HoneyBook vs Bonsai vs Dubsado for Freelancers (2026)
Clients keep asking where to pay.
HoneyBook Starter if you book jobs in the US, UK, Canada, or Australia.
Bonsai Essentials if you bill hours (Basic can’t invoice).
Dubsado Premier if you need Flows or ACH that caps at $5.
Skip all three if you only need a document.
These three are different jobs, not three prices for the same app. HoneyBook is the client file you book and get paid from. Bonsai is time on a project into an invoice. Dubsado is Flows and a small team when the booking file alone isn’t enough. Fee tables and the $2,000 math sit at the bottom as proof.
Prices from first-party pages retrieved 2 September 2026 and re-checked the same day at publish. They change.
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Quick take
| Job | Start here | Comparable plan (first-party, 2 Sep 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Creative client file in US / Canada / UK / Australia | HoneyBook | Starter $29/mo billed yearly ($348/year) |
| Hourly time → invoice | Bonsai | Essentials $19/user/mo billed yearly ($228/year) — not Basic |
| You (or the entity) sit outside HoneyBook’s four countries | HoneyBook is unavailable | Bonsai Essentials+ and/or Dubsado (see geo) |
| Automation / small studio / global ACH cap | Dubsado | Premier $525/year (Flows, scheduling, public proposals, Zapier, bookkeeping are Premier) |
| Documents only, or invoices only | Buy none of these | PandaDoc, or Wave / FreshBooks (no prices quoted) |
HoneyBook Starter already includes invoices, payments, proposals, and contracts. Bonsai Basic does not. Dubsado Starter invoices and portals, but does not include scheduling, automated workflows, public proposals, Zapier, or bookkeeping integration.
Some third-party three-ways still quote Dubsado at $20–$40/month. HoneyBook’s own comparison says Dubsado “Starts at $35/month” (HoneyBook: Dubsado vs HoneyBook). That is HoneyBook’s claim, not a Dubsado first-party monthly sticker. Our 2 September 2026 fetch of dubsado.com/pricing showed an annual table only: Starter $335/yr, Premier $525/yr, plus “Choose annual and get 2 months worth of savings.” We did not invent monthly $35 / $55.
Three-column prices
All USD.
| HoneyBook | Bonsai | Dubsado | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Source (2 Sep 2026) | honeybook.com/pricing | hellobonsai.com/pricing | dubsado.com/pricing |
| Trial | 30 days, no credit card; 60-day money-back | 7 days full access | 21 days, full Premier, no credit card |
| Yearly sticker | Starter $29/mo billed yearly ($348/yr); Essentials $49/mo yearly; Premium $109/mo yearly | Per user: Basic $9; Essentials $19; Premium $29; Elite $49 (Elite: 3-user minimum) | Annual table only: Starter $335/yr; Premier $525/yr |
| Monthly list (same pages) | Page leads with yearly; this draft does not invent a Starter monthly sticker | Basic $15 / Essentials $25 / Premium $39 / Elite $59 per user | Not captured. Copy: choose annual and get 2 months worth of savings. |
| Comparable all-in-one | Starter: invoices, payments, proposals, contracts, calendar, templates, portal, up to 2 live lead forms, HoneyBook AI | Essentials ($228/yr): invoices & payments, proposals & contracts, templates, forms, scheduling, portal, expense + income. Basic has none of those billing docs. | Both plans: email integration, unlimited projects/clients, invoicing & payment plans, form & email templates, client portals, calendar connection, email & live chat, mobile app. Starter: 1 active lead form. Premier adds unlimited lead forms + bookkeeping + scheduling + automated workflows + public proposals + Zapier. |
| Extra seats / brands | Essentials: up to 2 team members. Premium: unlimited team members, multiple companies. | Per user. Elite’s 3-user floor — skip as a solo. | Exact wording: “Enjoy 3 additional users for free.” Then “4–10 users: $25/mo; 11–20: $45/mo; 21–30: $60/mo; 30+ email hello@dubsado.com.” Additional brands: $10/mo each. This page does not convert that into an invented owner+seats total. |
| Paid CTA | No. Vendor URL only. | No until a real tracking URL exists. | No until a real tracking URL exists. |
HoneyBook scheduler, automations, QBO, SMS, and removing “Powered by HoneyBook” start at Essentials ($588/year), not Starter.
Geo
| HoneyBook | Bonsai | Dubsado | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who can subscribe | US, Canada, UK, Australia (UK/Australia launch, 21 May 2026; homepage geo gate) | No HoneyBook-style four-country product gate on the pricing page we fetched | Not geo-gated the way HoneyBook is. Confirm in-account. |
| Built-in payments | HoneyBook processing (US page retrieved) | Bonsai Payments: US, UK, Canada, Australia (help, 18 Jun 2026). Stripe / PayPal where those processors work. | Dubsado Payments: 39 countries (help, 14 Jul 2026). If your country is not listed, Dubsado Payments is not available. |
| UK / AU currency | Launch post: subscriptions in GBP or AUD | Confirm in-product | Pricing page: all prices are in USD |
Outside those four countries, HoneyBook is not a candidate. Pick Bonsai and/or Dubsado on the job, not a US sticker you cannot buy.
Payment fees and $2,000 math
HoneyBook sources: pricing-page processing section and the 22 December 2025 blog (honeybook-payment-fees). Flag: those surfaces do not match.
Bonsai: help 18 June 2026 (payment methods and fees) and hellobonsai.com/payments (cards 2.9% + $0.30; ACH as low as 1%).
Dubsado: processing fees, 14 July 2026. Instant Payouts fee cell did not parse — not invented.
| HoneyBook | Bonsai Payments (US/UK/CA/AU) | Dubsado Payments (US merchant) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACH / bank | 1.5% (pricing page and blog agree) | 1.0% ($1 minimum) | 0.8% up to a $5 maximum; failed ACH $4; ACH dispute $15 |
| Standard cards | Blog: 2.9% + $0.25 (Visa/Mastercard, cardholder-entered). Pricing: “Card fees start at 2.7% + 10¢.” Same-page feature table: “Fees starting at 2.9% + 25¢.” | 2.9% + $0.30 | US-based cards 2.9% + $0.30; international cards 4.4% + $0.30 |
| Amex | Blog: 3.4% + $0.09 (Amex and Discover) | 3.25% + $0.30 | Not separately itemized on the US card row we used (not invented) |
| Card-on-file | Blog: 3.4% + $0.09 | Not separately itemized | Not separately itemized |
| Instant payout | +1%, pending eligibility; cards only, ~30 min; ACH not eligible | +1.5% | % not published in the parsed cell |
| Stripe or PayPal instead | n/a (processing is built in) | Where Bonsai Payments exists: extra 1% platform fee (1.35% Amex via Stripe) | Dubsado Payments is Stripe-based per the fee article; no second “platform fee” invented here |
| FX / international | Pricing page: no international fees. Blog table does not publish a HoneyBook FX rate. | 2.5% of the invoice (Bonsai Payments or Stripe Payments), 18 Jun 2026 help | Conversion 1–2% may apply on some international payments; not controlled by Dubsado. Issuer FX is the card issuer’s. |
| Cash / check / offline | No HoneyBook fee if taken outside HoneyBook | No Bonsai fee; mark paid | Confirm in-product; not invented |
HoneyBook may discount cards above $500,000/year on Premium — not a typical freelancer rate. Visa math uses the blog table; 2.7% + 10¢ is the competing on-page claim, not the winner.
$2,000 invoice
| How the client pays | HoneyBook (blog) | Bonsai (help) | Dubsado Payments US |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACH | $30.00 → net $1,970 | $20.00 → net $1,980 | $5.00 (0.8% would be $16; $5 max) → net $1,995 |
| Visa / Mastercard (US, entered) | $58.25 → net $1,941.75 | $58.30 → net $1,941.70 | $58.30 → net $1,941.70 |
| If you used HoneyBook “start at 2.7% + 10¢” | $54.10 — $4.15 below the blog Visa rate. Confirm checkout. | — | — |
| Instant on a card payment | extra $20 (+1%) | extra $30 (+1.5%) | Not calculated — Instant % not parsed |
| Extra 1% Bonsai platform fee (Stripe/PayPal in a Bonsai Payments country) | — | extra ~$20 on top of processor fees | — |
| FX 2.5% (Bonsai international online) | — | extra $50 on top of processor fees | Dubsado: 1–2% conversion may apply (not Dubsado-controlled) — not turned into a $ figure |
Visa is a tie: HoneyBook blog $58.25 vs Bonsai/Dubsado $58.30. ACH is the split: HoneyBook $30, Bonsai $20, Dubsado $5. That cap is why “global ACH” is a real job.
Twelve $2,000 invoices ($24,000 billed). Bonsai Basic omitted (cannot invoice). Dubsado Starter invoices but cannot run Premier Flows/scheduling.
| Yearly software | 12× ACH | 12× Visa/MC | Software + ACH | Software + Visa/MC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HoneyBook Starter | $348 | $360 | $699 | $708 | $1,047 |
| Bonsai Essentials | $228 | $240 | $699.60 | $468 | $927.60 |
| Dubsado Starter | $335 | $60 | $699.60 | $395 | $1,034.60 |
| Dubsado Premier | $525 | $60 | $699.60 | $585 | $1,224.60 |
On cards, processing dominates. On ACH, Dubsado’s $5 cap compounds. That does not make Premier a cheaper HoneyBook — you buy it for Flows/scheduling/public proposals/Zapier/bookkeeping. HoneyBook’s closest automation tier is Essentials at $588/year, still a different product than Premier at $525/year.
Job-to-be-done matrix
| Need | HoneyBook | Bonsai | Dubsado |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proposal → sign → pay | Starter: proposals, contracts, invoices, portal | From Essentials | Invoicing on both plans. Public proposals = Premier. Calendar connection on both; scheduling = Premier. |
| Lead capture | Plan card: up to 2 live forms on Starter | CRM on Basic; forms on Essentials | Starter: 1 active lead form. Premier: unlimited. |
| Scheduler / automations | Essentials+. Starter has a calendar, not the scheduler. | Scheduling from Essentials; table lists 1 event type on lower plans — confirm in-product | Premier: scheduling + automated workflows. Starter does not. |
| Time → invoice | Not what the plan cards sell | This is the product from Essentials (time on Basic; invoice from Essentials) | Create-invoice help: “Add time tracking” converts tracked time into line items. Nuance only. The hourly job still points at Bonsai Essentials. |
| Expenses / books | QBO on Essentials | Expense + income on Essentials; QBO on Premium; Xero on Elite | Bookkeeping integration = Premier |
| AI | HoneyBook AI on listed plans | No AI suite on the 2 Sep 2026 pricing page | Not claimed here |
| Second person / studio | Essentials (up to 2); Premium unlimited | Per user | “3 additional users for free,” then paid bands. Extra brand: $10/mo. |
| Outside US/CA/UK/AU | Not available | Yes. Budget 2.5% FX; +1% if you bypass Bonsai Payments in a Bonsai Payments country | Product + Dubsado Payments in 39 merchant countries. Confirm on the fee article. |
| Remove vendor badge | Essentials | Premium | Confirm in-product; not invented |
| Zapier | Confirm by plan | Premium integrations list includes Zapier | Premier only |
Time-on-invoice nuance: Dubsado help (create an invoice, retrieved 2 Sep 2026) converts tracked time into line items. That does not move the hourly job off Bonsai Essentials.
Don’t buy any of them
Buy an all-in-one when the handoff is leaking money.
- Documents only: PandaDoc (no prices quoted).
- Invoices only: Wave or FreshBooks.
- Timer and tasks only: Bonsai Basic ($9/user/mo billed yearly). Do not upgrade until you will send a contract.
- Already on Stripe + a contract tool: migrating “for payments” can add Bonsai’s 2.5% FX and, in Bonsai Payments countries, a 1% platform fee if you keep Stripe/PayPal.
Recommendations by user type
1. Creative client file (photo, design, wedding/event, brand) in US/CA/UK/AU: HoneyBook Starter, $348/year. Step up for scheduler, automations, SMS, a second seat, or QuickBooks. Do not choose Bonsai Essentials on price unless you live on timesheets. Do not choose Dubsado Premier to “save versus HoneyBook.”
2. Hourly time → invoice → tax: Bonsai Essentials, $228/year (vendor URL only) — not Basic. Premium for QuickBooks, Gantt, profit reports, or dropping Bonsai branding. Dubsado’s time-to-line-item button is a 3-way footnote, not a swap.
3. Outside HoneyBook’s four countries: HoneyBook is unavailable. Use Bonsai Essentials+ and/or Dubsado on the remaining jobs. On Bonsai, price in 2.5% FX and the extra 1% if you bypass Bonsai Payments in a Bonsai Payments country. On Dubsado, confirm your country on the 39-country fee article before assuming Dubsado Payments exists.
4. Automation / small studio / global ACH: Dubsado Premier, $525/year. You are paying for Flows, scheduling, public proposals, Zapier, bookkeeping, extra-user bands as published, and US ACH at $5 max on a $2,000 invoice. Starter at $335/year is the wrong plan for this job. This is not “HoneyBook, but cheaper.”
5. Documents-only or invoice-only: buy none. PandaDoc for the file; Wave or FreshBooks for invoices.
Trials: HoneyBook 30 days (no card) + 60-day money-back; Bonsai 7 days; Dubsado 21 days of Premier, no card. Test one real client file. Re-check prices on publish or buy day.
Sources
Retrieved 2 September 2026 unless dated on the page. Prices change.
HoneyBook: pricing; fees blog 22 Dec 2025; UK/AU geo 21 May 2026; “Starts at $35/month” claim. Bonsai: pricing; payments; fees 18 Jun 2026. Dubsado: pricing; Payments fees 14 Jul 2026; create invoice / time; affiliate program (no SoloAI tracking). Live 2-way: https://usesoloai.com/honeybook-vs-bonsai-freelancers/. Homepages: honeybook.com · hellobonsai.com · dubsado.com. Escape hatches (no prices): pandadoc.com · waveapps.com · freshbooks.com.