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Most buyers should pick 17hats.
Choose 17hats if you need a business CRM for leads, scheduling, invoices, and client workflows. Its Free CRM includes unlimited contacts and projects but only four invoices per quarter; All Features is listed at $60 monthly or $600 yearly ($50/month). Color.io’s historical Pro price was $15 monthly or $49 yearly, but the service has shut down and current pricing is unavailable. Consider Color.io only if you already have valid offline access.
01Side by side
| 17hats | Color.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $0; All Features is $50/month billed yearly | Unavailable; service has shut down |
| Free plan | Unlimited contacts/projects; four invoices per quarter | Historically limited exports; current access unavailable |
| Best for | Small businesses managing client workflows | Photographers and colorists with offline access |
| Core strength | CRM, scheduling, invoicing, and workflow automation | Film-inspired grading, grain, and optical effects |
| Learning curve | Not published | Not published |
| Integrations and data | Stripe, Square, Zoom, and QuickBooks add-on | RAW support for 600+ cameras; .cube and .xmp exports |
| Team and seat costs | $5/month per additional user; three included at one level | Not published |
| Support | Review support score: 5 | Review support score: 1.5 |
17hats Choose 17hats if
- Choose 17hats if you need a live CRM for client workflows.
- Choose 17hats if you want scheduling, invoices, and payments together.
- Choose 17hats if you need additional users at a published price.
Color.io Choose Color.io if
- Choose Color.io if you already have Lifetime Access for offline Pro use.
- Choose Color.io if you need film-inspired grading and optical effects.
- Choose Color.io if you need LUT exports and accept the shutdown risk.
02Pricing compared
17hats has a Free CRM plan with unlimited contacts and projects, but it limits you to four invoices per quarter. Its pricing page lists All Features at $60 month to month or $600 yearly, equivalent to $50 per month, with a 7-day trial. The page also lists a separate 50% sale: $300 yearly or $400 for two years. Extras can add cost, including scheduling for $5 or $10 monthly and additional users at $5 each per month.
Color.io’s historical Pro price was $15 monthly or $49 yearly ($4.08 per month equivalent). Its pricing page also listed a $129 lifetime option. But Color.io has shut down, so current pricing and access are unavailable. That old price is not a usable alternative to 17hats today.
03Features and depth
These products solve different problems, so feature counts are not a useful comparison. 17hats is a business CRM: it covers lead pipelines, client workflows, scheduling, invoices and payments, client portals, and SMS texting. Its Free CRM includes basic contact and project management, email templates, and a sales tax report; the pricing page lists Stripe and Square payments with All Features. Some capabilities, including scheduling and recurring billing, may cost extra depending on the plan or add-ons.
Color.io was a color-grading and RAW-development tool, not a CRM. Its listed tools included film-inspired color models, grain and optical effects, RAW support for more than 600 camera models, AI color matching, and 3D LUT and Adobe XMP exports. The free tier restricted JPEG export quality and disabled preset saving and LUT export; Pro included full-resolution exports and those tools. These describe its historical offering: the service has shut down, so the features should not be treated as currently available.
04Ease of use and learning curve
There is no like-for-like learning curve here. 17hats organizes client and business tasks in one platform, but its automation, payment, scheduling, and document options may take setup; the published review rates ease of use 6/10. The available material does not publish onboarding details or a measured learning time.
Color.io’s published review rates ease of use 8/10, but that score describes the product when available, not a current option. Color grading, RAW development, LUTs, and custom color tools also serve a different, more specialized workflow than CRM administration. With the service shut down and current access uncertain, ease of use is secondary: do not choose it for a new workflow unless you already have valid offline access.
Questions people ask
Can 17hats replace Color.io?
No. 17hats is a CRM for client and business workflows; Color.io was for color grading, RAW development, and LUTs. They do not serve the same job. If you need color tools, 17hats is not a substitute, and Color.io’s shutdown makes it a risky choice for a new workflow.
Which product is cheaper?
Historically, Color.io Pro cost $15 monthly or $49 yearly, while 17hats All Features is listed at $60 monthly or $600 yearly. But Color.io has shut down and its current pricing is unavailable, so those old figures do not make it a currently purchasable, cheaper option.
What does 17hats’ free plan include?
The 17hats Free CRM plan lists unlimited contacts and projects, four invoices per quarter, a sales tax report, and email templates. The four-invoice limit matters if you bill clients regularly. The pricing material does not list a price for every named 17hats plan.
Can I still use Color.io offline?
The published pricing information lists a $129 Pro Lifetime option with permanent offline access, but Color.io has shut down and current access is uncertain. Consider it only if you already have valid offline access; the available sources do not confirm that new purchases or account access are possible.