Paidly vs Bonsai: Which Invoicing Tool is Right for You?

Bonsai is a well-established all-in-one platform for freelancers. Paidly is a new tool focused specifically on AI-powered invoicing. Which one should you use?

The answer depends on what you actually need.

Quick Comparison Table

Where Bonsai Wins

Let's start with when you should pick Bonsai over Paidly.

1. You need an all-in-one business management tool

Bonsai does everything. Proposals, contracts, invoicing, time tracking, expense management, tax estimates, client CRM. If you want one tool that handles your entire freelance business, Bonsai is hard to beat.

Paidly just does invoicing. That's it.

2. You create contracts from scratch regularly

Bonsai has excellent contract templates and a contract builder. If you're constantly creating new client contracts, Bonsai's templates are professional and legally reviewed.

Paidly reads contracts but doesn't create them.

3. You bill hourly and need time tracking

Bonsai's time tracker integrates directly with invoicing. Start a timer, stop it, and your hours automatically flow into invoices. Clean workflow.

Paidly works with fixed-price or milestone-based billing. No time tracking.

4. You want task management and project tracking

Bonsai includes basic project management features. You can track tasks, set milestones, and manage multiple projects in one place.

Paidly doesn't have project management. Use Notion or Asana for that.

Where Paidly Wins

Now, when Paidly is the better choice.

1. You already have contracts and just need invoices

This is Paidly's entire reason for existing. You upload your contract (from any source), and AI extracts client info, rates, payment terms, and milestones. Invoice created in 30 seconds.

With Bonsai, you'd manually enter all that information. Every time. For every invoice.

2. You work on milestone-based projects

Paidly's AI extracts project milestones from your contract and tracks which ones have been invoiced, paid, or are still pending. You never lose track of what you're owed.

Bonsai can handle milestones, but you have to set them up manually.

3. You want the fastest possible invoicing workflow

Paidly is built for speed. Upload contract, review extracted data, create invoice, send. 30 seconds total.

Bonsai is comprehensive but slower. You're filling in forms, selecting from dropdowns, and manually entering everything. Probably 5-10 minutes per invoice.

4. You don't want to pay for features you won't use

Paidly's pricing reflects what it does. Free for 3 invoices/month. $29/month for unlimited.

Bonsai starts at $24/month but you're paying for contracts, proposals, time tracking, and a bunch of other stuff. If you only need invoicing, that's money wasted.

The Contract Intelligence Difference

This is the big one. Let's break it down with a real example.

Scenario: You just signed a $10,000 web design project with 4 milestones.

In Bonsai:

1. Open Bonsai, go to Invoices
2. Click "New Invoice"
3. Open your contract PDF in another window
4. Type client name and email
5. Scroll through contract to find payment terms (ah, net-15)
6. Add line item for Milestone 1
7. Copy milestone description from contract
8. Type amount ($2,500)
9. Repeat for other line items if needed
10. Set due date manually
11. Preview, send

Time: 8-12 minutes per invoice

In Paidly:

1. Upload contract PDF
2. AI extracts client, terms, all 4 milestones
3. Click "Create Invoice" for Milestone 1
4. Send

Time: 30 seconds (see the full workflow with screenshots)

Over the course of this project (4 invoices), that's 32-48 minutes saved with Paidly vs. 4 minutes total. If you bill at $100/hour, you just saved $53-80 in time.

The Competitive Landscape (What We Learned)

We researched 13 major invoicing platforms to understand who has contract intelligence. (Want the full research breakdown? Read our complete analysis of all 13 platforms.) Here's what we found:

Tools with AI contract intelligence:

1. Paidly - Freelancers & small agencies ($29/mo)
2. JustPaid - B2B/enterprise ($500+/mo)

That's it. Just 2 out of 13 platforms.

What major competitors are missing:

• Bonsai: Has AI proposal generation, but invoicing is manual
• FreshBooks: Zero AI features ($1B valuation, no AI)
• QuickBooks: Has AI Agents for accounting, no contract parsing
• Wave: No AI capabilities
• Bill.com: Parses invoices, doesn't parse contracts
• Stripe Invoicing: Fraud detection only

What this means: If you use any tool except Paidly or JustPaid, you're manually creating invoices. Bonsai is comprehensive, but it's not automated where it counts most (invoice creation from contracts). (Here's why major platforms don't have this feature yet.)

The future: We predict major platforms (like Intuit or Bill.com) will either acquire contract intelligence tech or build it themselves within 12-18 months. (Read our acquisition analysis for Intuit.) For now, it's a rare feature.

Pricing Breakdown

Bonsai:

• Starter: $24/month (billed annually) or $29/month (billed monthly)
• Professional: $39/month (annual) or $46/month (monthly)
• Business: $79/month (annual) or $95/month (monthly)

All plans include everything: contracts, proposals, invoicing, time tracking, etc.

Paidly:

• Free: 3 invoices/month, 1 contract parse
• Starter: $29/month (unlimited invoices, unlimited contract parsing, professional PDFs, email sending, 1 free AI roast/month)

Just invoicing. That's the focus.

The math: If you only need invoicing, Paidly costs the same or less ($29/mo vs. $24-29/mo for Bonsai). But you're getting AI automation that saves 10+ minutes per invoice, plus professional PDF generation and email delivery built-in.

If you need contracts, proposals, and time tracking, Bonsai's $24/month for everything is a steal.

User Experience

Bonsai: Professional, polished, but dense. There's a lot going on. You'll spend time learning where everything is. The UI is beautiful but can feel overwhelming if you just want to send an invoice.

Paidly: Minimal, fast, single-purpose. Upload contract, create invoice, done. Less to learn because there's less to do. Looks like Notion (intentional design choice for freelancers already using Notion).

Integration & Workflow

Bonsai integrations:

• QuickBooks
• Zapier
• Google Calendar
• Stripe
• PayPal

Paidly integrations (current + planned):

• Stripe (live)
• Notion (coming soon)
• PayPal (planned)
• Wise (planned)

Bonsai has more integrations right now. Paidly is newer and adding integrations based on user requests.

Support & Community

Bonsai: Established company with live chat support, extensive help docs, active Facebook community. You'll get answers fast.

Paidly: Smaller team, email support, growing documentation. Response time is good (24 hours on Pro plan) but not instant.

If you need hand-holding, Bonsai's support infrastructure is more mature.

Who Should Use What?

Use Bonsai if you:

• Want one tool for your entire freelance business
• Need contract and proposal templates
• Bill hourly and need time tracking
• Want advanced client CRM features
• Don't mind manual invoice creation

Use Paidly if you:

• Already have contracts from clients or lawyers
• Work on fixed-price or milestone-based projects
• Want the fastest invoicing workflow possible
• Only need invoicing (use other tools for everything else)
• Value AI automation over feature breadth

Can You Use Both?

Yes. Some freelancers use Bonsai for proposals and contracts, then use Paidly for invoicing (because it's faster).

Is it overkill? Maybe. But if you're sending 10+ invoices per month, the time savings add up.

The Honest Take

Bonsai is a better tool if you need an all-in-one solution. It does more. It's been around longer. The integrations are mature.

Paidly is a better tool if you just need invoicing and you're sick of manually entering contract terms every time.

Neither tool is objectively better. It depends on your workflow, what you already use, and whether you value speed or comprehensiveness.

Try both. Bonsai and Paidly both offer free trials. See which one feels right.