Buyer's guideUpdated
Five tools compared on what a client portal needs: what each client sees and sends you, invoices and payments, who you pay for, and the price.
Fabricate is ours, so every other pick says where it beats Fabricate, and each tool's price comes with the page we read it on.

Also good: Dubsado for a yearly price, Softr for a portal on Airtable or Google Sheets.
Best for a portal built around you
Describe your service in plain words. Fabricate builds the portal, its records and the client sign-in, and you change it by asking.
Best for one price with everything in
An all-in-one business platform with a client portal, contracts and e-signatures, client onboarding, projects and white label, sold at one price rather than per user.
Best for proposals to payment
Client management for service businesses: proposals, contracts, invoices and payments, scheduling and a client portal, with unlimited clients.
How each portal is shaped, who you pay for, and the cheapest paid plan.
Each tool's cheapest paid plan as its own pricing page showed it on October 26, 2026: billed monthly where the page offers it, otherwise as the page bills it. Fabricate's figures come from our live plans.
We compared the five tools on what a client portal needs: whether each client sees only their own, whether it fits how you work, invoices and payments, who you pay for and the price. For the other four we read their pricing pages and documentation on October 26, 2026, and each one's section lists the pages we read. We did not sign up for them for this guide.
Fabricate is ours. It comes first here because it builds the portal around the business's own service, and where another tool is the better pick, its section says so.
Does a signed-in client see only their own work, files and invoices?
Is the portal shaped around your service, or around the tool?
Can clients see what they owe and pay it?
Does the price grow with every client or staff member who signs in?
What does the cheapest paid plan cost, and how is it billed?
Best for: A portal shaped around your service
Describe your service and what each client needs to see and send you, and Fabricate builds the portal: updates and milestones, approvals, uploads, and invoices with a pay button, behind a sign-in where each client sees only their own. Clients join with an invite code you give them, and the people who sign in to a published portal are not counted as seats. Building and previewing are free; publishing is on Pro and Max.
Client portal

Checks

What it does well
Watch out for
Best for: Everything for a service business in one place
An all-in-one business platform with a client portal, contracts and e-signatures, client onboarding, projects and white label, sold at one price rather than per user. START is $19 a month, THRIVE $49 and PINNACLE $99, after a 14-day free trial.
What it does well
Watch out for
Where SuiteDash beats Fabricate
If you want a portal, contracts, onboarding and projects from one company at one flat price, SuiteDash has them ready to switch on.
Source: suitedash.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
Best for: Freelancers and creative services
Client management for service businesses: proposals, contracts, invoices and payments, scheduling and a client portal, with unlimited clients. Starter is $29 a month billed yearly; Essentials is $59 billed monthly, or $49 yearly, for up to 2 team members.
What it does well
Watch out for
Where HoneyBook beats Fabricate
If your work runs from proposal to contract to invoice, HoneyBook does that path out of the box, with a client portal on every plan.
Source: honeybook.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
Best for: Service businesses that bill by the project
Invoices, payments, contracts, proposals, forms, scheduling and client portals for service businesses, billed by the year: Starter is $335 a year and Premier $525, both with unlimited clients, after a 21-day free trial of Premier.
What it does well
Watch out for
Where Dubsado beats Fabricate
If you would rather pay once a year for client management with portals included, Dubsado starts at $335 a year with unlimited clients.
Source: dubsado.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
Best for: A portal on data you already keep
Builds client portals and internal tools from a description with its AI Co-Builder, on Softr's own databases or on data you keep in Airtable or Google Sheets. Its Free plan covers up to 3 builders and 5 app users; Basic is $25 a month, and each plan caps the app users who sign in.
What it does well
Watch out for
Where Softr beats Fabricate
If your client records already live in Airtable or Google Sheets, a Softr portal can sit on them directly.
Sources: softr.io/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked ; Softr docs: AI Co-Builder (opens in a new tab), checked Fabricate vs Softr
From this one description Fabricate builds the client sign-in, each client's own projects and invoices, and your page of every client, in an app with its own database; publishing it is on Pro and Max.
Build free. No card needed.
For a small business that wants a portal shaped around its own service, where each client signs in to see their own updates, approvals and invoices, Fabricate is our pick, and we make it. You describe the portal in plain words, and nobody who signs in counts toward the price. Putting the portal online is on Pro and Max.
SuiteDash comes second for everything in one place at one flat price. HoneyBook and Dubsado suit service businesses whose work runs from proposal to invoice, and Softr suits a portal on records you already keep in Airtable or Google Sheets.
The pages this guide quotes, each with the day it was read.
About this guide
Written by the Fabricate team. Fabricate is our product, so the guide marks it, and each pick, ours or not, says who it suits best.
Each tool's section lists the pages we read about it and the day we read them. We compared the tools from their own pricing pages and documentation, not by signing up for them. Spotted something out of date? Write to info@fabricate.build.
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