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Bonsai alternatives

Bonsai charges a price per user with no free plan, and puts invoices on its Essentials plan. It adds a platform fee on Stripe or PayPal payments where Bonsai Payments is available, and keeps the weekly timesheet, expenses and the CSV export for higher plans.

By Fred Wu, maker of Hourbun · Hourbun is our app · Checked · Report a mistake

The short answer

This page lists Hourbun, our app, and Avaza, Harpoon, Moxie, Plutio and FreshBooks. Each one costs less than Bonsai for 2 people, or does more on a feature that the pages of Bonsai limit or leave out.

The apps

6 alternatives to Bonsai

Hourbun first, as it is our app. Then the others by their price for 2 people, lowest first. Each one costs less than Bonsai, or does more on a feature in bold.

  1. 1. Hourbun Our app

    Freelancers, consultants and small teams who bill their clients by the hour

    Hourbun vs Bonsai

    2 people, a month

    $15 (lower price)

    Duo

    No fee of the app on online payments (ahead of Bonsai)
    Yes Only the fees of Stripe
    Weekly timesheet grid (ahead of Bonsai)
    Yes
    Expenses with receipts, billed with a markup (ahead of Bonsai)
    Yes
    Reports with a CSV export (ahead of Bonsai)
    Yes

  2. 2. Avaza

    Teams that want projects, tasks, scheduling, chat, timesheets and invoicing in one app

    Hourbun vs Avaza

    2 people, a month

    $11.95 (lower price)

    Startup

    No fee of the app on online payments
    No
    Weekly timesheet grid (ahead of Bonsai)
    Yes
    Expenses with receipts, billed with a markup (ahead of Bonsai)
    Yes A markup in percent or a fixed amount, by expense category
    Reports with a CSV export
    Partly Excel, PDF and Word exports; for CSV, you save the Excel file as CSV

  3. 3. Harpoon

    Agencies and freelancers that want yearly revenue goals and forecasts beside time tracking and invoicing

    Hourbun vs Harpoon

    2 people, a month

    $19 (lower price)

    Freelancer

    No fee of the app on online payments (ahead of Bonsai)
    Yes Only the fees of Stripe
    Weekly timesheet grid
    No
    Expenses with receipts, billed with a markup
    Partly Receipts, and the expenses of a project added to an invoice
    Reports with a CSV export (ahead of Bonsai)
    Yes PDF or CSV

  4. 4. Moxie

    Freelancers and small agencies that want a CRM, proposals, contracts, scheduling and invoices in one app

    Hourbun vs Moxie

    2 people, a month

    $40 (lower price)

    Teams

    No fee of the app on online payments
    No
    Weekly timesheet grid
    No
    Expenses with receipts, billed with a markup (ahead of Bonsai)
    Yes
    Reports with a CSV export
    Partly Time exports in Excel or PDF

  5. 5. Plutio

    Freelancers and agencies that want projects, proposals, contracts, scheduling and invoicing in one app, at a flat price per workspace

    Hourbun vs Plutio

    2 people, a month

    $49 (lower price)

    Pro

    No fee of the app on online payments (ahead of Bonsai)
    Yes Only the fees of the payment processor
    Weekly timesheet grid
    No
    Expenses with receipts, billed with a markup
    Partly Expense transactions linked to a project, for its net income
    Reports with a CSV export (ahead of Bonsai)
    Yes A CSV of the filtered time entries

  6. 6. FreshBooks

    Freelancers and small businesses that want invoicing, payments and accounting in one app

    Hourbun vs FreshBooks

    2 people, a month

    $54

    Plus

    No fee of the app on online payments
    No FreshBooks Payments takes 2.9% + $0.30 on a card payment and 1% on an ACH transfer
    Weekly timesheet grid (ahead of Bonsai)
    Yes
    Expenses with receipts, billed with a markup (ahead of Bonsai)
    Yes
    Reports with a CSV export (ahead of Bonsai)
    Yes

For comparison

Bonsai

Freelancers and agencies that want a CRM, proposals, contracts, projects and invoices in one app

Hourbun vs Bonsai

2 people, a month

$50

Essentials

No fee of the app on online payments
No A 1% platform fee on Stripe or PayPal where Bonsai Payments is available, and a 2.5% fee on international payments
Weekly timesheet grid
Higher plan Timesheets, from the Premium plan
Expenses with receipts, billed with a markup
Higher plan A markup on expenses from the Elite plan
Reports with a CSV export
Higher plan Reports from the Premium plan
  • USD list prices, billed monthly
  • ≈ marks an estimate
  • Highlight = cheaper than Bonsai
  • Bold row = ahead of Bonsai
  • The example: 2 people · 8 clients · 10 projects · 8 tasks · 10 invoices and $16k invoiced a month

Questions

Questions and answers

What are the alternatives to Bonsai?

This page lists Hourbun, our app, and Avaza, Harpoon, Moxie, Plutio and FreshBooks. Each one costs less than Bonsai for 2 people, or does more on a feature that the pages of Bonsai limit or leave out.

Which Bonsai alternative costs the least?

For 2 people, Avaza costs the least on this page: $11.95 a month on its Startup plan. Hourbun, our app, costs $15 a month on its Duo plan, and Bonsai $50 a month on its Essentials plan.

Is Hourbun an alternative to Bonsai?

Yes. Hourbun gives freelancers and small teams time tracking and invoicing for one flat price, with no fee of its own on online payments. Bonsai charges per user, puts invoices on its Essentials plan, and adds a 1% platform fee on Stripe or PayPal payments where Bonsai Payments is available. Bonsai fits people who want a CRM, proposals and contracts in the same app.

Sources

  • Each fact comes from the comparison page of its app, which names its sources
  • A feature that no page of an app states is a No
  • Prices change: check the pricing page of each app

Avaza, Harpoon, Moxie, Plutio, FreshBooks and Bonsai are trademarks of their owners, and Hourbun is not affiliated with them.

Try Hourbun for free.

14 days, no card. Add a client, track your first hour, and send the invoice.