The best invoicing software for your small business depends on various factors, such as your business size and type and your needed pricing, ease of use, and features. For most businesses, we recommend choosing a solution that lets you create customizable invoices and has enhanced features, like recurring invoices, payment links, billing realization tracking, and a mobile invoicing app.
Here are our eight best invoicing software for small business operations, each tailored to address unique needs:
- QuickBooks Online: Best overall invoicing software with sophisticated accounting features
- Invoicera: Best standalone invoicing software
- FreshBooks: Best for solopreneurs and freelancers
- Square Invoices: Best for infrequent or low-volume transactions
- BQE Core: Best invoicing software for QuickBooks integration
- Zoho Invoice: Best free invoicing software
- ZipBooks: Best inexpensive invoicing software with basic accounting features
- TimeTracker: Best for professional service firms
QuickBooks Online is our pick for best overall small business accounting software with outstanding invoicing, bill pay, and inventory tracking. Get 50% off of QuickBooks Online for 3 months. | ||
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QuickBooks Online is our pick for best overall small business accounting software with outstanding invoicing, bill pay, and inventory tracking. Get 50% off of QuickBooks Online for 3 months. |
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Best Invoicing Software: Quick Comparison
Pricing (per Month) | Number of Users | Free Trial | Unlimited Invoicing Availability | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | $30 to $200 | 1 to 25 | 30 days | All plans |
 | $19 to $149 | 1 to unlimited | 15 days | All plans |
 | $17 to $55; custom pricing available | 30 days | All plans | |
 | Free or $20 | 1 | 30 days for the paid plan | All plans |
 | Custom quote | 1 | ✕ | Undisclosed |
 | Free | 1 to 20 | N/A, as it’s free | Included in free version |
 | $0 to $35; custom pricing available | 1 to unlimited | 30 days | All plans |
 | $15 per user plus a base fee of $25 | 1 | 14 days | Included in Time Tracker Premium and LawBillity plans |
Invoice Customization Level | Create Recurring Invoices | Includes Built-in Accounting | Create Payment Links | Automatic Sales Tax Calculation Based on Customer’s Address | Mobile Invoicing | Track Billing Realization | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★★★★★ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ |
| ★★★★★ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
| ★★★★★ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
| ★★★★★ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
| ★★★★★ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| ★ | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
| ★ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| ★ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Rating Explanation: ★★★★★: Excellent ★★★★: Very good ★★★: Good ★★: Fair ★: Poor | |||||||
QuickBooks Online: Overall Best Invoicing Software With Sophisticated Accounting Features
Pros
- Calculates sales tax rate based on customer address
- Invoicing integrated with the most popular accounting system for small businesses
- All plans let you send unlimited invoices and include unlimited customers
- Invoices are extremely customizable
- Free setup assistance with a QuickBooks ProAdvisor
- All plans let you create and send recurring invoices
Cons
- Expensive for small businesses
- Limits the number of users in each plan
- Cannot contact customer support directly by telephone
- Unable to issue a refund check
Pricing
- Simple Start: $30 per month for one user; includes all sales tax features
- Essentials: $60 per month for three users; has the ability to add time and expenses to invoices
- Plus: $90 per month for five users; includes the ability to track inventory
- Advanced: $200 per month for 25 users; has extensive reporting features and a dedicated customer support team
New users receive 50% off for three months or a 30-day free trial.
QuickBooks Online stands out with its exceptional invoicing features—one reason why it’s our best small business accounting software. In our rubric-guided analysis, QuickBooks Online demonstrated outstanding results in nearly all areas of invoicing, including customization, general invoicing features, and ease of use.
Its invoices are extremely customizable—you can upload your logo, change the layout, add custom fields, and more. You can also customize them based on your niche. For instance, law firms can set up additional fields for case numbers and retainer amounts, whereas construction companies managing long-term projects can set up progress invoicing when they have the Plus or Advanced plan.
However, QuickBooks Online isn’t the best in terms of customer support. Unlike other invoicing providers like FreshBooks and Invoicera, you can’t directly contact QuickBooks Online’s support team by phone. You have to submit a ticket first—which isn’t ideal if you’re dealing with urgent issues that require immediate assistance.
Learn how you can create and send invoices in QuickBooks Online, plus 45 other free online courses brought to you by Fit Small Business’ in-house QuickBooks ProAdvisors and accounting experts. Check out our free QuickBooks Online tutorials.
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QuickBooks offers a free meeting with a QuickBooks ProAdvisor to help set up your new QuickBooks company, including connecting your bank account and customizing your chart of accounts. This offer is unavailable with the 30-day free trial, so be sure to select 50% off for three months as your introductory offer.
Invoicera: Best Standalone Invoicing Software
Pros
- Track both receivables and payables for all businesses that you manage
- Request personalized invoice template from Invoicera
- Monitor staff time and expenses by project and add to invoices
- Includes a client portal where customers can pay their invoice and export it if needed
Cons
- Unlimited customers are very expensive compared to other options
- Additional users require the Business plan
- Requires integration with bookkeeping software
Pricing
- Starter: $19 per month for up to 100 clients and one staff user
- Business: $29 per month for up to 1,000 clients plus 10 staff users
- Enterprise: $99 per month for up to $2,500 clients plus 20 staff users
- Infinite: $149 per month for unlimited clients and unlimited users
New users can try all of the plans for free for 15 days.
Invoicera, despite lacking built-in accounting features, makes it to our list of the best invoicing software for small business needs. Generally, we recommend that your invoicing be integrated with your accounting system, but if you’re looking for a standalone system, Invoicera is a good choice. It combines A/R management and accounts payable (A/P) management in a single dashboard.
In our evaluation, Invoicera did well in terms of pricing, invoicing features, and customization. However, just like the other specialized invoicing software on this list, it lacks accounting features, which we consider crucial for most businesses. If you don’t want to use separate systems for your accounting and invoicing tasks, you should consider QuickBooks Online or FreshBooks.
FreshBooks: Best Invoicing Software for Solopreneurs & Freelancers
Pros
- Affordable for freelancers or small businesses with a single accounting user
- Can send unlimited invoices in all plans
- Add time and expense to invoice
- Can accept short payments from customers
- Lets you send invoices on your mobile device using the mobile app
Cons
- Extra fee for additional users; can be expensive when adding more than three users
- Limited number of clients in less expensive plans
- Must allow access to your bank account to use bookkeeping features
- Lacks inventory management features
Pricing
- Lite: $17 per month for one user and five billable clients
- Plus: $30 per month for one user and 50 billable clients
- Premium: $55 per month for one user and unlimited billable clients
- Select: Custom pricing
Additional users can be added to any plan for $10 per month. Also, new users can choose a 30-day free trial or 60% off the monthly price for six months.
FreshBooks has almost the same invoicing features as QuickBooks Online. However, since it includes only one user in all its plans, we believe it’s a more suitable option for solo business owners and freelancers.
The main difference between QuickBooks Online and FreshBooks in terms of invoicing is that the former automatically calculates tax sales to apply to an invoice based on your customer’s location. With FreshBooks, you need to set up the sales tax for each state manually. That said, if your business caters to customers across different states, you might prefer QuickBooks to FreshBooks. You can see how else the two differ in our comparison of QuickBooks Online vs FreshBooks.
Square Invoices: Best Invoicing Software for Infrequent or Low-volume Transactions
Pros
- Free invoicing software
- No monthly fees for credit card and automated clearing house (ACH) processing
- Easy to set up
- Milestone-invoicing for billing project completion
Cons
- Basic invoicing features cannot track time and expenses
- Businesses with more than $10,000 in monthly transactions can likely find a cheaper credit card processor
- No built-in expense tracking features
Pricing
- Free: Free forever
- Plus: $20 per month for additional invoicing features like custom fields and multipackage estimates
Additional fees:
- Invoices paid online: 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction
- Tap, dip, and swipe payments: $2.6% plus 10 cents per transaction
- Card-on-file payments: 3.5% plus 15 cents per transaction
- ACH payments: 1% per payment—maximum of $1 per transaction
Square Invoices excels in invoice customization, as it offers multiple ways to tailor your invoices to your unique needs. You can choose from different templates, change the invoice colors, edit the invoice fields, and upload your company logo to make your invoice more professional.
However, the platform’s invoicing features are not as extensive as those in QuickBooks Online. For instance, it doesn’t automatically calculate the appropriate sales tax rate to apply to an invoice based on your customer’s location. Also, we believe that its payment processing feature could have been made more streamlined by allowing customers to make payments through payment links—another reason Square Invoices got docked in our rubric.
Furthermore, since it is dedicated solely to invoicing, it lacks essential accounting features, such as expensive tracking and bank reconciliation. If you require bookkeeping features alongside invoicing, you may need to explore more robust software like QuickBooks Online
BQE Core: Best Invoicing Software That Integrates with QuickBooks Online
Pros
- Lets you calculate utilization and realization rates
- Offers strong project management tools
- Creates invoices based on your desired schedule and frequency
- Lets you create split invoices and track payments individually
- Integrates with QuickBooks Online
Cons
- Can be expensive for large businesses with multiple users
- Steep learning curve
- No payroll features
Pricing
The provider doesn’t disclose pricing information on its website, but it indicates that it has a per-user pricing structure. The accounting module is sold separately from the core invoicing module, which is good if you want to use QuickBooks for your accounting. There is no free trial, but you can schedule a free demo to see how the software works before buying.
While QuickBooks Online has excellent invoicing for most companies, it lacks the ability to track realization rates for professional service firms—and an integration with BQE Core fills that gap. If you often bill clients based on billable hours and need to track the profitability of your client engagements, it is an excellent option.
It allows you to track billing realization rates by calculating the ratio of billable hours to the actual revenue generated from those billable hours. This is particularly useful for professional service firms that invoice clients based on time and services rendered.
As one of our best billing software for small business workflows, BQE Core offers a lot of flexibility in terms of creating invoices, such as the ability to customize the appearance, margins, and colors of your invoice. It lets you perform advanced invoicing features, like creating split invoices and setting up a schedule based on a desired frequency for fixed-fee contracts and retainers.
One issue we found with its invoicing feature is the inability to generate payment links, which could have facilitated faster payment processing. Additionally, since BQE Core’s invoicing module is offered on a per-user basis, it can get pretty expensive for businesses with many users. An affordable alternative for large businesses is Invoicera, which supports unlimited users for only $149 per month.
Zoho Invoice: Best Free Invoicing Software
Pros
- Completely free with no hidden charges
- Wide array of invoice customization features
- Billing features for project management
- Low learning curve for existing Zoho users
Cons
- Requires a Zoho Books subscription for any bookkeeping features beyond invoicing
- Not a substitute for accounting software
- Can’t process incoming vendor invoices
- Doesn’t integrate with Zoho Inventory
- Limited invoicing features; can’t change invoice colors
Pricing
Zoho Invoice is completely free with no hidden charges and credit card information required. You can add up to 20 users and send unlimited invoices to unlimited customers.
Zoho Invoice is our recommendation for a totally free invoicing software, making it suitable for very small businesses, startups, and freelancers new to invoicing. Despite being free, it earned high scores in terms of invoice customization and general invoicing features.
However, it is good for one business only. We recommend upgrading to a more sophisticated invoicing software like Invoicera if you need to manage multiple businesses under a single account. Also, while Zoho Invoice integrates with most other Zoho products, it doesn’t connect with Zoho Inventory, which we found a bit surprising since inventory and invoicing are closely linked for most companies.
Additionally, Zoho Invoice didn’t do well in terms of support, as there’s no option to contact the provider by phone or through live chat. If customer support is important to you, we recommend FreshBooks, which allows you to directly contact a live agent by phone.
ZipBooks: Best Inexpensive Invoicing Software With Basic Accounting Features
Pros
- Invoices are very easy to create
- Unlimited customers with the free plan
- A/R report shows unpaid invoices
- Includes integrated time tracking features
Cons
- Free plan invoices have limited customization
- Free plan doesn’t save products and services for future invoices
- Free plan includes only one user
- Lacks inventory accounting features
Pricing
- Starter: Free forever for one seat
- Smarter: $15 per month for five users
- Sophisticated: $35 per month for unlimited users
- Accountant: Custom pricing
If you are interested in the ZipBooks’ premium features, you can sign up for a 30-day free trial of the Smarter or Sophisticated plan.
ZipBooks is a great choice if you want an inexpensive invoicing solution with simple accounting features. It allows you to create and send invoices to customers and perform basic accounting and financial management tasks, like income and expense tracking and simple project management.
However, we are not impressed with the look of the invoices in ZipBooks. Unlike other more robust software like QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks, and Zoho Invoice, ZipBooks doesn’t allow you to choose from invoice templates, edit invoice fields, and change invoice colors.
Also, while it offers a free plan, we found that most of the crucial features we wanted to see—such as recurring invoices and time tracking—are only available in the paid tiers. If you want a free invoicing software that allows you to send unlimited and recurring invoices, Zoho Invoice is a great alternative.
TimeTracker: Best Invoicing Software for Professional Service Firms
Pros
- Tracks hours written off vs invoiced
- Includes employee management features like GPS tracking and facial recognition
- Includes client portal
- Lets you add payment links for easier transactions
Cons
- Expensive for firms with many employees
- Invoices aren’t as elegant as other options
- Must integrate with third-party software for accounting
Pricing
- Time Tracker Premium: $15 per user, per month plus a base fee of $25
- LawBillity: $30 per user monthly with no base fee
To send invoices, you need to subscribe to Time Tracker Premium.
You can try all the plans for free for 14 days with no credit card needed.
TimeTracker by eBillity offers lawyers, accountants, engineers, and other professional service firms an invoicing option integrated with powerful time tracking features. It makes sense to combine these functions for professional service firms since billable hours are the primary item on your invoices.
In our detailed evaluation, TimeTracker by eBillity missed out on some important features, such as the ability to set up recurring invoices and accept short payments from customers. Also, invoices are not as aesthetically pleasing as those in QuickBooks Online or Invoicera since you can’t edit invoice fields and change invoice colors.
How We Evaluated the Best Invoicing Software for Small Businesses
Choosing invoicing software requires careful consideration of the features that you need. We considered five key categories in evaluating the software listed here.
15% of Overall Score
Pricing is evaluated based on the software’s cost and limitations, including the number of clients you can manage and the number of invoices you can send.
20% of Overall Score
The best invoicing software lets you customize your invoice by adding your company logo, choosing from different templates, changing the invoice color, and adding a personalized message for your clients.
30% of Overall Score
Some of the general invoicing features we wanted to see include the ability to create recurring invoices and accept short payments from customers.
25% of Overall Score
We checked how easy it is to create and send invoices using the software and what types of customer service options it offers to support new users.
10% of Overall Score
We gathered unbiased user reviews from popular online review websites.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
A good invoicing software allows you to customize your invoice by adding your company logo, changing colors, and choosing from different invoicing styles. Also, it must be able to create recurring invoices and send late payment reminders to clients.
The best invoicing software depends on your needs. If you want a full-featured bookkeeping and accounting solution, you may consider QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks, or ZipBooks. If you only need invoicing features, a specialized invoicing software like Invoicera might be enough. If you are on a budget, try free software like ZipBooks and Zoho Invoice.
Invoicing software runs from $0 (free) to $200 per month.
No, as standalone invoicing software often lacks other essential bookkeeping features, such as project accounting, inventory management, bank reconciliation, and tracking of total assets and liabilities.
Yes, you can create invoices from your mobile device using accounting software with a mobile app, such as QuickBooks Online and FreshBooks, or standalone invoicing software with a mobile app, like Invoicera and Zoho Invoice.
Bottom Line
With these eight best invoicing software for small business owners, we hope that you’ll be able to choose a solution that matches your business needs. We have presented free and paid options with varying features. To make a decision, we recommend that you consider your business’ invoicing and information needs and possible integration with existing software or migration from legacy systems.
