Comparison·8 min read · updated Oct 1, 2026
Most models don’t use a “model management app”. They use Notes, a spreadsheet, their agency’s portal and a lot of memory. Here is what each option does, what it misses and what it costs — Odette included, with its own gaps.
A model can run a career on Notes and a spreadsheet, a Notion or Airtable template, a general invoicing app, the agency’s portal, or a model management app such as Odette. The first four are free or cheap but each sees only part of the work: nothing reads the booking emails, and agency statements and image-rights end dates are left to memory. Odette reads the emails, statements and contracts and covers agency and direct work, but it does not find work, host a portfolio or replace an accountant.
Written by the Odette team · reviewed by Arthur Feingold, Swapp Studio. About Odette
What it does, what it misses, what it costs. Read the one you use first.
What most models actually use. A note per job, a Google Sheet for the money, screenshots of call sheets in Photos.
Nothing reminds you of anything. The 90-day clock lives in your head; the statement is never checked against the jobs; usage end dates are forgotten the day they are signed.
A “model CRM” template with a jobs table, a clients table, a kanban. Pretty, flexible, yours.
You type everything in yourself. No email reading, no payment bar, no rights clock unless you build the formulas. Templates die after the third busy week.
Clean invoices, the VAT mentions right, reminders on unpaid invoices, an accounting export. Made for freelancers in general.
They only see what you invoice — so nothing about agency jobs, statements, castings, options, image rights or the call sheet. Half a modeling career is invisible to them.
Bookings, call sheets, sometimes statements — in the agency’s own words, for the agency’s own jobs.
One agency, one market. Nothing about your direct work, your other agency, your expenses, your taxes. It is the agency’s tool, not yours; if you leave, the history stays with them.
Reads booking emails, statements and contracts; keeps jobs, castings, the calendar, money on a 90-day bar, image rights with end dates, to-dos and receipts, across agencies and currencies.
Not a portfolio, not a casting platform, and it does not find you work. No native export to every accounting software yet. The free plan keeps three active jobs and one agency.
A ✓ means it happens without you typing it. “Build it” means a good template can, if you maintain it.
| Criterion | Notes + sheet | Notion / Airtable | Invoicing app | Agency portal | Odette |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reads booking emails and call sheets | — | — | — | partly | ✓ |
| A 90-day payment bar per job | — | build it | direct invoices only | — | ✓ |
| Reconciles agency statements | — | — | — | shows them | ✓ |
| Image-rights end dates and alerts | — | build it | — | — | ✓ |
| Several currencies | by hand | by hand | some | no | ✓ (Pro) |
| Reminders written for you | — | — | templates | — | ✓ (you send) |
| Works without an agency | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Made for the phone | ✓ | partly | ✓ | partly | ✓ |
| Price | €0 | free tier; from ≈ €10/mo | free tier but Freebe; ≈ €9–$19/mo | included | €0 · €19 · €39 |
| Time to set up | 0 | 2–4 h | 30 min | 0 | 5 min |
Odette’s prices are its own, monthly, as of September 2026. The other apps’ prices were read on their own pricing pages in September 2026, a month billed yearly where they offer it; they price by plan and by seat and change them, so check before you choose. Agency portals vary by agency, and some have none.
“The right tool is the one you still use in the third busy week.”
Odette, on templatesYes — as a CSV of past jobs: date, client, fee, agency, paid or not. Google Sheets and Excel both export one. Odette builds the jobs, the clients and the year’s money from it in one pass, so the year is right from day one.
No. Your agency finds the work, negotiates and gets paid by the client. Odette is on your side of the table: it reads what the agency sends you and checks that the statement matches the jobs and the contract.
No. Keep it for the accounts if your accountant likes it; Odette drafts the invoice and the reminders and tracks the payment. Many models use both for a while, then let one go.
A bit. So: Odette does not find you work, does not host your portfolio, and its free plan is deliberately small. If you have three direct jobs a year, Notes and a good invoicing app are enough.
Where to look next.
Early access · 50 spots
Fifty models, anywhere in the world, use Odette before everyone else: free until launch, a direct line to us, and a say in what we build next.
Ask for one of the fifty.
Four fields. We read every request by hand and answer at this address — and the day your place opens, you get a mail that says so.
Free during early access · in English or French · 18 and over · a person answers within a day at hello@odetteapp.com
