# Bonsai > Client, project and billing software for agencies and freelancers Bonsai is business software for freelancers, agencies and consultancies that bill clients for their time. It combines a CRM, proposals and contracts, projects and time tracking with invoicing, online payments and expense tracking. Its bookkeeping covers income, expenses and revenue reports, and invoice data can be synced to QuickBooks Online or Xero for the full ledger. - **Category:** Accounting & Invoicing - **Made by:** Bonsai Technologies Inc. - **Website:** https://www.hellobonsai.com - **Runs on:** Web, macOS, iOS, Android, Browser extension - **Facts last checked:** Oct 17, 2026 ## Pricing Bonsai is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $9 per user / month, billed annually. - **Pricing model:** Free trial - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** 7-day free trial with full access, then a card is needed to continue. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Basic | $9 per user / month, billed annually | $15 billed monthly. Time tracking, tasks, unlimited projects and clients, a CRM and the mobile apps. No invoicing or payments. | | Essentials | $19 per user / month, billed annually | $25 billed monthly. Adds invoices and online payments, proposals, contracts, forms, scheduling, a client portal, and income and expense tracking. | | Premium | $29 per user / month, billed annually | $39 billed monthly. Adds project insights, workload, a deals pipeline, profit reports, no Bonsai branding, and QuickBooks, Xero and Zapier. | | Elite | $49 per user / month, billed annually | $59 billed monthly. Minimum of 3 users. Adds custom permissions, timesheet locking, markups on expenses and custom data import. | Read from https://www.hellobonsai.com/pricing on Oct 17, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Bonsai before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **Up to 4 months free with yearly billing** (Annual discount): Yearly billing brings Basic from $15 to $9 per user a month, Essentials from $25 to $19, Premium from $39 to $29 and Elite from $59 to $49. Source: https://www.hellobonsai.com/pricing - **Reduced rate for teams of 30 or more users** (Other savings): The pricing page says a reduced rate is available for teams of 30 or more users, without giving the figure. Source: https://www.hellobonsai.com/pricing ## Key features - **Proposals, contracts and forms:** Send proposals and contracts from templates, collect answers with forms and questionnaires, and book calls with scheduling links. - **Invoices and payments:** Unlimited, retainer and subscription invoices with time and expenses attached, online card and ACH payments, and billing in several currencies. - **Time tracking and timesheets:** Track billable and non-billable time on every plan, with timesheet reminders, and lock timesheets on Elite. - **Projects and resourcing:** Unlimited projects and tasks with kanban views, hourly or fixed-fee budgets, task estimates and workload planning on higher plans. - **Bookkeeping:** Connect a bank account to categorize expenses by client project, see revenue dashboards, and send invoice data to QuickBooks Online. - **Bonsai MCP:** Connect an AI assistant such as Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini to update clients, create projects or draft invoices in Bonsai. ## Good for - Freelancers and small agencies that bill clients by the hour or by retainer - Studios that want proposals, contracts, projects and invoices in one app - Teams that keep their ledger in QuickBooks Online or Xero ## Worth knowing - Basic has no invoices, payments or expense tracking; billing starts on Essentials at $19 per user a month, billed annually. - It is not a full accounting ledger; the QuickBooks Online and Xero integrations that fill that gap need Premium. - Every plan is priced per user, and Elite needs at least 3 users. - Online payments carry processing fees that vary by method; the pricing page points to a help article for the figures. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Oct 17, 2026. Bonsai runs the client side of a freelance business or small agency: proposals, contracts, projects, time tracking and invoices, all in one place. What it isn't is a full set of books, so you'll probably still need QuickBooks Online or Xero, and syncing to them needs Premium at $29 a user. - **Value for money: C.** Basic is $9 a user a month billed yearly, but it can't send an invoice. Billing starts on Essentials at $19 a user yearly or $25 monthly, near this category's middle, and every extra person pays the same again. - **Free plan and trial: C.** A 7-day free trial with full access, and the card only comes in when it ends. A week is short for judging something you'd run your business on, and there's no free plan. - **Features: C.** Proposals, contracts, forms, scheduling, a CRM, projects, time tracking, invoices and expense tracking. But the listing says itself that it's not a full accounting ledger, and the QuickBooks and Xero links that fill the gap need Premium. - **Ease of use: C.** 4.3 from 311 App Store ratings, just enough ratings to count. There's plenty to set up, too: clients, projects, proposal templates and a bank connection before it all hangs together. - **Platforms and integrations: A.** Web, Mac, iPhone, Android and a browser extension, with QuickBooks Online, Xero, Zapier, Calendly, Gmail and Slack, plus an MCP connection for AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Bonsai's own pages on 17 October 2026, and its App Store rating. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among accounting and invoicing tools - Bonsai's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 4 of the 17 other accounting and invoicing tools we grade, and level with 5. - It stands best on platforms and integrations (A, above 14 of 17) and worst on free plan and trial (C, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $9 a month for each person, against a middle price of $19 for the category: 2 of the 16 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. 1 tool scores higher and costs less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/accounting ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Bonsai you would be making live feeds from your bank, which take an agreement with each bank or a service that has them. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 8 of the 17 other accounting and invoicing tools grade higher. It costs $108 a year. - You could make: Invoicing, time tracking, expense tracking, forms and reports: an app builder makes these well. - You could not: Live feeds from your bank, which take an agreement with each bank or a service that has them. - You could not: Apps for macOS, iOS and Android that stay in step with each other. - You could not: It is priced for each person, which means accounts and billing for a team. - You could not: It plugs into other products, QuickBooks Online, Xero and Zapier among them. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## What people say - **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.3 out of 5 from 311 ratings in the United States, read Oct 17, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1333596451 ## Works with QuickBooks Online, Xero, Zapier, Calendly, Google, Gmail, Slack **Tags:** Invoicing, Time tracking, Expense tracking, Bookkeeping, Forms, Reports ## Alternatives - [FreshBooks](https://toolgpa.com/tools/freshbooks): Invoicing and accounting for freelancers and service businesses. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bonsai-vs-freshbooks) - [Moxie](https://toolgpa.com/tools/moxie): Freelance business app: clients, projects, invoices and basic books. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bonsai-vs-moxie) - [Plutio](https://toolgpa.com/tools/plutio): All-in-one freelance app: projects, proposals, contracts and invoices. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bonsai-vs-plutio) - [QuickBooks Online](https://toolgpa.com/tools/quickbooks): Cloud accounting from Intuit, from a free plan to 25-user Advanced. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bonsai-vs-quickbooks) - [Xero](https://toolgpa.com/tools/xero): Cloud accounting for small businesses, with unlimited users. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bonsai-vs-xero) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 17, 2026: - https://www.hellobonsai.com/pricing - https://www.hellobonsai.com/bookkeeping - https://www.hellobonsai.com/payments - https://www.hellobonsai.com/legal/terms Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/bonsai Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).