By Lee, founder of leodesign
Short answer: Bonsai is a full business suite (CRM, proposals, time tracking, project management, built-in online payments and team seats) and it is priced per user for that. Leostu does one job: it turns an order into a contract and an invoice, gets the client to sign on their phone without an account, and shows your own payment details (bank, WeChat Pay, Alipay, DuitNow, PayNow and more). If you are a solo designer in Asia who mainly needs signed terms and paid deposits, Leostu is the lighter and much cheaper fit. If you run a team or need time tracking and card processing, Bonsai is the stronger tool.
What each tool is built for
Bonsai describes itself on its pricing page as plans "from freelancers to enterprise". Its product menu covers CRM, a deals pipeline, scheduling, proposals, agreements, forms, a client portal, projects, tasks, time tracking, timesheets, resource planning, reporting, invoicing, online payments, expenses and bookkeeping, plus integrations with QuickBooks, Xero, Zapier, Calendly and Google on higher plans. It also has a Bonsai MCP for connecting AI assistants. That is a lot of software, and for an agency it can replace several tools.
Leostu is an order desk for independent designers and small studios. You create an order, and Leostu generates the contract and the invoice from it. You send the client one link and an access code; they read the contract and sign by hand on their phone, with no account and nothing to install. You get an email when they sign. Then Leostu tracks the deposit and the balance, keeps a "who owes you" list, and gives you pre-written payment reminders. I built it after years of chasing final payments on packaging and brand projects myself.
Pricing, as listed on 2 Nov 2026
As listed on hellobonsai.com on 2 Nov 2026, Bonsai charges per user per month:
- Basic: $9 billed annually, $15 monthly (time tracking, tasks, CRM, unlimited projects and clients; contracts and invoices are not in this tier)
- Essentials: $19 billed annually, $25 monthly (adds invoices and payments, proposals and contracts, scheduling, client portal, expense and income tracking)
- Premium: $29 billed annually, $39 monthly (adds deals pipeline, reports, branding removal, integrations)
- Elite: $49 billed annually, $59 monthly, 3 users minimum
Bonsai offers a 7-day free trial, and its pricing page notes that it charges processing fees on online payments, which vary by method.
Leostu has a free forever plan with up to 3 active orders at a time (orders that are fully paid stop counting), a small "Made with Leostu" line, and no API. Leostu Pro is $3.75/month, billed yearly at $45, which is 25% less than paying monthly. There is a 14-day Pro trial with no card required. You can pay for Pro by card on auto-renew, or as a one-off month or year with Alipay or WeChat Pay. Prices are also shown in HKD, CNY, MYR and SGD. See Leostu pricing.
So the cheapest Bonsai tier that includes contracts and invoices (Essentials, $19/user/month billed annually) costs about five times Leostu Pro, before payment processing fees.
Side-by-side comparison
| Leostu | Bonsai | |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest paid plan with contracts + invoices | $3.75/mo billed yearly ($45) | Essentials, $19/user/mo billed annually ($25 monthly) |
| Free option | Free forever, 3 active orders at a time | 7-day free trial |
| Online payment processing | No: money goes straight to you | Yes, with processing fees |
| Payment methods shown on invoice | Your bank, WeChat Pay, Alipay, DuitNow, PayNow, PayPal and more, with QR codes | Online payments through Bonsai |
| Client signs without an account | Yes, link + access code, hand-drawn signature on phone | Check Bonsai's site |
| Same contract in English and Chinese | Yes | Not listed on pricing page |
| Proposals, CRM, pipeline | No | Yes |
| Time tracking, tasks, projects | No | Yes |
| Team seats and permissions | No | Yes (Elite: custom permissions, 3 users minimum) |
| Accounting integrations | CSV export | QuickBooks, Xero (Premium and up) |
| AI agent access | Pro: MCP / REST API token | Bonsai MCP |
Where Bonsai is genuinely stronger
Be honest with yourself about what you need. Bonsai is the better pick if:
- You want card payments collected inside the invoice. Bonsai processes online payments for you. Leostu does not process or collect any money.
- You bill by the hour. Time tracking, timesheets and attaching time entries to invoices are core Bonsai features. Leostu has no time tracking.
- You send proposals before contracts and want a sales pipeline and client CRM.
- You have a team. Bonsai has workload views, resource planning, custom permissions and per-user seats. Leostu is single-user with no team features.
- You keep books in QuickBooks or Xero and want them synced.
Where Leostu fits better
Leostu is built around how many designers in Asia actually get paid: a deposit before work starts, the balance before files go out, and clients who pay by bank transfer or a QR code from their phone.
- Your payment methods, on the invoice. Leostu shows your own bank details and QR codes for WeChat Pay, Alipay, DuitNow, PayNow, PayPal and more. The client pays you directly; the money never passes through Leostu, so there is no processing cut taken by Leostu.
- English and Chinese contracts for the same order. Useful when the client's boss reads Chinese and their marketing manager reads English. RMB documents also show the amount in Chinese words.
- Deposit-first billing. Choose a 30%, 40%, 50% or 60% deposit, or payment in full. Deposit and balance get separate invoices, and reminders exist for each (polite or direct, in the document's language, showing how many days have passed).
- Zero friction for the client. No account, no app. They open the link, enter the code, read, and sign by hand.
- A sign-off record. Leostu records the signer's name, hand-drawn signature, time, IP address and a fingerprint of the contract, and flags it if the contract is changed after signing.
- 14 currencies per order, with stats that never convert or mix currencies.
A note on legal weight: a Leostu signature is not a CA-certified e-signature. It gives you a clear record of who agreed to what and when, but how much legal weight that carries depends on your jurisdiction, and nothing here is legal advice.
Leostu's AI plan (new in November 2026)
Leostu now has an AI plan with Leo, an assistant built for the order desk. You drag in up to four client chat screenshots or quote photos, and Leo drafts the order: client, line items, amount, deposit and due date. If the screenshot has no price, it asks you rather than making one up. Anything that changes your data (a new order, an edit, a payment) appears as a card first, and nothing is saved until you confirm. You can also ask it "who still owes me?" or "what came in this month?".
The AI plan is US$9 a month billed yearly ($108), or $12 month to month, and includes everything in Pro, with 600 messages a month. The Pro trial includes 30 AI messages. AI can misread a screenshot, so check amounts and dates before confirming. See pricing.
Who should pick which
Pick Bonsai if you are an agency or a growing studio with several people, you track hours, you want proposals, CRM and a pipeline in one place, and you want card payments collected through the invoice. You are paying for breadth, and Bonsai has it.
Pick Leostu if you are an independent designer or a two-person studio in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, mainland China or nearby; your clients pay by bank transfer, DuitNow, PayNow, WeChat Pay or Alipay; you want bilingual contracts signed before you start; and you mainly need to stop chasing balances. You give up proposals, time tracking and team features, and pay a fraction of the price.
You can try the flow without signing up: draft terms in the free design contract generator or build a deposit invoice in the designer invoice generator. Both run in your browser. When you want orders, signatures and reminders tied together, start on the free plan.