Choose Bonsai if…
- You bill by the hour and want the timer, the timesheet and the invoice in one place
- You run a small team and need seats, shared projects and task boards
- You want one subscription that covers the CRM, the projects and the paperwork, and adequate at each is fine
Choose North if…
- You price projects, not hours, and want the proposal to argue for the price rather than list the rate
- You are one person and would rather not pay per seat for software that wants to grow into a team
- You want the contract drafted with the proposal and signed in the same room the client read it in
- You want your client's card payment to land on your own Stripe with nothing taken
Bonsai pricing, as checked
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $9/user/mo | billed annually; $15 monthly. No proposals, contracts or invoicing on this tier |
| Essentials | $19/user/mo | billed annually; $25 monthly. Proposals, contracts and invoicing start here |
| Premium | $29/user/mo | billed annually; $39 monthly |
| Elite | $49/user/mo | billed annually; $59 monthly |
Bonsai figures fetched from its pricing page on 11 August 2026. Compare against Essentials, not Basic, if what you want is the documents. North, for the same table: everything is free while it is in beta. At launch, Free is $0 forever (unlimited proposals drafted from your notes, contracts with e-signing, the client deal room with your own branding, unlimited invoices sent and tracked and marked paid by hand, reminders drafted for you, full export) and Pro is $39/month (your client pays by card on your own Stripe account, delivery stages, deposits and milestones, retainers, euros and pounds, the money view). Accounts that exist before launch keep $20/month for as long as they exist. North takes no cut of any payment, at any volume, ever; Stripe's own processing fee is Stripe's.
Coverage against depth
Bonsai's pitch is coverage: CRM, projects, tasks, time, proposals, contracts, invoicing, from one freelancer up to an agency. Its proposals are competent documents you assemble. North's pitch is depth on the few moments that decide whether a freelance year pays: the scoping, the price you can say out loud, the document that looks like your studio, the contract that arrives with the yes, the invoice that follows delivery. North has no time tracking, no task boards and no team seats. That is the trade, stated plainly, and for some people it is the wrong one.
Per user, or per person
Bonsai is priced per user with capability tiers, which is the shape of software that expects to grow into your team. North is $0 or $39 flat, the shape of a tool betting everything on the solo professional. Neither is wrong, but the shape predicts where each product's attention goes next. And on Bonsai the documents start at the $19 Essentials tier, so compare against that number rather than the $9 on the banner.
Hours, or the outcome
Bonsai's time-tracking roots fit hourly billing well, and hourly is a defensible way to sell open-ended work. North is built around the other conviction: for a defined deliverable, pricing by the hour caps your income at the speed of your own competence, and the proposal should argue from what the work is worth to the client. If you have read the long argument about that on the blog and disagree, Bonsai will suit you better.
Common questions
- Is North cheaper than Bonsai?
- For the comparable set of documents, Bonsai starts at $19 per user a month billed annually (Essentials, 11 August 2026). North's free plan carries unlimited proposals and invoices at $0, and Pro is $39/month flat for card payment on your own Stripe, stages and the money view, with no per-payment cut. Price alone should not decide it, because the two products are different shapes.
- Does North have time tracking?
- No, by conviction rather than omission. North prices work by what it is worth to the client, and it will not produce an hours-times-rate invoice. If tracked time is core to how you bill, Bonsai fits that better today, and so does a spreadsheet.
- Can I use North with a team?
- Not yet. North is built for one person: no seats, no roles, no shared pipeline. Bonsai's per-user model and project tooling handle the team workflows North deliberately does not.