Search “best software for wedding planners” and the results are a mix of vendor blogs and personal blogs written by working wedding planners, with no G2, Capterra, or major media in sight. That’s good news for finding an honest comparison, but it also means nobody’s flagging a pricing structure problem that shows up on two of the three tools below: the cheapest plan doesn’t actually include the client-facing planning features “wedding planning software” implies, and one tool charges you more per month for less usage the shorter your commitment is.
The short version: Aisle Planner’s entry tier, Sales Essentials at $49.99/month, is CRM and lead management only. There’s no client portal, timeline builder, budget tool, or guest management until the next tier up at $69.99/month. 17hats has the opposite problem: its $60/month plan (billed monthly) caps you at 20 documents, while paying for a year upfront works out to about $50/month for 35 documents, and a two-year commitment works out to about $33/month for unlimited documents. HoneyBook is the more straightforward option: its $29/month Starter tier includes unlimited clients and projects with no feature gate, though it’s capped at one user until you upgrade.
Quick Comparison: What the Cheapest Tier Actually Includes
| Tool | Cheapest Tier | Price | What’s Actually Included | The Catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HoneyBook | Starter | $29/mo (billed yearly) | Unlimited clients and projects, invoices, contracts, proposals, client portal | Capped at 1 user; team access needs Essentials ($49/mo) |
| Aisle Planner | Sales Essentials | $49.99/mo | CRM, lead management, invoicing, proposals | No client portal, timelines, budgets, or guest management until the $69.99/mo tier |
| 17hats | Monthly plan | $60/mo | Full feature set, but only 20 documents/month | Paying month to month costs more per month and caps you at fewer documents than paying yearly or biennially |
All three companies’ own pricing pages checked directly on August 27, 2026.
Aisle Planner: The Tier Named for Wedding Planners Isn’t Wedding Planning Software Yet
Aisle Planner’s own pricing page lists Sales Essentials as the entry tier at $49.99/month, and its feature list is explicit about what it excludes: lead management, scheduling, email integration, proposals, invoicing, contacts, and calendar syncing, but no project management tools. The next tier up, priced by project volume and starting around $69.99/month for up to 15 active projects, is where the actual planning toolkit appears: client portal, project dashboard, checklists, timelines, budgets, vendor management, guest management, and a couples-facing event website with RSVP.
That’s a real gap for a tool marketed at wedding planners specifically. A planner signing up for the cheapest plan expecting to manage timelines and guest lists will find a CRM instead, and won’t discover the gap until they’re already looking for the planning tools that aren’t there.
- Who should NOT use Aisle Planner’s Sales Essentials tier: anyone who needs client-facing planning tools (timelines, budgets, guest management) from day one. That functionality doesn’t exist until the next tier.
- Who it’s right for: a planner who mainly needs lead tracking and proposals right now and plans to upgrade once they’re running active events, or one who’s ready to start on the $69.99/mo tier and get the full toolkit immediately.
17hats: Monthly Billing Costs More and Gives You Less
17hats prices the same feature set three ways, and the math runs backwards from what you’d expect. Billed monthly, it’s $60/month with a cap of 20 documents per month and 1-day-response support. Billed yearly, it’s $600/year, which works out to $50/month, and the document cap rises to 35 per month with 4-hour-response support. Billed every two years, it’s $800, which works out to about $33/month, and the document cap disappears entirely alongside 1-hour VIP support.
In other words, the shortest commitment is both the most expensive per month and the most restricted. 17hats also sells several core-feeling features as $5–10/month add-ons on top of any tier: an additional user, bank connection, time tracking, and online scheduling all cost extra. There is a free CRM-only plan (unlimited contacts and projects, but only 4 invoices per quarter), which functions more as a lead-in to the paid tiers than a standalone option for an active planning business.
- Who should NOT use 17hats on monthly billing: anyone processing more than 20 documents a month, which for an active wedding planner (proposals, contracts, invoices, questionnaires) is easy to hit. The yearly or biennial commitment is a meaningfully better deal, not just a discount.
- Who it’s right for: a planner confident enough in the tool to commit for a year or two upfront, who wants one all-inclusive platform rather than a wedding-specific one.
HoneyBook: Fewer Gates, but Solo Only at the Entry Price
HoneyBook’s Starter tier is $29/month when billed yearly, and unlike Aisle Planner, it doesn’t strip out client-facing tools at the entry price: invoices, payments, proposals, contracts, a calendar, templates, and a client portal are all included, plus up to two live lead capture forms. What Starter doesn’t include is a second team member. Essentials, at $49/month billed yearly ($59/month otherwise), raises the team cap to two people and adds a scheduler, automations, QuickBooks Online sync, and SMS reminders. Premium, at $109/month billed yearly ($129/month otherwise), removes the team-member cap entirely.
HoneyBook also charges payment processing fees on top of any tier (2.7% + 10¢ for cards, 1.5% for ACH), which is standard for tools that process client payments directly, and offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required across all tiers.
- Who should NOT use HoneyBook’s Starter tier: a planner who already works with an assistant or associate planner, since Starter caps out at one user and the feature-complete Essentials tier is where a second seat becomes available.
- Who it’s right for: a solo planner who wants full client-facing functionality (portal, contracts, proposals) without a feature gate, and is comfortable committing to annual billing for the advertised rate.
Who Should NOT Buy Any of These Three
If your business is broader than weddings alone, a generalist CRM built around workflow automation and questionnaires, like Dubsado, may fit better than any of these three wedding-specific tools; see our invoicing software comparison for how Dubsado’s own tiers split features (its Starter plan has the same kind of gap Aisle Planner’s does, with automation and scheduling locked to the higher tier). And if you’re a planner running fewer than a handful of weddings a year, all three of these tools are priced for an active, ongoing business; a general invoicing tool with lower fixed costs may cover a hobby-level operation better than a dedicated planning platform.
FAQ
What is the best software for wedding planners? It depends on what you need at your current price point. HoneyBook gives the most complete feature set at its cheapest tier ($29/month) but caps team size at one person. Aisle Planner is wedding-specific but its cheapest tier is CRM only, not planning software. 17hats is the most flexible generalist option if you commit to yearly or biennial billing.
Is there a free option for wedding planning software? 17hats offers a free CRM-only plan with unlimited contacts and projects, but only 4 invoices per quarter, which isn’t enough for active client billing. None of the three tools here offer a full-featured free tier.
Why does Aisle Planner’s cheapest plan not include planning tools? Aisle Planner splits its product into a sales/CRM layer and a project-management layer, and only bundles both starting at its second tier ($69.99/month for up to 15 active projects). The $49.99/month Sales Essentials tier is built for the lead-generation and booking phase of the business, not for managing weddings once they’re booked.
Does paying monthly or annually change what I get with 17hats, not just what I pay? Yes. Unlike a typical subscription discount, 17hats ties document limits to billing frequency: monthly billing caps you at 20 documents a month, yearly billing raises that to 35, and two-year billing removes the cap entirely. The commitment length changes the product, not just the price.
Bottom Line: Which Should You Choose?
- Solo planner who wants full features with no feature gate: HoneyBook’s Starter tier at $29/month, provided you’re comfortable being the only user on the account.
- Ready to commit to a full planning platform right away: Aisle Planner’s $69.99/month tier, skipping Sales Essentials entirely since it won’t cover actual event management.
- Want one all-inclusive tool and can commit for a year or more: 17hats on yearly or biennial billing, where the per-document math actually works in your favor.
- Running a broader event or creative business, not weddings exclusively: consider a generalist tool like Dubsado, covered in our invoicing software comparison, which carries a similar tier-gating trap worth checking before you commit.