11 Best Invoicing Software for Small Business in 2026, Compared

FreshBooks is built around the invoice, and it shows: every plan includes unlimited invoicing, recurring invoices and automatic payment reminders, plus estimates, time tracking and expense tracking that feed straight into the bill. The Lite plan costs $23 a month, but it only covers 5 billable clients, so most working businesses land on Plus at $43 a month for 50 clients.

The real cost is the payment fee, not the subscription: standard cards cost 2.9% plus 30 cents and bank transfers cost 1% through FreshBooks Payments. Clients can also pay by Apple Pay, Google Pay or buy now, pay later. FreshBooks is the right pick when invoicing is the core of the business and you want the billing workflow, not a full accounting department.

QuickBooks Online is the accounting-led choice: invoicing sits inside full double-entry books, with bank feeds, bills, expense tracking and tax-ready reports in the same subscription. Simple Start costs $38 a month for one user, and it covers invoicing, payments and bank feeds. A free plan covers 2 invoices a month, which is enough to test the workflow before paying.

The price has moved up: Essentials, Plus and Advanced all rose on August 1, 2026, and a second user forces the jump from Simple Start to Essentials at $85 a month. The AI agents are a genuine help, sorting transactions and drafting invoices from your data. Buy QuickBooks when the books matter as much as the invoices; buy an invoicing-only tool when they do not.

Zoho Invoice is the only tool here with no paid tier at all: the whole product is free, including recurring invoices, automated payment reminders, quotes, a customer portal, time tracking and expense reports. The limits are the price: 2 users, 3 projects and 500 invoices a year, with 'Powered by Zoho Invoice' branding on your documents.

Zoho does not process payments itself, so your gateway sets the fee — Stripe or PayPal at their normal rates. That keeps the product free, but it also means there is no paid upgrade when you outgrow the caps: the next step is Zoho Billing or Zoho Books. For a freelancer or a two-person business under 500 invoices a year, nothing else here costs less.

Wave's Starter plan is free forever and has no invoice cap: unlimited invoices, estimates, bills and a full double-entry ledger for $0. That makes it the cheapest way to invoice and keep books at the same time. The catch is manual work — automatic bank imports, receipt scanning and extra user roles all sit on Pro at $19 a month.

Wave earns its money from payment processing: card payments cost 2.9% plus 60 cents on Starter, and 3.4% plus 60 cents for Amex. On Pro the 60-cent fixed fee is waived on the first 10 card payments each month. Wave works in the US and Canada only. Pick it when free matters more than automation, and upgrade to Pro when bank feeds save you an hour a week.

Square Invoices is free to start and has no invoice limit: send unlimited invoices and estimates, and take card payments in person through the same account. That combination suits shops, trades and market stalls that invoice some customers and take cards from others. Invoice card payments cost 3.3% plus 30 cents on the Free plan, and bank transfers cost 1% with a $1 minimum.

Square changed its pricing in October 2025, and the old $20-a-month Invoices Plus is gone: the upgrade is now Square Plus at $49 a month per location, which drops invoice card payments to 2.9% plus 30 cents. You must use Square as the processor, so there is no way to route payments through Stripe or PayPal. It is the right pick when the counter and the invoice book are the same business.

Xero's strongest card is unlimited users: every plan includes as many users as you need, including your accountant, at no extra cost. Early costs $27 a month and covers quotes, 20 invoices and 5 bills a month with bank reconciliation. Growing at $59 a month removes the invoice and bill caps and adds bulk reconciliation.

Xero raised its US prices on October 1, 2026 — Early went from $25 to $27, Growing from $55 to $59 and Established from $90 to $97 — and there is no annual-billing discount. New customers get 80% off for the first 3 months. Payroll is not built in for US businesses; it comes through a partner such as Gusto. Pick Xero when several people touch the books and nobody should pay per seat.

HoneyBook manages the whole client relationship, not just the invoice: proposals, contracts, scheduling, files and payments run in one clientflow, with unlimited clients and projects on every plan. Starter costs $36 a month billed monthly, or $29 a month billed annually. The AI features are on every plan too — email drafts, meeting notes and follow-up suggestions.

The plan lines matter: the scheduler, workflow automations, SMS reminders and the QuickBooks Online integration all need Essentials at $59 a month, and unlimited team members need Premium at $129. There is no free plan, only a 30-day trial. HoneyBook is the right pick for photographers, coaches and consultants whose work starts with a proposal and ends with an invoice.

Invoice Ninja is the cheapest professional option here: the free plan covers up to 5 clients with unlimited invoices, quotes, a client portal and online payments. Pro costs $14 a month and removes the client limit, adding custom invoice designs, a branded portal URL, automatic reminders and API access. It is open-source, and you can self-host it if you want full control of your data.

Invoice Ninja does not process payments itself: you connect your own gateway — Stripe, PayPal, Square or GoCardless — and the gateway sets the fee. That keeps the subscription cheap, but it also means there is no built-in accounting and no hand-holding on setup. It is the right pick for a freelancer with a small client list who likes control and does not need a suite.

Bonsai is a freelancer suite, not just an invoicing tool: proposals, contracts, time tracking, tasks and a CRM sit alongside invoicing, with a client portal from Essentials. The catch is the plan line — Basic at $15 a user a month has no invoicing at all, so billing starts on Essentials at $25 a user a month, or $19 billed annually.

Pricing is per user, so a two-person team pays twice the headline price and a three-person team pays three times. Card payments cost 2.9% plus 30 cents and ACH starts at 1%, handled through Stripe. Removing Bonsai branding needs Premium at $39 a user a month. Bonsai fits a solo freelancer who wants the proposal-to-invoice flow in one place, not a team that will multiply the bill.

Stripe Invoicing has no monthly fee and no setup cost: you pay 0.4% of each paid invoice on the Starter plan, and 0.5% on Plus, which adds quotes. Invoices go out as hosted pages with a customer portal, automatic collection and Smart Retries for failed payments. That makes it the cheapest way to invoice if your volume is low and you already take payments through Stripe.

The 0.4% fee sits on top of payment processing, so a card-paid invoice also costs 2.9% plus 30 cents, and an ACH payment costs 0.8% capped at $5. There is no accounting, no time tracking and no project management — Stripe is a payments add-on, not a business suite. Pick it when Stripe already runs your checkout and you want invoicing without another subscription.

PayPal Invoicing costs nothing to set up and nothing per month: creating and sending invoices is free with a PayPal Business account. Clients pay with PayPal, Venmo, cards, Apple Pay or bank transfer, and they do not need a PayPal account to pay. You can send invoices by email, SMS, messaging apps, a QR code or a payment link.

The cost is the fee on each payment: cards cost 2.99% plus 49 cents, PayPal or Venmo payments cost 3.49% plus 49 cents, and Pay Later costs 4.99% plus 49 cents. Bank payments cost 1%, capped at $10. PayPal also lists a $14.99-a-month Invoicing Subscription without explaining what it adds. It is the right pick when your clients already pay with PayPal and you invoice occasionally.