ClientOS vs Zendo
A self-hosted Zendo alternative
Zendo and ClientOS both sell the same promise: a storefront for your services, a place for the client to order and talk to you, and quotes and invoices at the end of it. Zendo starts free and is hosted for you; ClientOS is a one-time licence you install on your own server. The sharpest practical differences are per-user pricing and what each one does about payments.
Where the numbers come from. Every Zendo figure on this page was read off https://getzendo.io/pricing on 29 October 2026. Every ClientOS figure comes from getclientos.com on the same date. Plans change — check both before you buy. We make ClientOS, so read the "stay where you are" section below as seriously as the rest.
How Zendo describes itself: “Zendo allows you to sell productized, subscription and custom services. Collaborate and collect payments. Create quotes and invoices.” — https://getzendo.io/, 29 October 2026.
Zendo pricing, as published
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | Free | 1 internal user, 3 clients, 1 published service, 2 request types, 1 GB storage |
| Core | $25/mo yearly · $29/mo monthly | Unlimited clients, up to 3 published services, 5 request types, 100 GB; extra users $8/mo |
| Pro | $49/mo yearly · $59/mo monthly | Unlimited services, custom domain and email, automations, intake forms, 500 GB; extra users $12.50/mo |
| Agency | $79/mo yearly · $99/mo monthly | Removes the "Powered by Zendo" badge, conditional logic, custom CSS/JS, 5 TB; extra users $17/mo |
ClientOS pricing, for the same comparison
| Package | Price | Updates and support |
|---|---|---|
| Start-up | $490 one-time | 3 months of updates, standard support, license for one agency |
| Standard | $990 one-time | 12 months of updates, priority support, license for one agency |
| Premium | $1,790 one-time | 2 years of updates, priority support, license for two agencies |
| Custom | Quoted | Lifetime updates, priority support, quoted for your agency |
Side by side
| Zendo | ClientOS | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay | Free, or $25–$79/mo yearly ($29–$99 monthly), each plan including one internal user, with extra users at $8, $12.50 or $17 a month. | A one-time licence per domain: $490, $990 or $1,790, or quoted — with unlimited staff. Plus a server, about $10 a month. |
| Where client data lives | On Zendo’s infrastructure. | In your own PostgreSQL database on your own server. Only a licence check-in leaves it, twice a day. |
| Seats | One internal user included on every plan; extra users are billed monthly per seat. | Unlimited staff, with 122 permissions grouped into six built-in roles plus your own. |
| Payments | Stripe and manual bank transfer. Their own page lists PayPal, Payoneer and wire transfer as "coming soon". No transaction fees. | Stripe, PayPal, NOWPayments, CoinGate, BTCPay Server, manual crypto wallets and account credit, all live, all straight to your accounts, no cut. |
| Removing the vendor’s name | Removing the "Powered by Zendo" badge is an Agency-plan feature. | Stated on every package: your domain, your brand, and no ClientOS name shown to clients. |
| Published services | 1 on Essential, 3 on Core, unlimited on Pro and Agency. | Not limited by plan. Every package is described as the full product with unlimited clients, staff and orders. |
| Interface languages | Twelve listed: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish. | English. Client-facing words and headings can be renamed from the settings. |
| Trying it | 14 days of full Pro access, then a paid plan or the free one. No credit card required. | A read-only demo with sample data for 3 days. No trial of the licence is stated. |
| API | A public API is listed as "coming soon" on the Agency plan. | The API runs on your own domain at /v1 as part of the product, though no public API reference is published. |
| Help desk, leads and finance | Requests, forms, quotes and invoices; no help desk, lead pipeline, expense tracking or profit-and-loss is listed on its pricing page. | A help desk with response targets, a lead pipeline with sources, expenses, profit and loss, and margin by service, all in the one licence. |
The arithmetic over three years
Zendo’s per-seat pricing is what decides this one. A five-person team on Zendo’s Pro plan — one user included, four extra at $12.50 — against the ClientOS Standard licence:
| Cumulative | Zendo Pro, yearly rate, 5 internal users | ClientOS Standard, one-time |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $1,188 | $990 |
| Year 2 | $2,376 | $990 |
| Year 3 | $3,564 | $990 |
| Difference after 3 years | $2,574 less with the one-time licence, before your own server costs | |
Stay on Zendo if…
- You are starting out and want to spend nothing. Zendo’s Essential plan is free for 3 clients and 1 published service; ClientOS has no free tier.
- You are one person. Zendo’s plans include one internal user, which is cheap for a solo operator; ClientOS prices per domain, not per seat, so it is poor value for one person and good value for a team.
- You need the interface in Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish. Zendo lists twelve interface languages; ClientOS states English only.
- You want Zapier, Rewardful or embedded third-party apps, which Zendo lists from its Pro plan.
- You would rather not run a server at all.
Look at ClientOS if…
- Your team is more than two or three people. Zendo adds $8, $12.50 or $17 per extra user per month depending on the plan; ClientOS states unlimited staff on every package.
- Clients pay you outside of Stripe. Zendo lists Stripe and manual bank transfer, with PayPal and others as "coming soon"; ClientOS lists five gateways plus manual crypto wallets and account credit today.
- You need the "powered by" line gone without reaching the top plan. Zendo puts removing the "Powered by Zendo" badge on its Agency plan; ClientOS states the ClientOS name is never shown to clients on any package.
- You want client data in your own database — the ordinary requirement for white-label resellers and anyone under a client NDA.
- You want a help desk, a lead pipeline, expenses and a profit-and-loss in the same product, which ClientOS lists as part of the one licence.
What moving actually involves
This is the part comparison pages usually skip. Here is what getclientos.com states about migration, including the bits that are work.
- 01
A server and one DNS record
A Linux VPS with 2–4 GB of memory, and one A record pointing a domain such as clients.youragency.com at it. On Cloudflare the record must be DNS-only while you install.
- 02
One command, then the browser
The installer handles Docker, passwords, the download and HTTPS; the docs put it at about 10 minutes. A seven-step setup page follows: agency, region, two brand colours and your owner account.
- 03
Connect email and payments
Allow 20–40 minutes, most of it in your email provider adding SPF and DKIM records. Nothing can be emailed until Resend or your SMTP server is connected, so this comes before inviting anyone.
- 04
Bring your data over
On Start-up and Standard you import clients from a CSV with column mapping. On Premium and Custom the ClientOS team moves your data, or builds a migration tool for it.
- 05
Schedule your own backups
The honest one.
clientos backupwrites the database, files and settings to a folder, but nothing runs it until you add the cron line — and you should copy that folder off the server.
Other comparisons
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.
Read the comparison →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.
Read the comparison →The full list
Every client portal we know of for agencies, self-hosted and hosted, listed neutrally and not ranked.
Browse the list →See ClientOS before you leave Zendo
The instant demo emails you a login to a live ClientOS with sample clients, orders and invoices — the full agency admin and the client portal. Read-only, 3 days, no call and no card.