Are you tired of the never-ending cycle of billing and invoicing? Keeping track of those recurring payments, chasing down clients, and ensuring everything’s on Time can eat into your day. And if you’re doing it in traditional ways, the hassle doubles.
But what if we told you there are some of the best invoicing software for free? These tools can simplify your invoicing process. It makes sure that you receive timely payments and send automatic payment reminders. It can also help you generate financial reports for your tax purposes. Won’t that be so good?
To help you, we’ve researched and found some top invoicing and billing software that makes your life easier.
What is invoicing software?
Invoice generator software can help streamline your invoicing and billing operations. Such invoicing software allows you to provide a detailed list of your product offerings with the price or a list of invoice services you offer and the corresponding cost.
The software automates the payment process for products or services. It offers accurate business insights, financial reports, and better financial management.
It streamlines the payment process, ensuring liquidity, flexibility, and a healthy financial forecast, contributing to a more efficient business.
Manual invoicing is a tedious task and can be prone to many errors. This could affect your business in many ways, including loss of credibility, clients and customers, or Money in general.
What are the benefits of invoicing software?
Investing in invoicing software can help you enhance your business efficiency, boost growth, and contribute to its overall success. Let’s check out some benefits of having invoice software:
1. Saves Time: The invoicing software simplifies the invoicing process, saving time and reducing errors. It allows you to create and send invoices quickly compared to manual methods.
2. Faster Payments and tracking: Invoicing software speeds up the payment process by sending automated reminders to clients whose payments are due. It even allows you to track your payments and provides various online payment options.
3. Improved Data accuracy: It automates calculating totals, taxes, or discounts, which reduces the chances of human error and ensures billing accuracy. Some software has built-in functions that simplify data entry and save Time.
4. Accessible from anywhere: As a freelancer, accessing invoices and billing data from any location is essential, as you will likely work from various places.
5. Saves Money: It can save Money spent on stationery items. It also saves time by eliminating the need for envelopes, paper, and pens. Buying invoicing software is a one-time investment.
6. Scalability: Invoicing software can handle many customers and a large volume of invoices. All this without significant disruption or manual adjustments.
7. Insightful Reporting: Invoicing Software also offers reporting and analytics features. This helps in getting valuable insights about the business and helps in better decision-making.
8. All in one: You can get all invoicing-related data in one place with these softwares. From client information to invoice history and payment status, all this data helps maintain financial management and track business performance on time.
Best free invoicing software
1. Zoho Invoice
Zoho Invoice is one of the best free invoicing software today. It offers a free plan for business owners and freelancers with less than five customers or clients.
With Zoho Invoice, you can organize and manage your accounting tasks professionally and securely. Its Client portal offers a self-service platform for customers to manage their billing, accept estimates, pay invoices, and download statements.
Features:
- Ability to accept payment with ease
- Allows you to customize your invoices by selecting a template from the gallery and adding a personal touch.
- ability to set recurring billing system
- Simplifies invoice sharing by creating clones, printing copies, emailing, scheduling emails, and sending links with expiration dates.
- Allows you to track unbilled expenses until clients reimburse them
- The Quote History section in Zoho allows you to track discounts, track changes, and monitor customer interactions.
- Manage your projects, including billable hours, and convert estimates and projects into invoices.
Pros:
- Real-time invoice reports
- Time-tracking
- offers integrations with 10+ payment gateways to help you collect payments on Time.
- Automated reminders for payments
- Can create detailed workflows
Cons:
- Inability to group multiple invoices
- Limited accounting functions
- Limited to “500” invoices per year
Pricing:
- Free plan available
2. Paypal Invoice
Paypal is a free invoicing app that works best for small- to medium-sized business owners and freelancers. Payments with PayPal invoices are usually made within one day of sending the invoice. This accelerates the payments by 78%.
Paypal allows users to create and send invoices for free, only requiring payment upon receipt. It provides a full range of services, such as safeguarding against fraud, streamlining business processes, easy payment options, and keeping an eye on potential threats to your business.
Paypal makes it easy to issue professional-looking invoices by providing several straightforward tools. In addition to being a popular online payment method, PayPal is a well-known payment gateway.
Features:
- Sends payment reminders
- Tracks payment status
- With customizable bill templates and data fields, clients can easily provide necessary information on their invoices for efficient tax reporting.
- Specifies additional costs such as tax obligations and discounts.
- Ability to set a specific due date
- shipping refunds for unhappy customers
Pros:
- Easy to use
- User-friendly interface
- Real-time updates on invoice status
- Robust Paypal business invoice app
Cons:
- Lacks advanced features
- Low conversion rates
- Time monitoring
Pricing:
- Free plan available
- Plus: $29+ per month
3. Stripe Invoice
Stripe is another well-known invoicing software made for digital businesses. It saves Time, reduces manual effort, and speeds up payment. You can integrate it with your apps and websites in no time, and it helps you automate your billing and invoicing process, from generating invoices to collecting payments and reconciling accounts.
The stripe invoice app is also convenient to use since it is also available on mobile. The platform supports 25+ languages and 135+ currencies and provides dynamic payment options based on the customer’s location.
Stripe accepts bank transfers and online payments, ensuring secure and convenient transactions.
Features:
- Stripe’s APIs enable the automation of invoicing workflows and accounts receivable processes.
- Automated email reminders
- manage invoices directly from the Dashboard and automate tasks.
- Users can use the customer portal to manage their invoices and subscriptions securely.
- Revenue and finance automation tools can help streamline revenue and reconciliation workflows.
- Use Stripe’s Smart Retries to retry failed payment attempts at optimized times.
Pros:
- Invoices can be customized to include logos, branding colors, items listed, discounts, and more.
- Customers can download PDF invoices online, optimized for mobile, tablet, and desktop use
- Automatic tax collection
Cons:
- The free plan does not include automatic payment collection and some other automation features
- Lacks automated recurring invoice generation feature
Pricing:
- Starter: 0.4% per paid invoice
- Plus: 0.5% per paid invoice
4. Square Invoice
Square is another free invoicing software that is best for business users, especially those accepting in-person payments. It allows users to send digital estimates and unlimited invoices from anywhere, schedule recurring invoices, and accept card payments.
Square also has a mobile app for easier and more convenient invoicing transactions for your business and customers.
Its plan offers even more advanced features like customization options and project management.
Features:
- Stores customer info
- Build contracts and have them digitally signed.
- Schedule payment reminders
- Customers can pay invoices online, in person, or via various payment methods like credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH bank transfer, Cash App Pay, or buy-now and pay later.
- Allows users to effortlessly convert accepted estimates into invoices with just one click.
Pros:
- Tracks payment status in real-time
- Custom Invoice templates
- Accepts payment 24×7
Cons:
- Customization is available for plus users only
- Less advanced features
Pricing:
- Free plan available
- Plus: $29+ per month
5. Wave Invoicing
Wave is an all-in-one free invoice billing software. It is the best choice for small businesses, saving Time, ensuring payment, and making customer information management stress-free. It offers free invoicing, accounting, and banking features with minimal transaction fees.
In addition, if you have employees to pay, it’s quite easy with Wave’s payroll service. With a single click, all payments are directly deposited into their accounts. And if you are unsure what to do, they offer advisors to help you.
You need to pay extra monthly fees using upgraded features like payroll service, tax filing, and bookkeeping support.
Features:
- Recurring billing system for repeat customers
- Wave’s accounting feature automatically syncs all your invoicing and payment information.
- Real-time inventory tracking
- Keep track of your bills, payments, and expenses
- Access detail reports
- Accepts payments online through credit cards, bank transfers, or mobile wallets
- Get cash flow and other business insights
Pros:
- Fully customizable layout
- View customer transaction history
- Helps in converting estimates into invoices
- Wave’s invoicing mobile app allows users to capture and upload receipts conveniently.
Cons:
- Lack certain features
- Recurring invoices do not exclude specific days ( like weekends and holidays)
Pricing:
- The free plan is available
- Pro plan: $16 per month and $170 per year
6. Invoice Ninja
Invoice Ninja is a free and open-source online invoicing and billing platform. It is a highly customizable invoice software that simplifies billing for multiple clients and businesses.
It offers a free “Forever Plan,” which allows you to send unlimited invoices and quotes for up to 20 clients. Invoice Ninja lets you use payment gateways such as Stripe, Paypal, Venmo, GoCardless, and more.
For more advanced features like customized payment reminders, API integrations, business reports, and unlimited clients, you must pay $10-$14 monthly.
Features:
- Allows you to integrate your payment getaway and invoice clients with one click
- Sending quotes and direct emails to clients
- Project and time tracking
- Auto-billing and recurring invoices
Pros:
- Easy payment process
- Customizable invoices
- Tracks product inventory changes
- The customer portal lets client view their invoices and payment history
Cons:
- Difficulty in navigation
Pricing:
- Free plan available
- Ninja Pro: $12 per month and $120 per year
- Enterprise: $16 per month and $160 per year
7. Paymo Invoice
Paymo is a free invoicing software that simplifies workflow for freelancers, small businesses, and remote teams. Available in 23 languages, Paymo offers time-based billing, project management, and tracking.
With its user-friendly interface, Paymo allows for the conversion of invoices into free estimates. The business invoice app integrates with popular payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.net. It will enable clients to pay directly from the invoice, saving Time and effort.
Features:
- Allows to set tasks’ start and end dates and determine the number of hours required to complete the task
- Offers five different task views
- monitor the profitability of both the project and the client.
- Track expenses
- Stores all the files related to the project
- Gantt view provides a comprehensive overview of all projects on a single screen.
- automatically adjusts task dates for dependent tasks
- Generate live time reports and allow report sharing
Pros:
- Customizable bill templates
- automatically monitor work time at the office through a web timer or on-the-go through mobile apps.
- Important updates are automatically sent to resources via in-app and email notifications.
Cons:
- The mobile app version has limited functions
- Limited reporting and accounting functionalities
Pricing:
- Free plan available
- Starter plan: $5.9 per user per month
- Small office: $10.9 per user per month
- Business plan: $16.9 per user per month
8. Hiveage
Hiveage is another popular fast, simple, and free invoicing and billing software designed for entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small business owners. With its freemium plan, you can send unlimited invoices to a maximum of 5 clients.
One can track Time and expenses and integrate with various payment gateways like PayPal, credit cards, and bank transfers. With support for 30 languages, Hiveage caters to a diverse global audience, allowing users to focus on their business’s priorities.
Features:
- Sends payment reminders and receipts
- Convert estimates to invoices.
- Send expiration reminders to clients.
- allows for the creation of recurring payments on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis
- Expense details can be saved by attaching files and categorizing them with tags.
- A year-to-date Income vs. Expenditure summary on your Dashboard provides a comprehensive view of your business’s performance.
- Output vs input tax summary
- Provides real-time email notifications when bills are paid
Pros:
- Tracks incoming invoices
- Online time tracking in real-time
- Mileage tracking
- multi-company profiles under the same account
Cons:
- Free plan limited to one user per account
- Little difficult to navigate through the Dashboard
Pricing:
- Free plan available
- Basic plan: $ 16 per month
- Pro plan: $25 per month
- Plus plan: $42 per month
9. Invoicely
Invoicely is a free online billing and invoicing software for small businesses and freelancers. The platform offers streamlined invoicing, bill management, and accurate estimates, making financial operations smooth.
Its easy-to-use interface allows users to send, track, and organize invoices and bills. Invoicely offers robust reporting and currency support functionality, allowing businesses to conduct business globally.
The freemium plan allows users to send up to five monthly invoices and store information for three clients at no cost. With customizable layouts, users can showcase their brand identity on every document, making a lasting impression on clients.
Features:
- Allows users to track hourly billed tasks, expenses, and trips effortlessly and convert them into invoices or estimates.
- Sends automatic payment reminders
- simplifies the process of adding taxes, discounts, and shipping to single-line items or invoice totals
- Generate reports on monthly and yearly statements
- Income and expenditure summaries, and accounts receivable and payable.
Pros:
- Easy-to-use interface
- Accepts online payments
- Manage multiple businesses
- Manage client information
Cons:
- Limited features
- Custom branding feature not available in the free plan
- The free version is not very customizable
- Can only use Paypal in the free plan
Pricing:
- Free plan available
- Basic plan: $9.99 per month
- Professional plan: $19.99 per month
- Enterprise plan: $29.99 per month
10. Harvest
Harvest is one of the best project invoicing software designed for teams, startups, and growing businesses. With its user-friendly interface and features, the platform simplifies the invoicing process and allows efficient project management.
You can gain insights about your past projects with its detailed time tracking and reporting feature. Its free plan is suitable for freelancers and solopreneurs.
Harvest integrates with popular tools like Asana, Stripe, QuickBooks, Slack, and Google Calendar, ensuring a streamlined workflow. Harvest is the ideal solution for maximizing productivity and securing payment.
Features:
- Creates hourly or fixed fee budgets for each project.
- Receive immediate notifications when your budget is reached.
- Track expenses for every client and project
- Automated email reminders to customers who have made late payments
- Cost tracking
Pros:
- Tools for estimating, invoicing, and payment collection are user-friendly
- Custom reminders for consistent time-tracking
- Easy to navigate
Cons:
- The free plan can be accessed by one user only, with a limit on projects
- Projects cannot be recycled or categorized into templates.
Pricing:
- Free plan available
- Pro( Annual): $10.80 (one seat per year)
- Pro (Monthly): $12 ( one seat per month)
Conclusion
We’ve listed all the best invoicing software with the help of various online communities and forums like G2.com and Capterra.com to compare their features, benefits, and pricing. These tools will help you manage your invoicing effectively, whether you’re a freelancer, an agency owner, running a SaaS product, or running an eCommerce store.
Each invoicing software has its strengths and weaknesses. We’d love to hear about your experiences, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us!
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