Thryv vs. HoneyBook: Compare Price, Features & Reviews

Building and maintaining relationships with customers has always been at the top of the list for small business owners. Sometimes making that connection can be a challenge. It’s especially difficult for businesses dragging their feet to transition to digital solutions, like management software.

Many software platforms on the market are tailored to small business owners who want to improve customer communication, capture more online reviews and build more leads.

But how do you know which of the software platforms is best for your business?

Which one will make it easy for you to communicate with your customers, create customized offers, follow up with online scheduling and reminders, send estimates, invoices and receipts and more?

To help assist in your search for the best software for you, we’ve gathered details about two popular platforms, Thryv and HoneyBook. Both platforms make customer communication and managing jobs easier.

What is HoneyBook

HoneyBook claims to be an all-in-one platform that manages projects, allows users to book clients, send invoices and get paid. With branded templates, all client communication is consistent and clean. Changes, updates and signatures for contracts can be made without the back and forth, making for a major small business time-save.

Because everything HoneyBook has to offer is located within the dashboard, the company insists staying organized and collecting payment is a breeze; however, without an inbox and a questionably short integration list, users are left wondering whether HoneyBook is worth it.

HoneyBook features and pricing

Communication. HoneyBook offers its users ready-to-use contract templates as a jumpstart to solidifying new customers for small business owners. It’s a hassle-free way to communicate.

When proposals go unattended to, automation kicks in. Users set up a series of messages, files and tasks to deliver to customers when the time is right. While this tool is great for quick and personalized follow-ups, HoneyBook users run the risk of communication getting a little messy.

Rather than provide a centralized location for email replies, payment inquiries and general communication, HoneyBook makes users rely on their separate emails for all communication. This is bad news. Imagine emails from venders, subscriptions and bills due crowding your Gmail account, causing you to miss out on client inquiries.

Scheduling. Skip the phone tag back and forth trying to schedule client appointments. HoneyBook’s system lets you to set your availability and then share a meeting link. You clients can then book the time that works best for them. The scheduling tool is intuitive for both the business owner and client.

Payments + Invoicing. This HoneyBook feature offers online invoicing attached to their contracts, which makes billing customers and getting paid on the go simple. However, while users are able to brand their invoices to match the rest of their digital stationery, the issue lies in HoneyBook’s limited payment methods.

Business owners using HoneyBook are only able to accept the big three: Mastercard, Visa and American Express with 3% processing fee. HoneyBook also allows ACH payments with a 1.5% processing fee. You cannot access PayPal, Stripe or Venmo, accept tips, or pass on convenience fees with HoneyBook.

HONEYBOOK PRICING

When it comes to pricing, HoneyBook looks like a bargain with the Starter Plan set at $9 monthly and Unlimited priced at $39 monthly. The Starter Plan provides users with access to all of Honeybook’s features but only up to six months of concierge support. Unfortunately, small business owners will need help beyond those six months.

Even worse, HoneyBook users on the Starter plan are limited to $10,000 in total transactions. This plan wouldn’t serve well for an up-and-coming roofing company. Within two jobs they’d be forced to upgrade to the Unlimited Plan. At more than four times the cost, it offers the same access to all of HoneyBook’s features plus no transactions limits, unlimited concierge support and unlimited team members. By purchasing annually, HoneyBook users can receive a 17% discount. Despite HoneyBook’s reasonable pricing, small business users would still need to seek out other platforms for the many services not provided, such as centralized communication, social media management, online listings and reviews, marketing automation and more.

HoneyBook reviews

Pros: Easy to use, focused task management, great templates, nice interface.

Cons: HoneyBook has limited integrations and payment methods, is not stable across all platforms, offers too short of a trial period and users feel pressured to subscribe.

“The payment methods were a bit too limited to only accept payment on their platform, then the fees to withdraw and deposit into your own account … I felt a bit rushed to subscribe without having understood the full extent of their capabilities, after doing more research I realized this wasn’t enough to meet my needs. Their pricing is also a bit much considering they are not offering all of the services the other CRM programs do …” –User in Graphic Design; Verified user; G2 review 2/15/2020

HoneyBook customer service

When it comes to looking for support, users’ views are conflicting. While some call the customer service team great and top-notch, claim they’re always available, others feel the verdict is still out. They’re not a fan of the limited support solely through email. One HoneyBook user review warned others by sharing his most recent support team woes. Donald C. noted that due to no screen sharing or phone call ability, he was left in a cycle of emailing screenshots, waiting for a solution, the solution failing and repeat. His final statement: Cannot, at this time, recommend.

What is Thryv

For small business owners who want to centralize, manage and automate their business’s day-to-day activities, including customer communication and generating online reviews, Thryv is the solution. Thryv is the end-to-end customer experience platform for growing small businesses that is fully integrated with nearly all business activities, from organizing the customer database to sending bulk email and text messages to managing all aspects of a job from initial outreach, ongoing, centralized communication, estimates, invoices, payments, receipts, follow-ups, reminders, online scheduling and more.

It’s also a powerful marketing tool that provides email and SMS text templates as well as a huge library of social media posts, paired with a post scheduling calendar, so users never have to leave their Thryv dashboard to deliver their marketing messages.

Thryv’s powerful follow-up tools also allow users to request and manage online reviews so their online reputation is well cared for. Users also receive regular insights on its their website, social media and online reviews performance.

Thryv also has an ever-evolving App Market that integrates seamlessly with several popular business-operating programs. Integrate your QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online, Jotform, Yext, Constant Contact, Indeed, Mailchimp and more.

Thryv pricing and features

As a full, end-to-end platform, Thryv helps businesses:

Get the Job by improving online presence, building and maintaining reviews, growing social media audiences, setting online appointments, creating and delivering estimates and allowing form fills.

Manage the Job by maintaining a real-time calendar for all staff members, collecting and storing online documents, creating and delivering estimates, allowing a variety of payment methods.

Get Credit with marketing automation such as social posting, text and email campaigns and requesting reviews as well as sending promotions and other messaging that is customized to the right audience at the right time.

Enhanced CRM. A centralized customer relationship management system is the cornerstone of Thryv’s software platform. The customer is at the center of your business. Full customer information is available in each client “card,” and can be organized with identifiable information, such as services received, date of last service, upcoming appointments, payments, conversations and even uploaded documents. This makes every other action more seamless for the business owner to manage the customer’s entire journey.

Thryv’s verticalized CRM means that when users sign up, they see the proper terms for their specific industry. Whereas HoneyBook draws in a great deal of photographers, Thryv is great for photographers, home services, health and beauty, attorneys, pet services, schools and daycares, mechanics and much more.

Thryv users can organize multiple jobs, patients, cases and more under a single contact. If you’re a daycare center, you can assign multiple children to one parent. For a home staging company, that’s multiple locations for a single owner. For a mechanic, they’d be able to record maintenance to several vehicles linked to one owner.

Sales & Payments. Thryv users manage the entire sales process, not just collecting payment. They can create estimates, invoices and receipts from the dashboard, which provides a clear overview of outstanding invoices. Because Thryv is all about giving control back to the business owners, our users can take their pick from several payment methods; credit, debit, ThryvPay, PayPal, Braintree, Venmo, Square, Stripe, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

ThryvPay offers competitive flat-rate fees for credit cards, so there are no surprises. ThryvPay also offers low ACH fees that max out at $9. With ThryvPay, users can access the pay by text message option that allows customers to pay from their mobile device. This means customers pay you on time. Users can also pass on convenience fees to their customers (where allowable by law), and accept tips for a job well done.

Customer Communication. Thryv users manage every conversation in their centralized Thryv inbox. And they can respond immediately, whether that is over email or text message. Staff members can even be assigned to manage specific correspondence.

Online Scheduling. With Thryv, the customer can choose their own appointment time without having to play phone tag to get on the business’s schedule. This gives time back to the business owner and their staff. They no longer have to stop working to answer scheduling phone calls.

Reputation Management & Online Presence. In addition to requesting and managing online reviews, Thryv users can tap into Thryv’s powerful online listings capabilities, which ensures that the business’s information is current and accurate across more than 60 online listings sites. This ensures that customers anywhere can find the business, no matter where they look. Regular reporting also allows Thryv users to stay on top of incoming reviews and get in-depth benchmarking against competitors. These features are notably not included in so-called “all-in-one” HoneyBook.

Marketing & Social Media. Thryv users can create customized marketing campaigns that can be sent in bulk or automated to send after a milestone. For instance, using the enhanced CRM and its tagging capabilities, a Thryv user can automate an email or SMS text to go out whenever it’s time for a specific client to schedule their next appointment. Also, users can send out offers and messages to a specific set of customers, such as a VIP promotion for customers who receive a certain service. Thryv also provides social media posting capabilities. This comes with a large library of customizable post templates to make regular, ongoing social presence and posting a breeze.

THRYV PRICING

Thryv’s policy is to customize pricing based on each individual business. Thryv pricing would beat HoneyBook plus the multiple software platforms needed to offer the full business management system that Thryv does.

Thryv customer service

Simply put, Thryv’s customer service is unmatched. With extensive onboarding support, Thryv provides free, unlimited technical support 24-7. In Thryv’s online reviews, customers continuously point out this crucial benefit as the key differentiator for Thryv.

Free online resources include educational guides and blogs, customer testimonials, how-to videos, and a knowledge center with step-by-step instruction and new feature updates.

Thryv provides video and one-on-one demos to understand each business’s individual needs. It’s a no-pressure informational session focused on discovering small business needs, rather than a hard sale.

HoneyBook vs Thryv

While Thryv and HoneyBook both offer job management, the systems couldn’t be more different. HoneyBook is a broad software used for securing and managing projects with their use of contracts and timelines. Although equipped with nicely branded templates, HoneyBook’s features don’t touch a fraction of what small businesses need to be successful. Thryv is the true end-to-end client experience software. From assisting users in being found to offering incrementally more payment options than the competition, the choice is clear.

While HoneyBook users are struggling to reach tech support via email, Thryv users have several resources to pull. Thryv provides free unlimited technical support 24-7. For users who prefer to work more independently, the Knowledge Center and blog are bursting with information. They can connect with other Thryv users on the exclusive HighThryvers Facebook group as well to get tips and insight from their peers.

When businesses are ready to put their best business foot forward and customers first, Thryv’s where they should be. Thryv aims to meet the demands of today’s small business owners. This is reflected in the growth and price of the software.

Thryv says it will help small businesses get the job, manage the job and get credit. HoneyBook offers just one of those three: Managing the job.

HoneyBook’s ability to manage projects is decent; however, there will be nothing to manage without customers. Thryv helps users get discovered thanks to the reviews they receive. And yes — Thryv makes getting credit for the work done simple.

While HoneyBook integrates with Gmail and Google calendar, Thryv provides help with Google, Facebook and Yelp reviews, as well as a module for first-party reviews.

Additionally, Thryv’s integration with Google goes much deeper. Thryv users can verify through Google My Business. They can also utilize Reserve with Google for qualifying businesses, such as spas, health and wellness. When customers make appointments with Reserve with Google, it automatically updates the business owner’s Thryv calendar, so they never miss an appointment. Thryv users can also create and schedule Google Posts from their Thryv dashboard.

While both platforms are sleek and easy-to-use, if you want business management tools, such as social media posting, emailing capabilities, marketing, document storage, payment options, online scheduling and more, you’ll have to invest in additional software if you choose HoneyBook. Thryv offers all of these and more in a single platform.