Bonsai
Review of Bonsai Software: system overview, features, price and cost information. Get free demos and compare to similar programs.
Overview
About Bonsai
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Bonsai Features
Bonsai Integrations
Customer Reviews
See why people love Bonsai
David C.
Verified UserInformation Technology and Services · 2-10 employees
Bonsai Is The Best All-Around Product For Managing a Freelancer / Small Business
I've been using Bonsai for over five years now and over that time have taken a look at the competition to see if maybe they're better or cheaper. Spoiler alert: they're not! Bonsai has everything you need to run a freelancer or small business operation all in the same UI, without having to add apps or move into different interfaces.
- I've tried just about all the products out there for managing proposals, contracts, invoicing and more as a freelancer, and Bonsai is still the one for me
- It's priced less than the competition but gives you more features, and the UI is much better than others
- The mobile app is great for viewing things and doing quick adds
- About the main thing that it doesn't do as well is time tracking—can't be as granular on the project specifics in the mobile app as I can on the desktop app
Why they chose it
"Many of the competing products didn't have as much ability to offer clients granular options in proposals and didn't let me put in as much content on the proposals—just single line items instead of paragraphs. Some platforms required adding apps (often at extra cost) to do things that are natively built in to the Bonsai UI. Just a much better overall user experience for me as the freelancer and also for my clients."
Ibrahim B.
Verified UserMarketing and Advertising · 11-50 employees
Hello Bonsai a stable proposal platform that can use AI
Overall, it is a stable platform and has been constantly updated. I hope they will focus on agencies rather than freelancers. I also hope they would integrate other payment software for flexibility
- Bonsai Is an All-Around great platform for a marketing agency
- Its winning point is its proposals and upsell capability
- Still Lacks Native Integrations
- It sends you to Zapier for many
- I Also Wish they would integrate AI for workflow like many other competitors
Why they chose it
"It's stable with the least amount of bugs for the price point."
Verified Professional
Industrial Automation · 2-10 employees
Nothing Good to Say About Bonsai
Industrial Automation
- Nothing likable about this brand or product
- Bonsai / Hello Bonsai is absolutely terrible
- They charge ridiculous transaction fees and then hold your money up for weeks after the payment has been made
- Absolutely infuriating, they have massively screwed up my business
- I wish I had known this before signing up with them
- I pay nearly $500 a year for their basic business services, and they charged me an additional $300 in transaction fees for my first two transactions and would not let me access the fund for over two weeks
- I canceled my account with them as soon as I learned about their predatory practices
- Literally, any other service would be better than Bonsai
- In addition, Bonsai support is practically non-existent
- I have never paid so much for a service and not been able to get an actual person on the phone to try to resolve even the most basic issues
Lauren E.
Verified UserLegal Services · Self-Employed
Bonsai is the easiest CRM I've ever used!
9/10. I just started my business and tried several other CRM platforms for days and got no where. With Bonsai, I had my entire set up done in less than an hour. It's very intuitive and easy to use.
- Bonsai is user friendly yet it has all the necessary features and is uncomplicated
- I am able to integrate the needed applications to conduct business and keep everything in one place
- Bonsai integrates with my google calendar and gmail
- This allows me to use it to send/receive emails and to schedule, however it doesn't allow me to view my calendar or email box
- This is not as much of an issue regarding emails but having to navigate outside of the program for the calendar is not the best functionality
- The other con is that I cannot preview the client portal as they see it; this function would make it simple to walk them through it when onboarding them (or to create a video doing so)
Switched From
Ease of use. Click up had all these work arounds that were difficult to integrate. Bonsai is user friendly and very intuitive. This means as my team grows, no training will be required.
Why they chose it
"Odoo was noisy and required knowledge of how it works to set up. Bonsai was simple yet offered the integrations and features I needed."
Daniela V.
Verified UserMarketing and Advertising · Self-Employed
So far so good!
So far so good. Love the UX, willing to giving it more time to try but maybe will have to switch to "rounded".
- one tool for all needs: CRM, Invoicing, scheduling
- One stop shop
- I can't believe they charge extra for the tax solution when the whole differentiator is beingthis one-stop shop
- Also, couldn't connect my bank account and credit card for expenses tracking
Switched From
Wave stopped working for companies outside the US.
Why they chose it
"CRM functionalities, but considering moving to rounded, since cheaper and really good for tax purposes (without charging an additional fee for it or asking you to have quickbooks integration)."
Emeline B.
Verified UserInformation Technology and Services · 11-50 employees
Best project management tool for our agency!
Bonsai has significantly boosted our team's productivity, allowing us to focus more on delivering quality services to our clients. We highly recommend it to any agency or other type of small business looking to improve their business processes.
- As a creative agency of over 15+ professionals, Bonsai has transformed our workflow
- We started using them when we were only 2 people on the team, and we used Bonsai only for a few features at the beginning (proposals, contracts and invoicing)
- But as our team grew to nearly 20 people now, we started needing more features, and surprisingly, Bonsai grew as well and launched the features we needed like project management and budgeting, team resource planning and business profitability overview
- It made our operations more efficient by simplifying the overall project management process and working with clients
- We also tested a few other tools in the meantime but Bonsai was the only one that hit the sweet spot of easiness of use and a comprehensive list of features that seem to be specifically built for agency workflows
- Additionally, the customer support is top-notch, always responsive and knowledgeable
The only thing I'd suggest is to have maybe a little bit more design/structure control over client portal
Switched From
Bonsai is very easy to use, our whole team likes it, simple client and project management, also the workflows are just what we were looking for. Clean interface, and has a very affordable pricing compared with competitors.
Rodney M.
Verified UserBusiness Supplies and Equipment · Self-Employed
Never give up , doit better
Well since I was victim of scam , I have been doing and learning a lot in how install the right app in mi IMac , you should doit as well
Very recently to this but I will give good tips, what exactly is what I like most and what is not good this app
In the begging is a little complicate when you do the first installation , so I almost quick , but I got good advice from friends
Bryanna O.
Verified UserChemicals · 11-50 employees
Bonsai Review
Our overall experience with Bonsai has been lovely so far. We can create estimates to send to our customers, invoices and even get the signature electronically!
- What we like best about Bonsai is that it is basically a one stop shop
- Bonsai has everything that we are looking for with our company, Invoicing, security and the electronic signatures which we are very excited for
- There really is not anything that we least like about Bonsai
- If i were to say anything at all it would be that we don't use everything they have to offer, which we will, we just haven't gotten there yet
Verified Professional
Facilities Services · Self-Employed
Excellent for freelancers! (& Teams)
Overall my experience has been great! This software has saved me a lot of time because I can individually manage all of my projects aspects from this one software.
What I like most about Bonsai is I can visually see all my work projects, together all on one one page
I have only used Bonsai for a short time period and have yet to find something that I dislike about Bonsai
Katie S.
Verified UserLeisure, Travel & Tourism · 11-50 employees
Great for invoicing
Bonsai is a strong all in one system for freelancers and small service teams who want to run proposals contracts and payments without juggling multiple apps. It is quick to learn and it keeps cash flow and client communication organized. If you need heavy duty CRM or full accounting features you will still pair it with other tools but for everyday operations it delivers a smooth streamlined experience.
- Bonsai brings proposals contracts invoicing and time tracking into one clean workspace
- The templates and e signature make it fast to send professional paperwork
- I like the recurring invoices retainers and automatic payment reminders
- The client portal keeps messages files and approvals in one place which cuts down on email ping pong
- Pricing can climb as you add teammates or advanced features
- Project management is fine for simple tasks but it is not as deep as a dedicated tool
- Report customization is limited and invoice layouts do not offer a lot of design freedom
- Multi currency and tax settings may require manual tweaks if you work across regions
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