HONEST COMPARISON
17hats automates your paperwork. It doesn't run your studio's phone line.
17hats is $60 a month, one plan, with deep contract and invoice automation. It also has no phone system, and every extra person on your team costs $5 a month more from the first hire.
$297 per month. Card required. Calls and texts billed at wholesale rates.
Who each one is built for
17hats
Solo owners and small teams who live inside contract and invoice automation, on one flat plan with a genuine free tier to start on.
Allio
A staffed studio whose phone rings all day and needs the whole team working from one shared line and inbox.
The facts, with sources
Every row was checked against 17hats’s own published pages on the date shown. Prices move, so if you are reading this later, check the source.
| 17hats | Allio | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $60/month, one plan (also $600/year or $800 for two years) | $297/month, one plan | 17hats.com, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Top price | Same $60/month plan; only the billing term changes | Same $297/month plan | 17hats.com, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Per seat charge | Extra users $5/month each, from the first additional person, on Standard and Premier plans | No per seat fee at any headcount | 17hats.com, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Extra brand charge | $10/month per brand on Premier (2 included) | No per brand fee | 17hats.com, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Phone system | No phone or calling feature found on the pricing or features page | Inbound and outbound calling from the client record, logged automatically | 17hats.com, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Unified inbox | SMS texting and email are listed as separate features, not one inbox | Calls, texts, email and social messages in one inbox per client | 17hats.com, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Free plan or trial | A permanent free plan: unlimited contacts and projects, 4 invoices per quarter, no card required | 7 day trial, card required | 17hats.com, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Adding staff | Every extra person is billed from the first one, $5/month each | Add staff at no extra charge | 17hats.com, checked 2026-08-21 |
What 17hats' phone line actually is
17hats has no phone or calling feature on its pricing page or its features page, and no unified inbox: SMS texting and email are listed as separate tools, not one thread. That's fine for a solo owner returning calls between shoots. A studio with a booker answering the phone all day needs something that answers, logs and hands off calls as a team, which is a different job than 17hats is built to do.
The real monthly number, not the sticker price
17hats at $60 a month for one person already climbs with every hire: $5 a month per extra user, $10 a month per extra brand, plus paid add-ons for bank connections, time tracking, online scheduling and QuickBooks, each $5 to $10 a month. A three person studio is paying for seats before it even prices a phone system, and 17hats does not have one, so that is still a separate bill on top. Allio is $297 a month for the whole team, phone system included, with calls, texts and email billed separately at wholesale rates.
Where 17hats genuinely wins
17hats' single flat plan comes with genuinely deep back office document automation: quotes, contracts, invoices and questionnaires can be chained together with if/then conditional logic and combined into a single 3-in-1 document, with automatic confirmation and reminder sequences. It also ships a permanent free tier, unlimited contacts and projects, four invoices per quarter, with no time limit, which is more generous than a trial. A studio that lives and dies by contract paperwork and reminder sequences, and wants to try before paying anything, gets more of that specific thing here than Allio is built to offer.
Which one you should pick
Choose 17hats if
you're one or two people, contract and invoice automation is most of your day, and you want to start on a free plan before paying anything.
Choose Allio if
your studio has a booker, a diary and a sales room, and the phone is how most of your work starts.
See it running in a studio like yours.
The trial is seven days, card required, and you can be in within minutes.
$297 per month. Card required. Calls and texts billed at wholesale rates.