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BillGrid vs Bonsai
Bonsai is an all-in-one suite for client work, priced per user. BillGrid is invoicing and time tracking at a flat price.
The short answer
Choose Bonsai if you want proposals, contracts, e-signatures, scheduling, a client portal and project management in one place, priced per user, with invoicing from its $25-a-month Essentials plan. Choose BillGrid if invoicing, time tracking and getting paid are what you need: $8 a month flat, with card payments through your own Stripe account and no fee added by BillGrid.
Price and limits
| BillGrid | Bonsai | |
|---|---|---|
| Price, billed monthly | $8 a month (Professional), $20 (Company) | Basic $15, Essentials $25, Premium $39, Elite $59, per user a month |
| Cheapest plan with invoicing | $8 a month | Essentials, $25 per user a month (Basic has no invoices) |
| Billed yearly | Monthly only | $9, $19, $29 or $49 per user a month |
| Team | Company: $20 a month including you, $5 per extra staff login | Every user pays the plan price; Elite needs 3 users or more |
| Clients and projects | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Free trial | 30 days, no card | 7 days |
| Card fees | Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ for US cards; BillGrid adds nothing | Bonsai Payments 2.9% + 30¢; through Stripe or PayPal, Bonsai adds 1% |
| International payments | Stripe's own rates; BillGrid adds nothing | Bonsai adds a 2.5% FX fee |
Features
Bonsai rows are for its Essentials plan, the first with invoicing, unless they say otherwise.
| BillGrid | Bonsai | |
|---|---|---|
| Recurring invoices and reminders | Yes, on the schedule you set | Yes |
| Retainers | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-currency invoices | Yes; card payments in USD, CAD, EUR, GBP and AUD | Yes |
| Time tracking and expenses | Yes | Yes |
| Estimates clients approve online | Yes; an approved estimate becomes an invoice in one click | Proposals approved in one click, with an optional deposit |
| Contracts, e-signatures, forms, scheduling | No | Yes |
| Client portal | No; clients view and pay each invoice from its link | Yes |
| Bank (ACH) payments | No, cards only | Yes, through Bonsai Payments |
| QuickBooks and Xero sync | No; reports export to CSV or Excel | Premium and up |
| Mobile and desktop apps | No, BillGrid runs in the browser | Yes |
Which fits you
Bonsai is the better choice if
- you want proposals, contracts and e-signatures alongside your invoices
- clients log in to a portal, or book time through a scheduler
- you need accounting sync, bank payments or native apps
BillGrid is the better choice if
- you need invoicing and time tracking, not a whole suite
- your team is growing and per-user pricing adds up
- you want to use your own Stripe account without a platform fee on top
Switching to BillGrid
There's no import for clients or past invoices yet, so most people add clients as they next bill them and keep their old tool for history. Expenses can be imported from a CSV file. Card payments go through your own Stripe account, which you connect in a few minutes; BillGrid adds no fee on top of Stripe's.
Both BillGrid plans are free for 30 days, with no card needed. Start free See pricing
Sources: Bonsai pricing, Bonsai proposals, Bonsai Help Center articles on payment fees, recurring invoices and reminders, and Stripe pricing. US prices billed monthly. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.