Hello Bonsai Alternatives 2026: 5 Bonsai Competitors Ranked (After the Zoom Deal)

Bonsai is now a Zoom company. If your team is growing, you bill hourly, or you text clients, read this first. Five Bonsai alternatives, ranked for switchers, plus our number one pick. Zoom announced it was buying Bonsai on November 5, 2025. The deal closed in December 2025.

Zoom says that over time, Bonsai's features move into Zoom itself. Today, nothing is broken. Plans and prices are live. And the pricing page footer now reads: Bonsai, a Zoom company. Here is Bonsai, per user: Basic, $15, tracks time.

Invoices, proposals and the portal start on Essentials, at $25. That per-user math is why teams leave: two people, $50. Three, $75. Five, $125, or $195 with QuickBooks sync. Voyager covers the same five people for $104.

Elite needs at least three users: $177 a month to start. To be fair, Bonsai still wins on a $15 solo timer, Gantt and workload views on Premium, and profitability reports. Stay with Bonsai if you work solo, you bill by the hour, and $25 a month covers everything you use. Look elsewhere if your team keeps growing, you want texts and calls beside each client, or you need accounting sync without $39 a seat. We ranked each one on tracked time to invoice, team pricing, proposals and contracts, and talking to clients.

Price comes last, because the daily work decides whether a switch sticks. Most Bonsai users start their day on the timer, so check that first. Why it matters: miss four hours a month, at $90 an hour, and that is $4,320 a year. Cheapest plan with time tracking: Moxie Starter, $12. Bonsai Basic, $15.

Plutio Core, $19. Workspace369 Voyager, $74 for two. The price that matters is the plan where tracked hours become an invoice. On Bonsai, invoicing starts on Essentials. That makes $25 the real hourly price.

Number one: Workspace369, from $29 a month. Bonsai users live on the timer. On Voyager: start it, stop it, bill the entries, and they land on the invoice. Proposals come on every plan: send it, the client opens it, signs through a link, and on Specialist, pays the deposit. Every invoice can carry a pay link: the client opens it, pays online, it is marked paid, and the app updates.

Bonsai's service library has a match: set the service price, enter your cost, and see the gross margin. Every plan. Projects come on every plan, up to five on Cadet: budget and progress, the task board, and a card moves to done. New work can arrive on its own. On Voyager, someone submits your form, the request arrives, and you convert it to a client.

On Specialist, clients choose a service, pick a time, confirm, and the booking lands on your calendar. Bonsai's plans don't list texting. On Voyager, email and texts share one client thread, with an AI summary, and you reply right there. Specialist adds business calls, voicemail and basic accounting, for ten seats. And your phone tells you as it happens: proposal viewed, accepted, and an invoice paid in full.

Email automations start on Cadet: an overdue invoice, a reminder, switched on. Newer means one clean design: laptop, tablet and phone. A client pays, every screen updates. One app, every device. The plans, monthly: Cadet, $29 for one seat.

Voyager, $74 for two. Specialist, $149 for ten. Extra seats are $10 from Voyager. Every plan has a 14-day free trial. Second: Moxie, the closest swap if you work solo and bill hourly.

Starter, $12, already tracks time and does basic accounting. Pro, $25, adds automations and a phone line. Teams is $40 a month, flat for up to five members. Billed yearly, the three plans are $10, $20 and $32. Five people on Bonsai Essentials is $125.

On Moxie Teams, $40. The catch: Teams stops at five members, so a sixth hire means a new plan. Third: Plutio, one flat price with time tracking on every plan. Core, $19, allows nine active clients. Pro, $49, lifts the cap and includes 30 contributors.

Max is $199. Nine clients feels roomy, until number ten signs. Then Pro, at $49, is the real price. Core includes 900 workflow actions a month. Pro, 5,500.

Projects, invoices, contracts, schedulers and forms come on every plan. Fourth: Dubsado, if automation matters more than the hourly timer. Starter is $35 a month. Premier, $55, adds scheduling and automated workflows. Starter keeps invoices, payment plans and portals, but one active lead form.

Premier adds unlimited forms and a bookkeeping integration. Three extra users are free on both plans, and the trial runs 21 days. Running two businesses? Extra brands are $10 a month each. Fifth: HoneyBook, the most guided setup for creative work.

Starter, $36. Essentials, $59, adds automations and a second team member. Premium, $129, for bigger teams. Where it beats Bonsai: polished client files, and two live lead forms even on Starter. Its plan list doesn't include time tracking, so hourly billers should look elsewhere.

Entry plans, monthly: Moxie $12, Bonsai $15 a user, Plutio $19, Workspace369 $29, Dubsado $35, HoneyBook $36. For a team of five, monthly: Moxie Teams, $40. Plutio Pro, $49. Workspace369 Voyager, $104. Bonsai Essentials, $125.

So no, Workspace369 is not the cheapest for five. It is the one where texts, time and invoices share one client record. The trials differ: Dubsado, 21 days. Moxie and Workspace369, 14. Bonsai and Plutio, seven.

Use each trial on one real client: the enquiry, the proposal, the signed agreement, the invoice, and the payment. Before you cancel Bonsai, export your client list, open invoices, unbilled time, and signed contracts. Then bill any unbilled time in Bonsai, let open invoices get paid there, and start new work in the new tool. Then it is moving day: pack the client list, carry it over by CSV, and settle in. In Workspace369, on every plan: upload the CSV, check the mapped columns, and import your clients.

Keep both tools for one billing cycle. Cancel Bonsai after a client pays you through the new setup. The ranking: Workspace369. Moxie. Plutio.

Dubsado. HoneyBook. By situation: solo and hourly on a budget, Moxie. Under ten clients, Plutio. Deep automation, Dubsado.

A growing team that texts clients, Workspace369. And your clients see it too: share the project, they verify, see progress, and find their invoices. Export your Bonsai data first, then run one real client through each trial.