HOW WE COMPARE
Calisto Pro vs Dubsado & Bonsai
Dubsado and Bonsai are freelancer paperwork tools: a form, a contract, an invoice. Calisto runs the studio around them, with brief intake, deliverable versioning, retainer billing, a portfolio site and a print store across 71 products. Core carries no additional cost. Commerce is a 1% revenue share. Every other suite is priced per app in the Marketplace.
- 그래픽 디자이너 및 예술가
Feature by feature
Calisto Pro beside Bonsai
- 16 Only in Calisto Pro
- 6 In both
| 22 features | Calisto Pro | Bonsai |
|---|---|---|
| Lead Capture Forms | 예 | 예 |
| Structured Creative Brief Intake | 예 | 아니요 |
| Proposals with Line-Item Scope | 예 | 예 |
| Contracts with E-Signature | 예 | 예 |
| Work-for-Hire & IP Transfer Clauses | 예 | 아니요 |
| Invoicing & Payment Plans | 예 | 예 |
| Bring Your Own Payment Processor | 예 | 아니요 |
| Deliverable Gallery with Version History | 예 | 아니요 |
| Client Comments on a Specific Revision | 예 | 아니요 |
| Retainer Billing with Scope-Creep Alerts | 예 | 아니요 |
| Time Tracking Against the Agreed Scope | 예 | 예 |
| Capacity Planning & Utilization | 예 | 아니요 |
| Portfolio Site with Case Studies | 예 | 아니요 |
| Print & Fine-Art Storefront | 예 | 아니요 |
| Font & Asset License Archive | 예 | 아니요 |
| Brand Asset Library with Client Access | 예 | 아니요 |
| Branded Slide Presentations | 예 | 아니요 |
| Workshop & Gallery Event Ticketing | 예 | 아니요 |
| Course & Masterclass Hosting | 예 | 아니요 |
| Newsletter to Past Clients | 예 | 아니요 |
| Multi-Currency Invoicing | 예 | 예 |
| VoIP Calling from the Client Record | 예 | 아니요 |
What replaces it
What runs graphic designers & artists on Calisto
The apps that take over from Bonsai, each in the words graphic designers & artists businesses use.
Freelancer invoicing vs. a studio platform
| The Old Way | The Calisto Way | |
|---|---|---|
| Brief intake | Generic questionnaire | Forms, structured per service |
| Proposals & contracts | Included | Proposals + Sign, IP clauses |
| Invoicing | Their processor only | 75 gateways, you choose |
| Deliverable handoff | Dropbox link | Depot gallery with comments |
| Version history | Not modelled | Every revision kept |
| Retainer billing | Flat recurring invoice | Registry, with usage tracked |
| Scope-creep tracking | Not available | Hours against the agreed scope |
| Portfolio site | Template microsite | Sites, your domain |
| Print & art sales | Not available | Catalog + Pulse checkout |
| Source-file archive | Your own drive | Depot, licensed and searchable |
What moves
Bringing your data from Bonsai
Your data is read in your own browser and sent to your Calisto account. Calisto never sees your login for the old system.
From an export file
Export your data from Bonsai and drop the file in. It is read in your browser and mapped onto Calisto.
Any spreadsheet you export from Bonsai can be mapped onto Calisto, column by column.
PRICING TRANSPARENCY
1% of revenue on Commerce. Core is included.
Dubsado charges an annual subscription per user. Bonsai charges a monthly plan and gates the useful parts behind the higher tier. Calisto charges nothing to set up and never charges per client or per project. Core carries no additional cost. Commerce is a 1% revenue share. Every other suite is priced per app in the Marketplace.
Calisto Pro
Revenue share on Commerce
Dubsado
Per-user subscription
Annual or monthly per user · Feature gating by tier · No deliverable versioning, no store
Bonsai
Tiered monthly plans
Monthly plan per user · Client and project caps on lower tiers · Their payment rails only
WHAT THEY CANNOT DO
The gaps a freelancer invoicing tool leaves
Dubsado and Bonsai end at the invoice. A design studio also has to take a brief, ship versioned deliverables, bill a retainer without absorbing scope creep, and sell the work. None of that lives in either tool.
Deliverables: Versions, Not a Dropbox Link
Neither tool ships work. Designers send a Dropbox link, the client comments in email, and three rounds later nobody can say which file was approved. Calisto delivers from Depot into the client portal that already holds the brief and the contract: every revision kept and the approved one marked, comments attached to the revision they refer to, source files and licences archived beside the exports, and an approval that is recorded rather than remembered.
Retainers: Scope Creep You Can See
A retainer invoiced as a flat recurring line hides the month where the client asked for twice the work. Calisto bills retainers in Registry and tracks hours against the agreed scope rather than a running total, so the overage is visible while there is still time to talk about it rather than at renewal. Utilization per designer falls out of the same numbers, which is what capacity planning actually needs.
Selling the Work: A Store, Not a Portfolio
Illustrators and fine artists sell prints, licences and originals. Dubsado and Bonsai sell nothing. Calisto publishes the portfolio in Sites on your own domain and turns it into a storefront: prints, licences and workshop or gallery-opening tickets priced in Catalog, checked out through Pulse, paid through your own processor, with the order landing on the same customer record as the commission work.
Invoice in their currency. Get paid in yours.
Dubsado and Bonsai route you to their processor at their rate. Calisto connects to 75 payment gateways across 11 global regions, so a studio in Santo Domingo can invoice a client in Berlin and settle where it banks. Your merchant account. Your rates.
See every payment gatewayHonest answers
Switching questions
Can I bring my clients and projects across?
Yes. Export your contacts and projects from Dubsado or Bonsai as a CSV and upload it in the Switch portal. You review the column mapping before anything is written, and you can import contacts first and projects later.
Do my clients need a login to review deliverables?
No. The portal opens from the link you send. They see the brief, the contract, every delivered revision, their comments and their invoices in one place, from any browser.
How does retainer billing handle scope creep?
A retainer is billed against a defined scope, and hours book against that scope rather than a running total. When the month goes over, you see it while the month is still running. Nothing is auto-invoiced above the agreed amount without you approving it.
Can I sell prints and licences from my portfolio?
Yes. The portfolio site and the store are the same site. Prints, licences and originals are priced in Catalog and checked out through Pulse using your own payment processor, and the order attaches to the same customer record as your commission work.
What does it cost to start?
Setup costs nothing and there is no credit card required. Core carries no additional cost. Commerce is a 1% revenue share. Every other suite is priced per app in the Marketplace.
자세히 알아보기
Everything Calisto does here
The pages behind this comparison: the sector, the apps and the guides.
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