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Flowboard vs Productive

Productive computes margin from tracked hours. So does Flowboard.

Productive is an agency operations platform and the margin loop is genuinely theirs. Their help centre publishes the arithmetic in full, down to Cost = tracked hours × cost rate, and Budgeting sits on the entry plan at $12 USD per user per month, which is cheaper than Flowboard. Where the two diverge is what the full version costs. Twelve capabilities are named only on Productive's Ultimate card, and that card renders Let's talk against a Book a Demo button in both the monthly and the yearly billing state. Flowboard is one plan at $39 per seat per month USD with everything inside it.

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For agencies pricing two tools that both compute margin from tracked hours.

Two tools that do the same arithmetic. One of them publishes what the full version costs.

Productive runs time to cost to margin per client, per project, and per service, and says so on its own profitability page: run each client, project or service as a separate profit center. Take that as read. What is left to compare is two things. What the full version costs, and what a client actually touches. Productive's entry plan is cheaper than Flowboard, its Ultimate plan carries no published price in either billing state, and twelve of its named capabilities sit only on that plan. Flowboard runs one plan at $39 per seat per month USD, and the proofing, proposal, and client-preview surfaces are inside it.

By the numbers

per seat per month USD, one plan, everything included
$39per seat per month USD, one plan, everything included
seats is the stated minimum on every Productive plan
3seats is the stated minimum on every Productive plan
capabilities named only on Productive's Ultimate card, which shows no price in either billing state
12capabilities named only on Productive's Ultimate card, which shows no price in either billing state

Feature comparison

FeatureFlowboardProductive
Margin from tracked hoursPer-project and workspace-wide profitability computed from logged hours, with cost rate per hour returned to Owner and Admin onlyBudgeting is named on the Essential card, and the help centre publishes the formula: Cost = tracked hours × cost rate
Overhead-loaded marginNot shipped. Margin is direct labour cost onlyOverhead calculation is named on the Ultimate card, which renders Let's talk in place of a price
Revenue forecasting and scenario modellingNot shipped. The numbers come from hours already loggedRevenue forecasting and Scenario Builder are named on the Ultimate card
Client seatsFree and unlimited. Portal users live in a separate identity table and are never counted against the workspace member limitFree. In Productive's words, adding clients to Productive is free of charge
Preview as ClientA toggle that filters your own screen using the same visibility rule the live portal usesNo preview-as-client entry appears in the feature catalogue on productive.io/pricing
Creative proofingPin annotation on the asset, four proof states, version history with per-version annotation countsNo proofing, annotation, or markup entry appears in the feature catalogue on productive.io/pricing
Proposals with signatureSection builder, a draw-signature pad, public signing with no login for the signer, and viewed tracked as its own statusThe catalogue lists Export proposal to PDF. No e-signature entry appears in it
Invoicing from tracked timeInvoice line items generated from time entries, grouped by team member or by task, and generating locks those entriesThe catalogue lists Invoices: create and send client invoices directly from Productive. It is not named on any plan card
SSO or 2FA enforcementNot shippedEnforce SSO or 2FA is named on the Ultimate card
Plan structureOne plan, $39 per seat per month USD, everything included, no seat minimums, no demo required$12 USD per user per month on Essential and $29 USD on Professional billed monthly, $10 USD and $25 USD billed yearly. Ultimate renders Let's talk with a Book a Demo button in both states, and every plan states a 3-seat minimum

Where Flowboard differs

Free client seats on both sides, so compare what the seat opens

Adding clients costs nothing in either tool. Productive says so on its own pricing FAQ, and in Flowboard portal users live in a separate identity table from workspace members, with only members counted against the plan limit. What differs is the surface behind the login. A Flowboard client lands on a portal with their projects, their invoices, their forms, their booking pages, and the proofs waiting on their approval, with task, comment, and file visibility scoped per item. So what: the client seat is the same price in both, so the question is whether the work you need signed off is reachable from it.

The preview is the portal, not a mock

Preview as Client filters your own screen using the same visibility rule the live portal uses: only tasks marked client visible or client editable, and only comments marked client visible. The internal preview and the client's actual view are the same code path. So what: you check what the client sees before you send it, rather than granting access and then working out what else is now reachable.

Creative approval with versions, in the same workspace as the hours

Proofs carry pin annotation directly on the asset, four states from draft through changes requested, and a version picker with an annotation count per version. Approval is a structured decision recorded separately from the comment thread, so approved is a queryable status rather than something inferred from a message. So what: the round-three approval and the hours it consumed sit in the same system, so the margin number already includes the revision cycle.

What Flowboard does not have

No overhead calculation, so margin is direct labour cost only. Productive names Overhead calculation on its Ultimate card and frames it on its profitability page as spreading overhead across all your budgets to see actual project profitability. If fully loaded margin is the requirement, that is a real gap here. No revenue forecasting and no scenario modelling either. No Gantt or timeline view, since Board, List, and Calendar are the only views. No native mobile app: the mobile screens are mobile-optimized web views. No integrations marketplace. No SSO or SAML. No public API, and Productive names API access on its entry card. Portal branding is three fields, workspace name, logo, and accent color, on a Flowboard-hosted portal with no custom domain.

Both tools do the arithmetic. Flowboard puts the client-facing half in the same plan, and publishes what that plan costs.

Why agencies choose Flowboard over Productive

The client-facing chain sits in one plan

A Flowboard client gets a standalone login by magic link or password, against a separate portal-users identity table rather than a seat in your workspace. Behind it: their projects, their invoices, intake forms, booking pages, and the proofs waiting on them, with task, comment, and file visibility scoped per item. Productive also adds clients free of charge, and its catalogue names client access to budgets and hiding comments from clients. The difference is not the price of the seat, it is how much of the delivery cycle the client can act on from one place.

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Creative approval with versions

Pin annotation on the asset, four proof states, a version picker with per-version annotation counts, and an approve or changes-requested decision recorded as a status transition rather than read out of a comment. No proofing, annotation, or markup entry appears in the feature catalogue on productive.io/pricing, so an agency running creative rounds should check that directly with them before switching either way.

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Proposals that get signed inside the tool

The proposal builder assembles cover, scope, pricing, terms, and signature sections, the signer draws a signature on a public link with no login, and the six-state lifecycle tracks viewed as its own status before accepted. Productive's catalogue lists Export proposal to PDF; a search of that page for the word signature returns nothing.

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One price, published, for the version with everything in it

Productive's Essential plan is $12 USD per user per month billed monthly, $10 USD billed yearly, and its Professional plan is $29 USD and $25 USD. Both are cheaper per seat than Flowboard. The Ultimate plan renders Let's talk against a Book a Demo button in both billing states, and twelve capabilities are named only on that card, including Overhead calculation, Revenue forecasting, Scenario Builder, Enforce SSO or 2FA, Webhooks, Agents, and Connectors. Rate cards and Billable time approvals start one tier up, at Professional. Every Productive plan states a 3-seat minimum. Flowboard sells one plan at $39 per seat per month USD with no seat minimum, so the version you evaluate is the version you buy and its price is on the page.

Margin at parity, with the cost rate held internally

Both tools compute margin from tracked hours against cost rates. Flowboard strips cost rate per hour from every response to a non-Owner and non-Admin role, so members and clients never see internal cost rates, and utilization is measured against weekdays rather than calendar days. Productive documents its own split: profitability managers and admins see both the budgeting and profitability snapshots, and managers see the budgeting only. Worth testing against how your own team is structured, because the two draw the line in different places.

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Frequently asked questions

Move off Productive without starting over.

Flowboard ships import wizards for ClickUp, Asana, Trello, and CSV. You run them yourself from inside your workspace.

One plan, $39 per seat per month USD, client seats free.

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