Bonsai vs HoneyBook vs FreshBooks: best invoicing for freelancers in the UK and US (2026)

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Prices side by side

Prices were checked on 25 October 2026 on hellobonsai.com/pricing, honeybook.com/pricing (and its published price list) and freshbooks.com/pricing (US and UK). FreshBooks often runs launch discounts for the first few months; we list the full price you pay afterwards. Bonsai only shows US dollar prices. HoneyBook bills UK customers in pounds but only shows UK prices to UK visitors, so we list its US prices and mark the UK ones as unverified. VAT may be added on top.

Two gotchas are easy to miss. Bonsai's cheapest plan, Basic at $9 a month, does not include invoices or payments; invoicing starts on Essentials. And FreshBooks Lite counts both active and archived clients towards its limit of 5, so a freelancer with a steady trickle of small clients will hit it fast and need Plus.

Payment fees: what a $2,000 invoice costs to collect

These are the US rates each company publishes, applied to a single $2,000 invoice. It's our own arithmetic, so treat it as a guide; currency conversion, international cards and instant payouts cost extra.

• HoneyBook: card 2.7% + 10¢ = $54.10; bank transfer 1.5% = $30.00.
• FreshBooks: card 2.9% + $0.30 = $58.30; ACH 1% = $20.00.
• Bonsai Payments: card 2.9% + $0.30 = $58.30 (Amex 3.25% + $0.30); ACH 1% = $20.00.

HoneyBook is a little cheaper on cards and more expensive on bank transfers, so it depends how your clients like to pay. If most of your income arrives by bank transfer, FreshBooks or Bonsai saves you about $10 per $2,000 invoice. Bonsai's help centre also lists a 1% platform fee if you use Stripe or PayPal instead of Bonsai Payments where Bonsai Payments is available, and a 2.5% FX fee when you invoice in a different currency from your payout country. In the UK, FreshBooks caps the fee on direct debit (Bacs) payments at £4 per transaction, or £2 on Premium, which is very cheap for large invoices. We couldn't verify HoneyBook's UK card rates, so check them in your account.

Where each one is strongest

Bonsai: the freelancer's paperwork, cheapest per seat

Bonsai started as a freelancer tool and now pitches itself at agencies too, but its per-user pricing still suits a team of one. Essentials gives you invoices and online payments, proposals and contracts, all its templates, forms and questionnaires, scheduling, a client portal, and expense and income tracking, on top of the time tracking, tasks and CRM from Basic. Premium adds a deals pipeline, profit and productivity reports, removes Bonsai branding and unlocks integrations with QuickBooks, Xero, Zapier, Calendly and Google. The catch is the short 7-day trial, so have a real proposal and invoice ready to test before you start it.

HoneyBook: the client journey, start to finish

HoneyBook is built around the project rather than the invoice. A lead fills in your enquiry form, gets a proposal that combines the quote, contract and first invoice in one file, signs and pays, and then gets automatic reminders for the next payment. Every plan has unlimited clients and projects, invoices and payments, proposals and contracts, a client portal and HoneyBook AI. Essentials adds the scheduler, automations, SMS reminders, QuickBooks Online and removes "Powered by HoneyBook". Its team will also turn your existing contracts and price lists into HoneyBook templates for free. It's the priciest of the three and it isn't accounting software, but it replaces a form builder, booking tool and e-signature tool for many service businesses. HoneyBook has been available in the UK since May 2026, billed in pounds.

FreshBooks: invoicing that does your books too

FreshBooks is accounting software that grew out of invoicing, so it's the one to choose if you want a single place for invoices, expenses, receipts, mileage and tax-time reports. All plans include unlimited invoices, estimates, expense tracking and time tracking, automated reminders and late fees. Plus adds proposals, retainers, receipt scanning, accountant access and financial reports; Premium adds unlimited clients and project profitability. For UK sole traders and small limited companies, its UK plans include MTD-compliant VAT return filing straight to HMRC, which neither Bonsai nor HoneyBook offers on its own. The trade-off is weaker proposals and contracts than the other two, and client limits on the cheaper plans.

Which one fits you?

Choose FreshBooks if

• You're in the UK and want invoices, bookkeeping and MTD VAT returns in one tool
• You'd rather not pay for separate accounting software on top of an invoicing tool
• You have a handful of regular clients (Lite) or up to 50 (Plus)

Choose Bonsai if

• You bill by the hour or by project and want time tracking tied to invoices
• You want proposals, contracts and invoices for the lowest yearly price ($228)
• You already use QuickBooks or Xero, or are happy to upgrade to Premium to connect them

Choose HoneyBook if

• You book lots of clients through enquiries, such as photography, events or coaching
• You want proposal, contract and deposit in one step, then automatic payment reminders
• You're in the US, Canada, UK or Australia, the only countries it supports

How this fits into a lean solo stack

Invoicing is the last step in a client workflow. Before it, you might take calls with an AI note taker (see Fathom vs Otter vs Fireflies), book them with a scheduler like TidyCal, and send leads through a site built with Framer or Carrd. To glue the steps together, for example creating a FreshBooks client when someone books, see Make vs Zapier. If you sell products rather than services, a storefront fits better: see Beacons vs Linktree vs Gumroad. For full role-based picks, read Best AI tools for freelancers and Best AI tools for consultants, or the solopreneur tech stack and $0, $50 and $100 stacks.

Verdict

For most UK freelancers, FreshBooks is the safest pick, because it covers invoicing, bookkeeping and MTD VAT returns in one subscription, from £16 a month. For a US freelancer who mainly needs proposals, contracts, time tracking and invoices, Bonsai Essentials is the best value at $19 a month billed yearly, as long as you remember Basic doesn't invoice. If your business runs on enquiries and bookings, HoneyBook costs more but automates the whole client journey from first form to final payment. All three offer a trial, so send yourself a test proposal and invoice before you commit.

Read more: Best AI tools for solopreneurs · Free AI tools for solopreneurs · All comparisons

Sources: hellobonsai.com/pricing and Bonsai's help centre article on online payment methods and fees; honeybook.com/pricing, HoneyBook's published price list and its UK and Australia launch announcement (28 May 2026); freshbooks.com/pricing and freshbooks.com/en-gb/pricing; all checked 25 October 2026. Fee totals and yearly costs are our own arithmetic from those published rates. We haven't been paid by any of these companies for this comparison, and we haven't run our own long-term test of all three.