CalybeeHoneyBook and Dubsado alternatives for coaches and consultants who sell sessions
HoneyBook and Dubsado are excellent at a particular kind of business: a photographer, a planner or a designer who sends a proposal, gets a contract signed, invoices in stages and delivers a project. Coaches and consultants often start there because other coaches recommend it. Then they find themselves running a session business through a project tool.
The short answer
- Stay on HoneyBook or Dubsado if proposals, contracts and staged invoices are most of your work.
- Choose Calybee if you sell sessions, packs and memberships and want the website and booking in one, from $19 a month.
- Choose Paperbell if you sell long coaching programs with contracts and payment plans, at $57 a month.
Project tools vs session tools
| HoneyBook | Dubsado | Calybee | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built around | Projects and proposals | Projects and workflows | Sessions and bookings |
| Price (billed yearly) | $29, $49 or $109 a month | $335 or $525 a year | $19 or $29 a month, 7 days free |
| Scheduler | From $49 (Essentials) | Premier only | Every plan |
| Proposals, contracts, invoices | Yes | Yes | No proposals or invoices; signed agreements at booking |
| Packs and memberships | Payment plans | Payment plans | Yes, with sessions counted for you |
| Payments | Through HoneyBook, 2.7% + 10¢ per card | Through Stripe, PayPal or Square | Your own Stripe or PayPal, 0% commission |
| Your website | No | No | Included, built by the Bee |
| Reviews | No | No | Imported and requested after each session |
Prices from each pricing page in October 2026.
Signs a coach has outgrown a project tool
- You create a "project" for every client just to book their sessions.
- Clients ask "how many sessions do I have left?" and you check by hand.
- Your website lives somewhere else and links out to the booking.
- You pay for the scheduler tier mainly to send a booking link.
Coaching? Before you pick a tool, see nine coaching website examples and what each way of building one costs.
1. Calybee
Best for: coaches, consultants and tutors who sell sessions
We make Calybee. It is built around the booking, so the things a session business does all day are one step each:
- Offers side by side: a free call, single sessions, packs (sessions counted down for you) and memberships with a monthly allowance
- Booking on your own site, which the Bee builds from a sentence, your old site or your price list
- Intake questions and a signed agreement at booking, kept on the client's record
- A client page with no password where clients see their bookings and packs, and move or cancel by your rules
- Notes and files shared with one client
- Google Meet links and two-way Google Calendar sync
- Clients and bookings imported from a spreadsheet, Acuity, Calendly and others, without emailing anyone
Where it falls short: no proposals, quotes or invoices for project work, no Zoom yet, reminders by email only, and no HIPAA.
2. Paperbell
Best for: coaches selling long programs with contracts
Coaching packages, payment plans, contracts and a client portal. $57 a month or $570 a year.
3. Staying on HoneyBook (and adding booking)
Best for: consultants whose work is mostly quoted projects
If most revenue comes from proposals and retainers, keep HoneyBook for that and use a booking tool only for calls. Calybee gives you a booking page for discovery calls alongside it, from $19 a month.
Moving over without losing anyone
- Export your client list from HoneyBook or Dubsado as a spreadsheet.
- In Calybee, open Clients, choose Import from another tool and pick Another tool, which takes a spreadsheet. Nobody is emailed.
- Recreate your offers as services, packs and memberships (or ask the Bee to set them up from your price list).
- Keep the old tool until open projects and payment plans finish.
Calybee imports one-off clients and bookings. Running payment plans and memberships stay where they are until they end; members start their new membership in Calybee themselves.
Questions people ask
How much does HoneyBook cost?
HoneyBook's Starter plan is $29 a month billed yearly, Essentials $49 and Premium $109. The scheduler with unlimited sessions starts on Essentials. Card payments through HoneyBook cost 2.7% plus 10 cents each.
How much does Dubsado cost?
Dubsado's Starter plan is $335 a year and Premier $525 a year, billed yearly. Its scheduler and automated workflows are on Premier only.
What is the best HoneyBook alternative for coaches?
If your business is mostly sessions, choose a tool built around booking: Calybee (website, booking, packs and memberships from $19 a month) or Paperbell (coaching packages and contracts, $57 a month). Stay with HoneyBook if proposals and invoices are the heart of your work.
Is Calybee a CRM?
Calybee keeps a record of every client built from their bookings, payments, answers and notes, with notes and files you can share with each client. It does not do proposals, quotes or invoices for project work.
Can I take payments without HoneyBook's processing fee?
With Calybee, clients pay into your own Stripe or PayPal account. You pay Stripe's or PayPal's fee and Calybee adds no commission of its own.
Try Calybee on your own business
Tell the Bee what you sell and it builds your website, booking calendar and payments in a few minutes. Build everything first; your 7 free days start when you go live. From 19 a month, and Calybee takes 0% of your bookings.
Start 7 days free See pricingWe make Calybee, so read this with that in mind. Prices and plans of other products are taken from their own pricing pages on 27 October 2026 and change often; check them before you decide. Product names belong to their owners and are used here only to compare.