A pretty Kanban for simple SMB sales — fine until you remember that booth deals carry 30+ specs, render galleries and multi-currency invoices. Exphora is the only CRM purpose-built for the trade show industry — with 30+ booth specifications, a free 3D Booth Designer, AI-generated proposals, multi-currency invoicing and a 433,000+ exhibitor signal database. All at flat $49–$399/mo, not per seat.
Switch from Pipedrive in days, not months. Keep your data, drop the add-ons, ship your first AI booth proposal today. The 3D Booth Designer is forever-free with no credit card.
Pipedrive is a fine general-purpose tool. For the specifics of trade show production, it leaves you filling gaps with add-ons, integrations and manual workarounds.
Pipedrive is excellent if you sell consulting hours or SaaS subscriptions. For booth builders, however, every deal is a physical product with size, electrical, lighting, AV, hostess count, render images and fabrication materials — none of which Pipedrive understands.
You can only send proposals/contracts via Pipedrive’s Smart Docs from the Professional tier upward — and even then it’s simple line items, no booth specs, no render gallery. That’s $245/mo for a 5-person team for what Exphora does at $199/mo flat with full booth depth.
Pipedrive does not bill clients. You forward deals to QuickBooks/Xero, lose multi-currency context, and reconcile manually. Exphora invoices natively in 7 currencies with proforma + final + partial payments.
Pipedrive has nothing visual beyond a colour-coded card. Booth teams keep paying for SketchUp + a separate render farm + Cinema 4D licenses. Exphora bundles a parametric 3D editor for free.
Pipedrive’s LeadBooster is a generic web form / chatbot add-on. There is no list of every company exhibiting at IFA, IDEF or Hannover Messe. Exphora’s Signal Explorer gives you 433,000+ verified exhibitors filtered by event.
Pipedrive Power is $64/seat; add Smart Docs, LeadBooster and Campaigns and a 5-person booth team easily hits $400–$600/mo for a CRM that still cannot describe a booth.
Pipedrive starts at $14/mo and tops out at $99/mo per seat — before add-ons. Exphora is flat $49 / $199 / $399, with the 3D Designer included free.
| Tier | Pipedrive | Exphora |
|---|---|---|
| Solo founder | $14/mo (Essential, no proposals) | $49/mo flat — full CRM + AI proposals |
| 5-user team | ~$245/mo (Pro $49 × 5) | $199/mo flat — Pro, 5 users + Signal Explorer |
| 5-user team + add-ons | $400–$600/mo (Pro + Smart Docs + LeadBooster + Campaigns) | $199/mo flat — same features included |
| 10-user team | $640–$1,000/mo (Power $64 × 10 + add-ons) | $399/mo flat — Enterprise, 10 users + API |
The capabilities booth builders actually need, side by side.
| Feature | Pipedrive | Exphora | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drag-and-drop Kanban pipeline | Yes | Yes | Exphora matches the UX |
| Booth specs (30+ fields) | No | Yes | Native in Exphora |
| Free 3D Booth Designer | No | Yes | Pipedrive has none |
| Proposals/quotes | Partial | Yes | Pipedrive: Smart Docs Pro+ add-on |
| AI booth proposals (Claude) | Partial | Yes | Generic vs booth-aware |
| Native invoicing (7 currencies) | No | Yes | Pipedrive: forward to Xero/QB |
| 9 payment methods | Partial | Yes | Pipedrive: Stripe-only via integration |
| Trade show / exhibitor DB | No | Yes | Signal Explorer |
| Multi-channel inbox | Partial | Yes | Pipedrive: LeadBooster + Campaigns add-ons |
| Flat pricing | No | Yes | Pipedrive: per seat + add-ons |
Comparison data based on publicly available pricing and documentation as of April 2026. Plan names and feature gating may change — always verify on the vendor’s website.
Six reasons booth shops pick the industry-specific tool over the generic one.
Exphora keeps the drag-and-drop Kanban experience that made Pipedrive popular, then adds 30+ booth specification fields, render gallery and event tagging on every card.
Smart Docs, e-sign, multi-currency invoicing, partial payments, 9 payment methods — all included on every paid Exphora plan. No Smart Docs upgrade. No Xero/QuickBooks reconciliation.
Build the booth, share an interactive 3D walkthrough with the client, get approval, generate the proposal — all in the same tool. Pipedrive will never ship this.
Type "8x6 octanorm booth, EuroShop, two meeting pods, LED back wall, hospitality counter" and Exphora’s Claude AI writes the full proposal in 60 seconds. Pipedrive’s AI Sales Assistant only summarises emails.
112k+ trade shows, 433k+ exhibitors. Filter by country and event, push pre-qualified leads to your Kanban in one click — instead of cold-scraping LinkedIn.
$49 (1 user), $199 (5 users), $399 (10 users). No per-seat math, no Smart Docs upcharge, no LeadBooster bill. Pipedrive Power × 5 + add-ons easily costs 4× more.
Most booth shops migrate in under a week. Here is the path.
Pipedrive’s native CSV export covers everything. Exphora’s wizard maps Organization → Company and Deal → Opportunity automatically — owners and stages preserved.
Attach each open opportunity to a trade show (CES, IFA, Hannover Messe…). Pipedrive cannot do this without custom fields; Exphora has it native.
Smart Docs → Exphora proposals + contracts. LeadBooster → Exphora AI chat widget. Campaigns → Exphora email sequences. Xero/QuickBooks → Exphora invoicing (or keep accounting on QB).
Most teams run Pipedrive + Exphora in parallel for 7 days, then cancel. With add-ons removed, the saving is typically $300–$500/mo for a 5-person team.
Everything booth builders ask before switching from Pipedrive.
Yes. Same drag-and-drop Kanban, same fast onboarding (most teams live in a day), same simple deal cards — plus booth specs, render gallery, AI proposals and a 3D Designer on top. We did not "out-Salesforce" Pipedrive; we kept the simplicity and added the depth.
Yes. Exphora’s pipeline is a direct evolution: drag-and-drop cards, custom stages with colours, multiple pipelines, weighted forecast, deal rotting alerts. We just added booth-specific data on each card.
Most simple Pipedrive workflows (assign owner, send email on stage change, create follow-up task) have direct equivalents in Exphora. Cross-app Zapier flows can be re-pointed at Exphora’s API in minutes.
For accounting (statutory filings, VAT returns), most teams keep Xero/QB. For client-facing invoices and payment collection, Exphora replaces them entirely with native multi-currency invoicing and 9 payment methods.
All three become unnecessary. Exphora ships the AI chat widget, full proposal builder and email sequences on every paid plan. That alone typically saves $200–$400/mo.
Booth shops report meaningfully higher close rates after switching from PDF mockups to interactive 3D previews. Clients can rotate the stand, walk through it, point at hospitality counters, and approve before contract — drastically reducing redesign cycles.
Yes — Exphora’s 3D Booth Designer is forever free, no credit card. CRM plans start at $49/mo with a 3-day full-feature trial.
Most Pipedrive → Exphora migrations take a single working day. Pipedrive’s clean CSV export is a real advantage; expect Day 1 = import, Day 2 = first AI booth proposal sent.
Start free. Import your contacts in minutes. Ship your first AI-generated booth proposal today — and try the 3D Booth Designer with no credit card.
If a generic CRM is the wrong fit for booth-builder workflows, these are the most useful next reads: