Bonsai vs Invoice Ninja Comparison 2026
Bonsai bundles proposals, contracts, time tracking and invoicing in one client record, from $15 a month with no free plan. Invoice Ninja is invoicing, quotes and recurring bills only, free forever for up to five clients and open source enough to self-host instead of paying anything. The choice is whether the paperwork needs to include contracts and proposals alongside the invoice, or just needs the invoice done well and owned on your own terms.
Contracts, proposals and invoices in one place
Open-source invoicing, free for 5 clients
At a glance
- Invoice Ninja starts cheaper, at $14.
- Only Invoice Ninja has a free tier.
Side by side
Bonsai | Invoice Ninja | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $15 | From $14 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Paid subscription | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | 7 days | Not stated |
| API |
Bonsai
Contracts, proposals and invoices in one place
Bonsai carries the paperwork around freelance and agency work: a proposal, the contract it turns into, the time tracked against it and the invoice at the end, all holding the same client record. It is aimed at service businesses rather than at audiences, which makes it the tool for the half of a creator's income that arrives as brand work. There is no free plan, only a week to decide.
Our note
Worth it the first time a brand disputes what was agreed. Below roughly a deal a month, a contract template and the invoicing in a tool you already pay for cover the same ground for nothing.
Only on this side
- Covers legal & contracts
Invoice Ninja
Open-source invoicing, free for 5 clients
Invoice Ninja issues invoices, quotes and recurring bills, takes payment through a long list of gateways, and gives the whole thing away for up to five clients with no time limit and no invoice cap. The application is open source, so anybody who would rather hold their own data can run it on their own server instead of paying for the hosted version. Paying lifts the client limit and adds the branding and automation a business wants. Five clients is the ceiling that decides it, and it arrives sooner than most people expect.
Why people weigh these two
- Invoice Ninja instead of Bonsai
- Open-source invoicing, free for five clients; covers the getting-paid end alone against Bonsai's $15 full paperwork suite.
- Bonsai instead of Invoice Ninja
- Bonsai bundles contracts and proposals with the invoice itself, from $15 with no free tier, useful when the paperwork before the invoice matters as much as getting paid.
Which one should you pick
Choose Bonsai when the paperwork includes proposals and contracts, not just invoices, since Invoice Ninja's listing covers billing alone. It is $15 a month, or $9 a month billed annually, for the whole client record, with contracts included on every plan.
Choose Invoice Ninja for invoicing, quotes and recurring bills at no cost, so long as five clients is a real ceiling rather than a token one. Per its own note, count clients rather than invoices, since that is the limit that actually bites, and self-host only if you were maintaining a server anyway. Pro at $14 a month is barely cheaper than Bonsai's monthly rate but removes the client cap and adds branding and automation.
Common questions
- Which is cheaper, Bonsai or Invoice Ninja?
- Invoice Ninja is free forever for up to five clients with unlimited invoicing. Its Pro plan is $14 a month once you outgrow that, just under Bonsai's $15-a-month rate, though Bonsai drops to $9 a month if billed annually.
- Does Invoice Ninja handle contracts and proposals too?
- No, its listing describes invoices, quotes and recurring bills only. Bonsai is the one that bundles proposals and contracts alongside invoicing in the same client record.
- Can either run on my own server?
- Invoice Ninja is open source and self-hostable, so client data can stay off a vendor's server entirely. Bonsai's listing does not describe a self-hosted option.
- What is the free plan's real limit?
- Five clients, not five invoices. Invoice Ninja allows unlimited invoicing within that, so a handful of repeat clients can stay on the free plan indefinitely.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.