Likelihood to Recommend I think Bidsketch would work well for any small business or freelancer looking for a low-cost, simple to use proposal software solution. It's quick and easy to set up and provides everything you need for more cases. If you're looking for something with more flexibility or features that Bidsketch does not offer then you may need to keep looking.
Read full review I use Loopio specifically for RFP's mostly. I think it is a great and adequate tool for this and much of what I think that needs to improve are not large needle movers for me since the software as a whole is fantastic. It is very easy to upload an RFP into Loopio and begin answering those questions or pulling from previously answered questions. I also will use Loopio for large client proposals and I often use the "search functionality within Loopio to see if I can find answers to clients questions. I like that I can also pull images from Loopio as well and often use those visualizations in my proposals.
Read full review Pros Pre-written proposals for many scenarios. Integrations with 3rd party apps. Own domain for branding. Read full review Ease of use - a few minutes' tutorial is enough for a newcomer to start using the tool. Handy options - i.e. support in searching for the right answer Often meaningful & useful releases Read full review Cons REALLY PRICEY for a small business/freelancer that doesn't do a lot of proposals each month. Would be nice if they offered a per proposal pricing for the smaller guys. Wish there was more customization of the design/layout to better fit in with branding. Also would like to be able to mark a proposal private. Read full review Adding new answers to the library was easier and better with the "close the loop" functionality. Now, it seems like it is easier to miss questions to add to the library. Read full review Usability I'd say Bidsketch is very easy to use. I don't think most people would have any problem getting comfortable with this software. I was able to get up and running very quickly. Their template library is a great resource to get a professional proposal up and out the door fast.
Read full review Usability is good but falls short of excellent. The interface is clean and well organized. They clearly spent some time working on the UI and took some feedback from focus groups to help keep it tidy. On a few occasions, we have experienced a little bit of lag while updating the question database. I'd like to see just a little faster response time on a consistent basis.
Read full review Support Rating Although I didn't need to reach out to support much, they seemed to do a very good job. I've also heard great things about the team through people I've talked to so I wouldn't expect anyone to run into issues with regards to their support. Their support definitely was not a factor in my ultimately not sticking with the product.
Read full review They're very supportive and reply in a timely manner. Whenever I contacted the support I received a helpful reply that actually solved my issue. Quite often when my team suggested an improvement that would simplify and speed up our work it happened not long after which is perfect for us.
Read full review Alternatives Considered We used
DocSend to track our outgoing proposals but after testing Bidsketch we never returned back. It is simply better suited for us as we send out tens of proposals every week and the professional output and management of proposals won us over.
Read full review User friendly--very simple Reviews of libraries can be assigned Non-named user licenses can be used by various people Close Loop--changes can be added to library with just a few clicks View text in library and can copy content Reporting on reviews and usage and projects Help center and assigned representative Library duplicates functionality Read full review Return on Investment The proposals do look professional (even if you can't fully customize to your brand) and make a great impression on the potential client. The cost of Bidsketch is prohibitive if you don't do a lot of proposal writing on a regular basis. Read full review I have saved hundreds of hours working in Loopio instead of answering RFP's on my own. This has allowed me to spend other hours elsewhere. Having an RFP management tool has been an incredible timesaver The creation and management of questions has also saved me hours of time in searching out tough questions to answer and has also saved my colleagues time as well since we don't need to collaborate to find answers. Have had some issues with downloading the proposal in a readable format for clients to view. I've sometimes had to go back and figure out what went wrong when exporting which can be frustrating- especially when dealing with very tight deadlines. Read full review ScreenShots