Timeliner vs Agency Handy
Client portals and subscription billing for service agencies. Zero video review.
Honest comparison for a 5-editor video agency. We list what they do better, where they fall short for our ICP, and the real monthly cost.
Agency Handy is ≈ $59/mo for a 5-seat video team (Pro - 5 seats included). Timeliner is $89/mo (Studio - 5 seats, video-native review + pipeline), with extra seats at $10/mo and free unlimited client and guest reviewers on every plan.
Pick Agency Handy if…
If your agency primarily sells non-video productized services and needs subscription billing plus a generic client portal, Agency Handy covers that workflow well. For video-first agencies, it's the wrong center of gravity.
Pick Timeliner if…
You need what Agency Handy leaves out:
- Zero video review - no playback, no timestamped comments, no drawing, no version compare.
- No production pipeline built for video - generic kanban at best.
- No team output analytics for editors.
Real cost for a 5-seat video team
Posted prices, not list prices. The line item isn’t the whole stack - read the note below.
Agency Handy
Pro - 5 seats included
Timeliner
Studio - 5 seats, video-native review + pipeline
Why the gap matters: Agency Handy is cheap because it doesn't review video. Add Frame.io ($75/mo) and you're at $134/mo across two tools, with clients signing into one portal for invoices and another for review. Timeliner Studio is $89/mo with review and the pipeline in one; Agency at $199/mo adds payment tracking and client intake forms so the whole client relationship lives behind a single branded link.
Timeliner Studio - $89/mo
5 seats, 3TB, 1080p streaming. Frame-accurate review, the full production pipeline, the internal-then-client approval gate and branded client portals. Right for a small team replacing a review tool plus a PM tool.
Timeliner Agency - $199/mo
10 seats, 8TB, 4K streaming. Everything in Studio plus payment tracking, approval-bottleneck analytics, client intake forms, the social calendar and AI captions, titles and tags. Right once you're billing clients and publishing.
Extra seats are $10/mo each (+250GB). Clients and guest reviewers are free and unlimited on every plan - they never count toward your seat limit. See all plans.
Compare against any Timeliner plan
Pro - 5 seats included. Switch tiers to see how seats, storage and features line up against what you’d actually pay.
| Agency Handy | Timeliner Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | ≈ $59/mo | $89/mo |
| Seats | Not published | 5 included (up to 10) |
| Extra seat | Not published | $10/mo (+250GB) |
| Storage | Not published | 3TB |
| Streaming quality | Not published | 1080p |
| Client & guest reviewers | Not published | Free & unlimited |
What Timeliner Studio includes
- Transcript & timecode commenting
- Frame-accurate review & comments
- Unlimited projects & versions
- Client approvals via share links
- Branded client portals
- Internal supervisor approval
- Kanban, list & brand views
- Slack, WhatsApp & email alerts
- Locked downloads & watermarks
- Social scheduling for 1 brand
- Priority WhatsApp · 8h response
Where Agency Handy genuinely wins
We’re not pretending Agency Handy is bad. These are real strengths - pick Agency Handy if any of them are central to how you work.
- Mature subscription billing - proposals, invoices, recurring plans (Timeliner has payment tracking, not a full invoicing engine).
- True white-label with custom domains - Timeliner offers a branded portal but no custom domain today.
- Generic agency client portal that handles intake forms, file delivery, and ticketing.
- Designed for productized-service agencies (SEO, web, ads) that don't need media review.
Where it falls short for a 5-editor video agency
- Zero video review - no playback, no timestamped comments, no drawing, no version compare.
- No production pipeline built for video - generic kanban at best.
- No team output analytics for editors.
- Files are attachments, not media-aware - no full-resolution cloud streaming or proxy playback.
The headache you’ll feel
If you sell video, you cannot review video in Agency Handy. You'll bolt Frame.io or Wipster on top, and your client now logs into two portals - one for invoices, one for review - with two sign-ins and two brand experiences.
Feature Comparison
Green = supported natively. Amber = partial / via add-on. Grey = not available.
Subscription Billing & Invoicing Engine
Custom Domain / True White-Label
Client Approval Portal (No Login)
Branded Client Portal (Logo + Colors)
Payment Tracking & Pricing Templates
Timestamped Video Comments
Side-by-Side Version Comparison
Drawing Annotations
Internal-then-Client Review Gate
Project & Task Management
Custom Task Workflows
Team Analytics & KPIs
When Agency Handy is the right call
If your agency primarily sells non-video productized services and needs subscription billing plus a generic client portal, Agency Handy covers that workflow well. For video-first agencies, it's the wrong center of gravity.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Resources
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