Dubsado vs Session for Photographers: Booking Tool or CRM?

Okay, I’m going to be honest. I ignored Session for a long time.

When it came on the scene, it was known for one thing: booking mini sessions with ease. And as someone who never offered mini sessions in my own photography business, I never had a reason to give it a serious look.

It was only when photographers started trying to use Session to replace a full CRM that I had to start explaining the difference — because those are not the same thing. A booking platform is not a CRM. And for a while, that distinction was pretty obvious just by looking at what Session could do.

But I will say: when I wasn’t looking, Session got a serious glow-up.

Earlier this year I was sitting at a mastermind alumni dinner and the conversation of Dubsado versus Session came up. And honestly? It’s getting harder to defend needing a full CRM when Session legitimately looks like one on paper. That’s when I knew I needed to sit down and write this post.

So here’s a breakdown of what’s changed, what still hasn’t, and who Session is actually the right fit for — because the answer isn’t nobody. It’s just not everybody.

Before we get into Session, let’s get clear on what a CRM actually does

Because I think a lot of photographers get sucked into the weeds on particular features instead of thinking about what their CRM is doing as a whole.

There are four things I look for when I evaluate whether a tool can actually function as a real CRM for photographers.

Lead management. Can you track who’s inquiring, where they are in the process, and follow up with them automatically if they go quiet?

Contracts with e-signatures. Not a PDF someone can download. Not a checkbox that says they agree. An actual legally signable contract that lives inside the platform, attached to their client record.

Invoice and payment collection. Not a separate link to Stripe, not a Venmo request. Invoices tied to the client, to the project, with payment reminders that fire automatically.

Automated client communication. And I don’t just mean sending emails — I mean emails that respond to what the client does or doesn’t do. A follow-up that only fires if the invoice is still unpaid. A questionnaire reminder that only goes out if the form is still blank. That is conditional logic, and it’s the single biggest thing that separates a real CRM from a tool that just holds your documents like a file cabinet.

If your tool can’t do all four of those things cohesively — in a way that feels seamless for your clients — it’s not a CRM. It might be a great tool. It might have some of the same features. But it is not a CRM.

And depending on your business, there’s a fifth thing worth considering: scheduling. If you want a front-facing option where clients can book their own sessions or calls without any back-and-forth, that’s worth factoring in when you’re evaluating tools.

What Session Can Actually Do Now

If you go to Session’s website and look at their feature list, on the surface there really isn’t a huge difference between Session and the full CRMs I recommend.

They now have inquiry forms, contracts, questionnaires, payment collection, email automations, something they’re calling workflows, a visual board (similar to project statuses in Dubsado or HoneyBook), landing pages where clients can browse your offerings and book, and now — galleries. With up to 3GB of storage included.

All of that for $19 a month.

That’s genuinely hard to argue with. Especially if you’re earlier in your business and haven’t built out a full client experience yet, or you simply don’t have the client volume to justify the time investment of setting up a full CRM from scratch.

Session built something that a lot of photographers love. The booking experience is clean, fast, and incredibly easy for clients to navigate. There’s actually one thing Session does that neither Dubsado nor HoneyBook currently does — and I’ll get to that.

But first, let’s talk about what all those features actually do — and don’t do.

Booking Software Is Not a CRM. Here’s the Difference.

This is where Session falls apart — and it’s usually the part nobody notices until they’re already stuck.

Session’s “workflows” are email-only, and they’re designed to complement the default automations that already exist for every session — not replace them. Session will even tell you not to include a booking confirmation in your workflow because that’s already being sent elsewhere. So you’re working around the system from the start.

Every session type gets a booking questionnaire and a pre-session questionnaire. That’s it — you can’t add more, and there’s no post-session questionnaire. So any feedback request, gallery delivery follow-up, or review ask after the session is done? That happens outside Session entirely. Which brings up another gap: if you email a client outside of Session’s preset automated emails — a reply to a question they sent you, a custom follow-up, anything that doesn’t fit the preset triggers — it lives in Gmail and nowhere else. There’s no communication history inside Session. No way to open a client’s record and see the full picture of your relationship with them in one place.

The pre-session questionnaire reminder goes out 7 days before the session, and you cannot customize that timeline. So if you have a newborn session where you’d want that information collected much earlier — say, several weeks out — you can’t do that. It’s 7 days, for every session type, no exceptions.

And there’s no way to offer a planning call as an integrated part of the booking process. In a full CRM, you can embed a scheduler link for a consultation or planning call directly inside the booking file — a client reviews your services, books the call, and the whole thing flows as one seamless experience. In Session, a planning call is something that has to happen separately, outside the platform, disconnected from the rest of the process.

The emails I actually think are most important for photographers to send? They’re not the ones Session is set up to send.

I’m talking about the automated inquiry response that goes out the second someone fills out your contact form. The follow-up sequence after you’ve made an offer — emails that only go out if the client hasn’t booked yet. The questionnaire reminder that only fires if the form is still blank.

In Dubsado, HoneyBook, 17Hats, Sprout Studio, and VSCO Workspace, your workflows respond to what clients do or don’t do. Session doesn’t have that. There is no way inside Session to create a follow-up process for a lead who hasn’t booked. No way to chase an unsigned questionnaire automatically. And the timing and questionnaire limitations apply across the board — there’s no customizing any of it per session type.

There’s also no branding control. Session is clean and white and kind of pretty — but it’s their clean and white. You can’t put your own touches on the experience. For some photographers, that genuinely doesn’t matter. But if you’ve built a brand where every touchpoint looks and feels like you — your website, your galleries, your client emails — Session is going to feel off-brand.

The Follow-Up Problem

I will die on this hill: most photographers don’t have a booking problem. They have a follow-through problem.

Someone inquires. You respond. You send a proposal. And then… you wait. And then you forget. And then three days later you remember but it feels awkward to follow up so you don’t. And the lead goes cold.

The leads you’re losing because there’s no automated follow-up aren’t just missed bookings. At your price point, each one of those is worth hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars just walking out the door while you’re busy doing other things.

Inside every CRM I recommend, you can build a workflow that follows up for you — two, three, four times — and it only sends those emails if the client still hasn’t booked. It stops the second they do. That process doesn’t require you to be watching your inbox. It just runs.

In Session, there is no version of this. If someone doesn’t book after you’ve sent them an offer, Session has no way to notify you, and no way to follow up automatically. You have to leave Session and go to Gmail and do it yourself — which means it happens inconsistently, or not at all.

That gap alone is the reason I can’t call Session a full CRM, no matter how many features they’ve added.

From Session to HoneyBook: Why This Filmmaker Made the Move

I am currently working with a family and newborn photographer inside Systems in Session who is transitioning from Session to HoneyBook. And the reasons it became necessary are a perfect example of exactly what I’ve been talking about.

Angie sells films. The way you can showcase a film inside a HoneyBook smart file is completely different from mentioning it as an add-on option in a booking list. We were able to embed the video directly inside the booking file — so clients can actually watch the film, fall in love with it, and then decide whether the extra couple hundred dollars is worth it. That’s a selling experience. Session doesn’t have that. You can list it as an add-on, but there’s no way to show them what they’re actually buying while they’re deciding.

Same goes for baby plans. You could technically offer all the sessions inside a baby plan in Session — but each one has to be its own separate entity. Which means the same client goes through three separate booking processes in the span of a year. We built a smart file in HoneyBook that lets clients choose a full baby plan or pick and choose their sessions, with videos embedded so they can decide on add-ons right there. One experience, start to finish. Session can’t do that.

There’s also the question of how newborn sessions get booked inside Session at all — because Session is built around a confirmed session date, and newborn inquiries don’t have one. You’re booking a due date. You’re waiting for a birth notification and slotting them in within the first two weeks. The whole platform assumes a date exists, which means there’s no clean way to hold a newborn spot without one.

Think of It Like a Drive-Through

Session is fast, frictionless, and it gets the job done. If you run a business where clients book in a very straightforward way — minimal touchpoints between inquiry, session, and delivery — Session might actually be okay for you.

But the moment you start positioning your work as premium or luxury and you want clients to feel held the whole way through, the drive-through doesn’t fit the experience you’re trying to create. Your system has to do that work for you. And Session can’t do that.

The One Thing Session Does Better Than Dubsado and HoneyBook Right Now

Session has something that neither Dubsado nor HoneyBook currently offers: the ability to book directly off a public-facing page on your website — contract included — without any back-and-forth. You can embed an offer on your website or link it with a button, someone can choose a service, pay an invoice, and sign a contract all in one sitting. Neither Dubsado nor HoneyBook currently allows you to include a contract at the same time as scheduling, if scheduling is part of the process.

If you’re trying to create a booking experience that works while you’re on vacation, on a Saturday afternoon soccer field with your kid, or during a summer where you want to be genuinely offline — that seamless, self-serve booking process is impressive. It’s something the bigger CRMs could take note of.

Session does that one thing really well. It’s just not the whole job.

What About Sprout Studio?

Now that Session has galleries, it’s worth mentioning Sprout Studio — because Sprout is a full CRM with built-in galleries, and that’s a meaningfully different thing than Session with galleries bolted on.

Sprout has the automation infrastructure Session is missing: conditional workflows, fully customizable email sequences, a public-facing scheduler with a contract attached, and gallery delivery all living inside the same platform. No separate gallery software needed. Your client moves from inquiry to booked to delivered without ever leaving Sprout — and unlike Session, the automation is actually doing the work behind the scenes the whole way through.

If you’re also weighing Pixieset Studio Manager, I have a full breakdown here: Is Pixieset Studio Manager Enough for Your Photography Business?

For now: if you want galleries and a full CRM in one place, Sprout Studio is the one to look at. I have a full breakdown in my guide to choosing a CRM for photographers.

So Who Should Actually Use Session?

Photographers just getting into the business who don’t have a full client experience built out yet. If you’re not sure what your workflow looks like, or you don’t have enough clients to justify the time investment of setting up a full CRM, Session is a reasonable starting point. It’s low-cost, it’s fast to set up, and it handles the core of what you need. Just go in knowing what it can do and what it can’t do — and that every hour you spend setting it up now is an hour you’ll probably need to spend setting up a full CRM in the future when your business grows. Because you will outgrow it.

If you’re charging $300 for a session, there is no way you can afford to give clients the same experience as someone paying $3,000. The math doesn’t math. Session is built for high-volume, lower price point businesses where the goal is getting clients through efficiently — and it does that well.

Photographers using it for a specific offer type — not their whole business. Maybe your regular sessions live in your CRM, but you use Session for a holiday mini series where the goal is fast, frictionless booking. That’s a reasonable use case.

Session is not the platform to build a premium photography business on long-term. Full stop. The follow-up gaps alone will cost you bookings you don’t even know you’re losing. And the further you move up in price point, the more your clients will expect an experience that Session just isn’t designed to provide.

Frequently Asked Questions About Session

Can Session replace a CRM?

No — and that’s not a knock on Session. It’s just not what it was built to do. Session handles the booking side of your business really well: scheduling, contracts, payment, and a handful of automated emails. What it can’t do is manage the full client journey. There’s no conditional logic, no way to follow up automatically when someone hasn’t booked, no client communication history inside the platform, no post-session questionnaire, and no way to hold a client without a confirmed session date. For photographers building a complete client experience, those gaps matter.

Is Session good for full sessions or just minis?

Session has pushed hard to support full sessions, and for a straightforward booking process it works. But the limitations show up fast when your sessions require more nuance — newborn photographers who need to book without a confirmed date, photographers offering baby plans or multi-session packages, or anyone whose client journey involves more than picking a time and paying. The simpler and more self-contained your offer, the better Session works. The more complex your process, the more you’ll feel the edges of what it can do.

Can I use Session and a CRM together?

Technically yes, and it might actually make sense for specific situations — like using Session just for a holiday mini series while your full client work lives in Dubsado or HoneyBook. Where it gets messy is when you’re trying to run all of your sessions through Session and then jumping to a separate CRM to do the follow-up work Session can’t handle. At that point you’re managing two systems and getting the full benefit of neither. If you’re going to invest the time in setting up a real CRM, it’s worth running everything through it.

What’s the difference between Session and Dubsado or HoneyBook?

Session is a booking platform. Dubsado and HoneyBook are full CRMs. The difference isn’t really about features on a checklist — it’s about what those features can actually do. Dubsado and HoneyBook both have conditional logic that lets your workflows respond to what a client does or doesn’t do. They give you full control over the timing and content of every touchpoint. They let you customize the experience per client, per session type, per price point. Session has emails and questionnaires, but they’re fixed in what they can do and when they can fire. If you want to understand how Dubsado and HoneyBook compare to each other specifically, I have a full breakdown here: HoneyBook vs. Dubsado.

Who is Session best for?

Photographers earlier in their business who haven’t built out a full client experience yet, or who don’t have the volume to justify the time investment of setting up a full CRM. High-volume photographers at a lower price point where efficiency is the priority and a more hands-off booking process is a feature, not a compromise. And photographers who want a dead-simple public booking page that works while they’re offline — because on that specific thing, Session is genuinely excellent.

Is Session worth it at $19/month?

Let’s be real about this. Dubsado’s Starter plan is $20/month — basically the same price — and it doesn’t include workflows, galleries, accounting software integration, or scheduling. On that comparison alone, Session is more bang for your buck. You get a public booking page with scheduling built in, contracts, questionnaires, payment, email automations, and galleries, all for $19.

So if you’re weighing Session against an entry-level CRM plan, Session might actually be the smarter starting point.

The comparison shifts when you’re looking at Dubsado Premier, HoneyBook, or Sprout Studio at their full price — because now you’re paying for conditional logic, full workflow automation, client communication history, and a genuinely complete client management system. That’s a different tool entirely, and it’s worth the upgrade when your business is ready for it.

The question isn’t whether Session is worth $19. It’s whether $19 worth of tools is enough for the business you’re building right now.

The Bottom Line

Session is booking software. Really good booking software, with some extras that have gotten genuinely useful. But calling it a CRM overstates what it can do — and more importantly, it can lead photographers to think they have a system when what they actually have is a booking page.

There’s a real difference between a client who books and a client who’s been onboarded. There’s a real difference between an automated reminder before a session and a workflow that follows them through the whole experience. Session handles the first half of that. The CRMs I recommend handle all of it.

If you are trying to grow a photography business with a five-star experience, the kind of follow-ups you need to create a premium offer, and more time spent on fewer clients — a full CRM is where you want to be. I stand firm on that.

If you’re ready to look at what a full CRM setup could do for your business, start here: Best CRM for Photographers and HoneyBook vs. Dubsado.