With capabilities for scheduling, payments, contract signing, and all the other administrative bits of the business side of running a coaching practice, Paperbell is one of the most popular choices for coaching software. But if you’ve reviewed Paperbell’s offerings and want some other options—or just a second opinion so you can make a sound decision—we’re here to help.
We’ve rounded up the best Paperbell alternatives and compared them so you can pick what’s right for you. Particularly when considering pricing, we recommend you read our Paperbell review and consider what you’ll get for your investment when you’re deciding where to put your money.
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Paperbell vs Honeybook
Honeybook is a client management software mainly designed for creatives, not coaches. It does offer more core features than the scheduling tools above—such as CRM (customer relationship management), invoicing, online payments, and automated workflows. However, it still lacks many important features for a coaching business. For a more in-depth analysis of features, check out our Honeybook review.
- Limited Features – Honeybook doesn’t include contract signing, note keeping, or group coaching, and there’s no capability to offer coupons or discount codes.
- Designed for Individual Projects – With Honeybook, you need to create a new project and invoice for every client, as you can’t offer the same package to multiple clients.
- Single Payment Structure – You can only send custom invoices and limit your clients’ options to one-time payments. This can be repetitive and time-consuming, as you’ll need to send an invoice whenever a client books a session.
Honeybook Pricing: Starts at $14 per month. Use the discount code lifecoachmag for 35% off.
Paperbell vs Coaches Console
Coaches Console is an all-in-one software solution for coaches that includes a website builder, email marketing, course delivery, appointment scheduling, client management, reporting, and billing solutions. The downside is that the fee is on the pricier side. For a more detailed Coaches Console overview, go to our review.
- Course Creator – Coaches Console has a nifty tool that allows you to build and sell coaching courses with ease and control how clients access them.
- Multiple Levels of Security – Your data will be protected by numerous security methods (HTTPS-protected pages, username, and password protection, and 256-bit encryption technology).
- No Group Sessions – While you can open session slots for automated booking, there’s no option that allows several clients to sign up for a group session.
- Inflexible Payment System – Coaches Console integrates with your existing PayPal, DirectPay, and Stripe account, but there are no options for installment plans.
Coaches Console Pricing: Starts at $147 per month
Paperbell vs Simplero
Simplero is a robust software solution designed for coaches with a wide range of features such as website building, email marketing, affiliate management space, course delivery, client insight, client community groups, reporting, and billing solutions. Its offer is quite impressive as they even throw in a mobile app for your clients, and unique sale-enticing Upsell, Downsell, and Order Bump Features. If you’d like to know whether these features are right for you, read our Simplero review.
- Unique Features – Simplero stands out with its Upsell, Downsell, and Order Bump Features which allow you to set up triggers and strategize the sales process.
- No Scheduling Feature – Simplero overlooks one of the basic features of life coaching software: scheduling. That means that you’ll need to find a solution for this elsewhere.
- Pricing Based on the Number of Clients – Coaches with a long list of clients or a growing business may see Simplero’s pricing structure as a downside, as its cost will increase with the number of contracts.
Simplero Pricing: Starts at $70.80 per month (or $59 per month when paid annually)
Paperbell vs Practice
Practice is an all-in-one platform that improves your workflow by automating repetitive tasks and combining multiple features, reducing the need for (and cost of) other solutions. Practice offers scheduling, reminders, automation, unified client data, group coaching, and much more. They offer highly-praised free 1:1 onboarding to teach you the ins and outs of the software and have great client reviews. To learn more about Practice, read our review.
- Powerful Automation – Practice’s most oustanding feature that could totally overhaul your business is the Smart Actions tool, which puts repetitive tasks on autopilot. You control triggers and timing and can build system actions that are simple or infinitely complex.
- Consolidated Client Communication – Practice streamlines communication, hosting chat, voice memos, and email threads within its portal (plus fun inclusions like emojis and reactions).
- Flexible Payments – Both Paperbell and Practice offer great variety when it comes to customizing payment options for clients. From auto-debit to payment plans, you can charge clients however works best for you. The only notable difference in this area might be that Paperbell integrates with Stripe and Paypal, while Practice only integrates with Stripe.
Practice Pricing: Starts at $28 per month. Use the discount code LCM to get half off for 2 months, or LCM1 for an additional $5 off the annual plan (which is already discounted by over 20% compared to the monthly plan).
Paperbell vs Life Coach Hub
Life Coach Hub’s coaching software is an end-to-end solution for coaching needs, including management, automation, progress tracking, client engagement, scheduling, selling, content delivery, and coaching tools like journaling, goal setting, and resource sharing. They also allow you full website customization which can be great for coaches who want to add their personal touch to their interface and website. In comparison to Paperbell, the interface of Life Coach Hub doesn’t have that modern look. We won’t go into too much detail now, as you can read it all in our Life Coach Hub review.
- Website Templates – You can choose among website templates and customize them with your signature colors and logo.
- Marketing and Website Packages Cost Extra – If you want a marketing plan or website plan, you will need to pay additional one-time fees.
- Pricing Based on the Number of Clients and Course Members – The pricing is set according to the number of your clients who are using the software, as well as course members—so the cost for the program will grow as the business expands.
Life Coach Hub Pricing: Free basic plan; Paid plans start at $17 per month
Paperbell vs Upcoach
If you want to have client management, courses and training, communication, a habit tracker, scheduling, and automation under one software, Upcoach can offer you all of it. One of the best features of Upcoach is its drag-and-drop program builder, so you can create and customize programs with ease. Get all the info about UpCoach in our in-depth review.
- Program Builder – You can create different programs for your clients, whether 1-on-1 programs, group programs, cohort programs, or Mastermind programs for fellow coaches.
- Limited Features – Despite many handy tools, Upcoach is missing a website builder, contract signing, marketing features, and sales funnel from its list of features.
- Payment per Team Member – The cost doesn’t only depend on how many clients you have, but also on how many team members have access to the software.
- Limited Payment Options – The only way you can collect payments is to connect Upcoach to Stripe.
Upcoach Pricing: Starts at $39 per user per month (or $29 per user per month when paid annually)
Paperbell vs Delenta
Delenta can streamline all your coaching tasks and simplify your business operations with CRM, creating and selling courses, scheduling, contracts, payments, reporting, and other automation features. You can also personalize and brand the client’s experience by adding your colors and logo to welcome messages, the client’s onboarding screen, and the dedicated client portal. Delenta’s list of features is constantly growing, and as of recently, they also have a simple and intuitive app for your coaching clients. Head to our review for a full guide on Delenta features and pricing.
- Multi-Coach Platform – Delenta will also work for bigger coaching businesses, as you can add and collaborate with multiple coaching associates.
- Discount Coupon and Membership – There are modules for coaching packages that let you add discount coupons and memberships.
- Payment per Team Member – Just like with Upcoach, if you want to add more users to Delenta, you will need to pay extra.
- Limited Payment Options – Delenta only integrates with Stripe and PayPal.
Delenta Pricing: Starts at $29 per user per month (or $19 per user per month when paid annually). For a limited time, Delenta is offering 50% off your first purchase of their product, whether it be a monthly or yearly plan. Just use the code LCM50 to get the discount.
Paperbell vs Bonsai
If managing the entire business from a single software is at the top of your priorities list, you’ll love Bonsai. While Bonsai may seem like yet another all-in-one software, what differentiates it from the other tools on the market is the complete financial solution that includes payments includes, payments, expense tracking, accounting, taxing, and banking. You can learn more about this tool in our Bonsai review.
- Pre-Built and Customizable Templates – Among Bonsai’s comprehensive list of features, it’s worth pointing out the hundreds of customizable templates, such as the life coaching session template, contract templates, and form templates.
- Extra Cost for Add-Ons – If you want to get access to Tax Assistant or Partners (collaboration with other users) add-ons, you’ll need to pay a monthly fee for each in addition to the plan price.
- No Website Builder – Bonsai covers everything from client management to project management to financial management, but they don’t include a website builder.
Bonsai Pricing: Starts at $24 per month (or $17 per month when paid annually)
Paperbell vs Profi
Profi is a tool created for coaches, trainers, consultants, and therapists, so it includes loads of features that support a coaching business. It works well for coaching practices of all sizes, and they even allow you to co-host programs with other professionals. Another distinct feature is the built-in video feature and chat, so you won’t need to deal with integrating video or messaging apps. Discover more about this software by reading our comprehensive review.
- Features Eliminate the Need for Popular Apps – Profi’s program builder replaces platforms such as Teachable, Kajabi, Thinkific, and Instapage, while the built-in video feature and chat replace Zoom, Google Meet, and messengers.
- No Website Builder – If you are yet to set up your website, you’ll need to use another platform for that.
- Limited Payment Options – The available payment options are Stripe and PayPal, and you can’t customize payment with discounts, coupons, or installment plans.
Profi Pricing: Starts at $99 per month
Paperbell vs CoachVantage
CoachVantage is a user-friendly and life-coach-specific tool with an enviable list of features. You can use it for managing clients, sending questionnaires, scheduling sessions, creating coaching plans, logging your hours, branding, invoicing, and contracts—so pretty much everything you need as a coach. To further expand their offering, CoachVantage will soon introduce group coaching functionality. For more detailed insight, be sure to read our review.
- Hour Log – If you want to keep track of your coaching hours while working toward certification, CoachVantage will automatically log them.You can even segment your paid and pro-bono work.
- No Website Builder – If you need a website, you’ll need to look elsewhere to find the right tool.
- Limited Integrations – CoachVantage integrates with all the essential apps—Zoom, Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, Apple iCal, PayPal, and Stripe–but it doesn’t have vast integration options like some other software.
CoachVantage Pricing: Starts at $29 per month (or $26 per month when paid annually). Use the discount code CV10 for 10% off for life!
Paperbell vs Satori
Since this is a tool that’s designed with coaches in mind, you’ll find in Satori all the basics, like package setup, session scheduling, client management, and revenue tracking. What gives Paperbell some advantage over Satori is that it’s a more modern and elegant solution with more features.
- No Content Delivery – Despite the variety in features, Satori missed out on allowing coaches to personalize content delivery (for example, you can’t schedule sending different types of content at different times).
- No Website Builder – If you’re starting from scratch and you want a tool that’s a one-stop shop, you should consider that Satori lacks website building, which is the number one step when starting a coaching business.
- Different Payment Options – One of the benefits of Satori is that you can offer clients different payment plans and methods of payment.
Satori Pricing: Free basic plan; Paid plans start at $32 per month
Paperbell vs Dubsado
Dubsado is a robust project management tool designed for freelancers of all kinds. Its many features offer great potential—if you can overcome the steep learning curve to learn how to make the program ‘play nice.’
- Built on the Premise of Proposals – The workflow in Dubsado relies on a lengthy series of steps: offering a custom proposal to a client, then a contract, then an invoice, and finally the payment is made. This extraneous back-and-forth can get tedious for coaches, most of whom offer set packages at fixed prices.
- Contracts Aren’t Legally Binding – Signatures in Dubsado are created by the client simply typing their name.
- Lacking Calendar Integration – When clients schedule a session, they’ll need to manually input the session details into their calendar.
- Powerful but Complex – Many coaches end up hiring a specialist to set up their Dubsado account or spend hours trying to do it themselves.
Dubsado Pricing: Starts at $20 per month
Paperbell vs CoachAccountable
The extensive list of CoachAccountable’s features covers all the coaching necessities. However, unless you want to keep your business small, the charge-per-number-of-clients type of payment is a huge nuisance. Our CoachAcountable review can give you a greater understanding of its features if you’re interested.
- Different Payment Options – What deserves praise is CoachAccountable’s payment feature which includes recurring billing, subscriptions, installment billing, and packages. It also integrates with Stripe and PayPal.
- No Discounts – Offering clients discounts and coupon codes are good marketing tactics, but you won’t find that in CoachAccountable.
- Pricing Based on the Number of Clients – The biggest drawback is that the CoachAccountable charges are based on the number of clients, so as your client list grows, the cost will go up as well.
CoachAccountable Pricing: Starts at $20 per month for up to 2 clients
Paperbell vs 17Hats
17Hats is a business management tool that can streamline your payments, scheduling, record keeping, and contract signing, but there’s nothing there that presents a special benefit for coaches.
- Limited Features – 17Hats won’t help you with delivering content or promoting your business since it’s more focused on helping with organization.
- No Group Sessions – The scheduling options are limited, and there’s no group sessions functionality.
- Single Payment Structure – With 17Hats you won’t get installment payments, discounts, or any similar payment option, as one-time payments are the only way to go.
17Hats Pricing: Starts at $13 per month (paid annually)
Paperbell vs Simply.Coach
This comprehensive tool is created with the intention to help you digitize your coaching business through a diversified library of handy features, including session scheduling, invoicing, and payments, content sharing, and digitized contracts. It’s more suited for beginners since the cost rises with the number of clients.
- Easy-to-Buy Online Packages – You can create and offer your clients customized subscription and session packages.
- No Group Sessions – Even though its session scheduling automation is streamlined and you can allow clients to book recurring sessions, what you won’t have with this tool is booking for group sessions.
- Inflexible Payment System – You can use Simply.Coach for sending invoices, accepting and tracking payments, and storing invoices, but one-time payment is the only available form of payment.
- Pricing Based on the Number of Clients – Just like CoachAccountable, Simply.Coach charges according to how many individuals you’re coaching.
Simply.Coach Pricing: Starts at $19 per month for up to 5 clients for solopreneurs; Pricing for businesses starts at $99 per month + $39 per month per additional coach
Paperbell vs Doodle
If you’re only looking for an affordable, easy-to-use calendar and scheduling tool, Doodle can be the one, but if you want more, you’ll need to combine it with other tools.
- Limited Features – Doodle is a scheduling tool and nothing else, so to streamline your coaching practices, you’ll need to go out shopping for additional tools.
- Designed for Single Sessions – While you can create group polls to check the clients’ availability for group sessions, they can’t book a group session on their own.
- No Payment Option – This tool only works as a scheduling tool, so you can’t accept payments or do anything else with it.
Doodle Pricing: Free basic plan; Paid plans start at $14.95 per month (or $6.95 per month when paid annually)
Paperbell vs Nudge Coach
The Nudge App coaching accountability software centralizes all your client management and tracking in a single software. What’s unique about Nudge is that they can set you up with your own intuitive app for your clients, and you can even replace their branding with your own. However, compared to other coaching tools, the software misses some essentials like payments and invoicing, contracts, and website builder.
- Customized Coaching App – They’ll help you launch your own coaching app with engaging online coaching training programs.
- Limited Features – Even though Nudge Coach has some cool features like sequencing and delivering programs and progress tracking, it lacks several useful coaching tools.
- No Payment Options – Nudge Coach can help you deliver and organize content, but it doesn’t allow you to charge for your services.
Nudge Coach Pricing: Free basic plan; Paid plans start at $60 per month (or $300 per year)
Paperbell vs Calendly
Calendly’s name recognition and popularity are appealing, and it does a great job as a simple scheduling tool—but many coaches find they need a wider array of features.
- Limited Features – Calendly is a scheduling tool and nothing else. There are no features for signing contracts or keeping track of client progress.
- Designed for Single Sessions – Sessions are booked one at a time, so if you sell a four-pack of sessions, the client will need to schedule them one by one.
- Inflexible Payment System – While it’s great that Calendly now integrates with Paypal and Stripe to accept payments, those payments are still restricted to the one-at-a-time scheduling limitation. If a client wants a series of sessions with you, they’ll repeat the purchase and scheduling process four times. Also, there aren’t options for selling a subscription with repeating payments or accommodating a payment plan.
Calendly Pricing: Free basic plan; Paid plans start at $8 per seat per month
Paperbell vs Acuity
Similarly to Calendly, Acuity’s strength is in scheduling, but it also offers billing and invoicing. However, without the option for selling and delivering digital downloads and contract signing, it’s far from an all-in-one solution.
- Limited Features – Acuity lacks contract signing and the ability to track client progress or keep notes on sessions.
- No Session Tracking – After purchasing a series of sessions, you or the client will need to keep careful track of how many have been used and when it’s time to purchase more.
- Single Payment Structure – Acuity accepts one-time payments, and that’s about it. If you want installment plans, pay-in-full discounts, or subscriptions, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
Acuity Pricing: Starts at $14 per month
Summary & Recommendations
Passion for coaching is only one part of a successful business. How you organize it also greatly affects your clients’ satisfaction, which is why finding the right software and automation tools is so important.
With such a variety of software for life coaches, you can definitely find the one that meets your criteria. If you take your time and do your research, there’s no doubt you’ll discover a system that works for you and your business.
This article was written by the Life Coach Magazine staff. We cover everything from personal development, to coaching tips, to how to grow your coaching business.
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