The 5 Best Client Portals for Designers: Features & Costs

Designers deal with lots of documents, folders and generally complicated digital spaces. If you account for the number of clients a typical Designer might have, things can become too complex, too quick. Client Portals for designers have gained popularity in the last few years because they help solve a few different problems in a designer’s life, especially when it comes to keeping all of their client’s project documents in the same place.

What Makes a Great Client Portal? 🧐

A great client portal for designers solves their main problems: it centralizes all their client documents in one place, it integrates the tools they already use and it allows the designer to show their work in a clean and professional way. Here’s some of the features that Client Portals might have to help create this environment:

• Customization to align with client’s brand identity
• Comprehensive project management features
• Secure file sharing and storage
• Integration with other tools

And this is our top 5 picks for designer-oriented Client Portals ⬇️

#1 – SuperOkay

Best Option

SuperOkay is the best option for Designers looking for a Client Portal. Besides being considered by many users one of easiest-to-use Portals in the game, it has a very in-depth customization feature that allows designers to tailor their portals to exactly the branding specifications of their own brand or their client’s brand. This is a great tool for all freelancers to show their colors in a clean and professional way, but it’s even better for designers, whose brand is so visual.

SuperOkay also has great project management features like Action Items (assignable tasks with due dates), portal Timeline (showing who did what and when), file sharing and requests for files, documents or answers from Clients.

SuperOkay also has a feature called embedded apps, which allows for integration with almost any web-app imaginable, so long as the app is on a public web page. Got other tools you want to bring over to SuperOkay? No problem!

🔑 Key Features

• Simple and easy to use UI experience for Clients
• Highly customizable Client Portals
• White Label Client Portal
• Email White Label and Custom Domain
• Top notch document creator/editor

Price: Starts at 9$/month
Free Tier: Yes

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#2 – Notion

Notion is a very popular and well-known option in this list. While not being exactly a Client Portal like, for example, SuperOkay, Notion is an attractive option for a lot of users because it’s totally modular and allows the user to completely customize their workspace and use it for purposes other than client management, such as note-taking or data organization.

🔑 Key Features

• Modular project management
• Extensive integration options
• Flexible access controls

Price: Starts at 9.50$/month
Free Tier: Yes

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#3 – Softr

Softr is different from other offerings in that it allows users to create their client portals from data they created elsewhere, such as Airtable data, spreadsheets and databases – all of this without requiring any code. This creates a singular offering that possibly benefits designers who are more data-driven and want a starting point based on data points rather than a visual approach.

🔑 Key Features

• No coding knowledge required
• Great templates to use as starting points
• Robust data handling for data-driven designers

Price: Starts at 49$/month
Free Tier: Yes

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#4 – ClickUp

ClickUp is a different type of offering that is marketed as an “everything app” for work. Essentially, this means that ClickUp is a feature-packed app with lots of options and lots of customization that can do almost anything. While this might be great for some people, it might be a bad fit for others. In our opinion, ClickUp seems to be a great fit for larger teams of designers who need a vast amount of features and customization. For smaller agencies or freelancer designers, there might be a better fit elsewhere on this list.

🔑 Key Features

• Versatile and feature-rich
• Custom views for different needs
• Advanced task management

Price: Starts at 10$/month
Free Tier: Yes

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#5 – Zendo

Zendo is a Client Portal tailored towards service providers such as designers that focuses on giving them simple but very effective options. Zendo offers payment options for digital products, subscriptions and custom services, allowing service providers to easily collect payments from their clients. Quotes and invoices can also be created, which helps eliminate the need to use multiple tools and creates a simpler work environment for many designers.

🔑 Key Features

• Easy to use, straightforward setup.
• Payment system for products, subscriptions and services
• Quotes, invoices and payment collection

Price: Starts at 24.50$/month
Free Tier: Yes

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Conclusion

When choosing a Client Portal for designers, you have to consider multiple things like, which has the best features, which has the best pricing, which is the best fit, etc. In our view, our product SuperOkay is the clear winner for a designer looking for a Client Portal (but we may or may not be biased 🧐). SuperOkay offers a myriad of features that make a freelancer’s life much easier and saves time from doing mundane tasks. But of course one product can’t be the best fit for everyone, so the other options on this list are also compelling choices for a lot of creatives.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How do client portals enhance client-designer relationships?

Client portals provide transparency, streamline communication, and allow for continuous collaboration, enhancing trust and satisfaction.

What are common challenges in using client portals and how to overcome them?

Challenges include user resistance and technical issues. Overcome these by choosing user-friendly platforms and providing comprehensive training.

How does integration affect the choice of a client portal?

Integration capabilities ensure that the client portal works seamlessly with other tools you use, which can significantly enhance efficiency and user experience.

What features are most important in a client portal for designers?

Important features include task management, real-time updates, secure file sharing, and customization options.

How often should a client portal be updated?

Regular updates are crucial to ensure security, introduce new features, and improve user experience based on feedback.

Are you already using a Client Portal? SuperOkay gives you 1 client portal free forever to start creating professional-looking Client Portals, custom branded to your clients’ brands – Start today by clicking here!