Why most CRMs don't work for videographers
You have spent the last three years building a videography business. You shoot weddings, corporate events, maybe the occasional brand film. The work is solid, the clients are happy, and the bookings are growing. But somewhere between the fourth WhatsApp thread and the seventh unread email, you realise you are drowning in admin.
So you Google "best CRM for small business" and find yourself staring at Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zoho. Within ten minutes you are looking at a dashboard designed for a 50-person sales team, with pipeline stages, lead scoring matrices, and terms that mean absolutely nothing to someone who spends their weekends filming first dances.
This is the fundamental problem. The CRM industry was built for sales teams, recruiters, and enterprise companies. The entire language is wrong. You do not have "leads" and "opportunities." You have couples who found you on Instagram, corporate clients who need a quote by Friday, and that mate of a mate who wants a "quick favour" that will take four days.
Generic CRMs fail videographers in three specific ways:
- They assume text-based deliverables. Most CRMs have no concept of file delivery, gallery links, or the multi-stage editing workflow that videography demands. Your project does not end when the invoice is paid.
- They overcomplicate the pipeline. You do not need 12 stages. You need enquiry, quoted, booked, filmed, editing, delivered, and paid. That is it.
- They ignore the creative relationship. Your clients are not anonymous accounts. They are people who trust you with their most important moments. A CRM that reduces them to a row in a spreadsheet misses the point entirely.
The result? Most videographers try a CRM, get frustrated after a week, and go back to a combination of spreadsheets, notes apps, and memory. Which works brilliantly until it does not, and a booking slips through the cracks.
What videographers actually need from a CRM
Before comparing specific tools, it helps to be clear about what you actually need. Not what the CRM marketing page says you need. What your day-to-day business actually requires.
After speaking with dozens of UK videographers, these are the features that consistently come up:
- Fast enquiry capture. When someone fills out your website form or sends a DM, that enquiry needs to land somewhere trackable within seconds. Not in a Gmail folder you will check later.
- Quotes and invoicing in one place. Switching between your CRM, a separate invoicing tool, and your banking app is a workflow that bleeds time. Every transition is a place where things get lost.
- Contracts and e-signatures. UK videographers need something that handles deposits, payment schedules, and terms. Bonus if it can generate contracts from templates based on the booking type.
- Calendar integration. Shoot dates, consultation calls, editing deadlines. If it does not sync with Google Calendar or Apple Calendar, it is a non-starter.
- Client communication log. Every email, every note, every call summary attached to the client record. When a bride rings you three months after the initial enquiry, you need context immediately.
- Automated follow-ups. Not aggressive sales sequences. Simple, helpful reminders. A nudge when a quote has not been responded to. A check-in a week before the shoot. A review request after delivery.
- Simple financial tracking. Revenue by month, outstanding invoices, deposit schedules. You do not need a full accounting suite, but you need to see where the money is.
- Mobile access. You are on location half the time. If the CRM does not work properly on your phone, it does not work at all.
With that list in mind, let us look at the main options available in 2026.
HoneyBook: the popular choice
HoneyBook is probably the name you have heard the most. It has become the default recommendation in creative business communities, and for good reason. It does a lot of things well, and it looks good doing them.
What works: The client flow feature is genuinely useful. You can build a sequence where an enquiry triggers a response, which leads to a proposal, which includes a contract and invoice, all in one branded experience. For a client, it feels seamless. For you, it means less manual work.
The interface is clean and modern. Onboarding is straightforward. The mobile app is one of the better ones in this category. And their template library for proposals and contracts gives you a solid starting point.
What does not: HoneyBook's pricing has crept up significantly. As of early 2026, the Essentials plan starts at around $19/month (roughly 15 GBP), but the features most videographers need, like automation and the scheduler, require the Standard plan at $39/month (roughly 31 GBP) or higher. The Premium plan runs $79/month (roughly 63 GBP).
The other issue is that HoneyBook is very North American in its design. Payment processing defaults to USD, and while you can use GBP, the experience is not always smooth. Stripe integration works, but bank transfer options (still the most common payment method for UK wedding videographers) require workarounds.
HoneyBook is brilliant if you want an all-in-one system and do not mind a US-centric design. If most of your clients pay by bank transfer, expect some friction.
Best for: Videographers who want a polished, all-in-one system and primarily take card payments. Works well if you shoot 30+ events per year and need workflow automation.
Dubsado: the customisation king
If HoneyBook is the curated experience, Dubsado is the blank canvas. It gives you more control over almost everything, but that control comes with complexity.
What works: The form builder is excellent. You can create enquiry forms, questionnaires, and feedback forms that match your brand exactly. The workflow automation is the most powerful in this category, letting you build complex sequences with conditional logic. If the client books a wedding package, send template A. If they book corporate, send template B.
Dubsado also handles multiple brands well. If you run a wedding videography business and a separate corporate video company, you can manage both from one account with different branding for each.
Pricing is more straightforward. The Starter plan is $20/month (roughly 16 GBP) for up to three active projects, and the Premier plan is $40/month (roughly 32 GBP) for unlimited everything. There is also a free trial that lets you test with up to three clients before committing.
What does not: The learning curve is real. Dubsado is not difficult, but it demands time. Setting up your first workflow properly can take a full afternoon. The interface, while functional, feels dated compared to HoneyBook. And the mobile experience is noticeably weaker. Dubsado is very much a desktop-first platform.
The other complaint you hear consistently from UK users is payment handling. Like HoneyBook, it is built with the US market in mind. It integrates with Stripe and Square, but direct bank transfer tracking requires manual entry.
Dubsado rewards the time you invest in it. If you spend a weekend building your workflows properly, it will save you hours every month. If you rush the setup, you will wonder what the fuss was about.
Best for: Detail-oriented videographers who want total control over their client experience and do not mind a steeper setup process. Ideal if you run multiple brands or have complex booking types.
Studio Ninja: built for creatives
Studio Ninja is the underdog that keeps winning fans, particularly among photographers and videographers. It was built specifically for creative professionals, and it shows.
What works: The interface is stripped back in the best possible way. There is no feature bloat. You get a pipeline view of your bookings, automated emails, contracts, invoices, and questionnaires. Each booking sits on a clear timeline from enquiry to completion.
Studio Ninja genuinely understands the creative workflow. The booking stages make sense without renaming anything. The contract templates are designed for event professionals. And critically for UK users, it handles GBP natively and supports bank transfer tracking without hacky workarounds.
Pricing is competitive. The basic plan starts at around $24.50/month (roughly 19 GBP), with the pro plan at $38/month (roughly 30 GBP). They also offer a discounted annual rate that brings the cost down further.
What does not: Studio Ninja is more limited in customisation than Dubsado. The automation sequences are simpler, and you cannot build the same level of conditional logic. If you need complex multi-branch workflows, you will hit the ceiling.
The other limitation is the ecosystem. HoneyBook and Dubsado have larger user communities, more third-party integrations, and more tutorial content. Studio Ninja's community is growing, but you will find fewer YouTube walkthroughs and templates to start from.
Studio Ninja is what happens when someone builds a CRM by actually asking creatives what they need. It is simple, focused, and respects the UK market. Not the most powerful, but possibly the most usable.
Best for: UK-based videographers who want something that works out of the box with minimal setup. Particularly good for sole traders who value simplicity over advanced automation.
Other options worth considering
The three platforms above dominate the conversation, but they are not the only choices. Depending on your workflow and budget, these alternatives might be worth exploring.
Bloom (formerly 17hats)
Bloom rebranded from 17hats and has positioned itself as a modern alternative for creative businesses. It offers lead management, contracts, invoicing, and scheduling in one platform. The interface is clean and the pricing is reasonable at around $39/month (roughly 31 GBP) for the standard plan. The main downside is that it is still heavily US-focused, and the automation features are not as deep as Dubsado.
Sprout Studio
Sprout Studio combines CRM features with gallery delivery, which is an interesting proposition for videographers who want to deliver final files through the same platform they manage bookings on. Pricing starts at $34/month (roughly 27 GBP). The trade-off is that neither the CRM nor the gallery feature is best-in-class, so you are accepting a compromise on both fronts.
Trello or Notion with integrations
Some videographers build their own system using Trello boards or Notion databases, connected to Stripe or Xero via Zapier. This approach is cheap (often free for the base tools) and infinitely customisable. The downside is that you are essentially building a CRM from scratch, and every integration is a potential point of failure. It works if you enjoy systems design. It is a nightmare if you just want something that works.
Moxie (formerly HoneyBook alternative)
Moxie is a newer entrant that has been gaining traction among freelancers. It includes project management, time tracking, invoicing, and basic CRM features. At around $24/month (roughly 19 GBP), it is competitively priced. However, it is built more for ongoing service-based freelancers than event-based creatives, so the workflow might not fit perfectly.
How to choose the right one
The worst thing you can do is spend three weeks trialling every CRM on this list. You will burn out on setup and end up back in your Gmail inbox. Instead, work through these questions honestly:
1. How many bookings do you handle per month?
If you are doing fewer than five bookings per month, you do not need complex automation. Studio Ninja or even a well-organised Notion setup will serve you fine. If you are handling 10 or more, the time saved by automated follow-ups and templated contracts in HoneyBook or Dubsado will genuinely pay for itself.
2. How do your clients typically pay?
This is the question UK videographers often overlook. If your clients mostly pay by bank transfer (and many wedding clients in the UK still do), you need a CRM that tracks manual payments cleanly. Studio Ninja handles this best. HoneyBook and Dubsado are built around integrated card processing, which is excellent if your clients use it, but adds friction if they do not.
3. How much time are you willing to spend on setup?
Be honest. Dubsado will give you the most control, but only if you invest the setup time. If you want to be up and running in an afternoon, HoneyBook or Studio Ninja are better starting points.
4. Do you run multiple brands or offer very different services?
If you shoot weddings under one name and corporate under another, Dubsado's multi-brand support is hard to beat. Most other CRMs in this category assume a single brand identity.
5. What is your budget?
All of these tools cost between 15 and 65 GBP per month. That is roughly the cost of one hour of your time. If a CRM saves you more than one hour per month in admin (and it will), the maths works. Do not choose based on which is cheapest. Choose based on which one you will actually use.
The best CRM is not the most feature-rich one. It is the one you will still be using in six months. Trial your top two choices, commit to one within a week, and move on.
The future of CRM for creatives
The CRM landscape for creatives is shifting. The gap between generic business tools and creative-specific platforms is widening, and that is a good thing. Five years ago, videographers had to force-fit tools built for estate agents and insurance brokers. Now there are genuine options designed for the way creative businesses actually operate.
The next wave of tools is going even further. Rather than adapting traditional CRM concepts for creatives, they are starting from scratch with the creative workflow at the centre. Instead of bolting on invoicing and contracts as afterthoughts, they are building around the actual journey: enquiry, quote, book, shoot, edit, deliver, get paid, get reviewed.
This is exactly the direction that purpose-built tools like Clients Cut are heading. Instead of asking videographers to learn a system designed for someone else, the focus is on building something that mirrors the workflow you already follow. Client management, project tracking, and financial oversight in a single tool that actually speaks your language.
The broader trend is also moving towards smarter automation. Not the kind that sends robotic "just checking in!" emails, but contextual follow-ups that adapt based on where the client is in the process. AI-assisted scheduling that suggests optimal follow-up times based on response patterns. Financial forecasting that accounts for the seasonal peaks and valleys that every event videographer experiences.
For UK videographers specifically, the most welcome change is platforms that treat GBP and UK business practices as first-class citizens rather than afterthoughts. VAT handling, HMRC-friendly reporting, and payment methods that match how UK clients actually pay. These are not niche requirements. They are basic business needs that the US-dominated CRM market has historically ignored.
Whatever you choose today, the important thing is to choose something. Every week you spend managing clients through scattered WhatsApp threads and email folders is a week where a booking could slip through. The tools are good enough now. The only real risk is continuing to do nothing.