What each one does, what it costs, and which to pick
You've had the call, the client is interested, and now you need to send them something that looks professional and makes saying yes easy. Doing that with a Word file, a separate contract, and an invoice you then have to chase takes most of an afternoon. Proposal software replaces all of that with a single link you send your client.
Eight names worth knowing in the proposal world. Bento, Qwilr, Better Proposals and PandaDoc are built for proposals and nothing else. HoneyBook, Dubsado, Indy and Bonsai are all-in-one business tools where proposals are one feature among many.
That split is the whole decision. If you want to send a good-looking proposal and get paid, the first group does just that. If you also want client databases, scheduling, time tracking and bookkeeping, the second group covers all of it.
One disclosure before the list: we built Bento.
| Tool | What it is | From | Free option |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bento OURS | Proposal, contract, invoice and payment in one page | $19/mo billed yearly, unlimited users | Yes, 2% fee over $1k in sales |
| Qwilr | Interactive proposals with analytics | $35/user/mo billed yearly | Trial only |
| Better Proposals | Branded proposals from templates | $13/user/mo billed yearly | Trial only |
| PandaDoc | Documents and e-signatures at scale | $19/seat/mo billed yearly | Yes, e-sign only, 5 docs/mo |
| HoneyBook | All-in-one CRM for service businesses | $29/mo billed yearly | Trial only |
| Dubsado | All-in-one CRM with deep workflows | $44/mo billed yearly (Premier, for proposals) | Trial only |
| Indy | Light admin suite for freelancers | $12.50/mo | Yes, 3 proposals/mo |
| Bonsai | All-in-one with accounting built in | $19/user/mo billed yearly | Trial only |
Prices taken from each vendor's own pricing page in November 2026. They move, so check before you buy.
Built for Proposals Only
Bento
Everything between the call and getting paid, on one page: proposal, contract, interactive content, invoice and payment link, assembled from blocks like the compartments in a bento box. You build an offer once and reuse it, so your most common proposal becomes something you send rather than rewrite. AI drafts the sections from your notes, and the client signs the contract at checkout.
No client database, no scheduling, no automations beyond a thank-you email. That's deliberate: it came out of 100+ custom client projects where a CRM was only ever used for this one job.
Price: free forever with a 2% platform fee after your first $1,000 in sales, or $19 a month billed yearly with no fee and unlimited users. Payments run through your own Stripe or PayPal account.
Best for: Squarespace designers, since it was built for them, and anyone else selling a professional service online.
Disclosure: Bento is our own product.
Bento opens to everyone in mid-November. Until then there's a waitlist, plus a free webinar on November 17 on cutting the time you spend on proposals.
Qwilr
Proposals that behave like web pages rather than documents, with embedded video, interactive pricing and analytics showing what the client actually looked at.
Priced per user rather than per account, so what you pay tracks the size of your team.
Price: from $35 per user per month billed yearly, $49 monthly. The bigger plans need five and ten users minimum.
Best for: anyone pitching work where knowing the client opened page four actually matters.
Better Proposals
Straightforward branded proposals from reusable templates, with e-signatures and payments built in. The cheapest of the proposal-only tools and the least complicated to learn.
Price: from $13 per user per month billed yearly, though the cheapest plan is one user and ten documents a month.
Best for: freelancers who want something that works today, not a system to configure.
PandaDoc
The most corporate of the four, built for volume document work and e-signatures. More power than most creative businesses need, but there's a genuinely free tier.
Price: the free plan covers five documents a month for signing only, since building a document from scratch needs a paid plan. From $19 per seat per month billed yearly.
Best for: anyone sending a lot of documents, or who just needs free e-signatures.
All-in-One Tools That Include Proposals
HoneyBook
The best known of these, and the one most creative freelancers try first. We used it ourselves for years. Its smart files combine a proposal, contract, invoice, scheduler and questionnaire into a single link the client works through in order.
Price: from $29 a month billed yearly, or $36 monthly. No free plan, 30-day trial.
Best for: service businesses that want everything in one place and don't mind paying for it.
Dubsado
Similar territory to HoneyBook with more configurable workflows, which is either the attraction or the problem depending on how you feel about setting them up.
Price: Starter is $35 a month, but public proposals are a Premier feature, so realistically $55 a month or $525 a year. No free plan, 21-day trial.
Best for: people who enjoy systems and will actually use them.
Indy
Lighter and cheaper than the others, covering proposals, contracts, invoices and time tracking without much ceremony. The free plan gives you three proposals, three contracts and three invoices a month, plus three clients in total, which is enough to decide whether you like it.
Price: free with limits, or $12.50 a month, billed as $300 every two years.
Best for: solo freelancers who want admin handled cheaply.
Bonsai
The all-in-one with the most financial depth, including accounting and expense tracking, which matters if you'd otherwise be paying for bookkeeping software separately.
Price: $19 per user per month billed yearly. The cheaper $9 plan exists but doesn't include proposals, so it's not the one you want. Seven-day trial, no free plan.
Best for: freelancers who want invoicing and accounting in the same place.
Which One Should You Pick?
You only ever send proposals. Bento, Better Proposals or Qwilr. Skip the all-in-ones, because you'll pay for and configure features you won't open.
You want one tool for everything. HoneyBook if you want it to work out of the box, Dubsado if you want to build it yourself, Bonsai if accounting matters.
You're watching every pound. Indy's free tier, PandaDoc's free e-signatures, or Bento's free plan.
You pitch large projects. Qwilr, for the analytics.
You're more than one person. Qwilr, Better Proposals, PandaDoc and Bonsai charge per user, so three people means roughly three times the price. Bento, HoneyBook, Dubsado and Indy charge per account, though HoneyBook and Dubsado limit how many people you can add.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between a proposal tool and a CRM? A proposal tool sends proposals. A CRM keeps a record of every client and every interaction, and sends proposals as one part of that. If you only want the proposal, a CRM is a lot of software to maintain for one feature.
Do I need proposal software at all? Not if you send a handful of projects a year and a PDF works. It starts paying off when you're sending proposals weekly, reusing the same offers, or chasing signatures and deposits by email.
HoneyBook or Dubsado? The two most often compared, and the short answer is that Dubsado does more and asks more of you. HoneyBook works close to out of the box. Dubsado's workflows are far more configurable, which is worth it if you'll actually build them and wasted if you won't. Dubsado is also the dearer of the two if proposals are the reason you're buying, because public proposals sit on its Premier plan.
Can these tools take payment? Most of them, usually through Stripe or PayPal on your own account. Check whether the tool charges a platform fee on top of the payment processor's cut, since that's where the real cost hides on free plans.
What's the cheapest way to send a professional proposal? Bento's free plan or Indy's, which both let you build and send a proposal without paying: Bento takes a 2% fee after your first $1,000, Indy caps you at three proposals and three clients. PandaDoc's free plan is signing only, so it's the cheapest way to get a signature, not to send a proposal.
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