XTablo VS BriefGate.dev

XTablo's answer

XTablo is built only for agencies, not for every kind of business. Each client gets a portal with the agency's brand that installs on their phone like an app, so clients actually come back to it instead of digging through emails.

BriefGate.dev's answer:

BriefGate is built so an AI coding agent can run the intake itself. Through an MCP server, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or any MCP client declares what a project needs from the client - files, copy, choices, structured data, logins - and later pulls the answers back as typed data it can act on. The client sees none of that: they open one link, with no account to create, and fill in what was asked. Most tools in this category are built for a person to operate a form. BriefGate is built for an agent to operate the whole loop, and it works straight from the dashboard when no agent is involved.

XTablo's answer

• Simple enough for a client to use without training
• Built for agencies of 2 to 7 people, with simple monthly pricing from €49
• Client portal and team workspace in the same tool
• Approvals for deliverables and social posts in one click
• Made in France, GDPR compliant, in English and French

BriefGate.dev's answer:

Three things. First, the client has nothing to sign up for - one link and they are in, which is usually the difference between materials arriving this week or next month. Second, the follow-ups run on their own until every item is in, so nobody has to keep a mental list of who still owes what. Third, logins are handled properly: they go into an encrypted vault and are revealed once, instead of living in an inbox forever. On top of that BriefGate is a real API product - REST, webhooks and an MCP server - so collecting client input can be a step in an automated pipeline rather than a manual chore. Data is stored in the EU.

XTablo's answer

Small marketing, web, design and communication agencies (2 to 7 people) and freelancers who manage several clients and want to stop chasing them across email, WhatsApp and shared drives.

BriefGate.dev's answer:

Two groups. The first is developers and agencies who build with AI coding agents and want a project's missing inputs collected without leaving the agent - the agent asks, the client answers, the answers come back as typed data. The second is small agencies, freelancers and studios who simply want client materials to arrive on time; they create the request in the dashboard, send one link and never touch the API. Both share the same trait: the bottleneck is not the work, it is waiting on the client.

XTablo's answer

We spent months listening to agency owners describe the same paradox: a premium brand in substance, but not in form.

A client never sees your talent first. They see what you share with them: a messy Drive, an unfinished Notion page, a WhatsApp thread full of reminders and lost attachments. And the team lives the same mess from the inside: files here, chats there, tasks everywhere, no clear view of ongoing projects.

So we built XTablo to bring both sides of the job into one tool. Studio is the agency's back office (projects, tasks, planning, files, discussions). Portal is the client side: a space with the agency's logo and colors where each client follows their project, approves, chats and drops files. A task checked in the Studio moves the step forward in the Portal. No double entry.

We started with a rough MVP, ran call after call with agencies, iterated, then shipped a complete v1 with a new design. When the first agencies started paying, the question changed from "does it work?" to "how do we grow what works?".

Today agencies can even drive XTablo from Claude through MCP: write one sentence, and the project, steps and tasks appear in the client portal.

BriefGate.dev's answer:

It came out of building projects with AI coding agents. The agent could write the whole application, but it kept stopping in the same place: it needed the logo, the final copy, an API key, a decision on a name. All of that lived in someone else's head or inbox, so the work stalled on a person rather than on the code. BriefGate is that missing piece: the agent states what it needs, the client answers in a plain portal with nothing to sign up for, reminders go out on their own, and the result comes back as typed data.

XTablo's answer

• Go, templ and HTMX (fast, server-rendered app)
• PostgreSQL
• Progressive Web App, so clients install their portal on their phone
• MCP server, so AI assistants like Claude can create projects, steps and tasks
• Stripe for billing

BriefGate.dev's answer:

TypeScript throughout. The API is Fastify on Node, with PostgreSQL and Drizzle for data and Redis with BullMQ for the reminder queue. Credentials are encrypted with libsodium and passwords hashed with Argon2; files live in S3-compatible object storage. Email goes through Resend, billing through Stripe, error tracking through Sentry. The MCP server is published on npm as @briefgate/mcp. Everything runs in Docker on EU infrastructure.