Dubsado vs HoneyBook vs Bonsai for Freelancers in 2026

HoneyBook runs three tiers: Starter at $29 a month, Essentials at $49 a month billed annually or $59 monthly, and Premium at $109 a month annually or $129 monthly, with a 30-day free trial and no card required, per HoneyBook's pricing page. Dubsado ran its first big increase in years on December 1, 2025 alongside the Dubsado 3.0 release: Starter is now $335 a year and Premier $525 a year, with pre-December subscribers grandfathered at the old $20 and $40 monthly rates, according to Dubsado. Bonsai charges per user, from $9 a month on Basic billed annually up to $49 a month on Elite, on hellobonsai.com.

The headline prices hide the real cost, which is how each one handles payments.

How you get paid, and what it costs

This is the line item that decides more than the subscription does. HoneyBook processes payments in-house and charges 2.7% + 10c per card payment and 1.5% on ACH bank transfers, per its pricing page. On $5,000 of monthly invoices paid by card, that is roughly $140 a month gone before you count the subscription.

Dubsado takes a different route. It charges you nothing on transactions because it does not process the money at all; you connect your own Stripe, PayPal, or Square, and those processors take their standard cut. Bonsai sits in the middle, charging per-transaction processing fees that vary by payment method and are not published as a single headline rate, so confirm the current card and ACH numbers in Bonsai's help center before you commit.

The pattern worth noticing: the suites that own your checkout tend to add a platform cut on top of card processing, while the ones that connect your own gateway leave you paying only the processor. A branded portal like Delivvo takes the second route to its logical end, letting clients pay direct through your own Stripe, PayPal, or regional gateway while the platform takes 0%. If payment fees are the deciding factor for you, our breakdown of the true cost of payment processing fees shows how quickly a percentage cut adds up against a flat monthly price.

The Zoom-Bonsai question

If you are choosing Bonsai in 2026, you are choosing a Zoom product. Zoom announced it was acquiring Bonsai on November 5, 2025, and the deal closed in December, per Zoom's own announcement. For now Bonsai stays a standalone brand, but Zoom has said it plans to fold Bonsai's features into the Zoom app over time.

That is not automatically bad. Zoom has resources Bonsai never did, and deeper integration with the video tool many freelancers already use could be genuinely useful. It is a stability question, not a scandal. If you value knowing exactly what your client-management tool will look like in two years, an independent option carries less roadmap risk. If you already live in Zoom and like the idea of one bill, the acquisition may be a plus. Go in with eyes open, and read our earlier take on what the Bonsai-Zoom deal changed for the fuller picture.

Automation and the learning curve

HoneyBook is the easiest to learn and the quickest to send something that looks professional. Its automations exist but stay simple, which is fine for most solo freelancers. Dubsado is the opposite trade: the steepest curve and the deepest payoff, with conditional workflows that can run an entire onboarding, delivery, and invoicing sequence hands-off. Budget a weekend to set it up properly. Bonsai lands between the two, friendly enough to start fast, with the accounting and tax features doing work the other two leave to a separate tool.

Whichever you pick, the point of all this software is the same: get more proposals in front of clients and get them signed. That matters because the average sales proposal closes at just 34%, and proposals sent with an e-signature step close at a 15% higher rate and 60% faster, according to Proposify's State of Proposals. The tool that gets a clean, signable document in front of a client fastest tends to win the work.

The verdict by freelancer type

Choose HoneyBook if you are newer, want the fastest path to a branded client experience, and would rather pay a payment cut than wire up your own processor. It is the smoothest on-ramp of the three.

Choose Dubsado if you run repeatable projects and want automation that pays you back every month in saved admin. The price is now a real commitment, but so is the time it saves, and keeping 0% on payments through your own gateway offsets the subscription.

Choose Bonsai if you want contracts, proposals, and books in one place and you are comfortable being on Zoom's roadmap. It is the strongest of the three on the accounting side.

There is a fourth path worth naming for context: if your core need is a clean, branded client portal for proposals, contracts, file delivery, and invoices, and you specifically want to keep every dollar of what clients pay, that is where a 0% platform earns its place. The independent workforce that all of these tools serve keeps growing: MBO Partners counted 72.9 million US independent workers in 2025, with 5.6 million earning more than $100,000, up 19% from the year before, per its State of Independence report. More of those people are treating this as a business, and the business tool matters.

Delivvo gives freelancers one branded portal for proposals, contracts, file delivery, and invoices, so the whole client relationship lives on one link instead of three tools and an inbox. Clients pay you directly through your own gateway, and Delivvo takes 0% of it. See how it works

Frequently asked questions

Which is cheapest for a solo freelancer in 2026?

Bonsai's Basic plan at $9 a month billed annually has the lowest sticker price, and Dubsado can be cheaper over a year than HoneyBook once you factor in payment fees, because Dubsado charges 0% on transactions. HoneyBook's $29 Starter is the cheapest fast-setup option, but its 2.7% + 10c card fee adds up if you invoice heavily.

Does Dubsado really charge nothing on payments?

Yes, on its side. Dubsado connects to your own Stripe, PayPal, or Square and does not add a platform fee, so you only pay your processor's standard rate. HoneyBook and Bonsai both process payments themselves and take a cut on top of processing.

Is Bonsai safe to buy now that Zoom owns it?

It is stable and still sold as a standalone product in 2026. Zoom closed the acquisition in December 2025 and plans to integrate Bonsai's features into the Zoom app over time, so the main question is roadmap certainty, not whether the tool works today.

Can I switch suites later without losing my data?

Mostly, yes, but expect manual work. You can export clients, invoices, and documents, but automations, templates, and active workflows have to be rebuilt in the new tool. Switch during a quiet month, not mid-project.

The takeaway

There is no universal winner here. HoneyBook wins on speed and simplicity if you accept its payment cut. Dubsado wins on automation and keeps your payment fees at zero if you invest the setup time. Bonsai wins on built-in accounting, with a Zoom-shaped question mark over its future. Match the suite to how you actually run projects and, above all, look hard at the payment fees, because that percentage is the number you will pay every single month.