Flowlu vs. Plutio [Dubsado Alternatives 2021]

Document Templates & Customization

I think this is where Plutio really shines.

They have a repository of pre-designed templates that you can import and customize with a visual builder.

To put the cherry on top - you can add custom CSS to your templates.

Meaning if you are a CSS guru like me you can literally do anything.

(Or just find someone on Fiverr).

You can add short codes on your template to put regular or custom fields.

And you can even use "if" statements to display nothing in case the field doesn't exist.

These templates work for practically every module:

• Forms
• Invoices
• Contracts
• Proposals

I have seen mentions of templates for Flowlu, but kind of disappointed.

In Flowlu, templates means you can customize pre-defined text fields.

Such as "Terms & Conditions", etc.

But you have no control over the visual aspect of the invoice.

(or proposal, they don't have contracts).

The same thing happens with forms,

Only the form title and button text are customizable.

A crushing win for Plutio.

Project Templates

Let's say each time I on-board a client I have the exact same tasks.

I can create this template once and then apply to each new client.

Automation at it's best - many project management (PM) tools miss this feature.

Flowlu also has this feature except it's called "Project Workflows".

Congrats both to Plutio and Flowlu for implementing this.

CRM

Flowlu's CRM has more features,

The ability to create pipelines and stages.

They call them "Sales funnels"

Also you can send and receive emails directly from the CRM.

Plutio's CRM is more basic.

You can't put your contacts into stages.

There's an indirect to manage this - once you "invite" a lead into your client portal their status will change from "inactive" to "active".

So at least you can filter who are leads and who are customers.

But if your looking to manage your sales process from within Plutio I think you may need something extra.

Since Proposals are managed before leads become customers it would make sense to have at least the possibility to tag and filter contacts.

And of course ideally to be able to send them emails.

You can have conversations with contacts - but seems like this is only when they log to the client portal.

Meaning you can forget about managing the sales lifecycle within Plutio - just the customer lifecycle.

Flowlu takes the lead here.

Workspaces

Both Flowlu and Plutio have workspaces.

But they mean two completely different things.

In my understanding a workspace is like having separate organizations - no settings are shared between workspaces. (except your user profile)

That's how Plutio has it.

On Flowlu a workspace is more like a client workspace.

Meaning within your organization (same client portal) you create multiple workspaces for different clients.

So unlimited workspaces just means unlimited clients.

To have more workspaces you need to setup multiple accounts under different users.

Win for Plutio for correctly implementing workspaces.

Accounting

Flowlu can also be used to tracked expenses, not only sales.

So you could use it for the entire book keeping.

Although they don't mention anywhere an accounting module.

They call it "Transactions" and "Money" instead.

In some ways Flowlu overlaps more with Deskera than Plutio.

Plutio decided to stay away from accounting,

Which I think is smart, cause accounting software is very complex and usually very specific to the country.

Flowlu could improve UX just by putting these features in a separate module.

And having it "off" by default.

Products

Flowlu can also create products.

Depends on your use-case.

If you are a service-based agency or freelancer this brings only more unnecessary complexity.

But if you are doing a mix of service and product for the same client this can help.

Mind Maps

Actually the mind maps from round 1 were built inside Flowlu.

Two things were missing:

• Zoom in/out
• Export as image (had to take a screenshot)

I think Zen Mind Map is a better alternative.

But if your on a short budget this is a great bonus.

Record Lists

Flowlu has record lists.

I did not fully understand what it was until I tried it,

Seems to be a mini Airtable.

Desktop App

Plutio has a desktop for Windows and MacOs.

Also a Chrome extension.

Have not tried them, but the main benefit seems to be that you can do stuff faster.

Features score

To sum it up,

Flowlu has more features.

Plutio has better features.

Also I don't think Flowlu can replace these:

• Record lists - cause I use Airtable
• Mindmaps - cause I use Zen Mindmapping
• Products & Accounting - cause I use Deskera

I can imagine myself switching from Nusii to Plutio for proposals,

It would be a compromise, but it would be good enough.

But I could not imagine switching from Nusii to Flowlu.

The main reason is that you can't customize any of the visual elements.

See for yourself which modules can/can't replace your current tools.

Also workspaces actually came out to be something different than what I expected.

One thing that Plutio could improve is the CRM.

By creating tags for contacts and filtering by tag. (Like Leads Delta )

And by adding sending/receiving emails to contacts via Plutio.

Then I could give Plutio a perfect 10.

Final features score:

Flowlu - 6/10

Plutio - 8/10 (Winner)