For an agency, a consultancy or any team that delivers work to clients, the question is not only what the tool costs for the team but what it costs to let the client in. In Wrike, that depends on what the client needs to do, because each licence type comes with a different set of rights and a different price. Here is how Wrike's licence types work for client collaboration, where its free option is genuinely good, and how Kavanah's client portal approaches the same job.
1. Wrike's Licence Types, Briefly
Wrike's pricing FAQ says regular and external users are full users who need a paid seat, contributors need a seat at a reduced rate, and viewers can be added free. Its help article spells out the rights. An external user can view shared items, comment, track time, add attachments, change status and dates, create tasks and approve items, but cannot share items, invite users or use AI features. A contributor can comment, track time, change status and dates and approve items, but cannot create tasks or assign them. A viewer can view, comment, approve items and file attachments and add proofing comments, but cannot add attachments or change a task.
2. Where the Free Viewer Is Enough
Credit where it is due: for a client whose job is to look and sign off, Wrike's free viewer covers a lot. Viewers can approve items, approve file attachments and leave proofing comments, which is the core of a creative review loop. If your clients only ever review and approve, Wrike's model may cost you nothing extra.
3. Where It Starts to Cost
The line is crossed the moment a client needs to upload a file, change a date or log time. Uploading attachments takes at least a contributor seat, and creating tasks takes an external user seat at full price. The Collaborator licence, which used to sit in between, is being discontinued and new accounts could not get it from January 20, 2025. Count which clients do which of those things, then price them on the plan you are on.
4. How Kavanah's Client Portal Handles It
Kavanah keeps clients out of the seat count. People you invite through the client portal see the projects you share with their client record, and can approve or reject a task, a project, a file or a discussion with a comment, post to project discussions, upload files and export what they can see. Private projects are never reachable from the portal. Portal clients are not charged as seats on any plan, and workspace members, the only paid seats, are $3 a month on Basic or $6 on Pro.
5. What to Compare
Make a short list of what each client really does: reads, comments, approves, uploads, edits dates, logs time. Then price it on each tool. Wrike's free viewer wins for review-only clients and its proofing tools are mature. A portal that lets clients upload and approve without a seat wins when clients send you material as well as sign it off. And if your clients need to work inside your plan as teammates, any tool will charge for them.
Client access is a line item that rarely appears on a pricing page, so work it out before you choose. For the full dated comparison of Kavanah, Wrike, Asana and monday work management, see our Wrike alternative page.
