Onvoy vs Bonsai

Bonsai is the freelancer's paperwork-and-money Swiss army knife: proposals, contracts, invoicing, time tracking, even tax estimates, at a famously accessible price. Onvoy is a single sharp blade: client onboarding as one branded link.

Bonsai gives you the pieces of onboarding — a form here, a contract there. Onvoy gives you the assembled sequence, with progress tracking and reminders doing the follow-up.

As of mid-2026, Bonsai starts around $15–21 per user/month with Professional around $32 per user/month — note the per-user pricing as teams grow. Onvoy is free to start, with Starter at $29/month and Pro at $79/month. Always check current pricing on both sites.

Feature by feature

FeatureOnvoyBonsai
One link for the client, no account needed
Client completes everything via one branded link, no account needed
Client portal add-on exists; documents typically arrive separately
Guided multi-step intake with progress
Multi-step flow with visible progress
Forms and questionnaires, individually sent
File collection
Drag-and-drop uploads inside the flow
Via forms; not a first-class step
E-signatures
Agreement + signature built into the flow
Strong contract templates with signing
Deposit / payment collection
Deposit collected as a flow step
Full invoicing with payment processing
Automatic stall reminders
Automatic nudges when a client stalls
Invoice reminders yes; onboarding-step nudges no
CRM / lead pipeline
By design — bring your own CRM
Lightweight CRM included
Invoicing, expenses & tax tooling
Deposits in-flow; not a billing system
A core strength
Setup time
First onboarding live in an afternoon
Quick to start; sequencing stays manual
Free tier
Free plan; Starter $29/mo, Pro $79/mo
Trial; paid from ~$15–21/user/mo — per-user as teams grow

Where Bonsai wins

  • Breadth per dollar

    Contracts, proposals, invoicing, time tracking, expenses, and tax tooling in one inexpensive subscription. For a solo freelancer consolidating admin, it's hard to beat on coverage.

  • Legal template library

    Bonsai's vetted contract templates for common freelance scenarios are genuinely good, and a major reason freelancers pick it.

  • Money management

    Invoicing, expense tracking, and tax estimates live where your contracts are. Onvoy collects a deposit during onboarding and stops there.

Where Onvoy wins

  • Assembled, not assorted

    In Bonsai, onboarding a client means sending a contract, then a form, then an invoice — three artifacts you sequence by hand. Onvoy makes them one flow behind one link, in order, with progress visible.

  • Chase prevention built in

    Per-step progress and inactivity reminders are the product, not a workaround. You see exactly where each client is stuck; the system nudges them so you don't.

  • A branded client experience

    Your logo, your colors, one guided sequence designed for someone completing it on a phone. It reads as 'your studio,' not 'a stack of freelancer paperwork.'

Which should you choose?

Choose Bonsai if…

Choose Bonsai if you're a solo freelancer whose pain is paperwork and money — contracts, invoices, expenses, taxes — and you want all of it in one affordable tool, accepting that onboarding remains a sequence you assemble and follow up on yourself.

Choose Onvoy if…

Choose Onvoy if onboarding itself is the bottleneck: you want the contract, deposit, questionnaire, and file collection to be one branded link, with the system tracking progress and chasing stalls — and you're happy keeping invoicing wherever it lives today.

Frequently asked questions

Is Onvoy a Bonsai alternative?
They overlap on contracts, e-signature, and collecting a first payment, but solve different core problems. Bonsai is freelance admin breadth (money and paperwork); Onvoy is onboarding depth (one guided flow with tracking and reminders). Plenty of freelancers use Bonsai for invoicing and Onvoy for onboarding.
Why not just use Bonsai's forms for onboarding?
You can — that's the duct-tape approach: send the contract, then the form, then the invoice, and follow up on each by hand. It works at low volume. The thing you can't assemble from pieces is the single sequenced link with progress tracking and automatic stall reminders, which is exactly the part that eliminates chasing.
Which is cheaper?
At one user they're comparable: Bonsai from around $15–21/month, Onvoy free to start and $29/month at Starter (as of mid-2026). Bonsai's per-user pricing matters if you're an agency — a five-person team changes the math. Compare against the job you're hiring the tool for, not the sticker.