The fastest way to lose control of your money is to route it through someone else's platform.
DockTodo vs Bonsai
A local-first alternative for freelancers who bill by the hour — your timer, timesheet and invoices on your own machine, and your payouts never passing through us.
If you're here, the wait for your own money got old
Bonsai users report payouts held for 7–10 business days, sometimes without a clear reason, while prices have climbed more than 150% over a few years — and getting your history back out is an 8–20 hour job that doesn't come out clean. When a platform sits between you and your payment, its convenience and its leverage are the same feature. The moment you want to leave is the moment you find out how much it's holding.
Bonsai is genuinely good — at something else
To be fair: Bonsai is a real all-in-one — contracts, proposals, client CRM, payments and invoicing in one place — and for a freelancer who wants the whole business stack under one login, that breadth has value. DockTodo doesn't do contracts or take payments. It does one thing: turn the hours you track into invoices, privately, on your own machine, with nothing between you and getting paid.
Where DockTodo wins for a solo hourly biller
| What matters to a freelancer | DockTodo | Bonsai |
|---|---|---|
| Who holds your payout | You — no processing | The platform |
| Your data lives on… | your own device | their cloud |
| Getting your data out | One-click JSON | 8–20 hour export |
| Works fully offline | Yes | No |
| Account required | None | Yes |
| Price you can count on | $0, in writing | Up 150%+ in a few years |
| Anything uploaded | Nothing | Everything |
This table only lists what a solo hourly freelancer cares about. Bonsai does far more — contracts, proposals, payments — if you want the whole stack in one place, it's the better fit, honestly.
The right question isn't "which does more today?"
It's "who owns your data and your money a year from now?" A platform that holds your payout can change its timing, its price, or its export terms — and the answer changes without you. DockTodo can't: it has no payment processing to hold anything, the free tier never shrinks, and your records are a plain JSON file you can read and take anywhere.
Bring your Bonsai history in with a CSV
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Export your time entries from Bonsai.
Export your Bonsai time entries as CSV — any format with one row per entry works.
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Map the columns once in DockTodo.
Open DockTodo, click Import, and choose the file. With the generic CSV mapper you match columns — task, client, duration, date — once, and see a preview before anything is added.
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Confirm, and you're tracking locally.
Review the preview, confirm, and your history is in — on your device, ready to invoice. One click undoes it if you change your mind.
Choose the one that fits how you actually work
Choose DockTodo if you bill by the hour and want your data — and the timing of your money — in your own hands. Choose Bonsai if you want contracts, proposals and payments bundled into one platform. No hard feelings either way — this is an honest fork, not a takedown.
The free local app is live today and its feature list never shrinks — a published commitment, not a promotion.