BEO HQ vs 17hats
17hats is an all-in-one small-business CRM with a genuine free tier; BEO HQ produces the catering documents an event runs on, starting with the BEO that 17hats has no concept of.
17hats earns its place on a lot of small-business shortlists, and the free plan is the reason. Unlimited contacts and projects at no cost, with four invoices a quarter, is a real offer for someone just starting out. Paid, it is $60 a month, or $600 a year which works out to $50 a month, and it covers quotes, contracts, invoices, scheduling, bookkeeping, and workflows in one place.
For a caterer, the same limitation applies as with every horizontal CRM: 17hats does not know what a banquet event order is. There is no menu library, no per-person pricing, no guaranteed guest count, and nothing your kitchen can work from. This page covers the gap honestly, including where 17hats is genuinely the better tool and where running both makes more sense than choosing.
| Feature | BEO HQ | 17hats |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $19 to $39 | $60, or $50 billed yearly |
| Free tier | 1 watermarked BEO + 1 invoice | Free CRM, 4 invoices per quarter |
| Free trial | No card needed, builder is ungated | 7 days, 30-day money back |
| Additional users | Included on Pro ($39) | $5 per month each |
| Add-on costs | None, features are in the plan | Scheduling, time tracking, bank connect priced separately |
| Document limits | Unlimited from Starter up | Capped on lower tiers |
| Banquet event order | Core feature | No, not a concept in the product |
| Menu library | Reusable, with per-person pricing | No |
| Kitchen sheet, packing list | Generated from the same event | No |
| Quotes, contracts, invoices | Yes, catering-specific | Yes, general purpose |
| Bookkeeping | QuickBooks and CSV export | Built in |
| Best for | Producing catering documents | Running a small service business |
Choose 17hats if...
- You want one system for the whole business: leads, quotes, contracts, invoices, scheduling, and light bookkeeping.
- You are early enough that a free CRM with four invoices a quarter genuinely covers you.
- You do work beyond catering and want it all in the same pipeline.
- Built-in bookkeeping matters more to you than catering-specific document output.
Choose BEO HQ if...
- You need a real banquet event order, and a general-purpose quote builder cannot produce one.
- You want a menu library with per-person and per-item pricing rather than retyping dishes every time.
- Your kitchen needs a version with production quantities and no prices on it.
- You would rather pay one flat price than assemble the features you need from add-ons.
The free plan is real, with real limits
Credit where it is due: 17hats offers a free tier with unlimited contacts and projects, which is more than most CRMs in this bracket. The cap is on output, at four invoices per quarter, and on the features gated behind paid tiers.
BEO HQ's free tier is shaped differently: one watermarked BEO and one invoice, plus a BEO builder on the landing page that is completely ungated and needs no account at all. The two free tiers are answering different questions. 17hats lets you run a light client pipeline for free. BEO HQ lets you produce a real banquet event order today and decide whether the output is good enough before you sign up for anything.
Watch the add-ons
17hats prices several things separately that you might assume are included. Online scheduling is an add-on, as are time tracking, bank connect, and recurring billing, each in the $5 to $10 a month range. Additional users are $5 a month, and additional brands are $10. None of those are unreasonable individually, but three or four of them move the real monthly number meaningfully above the headline.
BEO HQ has no add-ons. Starter is $19 and Pro is $39, and everything in the tier is in the tier: e-signature, share links, custom branding, multiple users, and versioning are all in Pro rather than sold alongside it. Whether that matters depends on how many of the 17hats add-ons you would actually turn on.
What a general-purpose quote builder cannot do
17hats builds documents from a general editor and a line-item table, which works well for a photographer quoting a package or a consultant billing hours. Catering documents have structure that does not fit that shape.
A BEO carries expected, guaranteed, and set-for guest counts as separate numbers, entree counts by selection, dietary needs as counts rather than a note, a timeline in real minutes, room setup, staffing with call times, and a financial summary where service charge and tax apply in a particular order. You can type that into a 17hats template. What you cannot do is have it carried into the next document automatically, or produce a kitchen-facing copy with the pricing stripped out.
Is BEO HQ a good 17hats alternative?
For the document half of the job, yes. If you use 17hats mainly to send quotes and invoices and the CRM side sits idle, BEO HQ produces the same commercial documents with catering structure behind them, plus the BEO, kitchen sheet, and packing list that 17hats cannot make.
For the whole-business half, no. BEO HQ has no lead pipeline, no scheduling, and no bookkeeping module. If 17hats is your accounting shortcut as well as your CRM, replacing it wholesale would leave a gap. Running 17hats for the business and BEO HQ for the event paperwork is a common and sensible split.
One flat price, no add-on shopping
Build a real banquet event order on the landing page without an account. Starter is $19 per month and Pro is $39 with everything included.