10 Best Invoicing Software of 2026

FreshBooks is built for people who send invoices for a living rather than people who keep books for a living. Every plan includes estimates, real-time expense tracking and online payments by credit and debit card, ACH bank transfer, Apple Pay, Google Pay and buy now, pay later. The chasing tools are what set it apart for this list: recurring invoices, scheduled late fees, automated late payment reminders and deposits are documented on the pricing page, so an overdue bill gets a nudge and a fee without you writing an email. Lite costs $23 per month at list price but only covers 5 billable clients, which most working freelancers will outgrow; Plus at $43 raises that to 50 and adds proposals, client retainers, receipt scanning and accountant access. Card payments cost 2.9% plus $0.30 and ACH costs 1%. Extra team members are $11 each per month, so it gets pricier for growing studios.

Wave is the obvious starting point when the budget is zero. The Starter plan costs nothing and lets you create unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, take online payments and invoice from the mobile app. The catch is the card fee: on Starter it is 2.9% plus $0.60 per credit card transaction and 3.4% plus $0.60 for Amex, which bites on small invoices. Pro costs $19 per month or $190 per year and changes the math: the pricing page lists 2.9% plus $0 for the first 10 card transactions each month, automatic bank imports and categorization, unlimited receipt capture and automated late payment reminders. That last item matters for anyone who chases bills, since Starter has no automatic reminders. Wave covers basic bookkeeping too, so a freelancer can run invoicing and books in one place, though it has fewer project and proposal tools than FreshBooks or HoneyBook.

Zoho Invoice is free and Zoho states it plainly on the pricing page: there is no paid plan. For that price you get tax-compliant invoices, quotes, recurring invoices, automated payment reminders, several payment options for customers, branded templates, expense recording, time logging with projects and a self-service customer portal, plus reports on sales, receivables and expenses. It also connects to Zoho CRM, Analytics and Books. The limits are written into the FAQ: up to two users, three projects and 500 invoices per year, with "Powered by Zoho Invoice" branding on documents. Accounts inactive for more than 180 days have their data deleted in the following 20 days after a warning, so occasional users should keep a backup. Businesses that outgrow it are pointed to Zoho Billing. For a freelancer sending fewer than ten invoices a week, the free feature set is wider than many paid entry plans.

Square Invoices is the natural pick if your clients sometimes pay in person and sometimes by invoice. Square says invoicing is included in any Square plan, and its feature list covers unlimited invoices, recurring invoices on daily, weekly, monthly or yearly schedules, deposits, estimates with several package options that convert to invoices once accepted, contracts that must be signed before payment, automatic reminders around the due date and real-time status reporting. Fees are where the plans differ. On Square Free, a card payment made through an invoice costs 3.3% plus 30 cents; Plus at $49 per month per location and Premium at $149 drop that to 2.9% plus 30 cents and cap ACH invoice payments at $10. Plus also adds payment schedules and custom invoice templates. Square does not keep your books, so pair it with accounting software or export to one.

Invoice Ninja packs more invoicing controls into a low price than most tools here. The free plan covers five clients with unlimited invoicing, 11 invoice templates with your logo, online payments, auto-billing and recurring invoices, deposits and partial payments, a client portal, projects with billable time and expense tracking. Ninja Pro costs $14 per month or $140 per year and removes the client cap and the "Created by Invoice Ninja" footer, adds fully customizable invoice designs, email through Gmail or your own SMTP, a branded portal URL, bulk email, reports, US state sales tax calculation and automatic late payment reminder emails. Enterprise starts at $18 per month for one or two users and adds team access. Every paid plan has a 30-day money back guarantee. The interface exposes many settings, so expect a longer setup than Wave or Zoho Invoice, but the result is very configurable.

QuickBooks Online is accounting software first, and invoicing is one part of it. That is its strength for a growing service business: every invoice posts into full books, reports and tax categories your accountant can open directly. The pricing page lists a $0 QuickBooks Free tier for people just starting out, then Simple Start at $38 per month for one user with two accountant seats, Essentials at $85 for three users, Plus at $140 and Advanced at $340, each with a 50% discount for the first three months at the time of our check. Invoices can carry QuickBooks Payments so clients pay by card or bank transfer, and the system sends status updates and reminders. Essentials adds employee time on invoices, which matters for agencies that bill hours. The cost is the drawback: for a freelancer who mostly needs invoices, $38 a month buys a lot of accounting they may not use.

HoneyBook suits service businesses where the invoice is the last step of a booking. Starter, at $29 per month billed annually or $36 monthly, includes unlimited clients and projects, invoices and payments, proposals and contracts, a calendar, a client portal, professional templates, basic reports, two live lead forms and HoneyBook AI. Essentials at $49 adds a scheduler, more lead forms, SMS reminders and removes the "Powered by HoneyBook" label; Premium at $109 adds unlimited team members and priority support. HoneyBook says card fees start at 2.7% plus 10 cents with no extra international or premium card fees, while ACH transfers cost 1.5%, which is higher than the 1% charged by FreshBooks or Square. There is no free plan, but a 30-day trial needs no card. Accounting is not the focus, so most users still sync to bookkeeping software.

Xero is accounting software with solid invoicing, aimed at small businesses rather than solo freelancers. Early costs $27 per month after an introductory discount and covers quotes, 20 invoices, 5 bills, online invoice payments, bank reconciliation, Smart Document Capture, sales tax, W-9 and 1099 management and a 30-day cash flow forecast. The 20 invoice cap is tight for anyone billing weekly, so most service businesses will look at Growing at $59, which lifts invoice and bill limits and adds auto-reconcile and performance dashboards. Established at $97 adds advanced tools and analytics. Payroll through Gusto costs $36 per month plus $6 per employee or contractor. Compared with FreshBooks, Xero is stronger on reconciliation and accounting depth but has fewer client-facing billing extras such as retainers and late fees on its pricing page.

Bonsai approaches invoicing from the project side. Its Basic plan at $9 per user per month billed annually covers time tracking, tasks, CRM and unlimited projects but no invoices, so freelancers who need to bill should look at Essentials at $19 per user per month billed annually or $25 monthly. Essentials adds invoices and payments, proposals and contracts, all templates, forms and questionnaires, scheduling, a client portal and expense and income tracking. Premium at $29 adds profit and productivity reports, removes Bonsai branding and opens integrations with QuickBooks, Xero, Zapier, Calendly and Google. Elite at $49 requires three users. The draw is the chain from proposal to signed contract to tracked hours to invoice without switching tools. The weakness for this list is cost: per-user pricing and gated branding make it more expensive than invoicing-first tools.

Invoice2go is built for people who bill from the truck or the job site. Its plans are defined by how many invoices you send and what you pay per card payment. Starter covers 30 invoices per year with a 3.5% card fee, free ACH bank transfers, a bank account and unlimited estimates. Professional raises the cap to 100 invoices per year, lowers the card fee to 3%, adds QuickBooks and Xero integration and advanced reports. Premium removes the invoice cap, lowers the card fee to 2.9% and adds recurring invoices and phone support. Every plan starts with a 30-day free trial. The pricing page shows prices in several currencies and we could not confirm a USD figure from our location, so we have marked the price as pending. The low invoice caps and recurring invoices reserved for Premium make it a weaker fit for freelancers with monthly retainer clients.