Alternative to Dubsado

Ease of use

Go to any review site and you'll see the biggest problem people repeatedly have with Dubsado is the fact that it's not intuitive. The interface and the terminology they use will have you clicking around, confused as to where to go and what to do to start creating a document.

The biggest testament to how difficult it is to set up your account? The fact that there are Dubsado Certified Specialists you can pay to get your account up and running.

Unlike Dubsado, Better Proposals doesn't take hours to wrap your head around. You can get your account set up in 30 minutes max, and that's if you skip the initial setup wizard and decide to go through the settings manually.

Support

Seeing that ease of use is the biggest complaint people have with Dubsado, you'd expect them to make up for it in customer support. However, judging by reviews, that's not the case.

Users report support problems like time difference issues and long wait times for problem resolution. Seeing that Dubsado's support team is available in Pacific time, you'll have to wait to get answers if you're based outside the US. And even if you aren't, the support working hours vary based on the day you need to contact them on. It's also worth mentioning that, before talking to a human, you'll first have to ask Dubbie, their chatbot.

At Better Proposals, we don't hide our customer support behind a bot - because we don't have one. Every time you reach out through live chat, you're reaching out to a human. Whatever the question, our support team is guaranteed to have the answer, and you'll get it in an average of two minutes.

Templates

For software that's aimed at creatives, Dubsado's templates aren't as visually appealing as you'd expect. When you first sign up, your account comes with five basic document templates and three fillable forms.

The content inside the templates consists of placeholder text and, as far as design is concerned, there isn't any. If you're looking to create visually appealing proposals, Dubsado is going to make you work - or pay - for it.

In addition to the templates you get when you first sign up, you can also go to Dubsado's Template Library. There, you'll find 59 user-generated templates that you can add to your account and customize.

However, just because you've added templates to your account doesn't mean you'll be able to fully customize them. At least not before you've downloaded the assets used to create them or, worse, paid to use the assets used to create the templates.

With Better Proposals, on the other hand, you get access to over 250 professionally designed templates. As an added bonus, most of those templates are also pre-written, which means you can send your first proposal in minutes instead of hours. And yes, they're all completely customizable for free - you don't have to pay to use the assets that are already inside the templates.

Here's what they look like on mobile

Scroll through one of our proposals on the left, compare it to Dubsado's on the right

Signatures

Both Better Proposals and Dubsado let you collect eSignatures on your proposals, contracts, and other documents. That said, if you need more than one person to sign off, that's where you'll notice the biggest difference.

With Better Proposals, you can collect as many signatures as you need on one document. You can also set a signing order to make sure all recipients sign at the correct time in the approval process. If you need to countersign, you'll simply be the last person to be notified that your signature is required.

With Dubsado, the process of collecting multiple signatures is much more complicated. You can't use only one document for it. Instead, in addition to your contract, you'll have to set up a sub-agreement for every other person that needs to sign. Then, if you have to countersign, you'll need to countersign both the agreement and each individual sub-contract.

Integrations

If you're looking for proposal software that integrates with the tools you're already using, Better Proposals is the way to go. With more than 40 integrations, we make sure you have everything you need to automate your workflow. On the other hand, Dubsado offers only eight integrations, five of which are different videoconferencing tools.

Payment integrations

Both Dubsado and Better Proposals offer three payment integrations each. With Dubsado, you can integrate Stripe, Square, and Paypal. And while Better Proposals also lets you integrate Stripe and PayPal, we also integrate with GoCardless.

Since GoCardless is a direct debit provider, you don't have to wait for your clients to send you money. Instead, the payment is collected directly from their bank account. That way, you can spend less time chasing payments and more time doing what you're good at.

Value for money

When it comes to pricing, both Dubsado and Better Proposals work on a subscription basis and offer a free trial so you can see the software in action. Unlike our 14-day free trial, Dubsado's trial doesn't come with a time limit. Instead, they use a three-client limit, so you can essentially use it for free until you add client number four or another user.

Dubsado is aimed at freelancers and small businesses, so they offer two plans: Starter at $20/month and Premier at $40/month. If you decided to go for an annual subscription, that would be $200 or $400 a year depending on the plan you choose.

With Better Proposals, you have three options: Starter at $19/month, Premium at $29/month, or Enterprise at $49/month. On an annual subscription, this means $149 for Starter, $249 for Premium, and $499 for Enterprise.

Besides being more affordable, Better Proposals also comes with detailed document tracking that you don't get with Dubsado. We let you know exactly when a client has taken any action on your documents, as well as how long they've spend on which section.

In addition to that, you can integrating live chat with your Better Proposals account lets you talk to clients in real time, right as they're reading your proposals. You can let clients accept your offer without signing, and collecting multiple signatures doesn't involve creating separate documents for each signature. Most importantly, all our templates are completely customizable with no hidden fees for assets used in them.

Conclusion

When choosing between Dubsado and Better Proposals, Better Proposals is the one that will save you more time creating documents. It's also the one that comes with detailed analytics, more integrations, and ready-to-use templates.

If you're a freelancer or running a small business, you'll get everything you need with our Starter or Premium plan. That said, compared to what Dubsado offers, even going with our highest plan gives you more value for your money.

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