In This Guide
The short version
HoneyBook sells three plans and 17hats sells one, and that single difference shapes every other comparison between them.
HoneyBook starts at $29 a month billed yearly and withholds the scheduler, automations and team seats until the $49 plan. 17hats charges $60 a month for everything it has, falling to $50 a month on a yearly term and about $33.33 a month on a two-year term.
A solo business that needs only invoicing and contracts pays less on HoneyBook. A business that needs scheduling, workflows and lead forms from day one pays less on 17hats once the two-year term is taken.
At a glance
| HoneyBook | 17hats | |
|---|---|---|
| Plans | Three: $29, $49, $109 a month billed yearly | One, priced three ways |
| Entry price | $29 a month billed yearly | $60 a month, or $600 a year |
| Cheapest route | $29 a month billed yearly | $800 for two years |
| Free trial | Yes, on every plan | 7 days, restartable once |
| Client portal | On every plan including $29 | Included |
| Scheduling | From the $49 plan | Included |
| Team members | 2 on the $49 plan, unlimited on $109 | Multi-user, price not published |
| Second brand | Multiple companies on the $109 plan | Multi-brand included |
| Remove vendor branding | From the $49 plan | Custom logo, colours, fonts and sub-domains |
| Payment fees | Card from 2.9% + 25¢, bank transfer 1.5% | Not published; integrates Stripe and Square |
| Time tracking | Not on the pricing page | Not in the feature suite |
Pricing compared
HoneyBook prices by plan and 17hats prices by commitment, so the two only line up once the term is fixed.
HoneyBook Starter at $29 a month billed yearly is the cheapest way into either product. HoneyBook Essentials at $49 a month is the plan most buyers actually need, because the scheduler and automations live there. HoneyBook Premium at $109 a month is the only plan with unlimited team members.
17hats charges $60 a month, $600 a year, or $800 for two years. The yearly term works out to $50 a month and the two-year term to about $33.33 a month, both figures being our own arithmetic rather than numbers 17hats prints.
Where the two cross over
17hats on the two-year term costs about $33.33 a month for everything. HoneyBook Essentials, the first HoneyBook plan with scheduling and automations, costs $49 a month. On a feature-for-feature basis 17hats is the cheaper of the two, provided the two-year commitment is acceptable.
What each one includes
HoneyBook Starter covers unlimited clients and projects, invoices and payments, proposals and contracts, a calendar, the template library, a client portal, basic reports and up to two live lead forms.
HoneyBook Essentials adds the scheduler, automations, the QuickBooks Online integration, up to two team members, up to ten lead forms, SMS reminders and the removal of the "Powered by HoneyBook" mark.
HoneyBook Premium adds unlimited team members, priority support, multiple companies, advanced reports and unlimited lead forms.
17hats publishes its feature suite in nine groups and gates none of them behind a higher plan: contacts, projects, pipelines and tagging; quotes, contracts, invoices and questionnaires with if-then logic; payment schedules, recurring billing and online payments; sub-domains with custom logo, colours and fonts; email templates with incoming monitoring and read receipts; workflows and a client portal; online scheduling with pay-upon-booking, calendar cross-checking and Zoom; lead capture forms with triggers and auto-responders; and reports covering sales tax, profit and loss, lead source and client sales.
What neither of them does
HoneyBook and 17hats both leave billable time to a separate tool. 17hats lists nine feature categories across its full feature page and none of them mentions a timer, billable hours or timesheets. HoneyBook's pricing page does not carry time tracking either.
For anyone billing hourly, that means a second subscription to a time tracker and a manual step between the hours and the invoice. Both tools are built around the document flow from enquiry to payment rather than around the work in the middle.
The other shared gap is the payment fee. HoneyBook publishes card fees starting at 2.9% plus 25 cents and bank transfers at 1.5%, and 17hats publishes no rate of its own because payments run through Stripe or Square at whatever those charge.
Who should choose what
Choose HoneyBook for a solo creative business that wants the most polished client-facing experience and does not need scheduling on day one, because $29 a month billed yearly is genuinely cheap for what Starter includes.
Choose 17hats for a business that wants every feature from the start, is comfortable committing to two years, and values not having to work out which plan holds which feature. At about $33.33 a month on the two-year term, 17hats is the better value of the two.
Choose neither if the work is billed by the hour, because that is the one job both tools leave to another product.
Three years, in total
Monthly prices hide the size of the decision. The totals below are our own arithmetic from each vendor published price, not figures either vendor prints.
| Plan | Three-year total |
|---|---|
| HoneyBook Starter, billed yearly | $1,044 |
| HoneyBook Essentials, billed yearly | $1,764 |
| HoneyBook Premium, billed yearly | $3,924 |
| 17hats, billed monthly | $2,160 |
| 17hats, billed yearly | $1,800 |
| 17hats, two-year then one-year term | $1,400 |
| AgencyKit Agency, billed yearly | $1,170 |
Over three years the cheapest full-feature route on 17hats costs $1,400 and the HoneyBook plan with comparable scheduling and automations costs $1,764.
Verdict by category
Cheapest entry: HoneyBook, at $29 a month billed yearly.
Cheapest full feature set: 17hats, at about $33.33 a month on the two-year term.
Simplest to buy: 17hats, because one plan removes the question of which tier holds which feature.
Largest team: HoneyBook, whose Premium plan at $109 a month allows unlimited team members.
Client experience: HoneyBook, which is the more polished of the two on the client-facing side.
Second brand: 17hats, which includes multi-brand where HoneyBook puts multiple companies on its $109 plan.
Billable hours: neither, because both leave time tracking to another product.
Where AgencyKit fits
AgencyKit is billed per account rather than per user: $9 a month on Starter, $39 on Agency and $69 on Agency Pro, with a 14-day free trial of Agency Pro and no credit card.
AgencyKit tracks billable time in every plan and turns tracked minutes into invoice lines, which is the step both HoneyBook and 17hats leave out. The AgencyKit Agency plan at $39 a month includes a client portal, online payments, electronic signature and up to ten team members, against two team members on HoneyBook Essentials at $49.
HoneyBook still wins on polish and on entry price at $29 a month, and 17hats still wins for a buyer who wants one price and no plan comparison at all.
Prices move
Every figure on this page was read from each vendor's own pricing page on 23 September 2026. Vendors change prices, so check the current pages before deciding.
Key Takeaways
- HoneyBook sells three plans at $29, $49 and $109 a month billed yearly
- 17hats sells one all-inclusive plan at $60 a month, $600 a year or $800 for two years
- HoneyBook withholds the scheduler, automations and team seats until the $49 plan
- 17hats gates nothing, so the entry price is also the full price
- HoneyBook and 17hats both leave billable time to a separate tool
Frequently Asked Questions
HoneyBook is cheaper to start at $29 a month billed yearly, and 17hats is cheaper feature-for-feature at about $33.33 a month on its two-year term. The comparison only settles once the commitment length is fixed, because 17hats prices by term rather than by plan.
No. 17hats sells one all-inclusive plan and three ways to pay for it: $60 a month, $600 a year, or $800 for two years. Every feature 17hats has is in that single plan.
Not on the entry plan. The HoneyBook scheduler starts on the Essentials plan at $49 a month billed yearly, along with automations and the QuickBooks Online integration. 17hats includes online scheduling at its single price.
Neither one does. The 17hats feature page lists nine categories and none mentions a timer, billable hours or timesheets, and time tracking does not appear on HoneyBook's pricing page. Anyone billing hourly needs a second tool.
HoneyBook allows up to two team members on the $49 Essentials plan and unlimited team members on the $109 Premium plan. 17hats supports multiple users but does not publish a per-user price on its pricing page.
HoneyBook supports multiple companies on the $109 Premium plan. 17hats includes multi-brand support, letting a second brand run in the same account without the two crossing over.
HoneyBook publishes card fees starting at 2.9% plus 25 cents and bank transfer fees of 1.5%, applied the same way on all three plans. 17hats publishes no rate of its own because payments run through Stripe or Square.
AgencyKit covers the same enquiry-to-payment flow and adds the piece both leave out, which is built-in time tracking that turns tracked minutes into invoice lines. AgencyKit is billed per account at $9, $39 and $69 a month rather than per plan tier or per term.
References
- HoneyBook pricing www.honeybook.com
- 17hats pricing www.17hats.com
- 17hats features www.17hats.com
- AgencyKit pricing agencykit.tech