Product Comparison
Byoxon vs. Forecast: Transparent Pricing and Direct Unit Economics
This article compares Byoxon (BoB) and Forecast on what a buyer can actually find out before signing. Forecast is an AI-first project and resource management platform, acquired by Accelo in 2025 and folded into the Accelo brand in May 2026. It is a capable product with real profitability reporting. It also asks you to request a quote before you learn what a seat costs. Byoxon publishes four per-user bands and lets you read a live project margin the same day.
If you are evaluating Forecast in 2026, start with one fact that changes the shortlist. Forecast no longer runs as an independent brand. Accelo announced the acquisition in July 2025. The brand and website integration completed on 28 May 2026. Today forecast.app redirects to accelo.com/forecast, and the old Forecast pricing page redirects to Accelo’s “how to buy” page.
The product itself continues. Existing customers keep their login, their data and their settings. Accelo describes Forecast’s AI as the core of its own platform. So this is not a shutdown story. It is a story about how you buy.
That matters for this comparison, because the angle here is pricing transparency and direct unit economics. Forecast never published a seat rate. An archived copy of its own pricing page from February 2026 — four months before the brand change — carried no numbers at all. It offered a “personalised quote” and a Request a Quote button. Its new home does the same thing.
Byoxon takes the opposite position. Its product, BeOnBoard (BoB), lists four volume bands on a public page, ships the full feature set on every paid plan, and runs free for up to five users. This article covers what each platform does, where Forecast is the stronger pick, and what the buying path costs you in time.
Byoxon vs. Forecast at a glance
| Capability | BoB (Byoxon) | Forecast (now part of Accelo) |
|---|---|---|
| Brand status | Independent product | Acquired by Accelo (July 2025); brand merged 28 May 2026 |
| Published pricing | Yes — four volume bands on a public page | No — “personalised quote” after a conversation |
| Entry price | $34.95/user/month (1–10 users) | Not published; Capterra records “contact vendor” |
| Largest published band | $24.95/user/month (200+ users) | Not published |
| Free plan | Up to 5 users, no feature limitations | None — Capterra records no free version |
| Free trial | Free plan serves the same purpose | None listed on Capterra; a guided product tour is offered |
| How you start | Self-serve registration | Book a demo or request a quote |
| Feature gating by tier | None — every paid plan carries the full feature set | Not published |
| Stated target size | From 1 user upward; free to 5 | Professional services teams of 25–200+ |
| Time tracking | Manual entry and automated timers | Included, AI-assisted |
| Profitability reporting | Real-time P&L and unit economics on every paid plan | Included — financial management, utilization and margin reporting |
| Rate cards and revenue recognition | Rates per user and per project | Named modules — rate cards, revenue recognition, project baselines |
| Resource and capacity planning | Staff management and project analytics | Core strength — AI auto-schedule and capacity forecasting |
| Portfolio / PPM view | Not a published feature | Included — portfolio view and PPM reporting |
| Native CRM and deal pipeline | Built in, with pipeline stages and deal tracking | Not native — connects to HubSpot, Salesforce and Pipedrive |
| Developer tool integrations | Not a published feature set | Strong — Jira, Azure DevOps, GitHub, GitLab, Trello |
| HR: PTO, recruiting, vendors | Included natively | Not listed as native modules |
| Capterra rating | Not listed | 4.5 / 5 from 87 reviews; ease of use 4.4 |
| Best fit | Teams that want margin visibility, CRM and HR in one system, running this week | Services teams that want AI-driven capacity planning and formal revenue recognition |
Byoxon pricing comes from byoxon.com. Forecast details come from Forecast’s own site, its archived pricing page, Accelo’s Forecast and pricing pages, and Forecast’s Capterra listing, all checked in August 2026. Neither Forecast nor Accelo publishes a per-user rate, so confirm any figure with the vendor before you budget.
Where Forecast is the better choice
Forecast earns its reputation. It rates 4.5 out of 5 on Capterra across 87 reviews, with 4.4 for ease of use. Pick it over Byoxon in these cases.
- You plan capacity with AI, not spreadsheets. Forecast’s auto-schedule estimates task duration from historical data, assigns people by availability and predicts delivery dates. That is the product’s centre of gravity, and Byoxon does not match it.
- You need formal revenue recognition. Forecast names revenue recognition, rate cards and project baselines as modules. Firms that recognise revenue over milestones, rather than invoicing on hours, should stay with a platform built for it.
- Your delivery data lives in Jira or Azure DevOps. Forecast syncs tasks and progress with Jira, Azure DevOps, GitHub, GitLab and Trello. If your engineers will never leave those tools, that sync removes double entry.
- You manage a portfolio, not a project list. Portfolio view, PPM reporting, project scoping and baselines give programme managers a layer Byoxon does not publish.
- You are already an Accelo customer. After the 2026 merge, Forecast’s forecasting engine sits inside Accelo’s PSA. One vendor covering sales, retainers, delivery and forecasting is a legitimate reason to consolidate.
One claim we will not make: that Forecast cannot track profitability. It can. Financial management and utilization reporting are named parts of the product. The difference below is about access and packaging, not a missing feature.
Transparent pricing and direct unit economics
What a “personalised quote” actually costs
Forecast’s pricing page has not carried a number for a long time. The February 2026 archived copy reads: “Pricing that fits your business. We’ll help identify your perfect solution and a provide a personalised quote.” The only action on the page is Request a Quote. Accelo’s current pricing page follows the same pattern and says pricing is based on your team size and growth goals.
Third-party sites do publish Forecast figures. You will find $29 and $49 per seat quoted on review aggregators. Those numbers do not come from the vendor, they disagree with each other, and none of them survived the brand merge. Treat every one of them as unverified.
The cost of that model is not the price. It is the sequence. You book a demo, describe your business, wait for a proposal, and only then learn whether the platform fits your budget. Three weeks can pass before a number appears in your inbox. If the number is wrong for you, that time is spent.
Unit economics is the number under the margin
Project margin tells you whether a job made money. Unit economics tells you why. It is the per-hour view: what one hour of a given person on a given project bills, what it costs, and what is left.
That figure drives decisions a monthly report cannot. It tells you which role to hire, which client to renegotiate, and which project to staff differently before the budget is gone. A senior developer at $95 per hour cost on a $110 per hour contract leaves $15. Swap in a mid-level engineer at $60, and the same hour leaves $50. You cannot see that trade until you can see both rates side by side, on live work.
Byoxon puts that breakdown on every paid plan, with no tier to climb. Time entries carry a cost rate and a bill rate, and the project cost management view rolls them into a live P&L. Nothing is unlocked later. Forecast reports on the same economics; the difference is that you reach them after a sales cycle rather than after a signup form.
What a published rate lets you do
A published rate card is a small thing that changes the evaluation. You can model the three-year cost of a platform against a headcount plan before you speak to anyone. You can compare two vendors on the same spreadsheet. You can take a number to your finance lead without a caveat attached.
Byoxon’s bands run $34.95 per user per month for 1–10 users, $32.95 for 11–49, $29.95 for 50–199 and $24.95 for 200 or more. A team of 30 knows its bill before it registers. So does a team of 300.
The tradeoff, stated plainly
A quote-only model is not a trick. It exists because a platform aimed at 25 to 200-plus seats carries configuration, onboarding and services that vary by customer. Accelo says most teams go live in a matter of weeks. A published rate would not describe that engagement honestly.
So the real choice is about what you are buying. If you want a configured platform with an implementation behind it, the quote reflects real work and Forecast may quote you well under $34.95 per seat. If you want to answer “what is this project earning right now” before the end of the week, the sequence matters more than the rate.
Read a real margin before you book a single call
Start free with up to 5 users — no feature limits and no quote request. Load one live project into BeOnBoard, enter your cost and bill rates, and read the per-hour margin today. Want a walkthrough of the P&L view first? Request a demo and we will run it on your kind of project.
Pricing: a rate card vs. a quote request
Here is everything either vendor states publicly, with nothing inferred.
| Team size | BoB (Byoxon) per user / month | Forecast per user / month |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 5 users | Free, no feature limitations | Not published; no free version listed |
| 1–10 users | $34.95 | Not published |
| 11–49 users | $32.95 | Not published |
| 50–199 users | $29.95 | Not published |
| 200+ users | $24.95 | Not published |
| Features by plan | Identical on every paid plan | Not published |
The pattern is familiar in this market. We found the same structure when comparing Byoxon and Kantata, and a different one in Byoxon and Scoro, where the rates are published but capability climbs a four-tier ladder. Forecast sits at the quote-only end of that range.
Scope: what each platform holds natively
Forecast is deep in one direction and thin in another. Its own feature list names integrated AI, resource allocations, revenue recognition, rate cards, story points, time tracking, Gantt charts, project milestones, portfolio view, project scoping, baselines, expenses, utilization reports and approvals. That is a serious delivery and finance stack.
What it does not hold natively is the commercial front end and the people back end. Forecast has no built-in CRM; it connects to HubSpot, Salesforce and Pipedrive, turning deals into projects once they reach a stage. It lists no PTO, recruitment or vendor management modules.
Byoxon covers the pipeline and the people in the same system. Deals and pipeline stages, employee profiles, PTO requests, recruitment and vendor records sit next to timesheets, invoicing and the project P&L. For a 20-person consultancy, that removes two integrations and two subscriptions. For a 200-person firm with an established HRIS and CRM, it may remove nothing.
Which one fits your team
Choose Forecast (Accelo) if
- You run 25 or more billable people and plan capacity weeks ahead.
- AI-assisted scheduling and delivery-date prediction would change how you staff.
- You need revenue recognition, project baselines and portfolio reporting by name.
- Your delivery work lives in Jira or Azure DevOps and must stay there.
- You already run a CRM and an HRIS you have no intention of replacing.
- A multi-week structured onboarding is acceptable, and a sales cycle is normal for you.
Choose Byoxon if
- You want to know the price before you know the salesperson.
- You need a per-hour cost and margin figure on live work this week.
- Your team is under 25 people, or growing through that range.
- You want CRM, HR and project financials in one system rather than three.
- You want to test the real product free, on your own data, before paying.
- You do not want capability locked behind a tier you discover later.
Frequently asked questions
Is Forecast still available in 2026?
Yes, but not as a separate brand. Accelo announced its acquisition of Forecast in July 2025 and completed the brand and website integration on 28 May 2026. The forecast.app domain now redirects to accelo.com. Accelo states that existing customers keep the same login, data and settings, and that Forecast’s AI is now the core of the Accelo platform. Accelo has not published a roadmap, pricing or migration detail for Forecast customers.
How much does Forecast cost per user?
Forecast does not publish a per-user rate and did not publish one before the merge either. Its February 2026 pricing page offered a “personalised quote” and no figures. Capterra records the starting price as “contact vendor”. Accelo’s pricing page now says pricing is based on team size and growth goals. Seat prices circulating on review aggregators are not sourced from the vendor and disagree with each other, so treat them as unverified.
Does Forecast offer a free trial or a free plan?
Forecast’s Capterra listing records no free trial and no free version. The site offers a guided product tour and a demo booking instead. Byoxon runs free for up to five users with no feature limitations, so a small team can evaluate real-time P&L on its own projects before paying anything.
Does Forecast include a CRM?
Not natively. Forecast connects to HubSpot, Salesforce and Pipedrive, and can create a project automatically when a deal reaches a chosen stage. Accelo, its new parent, does have a native sales module. Byoxon includes CRM with pipeline stages and deal tracking in every plan, alongside project financials and HR records.
Can Forecast track project profitability?
Yes. Financial management, utilization reports, rate cards and revenue recognition are named parts of the product, and profitability reporting is a core reason teams buy it. The difference from Byoxon is not capability but access: Forecast asks you to go through a quote and an onboarding first, while Byoxon puts the same class of reporting on a free plan and on every paid plan at a published rate.
The bottom line
Forecast is a strong AI-first resource and delivery platform, now carrying Accelo’s name and sitting inside a larger PSA. Teams of 25 to 200-plus that need auto-scheduling, revenue recognition and portfolio reporting should shortlist it and ask for the quote.
Byoxon answers a narrower question sooner. It publishes what it costs, gives you the whole product on any paid plan, and puts a per-hour cost and margin figure on live work without a sales cycle in front of it.
Pick the one that matches your buying process, not just your feature list. If you cannot currently say what one hour of your team’s work earns on your largest project, that gap is worth closing this week rather than next quarter.
Start free with up to 5 users — no feature limits and no quote required. Load one live project into BeOnBoard and read its per-hour margin today.
