Dubsado vs Bonsai vs OnBrio: Which Is Best for Agencies in 2026?

If you have spent any time researching client management tools for your agency, Dubsado and Bonsai have almost certainly come up. Both are well-marketed, both have real communities of loyal users, and both sit in a similar price range. But they are built for entirely different people — and picking the wrong one costs you weeks of setup time or, worse, months of working around limitations that were never going to disappear.

This post breaks down the honest strengths and weaknesses of each, compares pricing at real agency scale, and explains why a growing number of agencies are moving off both tools to something purpose-built.

Quick verdict

• Freelancers who want time tracking + simple billing: Bonsai is faster to set up and fits the solo freelancer model well, especially in the US.
• Solo operators who need advanced workflow automations: Dubsado's depth on conditional logic and multi-step automations is unmatched at this price point.
• Agencies with teams of 2 or more: Both tools show their cracks quickly. Neither was designed with multi-person agency operations in mind. OnBrio was.

Dubsado: strengths and weaknesses

Dubsado has been around since 2016 and has built a reputation as the go-to tool for freelancers who want serious automation without paying enterprise prices. At $20/month (billed annually), it is one of the more affordable options in the space — and for what it offers, that pricing is genuinely competitive.

Where Dubsado excels:

• Workflow automation depth. Dubsado's workflow builder lets you chain together conditional triggers across proposals, signatures, invoices, and tasks. You can build sequences like: send proposal on lead capture → wait for signature → auto-send invoice → set internal task reminders at 3-day intervals. For a solo operator who has refined their process, this kind of automation can eliminate hours of admin every week.
• Custom forms and questionnaires. The form builder is genuinely flexible. You can create multi-page intake forms with conditional logic, sub-agreements, and embedded scheduling. Photographers and brand strategists who ask clients a lot of pre-project questions tend to love this feature.
• No transaction fees. Dubsado does not take a cut of your payments. This is a major differentiator versus HoneyBook, which charges 2.9% + $0.25 on every transaction. On a $5,000 invoice, that is $145.25 in fees that Dubsado simply does not charge.
• Flat-rate pricing. The Starter plan ($20/mo annually) covers unlimited clients and projects. The only tier above it is the Premier plan ($40/mo), which adds a custom domain for the client portal.

Where Dubsado falls short:

• Steep learning curve. This is the most consistent complaint from new Dubsado users. Getting the tool properly configured — templates, workflows, payment processors, email integrations — typically takes 2 to 4 weeks for users who are learning as they go. Dubsado itself sells a "setup bootcamp" course, which tells you something about the expected complexity.
• Dated UI. The interface has not had a substantive visual refresh in years. It is functional, but it feels like a 2017 product in 2026.
• No project management. There are tasks, but there is no kanban board, no project timeline, no milestone tracking, and no way to manage deliverables across multiple clients in a single view.
• Team pricing is punishing. The team plan for Dubsado is $200/month for just three users. For a small agency, this is often the moment people start shopping for alternatives. See our full breakdown at OnBrio vs Dubsado.

Bonsai: strengths and weaknesses

Bonsai (formerly AND.CO) targets independent freelancers and positions itself as a full back-office for solos — proposals, contracts, invoicing, time tracking, and expense tracking all under one roof. At $25/month (billed annually), it sits slightly above Dubsado but makes up for it with a cleaner interface and built-in time tracking.

Where Bonsai excels:

• Built-in time tracking. Bonsai's time tracker is native to the app and integrates directly with invoicing. You log hours against a project, and Bonsai converts them to a line-itemised invoice automatically. For hourly freelancers, this alone can justify the subscription.
• Simple, clean UI. Bonsai is genuinely easy to use. The onboarding is well-designed, the templates are clean, and the proposal and contract experience feels modern. New users can send their first invoice within 30 minutes.
• Expense tracking. The expense tracking module is more developed than most competitors in this price range. You can log expenses, attach receipts, and include them on client invoices — useful for freelancers who pass costs through to clients.
• Tax estimates. Bonsai includes a basic tax estimation tool that calculates quarterly self-employment tax. For US-based freelancers managing their own books, this is a nice touch.

Where Bonsai falls short:

• Freelancer-first, not agency-first. The product is designed around a single operator managing their own pipeline. Team features exist (on the $85/month Business plan) but they were added later and feel bolted on rather than integrated.
• US-centric. Bonsai's tax tools, contract templates, and some payment features are built around US law and US payment rails. International freelancers frequently report limitations with non-USD invoicing and non-US contract templates.
• Limited automations. Compared to Dubsado, Bonsai's workflow automation is shallow. You can set up reminders and basic sequences, but there is nothing close to Dubsado's conditional workflow builder.
• No client portal depth. Bonsai has a client portal, but it is basic — primarily a document hub. There is no project progress visibility, no two-way collaboration, and no white-label branding on lower plans.

Feature comparison

Pricing breakdown

On the surface, Dubsado and Bonsai are similarly priced. But actual cost at agency scale diverges significantly, especially when you factor in team seats and transaction fees. Here is what a 3-person agency billing $10,000/month actually pays:

• Dubsado (team plan): $200/month for 3 users, no transaction fees = $200/month flat. The per-seat cost is steep, but there are no payment processing markups.
• Bonsai (Business plan): $85/month for 3 users + 2.9% on $10k invoiced = $85 + $290 = $375/month effective cost.
• OnBrio (Agency plan): $69/month for 5 team seats, no transaction fees = $69/month flat.

This comparison makes the value equation clear: for teams, Dubsado's flat-rate team plan is expensive even without transaction fees, Bonsai's transaction fees compound fast at volume, and OnBrio provides the lowest total cost with the most team seats included.

Both Dubsado and Bonsai offer free trials (Dubsado's covers up to 3 clients before purchase; Bonsai offers a 7-day free trial). OnBrio offers a 14-day free trial with full access.

Who should use each tool

Rather than declaring one tool universally better, here is an honest breakdown by user type:

• Use Dubsado if: You are a solo freelancer or consultant with complex intake workflows. You want to build detailed automations that fire across proposals, signatures, and invoices without paying for custom development. You are willing to invest 2–4 weeks in setup to unlock those automations. You send high-value invoices where 2.9% transaction fees would be costly.
• Use Bonsai if: You are a US-based freelancer who bills hourly. You want native time tracking that flows directly into invoices. You value a clean, simple UI over power-user features. You are a solo operator with no near-term plans to hire. You want basic expense tracking included in the plan.
• Use OnBrio if: You run an agency with two or more people. You need project management alongside CRM and billing — not as a separate tool. You want an AI copilot to help draft proposals based on past work. You want a white-labelled client portal that shows project progress, not just invoice status. You want to stop paying transaction fees at scale.

Why agencies are switching to OnBrio

The structural problem with both Dubsado and Bonsai is that neither was designed with a multi-person agency in mind. Dubsado's team plan pricing ($200/month for three seats) reflects a product that was never intended to be a team tool. Bonsai's Business plan adds team seats but the underlying product architecture still assumes a single operator.

Agencies operate differently. You have team members working on client deliverables simultaneously. You need to know which projects are on track and which are at risk — not just which invoices are unpaid. You need your proposals, projects, time logs, and invoices to talk to each other so that when it is time to invoice, you are not rebuilding context from four different systems.

OnBrio is built for exactly this. The $29/month Starter plan includes five team seats — more than either Dubsado or Bonsai's entry tier provides for solo users. The Agency plan at $69/month supports larger teams with advanced project management, AI-powered proposal drafting, and a fully white-labelled client portal. There are no transaction fees at any tier.

For agencies migrating off Dubsado, the workflow automations you depended on in Dubsado are replicated in OnBrio — and because the project management layer is native, you get automations that span CRM, projects, and billing together, not just CRM and billing in isolation.

Read the full comparisons: OnBrio vs Dubsado · OnBrio vs Bonsai · or see the full head-to-head in our HoneyBook vs Dubsado vs OnBrio comparison.

Common questions