Proposals · ranked shortlist
Best Proposals software for Startups in 2026
20 approved proposals listings, ordered by published rating with the method stated below rather than assumed. Startups are buying for a headcount they do not have yet, which makes the second and third tier of each ladder more important than the first. Check what the price becomes at ten people.
- Tools ranked
- 20
- Entry price range
- $10-$20,000
- Publish a $0 plan
- 0 of 20
How this ranking is derived
The sort key
Published rating, highest first. Ties break on the number of ratings behind the score, then on product name so the order never depends on what the API happened to return first. That is the whole rule, there is no weighting, no score of our own, and nothing paid: no sponsored slot runs on these pages.
Where the ratings come from
No listing in this set carries a rating, so the order falls back to name. Those scores are aggregated from public sources rather than collected here, Softwr hosts no reviews of its own, which is also why no rating on this page is marked up as ours in structured data.
What the pool is
Approved proposals listings, capped at 20 per page; 20 came back for this one. It is not the whole market, and a tool being absent means we hold no record of it rather than that it failed a test. The unranked full set is on the proposals category page.
The ranking
Each entry lists why it sits where it sits, drawn from its own published rating and pricing.
- #1
17hats
Highest rated hereSmall business client workflow with quotes, contracts, invoices and automated follow up sequences
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- quote
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- client-management, proposals, contracts, invoicing
- #2
Bidsketch
Professional Proposal Software
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $29 a month, with no free plan.
- Billing
- Model not published
- Tags
- customer-success, proposals, consultants, agencies
- #3
Cone
Proposal to payment software for accounting and bookkeeping firms, with engagement letters and direct debit
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- quote
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- proposals, Engagement Letters, accounting, professional services
- #4
Dubsado
Business management for creatives
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $335 a month, with no free plan.
- 2 published tiers, topping out at $525.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 2 tiers
- Tags
- business management, scheduling, crm, creative
- #5
GetAccept
Digital Sales Room Platform
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $25 a month, with no free plan.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $49 plus a tier sold by quote.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- customer-success, digital-sales-room, video, engagement
- #6
HelloSign
eSignatures Made Easy
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $10 a month, with no free plan.
- Billing
- Model not published
- Tags
- customer-success, esignatures, dropbox, simple
- #7
HoneyBook
Client management for creative entrepreneurs
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $29 a month, with no free plan.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $109.
- Billing
- Model not published
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- client-management, scheduling, invoicing, creative
- #8
Indy
Freelance workflow suite covering proposals, contracts, invoices and time tracking with a usable free tier
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- quote
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- freelance, proposals, contracts, invoicing
- #9
Loopio
RFP Response Software
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $20,000 a month, with no free plan.
- Billing
- Model not published
- Tags
- customer-success, rfp, proposals, canadian
- #10
Microsoft Dynamics 365
AI-powered business applications for intelligent enterprise
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $135 a month, with no free plan.
- 2 published tiers, topping out at $165.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 2 tiers
- Tags
- ERP, crm, microsoft, cloud business applications
- #11
Moxie
Freelance business management with proposals, contracts, time tracking and invoicing in one subscription
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- quote
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- freelance, proposals, contracts, invoicing
- #12
Nusii
Small, independent proposal tool for freelancers and agencies, metered by active proposals rather than by send volume
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $29 a month, with no free plan.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $129.
- Billing
- Per month by active proposal count
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- proposals, Freelancers, agency, Small Business
- #13
Nutshell
Easy CRM for small businesses
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $13 a month, with no free plan.
- 5 published tiers, topping out at $79.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 5 tiers
- Tags
- crm, Small Business
- #14
Paperbell
Packaged offer, contract, scheduling and payment flow built for coaches selling sessions rather than projects
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- quote
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- coaching, proposals, scheduling, contracts
- #15
Prospect
VR for architectural visualization
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $350 a month, with no free plan.
- Billing
- Model not published
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- architecture-vr, visualization, bim, design
- #16
Prospero
Single-plan proposal writer built for freelancers rather than sales teams
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- quote
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- proposals, Freelancers, e-signature, quoting
- #17
Quoter
MSP quoting and proposal software from ScalePad, priced by published quote volume rather than by seat
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $299 a month, with no free plan.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $599.
- Billing
- Per month by published quote volume
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- cpq, quoting, msp, It Reseller
- #18
Responsive
Strategic Response Management
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $10,000 a month, with no free plan.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- customer-success, rfp, ai, response-management
- #19
RFPIO
RFP Response Automation
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $10,000 a month, with no free plan.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- customer-success, rfp, automation, answer-library
- #20
Subskribe
Quote-to-revenue platform built by former Zuora staff to keep CPQ, billing and revenue recognition on one data model
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- quote
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- cpq, quote-to-cash, subscription-billing, Revenue Recognition
What proposals software costs
Counted from the published pricing of the 20 listings on this page. A tool counts as free only where it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence or a starting price of zero.
- Cheapest paid plan
- $10HelloSign
- Median entry price
- $135across 13 priced
- Dearest entry price
- $20,000Loopio
Paid proposals plans in this set start anywhere from $10 a month for HelloSign to $20,000 for Loopio. The median entry price across the 13 tools that publish one is $135, half of them start below that figure and half above it.
Nothing in this category publishes a $0 plan, all 20 listings are paid from the first day.
10 of 20 keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote, which in practice means the number you end up paying at the top end is not on this page or on theirs.
How these vendors bill
The billing model each of the 20 proposals listings publishes, counted. Two tools at the same headline price are not the same purchase if one of them charges per seat.
- quote
- 7
- subscription
- 6
- Per month by active proposal count
- 1
- Per month by published quote volume
- 1
Separately, 10 of 20 publish at least one tier with no price attached. Those are sold by quote, so the top of the ladder is negotiable, and unknowable, until you talk to sales.
What comes as standard, and what you pay extra for
Every capability named in a published pricing tier by any of the 16 proposals tools here that break their plans down, counted once per vendor. This measures what vendors choose to advertise as a selling point, not everything the software does, an absence below is silence, not a missing feature.
Named most often
- Client portal , 4 of 16
- Priority support , 3 of 16
- All Starter features , 2 of 16
Named by fewer
Nothing else is named by more than one vendor, beyond the list on the left, no two of these tools describe their tiers the same way.
Named by exactly one vendor: Access controls, Automated workflows, Demand forecasting, Integrations, Presentation controls, Time tracking and invoicing. Those are differentiators rather than table stakes.
What “Proposals” covers in practice
The subject tags that recur across these 20 listings, with the number of tools carrying each. A category label is a filing decision; this is the closer read of what is actually filed under it.
- proposals10
- customer-success6
- contracts4
- invoicing4
- client-management3
- crm3
- freelance3
- rfp3
- scheduling3
- Small Business3
- automation2
- cpq2
Carried by a single tool: accounting, answer-library, client portal, design, Engagement Letters, microsoft, Quotes, simple. If one of those is the reason you are here, the category page is the wrong lens, go straight to that product.
How to choose between them
Four things the numbers above should change about your shortlist.
Budget for day one, because nothing here is free
No listing in this category publishes a $0 plan, and the cheapest way in is $10 a month with HelloSign. That changes how you evaluate: ask for a trial in writing before you shortlist, and treat any tool you cannot try as a tool you cannot verify.
Read the spread before you read the features
$10 to $20,000 is a $19,990 spread on entry price alone, and a spread that wide is never about polish, it is about who the vendor built for. Tools at the bottom of this ladder are priced for one person or a small team; tools near $20,000 are priced for a department with a procurement process. Decide which of those you are before you compare capability, or you will shortlist four tools that were never competing for the same buyer.
Check which tier you actually land on
7 of 20 tools here publish three or more tiers, and the median vendor in this category ships 2 of them. The advertised price is the first rung, and the things teams tend to need, client portal, priority support, all starter features, are named in higher plans far more often than in entry ones. Price your shortlist at the tier that contains what you need, not at the tier on the pricing page's left edge.
The billing model matters more than the headline number
This category splits across 4 billing models: quote on 7 listings, subscription on 6, and 2 other arrangements across the rest. A per-user price and a flat subscription at the same headline figure are not the same purchase, the first one grows with headcount and the second does not. Multiply by your real team size before you compare two numbers side by side.
Compare proposals tools directly
Every pairing below is a full comparison: the same checklist applied to both, so a gap in one is a gap in the other.
- 17hats vs Bidsketch
- Bidsketch vs Cone
- Cone vs Dubsado
- Dubsado vs GetAccept
- GetAccept vs HelloSign
- HelloSign vs HoneyBook
- HoneyBook vs Indy
- Indy vs Loopio
Go straight to the numbers
- 17hatspricingalternatives
- Bidsketchpricingalternatives
- Conepricingalternatives
- Dubsadopricingalternatives
- GetAcceptpricingalternatives
- HelloSignpricingalternatives
Questions people ask about proposals software
Answered from the listings on this page, and nowhere else.
- How is this proposals ranking decided?
- Mechanically. The 20 approved proposals listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.
- Is this list re-ordered for startups?
- No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the startups framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Startups are buying for a headcount they do not have yet, which makes the second and third tier of each ladder more important than the first. Check what the price becomes at ten people.
- How much does proposals software cost?
- Across the 20 proposals tools listed here, paid plans start between $10 and $20,000 a month, with a median entry price of $135. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $20,000 a month (Loopio).
- What is the cheapest proposals software?
- Among the ones that charge, HelloSign has the lowest published entry price at $10 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.
- Is there free proposals software?
- Not in this set. None of the 20 proposals tools listed here publishes a $0 plan, and the cheapest paid entry is $10 a month. Some vendors offer time-limited trials, which are listed on each product page rather than here.
- What features should proposals software have?
- Judging by what vendors put in their own published pricing tiers, the most frequently named capabilities in this category are client portal (4 of 16 tools that publish plan detail), priority support (3) and all starter features (2). Treat those as the category baseline. Anything named by only one vendor, such as access controls or automated workflows, is a differentiator rather than a standard, so it is worth deciding whether you need it before it narrows your shortlist to one.
- How is proposals software usually billed?
- quote (7), subscription (6), Per month by active proposal count (1), Per month by published quote volume (1), counted across the 20 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not. 10 of 20 tools also keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote.
- What does proposals software actually cover?
- The 20 tools on this page do not describe themselves the same way. The subject tags they carry most often are proposals (10), customer-success (6), contracts (4), invoicing (4), client-management (3). That spread is the honest answer to what the category means in practice: it is not one product shape, and two tools filed under proposals may overlap on very little.
- How many pricing tiers do proposals tools offer?
- 17 of 20 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 2 tiers. 7 of 20 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.
- How many proposals tools are listed on Softwr?
- 20 approved proposals listings appear on this page, including 17hats, Bidsketch, Cone, Dubsado. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/proposals, which ranks the same set by published rating.
Keep reading
Neighbouring categories
Adjacent in the same taxonomy, not a ranking.