Gold Vision CRM
Gold Vision CRM ships monthly releases on a consistent cadence — changelog details aren't surfaced in the feed.
Comparison · CRM
Dubsado vs Phorest
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Dubsado and Phorest — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Dubsado vs Phorest: at a glance
| Feature | Dubsado | Phorest |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | CRM | CRM |
| Velocity score | 7.5 | 5.0 |
| Sparks · 30d | 0 | 0 |
| Top themes | crm, ai-features, automation, solo-business | salon-software, booking, staff-management, pricing |
| Last editorial update | 3mo ago | 14d ago |
| Website | — | Visit → |
What is Dubsado?
Dubsado turns toward AI, adding a call Notetaker and generative form building to its solo-business CRM.
Dubsado is a CRM and business-management suite for solo and small service businesses such as photographers, coaches, and designers. The recent window marks a clear AI turn: an AI Notetaker that records, transcribes, and summarizes client calls, and AI-assisted form creation from a prompt, PDF, or chat. Around the AI work, the product is modernizing core surfaces with a redesigned invoice builder, a public checkout link launched under a new Dubsado Labs experimental track, and rebuilt calendar-sync reliability.
What is Phorest?
Phorest keeps handing salon owners the settings they used to phone support about
Phorest is salon and clinic management software shipping small, well-scoped changes every week or two, written in the voice of the front desk. The recent run is dominated by giving owners control they previously had to request: adding product brands without contacting Phorest, per-staff-per-service pricing, per-staff online booking visibility, and finer permissions on who may edit service versus retail prices. Around that sit operational tools like geofenced clock-in on the mobile app.
Dubsado vs Phorest: editorial side-by-side
Dubsado
7.5CRM
Dubsado turns toward AI, adding a call Notetaker and generative form building to its solo-business CRM.
◆ Current state
Dubsado is a CRM and business-management suite for solo and small service businesses such as photographers, coaches, and designers. The recent window marks a clear AI turn: an AI Notetaker that records, transcribes, and summarizes client calls, and AI-assisted form creation from a prompt, PDF, or chat. Around the AI work, the product is modernizing core surfaces with a redesigned invoice builder, a public checkout link launched under a new Dubsado Labs experimental track, and rebuilt calendar-sync reliability.
◆ Where it's heading
Dubsado is moving from a manual, template-driven CRM toward one that drafts and captures work for the user. The two AI launches target the most time-consuming parts of a solo operator's day — call notes and form building — while the Labs program signals a faster, ship-early-and-iterate posture. Core-workflow modernization in invoicing and calendar sync runs in parallel to keep the foundation current.
◆ Prediction
Expect more AI-assisted authoring to follow the form builder, likely AI drafting of emails, proposals, or workflows, plus additional Dubsado Labs experiments released early and refined in public.
Phorest
5.0CRM
Phorest keeps handing salon owners the settings they used to phone support about
◆ Current state
Phorest is salon and clinic management software shipping small, well-scoped changes every week or two, written in the voice of the front desk. The recent run is dominated by giving owners control they previously had to request: adding product brands without contacting Phorest, per-staff-per-service pricing, per-staff online booking visibility, and finer permissions on who may edit service versus retail prices. Around that sit operational tools like geofenced clock-in on the mobile app.
◆ Where it's heading
The through-line is decentralising configuration to the salon and making the booking model match how these businesses actually run. Nearly every recent release either removes a support ticket or lets one staff member be treated differently from another — different price, different online availability, different qualifications. The multi-service booking flow extends the same thinking to the client-facing side, where a visit involving two practitioners was previously modelled as an edge case.
◆ Prediction
Per-staff settings have now landed for price, online visibility and qualifications separately; the obvious next step is a single staff-level view that shows all three together, since the release notes already admit owners are hopping between screens to check them.
Alternatives to Dubsado and Phorest
Other CRM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Dubsado or Phorest.
Twenty
Twenty's sprint through v2.39-v2.40 stabilizes yarn pull and relicenses UI components as MIT.
Close CRM
Close is systematically expanding Chloe from Q&A into an operational CRM layer
Lime Connect
Lime Connect adds time-based workflow triggers and interactive UI elements for its AI Agent, deepening its bet on AI-augmented customer communication.
Easy!Appointments
Easy!Appointments 1.6 lands video conferencing, GDPR tools, and a serious security overhaul across its CalDAV and booking stack.
Streak
Streak wires automations to email and call activity, turning Gmail CRM into an event-driven workflow engine.
See all Dubsado alternatives → · See all Phorest alternatives →
Recent activity from Dubsado and Phorest
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 14d agoPhorestBooking multiple services with multiple staff? Now way easier to mix up who's doing what 💇
- 20d agoPhorestChoose which team members show up for online bookings — service by service
- 26d agoPhorestPermissions to change service / retail prices
- 29d agoPhorestAdd New Brands
- 29d agoPhorestPricing just got personal
- 1mo agoPhorestGeofencing Clock In/Out on Phorest Go
- 3mo agoDubsadoThe Dubsado Notetaker is here. ⚡
- 3mo agoDubsadoPublic checkout page: how to use it, and where it's going
- 3mo agoDubsadoEasy form creation is here ⚡
- 3mo agoDubsadoA redesigned invoice builder is live
- 4mo agoDubsadoRebuilt calendar sync reliability plus ~48 smaller updates
- 4mo agoDubsadoTemplate tags and archiving
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Dubsado and Phorest?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Dubsado is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 5.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Dubsado better than Phorest?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Dubsado is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 5.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other CRM products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Dubsado?
Top Dubsado alternatives in CRM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Dubsado alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/dubsado for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Phorest?
Top Phorest alternatives in CRM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Phorest alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/phorest for the full list with editorial commentary on each.