HoneyBook is a full client management system built for creative professionals. Photographers, wedding planners, interior designers, event coordinators. If you're a cleaner, landscaper, HVAC tech, or contractor, you'll notice pretty quickly that the tool wasn't designed with you in mind.
BidMaker is built for service trades, not creative businesses. The templates speak cleaning, landscaping, and contracting language. The AI understands service pricing. You can be sending proposals in under 30 minutes. Free to start — $29/month if you need unlimited proposals and custom branding.
Six attributes of your business that should drive the choice. Use this matrix before reading the feature table — most teams know the answer once they see the signals.
| Your situation | Switch to BidMaker if… | Stay on HoneyBook if… |
|---|---|---|
| What you actually use HoneyBook for | 80%+ of your HoneyBook activity is sending proposals — contracts, invoicing, and CRM are barely touched | You genuinely run inquiry → contract → invoice → payment → review through HoneyBook every week — pulling proposals out leaves three holes |
| Vertical fit you're hitting in practice | You're a trade or service-business operator (cleaning, landscaping, contracting, HVAC) and HoneyBook's wedding/photography/event templates have never quite landed | You're a photographer, planner, designer, or event pro — HoneyBook's templates and workflows were built for exactly your shape of business |
| How deep your HoneyBook setup goes | Light setup — a couple of templates, no automated workflows, no integrations live yet | Months of pipeline stages, contract templates, automated email sequences, and Zapier/QuickBooks/Gmail integrations are running — disruption cost is real |
| Where you are in the billing cycle | Monthly, or annual with under 90 days left — the switch lines up with renewal | Just renewed annual with 6+ months prepaid — the savings don't beat mid-cycle disruption cost |
| Whether anyone else's workflow depends on it | Just you — assistants and contractors don't touch HoneyBook day-to-day | An assistant, planner, or second-shooter relies on HoneyBook's calendar, client portal, or task automations to do their job |
| What pushed you to look in the first place | Templates feel wrong for your trade, you wanted AI proposal drafting, or you realized 70% of HoneyBook is dead weight for your use case — BidMaker fixes those three | You want HoneyBook to do something specific better (lead capture form, payment automation, contract redlining) — switching to BidMaker won't fix that |
BidMaker
Free (3 proposals/mo), Pro $29/mo, Business $59/mo
HoneyBook
Starts at $19/mo (Starter, annual)
| Feature | BidMaker | HoneyBook |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan HoneyBook has a 7-day free trial; no permanent free tier | ||
| AI proposal generation HoneyBook has AI for automating client responses, not full proposal generation | ||
| Proposals | ||
| Contracts and e-signatures HoneyBook includes contracts + signatures on all plans | Business ($59/mo) | |
| Invoicing and payment collection HoneyBook processes client payments — a core feature | ||
| Client CRM (contact management) HoneyBook tracks the full client relationship lifecycle | ||
| Project pipeline management | ||
| Scheduling and calendar | ||
| Automated client workflows HoneyBook can auto-send follow-ups, intake forms, contracts based on triggers | ||
| PDF export | ||
| Built for service trades HoneyBook targets creatives (photographers, planners); BidMaker targets trades (cleaners, landscapers, contractors) | ||
| Simple setup (under 30 min) HoneyBook has a significant onboarding curve to configure workflows |
Choose BidMaker if...
Choose HoneyBook if...
Per-seat pricing changes the math fast. Three buyer scenarios — solo, small team, larger team — with annual cost for each tool and our take on which one actually wins.
Switch now (monthly billing or annual just expired, proposals-only usage)
BidMaker
$0 (Free, 3/mo) or $348/yr (Pro, unlimited)
HoneyBook
$228/yr (Starter, annual) up to $948/yr (Premium) — keep paying
Verdict: BidMaker if HoneyBook is effectively just your proposal tool — the per-month math compounds and the trade-specific templates land better; switch immediately, no prepaid loss
Switch at renewal (annual, 1–3 months left, proposals are 80%+ of usage)
BidMaker
Free now while you build templates and send a real test proposal; Pro $29/mo when prepaid period ends
HoneyBook
Continue paying through the prepaid period; cancel before auto-renewal
Verdict: BidMaker — use the runway to migrate without wasting prepaid money; switch is locked in by your renewal date
Stay (using full platform, or mid-cycle annual, or creative-vertical fit)
BidMaker
$0 — keep BidMaker on the shelf and revisit at renewal
HoneyBook
Already prepaid; the bundle of contracts + invoicing + scheduling + payments + client portal is doing real work
Verdict: HoneyBook — when the bundle fits your business, replacing it requires 3–4 separate tools; BidMaker would be a downgrade. Bookmark and revisit only if your usage narrows back to proposals
Six steps. Total time: 30–60 minutes for a solo operator with 3–8 templates and an active subscription. Test before you cancel.
1. Inventory what you actually use in HoneyBook
Open HoneyBook and check the last 90 days of activity. Are you sending proposals + contracts + invoices + collecting payments through it? Or is it mostly proposals with the rest barely touched? If it's the full bundle, BidMaker won't replace HoneyBook — read the 'don't switch' list before continuing. If it's mostly proposals, the switch is straightforward.
Time: 10 min
2. Decide what (if anything) replaces HoneyBook's bundled features
BidMaker is proposals only — no contracts, invoicing, scheduling, payments, or client CRM. If you actually use any of those in HoneyBook, plan their replacement first: QuickBooks or Stripe Invoicing for invoicing/payments, DocuSign or Dropbox Sign for contracts, Google/Apple Calendar for scheduling. Confirm those alternatives are workable before you commit to leaving.
Time: 20–30 min to map alternatives
3. Export your HoneyBook proposal templates as PDFs
Open each proposal template in HoneyBook, choose Export → PDF (or print-to-PDF). You won't recreate them one-for-one in BidMaker — the AI drafts from a job description rather than from a template — but the section structure is useful reference once you start writing.
Time: 10–15 min for 3–6 templates
4. Create a BidMaker free account
Free plan: 3 proposals/month, 1 AI generation/month, no credit card. Use this tier to send a real proposal to a real client before you commit to canceling HoneyBook — this is the test that decides whether the switch holds for your vertical.
Time: 2 min
5. Generate your first BidMaker proposal
Don't try to recreate your HoneyBook templates upfront. Pick a current job, describe it in 2–3 sentences, let the AI draft the full proposal. Edit and send. For trades and service operators this draft is usually closer to your job's specifics than a generic creative-business template.
Time: 5–10 min for the first one
6. Cancel HoneyBook (or accept that you're keeping it for the bundled features)
Once you've sent 1–2 BidMaker proposals successfully, decide: cancel HoneyBook entirely (proposals-only users), or keep it for contracts/invoicing/payments and use BidMaker just for proposals (rare, but possible if the bundle still earns its cost). If on annual billing, set a calendar reminder for 7 days before renewal so you don't auto-pay.
Time: 2 min
Five honest reasons to stay on HoneyBook. We'd rather lose you to a clear-eyed "no" than churn you in 60 days because we oversold the fit.
You actively run contracts, invoicing, payments, scheduling, or client CRM through HoneyBook — BidMaker replaces none of those and you'd need 3–4 separate tools
You're a photographer, wedding planner, designer, or event pro — HoneyBook's templates and workflows were built for your business; BidMaker's are written for service trades and won't fit
Automated workflows are doing real work in HoneyBook — auto-send contract after booking, intake form triggers, payment reminder sequences — and pulling them apart breaks how clients move through your business
An assistant, second-shooter, or contractor depends on HoneyBook's calendar, client portal, or task assignments — you can't unilaterally switch without rebuilding their workflow too
You just renewed annual with more than 6 months prepaid — the savings don't beat the mid-cycle disruption cost. Bookmark BidMaker and switch at renewal if your usage has narrowed to proposals only by then
3 proposals/month. AI generation included. Takes about 5 minutes to get a proposal out.
Try BidMaker freeProbably. HoneyBook is a full client management system — proposals are one feature among many. If you already have invoicing and client communication sorted, paying $19-$79/month for HoneyBook to use 10% of its features doesn't make sense. BidMaker does the proposal piece better and for less.
HoneyBook is built for creative professionals. The templates, workflows, and default setup assume you're booking events or creative projects. BidMaker has templates and AI prompts built for trades: house cleaning bids, landscaping quotes, home improvement estimates. Different tool for a different customer.
HoneyBook's Starter plan is $19/mo (annual billing) with limited features; their most popular plan is $39/mo. BidMaker is free for 3 proposals/month, $29/mo for Pro. If you're only using it for proposals, BidMaker is cheaper at every tier. HoneyBook is worth the price if you're actually using the CRM, invoicing, and workflow features.
No. BidMaker handles proposals and e-signatures (on Business plan). For contracts, invoices, and payments, you'd use separate tools. HoneyBook wraps all of that into one platform.
Want a side-by-side breakdown of features and pricing? See the full BidMaker vs HoneyBook comparison