LivePlan vs ChatGPT
A complete planning solution: Why LivePlan beats ChatGPT
Get a step-by-step framework, accurate financials, verified industry data, and a professionally formatted document—all in one platform.
All subscriptions come with a
35-Day Money-Back Guarantee
Trusted by over 1 million small businesses and leading business institutions
Why LivePlan?
4 reasons entrepreneurs choose LivePlan over ChatGPT
Expert Framework
LivePlan is built by business planning experts with decades of experience—giving you a proven structure that actually works.
Accurate Financials
Stop second-guessing AI-generated projections. LivePlan uses validated financial models with built-in formulas, so your numbers add up and make sense to investors.
Professional Export
ChatGPT gives you walls of text. LivePlan creates polished, visual business plans with charts, graphs, and formatting that impresses banks and investors.
LivePlan Users Report
“The AI Assistant provides useful suggestions, generates high-quality writing, and adapts to your input.”
“Live Plan is good...one of the best BP software in the market. Easy to use and very detailed.”
“LivePlan challenged me to new heights and expanded my business growth from a business that started at home to projecting 4 locations in different states. Two thumbs up to the program itself, and another two to the support team.”
“Great experience using LivePlan to create a business plan. I loved the automated tools, which made it seamless to auto-populate and ensure accuracy. My favorite feature was the navigation guide, which mapped out all the elements of a living business plan: financials, goals, milestones, and charts. ”
ChatGPT Users Report
“It will straight up make up laws/processes, cite legal cases that don't exist or the quotes aren't actually in there, fabricate statistics, etc. It's not a reliable source of information.”
“You either have a business plan that's not accurately describing your business, or you spent just as much time rewriting or reprompting an LLM to rewrite the plan as you would have if you'd just wrote it.”
“It often guesses numbers for financials and those guesses can be way off. Sometimes it writes very generic info that doesn't match your real business.”
“If you just told it 'I am TYPE OF BUSINESS - give me a business plan' then you're going to get stuff that sounds great on a first read, but actually doesn't mean anything.”
What makes LivePlan different
Reference files
Start with what you already have, not from scratch
Stop retyping the same context into ChatGPT over and over again. Import your scattered notes, spreadsheets, research, or early drafts into LivePlan.
As you create each section of your plan, LivePlan learns as you go and references your files to provide relevant suggestions and data—helping you turn your existing work into a complete plan.
Step-by-step guidance
Follow an expert-built framework that's funded thousands of businesses
ChatGPT quickly becomes an endless back-and-forth with no clear endpoint.
LivePlan shows you exactly which sections your plan needs, tracks your progress on each one, and provides custom instructions, examples, and suggestions for every section.
Automatic formulas & charts
Financial projections you can understand (and trust)
Financial projections created by ChatGPT are a black box of questionable math.
LivePlan gives you clear formulas and connected financial statements—your revenue flows to your P&L, your P&L feeds your cash flow. You'll be confident in your numbers instead of hoping they're right. Plus, update one section and it updates everywhere, no spreadsheet gymnastics.
Industry data
Get real data from real sources
ChatGPT makes up statistics and confidently cites sources that don't exist.
LivePlan connects you to real industry benchmarks and data from reliable sources—information you can cite with confidence and investors can verify. No more spending hours fact-checking every claim.
Polished documents
Export a complete plan, not a text file
ChatGPT gives you text. You still have to format it, create charts, build tables, and turn it into an actual document.
LivePlan assembles everything you create into a polished business plan—with SBA-approved formatting, custom themes, automatic financial charts and tables, all ready to present.
Detailed feature comparison
| Features | |  |
|---|---|---|
| Ai powered writing assistance | | |
| Online/cloud based access | | |
| Expert-built business plan framework | | |
| Step-by-step guided process | | |
| Built-in financial formulas | | |
| Automatic charts & graphs | | |
| Connected financial statements | | |
| Human support | | |
| Real industry benchmark data | | |
| SBA-approved formatting | | |
| Investor and lender-ready output | | |
| QuickBooks/Xero Integrations | | |
Here’s what people are saying about LivePlan
“I learned more about running my small business from a week of focused work in [LivePlan] than I have from any other single source. It has fundamentally changed the way I view my business ventures.”
Matthew H
Capterra Review
“Great product and service. Good plan structure and AI prompts help you to formulate a lot of of thoughts into a coherent business plan structure. As an entrepreneur, I used it for a few of my startups, and found it to be very helpful.”
Jamie B
G2 Review
“LivePlan was a great help to design, work out, plan and strategically organize and think about all the ideas that go into developing a new project and business plan [...] Think about it like a coach guiding you through the process.”
Alvaro F
Shopper Approved Review
“I've been using LivePlan with Xero for a few months now and love it. It's given me visibility about how we're doing against Forecast like I've never had before...”
Rob Mackley
Xero App Store Review
“Before LivePlan, my team and I had no idea where or how to start [...] It helped us focus on and build every single area of our business strategy and recognize that some aspects of the company needed to be adjusted before we could launch.”
Ifeanyi K
Capterra Review
“LivePlan has eased my business planning processes and have provided me with easy access to credit from both banks and investors alike.”
Bashir T
Shopper Approved Review
“All businesses require solutions and tools [...] for control of expenses, spreadsheets were always the first option, but since the arrival of LivePlan, all work is easier and more automated.”
Maggie L
Trust Radius Review
“I didn't have a business plan and using LivePlan helped give me an easy tool to build a strong business plan for myself and clients. My clients have gone on to enhance their plans and grow their businesses.”
Gabriella B
G2 Review
“LivePlan made us feel confident and secure in our numbers and gave us a clear view of our past, present and future!”
Angela A
Capterra Review
“LivePlan provides the balance between stating your vision, the framework to support it, and the numbers.”
Mike R
Shopper Approved Review
“I learned more about running my small business from a week of focused work in [LivePlan] than I have from any other single source. It has fundamentally changed the way I view my business ventures.”
Matthew H
Capterra Review
“Great product and service. Good plan structure and AI prompts help you to formulate a lot of of thoughts into a coherent business plan structure. As an entrepreneur, I used it for a few of my startups, and found it to be very helpful.”
Jamie B
G2 Review
“LivePlan was a great help to design, work out, plan and strategically organize and think about all the ideas that go into developing a new project and business plan [...] Think about it like a coach guiding you through the process.”
Alvaro F
Shopper Approved Review
“I've been using LivePlan with Xero for a few months now and love it. It's given me visibility about how we're doing against Forecast like I've never had before...”
Rob Mackley
Xero App Store Review
“Before LivePlan, my team and I had no idea where or how to start [...] It helped us focus on and build every single area of our business strategy and recognize that some aspects of the company needed to be adjusted before we could launch.”
Ifeanyi K
Capterra Review
“LivePlan has eased my business planning processes and have provided me with easy access to credit from both banks and investors alike.”
Bashir T
Shopper Approved Review
“All businesses require solutions and tools [...] for control of expenses, spreadsheets were always the first option, but since the arrival of LivePlan, all work is easier and more automated.”
Maggie L
Trust Radius Review
“I didn't have a business plan and using LivePlan helped give me an easy tool to build a strong business plan for myself and clients. My clients have gone on to enhance their plans and grow their businesses.”
Gabriella B
G2 Review
“LivePlan made us feel confident and secure in our numbers and gave us a clear view of our past, present and future!”
Angela A
Capterra Review
“LivePlan provides the balance between stating your vision, the framework to support it, and the numbers.”
Mike R
Shopper Approved Review
Frequently asked questions
LivePlan offers both monthly and annual subscriptions with two different tier options, standard and premium. A monthly standard subscription for LivePlan starts at $20. A monthly subscription for ChatGPT starts at $20 and ranges in price depending on team size.
LivePlan does not offer a free trial at the moment. Your subscription does come with a 35-day money-back guarantee. If you find that LivePlan isn't working for you, you can contact our team within your first 35 days and we'll happily refund you in full.
LivePlan has a world-class customer support team of wonderful humans. Our team members are LivePlan experts and can help you answer any questions you might have via chat or email. When you signup for LivePlan you also are invited to join a group onboarding session with our team and other LivePlan customers via video. Here you can ask all your LivePlan questions and connect with our team and other LivePlan customers directly!
Our most popular LivePlan tier is LivePlan Premium. It includes all the features a small business owner needs to create a professional business plan, and also continue to manage their business in the healthiest way. LivePlan Premium allows you to connect your accounting data in QuickBooks or Xero, and also provides you access to Industry Data and Benchmarks custom to your business.