest way to chase late invoices?

A standalone reminder tool. Suites gate automated follow-ups behind higher tiers, while a single-purpose invoice chaser does the one job without a clientflow subscription.

What should photographers and creative freelancers use instead of HoneyBook?

Dubsado and Moxie are the closest full-suite replacements for contracts and portals. If your main pain is unpaid invoices and forgotten follow-ups, a lightweight tool covers that slice for much less.