Outgrown HoneyBook? When custom beats HoneyBook for a 10-60 person firm
HoneyBook does proposals, contracts, invoices and client booking in one tidy package, and for freelancers and small studios it's hard to beat. This page is about what happens as a firm grows a team, a process and a stack of other apps.
Forge is the embedded engineer for people businesses - businesses that sell their people’s expertise and time: agencies, accountants, lawyers, consultants. We audit how your team works, decide what to build, build and test it, train your team and manage the change so people use it, then run it on your own accounts.
When you should stay on HoneyBook
- You're a solo practitioner or a small studio, and one or two people handle every client.
- Your work follows a fairly standard enquiry, proposal, contract, invoice flow.
- HoneyBook is where your clients already go, and they're happy there.
- You don't need it to talk much to a project tool, a practice system or a shared drive.
If that sounds like you, keep HoneyBook. You don’t need us yet.
When custom starts to make sense
Several people now serve each client, and HoneyBook was set up for one.
Client work lives in your project tool and Drive, so clients get a second, separate place to check.
Your onboarding has steps HoneyBook's templates can't hold, so the team works around it by email.
Someone copies details from HoneyBook into the rest of your apps every time a client signs.
What a custom build looks like, and what it costs
- One branded login per client, with deliverables, files, approvals and status in one place.
- Fed from the project tool and drive your team already uses, so clients see what's current.
- Onboarding steps shaped to your firm, with new client details landing where the team works.
- Running on your own accounts, monitored and fixed by us, and changed when your process changes.
The typical market price. Building a client portal usually costs $8,000-18,000 (£6,000-14,000) and takes 2-6 weeks, plus $1,500-7,500 a month if you want someone to keep it working. Those are typical ranges from our custom software cost guide, not a quote.
What it costs with Forge. We start with an ops audit ($2,500 / £2,000, credited to your first month). Then a monthly plan - $2,000, $3,500 or $7,500 (£1,600, £2,800 or £6,000) - with your first build, training and change management included. It runs on your own accounts, so you own it; we monitor it, fix it and keep improving it. See pricing, or see the client portal we built and run at Fame.
The only numbers we quote are our own: the tools Forge built for Fame have given the Fame team back 5,460 hours (as of 14 Oct 2026). How Fame uses Forge.
Questions, answered plainly
Is Forge a HoneyBook competitor?
No. HoneyBook is software for freelancers and small studios. Forge is an embedded engineer for growing firms: we audit how you work, then build, roll out and run custom tools on your own accounts.
Can we keep HoneyBook for proposals and invoices?
Often, yes. If those parts work, we'd build around them and connect them to the rest of your apps rather than rip them out.
What does a custom client portal cost?
Typically $8,000-18,000 (£6,000-14,000) and 2-6 weeks to build, plus upkeep. With Forge it's a $2,500 (£2,000) ops audit credited to month one, then a monthly plan from $2,000 (£1,600) with your first build included.
Who owns it?
You do. It runs on your own accounts and you pay those tool costs directly. We monitor it, fix it and keep improving it on your monthly plan.
Not sure if you’ve outgrown HoneyBook? The audit will tell you.
We map where your team’s hours go and put a number on it. If HoneyBook is still the right answer, we’ll say so. The $2,500 (£2,000) audit is credited to your first month.