HoneyBook vs Bonsai vs Dubsado vs Moxie vs Velo: An Honest 2026 Comparison

Every freelancer eventually hits the point where the Google Docs proposal, the spreadsheet of hours and the separate invoicing app stop working together. That's when you start searching for an all-in-one tool, and the same five names keep coming up.

We build one of them, so we'll be upfront about that. This comparison tries to be useful even if you don't choose Velo: we've listed where each tool is genuinely strongest.

Pricing is the monthly-billing list price from each vendor's public pricing page in September 2026. Annual billing is cheaper on all of them. Prices and features change, so check before you buy.

Pricing compared

Two things the table doesn't show:

• What's in the entry plan. Bonsai's $15 Basic plan doesn't include invoicing or proposals. Those start at Essentials ($25). HoneyBook's workflow automation starts at Essentials ($59). On Velo, multi-currency invoicing and client portals start at Studio ($49).
• Payment processing fees. Tools that process card payments for you charge processing fees on every invoice paid through them. HoneyBook, for example, lists 2.9% + $0.25 for standard card payments. On a $5,000 invoice, that's roughly $145.

Payments: built-in processing vs your own provider

This is the biggest structural difference between these tools, and it's worth understanding before comparing features.

HoneyBook, Bonsai and Dubsado all offer built-in payment processing. The convenience is real: the client pays inside the tool, and it's marked paid automatically. The trade-offs are the processing fees, payout timing, and your money passing through another platform's account.

Velo takes the other approach: it doesn't process payments at all. You paste the payment link you already use (Stripe, PayPal, Wise, Razorpay, Square or any other), and Velo puts it on every invoice, with the provider's real logo. It can also generate a UPI QR code. Clients pay you directly, at your provider's rates, and nothing sits in an intermediary account. The trade-off: you mark invoices paid yourself (or via the API), because Velo isn't in the payment flow.

Which is better depends on you. If you want one-click everything and don't mind the fee, built-in processing is simpler. If you already have a provider you're happy with, work across countries, or bill large amounts, bringing your own link is usually cheaper and more flexible.

Feature-by-feature

Based on each vendor's public pricing and feature pages in September 2026. If you're choosing on one specific feature, like time tracking, AI or an API, confirm it in a trial, because these change quickly.

HoneyBook: best for US-based creative service businesses

Strengths: HoneyBook's "smart files" combine the proposal, contract and invoice into one document the client completes in a single sitting, which suits photographers, planners and designers who book lots of similar jobs. Built-in payments, e-signatures and scheduling all work together, and AI features are included in every plan.

Watch out for: no free plan, automation only from the $59 plan, processing fees on payments, and sign-up limited to the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. If you're in India, the EU or elsewhere, it's not an option.

Bonsai: best for freelancers who want contracts, scheduling and reports in one

Strengths: a broad toolkit covering proposals, contracts with e-signatures, scheduling, time tracking, a client portal, and profit reports on higher plans, plus integrations with accounting tools.

Watch out for: per-user pricing, which multiplies quickly for teams. The $15 Basic plan doesn't include invoicing, and there's no free plan.

Dubsado: best for automation power users

Strengths: the most flexible automation of the group, with branching workflows, conditional forms and multi-step client journeys. Three seats are included.

Watch out for: a steeper setup and learning curve, and prices rose in December 2025 (Starter from $20 to $35 per month).

Moxie: best value for solo freelancers

Strengths: a wide feature set, including proposals, contracts, invoicing, time, pipeline, scheduling and forms, at a low monthly price, with a straightforward interface.

Watch out for: fewer advanced reporting and team features than the pricier tools, and a smaller integration ecosystem.

Velo: best for connected work, from quote to paid

Strengths:

• One record from lead to paid. An approved proposal becomes the project, milestones and budget. Logged hours become invoice lines. You type the scope once.
• Ask Velo. Type or say "Invoice Northwind for the homepage redesign, 40,000, due in 15 days," and a priced, taxed invoice comes back ready to review. It understands English, Hindi and Hinglish, and it also works from WhatsApp.
• A portal clients actually open. One private link per client with a passcode: no account, no password reset.
• Your money, your provider. No processing fees from us and no cut of your invoices. Clients pay you directly.
• Designed documents. Seven invoice and proposal themes and a studio for layout, type and colour, exported as true A4 PDFs.
• A free plan to try it on a real client, and a public REST API on every paid plan.
• You decide what's on. Every reminder, digest and notification can be switched off.
• E-signed contracts next to one-click proposal approval, so the scope and the signature live on the same record.
• Scheduling and booking pages, so a discovery call lands straight in your pipeline.
• QuickBooks and Xero sync, so your accountant gets clean records without exports.

Worth knowing: by design, Velo won't process card payments itself. Clients pay you directly through your own provider, so there's no processing fee from us and no cut of your invoices.

Which one should you choose?

• Solo freelancer on a tight budget: Moxie, or Velo's free plan while you have one client.
• US/UK/AU creative with lots of similar bookings: HoneyBook.
• You live in automations and custom workflows: Dubsado.
• You need contracts, scheduling and accounting-style reports together: Bonsai.
• Studio or agency that wants proposals, contracts, scheduling, projects, time and invoices joined up in one record, across currencies, while keeping its own payment provider: Velo.

Whichever you pick, run a real client through it during the trial: send a proposal, log some time, issue an invoice and chase it. You'll learn more in one week of real work than from any comparison table, including this one.