How is this professional services ranking decided?

Mechanically. The 7 approved professional services listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.

Is this list re-ordered for startups?

No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the startups framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Startups are buying for a headcount they do not have yet, which makes the second and third tier of each ladder more important than the first. Check what the price becomes at ten people.

How much does professional services software cost?

Across the 7 professional services tools listed here, paid plans start between $23 and $23 a month, with a median entry price of $23. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $23 a month (FreshBooks).

What is the cheapest professional services software?

Among the ones that charge, FreshBooks has the lowest published entry price at $23 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.

Is there free professional services software?

Not in this set. None of the 7 professional services tools listed here publishes a $0 plan, and the cheapest paid entry is $23 a month. Some vendors offer time-limited trials, which are listed on each product page rather than here.

How is professional services software usually billed?

quote (4), subscription (2), counted across the 7 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not. 1 of 7 tools also keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote.

How many professional services tools are listed on Softwr?

7 approved professional services listings appear on this page, including Accelo, Certinia PSA, FreshBooks, Ironclad. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/professional-services, which ranks the same set by published rating.

Professional Services · ranked shortlist

Best Professional Services software for Startups in 2026

7 approved professional services listings, ordered by published rating with the method stated below rather than assumed. Startups are buying for a headcount they do not have yet, which makes the second and third tier of each ladder more important than the first. Check what the price becomes at ten people.

Tools ranked: 7
Entry price range: $23-$23
Publish a $0 plan: 0 of 7

How this ranking is derived

The sort key

Published rating, highest first. Ties break on the number of ratings behind the score, then on product name so the order never depends on what the API happened to return first. That is the whole rule, there is no weighting, no score of our own, and nothing paid: no sponsored slot runs on these pages.

Where the ratings come from

No listing in this set carries a rating, so the order falls back to name. Those scores are aggregated from public sources rather than collected here, Softwr hosts no reviews of its own, which is also why no rating on this page is marked up as ours in structured data.

What the pool is

Approved professional services listings, capped at 20 per page; 7 came back for this one. It is not the whole market, and a tool being absent means we hold no record of it rather than that it failed a test. The unranked full set is on the professional services category page.

The ranking

Each entry lists why it sits where it sits, drawn from its own published rating and pricing.

#1
Accelo
Highest rated here
Complete visibility, control and efficiency for client work
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
quote
Accelo breakdown Compare with Certinia PSA
#2
Certinia PSA
AI-powered PSA suite, Salesforce-native
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
quote
Certinia PSA breakdown Compare with FreshBooks
#3
FreshBooks
Accounting software that makes you look good
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $23 a month, with no free plan.
Billing
Model not published
Tags
accounting, invoicing, time-tracking, freelancer-friendly
FreshBooks breakdown Compare with Ironclad
#4
Ironclad
AI-powered contract lifecycle management platform.
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
Billing
quote
Published tiers
1 tier
Ironclad breakdown Compare with MyCase
#5
M
MyCase
Legal practice management software for law firms
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
subscription
MyCase breakdown Compare with PracticePanther
#6
P
PracticePanther
Legal practice management software for law firms
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
subscription
PracticePanther breakdown Compare with Productive
#7
Productive
Run projects, budgets and resources in one place
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
quote
Productive breakdown

What professional services software costs

Counted from the published pricing of the 7 listings on this page. A tool counts as free only where it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence or a starting price of zero.

The only paid entry price: $23FreshBooks

Only FreshBooks publishes a paid entry price here, at $23.

Nothing in this category publishes a $0 plan, all 7 listings are paid from the first day.

1 of 7 keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote, which in practice means the number you end up paying at the top end is not on this page or on theirs.

FreshBooks pricing

How these vendors bill

The billing model each of the 7 professional services listings publishes, counted. Two tools at the same headline price are not the same purchase if one of them charges per seat.

quote: 4
subscription: 2

Separately, 1 of 7 publish at least one tier with no price attached. Those are sold by quote, so the top of the ladder is negotiable, and unknowable, until you talk to sales.

How to choose between them

Four things the numbers above should change about your shortlist.

Budget for day one, because nothing here is free

No listing in this category publishes a $0 plan, and the cheapest way in is $23 a month with FreshBooks. That changes how you evaluate: ask for a trial in writing before you shortlist, and treat any tool you cannot try as a tool you cannot verify.

Read the spread before you read the features

$23 to $23 is a $0 spread on entry price alone, and a spread that wide is never about polish, it is about who the vendor built for. Tools at the bottom of this ladder are priced for one person or a small team; tools near $23 are priced for a department with a procurement process. Decide which of those you are before you compare capability, or you will shortlist four tools that were never competing for the same buyer.

The billing model matters more than the headline number

This category splits across 2 billing models: quote on 4 listings, subscription on 2, and nothing else. A per-user price and a flat subscription at the same headline figure are not the same purchase, the first one grows with headcount and the second does not. Multiply by your real team size before you compare two numbers side by side.

Compare professional services tools directly

Every pairing below is a full comparison: the same checklist applied to both, so a gap in one is a gap in the other.

Go straight to the numbers

Build your own comparison See the shortlist instead

Questions people ask about professional services software

Answered from the listings on this page, and nowhere else.

How is this professional services ranking decided?: Mechanically. The 7 approved professional services listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.
Is this list re-ordered for startups?: No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the startups framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Startups are buying for a headcount they do not have yet, which makes the second and third tier of each ladder more important than the first. Check what the price becomes at ten people.
How much does professional services software cost?: Across the 7 professional services tools listed here, paid plans start between $23 and $23 a month, with a median entry price of $23. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $23 a month (FreshBooks).
What is the cheapest professional services software?: Among the ones that charge, FreshBooks has the lowest published entry price at $23 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.
Is there free professional services software?: Not in this set. None of the 7 professional services tools listed here publishes a $0 plan, and the cheapest paid entry is $23 a month. Some vendors offer time-limited trials, which are listed on each product page rather than here.
How is professional services software usually billed?: quote (4), subscription (2), counted across the 7 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not. 1 of 7 tools also keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote.
How many professional services tools are listed on Softwr?: 7 approved professional services listings appear on this page, including Accelo, Certinia PSA, FreshBooks, Ironclad. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/professional-services, which ranks the same set by published rating.

Keep reading

Neighbouring categories

Adjacent in the same taxonomy, not a ranking.

How this ranking is derived

The sort key

Where the ratings come from

What the pool is

The ranking

Accelo

Certinia PSA

FreshBooks

Ironclad

MyCase

PracticePanther

Productive