Last updated on February 13, 2024
Automating your workflow can completely transform your day-to-day coaching responsibilities. But first, you need to make an important decision—which is the best life coaching software for you?
Bonsai and Honeybook are among the popular software options with proven results of increased productivity. Our Bonsai vs Honeybook comparison will be diving into their features, pricing, and advantages to help you decide which one is a better fit for your needs. If you’re still not sold, we’ll also introduce you to several great alternatives to expand your options.
Table of Contents
Bonsai vs Honeybook: An Overview
Bonsai is a powerful and robust management software that can be perfect for coaches looking for a holistic solution that covers the entire workflow. This popular software provides client management, project management, and financial management tools. If you want to centralize expense tracking, accounting, tax write-offs, and other financial responsibilities, Bonsai can handle it. For a full review, head to our comprehensive Bonsai guide.
Honeybook is a CRM platform that is mainly praised for its ease of use and intuitiveness. It can be a great option if you want to automate and streamline tasks such as scheduling, payments, reminders, and content creation. If you want to know more about this software, refer to our Honeybook review.
Pricing & Free Trial
We’ll be taking a closer look at the details of what Honeybook and Paperbell offer in terms of pricing and free trial plans.
Pricing Plan
Bonsai and Honeybook have quite similar prices. Both pricing plans are organized into three levels, and with each costlier plan, you unlock more features. They also both support unlimited clients regardless of the plan and give you the first 2 months for free if you opt for a yearly subscription.
Bonsai’s Starter plan is priced at $17/month with a limit of 5 project collaborators. The additional features you’ll get in the Professional plan ($32/month) are custom branding, workflow automation, a client portal, more integrations, unlimited scheduling events, and up to 15 project collaborators.
Bonsai also offers two add-ons for an additional cost:
- Partners ($9/month) – allows you to invite users for full account and management access
- Tax Assistant ($9/month) – allows you to track expenses, identify write-offs, and estimate quarterly taxes
Honeybook’s Starter plan is $16/month, but it’s not until the Essentials plan ($32/month) that features like a scheduler, automation, expense management, profit and loss, standard reports, QuickBooks online integration, and team member collaboration are included. You can get 50% off with our link.
Free Trial
Whether you’d like to test Honeybook or Bonsai, you’ll have 7 days to use these platforms for free. The only difference in trials is that Bonsai asks that you enter your credit card information to start the trial and Honeybook doesn’t.
Features
Now, we’ll take a closer look at all the features and standout functionalities of both platforms.
Bonsai Features
- Scheduling
- Client management
- Client portal
- Financial management
- Prebuilt and customizable templates
- Contracts and e-signing
- Invoicing and payments
- Client intake forms
- Session notes
- Time tracking
- Collaboration tools
- Mobile app
- Integrations with Gmail, Google Calendar, Zapier, QuickBooks, etc.
Financial management is one of Bonsai’s best features since it unifies all admin work and saves you the money you’d spend on a tool for those purposes. Bonsai is also a well-suited option for growing businesses as it includes collaboration tools.
The platform’s newest feature is the branded scheduling portal which allows you to customize the scheduler’s interface to reflect your brand.
Honeybook Features
- Scheduling
- Automation
- Templates
- Invoices
- Proposals
- Contracts
- Mobile app
- Integration with Google Calendar, Zoom, Gmail, iCloud Mail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook Mail, AoI Mail, QuickBooks, Calendly, and Zapier
The automation tools are a true time-saver, allowing you to set up triggers and actions for various activities and take those repetitive tasks off your plate.
What also stands out with Honeybook is the mobile app, the lack of which could be a deal-breaker for coaches who handle a lot of their work on the go.
Bonsai vs Honeybook – How Are They Different?
Since the pricing and feature similarities may make it difficult for you to spot the differences, we’ve identified and highlighted some of the key functionalities that distinguish the two platforms.
Financial Management
Even though Honeybook supports some financial features (expense and payment tracking, financial performance reports), Bonsai has a more comprehensive financial management solution. It covers everything from integrated banking to accounting to taxes, thus eliminating the need for additional financial software.
Automation
Of the two software, Honeybook is more focused on automated workflow. You can cue up sequences of tasks, reminders, messages, and files to be sent at a specific time. Additionally, you can set up triggers based on client behaviors, dates, and so on. Bonsai doesn’t support such elaborate automation.
Customer Support
Bonsai has a 4.5 rating for customer service on Capterra. Many users describe the support as exceptional, but some complained about not receiving a response. You can email the reps 7 days a week or use the in-app chat for a prompt reply.
Honeybook has a 4.8 rating for customer service on Capterra. Reviewers mainly rave about the support teams’ responsiveness and friendliness. The agents are available 7 days a week via email, or if you have any questions about billing, you can give them a call.
Conclusion – Bonsai or Honeybook?
When it comes to these two platforms, we have to declare a tie. The differences are slight, and which one will prevail depends on your personal preferences and business demands.
If you want software that can completely take over your financial management, we would suggest Bonsai. However, if your main focus is finding a tool that is simple but powerful when it comes to automation, Honeybook might be a better solution.
In case you’re unsure where your priorities lie at the moment, sign up for the free trials and take them both for a spin.
Alternatives to Bonsai and Honeybook
Life coaching software are numerous, so don’t worry if you don’t feel like either Bonsai or Honeybook can meet your criteria.
For starters, you can check out the best-rated coaching platforms, such as Paperbell, Simplero, CoachVantage, Practice, and Delenta. For a full list of reliable coaching software, refer to our top picks article and check out our Bonsai and Honeybook alternatives posts for comparison.
The Life Coach Magazine staff is your team for high-quality content on topics from personal development, to coaching tips, to how to grow your coaching business.
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