Free Invoicing Software for Freelancers
Wave is the free option that comes closest to a full accounting package: unlimited invoices, estimates and bills, recurring invoices, and full bookkeeping behind the same login, with Wave earning only when a client pays by card, at 2.9% + $0.60. Zoho Invoice never asks you to upgrade, because it has no paid tier at all; it allows 500 invoices a year and two users, and it tracks time, which Wave does not.
The rest split on how they make their money. Square Invoices, PayPal Invoicing and SumUp Invoices put no cap on invoices and take a percentage when a client pays. Invoice Ninja, Hiveage, Harvest, Paymo, invoicely and Bookipi limit the free plan instead, to five clients, two projects or a few invoices a month, and sell an upgrade for $9.90 to $16 a month.
Our picks
- Books ready for tax time: Wave. Full accounting on the free plan, alongside unlimited invoices, estimates and bills.
- Nothing to upgrade to later: Zoho Invoice. Paid Plans From reads $0: 500 invoices a year, two users, time tracking and recurring invoices, with no paid tier at all.
- Hourly work for a few clients: Invoice Ninja. Five clients with unlimited invoices, recurring auto-billing and billable time tracking, paid through your own Stripe, PayPal or Authorize.net account.
- Lowest built-in card fee: SumUp Invoices. 2.9% + 15 cents when a client pays online, nothing on cash or check, and no invoice limit.
- One or two long-running projects: Harvest. One seat and two projects free, with tracked hours turned straight into invoices, and $11 per seat a month to lift the cap.
At a glance
| Option | Paid Plans From | Free Plan Limits | Getting Paid | Beyond Invoicing | Recurring Invoices | Mobile App |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $19source | Unlimited invoices, estimates and billssource | Built-in card processingsource | Full accountingsource | Included on free plansource | iOS and Androidsource | |
| Freesource | 2 users, 500 invoices per yearsource | Connect a payment gatewaysource | Time trackingsource | Included on free plansource | iOS and Androidsource | |
| $14source | 5 clients, unlimited invoicessource | Connect a payment gatewaysource | Time trackingsource | Included on free plansource | iOS and Androidsource | |
| $20source | Unlimited invoicessource | Built-in card processingsource | Estimates and quotessource | Included on free plansource | ||
| Freesource | Free to create and send, no invoice limitsource | Built-in card processingsource | Included on free plansource | iOS and Androidsource | ||
| $9.99source | 5 invoices per monthsource | PayPal onlysource | Estimates and quotessource | Paid plans onlysource | Web onlysource | |
| $11source | 1 seat, 2 projectssource | Connect a payment gatewaysource | Time trackingsource | iOS and Androidsource | ||
| $9.9source | 1 user, 1 client, 2 projectssource | Built-in card processingsource | Time trackingsource | iOS and Androidsource | ||
| $16source | 5 clients, unlimited invoicessource | Connect a payment gatewaysource | Time trackingsource | Paid plans onlysource | iOS and Androidsource | |
| $9.99source | 3 invoices per 30 dayssource | Connect a payment gatewaysource | iOS and Androidsource | |||
| Freesource | Unlimited invoicessource | Built-in card processingsource | Estimates and quotessource |
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What each free plan actually limits
The caps come in three shapes. invoicely allows 5 invoices a month, Bookipi 3 every 30 days and Zoho Invoice 500 a year. Invoice Ninja and Hiveage cap clients at five but leave invoices unlimited, while Harvest (one seat, two projects) and Paymo (one user, one client, two projects) cap the work itself. Wave, Square Invoices, PayPal Invoicing and SumUp Invoices cap nothing.
A project cap suits a freelancer with one or two long-running clients and fits badly with anyone juggling many small jobs, who is better off with Wave or SumUp Invoices. Bookipi and invoicely are closer to a trial that never expires: recurring invoices, card payments and tracking all sit behind invoicely's $9.99 Basic plan.
Card fees when a client pays
Five tools process cards themselves and charge their own fee. SumUp Invoices takes 2.9% + 15 cents on an online payment, the lowest built-in rate here, Wave takes 2.9% + $0.60, and Square Invoices takes 3.3% + 30 cents, the steepest, in return for the least friction for the person paying. Paymo's built-in card and ACH payments are US-only, so freelancers elsewhere are back to bank transfers.
Zoho Invoice, Invoice Ninja, Harvest, Hiveage and Bookipi connect to a payment service you already use, so you keep your own Stripe or PayPal rate. Invoice Ninja connects to the widest range of gateways and Hiveage to more than a dozen. invoicely's free plan takes online payment through PayPal only.
Recurring invoices and time tracking without paying
Automatic recurring billing is free on Wave, Zoho Invoice, Invoice Ninja, Square Invoices and PayPal Invoicing. Hiveage keeps it for its $16 Basic plan, so on its free plan each invoice goes out by hand. For hourly work, Zoho Invoice, Invoice Ninja, Harvest, Paymo and Hiveage all track time on the free plan; Wave does not, and invoicely runs only in a browser, with no phone app for invoicing on site.
The options in detail
Wave
Wave is the closest thing here to a free accounting package: the Starter plan sends unlimited invoices, estimates and bills, and keeps income and expense bookkeeping behind the same login, so there is a real set of books to hand an accountant at tax time. You pay only when a client pays by card, at 2.9% + $0.60 a transaction, and the $19-a-month Pro plan mostly buys receipt capture, bank-feed imports and a discounted card rate. The gap for hourly billers is time tracking, which Wave does not do, so a timer has to live somewhere else.
Zoho Invoice
Zoho Invoice is the rare tool that is free at every level rather than free up to a paywall: there is no paid tier to upgrade to, and the limits are 500 invoices a year, two users and three projects. It covers more ground than most free plans, with timesheets that turn billable hours into invoices, billable expense tracking, scheduled recurring invoices, and apps on both phones. Invoices carry a small "Powered by Zoho Invoice" line, which is the price of the free ride. The ceiling is real, though: outgrowing 500 invoices or three projects means moving to a different, paid Zoho product.
Invoice Ninja
Invoice Ninja is open source and unusually generous where it counts: the free plan is capped at five clients but gives unlimited invoicing, recurring auto-billing, billable time tracking and expense tracking without paying anything. It connects to more payment gateways than anything else on this list, so you keep your own Stripe, PayPal or Authorize.net rates rather than a markup. The five-client ceiling is the constraint to watch, and $14 a month lifts it. Anyone who would rather not trust a vendor with their billing data can run the same software on their own server.
Square Invoices
Square Invoices costs nothing to use and has no invoice limit; the money comes out of the payment instead, at 3.3% + 30 cents when a client pays a card online, the steepest card rate in this table. What that buys is the least friction for the person paying, plus estimates, contracts and recurring schedules, and the same account takes cards in person if you ever sell face to face. The $20-a-month Invoices Plus tier adds payment schedules, custom templates and a cap on ACH fees. There is no bookkeeping or time tracking here: it is invoicing bolted to a payments company.
PayPal Invoicing
PayPal charges nothing to create or send an invoice and has no subscription at all: you pay a transaction fee only when a client actually pays. That makes it the least committal option here, and clients who already hold a PayPal account settle up in a couple of taps, which is worth real money in days-to-payment. Recurring invoices are built in and the whole thing runs from the standard PayPal phone app. It is invoicing and nothing more: no time tracking, no expense records, no books.
invoicely
invoicely has the most restrictive free plan on this list: five invoices a month, three saved clients, and PayPal as the only way to accept money online. It runs entirely in a browser with no phone app, which is fine on a laptop and awkward on a job site. Recurring invoices, card payments and time, expense and mileage tracking all sit behind the $9.99 Basic plan, so the free tier reads less like a product than a trial that never expires. Unlimited estimates are the one place it is genuinely open-handed.
Harvest
Harvest arrives at invoicing from the time-tracking side: the free plan is one person and two projects, with time tracking, expense tracking and invoicing built around them, so tracked hours become an invoice without retyping anything. The binding constraint is that project count, not the number of invoices, which makes it a strong fit for a freelancer with one or two long-running clients and a poor one for anybody juggling many small jobs. Clients pay through your own PayPal or Stripe account, so the processing rate is whatever you already negotiated. Apps cover both phones, and $11 per seat a month removes the project cap.
Paymo
Paymo is project management first with invoicing attached: the free plan allows one user, one client and two projects, but unlimited time tracking and unlimited invoices inside them. It suits a freelancer who wants tasks, a Kanban board and a timer in the same place as billing, and it is the wrong tool for anyone who needs more than a single client without paying. Card and ACH payments run through Paymo's own processing, which is currently US-only, so freelancers elsewhere are back to manual bank transfers. The Solo plan settles at about $9.90 a month once the introductory discount ends.
Hiveage
Hiveage gives its five free clients more capability than most of this list gives anyone: unlimited invoices, unlimited estimates, unlimited time tracking and unlimited expense tracking, all at no cost. It connects to more than a dozen payment gateways, so you keep your own processing rates, and there are native apps on both phones. The notable omission is recurring billing, which starts at the $16-a-month Basic plan, the priciest first upgrade in this table. Best suited to someone with a handful of long-term clients who is happy to send each invoice by hand.
Bookipi
Bookipi is a phone-first invoice app, and its free tier is the thinnest here: three invoices every 30 days, after which the $9.99-a-month Starter plan is the only way forward. It is aimed at tradespeople and one-person businesses who raise an invoice at the job rather than at a desk, and the apps are heavily reviewed on both stores. Card payments work by connecting your own Stripe account, so Stripe's rate is what you pay. Treat the free plan as a way to try the app rather than a way to run a year of billing.
SumUp Invoices
SumUp Invoices has no subscription and no invoice limit; the company earns on the payment instead, taking 2.9% + 15 cents when a client pays online through the invoice link and nothing at all on cash or check. That fee is the lowest built-in card rate in this table. Quotes sit alongside invoices, and the account is the same one SumUp uses for card readers, so it fits a freelancer who also takes payments in person. It stays deliberately plain: no time tracking, no expense records, nothing to grow into.
How we researched this
Each tool here has a free tier a freelancer can keep invoicing from indefinitely rather than a trial that runs out, and that rule is why FreshBooks, Bonsai, QuickBooks and Xero are absent. Stripe Invoicing has no free allowance (it charges 0.4% per paid invoice), Clockify keeps invoicing on its paid Standard tier, and Akaunting is free only if you host it yourself. Zervant is priced in euros and sold country by country in Europe, and Refrens never states where its free plan ends. Elorus and Invoice Home were dropped only because their sites could not be read.
Limits, fees and prices were all taken from each tool's own site. An empty cell is silence on those pages, not proof the feature is missing, and $0 under Paid Plans From means there is no paid tier at all. Upgrade prices are monthly-billing list prices, so most are cheaper billed yearly (Harvest is $9 a seat on annual billing), and Paymo's $9.90 is its price once the introductory discount ends. Square's $20 is its Invoices Plus upgrade, separate from Square's wider plans, and Harvest's free plan mentions Mac and iOS apps, so Android users should confirm what the free tier includes. Free-plan limits and card fees are what vendors change most, so confirm both again before your first client invoice goes out on a new tool.