Bonsai

Contracts, proposals, invoices and basic tax tracking for freelancers in one place, with AI drafting the first version of each document from a short brief.

Money & invoicing Agents

Checked 25 Sep 2026

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What you'd use it for

Running the paperwork side of a freelance or small service practice — contracts, proposals, invoicing and expense tracking — without stitching together separate tools.

Generate a first-draft contract from your project details using pre-vetted legal-style templates
Build a branded proposal, pick a theme, and send it for e-signature with AI drafting the first pass
Send unlimited invoices, take online payments, and run recurring or retainer billing
Log expenses and income as you go and flag them for tax time

The verdict

Bonsai earns its place by bundling the parts of freelance admin that have nothing to do with the client work itself into one system, and its AI drafting is genuinely useful for boilerplate contract clauses and proposal structure rather than a gimmick. The catch is where the real cost sits — contracts, invoicing and proposals only start at the Essentials tier, not the cheaper Basic one, so the features that bring most people here are not on the entry-level plan. It suits an established freelance or small service practice willing to pay for the full admin loop, less so someone testing on a tight budget.

What it costs

Tier	Price	For	Includes
Basic	$9/user/month billed annually, $15/month billed monthly	An occasional freelancer managing a handful of projects.	Time tracking, task management, CRM, service library and mobile apps; no contracts, invoicing or proposals.
Essentials	$19/user/month billed annually, $25/month billed monthly	A freelancer running an end-to-end client and project practice.	Everything in Basic plus invoicing and payments, proposals and contracts, forms and questionnaires, scheduling, a client portal, and expense and income tracking.
Premium	$29/user/month billed annually, $39/month billed monthly	Someone who needs deeper client and project reporting.	Advanced client and project management with reporting, plus integrations (QuickBooks, Xero, Zapier, Calendly, Google).
Elite	$49/user/month billed annually, $59/month billed monthly	A larger solo practice or small agency wanting full team management.	Powerful team management and reporting features, custom data import; 3-user minimum on team accounts.

Read from Bonsai's own pricing page on 25 Sep 2026. Vendors change prices without notice.

What you need to start

The Essentials plan ($19/user/month annual, $25 monthly) or higher to use contracts, invoicing or proposals — Basic only covers time tracking, tasks and CRM
A credit card once the 7-day free trial ends, to keep any paid plan active

A few minutes to create an account and clear the onboarding wizard; reaching the paperwork tools people actually come here for means starting on Essentials rather than the cheaper Basic tier.

Your first run Signup takes under a minute, followed by a short onboarding wizard on your business type, currency and team size before you land in the workspace; a first tracked task or invoice is a few minutes past that, but drafting your first contract or proposal needs a paid plan, not the free trial's ceiling alone.

Where it breaks

Browser-based, with iOS and Android apps for invoicing and time tracking on the go.

First entry in this reference. There is no previous check to compare it against.

When not to use it

Not for anyone hoping the $9 Basic plan covers contracts and invoicing: it doesn't, those start at Essentials, so a reader signing up on price alone hits a wall on the exact features they came for. Also not for a solo operator who only needs one document type occasionally rather than a full administrative system.

Bonsai exists because running an independent practice means being your own back office — contracts, proposals, invoices, expense tracking and a rough handle on taxes, all of which have nothing to do with the actual client work. Bonsai bundles that administrative layer into one product, with AI drafting the first pass of a contract or proposal from a short description rather than starting from a blank template every time.

That drafting is genuinely useful for the parts of freelance admin that are mostly boilerplate — standard contract clauses, a proposal structure you reuse for every new client — while still leaving room to edit before sending.

What actually separates the tiers

Basic covers time tracking, task management and CRM for a handful of projects — enough to keep tabs on the work, but not to run the paperwork side of it. The contracts, invoicing and proposals most people come to Bonsai for don’t appear until Essentials ($19/user/month billed annually, $25 monthly), which adds the client portal along with invoicing and payments, and proposals and contracts. Premium and Elite are mostly about deeper reporting and third-party integrations — worth it once you’re running enough volume that manual reconciliation with QuickBooks or Xero becomes a real time cost.

Where it fits next to the alternatives

Against Harvest, the difference is scope — Harvest is sharper on time tracking and profitability reporting specifically, while Bonsai covers the fuller freelance admin stack including contracts and proposals that Harvest doesn’t touch at all.

Alternatives

Money & invoicingApps

Harvest

Time tracking that turns straight into a client invoice, with reporting that tells you which projects are actually profitable rather than just how many hours were logged.

Checked 25 Sep 2026

Money & invoicingAgents

HoneyBook

Proposals, contracts, invoices and payments in one client-management system built for independent service businesses, with AI drafting each document.

Checked 25 Sep 2026

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Dubsado

Runs a service business's client workflow end to end — lead forms, contracts, invoices, scheduling — with automated follow-up so nothing depends on you remembering.

Checked 25 Sep 2026