Bonsai Reviews

Why I use Bonsai

Comments: Its been a game changer and it helped me scale my bsuiness.

Pros:

Bonsai is easy to get started, and I was up and running in no time. I like how easily I am able to create and send invoices to my clients.

Cons:

I wish there were a chat widget feature that I could install on my website similar to Sharpspring or HubSpot. Perhaps some collaboration with Webflow.

Excellent customer/client management for solo starting out, hope Bonsai grows with small biz

Comments: I'm glad to have found this platform, have appreciated the ways it streamlined some of my business and remain excited about its potential. I've looked at many industry specific platforms for my service industry and they all were clunky or extremely expensive. I don't need industry-specific software though, I just need a clean, easy to use project / client management platform where I can send invoices/contracts and schedule client appointments. Bonsai has some stand-out features, among the best are its scheduling and client portal (to allow clients to view an invoice or uploaded files). Bonsai works great with apple/mac/iphone OS calendar and is very useful for client onboarding / invoicing. I would love to see Bonsai develop additional features for growing businesses, even if that involved a modest add-on fee (so long as the add-on fee didn't get carried away,)

Pros:

There is a lot to appreciate with Bonsai starting with a very nice graphical interface. Most features are super easy to roll out (with the notable exception that incoming payments are frozen for the first 2 weeks plus). The online scheduler works excellently and plays very nicely with macs. The client portal is very attractive and an easy way to share invoices / files. There are lots of great starts to automate common tasks (e.g., when a client signs a contract, send the invoice) I felt like Bonsai is a 10/10 (or close) for a very small solo just getting started. If you have a handful of clients / projects a month and work alone, this will justifiably wow and make things beautifully smooth.

Cons:

Solo / freelancers are Bonsai's target. Many features just don't seem to work for or consider a small business with any employees. It also doesn't seem to have features suitable to handle businesses with high volume of anything (no way to track/run reports) Although there are options to add "team" members for a monthly fee, Bonsai doesn't really recognize that a business owner might need to set user permissions or have employees involved in some but not every aspect of a business. For example, users can only be designated "partners" with access to every financial detail or "collaborators" who can do next to nothing in the platform besides view an already created project. I need an assistant to create projects, send out contracts and invoices but not be given a key to the company's entire financials. Currently there is no way to do this. Contracts cannot be sent without a company signature and the signature cannot be pre-populated. We're still trying to work around these limitations. Bookkeping automatically logs processing fees as expenses and can track other manually inputted expenses but cannot track multiple bank accounts / check writing, payroll, etc.

Great interface, poor quality, money grabbing company

Comments: If you’re a freelancer looking for something to get started very quickly, then Bonsai will be great. If you are growing beyond that, I would consider looking elsewhere. They are not scaling to support that type of customer, and it’s too easy for them to find new ways to grab more money for the same or fewer features, some of which don’t work.

Pros:

Bonsai makes it easy to get started as a freelancer. Proposals, contracts, and payment processing is made easy.

Cons:

In the 5 years I’ve been using Bonsai, they have introduced only two net new product features. One of which is Bonsai Payments, which is a competitor to Stripe, which they already supported. The second, Bonsai Tax, which stripped some existing and included functionality from the original offering and turned it into an add on feature for an extra $100/year. They have revamped some existing features, but they lack execution, and there are very obvious gaps in product requirements that have yet to be filled. I report a new bug almost every single time I log in, and every single time it’s confirmed by the product team. They’ve raised prices by >150% in only a few years and not improved the platform enough to warrant that.

Good alternative to Dubsado, still lacking in features

Comments: So far, good. Customer service doesn’t have a live chat and responds within a day, which is ok. Again, I’m used to Dubsado which has live support. For the same price, I got better support and more features. However, I didn’t get the ability to enforce contracts, which is really what the switch was for. I can’t say it was an even switch and if the customer service and white labeling matched, I’d be ecstatic.

Pros:

I liked the ease of setup and the ability to enforce contracts and setup workflows, but the workflows are still disjointed when it comes to connecting invoices, proposals, and contracts. What seems intuitive is not and what would make logical sense is not available.

Cons:

Stripe integration is not visible unless certain settings are made (however, I’m still not able to get that functional). White labeling isn’t available for subdomains.

An ever improving platform that makes freelancing a breeze

Comments: Overall, I love this platform. It's straightforward and pleasant to look at. Once the mobile application can action creating proposals and contracts, making projects, adding clients and not just acting as a "review what's up in your business" companion application...

Pros:

The ease of creating projects, setting up and sending proposals, and tracking billing.

Cons:

Sometimes projects move quickly, and certain actions have to become manual. Expense tracking can be tricky as well — I've had issues (likely bugs) where my expenses double or even triple which throws off P&L reports. The mobile application is VERY limited, often defaulting to the desktop version for common actions.

Great tool business management

Pros:

I've experimented with various business apps such as Bonsai, but none of them compare to its CRM and invoicing capabilities. Its combination of reasonable pricing and comprehensive features makes it unbeatable. Additionally, its customer service is exceptional.

Cons:

I wish there was a better portal for clients, where we can have conversations within the portal, upload specific files within the portal, assign tasks, etc. As it is now, there's no reason for my clients to even log into the portal because everything just goes to their email. but emails can get messy so i'd prefer the alternative.

Love Bonsai and would recommend

Pros:

What's NOT the most impactful LOL! I use Bonsai for EVERY PART OF MY PROJECT ( well that, and the Google Drive). From storing client information, to creating projects, invoices, time tracking, invoices, contracts et all... Bonsai has really streamlined the administration side of my small business. They are also SUPER quick to respond with support when needed. Huge Fan of Bonsai and happy I chose them over everyone else <3

Cons:

I would love to be able to add my accountant to the accounting area without having to add her as a partner... and I love the idea of the cash feature and envelopes just wish you could make this work with an external bank as I prefer to run my business account separate to the Bonsai system

Perfect for Freelance Web Designers and SEOs

Comments: Before Bonsai, it was often difficult to get paid by clients. With Bonsai's flexible online payment options and professional appearance, I usually get paid immediately on sending invoices. Same with proposals: clients love that they can pick and choose from the options I present to them and then we can revisit options later.

Pros:

We're a very small shop, but Bonsai makes us look as professional as our larger competitors and helps us manage our proposal development, time tracking and online invoicing without a huge time investment in learning the software.

Cons:

When I'm setting up new clients and developing proposals, I don't want to enter the client's real email address initially and accidentally send them something that's not ready for them yet, so I have to go out and create fake email addresses that I use temporarily. Would be great if there were an option to not have to enter emails initially, or if there were a fake email address option built into Bonsai.

Free trial for 3 months - it's going GREAT

Comments: So far it's going great. I'm moving my operation to Bonsai.

Pros:

Ease of use, definitely. Everything is right there, intuitive.

Cons:

I wish I could add one member for free, instead of 9 usd. I'd like to have a ticketing system. But I'll use a form for it, for now.I wish I could create proposals by just adding the services I've already added to the "Services" tab.

Well worth the money

Comments: I am only one month into my new business and I'm glad I've starting using Bonsai from the beginning. My clients signed my contracts immediately when I sent them using the electronic signature as opposed to waiting for them to sign my initial paper contract. I have yet to sent my first invoice, but it looks to be very simple. I've connected my bank so I can see all my expenses in a single app.

Pros:

The interface is very clean and intuitive and is a breeze to use. The feature that puts it above all the rest of similar products is the accounting features. For a small, simple business, I don't need to invest in another accounting product like QuickBooks. It saves on costs and keeps everything in one plane of glass.

Cons:

The only item that I find lacking in Bonsai is there is no Kanban board or other visual way to track tasks and projects.

Long-time user

Pros:

It is very easy to use. The customer service is excellent. It works near-perfect for my invoicing, expense-tracking, proposals, and contracts.

Cons:

I wish the project management feature were more built out. If this were the case, we wouldn't have to use an external tool (AirTable) in addition to Bonsai. Also, the mobile app doesn't have all the sections or features that the desktop version does.

Bonsai is good, but the price is quite a bit

Comments: I love Bonsai. They reply fast to questions. They took great care of us..and we loved using their service for over a year...and now that we are using Indy, I miss a lot of features that Bonsai has...

Pros:

I love how easy it was to whitelabel and have a customer portal that easily looked like it was a part of our website.

Cons:

The cost is a lot. We ended up switching to Indy because we needed basic project management features without spending a ton.

Excellent product

Comments: Love it and would 100% recommend it.

Pros:

Bonsai has every integrated feature I need as a freelancer. From time tracking to invoice creation, it handles all my administration needs with ease.

Cons:

It has automated actions that are unnecessary, like asking to notify clients. However, this doesn't impact my day-to-day use of the product.

I am OBSESSED!!

Comments: I love it!

Pros:

I refer all my clients and followers to use Bonsai

Cons:

There are still some features missing that could enhance the business even more, like NDA's and employee contracts

Would recommend to any new small business / freelancer

Pros:

The ease of use and contract/invoice customisation.

Cons:

Cant fault bonsai thus far, it has fulfilled every need.

Great Product

Pros:

Bonsai has one of the best platforms for proposals and has changed the game for our business

Cons:

The cost for the platform seems to keep rising and is a touch much for having a lot of functions that we dont use.

educational

Pros:

easy to learn when it comes to choosing your new business tool.

Cons:

expensive when it comes to choosing your new business tool need more trial periods

I love Bonsai!

Comments: Love it, it is perfect for running a small LLC.

Pros:

I have recommended Bonsai to just about everyone I know who runs a small business. I love how easy

Cons:

Sometimes I forget about the automation and Bonsai will send out invoices to my clients without me approving/adjusting them beforehand.

Amazing project management system

Pros:

I enjoy using the proposal and contract feature. I am able to send my clients a detailed proposal about my services and prices and have them easily sign a contract to protect myself and the client.

Cons:

I wish the scheduling feature was more customizable as far as blocking off time or opening a specific date without having to open that day of the week entirely.

Great for Freelancers and Software Development Agencies

Comments: Overall I love Bonsai and it is a great value for all that is included.

Pros:

This software makes it super easy for me to write up contracts for my clients, collect their payments, and keep track of my existing clients along with potential leads. If you are a freelancer and you need templates for contracts and proposals, I would say this Bonsai is worth it for that alone, but when you add in the ability to collect client payments.....You can't beat it.

Cons:

I believe that Bonsai is constantly improving its software and features. The only dislike I have with Bonsai is that you cannot get instant pay right away, and starting out it will take 7-10 business days to receive your payouts.

affordable and efficient

Comments: Love this site

Pros:

Electronic signatures in seconds and it is amazing

Cons:

More free features as it helps us decide

Bonsai has been so helpful as a freelancer!

Pros:

I like how easy it is to use the program for creating and sending out contracts and invoices and tracking the time I take for each project. It is well organized and easy to find what I'm looking for on the program. Their customer service has also been very helpful. They easily took care of the problem I had and got back to me within a reasonable time.

Cons:

It took me some extra time to figure out the payout part and how to get my money into the bank accounts.

Great Program!

Comments: Have loved it so far and loved how easily it integrated into our business and from day one streamlined our workflow process!!

Pros:

So easy to use and packed full of awesomeness! Seamless integration it was a great free trial and we will move forward!

Cons:

There were no cons that I have come across so far. It's been great.

Business Owner's Best Friend

Pros:

It's super user-friendly! The interface is also super smooth!

Cons:

Nothing! I've been using it for a couple months now and it's perfect! I do hope that I can add a custom contract and not have to use a template some day!

Not Happy

Comments: Not great. I had to cancel my credit card for fear of it being compromised and not being able to get into my account despite my doing what they said.

Pros:

I am on the more expensive team tier, I pay about $80 a month. My account was compromised and despite changing my password multiple times I am still unable to get into my account and have not received a response form Bonsai Customer service despite numerous attempts to reach them.

Cons:

Poor customer service and lack of response from their team.