The best proposal software depends on how you sell. Better Proposals is the practical pick for one person who wants templates, signature and payment in one tool. Qwilr suits proposals that need to look like a designed web page. Proposify and PandaDoc suit teams that send many documents. If you already need contracts and invoices, a client portal that includes quotes can replace a separate proposal tool.
Prices below were read from each company's pricing page when this post was written. They change often, so each tool links to its own page.
What decides whether a proposal tool is worth paying for
For a small business, five things matter. The rest is a feature checklist.
Templates, so you are not rewriting the same scope every week. E-signature, so a client can accept without printing. Tracking, so you know when a proposal was opened. Payment on acceptance, so a signed proposal produces a deposit and not a follow-up email. And a price that makes sense for one seat, not a ten-person sales team.
That last point is where most tools stumble. Nearly all price per user per month and build their plans around sales departments. The job is to find the tier that gives you enough sends and tracking without paying for team features.
Speed matters too. Better Proposals reports in a blog post on proposal conversion that sending a proposal within 24 hours raises the chance of winning by up to 25%. That is the vendor's own data, so treat it as a signal, not a promise. The sensible takeaway is that a good template, which makes a fast reply possible, is worth more than a clever feature. Our guide to a proposal template that wins covers what to put in it.
Person signing a business proposal on a tablet at a wooden desk
Better Proposals
Better Proposals is the most solo-friendly of the four on price and plan shape. Its pricing page lists three plans. Starter allows 10 sends a month for one seat, Premium allows 50, and Enterprise is unlimited. The page shows the Starter price as $13 on one billing option and $19 on the other, and I could not tell from the page text which is monthly and which is annual, so check it before you buy.
Written by
The Delivvo team
Delivvo runs the client cycle for service businesses: inquiry, quote, contract, deposit and delivery. Payments go straight to your own account.
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Guides for service businesses, from the first inquiry to the final payment. Written by the team behind Delivvo.
Every plan lists e-signatures and the ability to take payments, with payment integrations. That is the combination a small business needs, and it is why this tool suits people who just want to send a proposal, get a signature and collect a deposit.
The trade-off is design. Its documents look clean but are not as interactive as Qwilr's.
Qwilr
Qwilr turns a proposal into an interactive web page, with live pricing, embedded video and options the client can toggle. It is the best-looking option here, and it takes longer to set up.
The Qwilr pricing page shows Starter at $35 per user per month billed annually, or $49 billed monthly, with one user minimum. Growth is $55 with a five-user minimum and Scale is $75 with ten, both billed annually. A solo user is on Starter.
Payments run through QwilrPay on every plan. The page lists a Qwilr fee of 0.09% per transaction on Starter and 0% on Growth and Scale, and says Stripe's processing fees apply separately. So the price you see is not the whole cost of getting paid.
Choose Qwilr when presentation is part of the pitch: designers, agencies and anyone selling on how the proposal looks.
Proposify
Proposify is built around a reusable content library and is strongest for studios that send similar proposals often. Once the library exists, assembling a proposal is quick. For a single person who writes one proposal a month, it feels heavy.
The Proposify pricing page is currently confusing. The price section lists Build at $49 per user per month, or $39 on annual billing, with Grow at $65 and Scale at $107. The send table uses different plan names (Basic, Team, Business) with 10, 30 and 75 included sends and overage fees per extra send, and the page does not say how the two lists map together. The page says all plans allow documents to be e-signed, and that payments are processed by Stripe.
Because the plan names and the send limits do not line up on the page, ask the sales team which plan gives you the sends you need before you commit.
PandaDoc
PandaDoc handles proposals, contracts, forms and approvals, so it fits businesses where documents are a daily task. It scales into workflows and integrations, which is useful at volume and more than most one-person businesses need.
I could not load a clean copy of its pricing page when writing, so I am not quoting its prices here. Open the page yourself and compare the template limits and the integrations on each plan, since those limits are what usually pushes people up a tier.
E-signatures and what they cover
All four tools offer e-signature, so it no longer separates them. What is worth knowing is why an electronic signature is generally accepted. In the US, the ESIGN Act has been in force since June 30, 2000, and in general a signature or contract cannot be denied legal effect only because it is electronic. Rules vary by country and by document type, so check yours with a lawyer if the contract is high value.
What separates tools in practice is the record. Ask whether the signed document comes with a timestamp, the signer's details and an archived copy you can download. That record is what you use if a client later disputes the agreement.
How to choose
Match the tool to how you sell:
You want one simple tool for a few proposals a month: Better Proposals.
Your proposal is part of your pitch and design matters: Qwilr.
You send similar proposals at volume and will build a library: Proposify.
Proposals are one of many documents you send: PandaDoc.
You also need contracts, invoices and a place to deliver work: look at an all-in-one.
How Delivvo handles quotes without a separate proposal tool
Delivvo does not make designed web-page proposals the way Qwilr does. It builds a quote from your packages and add-ons, and then carries that quote through the rest of the job in one place, so you do not pay for a proposal tool plus a contract tool plus an invoicing tool.
Here is how it works:
A client sends an inquiry through your form, and the lead lands on the lead board.
You build a quote from your packages and add-ons and send it.
On Pro, the one-page close lets the client pick their options, sign and pay the deposit on one link.
From that single step, Delivvo creates the client, the project, the contract, the deposit invoice and the payment schedule.
The contract uses a typed or drawn signature, and the signing record keeps a SHA-256 hash, the IP address, the device and an archived PDF.
The client pays through your own gateway, and Delivvo takes 0%.
The point most proposal tools cannot match is what happens after the signature. The contract, the invoice and the portal where you later deliver files already exist, with sequential invoice numbers in your format. Every quote, contract and invoice also carries a verification code that a client can check.
If you want to try the idea before choosing a tool, the free proposal generator works without an account. Pro costs $29 a month, Solo is $12, and the Free plan needs no card. See the proposals page.
FAQ
Do I need proposal software, or is a template enough?
A template is enough for occasional work. Software pays for itself when you send often, because e-signature, tracking and payment on acceptance shorten the time from sending to being paid. If you send fewer than a couple of proposals a month, start with a template.
Which proposal tool is cheapest for one person?
It depends on the billing option and plan limits, which change. Better Proposals lists a single-seat Starter plan with 10 sends a month. Compare it with the entry plans on the other pricing pages, and count sends, not just price.
Can clients pay when they accept a proposal?
Yes, on these tools and on Delivvo. Collecting the deposit at the moment of signing, instead of sending an invoice later, is the main reason to use proposal software.
Are electronic signatures valid?
Generally yes. In the US the ESIGN Act says a signature cannot be denied legal effect only because it is electronic. Rules vary by country and document, so ask a lawyer about anything high stakes.
Delivvo runs the whole client cycle for service businesses, from the first inquiry to the quote, contract, deposit, invoice and delivery, so an accepted quote becomes a signed contract and a paid deposit without another tool. Clients pay you directly through your own gateway, and Delivvo takes 0%. Start free
