Comparison · Client portals
A client portal is supposed to end the "can you resend that?" email. Most tools do the file-sharing part well and then diverge sharply - some assume you're a freelancer sending proposals, others assume you're an agency running projects, and a few charge you per client, which is the one pricing model guaranteed to punish growth.
Disclosure: Chromoly is our own product. It appears on this list because it genuinely fits some of these jobs - and we've written a plain "don't pick us if..." line for the cases where it doesn't. Prices aren't quoted anywhere on this page: they change constantly and stale numbers help nobody. Every tool links to its own pricing.
Best for: getting a clean portal live quickly, including on a free plan
Widely recommended as the straightforward starting point for small teams, with a free plan and simple paid tiers rather than per-seat billing. Good when you want the client-facing surface today and don't want to design a system first.
Where it falls down: it's a portal, not an operations system - the work still happens elsewhere.
Best for: solo consultants and small service businesses
Built around service-business client interactions with low-cost individual tiers. Strong on polished client-facing documents and a tidy shared space per client.
Where it falls down: scoped to the freelance and small-studio shape; less suited once several people run different processes.
Best for: portal plus CRM, proposals and billing in one
The upgrade path when you want the client portal bundled with the commercial workflow around it rather than bolted onto three other subscriptions.
Where it falls down: bundles come with opinions - you inherit their CRM and billing model along with the portal.
Best for: consolidating portals, projects, billing and CRM
Aims to centralise the whole client-facing operation in one product, which suits businesses tired of stitching four tools together.
Where it falls down: breadth costs learning time, and configuration is where all-in-one tools quietly consume weeks.
Best for: creative and client-service businesses with proposal-heavy workflows
Both are strong where the client journey is enquiry, proposal, contract, payment - photographers, designers, studios. The portal is one part of a well-designed commercial flow.
Where it falls down: outside that journey shape, you're fighting the product's assumptions.
Best for: a portal over data you already keep in Airtable or Sheets
The most flexible no-code option if your data already lives in a base and you want a permissioned front-end over it without writing code.
Where it falls down: your logic ends up split across the base, its automations and the front-end - three places to check when something breaks.
Best for: a portal that is the client-facing window onto your own system
You describe the portal and the operation behind it in plain language and get both - clients log in on your domain, see only their own records, and what they see is the same data your team works in, not a copy. Permissions are part of the generated system, and when the process changes you describe the change and see what it affects before it goes live. See how the portal build works.
Don't pick us if: you're a solo freelancer who needs proposals, contracts and invoicing in one polished flow. HoneyBook or Dubsado will serve you better and faster - that journey is what they were designed for.
Buy when your workflow matches what the product assumes. If you recognise your business in a tool's demo, that's the cheapest portal you'll ever get.
Build when the portal has to expose data from your own operations, when your process doesn't match the template, or when the portal is really a window onto an internal system you need anyway. Building one thing beats buying two that must be kept in sync by hand.
Secure login, each client seeing only their own data, file and message exchange, and status visibility without emailing you. Beyond that it depends on your business. A portal that only shares files is a folder with a login.
Because your clients are the seats - the pricing is aimed at the exact thing you want to grow. Prefer workspace-based pricing for anything client-facing.
Buy when your workflow matches the tool's assumptions. Build when the portal must show data from your own operations or your process differs from the template.
Yes - generated systems include authenticated client access with role-based permissions on your own domain, enforced by the system rather than by hidden links, with clean revocation when an engagement ends.
Plain language in, working preview on your own domain. Free tier, no credit card.
Start free →Client logins · per-client permissions · your domain and branding