Modern design that matches your brand
Everything your clients see (emails, contracts, forms) looks premium and on-brand. 17hats' client-facing materials look generic and dated.
Comparison
17hats was one of the first CRMs for photographers. Fstop is one of the newest. Here's how they compare in 2026, honestly.
Monthly Price
From $19.99/mo
vs
$60/mo
Interface
Modern & clean
vs
Dated but functional
Built For
Photographers & videographers
vs
Small businesses broadly
Let's Talk About It
If you're a photographer, your tools should look as good as your work. This is the most noticeable difference between fstop and 17hats.
Clean, minimal interface with your branding front and center. Custom fonts, your color palette, your logo: everything you send to clients looks like it came from you, not from a business tool from 2015. The UI is modern and doesn't fight you.
17hats gets the job done, but the interface hasn't kept up with modern design standards. The dashboard feels cluttered, forms and contracts look generic, and client-facing documents don't reflect the premium brand most photographers are building. It works, it just doesn't look or feel premium.
Feature by Feature
| Feature | Fstop | 17hats |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Starting price | From $19.99/mo | $60/mo, or free plan |
| CRM features included | ✓ Every feature on every plan | ✗ Free plan is capped at four invoices a quarter; everything else needs the $60/mo plan |
| Trial | ✓ 7 days, cancel anytime | ✓ 17 days |
| Lead Management | ||
| Inquiry pipeline | ✓ | ✓ |
| Embeddable contact form | ✓ Visual builder | ✓ |
| Webhook intake | ✓ | ✗ |
| Lead source tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Contracts & E-Signatures | ||
| Contract builder | ✓ | ✓ |
| E-signatures | ✓ | ✓ |
| Send from your Gmail | ✓ Gmail API | ✗ Sends from 17hats |
| Email templates | ✓ | ✓ |
| Email automations | ✓ Just the ones you need | ✓ Workflow automations |
| Scheduling & Timelines | ||
| Google Calendar sync | ✓ | ✓ |
| Event timelines | ✓ Built-in timeline builder | ✗ |
| Scheduler / booking | ✓ Built-in booking + Calendar sync | ✓ |
| Payments & Invoicing | ||
| Invoicing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Online payments | ✓ Card payments via your own Stripe or Square account, no fstop fee | ✓ Stripe + Square |
| Payment plans | ✗ Not yet | ✓ |
| Branding & Design | ||
| Branding kit | ✓ Colors, fonts, logos, social | Basic branding |
| Custom form builder | ✓ Visual drag-and-drop | ✓ |
| Custom fields | ✓ | ✓ |
| Modern, clean UI | ✓ | ✗ Dated interface |
| Other | ||
| Built for photographers | ✓ | ✗ General small businesses |
| Questionnaires | ✓ | ✓ |
| Client portal | ✓ Branded portal: questionnaires, timelines, files & documents | ✓ |
| Client photo galleries | ✓ Built in on Studio & Pro (250 GB / 1 TB) | ✗ Needs Pic-Time or Pixieset ($20-50/mo extra) |
| Bookkeeping / expenses | ✗ | ✓ |
| Mobile app | ✓ iOS app on the App Store: live sync + push notifications | ✓ |
Honest Take
Everything your clients see (emails, contracts, forms) looks premium and on-brand. 17hats' client-facing materials look generic and dated.
Clients see your name and reply to your address. 17hats sends from their own system.
Built-in wedding and event timeline builder. 17hats doesn't have this.
Custom fonts, color palettes, logos, and social links, all built in and applied across everything, including the branded client portal your clients see. 17hats' branding options are minimal.
A native iOS app on the App Store with live sync and push notifications, included on every plan.
Connect any existing website form directly. 17hats only accepts leads through their own forms.
17hats has a genuinely free plan, which is cheaper than anything we offer. But it's limited: no automation, no online payments, limited templates. The comparable plan is their single paid plan at $60/mo.
Both support Stripe and Square. Fstop clients pay invoices by card through your own connected Stripe or Square account with no fstop fee, but automatic payment schedules aren't here yet.
17hats has built-in bookkeeping features: track expenses, mileage, and generate profit/loss reports. Fstop doesn't have bookkeeping.
Both 17hats and Fstop have questionnaires for gathering client info (wedding details, shot lists, etc.). Fstop's questionnaires are branded to match your business and support multiple question types.
17hats has been around since 2013. They're established and stable. Fstop is newer and still shipping features.
Who It's For
Pricing
Fstop
$19.99
/mo billed yearly
Every CRM feature included. Client galleries on Studio and Pro.
17hats
$60
per month, or $600 a year
17hats dropped its old tiers: it is now one paid plan plus a free one. The free plan is a real option if you invoice rarely.
Making the Switch
Realistically an afternoon of setup, not a week. Here's the whole process.
Export your contacts as a CSV from 17hats, and download PDF copies of any signed contracts and paid invoices you want to keep on file. Those documents stay legally valid as PDFs; you don't need to recreate them.
Upload that CSV to fstop's contact importer. It auto-matches your columns (name, email, phone, company, tags, notes), so even a few hundred contacts take about a minute. Coming from a spreadsheet instead? The same importer takes any Google Sheets or Excel export.
Paste your email and contract templates into fstop, and smart variables fill in client and shoot details automatically. Add your branding kit (logo, colors, fonts) so everything clients see finally matches your studio.
Swap your 17hats lead capture form for fstop's form builder, or point your existing website form at fstop with a direct webhook, so new inquiries flow straight in. Connect Stripe or Square and your invoices take card payments with no fstop fee.
Finish in-flight projects where clients have already signed and paid, start every new inquiry in fstop, and cancel 17hats when the last active project wraps. Most photographers run both for a few weeks and never look back.
Book a migration call and we move you in together, live on a screen share. 17hats export, a messy spreadsheet, a Notes app full of names: bring whatever you have and we'll load your clients, set up your templates and connect your form before we hang up. No charge, it's just how we onboard.
Book a migration call17hats was one of the pioneers. They were solving the "I need a CRM" problem for photographers back when the options were basically spreadsheets or enterprise software. A lot of photographers got their start on 17hats and it served them well.
But the product hasn't evolved the way the industry has. The interface feels stuck in 2015. Client-facing documents don't reflect the premium brands photographers are building today. And 17hats charges $60/mo for the paid plan, where fstop includes every CRM feature on every plan from $19.99/mo. On fstop, the only thing tiers change is gallery storage.
If 17hats is working for you, there's no urgency to switch. But if you've been wanting something that looks as good as your work and feels modern to use, that's what fstop is for.
Questions
If you're a photographer or videographer, yes. Fstop covers the same core workflow (inquiries, contracts, invoicing with card payments, scheduling, client portal) but it's built only for photographers, with a modern interface and things 17hats doesn't offer: client galleries, event timelines and a branded client experience. If you want built-in bookkeeping or run a general small business, 17hats may fit you better.
Fstop runs $19.99 to $49.99/mo billed yearly, with every CRM feature on every plan. 17hats has one paid plan at $60/mo ($600/yr), plus a free plan capped at four invoices a quarter. Fstop Essentials at $19.99/mo costs a third of the 17hats paid plan and includes galleries, which 17hats does not offer at all.
Yes. Export your contacts from 17hats as a CSV and upload it to fstop's importer, which auto-matches your columns. Signed contracts and paid invoices stay valid as PDFs, so download those for your records, and paste your contract and email templates into fstop once.
Clients pay invoices by card through your own connected Stripe or Square account, and fstop adds no fee on top of the processor's standard rate, and deposits and balances are tracked on every invoice.
Yes, on the Studio plan (250 GB) and Pro plan (1 TB). 17hats doesn't offer galleries, so most 17hats photographers pay another $20 to $50/mo for Pic-Time or Pixieset on top.
Yes. Book a migration call and we do it with you live on a screen share: we'll import your clients from a 17hats export or any spreadsheet, set up your templates and branding, and connect your website form. Email hello@fstopcrm.com with the subject "Migrate me" and we'll set it up. There's no charge for this.
Yes, a 7-day trial of the full CRM, no long-term commitment. Client galleries come with the Studio and Pro plans.
Ready when you are
7-day trial. Every CRM feature included. Plans from $19.99/mo.