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. Three users are included, then every extra person costs $5 a month. Texting is a paid add-on, and when we checked (2026-10-22) there was no phone calling feature.
$297 per month. Card required. AI and phone usage is billed at cost, on top of the $297.
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 7 day trial and no card required.
Allio
Any portrait photographer, from someone just starting out to a studio with a full front desk, who wants the phone line and every channel run from the client record.
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 2026-10-22 |
| Top price | Same $60/month plan; only the billing term changes | Same $297/month plan | 17hats.com, checked 2026-10-22 |
| Per seat charge | 3 users included, then $5/month for each extra user | No per seat fee at any headcount | 17hats.com, checked 2026-10-22 |
| Extra brand charge | 2 brands included, then $10/month for each extra brand | No per brand fee | 17hats.com, checked 2026-10-22 |
| Phone system | No phone or calling feature found; the texting add-on gives you a local number for texting | Inbound and outbound calling from the client record, logged automatically | 17hats.com, checked 2026-10-22 |
| Unified inbox | Texts and emails sync in one place, with texting as a paid add-on for US and Canadian members ($60 one-time registration, then from $10/month for 100 texts, charged per fragment); no calls | Calls, texts, email and social messages in one inbox per client | 17hats.com, checked 2026-10-22 |
| Trial | 7 day trial, no card required | 7 day trial, card required | 17hats.com, checked 2026-10-22 |
| Adding staff | 3 users included, then $5/month for each extra person | Add staff at no extra charge | 17hats.com, checked 2026-10-22 |
What 17hats' phone line actually is
17hats has no phone or calling feature on its pricing, features or texting pages. Its texting add-on, for US and Canadian members, gives you a local number for texts, and texts and emails sync in one place in your account. It costs a $60 one-time registration, then from $10 a month for 100 texts, charged per message fragment. 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 includes three users, then climbs with every hire: $5 a month per extra user and $10 a month per extra brand after the two included, plus paid add-ons such as bank connect ($5 a month) and texting (a $60 one-time registration, then from $10 a month for 100 texts, charged per message fragment). A five 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 AI and phone usage billed at cost on top, and email 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 has a 7 day trial with no card required. A studio that lives and dies by contract paperwork and reminder sequences 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 one flat plan with three users included.
Choose Allio if
you want the phone built into the client record from day one, and room to add staff without paying more per person.
See it running in a studio like yours.
The trial is seven days, card required, and you can be in within minutes.
Want the story first? Read who built Allio and why, or see what a call about Allio covers.
$297 per month. Card required. AI and phone usage is billed at cost, on top of the $297.