Invoicing isn’t always standalone, and keeping finances under one roof can be helpful. Our Best Invoicing Software list looks at it from all angles, to help you pick the right one.
FreshBooks gets our crown as the best invoicing software! It’s a fantastic combination of great design for usability, includes all the right features for most small businesses, and is priced attractively for the masses.
Automation, reporting, and workflow assistance rule the day when it comes to invoicing. Picking the right invoicing software to use can make the difference between increased hours spent billing or increased revenue from efficient billing.
As a small business ourselves, managing our invoicing and financial needs is key for operational stability. Because of that, we’ve spent years experimenting with technologies and discovering what works (or doesn’t).
That experience brings us to share with you our top choices in invoicing software. If FreshBooks isn’t ideal for you, we’re confident one of these other options will.
Note
Prices shown in this article were based on the time of writing. To view current prices, click on the various product links.
5
$7.50 /mo
FreshBooks is pretty established in the invoicing software space. 2ndSite Inc., a Canadian-based software company, owns the brand. It moves past being a simple invoicing platform and offers a comprehensive range of accounting features.
The invoicing portion of FreshBooks is feature-packed. You can use it to create invoices for traditional sales, as well as newer formats like subscription-based billing. You can even tie in various payment methods to your invoices.
For example, you have the option of embedding a payment button in your invoice. With a system like this, your customers can simply click it and make direct payments using various payment gateways. You can even accept card payments via the phone.
Yet, rather than being just a means of invoicing your customers, you can actually use FreshBooks to manage the entire cash flow for your business.
It starts with invoices, helps you track payments, and even offers the tools needed to facilitate them.
FreshBooks is very suitable for small businesses that need an all-in-one solution. It’s handy for freelancers, start-ups, and sole proprietors where time and money are limited. With FreshBooks, you can even do your bookkeeping and bring in an accountant once a year.
Pros
Cons
For more information, visit FreshBooks official website.
Unlimited
Free
Square is well known for helping businesses of all sizes process payments. Founded in 2009, it allows the easy integration of various payment features on digital assets like online stores. However, it also has some value-added features like Square Invoices.
Square’s invoicing feature is Cloud-based, and you’ll need to sign up for a free account on their website. However, to use the invoicing feature, you need the Square Invoices app. That’s available for both Android and iOS platforms.
Despite its mobile-centricity, Square Invoices has a lot to offer. Not only can you send invoices and cost estimates from your smartphone, but they can include payment acceptance features as well.
The humble app also has proper reporting tools that can help you keep track of all due (or overdue) funds. Finally, you can send receipts via email or a direct text message – very modern. It simply reeks of convenience.
While the lack of desktop support seems a little unconventional, it does show that Square intends it mainly for the small business segment. It fits the profile of a mobile sole proprietor perfectly and, unless you’re deskbound, works like a charm.
Pros
Cons
For more information, visit Square official website.
Unlimited
$19 /mo
Bonsai is an investor-backed business management system. While it offers a robust invoicing module, the system can handle end-to-end workflow management. The complete product starts at proposals and can work the entire chain right down to tax management.
If you’re a small business looking for help with invoicing, consider taking things to the next level with Bonsai. It’s all-inclusive, and you can create entire ‘projects’, that you can add the necessary elements to. Then, Bonsai’s process will help you move from project start to completion.
Bonsai isn’t a magic tool that does anything out of the ordinary when it comes to invoicing. It’s similar to just using templates, but has some excellent value-added features. One example of this is the inclusion of payments acceptance, plus the possibility for customers to leave a tip.
Not only can Bonsai track late payments, but it also lets you impose additional fees for them. For difficult customers that are habitually late on payments, this hits where it hurts. Plus, you can stop them from downloading invoices for unpaid bills.
Bonsai’s price plus all the features it integrates makes it suitable for small businesses or freelancers seeking better workflow management. The rigid workflow structure may clash with larger companies that already have similar processes in place.
Pros
Cons
For more information, visit Bonsai official website.
Unlimited
$18 /mo
AND.CO bills itself as a professional business management software suite. Its services are Cloud-based and intended to help small companies or freelancers overcome challenging areas of their workflow and integrate things under one tidy roof.
If you’ve been struggling with invoicing in particular, then AND.CO is an interesting solution. It takes a single element of small business workflow and expands it to offer more power. For example, those used to manual invoicing will be surprised at the details that AND.CO covers.
Since it’s a business management system, you can expect to move past just invoicing and expect complete coverage. You can create proposals and manage contracts and all your transaction reports.
One element they include (and which isn’t always widely available in other invoicing software) – is time-tracking. This feature isn’t unique, but AND.CO supports individual timers per client. Attaching this information for invoices is fantastic as proof of billable hours.
It’s an exciting twist with which many freelancers should be happy.
Are you a freelancer?
Check out our guide on all things freelance invoicing.
AND.CO’s attention to detail makes it perfect for those struggling to handle demanding clients. It includes elements to your invoices that make it far more challenging for that customer category to raise any dispute.
Pros
Cons
For more information, visit AND.CO official website.
100
Free
Invoice Ninja is a formidable business that’s been in the market for over seven years. They started from bootstrap and have scaled up the business while remaining operationally streamlined. Despite the name, they offer end-to-end billing management, not just invoicing.
We consider Invoice Ninja as a pioneer in the Cloud billing management space. Reading their story gives the impression of a zero to hero rise to becoming one of the dominant choices in this challenging industry.
Invoicing here has multiple granular controls, such as the allowance for line-item tax rate adjustments. That means you can set individual tax rates for each item on your invoice. Even payments are slightly flexible since you can allow specific customers to pay invoices partially if necessary.
The product is highly inclusive, and new features are added on while existing ones improved. Yet their biggest surprise remains that they’re one of the few that has a strong capability for third-party integration – for example, with Zapier, Softaculous, and DigitalOcean.
Invoice Ninja is also available for multiple platforms and suits multiple business conditions. Moving past the small business segment, large companies can even opt for white label usage of the system to fit their needs.
Invoice Ninja is in a strong position to support all levels of users, from freelancers and small businesses, to big companies. The power-packed free plan even allows up to 100 billable clients and unlimited invoicing. It’s a choice that is very hard against which to compete.
Pros
Cons
For more information, visit Invoice Ninja official website.
Unlimited
Free
Paymo isn’t all about invoicing but offers businesses a complete work and project management solution. It centers around projects and has features that improve workflow within teams and increase transparency on client billing.
Although Paymo is considered a complete solution, it’s managed to turn invoices into a pivotal workflow point. Integrated accounting allows you to draw data from projects and turn those directly into invoices.
This feature is awe-inspiring once you consider elements that you can include, especially time tracking! Paymo sells hard on its time tracking capabilities, with easily accessible times available at multiple locations like your web browser, desktop, and even mobile device.
The service comes in a well-rounded interface that uses tables and lists to present readable data. While this helps it present information comprehensively, a smaller business may balk at the relative complexity, which isn’t always necessary.
Paymo is more suitable for small to medium-sized businesses given its comprehensive data presentation. Freelancers may not like the extras, while larger companies may not be fond of the enforced project-based design.
Pros
Cons
For more information, visit Paymo official website.
Unlimited
$39 /mo
Among invoicing systems available that you’ll find, Bill.com is extremely potent. It isn’t meant for simple invoicing but to handle complete back-office process management for financial matters.
Bill.com users include many big trusted brands, including TED and Burger King. That fact alone should tell you of its capabilities when it comes to money management. The workflow process can get a little complex, but it includes unbelievable customization, invoicing, and especially reporting capabilities.
Despite that slight complexity, Bill.com has been extending usability somewhat. It now offers some things that can help make invoicing more convenient for smaller operations. One example of this is electronic record keeping, such as snapping a picture of an invoice.
While the system doesn’t have powerful accounting features, you can sync it with big brands like Quickbooks. The name of the game here is paperwork management, and at this, Bill.com has few equals.
Bill.com is suitable for small to large companies that need to get a hold of excessive paperwork for billing management. It suits multi-layered organizations, with comprehensive reports being available to top dogs or dedicated billing managers.
Pros
Cons
For more information, visit Bill.com official website.
For those who aren’t yet using invoicing software, you’re likely filling out paperwork or using a specific template in an application like Word or Excel. While that works, have you ever wondered if there’s a better way?
The great news is, yes, there is. Invoicing software goes beyond letting you fill out and send out an invoice. Most invoicing software today comes packed with features that will help you stay more organized and efficient.
With these neat applications, you can create and send invoices, include payment links, automate follow-up processes, generate receipts through the system, and more. Some are even part of entire accounting systems, offering a more comprehensive all-in-one solution.
Top reasons to use invoicing software;
Invoicing software is very common today, and there are hundreds of options in the market. While we’ve tested many extensively to help you narrow it down to the list above, you need to pick the ideal fit for your business.
To choose the right invoicing software for your needs, consider;
All invoice software will have a template you can use to create invoices. The question is, how much customization do you need. Some applications may have a full-blown design editor built-in, while others will only offer field customization.
Another consideration in this area is whether or not the application lets you pick specific templates to use for client groups. You may have very different clients who need to be presented invoices in certain formats.
Not all invoicing software is focused only on ‘invoicing’. Often, you’ll find the best invoicing software comes as part of a complete application suite. This will give you one streamlined system that can handle ALL your money needs from a single dashboard.
If that’s not what you want, you need to look for a standalone invoicing software application. If not, you’ll likely often get bugged to use features in which you have no interest.
You may also like to consider if the invoicing software is modular. Modular software has two distinct advantages; the main component is leaner, faster (and often cheaper). In addition, the modularity means that you can easily add-on needed features.
That way, you get to cherry-pick and add features as your business needs evolve.
Since the money flow is often only a single part of the business process, you may need to consider the interaction between the invoicing software and other applications you use.
For example, if you already have an accounting system, can it play well with your invoicing software of choice?
As with many software and services, invoicing software limitations are often brand-specific. For example, while Square Invoices is convenient and free to use, it’s also only available on mobile devices.
One limitation you need to watch out for is the number of billable clients that the invoicing platform allows.
Many brands limit this to force customers to scale up as their business (and income grows). However, that won’t work well for some types of companies with few repeat customers.
You’ll find that prices for invoicing software can vary greatly depending on the one chosen. There are many free options at the lower end of the scale, but these often tend to be more limited in nature.
Pricing for more comprehensive solutions typically follows feature inclusion and your business requirements. You can generally expect to pay more for all-in-one solutions as compared to those that support only invoicing.
Regardless of your choice, prices are often very manageable and start within $10 per month, which is great news for small businesses. As the demands you put on the software grow with your customer base, you may have to upgrade the plan to cater to that.
To wrap up, here’s a recap of our top 3 invoicing software:
The scope that invoicing systems or applications covers can range far and wide. There are many excellent standalone invoicing apps or those that offer more comprehensive feature sets. The critical point in choosing one for your business lies in your operational needs.
Before you dismiss comprehensive solutions, keep an open mind and assess them in their entirety. Perhaps you may discover some offer a better means of streamlining your business operations in one neat package.
Personally, we have a great liking for FreshBooks for many reasons. It’s well established, offers just the right balance of features, and clocks in at an affordable price.
FreshBooks is hands-down the best invoicing option for small businesses. It gives event freelancers access to extensive features, including unlimited expense tracking and estimates. Features like automatic recurring invoice creation also help save time.
FreshBooks is easy to use despite its comprehensive feature set. The modern user interface is a breeze to navigate and lets you simply get things done quickly and easily. Their reporting system, for example, is one of the best at-a-glance designs in the market.
Yes, there are many free invoicing software options in the market. These, however, are often limited in scope and may not scale well. If you’re in it for the long haul, we highly recommend more comprehensive options that start with a robust free tier, like Invoice Ninja.
The Square Invoices is the best free invoice software around. It’s lightweight, allows unlimited invoices and even estimates. You only need to pay if you plan to accept card payments via the integrated system.
Yes, you definitely can use invoice software on mobile. Some like Square Invoices are available only for mobile. Others, including FreshBooks and Paymo, support multiple platforms – all of which can be used depending on your needs.
Yes, if you use a reputable brand like FreshBooks. Established companies like this often have a strong focus on security. Usually, you’ll find they protect data with high encryption up to 256-bit SSL encryption, the highest in the industry.
