The all-in-one toolkit for freelancers & small agencies alternative: with your whole back office in one place
Bonsai gives freelancers a tidy proposal-to-payment flow: contracts, invoicing, time tracking and a light client portal. WorkBOS is what that same business grows into: real projects and portfolios, HR and payroll runs, a genuine ledger, and white-label resale, with approve-first AI agents doing the admin.
The short version
Bonsai is excellent at what it is built for: a solo freelancer or tiny studio running proposals, contracts, invoicing and time tracking with minimal setup. Its client portal is white-labeled only on the higher tier and has no custom domain, and there is no HR, no payroll, no real ledger and no multi-tenant resale. It is a personal back-office, not an agency platform. WorkBOS is the step up: real project and portfolio management, HR and payroll runs, a double-entry general ledger, a branded client portal you can resell under your own domain, and approve-first AI agents with audit and rollback. Pick Bonsai to bill clients simply as a freelancer; pick WorkBOS when you are running a team, the books and client sub-accounts.
Side by side
Swipe the table sideways to see the Bonsai column.
| Capability | WorkBOS One workspace | Bonsai all-in-one toolkit for freelancers & small agencies |
|---|---|---|
| Recoverable delete: full object restored from Trash delete is irreversible, and a deleted project takes its contracts, invoices, tasks and time entries | - | |
| Proposals, contracts & invoicing invoicing and forms are full products; proposals and contracts are tracked records with e-signature on the document you attach | Partial | Stronger here |
| Time tracking | ||
| Projects & PMO (task to portfolio) Bonsai has tasks and a light Gantt; no portfolio roll-ups or capacity planning | Partial | |
| Branded client portal + custom domain Bonsai white-labels the portal on its top tier with no custom domain; our branded portal ships on Pro and the custom domain is set up with our team | Partial | Partial |
| White-label & resell (multi-tenant) on our White-label partner plan (quoted, not self-serve); custom domains are set up with our team | Partial | - |
| HR & payroll payroll runs and payslips post real journal entries; you enter deductions - we do not calculate statutory tax or file returns | Partial | - |
| Real double-entry accounting Bonsai does invoicing and basic tracking; real books come from QuickBooks/Xero | - | |
| Approve-first AI agents (back office) ships AI agents too; ours are scoped to back-office transactions - ledger, payroll, invoices - under approval with one-click rollback | Partial | |
| Free training academy & certification no academy, no certification and no expert directory: webinars, a help centre and blog templates only, checked 2026-09-21 | Partial | - |
Where each one wins
Pricing at a glance
Free forever for up to 5 seats (includes a metered taste of AI agents), Pro at $12/user/mo, Enterprise at $999/mo flat, and a White-label plan at $2,499/mo for unlimited resold sub-accounts. No card required to start.
Bonsai moved to per-user pricing in 2026, roughly $9 to $49 per user per month, with the white-label client portal unlocking on its higher plan. Pricing as of 2026; check hellobonsai.com/pricing for current plans.
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Projects, CRM, HR & payroll and real accounting, with approve-first AI agents doing the busywork. Start free, no card required.
Comparison reflects each product’s primary positioning and publicly documented capabilities as of June 2026; capabilities and plans change. Bonsai is a trademark of its respective owner; this page is independent and implies no affiliation or endorsement.
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