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Comparison · PM
Bonsai vs Wakapi
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Bonsai and Wakapi — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Bonsai vs Wakapi: at a glance
| Feature | Bonsai | Wakapi |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | PM | PM |
| Velocity score | 5.0 | 2.5 |
| Sparks · 30d | 0 | 0 |
| Top themes | crm, notes, email-sync, api | time-tracking, self-hosted, oidc, auth-bypass |
| Last editorial update | 7d ago | 1h ago |
| Website | — | Visit → |
What is Bonsai?
Bonsai is assembling a real CRM underneath the freelancer billing tools
Bonsai's recent work is system-of-record plumbing: a Notes section spanning contacts, companies and projects, an activity feed per company, and Gmail/Microsoft sync that files email and calendar events against the right record. Alongside it sit a self-serve API key and an MCP connector. Billing is no longer the centre of gravity.
What is Wakapi?
A critical auth bypass lands in the middle of Wakapi's slow identity rebuild.
Wakapi's recent releases cluster around identity and deployment rather than time tracking itself: OpenID Connect login, then an OIDC-only mode, multiple API keys per user, and a switch from Alpine to a distroless nonroot container image. The 2.17.x line has carried two security fixes now — a responsibly disclosed issue in 2.17.3, and a critical authentication bypass in 2.17.6 caused by a shared cache key namespace. Release notes are mostly bare issue numbers, so several entries state that something changed without saying what.
Bonsai vs Wakapi: editorial side-by-side
Bonsai
5.0PM
Bonsai is assembling a real CRM underneath the freelancer billing tools
◆ Current state
Bonsai's recent work is system-of-record plumbing: a Notes section spanning contacts, companies and projects, an activity feed per company, and Gmail/Microsoft sync that files email and calendar events against the right record. Alongside it sit a self-serve API key and an MCP connector. Billing is no longer the centre of gravity.
◆ Where it's heading
The pieces landing are the ones a CRM needs before it can be trusted as the single place client history lives — cross-record linking, per-object permissions, automatic contact capture. The API and MCP connector point the same data outward, reachable from outside the app. Documents was rebuilt on that footing, folding proposals and contracts into one editor.
◆ Prediction
Expect the per-object permissions introduced with Notes to spread to the other record types, and the API surface to widen now that a key can be generated self-serve.
Wakapi
2.5PM
A critical auth bypass lands in the middle of Wakapi's slow identity rebuild.
◆ Current state
Wakapi's recent releases cluster around identity and deployment rather than time tracking itself: OpenID Connect login, then an OIDC-only mode, multiple API keys per user, and a switch from Alpine to a distroless nonroot container image. The 2.17.x line has carried two security fixes now — a responsibly disclosed issue in 2.17.3, and a critical authentication bypass in 2.17.6 caused by a shared cache key namespace. Release notes are mostly bare issue numbers, so several entries state that something changed without saying what.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is a self-hosted tool making itself deployable somewhere other than one developer's server. External identity providers, an option to disable local login entirely, per-key credentials and a container that runs as a nonroot user are the requirements that come from someone else's security review. The 2.17.6 bypass sits awkwardly against that: a cache keyed without proper namespacing is exactly the class of bug that multi-tenant deployment surfaces, which suggests the auth work is now being exercised harder than the code was written for. Releases have also thinned to roughly one a month from a much faster earlier cadence.
◆ Prediction
The identity and packaging thread is the only sustained one in this feed, so further hardening in that area is the most likely continuation; the sparse release notes make anything more specific guesswork.
Alternatives to Bonsai and Wakapi
Other PM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Bonsai or Wakapi.
NocoBase
NocoBase runs two release lines at once while the v3 client rewrite absorbs the AI work
Hive
Hive ships in batches, and this one is all planning accuracy and admin control.
Plane
Plane ships a fortnightly digest, and the AI layer is where the real work is going.
Ever Teams
Ever Teams shipped ten tags in twelve hours and one of them touched the product
Asana
Asana's agent left the app — it now answers work questions inside Slack threads.
See all Bonsai alternatives → · See all Wakapi alternatives →
Recent activity from Bonsai and Wakapi
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 7h agoWakapiCritical auth bypass from a shared cache key namespace
- 8d agoBonsaiGlobal Notes
- 15d agoBonsaiBonsai API
- 19d agoBonsaiSync your email and calendar
- 23d agoBonsaiIntroducing Bonsai Documents
- 1mo agoWakapiRelease 2.17.5
- 1mo agoBonsaiBonsai MCP Connector ⚡
- 2mo agoBonsaiCompany Activity feed
- 2mo agoWakapiRelease 2.17.4
- 4mo agoWakapiSecurity fix, relay endpoint dropped, summaries may need regenerating
- 5mo agoWakapiDistroless nonroot container image; SQLite permissions need fixing
- 6mo agoWakapiOIDC-only login mode disables local accounts
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Bonsai and Wakapi?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Bonsai is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 2.5), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Bonsai better than Wakapi?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Bonsai is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 2.5), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other PM products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Bonsai?
Top Bonsai alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Bonsai alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/bonsai for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Wakapi?
Top Wakapi alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Wakapi alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/wakapi for the full list with editorial commentary on each.