Mortar vs Mydoma Studio for interior design projects
Mydoma built real loyalty with a purpose-built client portal and a strong design community. Two things have reshaped it since: the 'Mydoma Next' rebuild, and Mydoma's July 2024 acquisition by Studio Designer — neither makes Mydoma a bad company, but both changed the deal long-time users originally signed up for.
This page is the short, head-to-head cut. If you want the fuller picture — what the Studio Designer acquisition means for Mydoma users — we've written that up separately.
Written by Darren Clark — Founder of Mortar — 25+ years building software
Last updated October 2, 2026
Quick verdict
Choose Mydoma if the current, post-Next product already fits how you work and the community matters to you. Choose Mortar if you want a comparable client-portal experience with no onboarding fee, published payment fees, and a written data-portability commitment.
Side by side
How they stack up
Mortar
$59/user/mo
Unlimited projects, no onboarding fee
Best for: Studios that want the client-portal experience Mydoma promised, with fees and data policy in writing
- Branded, no-install client portal with a Pinterest-style board view
- Visual, colour-coded budgets that update in real time
- Paste-URL product scraping plus a browser clipper
- CSV/XLSX item import with column mapping
- 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
Mydoma Studio
$58/user/mo
Billed yearly, + $450 one-time onboarding fee
Best for: Solo and small-studio designers who value Mydoma's client portal and community
- Client portal
- Single plan — no feature-gating
- Mydoma Pay built-in payments
- Community and education resources
Feature by feature
Mortar vs Mydoma Studio: feature comparison
Feature | Mortar | Mydoma Studio |
|---|---|---|
Client portal | ✓ | ✓ |
Visual, colour-coded budgets | ✓ | — |
Per-item order tracking | ✓ | — |
Supplier quote requests with reply threading | ✓ | — |
Onboarding fee | None | $450 one-time |
Payment fee transparency | Published on the pricing page, including Mortar's share | Stripe + ~1% Mydoma gateway fee, disclosed in help docs only |
A closer look at Mydoma Studio
Mydoma built a loyal following as a purpose-built platform for solo and small-studio designers, with a client portal reviewers single out and a genuine community and education presence around it. Two things have reshaped it since: the 'Mydoma Next' rebuild, and Mydoma's July 2024 acquisition by Studio Designer — together the two now say they “support over 20,000 interior designers.”
Mydoma now runs a single plan at $58/user/month billed yearly, plus a $450 one-time onboarding fee for every new account. Payments run through Mydoma Pay — Stripe's standard 2.9% + 30¢, plus roughly a 1% Mydoma gateway fee on top — disclosed in help docs and a payment-terms page, not on the pricing page itself.
What are our strengths?
Mortar
- No onboarding fee — Mydoma charges $450 per new account
- Payment fees published on the pricing page, with no undisclosed gateway markup
- A written data-portability commitment, plus CSV/XLSX import when you arrive
Mydoma Studio
- Purpose-built client portal reviewers call out by name
- One plan means no feature-gating decisions to make
- An established community and education presence around the product
Which one is for you?
When to choose each tool
When to choose Mortar
- You want the onboarding fee gone — Mydoma charges $450, Mortar charges nothing
- You want the payment-processing margin in writing before you sign, not discovered in a help article
- You'd rather have a written commitment on data portability than find out the export policy after you've moved in
When to choose Mydoma Studio
- The current, post-Next Mydoma product already works for you
- You value the community and education content built around Mydoma
- You're planning to grow into Studio Designer's accounting stack, where Mydoma now sits as the entry-level track
The verdict
An honest read on a platform mid-transition
Mydoma's client portal is a real strength, and it isn't why designers go looking elsewhere. The migration experience is: reviewers describe the Next rebuild as glitchy on a near-weekly basis, some report lost moodboards and proposals in the transition, and the current pricing model adds a $450 onboarding fee and a roughly 1% payment-processing markup that doesn't appear on the pricing page. None of that erases what Mydoma does well for the people it still works for — it's the honest context for why 'Mydoma alternatives' is a search people make.
See Mortar
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Per-room budgets with live totals, a client-safe view with no trade pricing or margin, and traffic lights that turn amber before they turn red. Excel and Google Sheets, free.
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