Best CRM for UX/UI Designers in 2026: rounds and retainers

What a CRM for UX/UI designers is (and what it is not)

A CRM for UX/UI designers is the commercial side of design work: who the client is, what the discovery sprint covered, which phases you quoted, how many feedback rounds each phase includes, what was approved and when, and what is still unpaid. It is not a design tool. Figma, prototype links and screen-level comments stay where your clients already review work. The CRM keeps the record those tools do not: the agreed scope, the change requests and the invoice. If a tool stores contacts but leaves proposals and billing to other apps, scope changes live in chat threads and a design retainer drifts into unpaid revisions.

How we compared these tools

We compared each tool on the same five points, using only the vendor's own pricing and product pages:

1. Entry price for one person, monthly and billed yearly, and the price for three people where the page allows it.
2. Proposal and billing coverage on the plan: proposals with phases or line items, deposits, recurring or retainer billing, and invoices.
3. Feedback-round support: tasks or projects, time tracking, a client portal, and where change requests can be recorded.
4. Hard limits on the entry plan: active clients, projects, seats or lead forms.
5. Trial terms: length, and whether the vendor says a card is needed.

We did not test speed, support, reliability or mobile apps, and did not use third-party ratings. Order reflects fit for a designer or small studio that sells discovery, fixed-scope projects and retainers. Productive is a project and resource tool and is placed last.

The best CRM for UX/UI designers in 2026

1. Workspace369, best for designers who sell sprints, projects and retainers

Demo data, not a customer outcome.

Workspace369 puts the client record, a proposal the client approves and signs online, projects with stages, time tracking, a private client portal and invoices in one place. Cadet is $29 a month for one person ($23.25 billed yearly) and lists Proposals with a deposit on acceptance, retainers and payment schedules, recurring invoices, billable time, file versioning and the client portal. A discovery sprint can carry its own deposit, and the retainer that follows stays on the same client. Email automations are included, with up to 3 active workflows.

Limitations: Cadet allows 5 active projects and one seat; Voyager ($74 a month, two seats, calls and texts) lifts the project cap, and extra seats are $10 a month from Voyager. Online booking and project profitability start at Specialist ($149 a month). At three people, Moxie Teams, Bonsai Essentials, Plutio Pro and HoneyBook Essentials (the owner plus up to 2 team members) list lower monthly totals (see the table), and Bonsai Essentials also lists retainer invoices and a portal. It is not a design review tool, so keep screens and comments in Figma. The 14-day trial needs a card.

Best for: solo designers with up to five active projects, or two to ten person studios on Voyager and above, who want proposal, deposit, time, portal and retainer in one place.

2. Moxie, best for a low-cost entry plan with proposals and time

Moxie's Starter plan lists client and project management, invoicing and payments, proposals, quotes and contracts, time tracking, a sales pipeline, a custom form builder and meeting schedulers. Prices: Starter is $12 a month on the monthly view and $10 a month ($120 charged annually) on the yearly view. Pro is $25 monthly or $20 a month yearly, and Teams is $40 monthly or $32 a month yearly ($385 charged annually) for up to five team members. The page title and description offer a 14-day free trial; card terms are not stated.

Limitations: the white-labeled client portal, client request management and workflow automations are listed under Pro, not Starter, so client updates stay manual until you upgrade. Recurring billing is not named on the page, so check it before you plan a retainer. Moxie also has no feature built around design rounds.

Best for: new freelance designers who want proposals, time and invoices at a low price and can send updates by hand.

3. Bonsai, best for hourly billing priced per user

Bonsai prices per user and the page defaults to the yearly view. Monthly prices are Basic $15, Essentials $25, Premium $39 and Elite $59; yearly they are $9, $19, $29 and $49 a user a month. Basic lists time tracking, task management, unlimited projects and a CRM. Essentials adds invoices and payments, proposals and contracts, retainer and subscription invoices, forms, scheduling (one event type), the client portal and expense tracking. Premium adds a deals pipeline, custom fields, client tasks and messaging, Gantt view and profit and productivity reports. A project phases feature is marked on the page as expected in 2026, so do not plan a phased proposal around it yet. The trial runs 7 days, then Bonsai asks for card details to continue. Elite has a three-user minimum.

Limitations: invoices, proposals and the portal start at Essentials, and client tasks and messaging, where rounds of feedback would be tracked, start at Premium. More than one scheduling event type needs Premium.

Best for: designers and small studios that bill by the hour and add collaborators one seat at a time.

4. Plutio, best for an everything-included solo plan

Plutio's page lists projects, invoices, proposals, contracts, scheduling, forms, time tracking and a client portal as core features on every plan. Core is $19 a month monthly, or $190 a year when billed yearly, and includes 100 GB of storage. Pro is $49 a month monthly or $490 a year, with unlimited active clients and 30 contributors. The trial is 7 days and the page says no card is required. The catch is the cap: Core allows 9 active clients and no additional contributors.

Limitations: Core is solo only, with 500 workflow actions a month, and white-label is a paid add-on. A tenth active client or a second designer moves you to Pro. Plutio does not name phased proposals or a change-request step either.

Best for: a solo designer with a small, steady client list who wants every module from day one.

5. HoneyBook, best for packaged design services sold from a lead form

HoneyBook Starter lists unlimited clients and projects, invoices and payments, proposals and contracts, a calendar, a client portal, basic reports and up to 2 live lead forms. It is $29 a month on the yearly view and $36 on the monthly view. Essentials ($49 yearly, $59 monthly) adds unlimited Scheduler sessions (Starter allows 1), automations and up to 2 team members, and Premium ($109 yearly, $129 monthly) has unlimited team members. Its pricing FAQ says the free trial lasts 30 days with no credit card required. It also lists a 60-day money-back guarantee.

Limitations: time tracking is not listed on the pricing page, so billable hours and capped rounds need a separate tracker. Starter allows 2 live lead forms. The flow is built around inquiry-to-payment for packaged services, not multi-phase product design work.

Best for: designers who sell fixed packages such as a landing-page redesign and want a clean inquiry-to-payment flow.

6. Productive, best for studios that need budgets and resource planning

Productive is a project and agency operations tool with a basic sales CRM (deals, companies, contacts). Essential is $10 per user a month on the yearly view and $12 monthly; Professional is $25 yearly and $29 monthly. Every plan needs at least 3 seats, and the FAQ says clients can be added free. Essential lists budgeting, resource planning, project and task management, time tracking, expense management and reporting; Its full feature table lists native invoices and CRM deals with proposal export to PDF on every plan, and Professional adds recurring budgets, retainer invoicing, rate cards, billable time approvals and client access to approved time. The sign-up form offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.

Limitations: it lists no e-signature and no full client portal, and retainer invoicing starts at Professional. At three seats the minimum is $36 a month on Essential monthly billing.

Best for: a studio of five or more that plans designer capacity against budgets and signs contracts in a separate tool.

Side-by-side comparison

Bonsai's three-person figure uses Essentials, the first plan with proposals, invoices and the portal. Productive lists a proposal PDF export for deals but no e-signature or full client portal.

Which tool fits your design business?

Run a change-request test during the trial

Take one fictional client through the whole engagement in each tool you shortlist:

1. Write a phased proposal: a discovery sprint, a design phase with two feedback rounds, and a handoff. Collect the sprint deposit.
2. Create the project with a task per phase and a task per feedback round.
3. Log time on the first round, then edit one entry in the timesheet.
4. Have the client ask for a third round and a new screen. Write the request down, price it and get a yes before you do the work.
5. Invoice the approved change, then set up the monthly retainer invoice for the maintenance phase.
6. Export the client's records and check what comes out.

If you run the test, the best tool keeps the proposal, the approved change, the logged time and the invoice on one client record, and the change shows up as its own line. Draft the written request with the free scope-change request builder and set your day rate with the hourly rate calculator.

When to keep it simple

If you have two or three steady clients, a design file, a shared task list and an invoice template can carry you a long way. Move to a client-work tool when a client disputes what round you are on, when you cannot say what you agreed three months ago, or when a retainer quietly grows. The UX/UI designers product page shows how Workspace369 handles proposals, communications and invoices, and the pricing page has current plans. Workspace369 also supports Workflow Automations for reminders and follow-ups, with email automations on every plan.

Before importing real clients, run one full engagement on demo data and check that your records can be exported.