Dubsado

What is Dubsado?

Dubsado is a configurable back office. You build forms, proposals, contracts and invoices as templates, then chain them into workflows that fire on triggers: a lead submits an enquiry form, a proposal goes out, a contract follows on acceptance, an invoice follows the signature, a reminder follows the invoice.

The registry records intake forms and questionnaires, contracts and e-signatures, invoicing and payments, and self-serve scheduling as fully covered. Branded coach website is recorded as partial. Coaching programmes with habits and check-ins, accountability and progress tracking, community and group cohorts, courses and digital products, in-app video and a client mobile app are all recorded as absent.

That is an unusually clean split. Dubsado owns everything up to the point where the work starts and nothing after it.

Who is Dubsado for, and who is it not for?

Dubsado suits a coach whose commercial process is genuinely complicated: tiered proposals, bespoke scopes, corporate clients who need a purchase order referenced on an invoice, multi-stage intake. If your enquiry-to-signature process has more than four steps, the workflow engine will pay for itself.

It does not suit a coach who wants structure out of the box. Dubsado is powerful because it assumes nothing, which means you build everything, and its reputation for a long configuration weekend is earned rather than unfair. The registry’s own positioning describes it as flexible but fiddly to configure.

It is also not a place for coaching to happen. There is no programme, no habit, no check-in, no community and no client app. A Dubsado client receives forms and invoices and meets you on a video call somewhere else.

What does Dubsado cost, and what does that buy?

Dubsado sits at the cheap end of this directory. The figure in the registry is a range rather than a tier list, so this table shows it against the other CRM in the directory and against ours.

Prices as recorded in the registry, verified May 2026. Both CRMs cover the paperwork thoroughly; neither covers delivery, which is the line this directory is organised around.

What does Dubsado cover of the coaching stack?

What would a coach still need alongside Dubsado?

Four gaps, in the order a growing practice usually hits them. Each one is a second subscription unless the practice genuinely does not need it.

1. Somewhere for the coaching to live

   Programmes, habits and check-ins are absent, so multi-week delivery happens in a second product or in documents.

2. A video room

   In-app video and the Zoom, Meet and Teams integrations are recorded as absent, so sessions are booked in one place and held in another.

3. A client-facing home

   There is no client mobile app and no community, so the client’s experience of you is forms, invoices and a calendar invitation.

4. A marketing site

   Website coverage is partial, which for most coaches means a separate site builder.

How does Dubsado compare with Coachful?

Dubsado wins on paperwork depth, straightforwardly. Its forms and workflows are more configurable than ours, and a coach with a genuinely bespoke commercial process will hit limits in Coachful that Dubsado does not have. If your enquiry process is the complicated part of your business, buy the tool built for that.

Coachful wins on everything after the signature. Programmes with weekly goals and daily tasks, habits, morning and evening check-ins, group cohorts, community, courses, built-in video and a branded client app on iOS and Android, from $29 a month, with contracts, invoicing, intake forms and scheduling included rather than replaced.

The price comparison is close enough to be beside the point. This is a scope decision: a deep back office with no delivery, or a complete coaching system with a less configurable back office.

What should you do about it?

Count the steps between an enquiry landing and a client starting. If it is more than four and each one is different per client, Dubsado is a reasonable purchase and you will need a delivery tool beside it. If it is three steps and they are the same every time, you are buying configuration you will never use.

The CRM ranking orders this category by whether the client record holds the coaching work rather than just the deal, which is the criterion that separates Dubsado from the coaching-shaped products.

What does Dubsado do fully, and what does it leave out?

Dubsado is recorded as fully covering 4 of the 11 capabilities in its row: intake forms & questionnaires; contracts & e-signatures; invoicing & payments; scheduling (self-serve booking).

It is recorded as not including 6 of them: coaching programs with habits & check-ins; accountability & progress tracking; community & group cohorts; sell courses & digital products; in-app video + Zoom / Meet / Teams; client mobile app. A coach who needs any of those runs a separate tool for it.

A further 1 is recorded as partial: branded coach website. Test those with your own workflow before relying on them.

Coachful’s published tiers, for comparison

How does Dubsado’s price compare with an all-in-one plan?

The registry records Dubsado’s price as $20–40/mo. That figure covers Dubsado alone, so the fair comparison adds the monthly cost of whatever you would run beside it, starting with coaching programs with habits & check-ins.

On Coachful’s published tiers, 5 clients on Lite cost $29 a month ($5.80 per client), 20 clients on Solo cost $49 ($2.45 per client), and 50 clients on Pro cost $99 ($1.98 per client). Pro has no client cap, so the per-client figure keeps falling as the practice grows.

Write both totals down for your current client count and for double it. The cheaper tool at today’s size is not always the cheaper tool at the size you are aiming for.

What should you check before choosing Dubsado?

1. Get the price at two sizes

   The registry records $20–40/mo. Ask what you would pay at your current client count and at double it, including any per-seat, per-client or usage charges.

2. Price the tools around it

   List what you would add for coaching programs with habits & check-ins, accountability & progress tracking, community & group cohorts and the rest of the gaps above, with a monthly price for each. Add them to the Dubsado figure before comparing.

3. Test the client side

   Sign up as a client of your own trial account and go through booking, paying and the first piece of work. Clients judge a practice by that path, not by the coach dashboard.

4. List your next two offers

   Check that a group programme, a course or a second coach would fit before you commit. Moving clients later is the most expensive change a practice makes.

5. Ask how you would leave

   Find out which records export (clients, notes, payments, content) and in what format, before you need to know.

What are the common mistakes when comparing Dubsado?

• Comparing Dubsado’s subscription with an all-in-one plan without adding the tools it needs beside it.
• Choosing on the coach dashboard and never testing what a client sees on a phone.
• Treating a "partial" capability as fully covered and discovering the gap with a paying client.
• Buying for the practice you have today rather than the one you can see in eighteen months.