17hats vs VA Growth Suite
17hats is a no-frills CRM for service businesses — solid for booking flows but light on the timer + portal combo VAs rely on.
| Feature | 17hats | VA Growth Suite |
|---|---|---|
| Time tracking with running timer | ||
| Multi-client dashboard | ||
| PDF invoice generation | ||
| Branded client portal | ||
| Kanban task board per client | ||
| Starts at $0 (free plan) | ||
| No per-user pricing | ||
| Built for VAs specifically | ||
| Starting price | $15/mo | $0 free, $19/mo paid |
17hats — strengths
- Bookkeeping and invoicing in one place
- Online scheduling for client calls
- Affordable entry tier
17hats — limits for VAs
- Time tracker is buried under multiple menus
- Portal exists but feels dated (2010s aesthetic)
- Limited multi-currency support
Our honest take
17hats fits photographers and event planners better than VAs. VA Growth Suite trims the booking calendar and doubles down on the timer + portal flow VAs use daily.
When 17hats is the right choice
If you're already on 17hats and it's working, don't switch just to save a few dollars. But if you're just starting out as a VA — or you're paying for 17hats plus a second tool for invoicing or a client portal — we built VA Growth Suite to replace that stack.
When VA Growth Suite wins
- You're a solo VA or small agency (not a 20-person design studio)
- You need time tracking and invoicing and a client portal
- Flat pricing matters more than deep workflow automation
- You want to get set up in 5 minutes, not 5 days
What you actually use 17hats for
17hats fits VAs whose business looks more like booked appointments than ongoing hourly work — virtual event coordinators, calendar managers running discovery calls, anyone with a steady stream of one-off bookings. The online scheduling and contracts-plus-invoicing combo is its strongest pitch. For VAs running monthly retainers with one running timer per client, the booking calendar is dead weight, the time tracker is buried, and the 2010s portal aesthetic is hard to send to a Series A founder client without apologising.
Moving from 17hats to VA Growth Suite
17hats exports clients, leads, invoices, and bookings via Settings → Export (CSV). Contracts download as PDF. To move: import the client CSV into VA Growth Suite, archive contract PDFs to Drive, then handle the booking calendar separately — most VAs replace it with a free Cal.com or Calendly link embedded in their VA Growth Suite client portal. Any active recurring invoices need to be recreated as VA Growth Suite recurring schedules, since the underlying engines work differently.
Frequently asked questions
Is 17hats free?
17hats doesn't offer a free plan. The cheapest paid tier starts at $15/mo. VA Growth Suite, by contrast, is free for up to 2 clients with no time limit and no credit card.
Can I import my data from 17hats into VA Growth Suite?
Yes. 17hats supports CSV per record type + PDF contract archive, which covers the migration cleanly. Most VAs move clients and the last 90 days of time entries in under an hour. Older records can stay in 17hats as a read-only archive.
What does VA Growth Suite do that 17hats doesn't?
VA Growth Suite bundles time tracking, multi-client invoicing in multiple currencies, a branded client portal, and a per-client kanban task board into one app — at a flat $19/mo for 50 clients, with no per-user pricing. 17hats typically requires you to combine it with at least one other tool to cover that workflow.
Why does VA Growth Suite charge $19/mo instead of per-user pricing like 17hats?
Per-user pricing punishes VAs the moment they add a subcontractor or VA partner. Flat pricing means a two-person VA team pays the same as a solo VA — $19/mo for up to 50 clients. It's the model that makes sense for the way VAs actually grow.
Try VA Growth Suite free — no 17hats required
Up to 2 clients free, forever. Move your workflow over in under 10 minutes.
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