Proposify vs PandaDoc vs DocHipo: Which One is Best for You

Choosing between Proposify and PandaDoc can be confusing. Both are popular and widely used by sales teams. But there’s a newer option gaining attention. Many business teams find it easier to use and are better suited for creating proposals that help close deals faster.

Now, put your stress about choosing the best proposal software to rest, as this blog offers a detailed analysis of Proposify vs PandaDoc vs DocHipo. You’ll get a clear view of features, workflow experience, and pricing associated with these proposal makers to decide which one is right for you. 

What is Proposify

Proposify is a proposal automation tool that helps businesses create on-brand proposals, manage team approvals, and send, track, and monitor proposals from start to finish. 

What is PandaDoc

PandaDoc is a popular proposal management tool that helps teams create, edit, send, and track business proposals using ready-made templates. It also provides reports and insights to support deal tracking and follow-ups. While powerful, it may take new users some time to learn and use all its features effectively.

What is DocHipo

DocHipo is an easy-to-use proposal and content creation tool designed for speed and simplicity. It offers high-quality proposal designs, secure sharing, and real-time collaboration in a clean, intuitive workspace. Teams can communicate directly within the app and get instant notifications when a client views or accepts a proposal. With a straightforward, no-complexity workflow, DocHipo helps growing teams scale without technical or setup challenges.

UI and Editor User-Friendliness: Getting Started Smoothly

A modern proposal tool should be easy to use from day one, both in its appearance and its functionality. To understand real usability, it’s important to compare the intuitiveness and efficiency of the editors in Proposify, PandaDoc, and DocHipo. 

Proposify UI and Editor

Proposify welcomes new users with a guided dashboard that walks you through adding branding, team members, and company details before you can start creating proposals. The interface is clean, with a left-hand menu that neatly organizes templates, analytics, users, integrations, and settings. At first glance, navigation feels logical and well-structured.

However, the onboarding process can feel slow. You’re required to provide full client details before accessing templates, which can disrupt momentum, especially for new users who just want to explore the tool.

The editor itself feels familiar, with a layout similar to Microsoft Word. Its drag-and-drop functionality makes editing straightforward, and templates are organized into chapters that can be easily rearranged from the side panel. Document editing occurs in a separate panel to keep things structured.

Overall, Proposify offers strong control and consistency once you’re fully set up. That said, the initial setup and learning curve can be time-consuming, making them challenging for busy teams.

PandaDoc UI and Editor

PandaDoc opens to a clean, distraction-free workspace designed for sales teams. The left panel organizes templates, contacts, and tools clearly, and the interface gently guides users toward creating proposal templates early on.

Its drag-and-drop editor is practical and easy to approach. A live preview appears alongside editing tools, and both can be collapsed to reduce clutter. Simple edits take just a click, allowing sales reps to work quickly without worrying about formatting or design.

Compared to Proposify, PandaDoc is faster to get started with and feels less restrictive during setup. It also supports fully manual template creation when default designs don’t match your brand. However, if you value speed and a zero-learning-curve experience, you may want to consider another PandaDoc alternative. 

DocHipo GUI and Editor

DocHipo offers a lighter, more minimalist experience than both Proposify and PandaDoc. The dashboard is clean and intuitive, with document types neatly listed on the left and proposal templates easy to find. A built-in search helps users jump straight to proposal designs without browsing through unrelated assets.

Inside the DocHipo editor, the drag-and-drop workspace feels simple and stress-free. Widgets are clearly grouped and broken into useful subcategories, making it easy to find what you need. Adding, removing, duplicating blocks, and undoing changes is effortless, supported by clear zoom and navigation controls.

Setup is quick and frictionless. Creating company profiles, managing permissions, and organizing documents into collections takes very little time. As a result, users feel productive immediately, without long onboarding steps or technical hurdles.

Overall, DocHipo strikes a strong balance between speed and control, making it especially suitable for busy sales teams, agencies, and freelancers who want to create proposals quickly and confidently.

Templates and Customization: Creating Proposals Faster

High-quality, business-ready proposal layouts are essential for teams that need speed and consistency. Well-structured templates reduce manual effort, help proposals adhere to industry standards, and enable teams to scale without slowing down. Let’s see how DocHipo, Proposify, and PandaDoc compare when it comes to template quality and customization flexibility.

Proposify

Proposify provides a wide range of proposal templates for industries such as accounting, marketing, advertising, real estate, branding, and consulting. During onboarding, you add your logo, fonts, and brand colors, and Proposify automatically creates a starter proposal aligned with your brand.

This starter proposal follows a familiar structure, cover, overview, services, pricing, and agreement, similar to its pre-built templates. You can access more templates from the gallery by clicking Create New.

The templates are well-structured and reliable, which works well for teams that need consistent proposal formats across deals. However, customization can feel limited, and rebuilding or adjusting starter templates may feel repetitive. There’s also a noticeable learning curve, making Proposify better suited for teams that value structure and control over speed and flexible editing.

PandaDoc

PandaDoc offers a large template library covering HR, finance, sales, IT, and marketing use cases. The variety is reassuring at first, especially for sales teams looking for ready-made proposal structures.

That said, the template categories are loosely organized. Finding the right template often requires extra browsing, which can slow things down for teams working on tight timelines.

From a design perspective, cover pages look modern and visually appealing. However, inner pages and content blocks tend to be basic and flat. While layouts are clean and functional, they lack the visual depth and polish that many businesses expect in client-facing proposals.

DocHipo

DocHipo stands out for its thoughtfully organized, business-focused Proposal template library. Proposal templates are grouped by real-world industries such as IT services, consulting, marketing, training, events, design, etc., making it easy to pick the right starting point without searching endlessly.

Each proposal layout follows a proven structure, executive summary, scope of work, timeline, pricing, and testimonials, so teams don’t have to guess what to include or where. The designs feel modern, clean, and client-ready right from the first draft.

The layouts use a web-style, scannable format that’s easy to read and works well across devices. Short, focused sections help teams avoid long blocks of text and keep proposals concise and compelling. Compared with the more text-heavy layouts in PandaDoc and Proposify, DocHipo’s templates require minimal formatting and mostly one-click edits, allowing teams to focus on the deal message rather than design.

Easy Proposal Creation Workflow: Proposify vs PandaDoc vs DocHipo

When choosing proposal software to support business growth, what really matters is a smooth, error-free workflow that saves time and helps teams move faster. Let’s compare how Proposify, PandaDoc, and DocHipo perform when it comes to creating proposals efficiently from start to finish.

Proposify

After selecting a template, Proposify shows a preview before opening the editor. The first required step is filling in the company, sender, and client details in Document Settings, which adds friction early in the process. Inside the editor, text and visuals are easy to edit using drag-and-drop controls and widgets from the left panel.

You can add text blocks, images, videos, tables, and pricing sections using the Build option. The pricing table supports rows, columns, taxes, discounts, and auto-calculated totals, resulting in a clean, professional look.

However, most pricing data must be entered manually each time. Unlike PandaDoc and DocHipo, Proposify does not auto-fill items from a product or service catalog, which slows down repeat proposal creation.

The same applies to text tables. When outlining deliverables, timelines, or milestones, users must manually format rows and sections. There are no ready-made layouts for scope or duration-based breakdowns, which increases effort and room for error.

E-signatures are flexible, with options for assigned or unassigned signers. Overall, Proposify offers structure and control but requires more manual work and has a noticeable learning curve, making it better for teams that prioritize consistency over speed.

PandaDoc

PandaDoc encourages teams to first create reusable company templates, though users can also start directly with a pre-designed one. Editing blocks is straightforward using the Properties panel, where you can rename sections, adjust layouts, and update styling.

Blocks can be saved to the content library for reuse, which is helpful for scaling proposals. PandaDoc also supports a product catalog to auto-fill pricing tables, but this feature requires a higher-tier plan or CRM integration.

Adding content is easy using the floating plus icon or left-side widgets. You can insert pricing tables, variables, signatures, videos, and more. Interactive pricing tables enable quick entry of taxes, discounts, SKUs, and quantities.

However, like Proposify, PandaDoc lacks dedicated layouts for the scope of work and timelines. These must be created manually using basic tables, which takes extra time.

E-signatures complete the workflow, but configuration options such as expiration rules or post-signature forms are limited. Overall, PandaDoc is practical and powerful, but its workflow still involves manual formatting for service-heavy proposals.

DocHipo

DocHipo is designed for teams that value speed, clarity, and a simple workflow. After choosing a proposal layout, you can immediately start editing, renaming, rearranging, and customizing sections with minimal effort. Text edits are as simple as double-clicking, and widgets are easy to add from clearly organized menus.

Proposal-wide details like currencies, taxes, items, and usage units can be set up once at the company level. These details automatically populate pricing tables, saving time and reducing errors.

DocHipo stands out with built-in Scope of Work and Timeline tables. You can define deliverables, add descriptions, mark optional items, and assign estimated durations in hours, weeks, or months, without manual formatting. 

Timeline tables let you break projects into phases and assign dates, with total durations calculated automatically.

The pricing table allows teams to select services from a preset list, apply taxes, discounts, currencies, and item codes with one click. Clients can interact with the table by adjusting quantities or optional items, reducing back-and-forth communication. 

Brand assets like logos, colors, fonts, and visuals can be applied using the Brand Kit. Adding signers is simple. 

Proposals can be shared with expiration dates, password protection, and email verification. Clients can view, sign, and submit forms from any device.

Overall, DocHipo delivers a faster, more structured proposal workflow with far less manual effort, making it especially effective for sales teams, agencies, and freelancers handling proposals daily.

AI Capabilities for Faster Proposal Creation: Proposify vs PandaDoc vs DocHipo

AI is no longer optional in business tools. Teams now expect AI to reduce writing effort, improve clarity, and speed up proposal creation. Here’s how Proposify, PandaDoc, and DocHipo compare on AI usefulness.

Proposify

Proposify’s AI is mainly focused on editing, not creation. It helps fix grammar, spelling, and tone, and can shorten or expand selected sections.

This makes it useful for last-minute polishing but less effective for drafting proposals from scratch. Overall, it supports refinement more than true AI-led content creation.

PandaDoc

PandaDoc’s AI helps users rewrite, expand, shorten, or reformat text. It’s helpful for teams that are still getting comfortable with AI and want assistance in improving existing content. However, it remains largely a text-editing aid rather than a proposal-specific AI assistant.

DocHipo

DocHipo’s AI is built specifically for sales and marketing teams. Its AI writer helps draft and refine proposal sections in a clear, business-friendly tone, reducing the time spent on wording and formatting.

Beyond writing, DocHipo includes practical AI tools like:

• AI Translator for regional or global proposals
• AI Background Remover for clean, professional team photos

These features go beyond text automation and help teams create proposals that feel polished and client-ready from the first share.

Real-Time Collaboration for Faster Approvals

Collaboration plays a big role in speeding up reviews and avoiding errors. Here’s how each tool supports teamwork.

Proposify

Proposify offers structured collaboration with role-based approvals. Teams can request approvals for specific sections like pricing or discounts, instead of revising the entire proposal. 

Automated approval workflows and email notifications help managers stay in control without slowing deals.

PandaDoc

PandaDoc supports real-time collaboration with role-based reviews and comments. Team members can work together in the same document, and approvals move automatically to the right stakeholders. It’s well-suited for larger teams already working inside CRM-driven workflows.

DocHipo

DocHipo enables smooth real-time collaboration without adding complexity. Teams can co-edit proposals, leave contextual comments, and track changes with version control. Access levels and read-only sharing make approvals quick and secure.

For agencies and freelancers, DocHipo’s multi-company workspaces stand out. Each brand can have its own members, permissions, and brand assets, ensuring consistency across proposals.

Proposal Sharing, Approvals, and Closing Deals Faster 

How easily you can share, track, and get proposals signed directly affects deal velocity.

Proposify

Proposify replaces PDFs with live proposal links and supports sending via CRM or Slack. Real-time alerts notify teams when clients view or revisit pricing sections, helping sales reps follow up at the right moment. Identity verification before signing adds accountability.

PandaDoc

PandaDoc allows proposals to be shared via email or secure links, often directly from a CRM. Teams receive real-time notifications when proposals are viewed, and clients can approve and pay directly within the document, making it a strong choice for CRM-centric sales teams.

DocHipo

DocHipo keeps sharing simple and focused. Proposals can be emailed or shared via secure links with expiration dates. 

Once signed, documents automatically lock to prevent edits, building client trust.

Clients can sign from any browser or device, and optional onboarding forms during signing help move deals forward quickly. Email verification and password protection add an extra layer of security.

Apps and Integrations: Proposify vs PandaDoc vs DocHipo

Integrations reduce manual work and keep workflows connected.

Proposify

Supports CRM integrations with HubSpot, Zoho CRM, and Salesforce, helping sales teams auto-fill client data and manage proposals efficiently.

PandaDoc

Offers strong CRM integrations with Zoho CRM, HubSpot, PipeDrive, Salesforce, monday.com, Copper, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and integrates with Canva to enhance basic template designs; however, advanced design flexibility remains limited.

DocHipo

DocHipo is building practical CRM connections that help sales teams streamline their workflows and reduce manual work.

• Zoho CRM Integration: DocHipo connects directly with Zoho CRM, allowing teams to create proposals using Zoho CRM deal records. This integration ensures that client and deal information flows seamlessly from your CRM into DocHipo proposals, reducing data entry and keeping information consistent across tools.

• Pipedrive Integration (Coming Soon): A future integration with Pipedrive will enable teams to link their sales pipeline data directly with DocHipo proposals. This means deals, contacts, and companies managed in Pipedrive can be used to generate accurate proposals faster without switching between apps.

With these integrations, DocHipo aims to enhance day-to-day productivity for teams using Zoho CRM or Pipedrive to manage sales pipelines and customer relationships.

Pricing Comparison: Proposify vs PandaDoc vs DocHipo

Proposify

• Limited free access
• Basic: $19/month (annual billing)
• Team: $41/month (up to 3 collaborators)
• Business: $65/month

PandaDoc

• Free plan with limited features
• Starter: $19/month
• Business: $49/month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

DocHipo

• Free plan with templates and stock assets
• Pro: $7.50 per user/month (annual billing)
• Pro Unlimited: $225/month for unlimited users

Usability at a Glance: Proposify vs PandaDoc vs DocHipo

Comparative Preview	Proposify	PandaDoc	DocHipo
Getting Started	Structured but setup-heavy	Quick start with a clean dashboard	Fastest learning curve; minimal setup and guided editing flow
Design and Editing	Sleek editor, but less flexible for layout creativity	Drag-and-drop editor with somewhat limited flexibility	Customizable templates with design-focused editing and ready-to-use proposal widgets, reducing the need for manual adjustments.
Deliverable, Timeline, Pricing	No catalog, no SOW, and timeline tables; a built-in pricing table is available	Catalog setup is available, along with interactive pricing and quote tables. However, deliverables and project timelines still need to be formatted manually, often resulting in long, clunky paragraphs.	Dedicated proposal widgets for scope of work, pricing, and timelines enable structured presentations, supported by detailed proposal settings such as items, currencies, taxes, usage units, and signature forms.
Sharing and Approval Workflow	Standard send and sign workflow with automation flexibility	Multiple send methods and tracking analytics	Link expiration control, multi-signers, proposal forms, password encryptions, auto-lock after signing, e-sign on any device

Proposify vs PandaDoc vs DocHipo: Which Tool Should You Choose?

Every business operates differently, so the right proposal tool should align with how your team sells and collaborates.

• Proposify: Best for teams with structured, repeatable sales workflows. It offers strong control and consistency, but can feel rigid when you need creative flexibility.

• PandaDoc: Ideal for growing businesses that rely on automation and CRM integrations. While powerful, its setup and configuration may slow down smaller or leaner teams.

• DocHipo: Designed for simplicity, speed, and clarity. DocHipo balances structured proposal creation with flexible collaboration and enterprise-grade controls, making it a great fit for sales professionals, freelancers, and fast-moving businesses.

If you want to create professional, easy-to-review proposals in less time and close deals faster, DocHipo is the tool to choose. Sign up for DocHipo here.

FAQs

1. How safe is PandaDoc?

PandaDoc is a secure platform for creating branded proposals and managing approval workflows. However, its advanced security and automation features are mostly available on higher-priced plans. If you prefer a quicker setup and better value with simpler pricing, you may want to consider DocHipo.

2. Is PandaDoc actually free?

Yes. PandaDoc offers a free plan, but it includes very limited features. Most automation, templates, and integrations require a paid plan.

3. Does Proposify use AI?

Yes. Proposify includes basic AI features for text editing, such as improving grammar or rephrasing content. However, it’s more focused on formatting than generating proposal-ready content. If you want AI to actively help write and refine business proposals, DocHipo offers more advanced AI writing capabilities. 

4. Is Proposify good for small businesses?

Proposify can work for small businesses, but it often requires time and expertise to use effectively. It’s better suited for larger teams that need structured approvals, analytics, and repeatable sales workflows.

5. What kind of businesses use Proposify?

Proposify is commonly used by mid-sized companies and large organizations with established sales processes. Freelancers, startups, and small teams may find simpler and more affordable tools like DocHipo a better fit.

6. Is Proposify easy to learn?

Proposify has a clear structure, but new users often need time to understand its workflows, roles, and approval settings. In contrast, DocHipo offers a guided, intuitive proposal workflow that most teams can use immediately without a learning curve.

7. What’s the best software for creating proposals?

It depends on your needs:

• Proposify for structured, approval-driven sales processes
• PandaDoc for automation and CRM integrations
• DocHipo for fast, visually polished proposals with real-time collaboration and secure approvals

8. What is the difference between PandaDoc and Proposify?

PandaDoc focuses on automation, integrations, and flexible pricing workflows. Proposify emphasizes standardized proposal structures, approvals, and consistency across sales documents.