Dubsado Pricing 2026: Plans, Stripe Fees & True Cost

Dubsado's sticker price is the easy part. The pieces that actually move your monthly bill are the December 1, 2025 price reset (Starter went from $20/mo to $35/mo, a 75% jump), the per-seat tiers that kick in at 4 users, the additional brand fee, and the payment processor fees you pay directly to Stripe, Square, or PayPal -- not Dubsado, which adds zero platform markup. For a wedding planner running $150K/year through Stripe ACH, Dubsado's true annual cost can land 30-40% below HoneyBook's even after the recent price hike, mostly because of the $5 max ACH fee.

This guide pulls every current rate from dubsado.com/pricing and the Dubsado Help Center (verified May 2, 2026), explains who Dubsado 3.0 actually charges what, models real annual cost at three revenue levels with payment fees included, and flags where Dubsado quietly costs more than the homepage suggests.

Dubsado Pricing at a Glance (2026)

Free trial: unlimited in time, capped at 3 real clients (sample client doesn't count). No credit card required. Free plan: none beyond the trial. Annual savings: roughly 2 months free vs paying monthly. New pricing took effect December 1, 2025; users on a paid subscription before that date were grandfathered into the prior $20/$40 monthly rates indefinitely. Sources: dubsado.com/pricing, Dubsado Help Center -- Free Trial FAQ, Dubsado 3.0 launch page.

The Fee Most Pricing Articles Miss: Dubsado's Pass-Through Payment Costs

Here is the structural difference between Dubsado and HoneyBook that flips most break-even calculations: Dubsado charges nothing on top of payment processor fees. You connect Stripe (white-labeled as "Dubsado Payments"), Square, or PayPal, and you pay those companies their published rates direct. Dubsado does not surcharge, mark up, or add a transaction fee. Source: Dubsado Help Center -- payment processor connection.

That sounds small until you do the math against HoneyBook's 3.4% + 9¢ card-on-file rate.

Dubsado Payments (Stripe) -- US merchant rates

Source: Dubsado Payments processing fees.

The $5 ACH cap is the big deal. HoneyBook charges 1.5% flat on ACH with no cap -- a $20,000 retainer paid via ACH costs $300 on HoneyBook. The same payment on Dubsado Payments costs $5.00. That's a $295 difference on a single invoice. Across a year of B2B retainers, this single line item often pays for the entire Dubsado subscription multiple times over.

Card-on-file is the same rate as card-entered. HoneyBook's 3.4% + 9¢ card-on-file surcharge does not exist on Dubsado Payments. A $5,000 retainer billed via autopay costs $145.30 on Dubsado, vs $170.09 on HoneyBook. Multiplied across a year of payment plans, this gap compounds.

Square and PayPal are pure pass-through too. If you connect Square instead, you pay Square's published merchant fees (currently 2.6% + 10¢ for tap/dip, 2.9% + 30¢ online) direct to Square. PayPal works alongside or independently with PayPal merchant rates. Dubsado does not double-dip on either. Trade-off: only Dubsado Payments supports ACH and full autopay (cards + ACH); Square supports card autopay only; PayPal does not support autopay at all.

What Each Plan Actually Includes (and Locks Out)

The marketing page makes the difference look like "scheduling and automations." The pricing-table page reveals more granular gating.

Starter ($35/mo or $335/yr)

What's in: unlimited projects and clients, contracts, invoices, payment plans, client portals, email templates, form templates, time tracking, basic reports, 3 user seats, mobile app, Dubsado 3.0 inbox.

What's locked: no Flows (automated workflows), no scheduling, no public proposals, only 1 lead capture form active at a time, no Zapier, no QuickBooks/Xero bookkeeping integration, no multiple-lead-capture switching.

Real fit: a solo creative who works one stream of inbound, sends contracts/invoices manually, and doesn't need calendar bookings. The single lead-form limit is the killer for anyone running paid ads with multiple landing pages.

Premier ($55/mo or $525/yr)

What's in: everything in Starter plus Flows (automated workflows with conditional logic, delays, task assignments), scheduling templates with recurring availability, public proposals, multiple simultaneous lead capture forms, Zapier integration, QuickBooks and Xero bookkeeping sync, advanced reports, Affirm/Klarna client checkout (via Dubsado Payments), Tap to Pay (via Dubsado Payments), surcharging.

Real fit: this is the plan most working creatives need. Anyone running automations, taking online bookings, sending visual proposals, or wanting QuickBooks sync should skip Starter entirely. The annual rate ($43.75/mo equivalent) makes Premier cheaper than HoneyBook Essentials annual ($49/mo) for similar feature breadth.

Sources: Dubsado pricing comparison table, Help Center -- choose the right plan.

Add-ons that apply to both plans

Source: Dubsado Help Center -- multi-user pricing.

Quirk worth noting. The seat tiers are flat per range, not per-seat. A 4-person team and a 10-person team both pay the same $25/mo seat add-on. Going from 10 to 11 users jumps the seat add-on by $20/mo (to $45). Plan team growth around tier breakpoints, not at them.

What Changed in Dubsado Pricing Recently

Dubsado restructured pricing on December 1, 2025, alongside the Dubsado 3.0 launch (rolled out starting November 17, 2025). The Starter monthly rate moved from $20 to $35 (a 75% jump), and Premier moved from $40 to $55 (a 38% jump). Annual prices moved to $335 and $525 respectively.

Critically: anyone on a paid subscription before December 1, 2025 was grandfathered into the prior $20/$40 monthly rates indefinitely. Dubsado ran a Black Friday 50% off annual sale (Nov 24 - Dec 1, 2025) to give prospects a final window to lock the legacy pricing. Source: Dubsado 3.0 launch page.

The 3.0 release that triggered the price reset added: a unified inbox with AI-generated email summaries, a node-based visual workflow builder (renamed "Flows"), a rebuilt scheduler with recurring availability, a global time tracker in the top bar, a customizable projects workspace with Kanban/table views, and consolidated invoicing outside individual projects.

This is now the same approximate price point as HoneyBook ($29-$49 annual) for comparable features, where prior to December 2025 Dubsado was meaningfully cheaper on subscription.

Original Cost Analysis: Dubsado True Annual Cost at Real Revenue Levels

Most pricing articles stop at the subscription. We modeled actual annual cost for three real-world creative business profiles, using Dubsado's published fees as of May 2, 2026. Methodology: 70% of revenue assumed paid via card, 30% via ACH (Dubsado users skew higher ACH adoption than HoneyBook because the $5 cap incentivizes it -- HoneyBook's published mix is 80/20 card/ACH). 60/40 split between cardholder-entered and card-on-file/autopay. All dollar amounts use Dubsado Payments US rates: 2.9% + 30¢ card, 0.8% ACH capped at $5/transaction.

The takeaway: payment fees still dominate the bill (2.5x to 10x the subscription), but the total cost runs roughly 17-25% lower than the equivalent HoneyBook total at the same revenue levels. The single-biggest savings driver is not the subscription -- it's ACH at $5 max vs HoneyBook's 1.5% uncapped. A design studio doing $400K with one $25,000 ACH retainer per month saves $295 per invoice vs HoneyBook on that line alone -- $3,540/yr from a single workflow change.

The 5-user design studio scenario adds the $25/mo (4-10 users) seat tier, which is $300/yr -- one of the cheapest team-scaling moves in this category.

Dubsado vs HoneyBook: Subscription + Payment Fee Comparison

The subscription delta is small post-price-hike. The payment fee delta is where the math actually lives.

ACH break-even: Dubsado's 0.8% capped at $5 is cheaper than HoneyBook's 1.5% on any invoice over $334. For B2B retainers, design deposits, and wedding final payments (typically $1,000-$25,000), this is decisive. A $20,000 ACH transaction costs $5 on Dubsado vs $300 on HoneyBook.

Card-on-file break-even: Dubsado wins on every autopay/payment-plan transaction because there's no surcharge. On a $4,500 wedding installment via autopay, Dubsado costs $130.80 (2.9% + 30¢), HoneyBook costs $153.09 (3.4% + 9¢) -- Dubsado saves $22.29 per installment.

For a deeper side-by-side, read the HoneyBook pricing breakdown and best HoneyBook alternatives.

Dubsado vs Agiled: Total Cost at 3 and 5 Users

Agiled competes with Dubsado on the same workflow stack -- CRM, contracts, invoicing, scheduling, projects, client portal, plus modules Dubsado does not include like full project management, helpdesk, HRM, and assets. Agiled prices flat per seat and passes Stripe fees through at published rates with no markup, same as Dubsado.

Crossover: below 3 users, Agiled is cheaper on subscription. From 3 users up, Dubsado's bundled-3-seat structure plus the flat $25/mo overage tier pulls ahead. Both pass Stripe fees through with no markup, so payment-fee math is roughly identical. The deciding factor between them is feature fit, not price:

• Dubsado wins on: Flows automation depth, photographer/wedding-planner-specific templates, the Dubsado 3.0 inbox, public proposals, and ecosystem maturity in the creative industry.
• Agiled wins on: project management (Kanban/Gantt/list views with task dependencies), built-in helpdesk and HRM modules, white-label client portal customization, and ability to consolidate tools beyond CRM (you replace Dubsado + Asana + Help Scout, not just Dubsado).

For broader context, see best Dubsado alternatives and small business CRM comparison.

Use Case Fit: Who Each Dubsado Tier Is Actually Right For

Solo photographers and videographers

Best plan: Premier annual ($525/yr). Starter's single-lead-form limit kills anyone running ads, multiple service pages, or a Squarespace/Showit site with embedded forms. Premier's Flows automation handles the post-booking workflow (contract -> retainer -> questionnaire -> shot list -> gallery delivery) end-to-end, which is the actual reason photographers buy Dubsado. Where Dubsado breaks: setup time. Plan 8-15 hours of upfront workflow building. If you want to send your first proposal in the first week, HoneyBook is faster onboarding.

Wedding and event planners

Best plan: Premier. Planners run heavy on payment plans -- 50% retainer, 25% midpoint, 25% final, often across 12-18 months. On Dubsado, every autopay charge runs at 2.9% + 30¢ with no card-on-file surcharge. On HoneyBook, those installments hit 3.4% + 9¢. On a $12,000 average wedding paid in 4 installments, Dubsado saves roughly $40 per wedding in fees. Twenty weddings = $800/yr on top of the lower subscription.

Designers (graphic, brand, web)

Best plan: Premier. Public proposals are the unlock here -- send a branded proposal link, client signs and pays the deposit in one flow. Where Dubsado wins big: design retainers paid by ACH. A $15,000 brand identity retainer paid via Stripe ACH costs $5 on Dubsado vs $225 on HoneyBook ACH. Across 10-15 brand projects per year, ACH discipline funds the Dubsado subscription twice over.

Coaches and consultants

Best plan: Premier (Starter if you do not need scheduling). Coaches typically run a small number of high-ticket programs paid in installments. The autopay-without-surcharge advantage matters here: a $6,000 coaching package paid in 6 monthly installments costs $174.30 on Dubsado vs $204.54 on HoneyBook. Bookkeeping integration (QuickBooks, Xero) is Premier-only -- mandatory if you have a CPA who pulls data monthly.

Where Dubsado hits a ceiling

• You need true project management. Dubsado's project view is light. If you're running 20+ active projects with task dependencies, sub-tasks, and time tracking against project budgets, you'll want a separate PM tool (or Agiled which bundles both).
• You need the smoothest possible client UX. HoneyBook's client portal is more polished out of the box. Dubsado is more powerful but more visually utilitarian.
• You need real-time team collaboration. Dubsado is built around solo or small-team operations. There is no true "agency mode" with role-based permissions at the depth ClickUp or Agiled offer.
• You're allergic to setup work. Dubsado is configurable; that means it requires configuration. Budget time accordingly.

For project-management-heavy teams, ClickUp pricing covers that side of the stack.

Hidden Costs and Caveats Most Reviews Skip

1. The December 1, 2025 price hike. New users pay $35/$55. Pre-Dec 1 paid users pay $20/$40 forever. If you signed up December 2 or later, you're at the new rate. There is no downgrade path to legacy pricing.
2. Annual savings is exactly 2 months. $35 x 12 = $420; annual is $335 = $85 savings (2.4 months). $55 x 12 = $660; annual is $525 = $135 savings (2.5 months). The math is not quite the "2 months free" some marketing pages imply but close.
3. The 3-client trial mechanic surprises people. You can use Dubsado free indefinitely until your fourth real client signs a form. Many users discover the lockout when a fourth lead's form submission fails to capture. Plan to upgrade before you launch any active campaign.
4. Single lead form on Starter is restrictive. If you change which form is "active," the previously active form stops capturing. Most marketing setups need at least 2-3 simultaneous forms (general inquiry, wedding inquiry, brand-specific landing pages).
5. Square integration is partial. In-person Square card reader payments do not auto-apply to invoices, and Square's view of the payment will not show the Dubsado client name and email. Use Dubsado Payments if you need clean reconciliation.
6. PayPal does not support autopay. If you sell payment plans and want PayPal as the processor, autopay won't work. You'll have to manually invoice each installment.
7. International cards cost 4.4% + 30¢. If 20%+ of clients are international, model this carefully. Plus the 1-2% currency conversion if applicable.
8. Instant payout still costs 1%. Same as HoneyBook. If cash flow is tight and you need money in 30 minutes, you're paying 3.9% + 30¢ on every card payout.
9. Surcharging is a real lever. Dubsado Payments lets you pass card processing fees directly to clients. Used aggressively on B2B clients accustomed to it, your effective card cost can drop to $0. Most consumer-facing creatives won't surcharge -- but for brand designers billing other agencies, it's standard.
10. Multi-user trial limit. You cannot add additional users (or bulk import client lists) during the free trial. You have to upgrade first.

Original Research: The 30-Day Verification Pass

To verify published fees match what users actually pay, we cross-referenced Dubsado's pricing pages (May 2, 2026) against three independent sources: the Dubsado Help Center fees article, the Dubsado 3.0 launch announcement, and current G2/Capterra reviews from Q1 2026. Findings:

• All three Dubsado-controlled sources agree on $35/$55 monthly and $335/$525 annual rates effective December 1, 2025.
• The 3-user inclusion on both plans is consistent across pricing-table and Help Center documents -- no asterisks.
• The $5 ACH cap is documented in the fees article but not displayed on the public pricing page, which only mentions "competitive Stripe rates." Users who don't drill into the Help Center miss this.
• Recent G2 reviews (Q1 2026) consistently flag two complaints: the December price hike for new users (perceived as steep at 75%), and the learning curve on Flows compared to HoneyBook's pre-built workflow templates.
• Grandfathered users on the old $20/$40 pricing remain the most positive cohort in 2026 reviews -- they paid pre-hike, get Dubsado 3.0 for free, and the value-per-dollar at $20/mo is meaningfully different from the value-per-dollar at $35/mo.

Methodology note: revenue split assumptions (70% card / 30% ACH for Dubsado users vs HoneyBook's 80/20) come from independent CRM survey data and the structural incentive Dubsado's $5 cap creates -- users actively push clients to ACH because the savings are obvious. Your actual mix will vary by client type and invoice size.

Not For You: When to Skip Dubsado

Skip Dubsado entirely if:

• You want to send your first contract in 24 hours. Dubsado requires setup. HoneyBook holds your hand through templates and onboarding wizards; Dubsado expects you to build your workflows. If your priority is speed-to-first-invoice, HoneyBook or its alternatives are the better entry point.
• Most of your bookings come through your phone. The Dubsado mobile app is functional but lags HoneyBook's. If you book at events and need to send a proposal from your phone in 90 seconds, HoneyBook is more polished mobile-first.
• You bill exclusively in USD via low-value card transactions. Under $334 invoices paid by card, Dubsado has no meaningful fee advantage over HoneyBook -- the 5¢ per-transaction difference is a rounding error. The structural Dubsado wins are on ACH and card-on-file at meaningful invoice sizes.
• You need true project management depth. Dubsado projects are light. If you're running 20+ active projects with dependencies, sub-tasks, time tracking against budgets, and team workload views, you'll outgrow Dubsado fast. Pair it with a PM tool, or move to Agiled which bundles both.
• You hate configuration time. Plan 8-15 hours upfront for Dubsado setup if you want to use Flows, scheduling, and templates effectively. If that's not realistic, the platform's automation advantage never materializes for your business.
• You're pre-revenue or in trial-and-burn mode. The 3-client free trial is generous, but once you go paid, $335/yr is a real commitment. If you have 1-2 clients total and might pivot in 6 months, free Wave + free Calendly + a contract template covers the same ground at $0.
• You're a 1-person team that doesn't need scheduling, automations, or QuickBooks sync. Starter at $335/yr is fine, but at that price point, a flat per-seat tool like Agiled at $15/user/mo ($180/yr for 1 user) costs less and includes more modules.

FAQ: Dubsado Pricing Questions

How much does Dubsado cost per month in 2026?

Dubsado costs $35/month (Starter) or $55/month (Premier) when paid monthly. Annual billing is $335/year (Starter) or $525/year (Premier), saving roughly 2 months. Both plans include 3 user seats. New pricing took effect December 1, 2025; users on a paid subscription before that date were grandfathered into the prior $20/$40 monthly rates indefinitely. Source: dubsado.com/pricing.

Does Dubsado have a free plan?

Dubsado does not have a permanent free plan, but the free trial is unlimited in time and capped at 3 real clients (a sample client is provided that does not count toward the limit). No credit card is required to start. Once you add a fourth client, your lead capture form stops accepting submissions until you upgrade. You cannot delete clients to free up trial slots. Source: Dubsado Help Center -- Free Trial FAQ.

What payment processing fees does Dubsado charge?

Dubsado charges nothing on top of payment processor fees -- this is the platform's structural pricing advantage. You pay Stripe (white-labeled as Dubsado Payments), Square, or PayPal directly. US Dubsado Payments rates are 2.9% + $0.30 for cards (same rate for entered or autopay), 4.4% + $0.30 for international cards, and 0.8% capped at $5.00 max for ACH. Disputes and chargebacks cost $15 each. Source: Dubsado Payments processing fees.

How many users come with Dubsado?

Both Starter and Premier include 3 user seats at no additional cost. Adding more users costs $25/month for the 4-10 user tier, $45/month for 11-20, and $60/month for 21-30. Beyond 30 users requires a custom quote. The seat add-on is a flat fee per tier, not per individual user, so a 4-person team and a 10-person team pay the same $25/mo. Source: Dubsado Help Center -- multi-user pricing.

When did Dubsado raise prices?

Dubsado raised pricing on December 1, 2025, alongside the Dubsado 3.0 release. Starter went from $20/month to $35/month (a 75% increase), and Premier went from $40/month to $55/month (a 38% increase). Existing paid subscribers as of December 1, 2025 were grandfathered into the prior rates indefinitely and received Dubsado 3.0 features at no additional cost. Source: Dubsado 3.0 launch page.

Dubsado vs HoneyBook pricing -- which is cheaper in 2026?

Subscription costs are now within $63/year for solo users (Dubsado Premier $525/yr vs HoneyBook Essentials $588/yr). The bigger difference is payment fees: Dubsado passes Stripe rates through (2.9% + 30¢ card, 0.8% ACH capped at $5), while HoneyBook adds platform-side surcharges (3.4% + 9¢ on card-on-file/Amex/Discover, 1.5% uncapped on ACH). For businesses with payment volume above ~$50K/yr or any meaningful ACH usage, Dubsado is materially cheaper total cost. For full breakdown, see HoneyBook pricing.

Is Dubsado worth it for solo photographers?

Yes if you book 6+ clients per month, want to automate your post-booking workflow (Flows), and value the photographer-specific template ecosystem. Premier at $525/yr is the right tier; Starter's single-lead-form limit kills serious marketing setups. No if you book under 4 clients per month, want a polished plug-and-play setup, or expect mobile-first booking workflows -- HoneyBook is faster to onboard and has a more polished mobile app.

Is Dubsado worth the price for 2-person teams?

Yes -- this is Dubsado's sweet spot. Both seats are included free in Premier ($525/yr or ~$22/user/mo equivalent), the cheapest Dubsado gets per seat. HoneyBook charges $588/yr for the same 2-user count. You also get full Flows automation, scheduling, and Zapier without paying for a higher tier. The only caveat: budget setup time for both users to learn the workflow builder.

Are there any hidden fees in Dubsado?

The non-obvious costs: international card transactions at 4.4% + 30¢, the 1-2% currency conversion if applicable, $4 ACH failed transaction fee, $15 dispute and chargeback fees, the +1% instant payout fee, the $10/mo per additional brand, and the $25-$60/mo seat tiers above 3 users. The big "hidden positive" is the $5 cap on ACH transactions, which is not prominent on the public pricing page but materially changes total cost on large invoices.

What happens if I cancel Dubsado?

Monthly subscriptions cancel at the end of the current billing cycle with no refund of the partial month. Annual subscriptions are non-refundable for unused portions -- you keep access through the paid term. Client data, contracts, and invoices remain accessible until the end date; export your records before closing. Dubsado does not publish a money-back guarantee window (HoneyBook offers 60 days; Dubsado relies on the unlimited-time free trial as the no-risk evaluation period).

How does Dubsado compare to Agiled on price?

Agiled prices flat at $15 per user per month with the full stack (CRM, contracts, invoicing, projects, scheduling, client portal, plus modules like helpdesk and HRM). Both pass Stripe fees through at published rates with zero markup. Math: at 1-2 users, Agiled is cheaper ($180-$360/yr vs Dubsado's $525). At 3 users, the platforms are within $15/yr of each other. At 5+ users, Dubsado pulls ahead because of its bundled 3 seats plus the flat $25/mo overage tier. Choose Dubsado for creative-industry workflow depth; choose Agiled for project management depth and broader module coverage. See agiled.app for current per-seat pricing.

Bottom Line: Should You Pay for Dubsado in 2026?

Pay for Dubsado Premier ($525/yr) if you're a solo or 2-3 person creative business with payment volume above ~$50K/year, you do meaningful ACH or autopay billing, and you'll invest the upfront setup time in Flows. The total-cost math beats HoneyBook handily in those conditions, mostly because of the $5 ACH cap and the no-surcharge card-on-file rate.

Skip Dubsado if you want the smoothest out-of-the-box setup, you book mostly mobile-first at events, you bill in small card-only transactions where the fee deltas don't matter, or you need real project management depth that Dubsado's project view doesn't deliver. In those cases, HoneyBook is the easier on-ramp, or Agiled covers the same CRM + contracts + invoicing + projects stack at flat $15/user/mo with bundled project management and helpdesk modules.

The single most actionable move regardless of platform: route as many invoices as possible through ACH. On Dubsado that's $5 max per transaction. On a $200K business with even 30% ACH adoption ($60K through ACH), that's roughly $1,200-$1,500/year in fee savings vs running everything through cards -- more than the entire Dubsado Premier subscription.

Related Reading

• HoneyBook Pricing 2026: Plans, Hidden Fees & Real Cost Breakdown
• Best HoneyBook Alternatives
• Best Dubsado Alternatives
• ClickUp Pricing Guide
• Best Small Business CRM