Alternatives
Hosted client portal, or one you own?
Every portal on this page does roughly the same job: a storefront for your services, a place for clients to order and talk to you, and invoices at the end. They split on one structural question — whose server it runs on — and the pricing model follows from that.
How these comparisons are built, and why you can check them. We make ClientOS, so we are not a neutral party and we are not pretending to be. What we can do is show our working: every competitor number is read off that competitor’s own public pricing page, with the date it was read, and every ClientOS claim comes from getclientos.com or its docs. Each page also names the agencies that should stay where they are. Where a vendor’s pages could not be reached, we say so and make no claim at all rather than guessing — see UNVERIFIED.md.
ClientOS vs Wayfront
Wayfront, formerly Service Provider Pro, is a hosted client portal from $99/mo. ClientOS is the same job self-hosted on a one-time licence. An honest comparison, checked 29 October 2026.
Pricing checked 29 October 2026 →ClientOS vs Zendo
Zendo is a hosted service-selling platform from free to $99/mo, with per-user pricing. ClientOS is self-hosted on a one-time licence. A factual comparison, checked 29 October 2026.
Pricing checked 29 October 2026 →ClientOS vs Agency Handy
Agency Handy is a hosted agency client portal. ClientOS does the same job on your own server for a one-time licence. What self-hosting changes — and what we could not verify.
Model comparison — their terms unverified →The structural difference, in one table
This is the part that is true of every hosted portal versus every self-hosted one, whichever two products you are comparing.
| Hosted portal subscription | ClientOS, self-hosted | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | A monthly plan that grows with seats, clients or features | One licence, paid once, plus a server from about $10 a month |
| Where client data lives | On the vendor’s servers, under their terms | In your own PostgreSQL database, on your server |
| Who can read it | You, the vendor’s staff and their subprocessors | Only the people you give an account to |
| Who runs the server | They do — nothing for you to patch, monitor or back up | You do. One command installs and updates it, but the VPS and the backup schedule are yours |
| Payments | Gateways and any cut depend on the vendor and the plan | Straight to your Stripe, PayPal or crypto account; ClientOS takes no cut |
| Branding | Their domain or a paid add-on, and often their name somewhere | Your domains, logos, colours, words and emails on every package |
| Leaving | Export what they let you, then lose the rest | The database and files are already yours; one command dumps all of it |
| Source code | Not provided | Not provided either — verified Docker images, so self-hosted but not open source |
When a hosted portal is the right answer
Self-hosting is not free — it costs you a server to own and a backup schedule to remember. Stay on a hosted portal if any of these are true:
- Nobody on your team wants to own a Linux VPS, and you would rather pay to never think about it.
- You need the portal in a language other than English — ClientOS states its interface is English only.
- You want to use the real product free before committing; ClientOS sells a licence and its demo is read-only for 3 days.
- You are one or two people, where a cheap per-seat plan beats a licence.
- You depend on an integration ClientOS does not list, such as Zapier, Make, Slack or SEO reporting.
The curated list of client portal software has the hosted options, listed neutrally and without ranking.
See it working before you decide anything
The instant demo emails you a login to a live ClientOS — the full agency admin and client portal with sample data. Read-only, so you can click anything. Your login works for 3 days. No call, no card.