Moxie vs Bonsai pricing breakdown
Moxie and Bonsai use completely different pricing models. Moxie charges a flat monthly rate regardless of team size (up to 5 members). Bonsai charges per user, so every team member or contractor added increases the monthly bill.
Moxie Pricing (2026)
- Starter: $12/month ($10/month annual). Includes CRM, proposals, contracts, invoicing, time tracking, and basic accounting. Solo use only.
- Pro: $25/month ($20/month annual). Adds expense tracking, financial reporting, and client portal access. Still solo use.
- Teams: $40/month ($32/month annual). Up to 5 team members, team collaboration features, and shared project access.
Bonsai Pricing (2026)
- Basic: $15/user/month ($9/user/month annual). Proposals, contracts, invoicing, and basic time tracking. 1% payment processing fee.
- Essentials: $25/user/month ($19/user/month annual). Removes payment fee, adds workflow templates and bookkeeping.
- Premium: $39/user/month ($29/user/month annual). Workflow automation, custom branding, subcontracting, and priority support.
- Elite: $59/user/month ($49/user/month annual). Minimum 3 users. Dedicated account manager and custom onboarding.
The real cost: what teams actually pay
The pricing model difference becomes clear with teams. A 3-person team on Moxie Teams costs $40/month total. The same team on Bonsai Essentials costs $75/month ($25 x 3 users). On Bonsai Premium, that team pays $117/month. Since neither platform handles the full delivery workflow, most users add supplementary apps:
- Project management: Trello Free or Asana Starter ($0-11/month)
- Advanced time tracking: Toggl or Harvest ($0-12/month per user)
- Dedicated accounting: QuickBooks or Wave ($0-25/month)
A typical multi-tool stack runs $60-120 per month for a solo freelancer, higher for teams. All-in-one platforms like Plutio start at $19/month for solo users with proposals, projects, time tracking, and invoicing in one subscription with no per-user fees.
The verdict: Moxie is significantly cheaper for teams (flat rate vs per-user). Bonsai is closer in price for solo users but adds up quickly as the team grows. Both require supplementary tools for serious project management, which inflates the total cost beyond either platform's sticker price.
Which tool is better for your business type?
The core difference between Moxie and Bonsai comes down to whether pricing model or template quality matters more for a specific type of freelance business.
Solo freelancers just starting out
Bonsai's template library means a new freelancer can send a legally reviewed contract within an hour of signing up. Moxie requires more initial configuration before the first proposal goes out. The $15/month Basic plan covers the essentials, though the 1% payment fee cuts into margins on larger invoices, and workflow automation requires the $39/month Premium tier.
Consultants and coaches billing hourly
Moxie includes time tracking that connects to invoicing on every plan, while Bonsai's time tracking requires extra steps to turn hours into invoice line items. Consultants who bill 20-40 hours per week need tracked time that flows into client invoices without manual data transfer. Neither platform tracks at the task level, so hourly breakdowns by deliverable still require manual notes. Platforms with task-level time tracking handle this workflow even more directly.
Creative freelancers (designers, photographers, writers)
Bonsai has contract templates tailored to creative industries, and the proposal layouts require less manual formatting. Moxie's proposals are functional but visually limited. The catch: Bonsai's per-user pricing means bringing on a subcontractor increases the monthly bill, while Moxie's Teams plan covers up to 5 people for $40/month flat. Neither platform offers full white-labeling, so clients still see third-party branding on documents.
US-based freelancers managing taxes
Bonsai has Bonsai Tax, which automatically categorizes expenses, calculates quarterly estimated payments, and produces filing-ready reports. Moxie has basic expense tracking and profit reporting, but no tax-specific features. The catch: Bonsai Tax is an extra $100/year on top of the subscription, and it only works for US tax filers, so international freelancers still need a separate tax tool.
Small teams (2-5 people)
Moxie's $40/month Teams plan covers up to 5 members, while the same team on Bonsai Essentials costs $125/month ($25 x 5 users). Neither platform has team collaboration features like role-based permissions, contractor-specific access, or shared project dashboards. The flat-rate pricing looks cheaper, but Moxie caps teams at 5 members with no way to grow beyond that limit. Bonsai scales to larger teams, but the per-user cost makes growth expensive.
What both tools are missing
Moxie and Bonsai both cover proposals, contracts, and invoicing for solo freelancers. But once the work actually starts, most users find themselves opening two or three other apps to manage delivery, collaboration, and client communication.
Project management stops at task lists
Both platforms give basic task lists with due dates. Neither has Kanban boards for visual workflow, Gantt charts for timeline planning, subtasks with nesting, or task dependencies that automatically reschedule when something slips. For a one-week logo project, task lists are enough. For a 3-month website build with multiple phases, deliverables, and approvals, a separate project management tool runs alongside, and project details get copied between systems manually.
Task-level time tracking is missing
Moxie tracks time at the project level. Bonsai tracks time similarly with basic logging. Neither lets freelancers see which specific task consumed the hours, set different rates per task type, or run reports by deliverable category. Consultants who need to show clients exactly where their hours went, broken down by task, end up maintaining a separate time log or using Toggl alongside, then copying totals into invoices. The manual transfer takes 15-30 minutes per invoicing cycle for most hourly billers.
No white-labeled client portal
Neither platform offers true white-labeling. Moxie's client portal shows Moxie branding. Bonsai offers some logo and color customization on higher plans, but the portal URL still shows Bonsai's domain. For freelancers and agencies whose brand experience is part of the value they deliver, clients seeing third-party branding undercuts the positioning. Platforms like Plutio support fully branded portals where clients see only the freelancer's business on a custom domain.
No subscription billing
Retainer clients paying monthly are common in consulting, coaching, design, and marketing. Neither Moxie nor Bonsai has automatic recurring charges where clients are billed and charged automatically each month. Both support recurring invoices, but clients have to manually pay each one. The result is chasing payments, tracking who paid, and dealing with lapses. For businesses with 5-10 retainer clients, payment follow-up can consume 2-3 hours per month. Platforms with built-in subscription billing handle automatic charges and payment recovery in one place.
Limited integrations
Both platforms have relatively small integration ecosystems. Bonsai connects to Zapier, Slack, and QuickBooks. Moxie has even fewer native integrations, relying on its own built-in tools instead. For freelancers who use Google Workspace, Slack, accounting software, and file storage, the lack of native connections means manual data transfer or paying for Zapier as a bridge, adding another subscription to the stack.
What users do when neither tool is enough
When Moxie or Bonsai cannot handle the full workflow alone, users take one of two paths: build a multi-tool stack and accept the overhead, or move to a platform designed for the complete client lifecycle.
The typical workaround stack
Most users end up assembling something like this:
- Moxie or Bonsai for proposals, contracts, and invoicing ($12-40/month)
- Trello, Asana, or ClickUp for project management ($0-25/month)
- Toggl, Clockify, or Harvest for detailed time tracking ($0-12/month per user)
- QuickBooks or Wave for accounting and tax filing ($0-25/month)
- Google Drive or Dropbox for file sharing ($0-15/month)
That is four or five subscriptions totaling $50-120 per month for a solo freelancer, with four or five logins to manage and constant manual data transfer between each tool.
The hidden cost: time spent on handoffs
The subscription cost is the visible expense. The hidden cost is the workflow friction. When a contract gets signed in Bonsai, someone has to manually create a project in Trello, set up a Toggl project for time tracking, then copy completed hours into a Bonsai invoice when the work is done. Each handoff takes 5-15 minutes. Across 15-20 clients per year, that is 25-40 hours annually spent on data transfer that software should handle automatically.
The one-platform alternative
All-in-one platforms exist that handle proposals, project management, time tracking, and invoicing in a single system. The question is whether learning a new interface is worth it versus maintaining an existing multi-tool setup. For users who have invested time configuring Moxie's accounting or building Bonsai contract templates, migration feels like starting over. For users already juggling four apps and spending hours on handoffs, switching to one platform can recover 2-4 hours per week.
What one platform looks like in practice
If you are curious: Plutio is one platform that covers the complete workflow. Proposals convert into projects with Kanban boards. Time tracking happens at the task level and flows directly into invoice line items. Clients access a portal on a custom domain, not the software vendor's. The comparison table below shows exactly where Plutio fills the gaps that Moxie and Bonsai leave open, and where each platform falls short.
Final verdict: Moxie vs Bonsai
Moxie and Bonsai both cover proposals, contracts, and invoicing for freelancers. The differences emerge in pricing model, template library, and what happens between sending an invoice and starting the actual work, because neither platform handles project delivery.
Moxie makes sense when:
- Flat-rate pricing matters. Moxie's $12-40/month covers the account regardless of team size (up to 5 members), but teams are hard-capped at 5 with no way to scale further.
- Time tracking on every plan is needed. Moxie includes a timer and manual entry even on the $12/month Starter tier, but tracking is project-level only with no task-level breakdowns.
- Basic accounting in the same platform matters. Moxie tracks income, expenses, and profit per project, but there are no tax preparation features.
The trade-off: Teams are capped at 5 members. The interface has a steeper learning curve and feels dated. Integrations are limited to a handful of apps, and there is no G2 presence to compare review sentiment.
Bonsai makes sense when:
- Contract and proposal templates are the starting point. Bonsai's template library covers hundreds of industries, but layout customization requires the $39/month Premium tier.
- Tax preparation tools are needed. Bonsai Tax handles expense categorization and quarterly estimates, but only for US filers and at an extra $100/year.
- A dedicated business bank account (Bonsai Cash) is useful, but the 1% payment processing fee on the Basic plan cuts into margins.
The trade-off: Pricing is per user, so teams get expensive quickly (a 3-person team on Premium costs $117/month). Workflow automation is locked behind the $39/month tier. Product development has slowed, with few major updates in recent years.
Consider switching to a single platform if:
- Managing three or more tools to run the client workflow is eating into productive hours every week.
- Manual data transfer between proposals, projects, time tracking, and invoicing creates errors or delays in billing.
- Projects are complex enough to need Kanban boards, timelines, or task dependencies, not just checklists.
- The brand requires clients to see a custom domain and logo, not the software vendor's branding.
- The business is growing beyond 5 team members and per-user pricing does not make sense.
The reality: Switching means learning a new system and migrating existing data. For most users, this takes a focused weekend. The ongoing time savings typically recover that investment within a month.
The bottom line: Moxie has flat-rate pricing with time tracking and basic accounting, but teams are capped at 5 and the interface takes days to configure. Bonsai has templates and tax tools, but per-user pricing adds up and feature updates have slowed. Both cover proposals and invoicing but stop there. Project delivery happens in other apps. If the workflow already spans multiple tools and the handoffs between them feel like wasted time, the comparison table below shows how all-in-one platforms like Plutio stack up against both.
Research & Sources
The Moxie vs Bonsai comparison above is based on official documentation review, pricing page verification, and analysis of user feedback across review platforms. All data was verified in February 2026.
Research methodology
Each tool was evaluated through official feature documentation, pricing pages, and analysis of user reviews across Trustpilot, Capterra, G2, and AppSumo. The focus was on common pain points from lower-rated reviews where users share honest limitations rather than promotional praise.
Platform ratings (February 2026)
- Moxie: 5.0/5 on Trustpilot (518 reviews), 4.8/5 on AppSumo (83 reviews). No active G2 listing. Noted for value-for-money pricing and included features, criticized for learning curve and limited integrations.
- Bonsai: 4.3/5 on G2, 4.6/5 on Capterra, mixed reviews on Trustpilot (607 reviews). Noted for contract templates and tax tools, criticized for per-user pricing, slow product updates, and invoicing limitations.
- Plutio: 4.6/5 on G2 (200+ reviews), praised for all-in-one coverage and white-labeling.
Common user complaints (from 1-3 star reviews)
Moxie users frequently mention: "Steep learning curve to figure out all the features," "Interface feels outdated," "Limited integrations with other tools," "Team size capped at 5 members"
Bonsai users frequently mention: "Invoicing is inflexible and missing basic features," "Very few new features added in years," "Per-user pricing gets expensive fast," "Basic CRM and project management tools"
Pricing sources (verified February 2026)
- Moxie: Official pricing page
- Bonsai: Official pricing page
- Plutio: Official pricing page
Feature verification
- Moxie Trustpilot reviews (518 reviews)
- Bonsai G2 reviews
- Bonsai Capterra reviews
- Moxie Help Center
- Bonsai Knowledge Base
If you find any inaccuracies or outdated information, please let us know so we can investigate and update.
