A Bonsai alternative when you only need contracts signed

Bonsai's plans, and where contracts start

Bonsai lists four plans, priced per user. Billed annually, Basic is $9 a user a month, Essentials $19, Premium $29 and Elite $49; month to month they're $15, $25, $39 and $59. Elite has a three-user minimum. A 7-day trial gives full access, and after it you choose a plan and add a card.

• Basic has no contracts. It covers time tracking, tasks, projects, the CRM and a service library. Proposals and contracts, invoices and payments, forms, scheduling and the client portal start on Essentials.
• Integrations and white-labeling are on Premium. QuickBooks, Xero, Zapier, Calendly and Google connect from Premium, which also removes Bonsai branding.
• Online payments have processing fees. Bonsai's payments page lists 2.9% + $0.30 for cards and as low as 1% for ACH.
• Contracts come from templates you customize, with e-signatures, read receipts, automatic reminders and the option to require a deposit when the client approves. Bonsai notes it isn't a law firm and doesn't give legal advice.

SignMaster and Bonsai side by side

Bonsai figures come from its pricing, contracts and payments pages, read on November 9, 2026, in US dollars.

What five people pay

Five users on Bonsai Essentials, the first plan with contracts, cost $95 a month billed annually, or $1,140 a year; month to month it's $125. Five on Premium, for integrations and your own branding, are $145 a month billed annually, or $1,740 a year. SignMaster Crew is $490 a year for 5 people, but it only does the signing: no invoices, timesheets or projects.

Where Bonsai is the better choice

• One flow from proposal to payment. The proposal turns into a contract, the contract can require a deposit, and the invoice goes out from the same project. SignMaster doesn't collect money.
• You bill for time. Timesheets, billable and non-billable hours, retainer and subscription invoices and profitability reports are Bonsai's core.
• You manage projects and people. Tasks, Gantt views, workload and capacity tracking sit next to the client record.
• Your books are in QuickBooks or Xero. Premium connects both; SignMaster sends signed data out only through webhooks and its API.
• Your team works on Android or a Mac app. Bonsai has iOS, Android and macOS apps; SignMaster's app is for iPhone and iPad.

Who shouldn't switch

Agencies and consultancies that send a proposal, sign a retainer, log hours and invoice from the same project should keep Bonsai. The signature is the least of what it does for them, and moving it out would break the link between the signed scope and the invoice.

Who SignMaster fits better

Teams that need lots of things signed and already bill elsewhere: an office sending NDAs, onboarding forms and vendor agreements, or a service crew whose invoices come from a field-service or accounting app. Pricing covers the group, not each person, and every paid plan sends unlimited envelopes.

SignMaster also does the parts a project suite doesn't focus on: in-person signing on a phone or iPad, bulk send of one agreement to a whole list, a public signing link anyone can open, and a Responses table with every answer to a template, ready to export.

How to move your contracts

1. 1

   Start free

   New workspaces get 14 days of Crew with no card required.

2. 2

   Rebuild your agreements as templates

   Save each Bonsai agreement as a PDF and upload it as a template. Roles like Client and Studio keep each signer's fields separate.

3. 3

   Send invoices from your billing tool

   Keep invoicing in Bonsai, QuickBooks or wherever you do it now, and send the invoice once the signed contract lands in your inbox.

4. 4

   Keep the signed copies

   Download contracts already signed in Bonsai before you change plans.