A Bonsai alternative is invoicing software that lets you send an invoice, take a payment and give a client a portal on the plan you actually buy, rather than on the one above it. Bonsai bundles a great deal into a single platform: proposals, contracts, time tracking, a CRM and invoicing. The catch is which of those your plan includes, and that every tier is priced per person.
If you went looking for an alternative because the plan you signed up for turned out not to cover invoicing, or because the bill grew faster than the team did, here is what each Bonsai tier actually covers, where the friction sits, and how a flat-priced tool like Billbooks compares. For the wider view, see our guide to simple invoicing alternatives.
What Bonsai actually includes
The cheapest plan does not do invoicing
This is the single most useful thing to know before you sign up. Bonsai Basic costs $9 a month per user on annual billing, or $15 a month per user billed monthly, and it covers unlimited projects, task and time tracking and a CRM. It does not include invoicing, payments, proposals, contracts or a client portal (Bonsai pricing).
If invoicing is the reason you are shopping at all, Basic is not a cheaper way in. It is a different product.
Invoicing starts on Essentials
Invoicing, online payments, proposals, contracts, forms, scheduling and the client portal all begin on Essentials, at $19 a month per user on annual billing, or $25 a month per user billed monthly (Bonsai pricing). That is a little over double the entry price, and it is the real starting line for anyone who came here to get paid.
Premium and Elite
Premium, at $29 a month per user annually or $39 monthly, adds project insights, workload management, a deals pipeline, reporting, removal of Bonsai branding and the integrations. Elite, at $49 a month per user annually or $59 monthly, requires a minimum of three users and adds custom permissions, timesheet locking, expense markups and custom data import (Bonsai pricing).
No free plan, and a short trial
Bonsai has no free tier. It offers full access for a 7 day trial (Bonsai pricing), which is enough to click through the product but not really enough to run a billing cycle through it and see what happens at the end of the month.
Where the pricing gets complicated
Per user is easy to miss when you are one person
Compared on headline numbers by a solo freelancer, per-user pricing looks like flat pricing, because one seat is one seat. The structure only shows itself when you add the second person: a partner, a bookkeeper, a part-time assistant who chases payments. At that point Essentials goes from $19 a month to $38, and Premium from $29 to $58, for the same work.
You are buying the bundle either way
The honest way to read Bonsai is that invoicing is one feature inside a business-operations platform, not the centre of it. If you genuinely use the proposals, the contracts, the time tracking and the CRM, that bundle is good value and this article is not really for you. If you adopted Bonsai for invoicing and use perhaps a third of what you pay for, the per-seat price is buying you a lot of software you do not open.
Invoicing on the entry plan
Send invoices, take online payments and give clients a portal from the first paid tier, at one price for the whole account. Start your free 30-day trial, no credit card required.
What to look for in a Bonsai alternative
Before switching, separate what you actually need from what Bonsai happens to bundle.
Invoicing on the plan you are buying
If getting paid is the job, it should be included at the entry tier rather than one upgrade away. Check which plan the invoicing sits on before you compare any prices at all.
A price that does not multiply by headcount
Per-account pricing and per-user pricing look identical to a solo operator and diverge sharply the moment anyone else needs a login. If you expect to add a bookkeeper, that difference is the whole comparison.
A client portal and online payments without a tier jump
Both are table stakes for getting paid on time. An alternative that gates them higher up is a step sideways, not forward.
A trial long enough to bill someone
Seven days shows you the interface. A full month shows you what happens when an invoice goes out, a client pays late and a reminder has to fire on its own.
How Billbooks compares
Billbooks prices by account rather than by person. Basic is $7.95 a month and includes 2 users and up to 100 clients. Standard is $14.95 a month with 5 users and 500 clients. Professional is $29.95 a month with 10 users and unlimited clients. All three carry unlimited invoices and estimates, every plan starts with a 30 day free trial and no credit card, and paying yearly saves 10 percent (Billbooks pricing).
Read against Bonsai, the comparison turns on two things rather than a long feature grid. The first is where invoicing lives: on Bonsai it starts at Essentials, $19 a month per user annually; on Billbooks it is on the entry plan at $7.95 a month for the account. The second is what happens when you are two people rather than one. Two seats on Bonsai Essentials is $38 a month. Two users on Billbooks Basic is $7.95, because the second user is included rather than priced.
What Billbooks does not do is the rest of Bonsai's bundle. There is no contract builder, no CRM and no time tracking. If those are load-bearing for you, the fair comparison is not price per seat, it is whether you would otherwise pay for three tools instead of one. If they are not, you are comparing an invoicing tool against a platform that happens to invoice.
For the same trade-off seen from other directions, our Wave alternative and Zoho Books alternative guides cover tools that bundle differently again.
Making the switch
Moving off Bonsai looks much the same whichever tool you land on. Export your client list, invoice history and any active contracts while the account is still live, and keep that export somewhere outside the tool rather than assuming you can log back in later. Set up your business profile, tax rates and payment methods in the new system, and start anything recurring from the next cycle rather than mid-cycle. Tell active clients before an invoice arrives from a different sender address, because a payment link from an unfamiliar domain is exactly the sort of thing a careful client sits on for a week. Most of that is an hour's work once the export is in hand.
One thing worth doing before you commit either way: work out which parts of the bundle you actually opened this quarter. The subscription line is visible every month. The features you stopped using are not.
See the documents first
Build a quote and an invoice in your browser, free and with no signup, before you move any data anywhere.
Whichever tool you land on, the question Bonsai's tiers really put to you is not which platform bundles the most. It is whether the plan that covers the job you came for is the plan you are actually paying for.
Two free tools and the profession templates, worth a look before you move anything:
FAQ
Does Bonsai have a free plan?
No. Bonsai's entry point is the paid Basic plan at $9 a month per user on annual billing, and Basic does not include invoicing or payments. There is a 7 day free trial with full access, but no permanently free tier.
Can I send invoices on Bonsai's cheapest plan?
Not on Basic. Invoicing, online payments, proposals, contracts and the client portal all start on Essentials, at $19 a month per user on annual billing or $25 billed monthly. If invoicing is why you are looking at Bonsai, Essentials is the real entry price rather than $9.
Does Bonsai charge per user or a flat rate?
Per user, on all four tiers. The price scales with headcount rather than staying flat for the account, so adding a bookkeeper or an assistant means paying for a second full seat at the same rate.
How much is Bonsai for two people?
On Essentials, the cheapest tier that includes invoicing, two users is $38 a month on annual billing, or $50 billed monthly. Elite additionally requires a minimum of three users regardless of how many people you have.
What is the main difference between Bonsai and Billbooks?
Bonsai bundles proposals, contracts, time tracking and a CRM around invoicing, prices per user, and puts invoicing on its second tier. Billbooks prices per account, includes invoicing on the entry plan at $7.95 a month with 2 users, and does not bundle contracts, CRM or time tracking. Bonsai suits someone who uses the whole platform. Billbooks suits someone whose job is getting invoices out and getting paid.
Can I switch from Bonsai to Billbooks without losing my client data?
Export your client list and invoice history from Bonsai before you cancel, while you still have access to the account. Hosted invoicing tools, Billbooks included, support importing a client list so you are not starting from a blank slate, though it is worth checking the import format currently supported before you close the old plan.
