FreshBooks Alternatives

QuickBooks Online is cloud accounting software from Intuit: it keeps your books in double entry, sends invoices, tracks expenses and bills, connects to your bank and produces the profit and loss, balance sheet and tax reports your accountant asks for. Where FreshBooks starts from the invoice and adds accounting on top, QuickBooks starts from the ledger and adds invoicing on top. That is the usual reason to move to it: they hire a first employee, take on suppliers to pay, or hand the books to an accountant, and they want the tool that accountant uses every day.

How the price reads against FreshBooks: QuickBooks prices its plans by users, and none of them lists a client limit. The Free plan costs $0 for one user, sends up to two invoices a month (unlimited if you enable QuickBooks Payments), connects one bank account and gives three reports, with no accountant access. Simple Start is $38 a month for one user and two accountants; Essentials is $85 for three users; Plus is $140 for five users; Advanced is $340 for 25 users. FreshBooks Plus is $43 for one user and 50 clients, and two extra team members bring it to $65, while QuickBooks Essentials covers three users for $85 with no limit on clients. Paid plans start at 50% off for three months, so the first year of Simple Start costs $399 and the second $456.

Tip: the Free plan has no mobile app and no third-party integrations, so a connector such as our QuickBooks integration with Zapier needs a paid plan. If you take card payments in the field, start on Simple Start. For more options in the same category, see our best accounting software ranking and our guide to switching away from QuickBooks if you want the other side of the move.

Xero is cloud accounting software built around the bank feed: transactions arrive from your bank, you match them to invoices and bills, and the ledger stays reconciled. It sends quotes and invoices, enters and tracks bills, and on its top plan tracks project time and costs, employee expenses and mileage, and multiple currencies. Some 250,000 accountants and bookkeepers build their practice on Xero, which is why it sits on most FreshBooks alternatives shortlists. Moving from FreshBooks to Xero is moving from an invoicing tool with accounting reports to an accounting tool with invoicing.

How the price reads against FreshBooks: in the US, Simple is $10 a month, Early $27, Growing $59 and Established $97, with 80% off the first three months ($2, $5.40, $11.80 and $19.40) or a free first month. Simple sends quotes and 10 invoices and enters 3 bills; Early raises that to 20 invoices and 5 bills, and the invoice limit applies to approving as well as sending. Growing removes those limits and automates bill entry; Established adds multiple currencies, project time and cost tracking, and expense and mileage claims. No plan charges per user. FreshBooks Plus at $43 stops at 50 clients; Xero Growing at $59 sends invoices and quotes with no cap listed. Over a year, Growing costs $566.40 with the opening discount, then $708.

Tip: payroll is an option, Xero Payroll powered by Gusto, at $36 a month plus $6 per employee or contractor, which is $4 a month less than FreshBooks Payroll for the same team; our small business payroll software ranking covers the standalone options. On Early, automatic reconciliation is a $5 a month option, and a move to a cheaper plan is only possible one month after an upgrade. See our guide to leaving Xero for its known limits before you commit, and our Xero integration with n8n if you want to automate bill entry from other apps.

Wave is accounting and invoicing software for very small businesses. Its free Starter plan creates unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, invoices from a phone app and shows cash flow and customers on one dashboard. It is the alternative to pick when the FreshBooks client cap is the only problem. The Pro plan adds automatic bank import and categorization, unlimited receipt capture, automated late payment reminders, extra users and third-party integrations.

How the price reads against FreshBooks: Starter is $0; Pro is $19 a month or $190 a year, which saves $38 against twelve monthly payments. Pro is priced per business, not per user. FreshBooks Lite is $23 a month for 5 clients; Wave Pro is $4 less with no client limit. Card payments are where the saving shrinks: Wave charges 2.9% plus $0.60 per card transaction and 3.4% plus $0.60 on Amex, against 2.9% plus $0.30 at FreshBooks. Pro gets 2.9% plus $0 on the first ten transactions each month. On 40 card payments a month, the fixed part of the fee comes to $18 at Wave Pro (ten at $0, thirty at $0.60) against $12 at FreshBooks, a $6 gap that cancels Pro's $4 saving on Lite.

Tip: on Starter, you can add your logo and brand colors, but you cannot remove Wave branding from footers, attach files to invoices or connect third-party apps. If clients judge you on the invoice, budget for Pro, and see our Wave integration with Make if you want sales from other apps to reach your books. Payroll is an add-on from $40 a month, and a bookkeeper from $149 a month.

Zoho Books is the accounting app of the Zoho suite: invoices, quotes, expenses, bills, bank feeds, inventory on higher plans and a client portal, all in a double-entry ledger. It is easy to overlook because it is part of a large suite, yet it beats FreshBooks clearly on price per user. Its free plan is a real accounting plan, not a trial, and its paid plans count users and invoices per year rather than clients. Watch the plan line: bank feeds and sales tax tracking start on Standard, and billable timesheets, project profitability and multiple currencies start on Professional, at $50 a month or $40 billed yearly.

How the price reads against FreshBooks: the Free plan covers one user plus one accountant and up to 1,000 invoices a year, as long as revenue for the financial year stays under $50K. Standard is $20 a month, or $15 billed yearly, for three users and up to 5,000 invoices a year; Professional is $50 ($40 yearly), Premium $70 ($60), Elite $150 ($120) and Ultimate $275 ($240). Extra users are $2.50 per user per month billed yearly, against $11 at FreshBooks, and add-ons other than document autoscans do not work on the Free plan. A three-person team pays $15 a month on Zoho Books Standard billed yearly, against $65 on FreshBooks Plus with two team members.

Tip: the $50K threshold is revenue, not profit. A freelancer billing $4,500 a month passes it in month twelve, so plan the move to Standard before your year closes. Document autoscans are an add-on, $8 for 50 scans a month billed yearly. If you want new clients or paid invoices to reach the books without retyping, see our Zoho Books integration with Make.

Bonsai is client management software for freelancers and small agencies: proposals, contracts, a client portal, invoices and payments, time tracking, tasks, projects and a light CRM. It does not try to be a ledger; it tracks income and expenses and connects to QuickBooks and Xero on its Premium plan for the books. It is the alternative for the FreshBooks user who chose FreshBooks for its proposals and time tracking rather than for its accounting, and who wants the selling side of the job to be stronger.

How the price reads against FreshBooks: Bonsai prices per user. Basic is $9 a user a month billed yearly ($15 monthly), Essentials $19 ($25), Premium $29 ($39) and Elite $49 ($59), with a minimum of three users on Elite. The plan to compare with FreshBooks is Essentials: Basic covers time tracking, tasks, projects, a CRM and clients, and invoices and payments start on Essentials. Essentials adds invoices and payments, proposals and contracts, the client portal, and income and expense tracking. A solo freelancer pays $228 a year on Essentials billed yearly, against $516 for FreshBooks Plus at its regular price.

Tip: the integrations with QuickBooks, Xero and Zapier start on Premium, at $29 a user a month billed yearly, and Premium is also the plan that removes Bonsai branding. If your accountant needs your invoices in a ledger, price Premium, not Essentials; our Bonsai integration with Zapier covers the other apps. Our invoicing software for freelancers ranking compares more tools on this profile.

Invoice2go is a mobile-first invoicing app: you build an estimate or invoice on your phone, send it, and the client pays online. Every plan adds invoice reminders, client activity alerts, free ACH bank transfers and a no-fee business bank account with a Visa debit card; recurring invoices are on Premium only. It is not accounting software, and it does not pretend to be: there is no ledger and no bank reconciliation. It replaces FreshBooks for the user who only ever used FreshBooks to send invoices from a van or a job site.

How the price reads against FreshBooks: Invoice2go counts invoices, not clients, and the count depends on how you pay. On monthly billing, Starter is $7.99 for 2 invoices a month, Professional $11.99 for 5 invoices a month, and Premium $44.99 for unlimited invoices, aimed at businesses with more than $100K a year in revenue. Billed yearly, the plans are $79.99 for 30 invoices a year, $119.99 for 100 invoices a year and $449.99 unlimited. There are no add-on costs once you subscribe, but card fees fall as the plan rises: 3.5% on Starter, 3.0% on Professional and 2.9% on Premium. FreshBooks Lite at $23 lets you invoice 5 clients as often as you like. A contractor sending 8 invoices a month needs Premium at $44.99 on monthly billing, but fits in Professional's 100 invoices a year for $119.99 billed yearly.

Tip: count your invoices for the last twelve months before you choose. Under 30 a year, Starter billed yearly costs $79.99, the cheapest paid plan on this page; above 100, Wave or Zoho Books cost less. Our invoicing software for contractors ranking goes further on this profile.