Bonsai vs Moxie (2026): Which Is Better?

The short version

Bonsai and Moxie are the two cheapest serious products in this category and they are priced on opposite models.

Bonsai charges per user on all four plans. Moxie charges per account and caps the team instead, at five members on its top plan.

There is a second difference that matters more than the price. Bonsai Basic at $9 a user cannot send an invoice or a proposal, while Moxie Starter at $10 a month includes invoicing, proposals, contracts and time tracking.

At a glance

Per user against per account

Bonsai Essentials costs $19 a user each month on annual billing, so one person pays $19 a month and five people pay $95 a month for the same feature set.

Moxie Teams costs $32 a month on annual billing and covers up to five team members at that one price.

Moxie also separates collaborators from seats. A project collaborator can track time on a project and view, edit and create deliverables without occupying a paid team seat, and Moxie includes unlimited project collaborators from the Pro plan.

What the entry plan actually does

Bonsai Basic at $9 a user each month on annual billing includes time tracking, task management, unlimited projects, a CRM, a service library, the mobile apps and unlimited clients. Invoices and payments, and proposals and contracts, both start on Bonsai Essentials.

A freelancer comparing $9 against $10 should know that the $9 plan cannot bill anyone.

Moxie Starter at $10 a month on annual billing includes client management, project management, invoicing and payments, proposals, quotes and contracts, time tracking, a sales pipeline, basic accounting, a form builder, meeting schedulers and an AI assistant.

White-label and the client portal

Moxie puts a white-labeled client portal and a custom domain on the Pro plan, which is $20 a month on annual billing. Moxie Pro is the cheapest white-labeled client portal of any product compared on this site.

Bonsai lists white-label branding and custom domain on its pricing page with an asterisk reading "Features expected to be released in 2026", so Bonsai does not have them today. Bonsai does allow the Bonsai branding to be removed from the Premium plan at $29 a user each month.

The Bonsai client portal starts on Essentials. The Moxie client portal starts on Pro and arrives white-labeled rather than as a separate upgrade.

Who should choose what

Choose Bonsai for a single freelancer who wants the widest feature set in one product, particularly the reporting on Premium and the accounting integrations, and who is not planning to add people.

Choose Moxie for anyone who will have more than one person, or who wants a branded client portal cheaply. Moxie Pro at $20 a month is a genuinely low price for a white-labeled portal with a custom domain.

The ceiling is the thing to check with Moxie. Moxie publishes no plan for more than five team members, so a studio planning to pass five should confirm that cost first.

Three years, in total

The totals below use annual billing on both products and are our own arithmetic, not figures either vendor prints.

One person pays within $36 either way across three years. Five people pay $3,420 on Bonsai and $1,152 on Moxie, a difference of $2,268 for the same three years.

Verdict by category

Cheapest for one person: Bonsai Essentials at $19 a month, by a single dollar.

Cheapest for a team: Moxie, because Moxie prices per account and Bonsai prices per user.

Entry plan that can actually bill: Moxie, because Bonsai Basic has no invoicing.

Branded client portal: Moxie, which white-labels the portal on its $20 a month plan.

Reporting: Bonsai, whose Premium plan adds profit and productivity reports and a Gantt view.

Trying before buying: Moxie, with 14 days against seven.

Growing past five people: neither, because Bonsai multiplies and Moxie publishes no larger plan.

Where AgencyKit fits

AgencyKit is billed per account rather than per user: $9 a month on Starter, $39 on Agency and $69 on Agency Pro, with a 14-day free trial of Agency Pro and no credit card.

AgencyKit sits above both on team capacity and below Bonsai on cost at any team size. The AgencyKit Agency plan is $32.50 a month on annual billing for up to ten team members, against $95 a month for five people on Bonsai Essentials.

Against Moxie the honest comparison is closer. Moxie Teams at $32 a month covers five people and AgencyKit Agency at $32.50 a month covers ten, so the price is effectively the same and the difference is the ceiling. Moxie also puts white-label on a $20 plan where AgencyKit gates it at $69, which is a real advantage to Moxie for a solo freelancer who wants a branded portal.