17 Hats – The Complete Business Management Platform for Photographers
17 Hats is the definitive business operating system built specifically for the needs of professional photographers and creative entrepreneurs. It consolidates your entire client workflow—from the initial inquiry to the final invoice—into one intuitive, automated platform. Eliminate the chaos of juggling multiple apps for emails, contracts, payments, and scheduling. 17 Hats empowers you to deliver a seamless, professional client experience while reclaiming hours of administrative time, allowing you to focus more on your craft and less on your paperwork.
What is 17 Hats?
17 Hats is a cloud-based business management platform that serves as a central hub for photographers and creative small businesses. It goes beyond simple invoicing or CRM by integrating the entire client journey into automated workflows. The platform is designed to handle the specific operational challenges faced by creatives, including managing multiple client projects simultaneously, handling custom proposals, securing contracts electronically, collecting payments, and gathering crucial client information through questionnaires. It acts as your virtual business manager, ensuring no lead falls through the cracks and every client receives consistent, professional communication.
Key Features of 17 Hats for Photographers
Automated Client Workflows
Create custom, multi-step workflows that trigger automated emails, tasks, and document sends. For example, when a lead fills out your contact form, 17 Hats can automatically send a welcome email, schedule a consultation task for you, and queue up a proposal—all without manual intervention. This ensures every potential client receives immediate, professional follow-up.
Integrated Proposals & Contracts
Build stunning, branded proposals with customizable packages and pricing. Once accepted, proposals seamlessly convert into legally-binding contracts that clients can e-sign directly within the platform. Store all signed documents securely in the associated client profile for easy access.
Unified Invoicing & Payment Processing
Generate professional invoices linked to your contracts and proposals. 17 Hats integrates with Stripe and PayPal to accept credit card and ACH payments online. Set up payment schedules, send automatic payment reminders, and track all income from a centralized dashboard, simplifying your bookkeeping.
Smart Lead & Client Management (CRM)
Track every interaction with leads and clients in a single timeline. Log calls, emails, and notes, and use tags and pipelines to visualize where each prospect is in your booking process. The built-in CRM ensures you have full context for every client conversation.
Customizable Online Questionnaires & Forms
Gather essential information efficiently with branded questionnaires. Use them for client intake, wedding day details, model releases, or style preferences. Answers are saved directly to the client file, eliminating messy email threads and lost information.
Who Should Use 17 Hats?
17 Hats is ideally suited for professional photographers and creative solopreneurs who are overwhelmed by administrative tasks and seek to systemize their business. It's perfect for wedding photographers managing complex, long-term client journeys; portrait photographers needing efficient booking and scheduling; commercial photographers handling detailed proposals and invoices; and any creative business owner who wants to appear more established, deliver a premium client experience, and scale their operations without proportional increases in administrative time.
17 Hats Pricing and Free Tier
17 Hats operates on a subscription model and does not offer a permanently free tier. However, they provide a comprehensive free trial period (typically 14-30 days) that grants full access to all features, allowing you to thoroughly test the platform with your real business workflows. Paid plans are tiered based on the number of contacts and advanced features required, starting with an Essentials plan for new businesses and scaling up to Premier plans for established studios needing advanced automation, team collaboration, and white-labeling options.
Common Use Cases
- Automating the wedding photography booking process from inquiry to contract signing
- Streamlining client onboarding for portrait photographers with intake questionnaires
- Managing commercial photography bids, proposals, and invoicing in one system
Key Benefits
- Reduces administrative time by up to 10 hours per week through workflow automation
- Increases booking conversion rates with professional, timely follow-up and easy online signing
- Improves cash flow with integrated online invoicing and automated payment reminders
Pros & Cons
Pros
- All-in-one platform eliminates need for 5+ separate tools (CRM, invoicing, contracts, etc.)
- Highly customizable workflows adapt to any photography business model
- Excellent client-facing experience that builds trust and professionalism
- Robust automation saves significant time on repetitive tasks
Cons
- No permanent free plan, only a time-limited trial
- Can have a learning curve due to its extensive feature set
- May be feature-overkill for hobbyists or very new photographers
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 17 Hats free for photographers?
17 Hats is not permanently free. It offers a full-featured free trial (usually 14-30 days) so you can test it thoroughly. After the trial, it requires a monthly or annual subscription, which is an investment that typically pays for itself through time savings and increased bookings for professional photographers.
Is 17 Hats good for wedding photographers?
Yes, 17 Hats is exceptionally well-suited for wedding photographers. Its strength lies in managing long, complex client journeys. You can automate sequences for inquiries, schedule consultation calls, send detailed proposals, manage contract signing, collect wedding day questionnaires, schedule payments, and maintain all communication in one place—perfect for the 6-18 month timeline of a typical wedding booking.
Can 17 Hats accept credit card payments?
Absolutely. 17 Hats has direct integrations with Stripe and PayPal, allowing you to accept credit card and ACH/bank transfer payments directly through the invoices you send. Clients can pay online securely, and the payment is automatically recorded against the invoice in your 17 Hats account.
How does 17 Hats compare to other photography business tools?
Unlike single-purpose tools for just invoicing or galleries, 17 Hats is a unified business management platform. While tools like QuickBooks handle accounting or Dubsado offer similar CRM features, 17 Hats is particularly praised for its intuitive interface and powerful workflow automation specifically tuned for creative service providers like photographers, making it a more holistic solution.
Conclusion
For the professional photographer serious about systematizing and growing their business, 17 Hats represents a powerful investment. It transforms administrative chaos into streamlined, automated workflows, enabling you to manage more clients with less stress. While it requires a subscription, the return in saved time, improved client experience, and secured revenue makes it a top-tier business management solution. If your photography business has moved beyond the hobbyist stage and you're spending more than a few hours a week on non-shooting tasks, 17 Hats is arguably the best platform to centralize and automate your operations.