You booked six weddings this season. Between sending proposals, collecting deposits, chasing final payments, managing vendor contracts, and filing 1099s for your subcontractors — your business software should be working as hard as you are.
So when you start comparing tools, two names come up: Maroo and Bonsai. Both handle invoicing and contracts. Both are built for service businesses. But they are designed for very different worlds.
Bonsai was built for marketing agencies, software consultants, and general freelancers. Maroo was built specifically for the wedding and event industry. That difference in focus shapes everything — from the features that exist, to the pricing structure, to whether the platform understands what a “venue walkthrough” or a “styled shoot” even means.
This guide breaks down both platforms side by side so you can make the right call for your business — whether you are a wedding planner, photographer, DJ, florist, caterer, or event coordinator.
Maroo is a business management platform built from the ground up for wedding and event professionals. It handles invoicing, contracts, payments (ACH and credit card), contractor payouts, W-9 and 1099 e-filing, and CRM — all within a single platform designed around the way wedding businesses actually operate.
Maroo has processed over $300M in invoices on the platform, with 94% of those invoices paid on time. It operates on a free Starter tier and scales to paid plans for growing businesses. One of its defining features: all payment processing fees can be passed directly to clients, meaning many wedding pros use Maroo at zero net cost.
Best for: Wedding planners, photographers, DJs, florists, caterers, event coordinators, and any wedding or event professional who needs streamlined payments, contracts, and contractor management.
Bonsai — officially Hello Bonsai — is a broad-based business management suite positioned as “the unified platform for service businesses.” It is built for creative agencies, marketing firms, software consultancies, architects, engineers, and general freelancers. Bonsai was acquired by Zoom, giving it enterprise-level infrastructure and a wide integration ecosystem.
Bonsai covers a lot of ground: CRM, project management with Gantt views, time tracking, resource planning, invoicing, expense tracking, contracts, proposals, and more. It is a genuinely powerful platform — for the audience it is designed for.
Best for: Agencies, consultancies, freelancers across multiple industries who need robust project management, time tracking, and team collaboration tools alongside their financials.
For most wedding professionals, payment processing fees are one of the biggest variable costs in the business. At $250,000 in annual revenue, even a 0.5% difference in fees adds up to $1,250 a year — money that comes directly out of your margins.
Maroo takes a differentiated approach. Every plan allows you to pass processing fees to your clients — legally and transparently — so that the cost of accepting credit cards or ACH payments is borne by the client rather than your business. This is sometimes called surcharging or fee-passing.
On Maroo's free Starter plan, card processing is 3.5% and ACH is 1.5%. When passed to clients, your effective cost is $0. On the Business plan ($50/mo), fees drop to 3.4% for cards and 1.25% for ACH. One particularly notable feature: B2B ACH transfers are free on all Maroo plans — a meaningful advantage when working with corporate event clients or venues.
Bonsai charges standard market-rate processing fees: 2.9% + $0.30 for credit/debit cards, 3.25% + $0.30 for Amex, and 1.0% (minimum $1) for ACH. There is no option to pass these fees to clients. Additionally, if you prefer to use your existing Stripe or PayPal account instead of Bonsai Payments, you will be charged an additional 1% platform fee on top of Stripe/PayPal's own rates — a meaningful cost penalty for having a payment provider preference.
Bottom line: For wedding pros who can pass fees to clients (note: surcharging is not permitted in Connecticut or Massachusetts), Maroo's fee structure represents a substantial ongoing cost advantage.
This is the fundamental difference between the two platforms — and it matters more than it might seem.
Maroo was designed specifically for the wedding and event industry. The workflows, the terminology, the payment schedules (deposits, milestone payments, final balances), the contractor management model (subcontractors, second shooters, assistants), and the 1099 filing infrastructure all reflect how wedding businesses actually operate.
Maroo's contractor payout and W-9/1099 e-filing features are particularly relevant for wedding professionals who regularly work with or pay out other vendors. Being able to track contractor payments and file 1099-NEC forms directly through the platform removes a painful annual task. The Starter plan includes 3 free contractor payouts per month and $5/form for W-9/1099 filing; the Business plan reduces that to $3/form with 10 payouts included.
Bonsai is built for agencies, consultancies, and knowledge workers. It has no wedding-specific workflows, no contractor 1099 filing, and its project management framework (sprints, workload views, billable hour tracking) is optimized for recurring client engagements rather than event-based timelines. You could adapt Bonsai for a wedding business, but it would require significant custom configuration — and you would still be missing the 1099 filing piece entirely.
If your business model involves regularly paying photographers, DJs, florists, or other contractors, Maroo handles the entire financial and compliance chain. Bonsai does not.
Both platforms support contracts with e-signatures and professional invoicing — but the depth and specialization differ.
Maroo offers contracts with e-sign across all plans (at $5/item on Starter, 20/month included on Business, unlimited on Pro). Invoicing is built around how wedding payments actually work: custom payment schedules, autopay, installment plans, gratuity, itemized breakdowns, and automated payment reminders. The platform tracks a 13-minute average contract signing time — a reflection of how streamlined the client experience is.
Bonsai also offers strong contract and invoicing capabilities, available from the Essentials plan ($25/mo annually). Bonsai adds recurring invoices and retainer billing, which are more relevant for agency-style ongoing relationships than single-event weddings. Bonsai's proposals are more elaborate — suitable for multi-phase agency pitches — though they may be more than most wedding professionals need.
For straightforward wedding contracts and payment schedules, both platforms get the job done. Maroo's advantage is that its invoicing architecture is pre-built around event-based payment flows.
This is where Bonsai genuinely pulls ahead — and where Maroo has openly acknowledged gaps.
Bonsai's Premium plan ($39/mo annually) includes Gantt charts, workload management, project insights, a deals pipeline, and custom fields. These are powerful tools for managing a team of 5+ people running multiple simultaneous client projects. If you run a larger event production company or a multi-service agency that also does weddings, this depth of project management has real value.
Bonsai also includes scheduling/appointment booking, forms and questionnaires, expense tracking with bank sync, time tracking, and profitability reports by project — all features that Maroo does not currently offer.
Maroo focuses on doing fewer things and doing them very well. It does not have workflow automations, scheduling, forms, time tracking, or mobile apps. For many solo or small-team wedding professionals, these are features they handle through other tools (Calendly for scheduling, Google Forms for questionnaires, etc.) and the trade-off is a simpler, more focused platform.
The honest assessment: if you need an all-in-one platform that includes time tracking, appointment booking, and detailed project management, Bonsai covers more ground. If your priority is payments, contracts, and 1099 compliance for a wedding-focused business, Maroo is the better fit.
This is where the analysis gets concrete. Let's compare total annual cost across three revenue levels: $100K, $250K, and $500K in annual invoicing.
Assumptions:
- Maroo (absorbs fees): Business plan ($50/mo = $500/yr) + 3.4% card processing (assuming 80% card, 20% ACH at 1.25%)
- Maroo (passes fees to clients): Business plan only; $0 in processing costs
- Bonsai Essentials (annual): $19/mo per user = $228/yr per user; card processing at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (estimated ~50 transactions/yr per $100K)
- All figures are approximations; actual costs vary by payment mix and transaction volume
Maroo (fee-passing scenario): $500/yr flat for the Business plan. No processing costs when fees are passed to clients. This is the most cost-effective scenario for wedding professionals in states that allow surcharging.
Maroo (absorbs fees): $500/yr subscription + processing fees. Using a blended processing assumption of 2.97% (80% card at 3.4% and 20% ACH at 1.25%), processing costs come to approximately $2,970 at $100K, $7,425 at $250K, and $14,850 at $500K.
Bonsai Essentials: $228/yr subscription (1 user, annual billing) + 2.9% + $0.30 per card transaction. At $100K with similar card mix, processing runs approximately $2,915. At $250K, approximately $7,275. At $500K, approximately $14,550. Note: Bonsai's per-user pricing means a second team member adds another $228/yr; Maroo's Business plan does not have per-user pricing.
Key insight: When Maroo users pass fees to clients, Maroo becomes dramatically cheaper at every revenue level — often 10–20x lower in total cost. Even in the fee-absorbing scenario, both platforms are within a few hundred dollars of each other annually, with Bonsai slightly more affordable at lower revenue and roughly comparable at higher volumes.
For teams with 2+ users, Bonsai's per-user pricing adds up quickly. Bonsai's Elite plan (which unlocks Xero integration and custom permissions) requires a minimum of 3 users and costs $49/user/month annually — $1,764/yr before any processing fees.
- Run a wedding or event business (planner, photographer, florist, DJ, caterer, coordinator)
- Want to pass processing fees to clients and reduce your effective software cost to near zero
- Pay subcontractors and need W-9 collection and 1099-NEC filing handled in one place
- Prefer a focused, streamlined platform over a feature-heavy one
- Are on a tight budget and want a genuinely free tier to start
- Invoice mostly for single events with deposit + final payment structures
- Need B2B ACH for free (corporate events, venue payments)
- Run a multi-service agency or consultancy that may include some events work
- Need robust project management: Gantt charts, workload planning, time tracking
- Bill clients on retainers or recurring schedules with hourly tracking
- Need built-in scheduling/appointment booking and client intake forms
- Manage a team of 5+ and need resource planning and team permissions
- Operate in multiple countries and need multi-currency invoicing
- Already use Zoom heavily and benefit from the ecosystem integration
The honest truth: Bonsai is a genuinely good platform — for its intended audience. If you are running a marketing agency that occasionally does event work, or if you need deep project management for a large event production company, Bonsai's breadth is valuable. But for the core wedding professional — solo or small team, event-based billing, contractor relationships, and a desire to keep software costs low — Maroo is purpose-built for your work in a way Bonsai simply is not.
Q: Can I really use Maroo for free?
Yes. Maroo's Starter plan is permanently free for businesses invoicing under $5,000/month. It includes CRM, contracts, invoicing, ACH and card payments, payment reminders, autopay, and basic reporting — everything a solo wedding professional needs to run their business. There is no trial period or credit card required to start.
Q: Does Bonsai have a free plan?
No. Bonsai offers a 7-day free trial but no permanent free tier. After the trial, the minimum cost is $15/month per user on the Basic plan (or $9/month billed annually). The features most relevant to wedding pros — invoicing, payments, contracts, and scheduling — require the Essentials plan at $25/month ($19/month annually).
Q: What does “passing fees to clients” actually mean, and is it legal?
Fee-passing (also called surcharging) means adding the payment processing fee to your client's invoice rather than absorbing it yourself. For example, a $5,000 invoice with a 3.5% card surcharge becomes $5,175 if the client pays by card, or the client can choose ACH to avoid the surcharge. Maroo makes this seamless and transparent. This practice is legal in most U.S. states but is not permitted in Connecticut or Massachusetts. Always verify your state's rules before enabling this feature.
Q: Does Bonsai handle 1099 filing for contractors?
No. Bonsai does not offer contractor W-9 collection or 1099-NEC e-filing. If you regularly pay photographers, assistants, videographers, or other contractors $600 or more in a year, you are required by the IRS to file 1099s. Maroo handles this end-to-end — collecting W-9s from contractors and filing 1099-NEC forms — at $5/form on Starter and $3/form on the Business plan (free on Pro).
For wedding and event professionals, Maroo is the clear choice — not because Bonsai is a bad product, but because Maroo is actually built for you.
Bonsai is a powerful, well-funded platform designed for agencies and consultancies. It does time tracking, Gantt charts, and resource planning excellently. But wedding businesses don't bill by the hour. They don't run sprints. They do send contracts, collect deposits, pay second shooters, and file 1099s every January — and Maroo handles all of that within a platform that starts completely free.
The fee-passing feature alone can save wedding professionals thousands of dollars a year. Add in free contractor payouts, purpose-built payment schedules, and wedding-specific workflows, and Maroo delivers more value where it counts.
If you're currently piecing together multiple tools — or paying processing fees out of pocket — it takes about 10 minutes to find out what Maroo could save your business.
Ready to see the difference? Start free on Maroo at maroo.us — no credit card required, no trial period, no catch.
