Bonsai vs Melio

Two invoicing & payments tools side by side. Prices are the starting plan a small business would pick, in USD.

Compare	BonsaiBonsai	MelioMelio
In one line	Proposals, contracts, time tracking, and invoices for freelancers	Pay bills by ACH, check, or card, with a free plan
Starting price	From $19/person	Free
Six-person team	$114/mo	$75/mo
On $10,000 of card sales	$315/mo	$290/mo
Plans	Basic $9/user/mo has no invoices or payments; Essentials $19/user/mo is the cheapest with invoicing; Premium $29; Elite $49 (3-user minimum), billed annually (monthly $15/$25/$39/$59); payments 2.9% + 30¢, 1% extra with Stripe or PayPal	Go free (1 user, 5 free ACH payments/mo, no extra users); Core $25/mo (1 user, 20 free ACH, QuickBooks and Xero sync); Boost $55 (1 user); extra users $10/mo each on Core and Boost; Unlimited $80 (unlimited users); checks $1.50, paying by card 2.9%; receiving ACH free
Pricing model	Free trial	Free tier
Free trial	7 days	90 days
Users	Per user	1 on Go, Core, and Boost; unlimited on Unlimited
Both connect to	QuickBooks Online, Xero
Also connects to	No others on record	No others on record
Team size	Just me · 2–10 people	Just me · 2–10 people · 11–50 people
Available in	US · UK · CA · AU	US
Phone support	None listed	Boost and up
Live chat	Plans not stated	Core and up
Support hours	Email: 24/7	Not published
Incidents posted	Bonsai has a public status page. Status page	We found no public status page for Melio.
Capterra score	4.6 / 5 from 95 reviews	4.2 / 5 from 405 reviews
Trustpilot score	4.3 / 5 from 641 reviews	3.3 / 5 from 1,632 reviews
Fit: Retail shop	10	65
Fit: Restaurant or café	5	65
Fit: Service business	85	78
Fit: Agency or studio	88	72
Fit: Trades or contractor	45	72
Fit: Online store	10	60
Why people pick it	Contracts and time tracking included Cheap entry plan	Free plan with 5 free ACH payments a month 90-day trial of paid plans
Where it falls short	Per-user pricing for teams Short 7-day trial	Checks and fast payments cost extra each time Extra users $10 a month below Unlimited
	Visit Bonsai ↗	Visit Melio ↗

Six-person prices are what a team of six would pay on the published plans; "Not listed" means those plans don't cover six. Card sales costs include the plan price and card fees at US rates, at a $500 average sale. How we calculate prices