HoneyBook Pricing: HoneyBook Cost, HoneyBook Fees and Transaction Fees for Every Plan

How much HoneyBook really costs in a year

Take a wedding photographer booking 25 weddings a year at $4,000 each. Clients pay a $1,200 retainer by card when they sign and the $2,800 balance by bank transfer before the date. On HoneyBook each client costs $35.05 in card fees and $42.00 in ACH fees, so $1,926.25 a year in processing. Add Essentials billed yearly at $588 and HoneyBook costs about $2,514 a year, of which the subscription is less than a quarter.

Run the same year through Stripe rates, which is what Dubsado Payments charges, and the card retainers cost about the same, $35.10 each, but each $2,800 bank transfer costs $5 instead of $42. Processing drops to $1,002.50. If those balances run on autopay from a saved card instead, HoneyBook charges the card-on-file rate of 3.4% + 9 cents, $95.29 per balance, and the processing bill passes $3,200. How clients pay decides your HoneyBook cost far more than which plan you pick.

HoneyBook publishes two different card rates

The plan grid on HoneyBook's pricing page says card fees start at 2.9% + 25 cents, and HoneyBook's own article on payment fees gives the same figure with a full table. The FAQ lower down the same pricing page says card processing fees start at 2.7% + 10 cents. Both were on the page on September 27, 2026.

We have not found a HoneyBook document that says who gets the lower rate. Budget with 2.9% + 25 cents, which is the rate in the fee table, and check the payment settings in your own account before you quote a price to a client. If you do get 2.7% + 10 cents, a $2,500 card payment costs $67.60 instead of $72.75.

HoneyBook Starter, Essentials or Premium: which plan to buy

Buy Starter if you work alone, send proposals and contracts, and are happy to follow up manually. It has every client-facing file type and unlimited clients. What it lacks is automation, SMS reminders, more than two lead forms and the QuickBooks Online sync, so your bookkeeper keys HoneyBook payments in by hand.

Buy Essentials if you want automations to send the questionnaire, the payment reminder and the thank-you without you, or your accountant works in QuickBooks. For most working studios this is the real entry plan, at $49 a month billed yearly.

Buy Premium if you have more than two people in the account, run more than one brand or company, or process enough to ask about the discounted card rate. At $109 billed yearly it costs $720 a year more than Essentials, so the second company alone rarely justifies it unless it replaces a second subscription.

HoneyBook vs Dubsado on cost

On subscription price Dubsado is cheaper: $35 or $55 a month, or $335 and $525 a year, against HoneyBook's $348 to $1,308. Dubsado also includes three additional users on both plans, while HoneyBook Starter has none. Dubsado does not add its own transaction fee; it connects to Dubsado Payments (Stripe), Square or PayPal, and you pay that processor's rate.

HoneyBook's case is convenience. Payments are built in, setup takes an afternoon, and its team converts your existing contracts and price lists into templates at no charge. Dubsado is more configurable and takes longer to set up. Our HoneyBook vs Dubsado pricing breakdown runs both tools through three client loads, including the user and brand add-ons.

What HoneyBook does not show you

HoneyBook's financial reports see the money that runs through HoneyBook. For a photographer who also sells prints on Etsy and licenses images, or a designer with a YouTube channel, a Patreon and a few template sales on Gumroad, that is only part of the year. Those platforms pay out on their own schedules, net of their own fees, and none of them report into HoneyBook.

That gap is what Earnly covers. It shows gross, fees and take-home for each income source on one board, next to a payout calendar and a next-month forecast that is always labeled an estimate. Its lite invoice tracker records client invoices and flags overdue ones, but it does not process payments, send contracts or book sessions, so it is not a HoneyBook replacement for a studio that lives on proposals. Earnly Solo is $12 a month billed yearly. If you are still choosing a stack, our guides to accounting software for photographers and accounting software for designers cover the rest.

How to pay less for HoneyBook

1. Steer large balances to ACH, and keep them there. On HoneyBook, ACH is always cheaper than a card, and card-on-file autopay is the most expensive method of all: on a $3,000 balance that is $45 by ACH against $102.09 on a saved card. Put your payment preference in the contract.

2. Consider a check or bank transfer outside HoneyBook for very large balances. HoneyBook lets you mark cash and check payments as paid with no fee. On a $6,000 balance that saves $90 against ACH.

3. Pay yearly once you know you are staying. Use the 30-day trial and the 60-day money-back guarantee to decide, then switch to yearly and save $84 to $240.

4. Do not buy Essentials only for the QuickBooks sync. If the only thing you need in QuickBooks is the deposits, your bookkeeper can convert the bank statement to a QBO file and import it, which keeps Starter workable. Buy Essentials when you also want the automations.