HONEST COMPARISON
HoneyBook's app can place a call. It still doesn't run your studio's phone line.
HoneyBook runs $29 to $109 a month billed yearly, with team size capped by tier rather than charged per seat. Its mobile app can place outbound calls from your business number, a real feature worth stating plainly, but that's a different job from answering, logging and routing your studio's calls as a team.
$297 per month. Card required. Calls and texts billed at wholesale rates.
Who each one is built for
HoneyBook
Freelancers and small teams across many service industries, not just photography, who want proposals, invoicing and payments in one polished tool.
Allio
A staffed portrait studio that needs its phone line and every channel run from the client record.
The facts, with sources
Every row was checked against HoneyBook’s own published pages on the date shown. Prices move, so if you are reading this later, check the source.
| HoneyBook | Allio | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $29/month billed yearly (Starter), no team members | $297/month, whole team included | honeybook.com, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Mid tier | $49/month billed yearly (Essentials, discounted from $59), up to 2 team members | Same $297/month plan, no team cap | honeybook.com, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Top price | $109/month billed yearly (Premium, discounted from $129), unlimited team members | Same $297/month plan | honeybook.com, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Team cap | Team size is a tier cap, not a per seat fee: 0 on Starter, up to 2 on Essentials, unlimited only on Premium | No cap at any plan | honeybook.com, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Outbound calling | The mobile app can place outbound calls from your business number, per its App Store listing | Inbound and outbound calling from the client record, logged automatically | apps.apple.com, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Phone system on the pricing page | Not listed on the pricing or feature comparison table | Included at every headcount | honeybook.com, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Unified inbox | No; SMS reminders are a separate line item from email, no inbox spanning calls, SMS, email and social found | Calls, texts, email and social messages in one inbox per client | honeybook.com, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Free trial | 30 days free, no card required, plus a 60 day money back guarantee | 7 days, card required | honeybook.com, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Adding staff | Two team members on Essentials at $49/month; a third means jumping straight to Premium at $109/month | Add staff at no extra charge | honeybook.com, checked 2026-08-21 |
HoneyBook's calling feature, stated plainly
HoneyBook's mobile app genuinely can place a call: its own App Store listing says, "You can now make direct phone calls to clients using your business phone number right from the app." That's a real feature and it's fair to say so. It's outbound only, lives in the mobile app rather than on the pricing page or the feature comparison table, and there's no inbound call handling, no call logged automatically to the client record, and no shared line the whole team works from. That's the gap a staffed studio feels: someone still has to answer the phone, and whoever does needs to see who's calling and why.
The real monthly number, not the sticker price
HoneyBook's Essentials plan caps a studio at two team members for $49 a month; a third person means jumping to Premium at $109 a month. Even on Premium, calling is outbound only from a mobile app, so a studio still needs something to answer the phone, log the call and hand it to the right person. Allio is $297 a month for the whole team, with the phone system, the inbox and the client record built in, and usage billed separately at wholesale rates.
Where HoneyBook genuinely wins
HoneyBook has shipped real, working AI inside the product, not a marketing label: it drafts client inquiry email replies in the business owner's own tone, auto generates meeting notes and daily to do summaries from calendar activity, and flags which leads are statistically likely to book. On higher plans it adds an AI automation builder for trigger based workflows. This is a live capability Allio does not have.
Which one you should pick
Choose HoneyBook if
you want AI drafting your replies and summarising your day, and two team members or fewer covers your studio.
Choose Allio if
your team is bigger than two, or the phone needs to be answered and logged by someone other than whoever has the app open.
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.