HoneyBook vs. PayPal Payments Pro

I would recommend Honeybook to other coaches, consultants, and small business owners. It may not be appropriate for a large team's use, but works for the size of organization I currently own and manage. It also integrates with QuickBooks and makes financial data management fairly seamless.

Incentivized

Paypal is great for personal payments as well as business payments for ecommerce of for paying monthly memberships. It is a user friendly software that needs little expertise to get used to. For larger payments, the fees become high therefore it is more suitable for payments of upto few hundred dollars.

• HoneyBook offers incredible resources to train users how to best use their system. It's informative and eye-opening to watch one of their training sessions.
• I love how easy HoneyBook makes it to create highly professional materials that are beautiful. Its brochures and selling materials are stellar and I'm able to streamline the process without feeling like I actually have to sell my capabilities.
• I'm thrilled with the billing system and how simple it is to automate. I love that I can see how my customers have engaged with the bills.
• The app helps me feel connected to my leads and data while I'm away from my computer.

Incentivized

• PayPal offers me the option of converting my currency deposited in my account to another currency, so I can complete all kinds of payments and send money to employees who are in another country for business reasons.
• The mobile phone application is too fast, I can make payments to my employees in a matter of seconds without having to wait for the web version to load.
• Scheduled payments are great. PayPal allows me to add a list of contacts to my PayPal Business account, and after adding the contacts, I can schedule payments for a specific day and time. It's easier to make automated payroll payments with PayPal.

Incentivized

• The online scheduling tool does not work with different time zones very well. It doesn't automatically adjust to my clients' timezones and it doesn't even have many international time zones as an option! I had 3 clients in a row schedule meetings at the wrong time when I first started using HoneyBook's scheduler. I had to switch to Calendly because HoneyBook's scheduling tool was causing me to lose business.
• The transaction fees for instant deposits are expensive.
• [I believe} many of the features on HoneyBook are half-baked. It's marketed as an all-in-one business management platform, but I'm still using Calendly, Google Drive, Typeform, Clockify, and ClickUp because HoneyBook's equivalent features aren't as sophisticated or as easy to use.
• The notes section for client projects does not have much space or allow for any custom formatting such as hyperlinks, bold text, highlighted text, etc. Tools such as Teamwork, Pipedrive, Asana, and ClickUp do a much better job at displaying this type of information.

Incentivized

• Sometimes the UX flow would not deliver the customer back to our site, leaving orders in limbo "Pre-approved" status. The customer would call days later asking why we hadn't shipped it.
• The PayPal logo on the checkout page can be kind of large and obtrusive.
• They mention new features and programs on their login page, but it's hard to find any details on them deeper in the software.

Incentivized

Since I do not use ALL the functionality in HoneyBook, I have wondered if the plan I am on is too much. That is why I rated a 9 rather than 10. I have definitely considered downgrading but not leaving HoneyBook.

This is now a copy-paste response since this platform is asking me to answer every single question. It is such a negative experience with Honeybook that they even upset me while I'm trying to warn others of all the horrible pitfalls in working with the platform.

They have ALWAYS been amazing when I needed any type of service or help. Their concierge service is also amazing vs other services I have used in the past. I have confidence when I ask for help - both through Chat or even on their Facebook group that I will get an answer quickly.

Incentivized

Customer service representatives were unable to explain why customer in Australia were unable to make payments using our link. It turned out that customers in Australia must create an account. PayPal's user interface did not reveal this to our customers in Australia. There was plenty about this issue appearing in online forums and PayPal customer service couldn't explain this. This change in PayPal's usability happened between April and May of 2021 and was done without notice to vendors (like us).

Incentivized

Honeybook and Dubsado have a lot of similarities. I'd say the only big difference is that Dubsado still has more advanced workflow capabilities. Dubsado also is much harder to set up. Honeybook is simpler and easier to use right from the start.

Incentivized

I don't think there's really any competition here. There's Venmo (also owned by PayPal) who is now offering business accounts, but it still isn't quite the same. The closest thing in terms of ease of use would be Apple Pay or Google Pay (and there are a handful of others out there, but we offer Apple and Google Pay). As a business, I prefer Apple or Google Pay to PayPal Payments, but we offer either Google or Apple Pay, PayPal, and credit card options and PayPal is always right up there with credit cards. I don't foresee us ever getting rid of PayPal Payments as an option, but we do try to only offer it on request for higher ticket items or high dollar installment purchases.

Incentivized

• HoneyBook was very cost effective which was great for ROI!
• HoneyBook was easy to use which made for a quick employee on-boarding for new team members.
• HoneyBook had some features that were not available on the platform that are considered standard for any other CRM such as data pull, platform integrations, and customization options.

Incentivized

• Our daily revenue has been increased when started PayPal Payments as the payment gateway.
• Refund rate and recurring revenue is stable and disputes are handled properly.
• Forex Fluctuations is controlled and solved the buying experience for few users.
• Solved problem for different currencies and retained our users.

Incentivized