Mortar vs DesignFiles for interior design projects
DesignFiles earns a real compliment before anything else: reviewers and DesignFiles' own help docs confirm it passes Stripe's card and bank-transfer fees straight through at cost, with no platform markup. If fee honesty were the whole comparison, this would be a short page.
It isn't the whole comparison. DesignFiles reserves ACH payments and full invoicing for its pricier Full Service plan, and reviewers describe rough edges in the clipper and the floor-planner. Here's the fuller picture, feature by feature.
Written by Darren Clark — Founder of Mortar — 25+ years building software
Last updated July 15, 2026
Quick verdict
Choose DesignFiles if the lowest published price and month-to-month billing matter most and your procurement is light. Choose Mortar if you want visual budgets, order tracking, and supplier quote requests in one place, with the payment-fee split published rather than buried in a help doc.
Side by side
How they stack up
Mortar
$59/user/mo
Unlimited projects, no onboarding fee
Best for: Visual budgets, procurement, and a branded client portal for solo designers and small studios
- Visual, colour-coded budgets that update in real time
- Paste-URL product scraping plus a browser clipper
- CSV/XLSX item import with column mapping
- Branded, no-install client portal with a Pinterest-style board view
- Per-item client approvals with date and activity history
- Supplier quote requests with status tracking and reply threading
- Per-item order tracking — ordered, lead time, expected delivery, received
- Invoicing and client payments via Stripe Connect
DesignFiles
$55–$75/mo
e-Design / Full Service, +$30 per user, month-to-month
Best for: Affordable e-design and full-service basics with month-to-month billing
- Mood boards and floor plans
- Browser clipper and product sourcing
- Client portal
- Invoicing and online payments (Full Service tier)
- QuickBooks integration (Full Service tier)
Feature by feature
Mortar vs DesignFiles: feature comparison
Feature | Mortar | DesignFiles |
|---|---|---|
Visual, colour-coded budgets | ✓ | — |
Client portal | ✓ | ✓ |
Per-item approvals with activity history | ✓ | — |
Per-item order tracking (ordered / lead time / delivered) | ✓ | — |
Supplier quote requests with reply threading | ✓ | — |
Payment fee transparency | Published on the pricing page, including Mortar's share | Stripe at cost, but rates live in help docs only |
Billing | Monthly, unlimited projects, no onboarding fee | Month-to-month, 90-day money-back guarantee |
A closer look at DesignFiles
DesignFiles packages mood boards, floor plans, product sourcing, a client portal, and invoicing into two published plans: e-Design at $55/mo and Full Service at $75/mo, both +$30 per additional user. There's no annual lock-in — DesignFiles bills month to month — and new accounts get a 90-day money-back guarantee.
Credit where it's due on money: DesignFiles is the only competitor in our research that passes Stripe's processing fees straight through at cost — 2.9% + 30¢ on cards, roughly 0.8% on ACH — with no platform markup on top. That's genuinely rare in this category. The rates themselves live only in DesignFiles' help center, not the pricing page.
What are our strengths?
Mortar
- Payment fees published on the pricing page, including Mortar's share
- Per-item order tracking DesignFiles doesn't publish an equivalent for
- Approval history and quote requests live in the project, not scattered across boards and email
- Unlimited projects and full payment features on the one plan — nothing gated to a higher tier
DesignFiles
- Lowest published entry price in the category
- Month-to-month billing, no annual contract
- 90-day money-back guarantee
- Stripe fees passed through at cost, with no markup
Which one is for you?
When to choose each tool
When to choose Mortar
- You want progress-bar budgets and order tracking your client can read, not just boards
- Supplier quote requests and per-item approval history are part of how you work
- You'd rather see the exact payment-fee split in writing than search a help center
When to choose DesignFiles
- You're watching costs closely and want the lowest published entry price in the category
- Month-to-month billing and a money-back guarantee matter more to you than procurement depth
- Your projects don't lean heavily on cross-project tracking or supplier quote management
The verdict
Two honest ways to handle money
DesignFiles proves a Stripe pass-through at cost is possible, and that's a genuine mark in its favour — even though you'll only find the rate in a help article. Mortar takes a different approach to the same problem: publish the fee, publish the margin, and put both on the pricing page rather than behind a support search. Where the two diverge hardest is procurement depth — order tracking, quote requests, and per-item approval history are built into Mortar and aren't part of what DesignFiles publishes.
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