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Getting paid as a freelancer: what the invoicing apps do
Sending an invoice and getting paid by card or bank transfer is the easy part. Limits, reminders and payment fees are where invoicing apps differ.
For a freelancer, an invoice is the last step of the job and the one that decides when the money arrives. A good invoicing app makes that step quick: the invoice goes out in the client's inbox with a way to pay attached, and the app keeps track of what is still owed.
Almost all of the ten apps below send branded invoices and take online payments, so the differences are elsewhere: how many invoices or clients the cheaper plans allow, whether reminders and recurring invoices cost extra, what each payment costs in fees, and whether the invoicing sits inside a bigger system. Prices are in US dollars.
Free plans and where they stop
Several of these apps can be used without paying, with limits that suit someone just starting out. Invoice Ninja's free plan allows unlimited invoicing for up to five clients. It offers 11 customizable templates with your own logo and colors, and clients can pay straight from the invoice in one click through Stripe, PayPal, Square, GoCardless and many other payment services. Invoice Ninja also handles recurring invoices with automatic billing, expenses, vendors and purchase orders. Automatic reminder emails need Ninja Pro, at $14 a month or $140 a year, and bank account sync needs Enterprise, at $18 a month or $180 a year.
WaffleInvoice calls itself a free invoice and estimate maker for freelancers and service businesses. Its free plan has unlimited invoices, estimates and clients, a client portal, PDF downloads and one-click conversion of an estimate into an invoice, with payments tracked by hand. The catch is sending: free accounts can email up to 25 invoices in any rolling 30 days, and new accounts only five a day for their first 14 days. Pro, at $19 a month, removes the cap and adds online card and ACH payments, text message reminders, recurring billing and automatic reminders.
Bookipi Invoice's free plan allows up to three invoices a month. Its Starter plan, at $91.20 billed annually, makes invoices unlimited. Bookipi tracks when an invoice is opened, sends automatic reminders when it is overdue, and takes card or digital payments, including Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android in some countries. A Gmail add-on creates and sends invoices from a Gmail account. It runs on the web, iPhone and Android.
Harvest's free plan, built for individual freelancers, includes time tracking, invoicing and expense tracking, but for one seat and two projects. Its invoices are built from the time and expenses already logged in it. Clients can pay online through the PayPal and Stripe integrations, and Harvest can copy invoices and payments to QuickBooks Online or Xero automatically, though both the payment and the accounting integrations come with the Teams plan at $9 per seat a month, or $108 per seat billed annually. Harvest has apps for the web, macOS, Windows, iOS and Android.
Low-cost apps for regular invoicing
Billdu's Lite plan is shown as $4.99 a month, the average monthly price on an annual subscription, and it covers 10 clients. It creates and sends invoices, takes payments through Stripe or PayPal, tracks expenses and shows the status of each invoice. Payment reminders and receipts start with Standard at $9.99, and recurring invoices with Premium at $19.99. There is a seven-day trial.
Invoice2go is sold by the year. The Starter plan costs $79.99 a year, but it is limited to 30 invoices a year and card payments carry a 3.5% fee. Clients can pay by bank transfer, credit or debit card, or PayPal, and the app sends overdue reminders, tracks invoice status, attaches expenses, books appointments and bills for hours worked. It runs on the web, iOS and Android with the information synced across them. Integration with QuickBooks or Xero needs Professional at $119.99 a year, and recurring invoices need Premium at $449.99 a year. There is a 30-day trial.
InvoiceBerry, for small businesses and freelancers, sends unlimited invoices that can be downloaded as PDFs or emailed in one click, and customers can pay directly on the invoice. It also sends quotes, tracks expenses and payments, sends reminders, and uses recurring invoice profiles to bill regular customers on a schedule. The Solo plan costs $15 a month for fewer than 35 clients, and sending invoices by text message needs Ultra at $45 a month. There is a 14-day trial.
Invoicing inside a bigger system
Some freelancers would rather invoice from the same app that runs the rest of the business. Bonsai combines invoicing and online payments with expense and income tracking and payment reminders, alongside client and project management. Invoices are branded and can carry custom fields, clients can pay by credit card, bank transfer or other methods, and tracked hours and expenses turn into invoices. Bonsai sends automatic reminders for overdue invoices. Its plans start at $9 per user a month, but invoices and payments come with Essentials at $19 a month billed annually, and accounting integrations with Premium at $29. Bonsai charges processing fees on online payments that vary by method. There is a seven-day trial.
Xero is accounting software, and its invoicing is built for freelancers too. Users can customize online invoices, give customers more than one way to pay, set automatic reminders and create invoices from the app on Android or iPhone. The Early plan costs $2.50 a month for the first six months and then $25 a month, and it includes quotes, 20 invoices and 5 bills. Expense and mileage claims for employees come with Established, at $9 a month for the first six months and then $90 a month. For a freelancer who wants the books and the invoices in one place, the invoice limit on Early is the number to watch.
When an accountant is involved
BILL is aimed at businesses and accountants. Invoices can use custom fields, templates and automatic numbering, and they can go out by email or by US mail, on a schedule or as recurring invoices. Payments arrive in the bank account by ACH or credit card, invoices can be filtered by status, reminders are automated, and BILL syncs both ways with accounting software. The Essentials plan costs $49 per user a month. Extras are priced separately: a mailed invoice costs $1.99, and an instant transfer costs 1.25% with a $1 minimum fee. Its entry price is the highest in this guide, and its features suit a business that already works closely with an accountant.
Reminders, recurring invoices and fees
Three features separate the cheap plans from the paid ones. The first is automatic reminders for late payers. They are part of Bonsai, Xero, Invoice2go, Bookipi Invoice and BILL, but on Invoice Ninja they need Ninja Pro, on Billdu they need Standard, and on WaffleInvoice they need Pro.
The second is recurring invoices for clients on a monthly retainer. Invoice Ninja offers them with automatic billing, and InvoiceBerry uses recurring invoice profiles, while Billdu puts them on Premium, WaffleInvoice on Pro and Invoice2go on Premium at $449.99 a year.
The third is the cost of each payment. Invoice2go's Starter plan charges 3.5% on card payments, Bonsai's processing fees vary by payment method, and BILL charges for mailed invoices and instant transfers. For a freelancer billing a few large invoices a year, the payment fees can matter more than the monthly price.
