A wedding DJ books weddings, corporate parties, and private events off the same intake form, often through a very different sales conversation each time. Here is how Dubsado and 17hats handle that, with pricing verified against both vendors.
Last verified: August 31, 2026
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Most Dubsado-vs-17hats comparisons online are written for photographers. A DJ's business runs on a different rhythm: leads split across wedding, corporate, and private-party gigs, each needing a different set of questions on the intake form, and the client-facing deliverable is a live performance, not a set of files to deliver. Neither vendor markets specifically to DJs, but working DJs have published real accounts of running their business on both tools.
| Attribute | Dubsado | 17hats |
|---|---|---|
| Plan structure | Two paid plans: Starter, Premier, plus a free tier with limited invoicing | Free CRM plan, or one all-inclusive paid plan (no paid tiers) |
| Starting price | $335/year (Starter) | $600/year list, $60/month, or $800/2 years. Currently discounted 50% to $300/yr or $400/2yr for a new signup's first term |
| Free plan | None (21-day free trial of Premier only) | Yes: unlimited contacts/projects, capped at 4 invoices/quarter |
| Multi-gig-type intake forms | Conditional form logic: a single form can branch into different question sets for a wedding vs. a corporate gig | Standard form builder; a published third-party comparison describes 17hats' questionnaires as supporting simpler if/then branching than Dubsado's, not verified against 17hats' own documentation |
| Scheduled milestone reminders | Vendor case study describes a working DJ using date-relative triggers, for example a questionnaire that sends automatically a set number of months before the event date | Not documented for this use case in either vendor material or the DJ source used on this page |
| Song or set-list request tool | None built in | None built in |
| Calendar sync | Syncs with Google Calendar; a working DJ cites this for catching scheduling conflicts before double-booking a date | Not documented for this use case in the sources used on this page |
| Payments and tipping | Dubsado Payments (Stripe-powered), split deposit/balance invoicing, and a tip option at checkout per vendor case study | Stripe integration, plus 20,000+ bank connections for reconciliation |
| Lead board | Rated "workable" by one DJ who tested both: functional but requires clicking into each stage to see detail | Rated "weaker" by the same source, with less visual detail than Dubsado's |
| Workflow automation | Premier plan only, not on Starter; conditional triggers and multi-step sequences | Included on the paid plan |
Pricing verified directly against dubsado.com/pricing and 17hats.com/pricing on 2026-08-31 (17hats re-fetched live and unchanged; Dubsado unchanged from the last confirmed direct fetch, since this session's fetch attempt of the vendor's page returned a truncated response). Both vendors change plans, promotions and pricing periodically. Always confirm current pricing on the vendor's site before buying, and treat the 17hats promotional rate above as time-limited.
Neither tool has a song-list or set-list request feature. This is the gap DJs run into first. A working DJ who compared five platforms, including Dubsado, HoneyBook and 17hats, for his own business found none of the general-purpose CRMs handle song requests: DJs who want that typically bolt on a separate tool such as Vibo.io alongside whichever CRM they use for booking and invoicing. If a song-request workflow is central to how you run gigs, plan on a second tool either way.
Dubsado's conditional forms fit a multi-gig-type business. A DJ who books weddings, corporate events and private parties off the same website typically needs a different intake conversation for each: a wedding client gets asked about first-dance songs and a ceremony timeline, a corporate client gets asked about a run-of-show and AV requirements. Dubsado's own published case study of a working DJ describes exactly this kind of branching form setup, plus date-relative reminders that send a questionnaire automatically a set number of months ahead of the event. Neither of these specific workflows appears in the 17hats material reviewed for this page.
One DJ's head-to-head verdict favors Dubsado, with 17hats close behind. A working DJ who runs a CRM-automation coaching practice for other DJs tested Dubsado, HoneyBook and 17hats directly for his own booking business and ranked them Dubsado first, 17hats second, HoneyBook third, citing Dubsado's lead board and its faster chat support response time as the deciding factors. He rated 17hats' automated workflows as solid but its lead board as the weakest of the three. Treat this as one practitioner's ranking, not a universal verdict, since it did not test volume or team-based DJ operations.
17hats' free tier is still the lower-risk way to trial either workflow. Unlimited contacts and projects, capped at four invoices per quarter, is enough to build out a real intake form and see whether the conditional-logic gap actually matters to your gig mix before paying for either tool.
Part of the best CRM, invoicing & scheduling tools for solo service providers hub. See also Dubsado vs 17hats for solo photographers, the same two tools compared for a single-session-type business, without the multi-gig-type intake angle that matters most for DJs. And Dubsado vs 17hats for wedding videographers, the same two tools for another wedding-day live-service business, where marketplace lead integration matters more than intake branching.