Clearmargin vs Bonsai
Bonsai charges per user. Clearmargin charges per organization. Plus a conversational AI assistant Bonsai does not offer.
Pricing and feature data scraped directly from Bonsai’s site — last verified April 17, 2026.
Pricing, side by side
Best monthly rate (paid annually). Both products show the same way: lowest publicly advertised annual price.
Clearmargin
- Get Found$19/moor $23/mo billed monthlyWebsite + inquiry form + CRM. For people who need a website that actually captures leads.
- Get Paid$19/moor $23/mo billed monthlyProposals, invoices, expenses, taxes, AI. The full business platform minus the website.
- Everything$34/moor $42/mo billed monthlyGet Found + Get Paid. Custom Domain & SEO ($9/mo value) included. Save $13/mo vs buying separately.
Unlimited clients on every plan. 14-day free trial, no credit card.
Bonsai
- Starter$9/user/moor $15/mo billed monthlyPer user / month
- Essentials$19/user/moor $25/mo billed monthlyPer user / month — adds invoices, proposals, contracts, forms, portal
- Premium$29/user/moor $39/mo billed monthlyPer user / month — adds reporting
- Business$49/user/moor $59/mo billed monthly3 users includedPer user / month, 3 user minimum — adds advanced reporting
Both have AI. Different jobs.
Here is what Bonsai's AI does well, and where Clearmargin's assistant fits in.
Clearmargin AI
Click it. Ask it. Both work.
Every workflow has two ways in: a clean UI to click through, and an assistant to ask. Draft a proposal, scan a receipt, look up profit on a project — same data, same result. Use whichever is most natural for you.
- Ask anything: "How profitable was the Smith wedding?", "Show overdue invoices over $1k" — answers come from your own data
- Snap a receipt with your phone, forward an invoice from your inbox, or drop in a PDF — the assistant reads it and queues a categorized expense for you to approve
- Send a questionnaire, then one-click draft a proposal from the response
- The assistant can act anywhere in the app — drafting invoices, finding clients, looking up files, suggesting next steps
- Optional onboarding helper: describe your business in plain English, get a configured workspace
- Real-time web search for market rates and pricing benchmarks when you need them
Safety rail: The assistant drafts and proposes; it never sends, deletes, or charges. Every action waits for your click — so you can move fast without worrying about a runaway agent.
Bonsai AI
Bonsai advertises some AI-assisted writing for proposals and contracts, plus a Bonsai Tax assistant on the US tax product. Not a conversational assistant across the platform.
- AI-assisted proposal & contract drafting
- Bonsai Tax (separate US product)
Where it shines: Document drafting helpers for proposals and contracts.
Bonsai’s gap: No conversational assistant, no financial-data Q&A, no way to snap or forward in a receipt and have it filed.
Feature comparison
Every cell verified against Bonsai’s public pricing & feature pages.
| Feature | Clearmargin | Bonsai |
|---|---|---|
| Proposals | ||
| Contracts & e-signatures | ||
| Invoicing | ||
| Recurring billing | ||
| Payment schedules | ||
| ACH payments | ||
| Time tracking | ||
| Rate cascading | rate cards | |
| Minimum billable hours | ||
| Expense tracking | ||
| Receipt capture | ||
| Mileage tracking | ||
| Recipe / BOM costing | ||
| Per-client profitability | budget tracking only | |
| Schedule C tax exports | ||
| Quarterly estimated tax | ||
| Inquiry form | ||
| Pipeline / kanban | ||
| Client questionnaires | ||
| CRM messaging & timeline | ||
| Client portal | ||
| Meeting scheduler | ||
| Calendar sync | ||
| AI assistant | limited | |
| Receipt & document scanning | ||
| Workflow automation | via Zapier | |
| REST API | limited | |
| Webhooks | ||
| Zapier | ||
| Unlimited clients |
The honest take
Where each tool genuinely wins. No spin.
Where Clearmargin wins
- Per-organization pricing: $19/mo billed annually covers the whole org, no per-seat math
- Built-in mileage tracking and Schedule C tax exports
- Recipe and BOM costing for makers, florists, and anyone building with materials
- Conversational AI assistant across the whole app — answer questions from your own data
- Public REST API and HMAC-signed webhooks
Where Bonsai wins
- Resource planning and capacity management for small agencies
- Strong project-management surface with task management
- Mature template library across proposals, contracts, forms
Frequently asked questions
How is Clearmargin different from Bonsai?+
Bonsai is a broad freelancer all-in-one with strong project and resource management — its sweet spot is small agencies tracking team utilization. Clearmargin's sweet spot is the financial layer: per-client profitability with cost-side detail, recipe / BOM costing with markup cascade, mileage, Schedule C exports, and a conversational AI that runs on your actual data. Pricing structure is the other big difference — Bonsai charges per user, Clearmargin charges per organization.
Does Bonsai have AI?+
Bonsai has AI-assisted writing for proposals and contracts, plus a separate Bonsai Tax product on the US tax side. It's not a conversational assistant across the platform. Clearmargin includes a full assistant that drafts proposals from questionnaire responses, scans receipts you snap or forward in, answers financial questions from your data, and acts across the whole app — not just a writing helper.
Why does Bonsai's per-user pricing matter?+
Bonsai bills per seat. A 3-person team on Bonsai Essentials is $19 × 3 = $57/month. A 5-person team is $95/month, and Premium-tier teams hit $145/month for 5 seats. Clearmargin charges per-organization, not per-seat — Get Paid is $19/month billed annually for the whole org. For agencies of 5+, the difference compounds quickly.
Does Clearmargin have project management like Bonsai?+
Clearmargin has projects, milestones, time tracking, expense tracking, charges/expenses with assignment dates, and a kanban pipeline. We do not have task management or a Gantt view today — for those, Bonsai or a dedicated PM tool (Asana, ClickUp) is stronger.
Can I migrate from Bonsai to Clearmargin?+
Yes. Clearmargin supports CSV import for clients and contacts. Proposal, contract, and form templates can be recreated using the merge-field system, and the AI assistant can help draft them from your existing Bonsai documents.