Description
Client Octopus gives freelancers and agencies everything they need to send proposals and invoices, collect payments, manage projects, and communicate with clients — all from the WordPress admin.
Create professional proposals and standalone invoices, collect e-signatures, automate client reminders, collect Stripe payments, and provide a branded client portal directly on your own website.
Free Features
- Unlimited proposals
- Unlimited clients
- Standalone invoices — create, send, and manually mark as paid
- Proposal templates
- Proposal status tracking (draft, sent, accepted, declined)
- Client e-signature on proposal acceptance
- Client-facing proposal signing and invoice pages
- Automated proposal reminder emails (not viewed, not accepted, expiring soon)
- REST API access
Pro Features
- Everything in Free plus…
- Stripe payment collection on proposals
- Stripe “Pay Now” button on client-facing invoices (auto-marks paid via webhook)
- Client portal with magic-link login
- AI writing tools for proposal content
- Revenue analytics dashboard
- Outbound webhooks — 12+ events covering the full proposal and invoice lifecycle (Zapier, Make, Slack, and 7,000+ tools)
Agency Features
- Everything in Pro plus…
- Projects & milestones
- Up to 5 team members with role-based access
- Client messaging
- File uploads & downloads
- Approval workflows
Client Octopus is designed specifically for WordPress freelancers and agencies who want to manage proposals, invoices, and client delivery without relying on external SaaS platforms.
Why Client Octopus?
Most freelancers juggle 4–5 tools to run their client workflow — a proposal tool, an invoicing app, a payment link, and email threads to hold it all together. Client Octopus replaces all of them with a single WordPress plugin.
Unlike Proposify, HoneyBook, or Dubsado, your data never leaves your own server. No monthly SaaS subscription for a platform you don’t control. Everything lives inside the WordPress site you already own.
External Services
This plugin connects to the following third-party services:
Stripe
Client Octopus uses Stripe to process client payments on proposals and invoices. When a client pays, the plugin creates a Stripe Checkout Session on your configured Stripe account and redirects the client to complete payment on Stripe’s hosted page. The client’s payment details are entered directly on Stripe’s servers and are never stored in WordPress. Your Stripe API keys (publishable and secret) are stored in the WordPress options table and transmitted only to Stripe’s API.
- Service: Stripe, Inc.
- Data sent: payment amount, currency, project or invoice description, and client email when a payment session is created. Stripe webhook events (payment completion) are received and verified using your webhook secret.
- Terms of Service: https://stripe.com/legal/ssa
- Privacy Policy: https://stripe.com/privacy
Client Octopus AI Relay
Client Octopus’s AI writing tools route requests through a relay service operated by the plugin author (clientoctopus.com). This relay authenticates your licence and forwards requests to an AI model. AI features are only triggered when you explicitly use an AI writing action in the admin.
- Service: clientoctopus.com (operated by codievolt)
- Data sent: the text prompt you submit (proposal content or instructions) and your licence key, which authenticates the request and is used to enforce your plan’s monthly rate limit. No site URL or admin email is transmitted to this relay.
- Privacy Policy: https://clientoctopus.clientoctopus.com/privacy-policy/
Freemius
Client Octopus uses Freemius to manage plan licensing, activation, and upgrades. When you activate a licence key, the site URL, plugin version, and licence key are sent to Freemius to verify your plan and enable the correct feature set.
- Service: Freemius, Inc.
- Data sent: site URL, plugin version, licence key, and basic activation/deactivation events.
- Terms of Service: https://freemius.com/terms/
- Privacy Policy: https://freemius.com/privacy/
Screenshots
Installation
- Upload the
clientoctopusfolder to/wp-content/plugins/ - Activate the plugin through the WordPress Plugins menu
- The setup wizard launches automatically
- Configure your branding and settings
- Upgrade to Pro or Agency at any time via Client Octopus Account
FAQ
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Does Client Octopus support Stripe payments?
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Yes. Stripe payments are available on the Pro and Agency plans for both proposals and standalone invoices.
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Can clients access a portal?
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Yes. The Pro and Agency plans include a branded client portal with magic-link login.
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Does Client Octopus support teams?
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Yes. The Agency plan supports up to 5 team members with role-based access.
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Is multisite supported?
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No. Client Octopus licences are single-site only.
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Does Client Octopus require a third-party SaaS?
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No. Client Octopus runs directly inside WordPress.
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Are AI costs included?
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Yes. AI requests are included with Pro and Agency plans.
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Can clients e-sign proposals?
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Yes. When a client accepts a proposal, they are prompted to type their full legal name and confirm a checkbox in a signing modal. The signed certificate is saved to the proposal record and visible in the admin.
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How is this different from Proposify or HoneyBook?
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Client Octopus is a self-hosted WordPress plugin, not a SaaS platform. Your proposals, invoices, and client data are stored in your own WordPress database. You pay once per year rather than a monthly SaaS fee, and there are no per-user charges or storage limits imposed by a third party.
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Can I send invoices without a proposal?
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Yes. Standalone invoices are available on all plans. Create an invoice, assign a client, add line items with VAT and discount options, and send it directly. Free plan clients pay via bank transfer; Pro plan clients get a “Pay Now” Stripe button on their invoice page.
Reviews
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Contributors & Developers
“Client Octopus” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
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Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.1.1
- New: Client portal Invoices tab — authenticated clients can view all their sent, paid, and overdue invoices with status badges, amounts, and a direct link to the invoice page.
- New: Invoice payments in portal Payment History — paid invoices now appear in a dedicated Invoice Payments table alongside proposal payments.
- Fix: Invoice status not updating after Stripe payment — the invoice success page now triggers the paid status write-through immediately on return from Stripe Checkout.
- Fix: Invoice client name showing as “—” in the admin invoices list — the query now JOINs the clients table correctly.
- Fix: Re-send option for sent and overdue invoices — invoices can now be re-sent without being restricted to draft status only.
1.1.0
- New: Standalone invoices — create auto-numbered invoices (INV-0001…), assign clients, add line items, discounts, and VAT, then send to clients via email. Client-facing invoice page supports browser printing to a clean A4 layout.
- New: Stripe “Pay Now” button on client-facing invoices (Pro). Stripe Checkout is created on demand; invoice auto-marks as paid via webhook.
- New: E-signature on proposal acceptance — clients type their full legal name and confirm a checkbox in a signing modal; the signed certificate is recorded on the proposal and visible in the admin.
- New: Automated proposal reminder emails — three configurable triggers: proposal not viewed, not accepted, and expiring soon. Cron-based, runs daily.
- New: Expanded outbound webhook events — 12 events now covering the full proposal and invoice lifecycle, including invoice.sent, invoice.paid, invoice.overdue, and invoice.cancelled.
1.0.1
- Fix: Onboarding wizard failed on servers that redirect URLs to add a trailing slash, causing POST requests to be converted to GET requests.
1.0.0
- Initial public release.