Better Proposals vs BriefSmith

Better Proposals is a web service for preparing and sending proposals and other documents, with built-in electronic signatures, payment collection, and client activity tracking. Its analytics can show whether a document was received, opened, read, forwarded, downloaded, or signed, as well as time spent on individual sections. Users can take payments through documents and proposals, with integrations including Stripe, GoCardless, and PayPal. Advanced CRM integrations are available for HubSpot and Salesforce. The service supports custom branding and offers more than 260 free document templates. Teams can assign roles, manage access and permissions, track progress, and control who can send documents. Signatures are stated to comply with EU and US electronic signature legislation. Proposals are designed for phones and computers, and the service is accessible wherever there is an internet connection. Starter costs $13 per user per month when billed annually and allows one seat and 10 documents each month. There is no free plan; a 14-day trial requires no credit card or cancellation.

BriefSmith is web-based proposal software for agencies that drafts proposals and checks their scope before they reach clients. It creates structured documents with an executive summary, approach, deliverables, timeline, investment, payment terms, and scope limits. Its checks flag vague deliverables, missing limits, scope gaps, and over-promises. Teams can set shared proposal structure, tone, and scope limits, then export proposals as branded PDFs or individual proposals as Word documents. BriefSmith tracks proposal status, client opens, and win-rate trends. Its free Scope Check requires no signup and flags scope risks; BriefSmith says submitted text is read once and discarded. The 14-day trial with a card includes the full product without a proposal limit; the no-card option includes three generated proposals. The Founding Member plan is $29 a month, billed at $29/month, with a founding rate locked while subscribed for the first 50 agencies. Briefs are processed by Anthropic, and BriefSmith says content is not used to train AI models.