Is HoneyBook Worth It? A Diamond in the Rough

You want to know something that really grinds my gears? I hate when a platform I love suddenly decides to hike up their prices. It’s like where is the customer loyalty nowadays? Do I not get a cookie for being one of the initial investors in a business once they start gaining traction amongst the masses? We’ve seen it time and time again, but it never gets any easier when a platform switches up on us. 

Before I start ranting, let me set the scene. I started my small business in 2020 when the pandemic cut my senior year of college short and left me struggling to find full time employment. I had learned all these skills and had an amazing opportunity to help people, so I jumped on it. 

Of course, I didn’t, haven’t, don’t, and will NEVER work for free so I had to figure out a way to invoice clients in a simple and straightforward way so I could guarantee I received my funds in a timely manner. At first, I used a relatively basic invoicing website, but I always had to recreate each invoice individually. There wasn’t a way to create templates, schedule send invoices, or even maintain a customer database. Everything had to be entered individually each time. 

That method worked, or at least I put up with it, for a while until I felt like I was finally ready to jump into a real deal CRM system. For those of you who aren’t aware, a CRM system is a customer relationship management system that makes it easy to keep up with clients, send invoices, marketing emails, so on and so forth. You can think of it as a database where all client information is stored in one centralized location. 

So boom, I do loads of research to find a platform that offers the most bang for my buck. Since my business doesn’t generate a ton of capital each month, I didn’t want to chew off more than I could comfortably sustain. That immediately removed popular platforms like HubSpot off my list, but eventually, I came across a diamond in the rough called HoneyBook. 

Back then, it was an up and coming CRM system that wasn’t as well known as similar platforms. It offered customizable templates, recurring invoices, a native payment processor, lead forms, AI automation, and even integrated with Zoom and Google Calendar to schedule meetings. The price was phenomenal at only $9 per month. 

Over the years, I received a few notifications that the pricing structure was changing and that my monthly payment would be increasing once I hit a certain revenue of received payments. I definitely contacted their support and requested to be moved back down to the lower tier when the price increase was first introduced, but my luck finally ran out this year.

Not only has the phenomenal lower tier pricing of $9 per month been completely removed, but one of the most important features that I use almost daily has been swept up into the higher pricing tier of $59 per month. I was devastated to say the least. Couple that with the steady increase of my Squarespace website over the years and my bottom line has evolved drastically from when I first started.

A fraction of the increase has been me adding necessary tools while the majority of it is just a result of companies charging customers whatever they’d like. Most of the price hikes, in my opinion, are linked to greed. There’s no way you’re going to convince me that just because a platform grows in the number of subscribers that it’s negatively affecting service to the point where they have to raise the prices drastically each month. Maintaining servers and platforms can’t be that expensive. 

I think most of the platforms start seeing that they’re doing really well with their customer base and want to exponentially increase their profit margins by making the customers fund their pay raises. While I don’t condone it, it’s unfortunately a part of capitalism that seeps into every crevice of society. It’s all about making the most money you can while keeping your costs low. 

Back in the day, there used to be a reward for staying loyal to a business, platform, or company. You’d always hear your parents talk about that old cell phone plan and the fact that they received discounts by staying on it. That model has all but dried up, and life long customers are impacted by price hikes just as much as new customers. 

In my opinion, I think that some companies should bring back legacy plans and allow customers to stay at the pricing tier they originally began with. Make newer customers pay the increased price and maintain your loyal customer base that saw you as the diamond in the rough. It’ll also give people more of an incentive to try new, emerging platforms because they’ll get the benefit of being one of the original subscribers before it really takes off. 

It’s almost like companies are willing to purge most of their customer base by removing a lower pricing tier and forcing only those who can pay to play. It seems like a huge gamble to me, especially in this economy, but what do I know? I’m just a girl trying to keep a consistent side income to help my family accomplish our goals.  

HoneyBook was, and continues to be, an integral part of my business. It helps me schedule sessions easily and even sends out automatic reminders on my behalf. It has all of my client data and historic information from the past 3 years or so that I’ve been using it consistently. Unfortunately for me, it’s just too good of a product to go through the hassle of trying to find something new or cheaper. 

If you’d like to try HoneyBook, feel free to use my referral link in the description box to save 30% off your first year!

If you enjoyed this episode, let me know by giving this video a thumbs up, leaving a comment, and subscribing to my channel. I’ll see you in the next episode! 

Signed, 

Jessica Marie