ConsultBase vs Copilot / Assembly: Which is right for independent consultants and small firms?
Copilot / Assembly is great for polished, well-funded tech-enabled service firms that need compliance certifications and deep integrations. ConsultBase is built for independent consultants who want broader AI, native scheduling and time tracking, at roughly half the entry price.
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Feature-by-feature comparison
Where each platform actually lands on the capabilities consultants ask about most.
| Feature | Copilot / Assembly | ConsultBase |
|---|---|---|
| Branded client portalBoth are polished. Assembly's portal is widely cited as a strength. | ||
| Custom domain (app.yourfirm.com)Assembly supports full custom domain. ConsultBase uses the myconsultbase.com/yourfirm subdirectory model. | ||
| Proposals + e-signatures | ||
| Invoicing + subscriptions | ||
| Native booking & schedulingAssembly outsources scheduling to Calendly; ConsultBase ships native session types and booking. | ||
| Native time tracking | ||
| AI assistant | Assembly Assistant | Ivy — 50+ tools |
| AI write actions across the practice | ||
| Consulting-native vocabularyAssembly targets multiple service verticals; the language is generic. | ||
| SOC 2 Type II compliance | ||
| HIPAA compliance | ||
| Integrations breadth | Zapier, Make, Airtable, ClickUp, Calendly + App marketplace | Stripe, Zoom, Resend |
| Unlimited clients on entry tier | ||
| Entry-tier price (monthly) | $59 | $39 |
| Native iOS/Android apps | PWA | |
| Page-context-aware AI |
Where Copilot / Assembly is better
Honest assessment first. Copilot / Assembly earned its market position — these are the areas where it's genuinely stronger than ConsultBase right now.
Custom domain support
Assembly supports true custom-domain setups — app.yourfirm.com served from their infrastructure. ConsultBase uses a subdirectory model (myconsultbase.com/yourfirm) that some consultants actively prefer because the visible URL telegraphs "real platform." Others want their own domain. If you fall in the second group, Assembly wins this one outright.
SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliance
Assembly carries SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA attestations. These matter materially for consultants in regulated verticals — healthcare advisory, GovCon work involving controlled data, finance-vertical engagements. ConsultBase has not pursued these certifications yet; we run on infrastructure that supports them but the formal attestation is roadmap, not shipped. If your buyer requires a SOC 2 vendor questionnaire response today, Assembly is the answer.
Integration ecosystem breadth
Assembly ships native integrations with Zapier, Make, Airtable, ClickUp, and Calendly, plus an app marketplace. ConsultBase's native integrations today are Stripe, Zoom, and Resend. Zapier is on our roadmap for the next 60 days, but Assembly's ecosystem is significantly deeper today.
Funding, runway, and shipping pace
Assembly has $10M+ in venture funding and visible engineering momentum — Assembly 2.0 shipped in March 2026 with feature expansion. ConsultBase is bootstrapped and intentionally narrower in scope. If the "well-capitalized incumbent" signal matters to your buying process, Assembly wins.
Dedicated landing for consulting firms in their nav
Assembly's solutions navigation explicitly lists "consulting firms" alongside accounting, marketing agencies, law, and real estate. Their SERP presence on "client portal for consulting firms" is real today. ConsultBase is newer to that SERP and still building presence.
Where ConsultBase is better
The places ConsultBase was built differently — usually because we picked “consultants” as the audience first and worked backwards.
Lower entry pricing — $39 vs $59
Assembly's Starter is $59/month with one internal user. ConsultBase's Starter is $39/month with one internal user. At the mid tier the delta widens — Assembly Professional is $189/mo, ConsultBase Pro is $79/mo. For solo consultants and small practices, ConsultBase costs roughly half as much per seat.
Ivy is broader than Assembly Assistant
Assembly Assistant is genuinely good at context surfacing — "what was the last interaction with this client" — and at light automation (replies, summaries, follow-ups). Ivy goes further: 50+ tools that span create/edit operations across engagements, clients, milestones, time entries, invoices, bookings, session types, calendar events, messages, proposals, and the knowledge base. Confirm-flow safety on every write tool. Page-context awareness. The breadth difference is the wedge.
Native scheduling, not Calendly-dependent
Assembly integrates with Calendly for scheduling. ConsultBase ships native session-type booking, public booking pages, and calendar sync on every tier. Fewer tools to manage, fewer integrations to maintain, one source of truth for your availability.
Native time tracking on every plan
Assembly does not have native time tracking. ConsultBase has it baked into the engagement record from Starter on up. For consultants who do any hourly billing, this is a meaningful operational difference.
Consulting-native vocabulary
Assembly targets multiple service-business verticals — accounting, consulting, marketing agencies, law, real estate. The product language is generic across them all. ConsultBase is exactly one vertical: independent consultants and small consulting firms. Engagement, Deliverable, Retainer, Outcome, Assessment — the vocabulary is consistent everywhere because we only serve one audience.
Page-context-aware AI
Ivy understands "schedule this for next Tuesday" or "send a reminder on this" based on the page you're currently viewing. Assembly Assistant's context surfacing is impressive within a client record, but it doesn't resolve ambiguous references against the current route the way Ivy does.
Pricing comparison
Assembly sits in the premium tier of the category — $59 entry, $189 mid, $499 top. ConsultBase is half the price across the board, with unlimited clients on every plan.
| Tier | Copilot / Assembly | ConsultBase |
|---|---|---|
| Entry tier | Starter — $59/mo | Starter — $31/mo annual ($39/mo) |
| Entry tier — clients | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Entry tier — internal users | 1 | 1 |
| Mid tier | Professional — $189/mo | Pro — $63/mo annual ($79/mo) |
| Mid tier — AI | Assembly Assistant | Ivy — 50+ tools |
| Top tier | Advanced — $499/mo | Firm — $119/mo annual ($149/mo) |
| Top tier — internal users | 5 (+$59/extra) | 5 with role permissions |
Who should choose what
Choose Copilot / Assembly if…
- Your buyer requires SOC 2 Type II or HIPAA attestation today
- You need true custom-domain support (app.yourfirm.com)
- Your workflow depends on Airtable, ClickUp, or other niche integrations
- You're scaling a multi-person practice with $189–$499/mo budget for tooling
- A native iOS/Android app is non-negotiable
Choose ConsultBase if…
- You're a solo consultant or small firm where $39 vs $59/mo materially matters
- You want native scheduling and booking — not a Calendly integration
- You bill some portion of your work hourly and need native time tracking
- You want an AI assistant that does write actions across the practice, not just context surfacing
- You want consulting-native vocabulary instead of generic "service business" language
Assembly (formerly Copilot.app) is the most strategically dangerous competitor in the category. They're well-funded, polished, iterating fast, and explicitly targeting consulting firms in their solutions navigation. We respect the work they've done.
Where Assembly is ahead is real: custom domain support, SOC 2 Type II + HIPAA certifications, deeper integration ecosystem, polished native mobile apps. If your buying process requires any of these — especially the compliance certifications — Assembly is the safer pick today.
Where ConsultBase is ahead is also real: roughly half the entry-tier price, native time tracking, native scheduling instead of a Calendly hand-off, and an AI assistant that's materially broader. Assembly's assistant tells you what's happening with a client. Ivy creates the engagement, schedules the meeting, drafts the proposal section, logs the time, sends the invoice, marks the payment — all in one conversation, all from inside the practice context.
The question is which trade you want. A polished, well-capitalized incumbent with compliance certifications and a deep integration ecosystem at $59–$189/month — or a bootstrapped, consulting-native platform with broader AI and native scheduling/time tracking at $39–$79/month. Both are honest choices. We built ConsultBase for the consultant who wants the second trade.
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