HoneyBook price increase: what it costs in 2026 (and cheaper setups)
HoneyBook raised prices on Feb 4, 2025 (Starter $19→$36, Essentials $39→$59, Premium $79→$129 monthly), ended the legacy 20% discount on Feb 4, 2026, and added an $8/month SMS add-on in Aug 2026. Full timeline, real cost math, and cheaper flat-price setups.
What's inside?
Quick answerThe HoneyBook price increase timelineWhat HoneyBook costs in September 2026What a one-person business pays nowWhat a five-person business pays nowWhat users saidWho should stay on HoneyBookWho should price alternativesThe bottom line
HoneyBook raised its prices on February 4, 2025: Starter went from $19 to $36 per month, Essentials from $39 to $59, and Premium from $79 to $129. The 20% legacy discount that softened the overhaul expired on February 4, 2026, and in late August 2026 HoneyBook started charging $8 per month extra for texting. This post lays out the full timeline, what each plan costs now, and what the same money buys on flat-priced software.
Quick answer
HoneyBook list prices are 51% to 89% higher than before February 2025. As of September 23, 2026, HoneyBook costs $36/month (Starter), $59/month (Essentials), or $129/month (Premium) on monthly billing, and $29, $49, or $109 per month on yearly billing. Texting clients costs $8/month more, US only.
A solo owner who wants CRM, projects, proposals, invoices, and a client portal can get all of it on Workspace369 Cadet for $29/month flat. A five-person team gets five seats, voice, and SMS on Specialist for $149/month flat.
The HoneyBook price increase timeline
| Date | What changed | What it means for your bill |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 4, 2025 | Price overhaul: Starter $19→$36/month, Essentials $39→$59/month, Premium $79→$129/month (monthly billing) | List prices up 89%, 51%, and 63% per plan |
| Feb 4, 2026 | Legacy 20% discount expired | A legacy Essentials subscriber went from $31.20 to $59/month overnight — about an 89% jump |
| Late Aug 2026 | $8/month Phone & SMS add-on launched, US only; multi-participant meeting scheduling removed | Texting clients adds $96/year |
| Sept 8, 2026 | Time Tracker sunset: history viewable through end of 2027, no new entries | Not a price change — a value change: same bill, one fewer feature (what to do about it) |
The pattern matters more than any single row. Prices went up, a discount ended, and two features moved behind an add-on or disappeared — all inside 19 months.
What HoneyBook costs in September 2026
We checked HoneyBook's pricing page on September 23, 2026. It leads with yearly billing and was running a "25% off" promotion on yearly Essentials and Premium.
| Plan | Monthly billing (since Feb 4, 2025) | Yearly billing, per month (checked Sept 23, 2026) | Team members |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $36 | $29 | 1 |
| Essentials | $59 | $49 | Up to 2 |
| Premium | $129 | $109 | Unlimited |
Three things sit on top of the plan price. Two-way texting is $8/month extra (US only — details in HoneyBook texting and SMS). Card processing starts at 2.9% + 25¢, and ACH transfers cost 1.5%. And the seat limits bite: Essentials allows up to two team members, so the day you hire person number three, your plan choice jumps from $59 to $129.
What a one-person business pays now
Setup 1 — no texting. HoneyBook Starter on monthly billing is $36/month, or $432/year. Workspace369 Cadet is $29/month — $348/year, or $279/year on annual billing — with CRM, projects, tasks, calendar, one email inbox, proposals, and invoices included.
Setup 2 — texting clients. HoneyBook Essentials plus the SMS add-on is $59 + $8 = $67/month ($804/year), and only works in the US. Workspace369 Voyager is $74/month flat with SMS built in, plus a second seat and time tracking. Honestly: HoneyBook is $7/month cheaper here if you are US-based. That $7 on Voyager buys the second seat and time tracking; outside the US, HoneyBook's add-on does not work at all.
What a five-person business pays now
Essentials caps at two team members, so a five-person shop is forced onto Premium: $129/month, or $137/month with texting — $1,644/year. On yearly billing that is $117/month, about $1,404/year.
Workspace369 Specialist is $149/month flat for five seats: voice, voicemail, SMS, proposals, payment plans, expenses, and basic accounting included, with no per-feature add-ons. On annual billing it works out to about $119.25/month, roughly $1,431/year.
So at five seats the two are within about $12 to $27 of each other, depending on billing term. The difference is the shape of the bill. HoneyBook's grows when you hire a third person and again when you text clients. Specialist is flat, and extra seats beyond five are $15 each. A three-person team pays Voyager plus one extra seat — $89/month — instead of being pushed to a $129 plan.
To run the numbers for your own mix of tools, try the software stack cost calculator.
What users said
The overhaul and the discount expiry show up again and again in reviews. Two HoneyBook users on Trustpilot (September 2026):
"Honeybook went from $200 to over $600."
"…forced to pay for… features that I don't even use."
The second quote is the structural complaint: HoneyBook bundles features into tiers, so when you need one thing from a higher tier — a third seat, automations, removing the "Powered by HoneyBook" label — you pay for the whole tier.
Who should stay on HoneyBook
Be honest with yourself before switching, because migration costs time:
- Solo creatives on yearly Starter. At $29/month with unlimited clients, a client portal, contracts, and a strong template gallery, Starter is a fair deal if you do not text clients or track time.
- Photographers deep in its ecosystem. Integrations like Pic-Time and Canva, plus templates built for creative work, are genuinely useful.
- Anyone mid-term on a yearly plan. Finish the term, export your records calmly, then compare.
Who should price alternatives
- Teams of three or more. The two-seat cap on Essentials makes Premium a seat tax, not an upgrade.
- Anyone who texts clients outside the US. The $8 add-on is US only.
- Former Time Tracker users. Your entries are viewable through 2027, but new time needs a new home — start with the Time Tracker rescue guide.
- Businesses that want one bill for CRM, phone, SMS, invoices, and basic accounting. Start with the HoneyBook alternatives list and the head-to-head Workspace369 vs HoneyBook comparison.
The bottom line
HoneyBook in September 2026 costs 1.5 to 1.9 times its pre-2025 prices, before the $8 texting add-on and processing fees. For some solo creatives it is still the right tool. For growing teams, the bill now climbs in steps — seats, texting, tier jumps — that flat pricing does not have.
See Workspace369 pricing for the full plan breakdown, or if you are solo, start a Cadet trial at $29/month and compare it against your next HoneyBook invoice.
Put it into practice
Run client follow-up in one workspace.
CRM, inbox, voice, invoicing, payments, projects, files, AI, and workflow automations — connected instead of exported.