FreeAgent vs FreshBooks: Price, Features & What’s Best in 2019

We compared FreeAgent vs FreshBooks on cost, features included, customer support, and user reviews. FreeAgent is ideal for tight budgets and FreshBooks is ideal for freelancers. Most businesses will find FreeAgent’s flat monthly rate of $24 more affordable than some of the FreshBooks plans. However, FreshBooks has a more robust project tracking tool than FreeAgent.

When to Use FreshBooks

FreshBooks is the best accounting software for freelancers. It has the tools you need to streamline your accounts receivable process. These tools allow you to create custom invoice templates, accept online payments, and set automatic late payment reminders. Plans start at $15 per month, and each additional user costs another $10 per month.

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When to Use FreeAgent

FreeAgent is ideal for small businesses on a budget. They offer one plan at $24 per month that includes unlimited users, unlimited billable customers, and unlimited projects. While it includes most of the features you find in FreshBooks, it does not offer telephone support and has limited project reporting. If you can’t afford to purchase accounting software, there are free accounting software options, like Wave, that won’t cost you a dime.

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When to Use an Alternative Option

FreshBooks and FreeAgent are good QuickBooks alternatives for freelancers. However, if you need to track inventory or perform any budgeting and forecasting, we recommend QuickBooks. With QuickBooks, you can track product purchases and sales to stay on top of your inventory costs. Plus, you can create budgets and forecasting reports. In addition, tax pros and bookkeepers will be more familiar with QuickBooks software. QuickBooks Online plans start at $20 per month.

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FreshBooks vs FreeAgent at a Glance

Accounting software needs to be affordable and easy to set up and use, while also meeting a minimum of seven key criteria. For instance, you should be able to use your accounting software to create invoices, track expenses, and generate financial reports to help you stay on top of your business. You should also be able to give other users access to your data.

Based on the features most important to small business owners, we evaluated FreeAgent versus FreshBooks on the following criteria:

• Cost: The software is affordable for most small business owners.
• Ease of use: No accounting or bookkeeping background is required to learn how to use the program.
• Ability to create custom invoices: You can create custom invoices by selecting a template and adding a logo and colors to match your business’ brand.
• Track expenses: You are able to keep track of all business expenses and run reports to see where you are spending your money.
• Ability to track time: The software allows your staff to keep track of the hours worked by project.
• Accept online payments from customers: You are able to accept online payments via debit card, credit card, or ACH bank transfer.
• Integrates with financial institutions: The software allows you to connect your bank and credit card accounts so transactions automatically import into the system.
• Give multiple users access: You can give other users access to your data, such as a bookkeeper or tax professional.
• Generates financial reports: You can stay on top of your business by running key reports, such as a profit and loss statement or balance sheet report, to see the overall health of your business.

Our evaluation of FreeAgent versus FreshBooks leads us to recommend FreshBooks. While these two products include very similar features, FreshBooks stands out in customer service as well as project tracking and reporting. FreshBooks offers telephone support and FreeAgent does not. Plus, FreshBooks has a more robust time tracking and project reporting tool than FreeAgent.

FreeAgent vs FreshBooks: Pricing & Features

When it comes to price, FreeAgent knocks it out of the park. FreeAgent charges one flat fee of $24 per month that includes unlimited users, billable customers, and projects. Alternatively, FreshBooks’ four pricing plans start at $15 per month but limit you to one user. Additional users cost $10 per user, per month. While the invoicing features are similar, FreshBooks has a more robust project tracking and reporting tool.

FreshBooks Pricing & Features

FreshBooks has four pricing plans to choose from, starting at $15 per month. Each plan includes one user, but you can add people for $10 per user, per month. The primary differences between the plans are the number of billable clients included and the available features. For example, customized training, a personal account manager, and lower credit card processing fees are only available in FreshBooks Select.

FreshBooks Tiered Features

FreshBooks Lite

FreshBooks Lite is ideal for solopreneurs who bill five or fewer clients per month. At $15 per month, it’s the most budget-friendly plan, but it is limited in features. You can perform most accounts receivable functions like invoicing, creating estimates, and tracking time. However, this plan does not include recurring invoices, automated late payment reminders, or the ability to schedule late fees like the Plus, Premium, and Select plans offer.

FreshBooks Plus

Businesses that have no more than 50 billable clients per month should consider using FreshBooks Plus. Unlike the Lite plan, FreshBooks Plus lets you create recurring invoices for customers who purchase from you on a regular basis. Moreover, you can schedule late fees and set late payment reminders. These features are not included in the Lite plan.

FreshBooks Premium

FreshBooks Premium is the best choice for businesses with more than 50 billable clients per month but fewer than 500. This feature and the $50 monthly fee are the only things that set FreshBooks Premium apart from the Plus plan. FreshBooks Premium has all of the other features found in the Lite and Plus plans.

FreshBooks Select

FreshBooks Select is ideal for businesses with numerous online payment transactions and over 500 billable clients. This plan includes several features that aren’t in the other three. For example, you get a dedicated personal account manager to help you set up FreshBooks, plus customized training for your staff to get them up to speed quickly. If you’re currently using QuickBooks or Xero, the FreshBooks support team can help you transfer your data.

Based on our minimum criteria, here is how FreshBooks stacks up against FreeAgent:

Billable Clients

Three out of the four FreshBooks pricing plans limit the number of billable customers per month, whereas FreeAgent allows you to bill an unlimited number of customers. FreshBooks Lite allows no more than five billable clients each month, the Plus plan includes 50 billable clients, the Premium plan includes 500 billable clients, and the Select plan includes more than 500.

Give Other Users Access to Data

All FreshBooks plans include access for one user. Adding more users costs an additional $10 per user, per month. Alternatively, you can give unlimited users access to FreeAgent at no additional charge. If you have a number of people who need access to your data, FreeAgent is the more economical choice.

Automatically Create & Send Invoices

FreshBooks is known as the premier invoicing software for freelancers. You can create professional-looking invoices with your company logo and style. Similar to how invoicing works in FreeAgent, FreshBooks allows you to email invoices and track when customers have opened their invoices or made payments. FreshBooks also lets you put your customer invoicing and payment on autopilot.

Create Estimates

Similar to invoicing, you can create estimates, quotes, or bids in FreshBooks. You can easily track the status of an estimate after you have emailed it to a customer. Once the estimate has been approved, you can turn that estimate into an invoice with just a few clicks. This will save you time you would have normally spent manually creating the invoice.

Time Tracking

Keeping track of hours worked by employees and 1099 contractors is easy to do in FreshBooks. Once you give them access, they can enter their time manually or use the start/stop timer to track their hours. Hours worked can easily be transferred to an invoice when you are ready to bill your customer.

Project Tracking

One of my favorite features in FreshBooks is the ability to track projects. FreshBooks and FreeAgent include the ability to track an unlimited number of projects. You can create tasks and assign them to individuals or teams. Each individual or team can keep track of their hours worked and tag them to the project. Detailed reports are available that allow you to stay on top of hours worked by project versus budget to ensure you are on track and don’t exceed the budget.

Accept Online Payments

One area where FreshBooks stands out against FreeAgent is online payments. FreshBooks has its own branded payment solution called FreshBooks Payments. It’s automatically integrated within FreshBooks and can be turned on with just a click of a button. With FreshBooks Payments, you can accept Mastercard, Visa, Discover, and ApplePay payments from customers for a flat fee of 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction. If you prefer ACH bank transfers, fees are 1% of the total transaction amount.

Financial Reports

FreshBooks allows you to stay on top of how your business is doing with detailed reports that you can run in just a few minutes. Some of the reports included in FreshBooks are profit and loss statement, balance sheet report, and the accounts receivable aging report. Unfortunately, FreshBooks does not have an accounts payable aging report, so users can’t track unpaid bills like they can in FreeAgent.

Sales Tax Tracking & Reporting

If you collect sales tax from customers, you can easily keep track of it in FreshBooks. You simply need to add each jurisdiction and sales tax rate into FreshBooks manually and update the rates as they change. A detailed sales tax report is available for you to run and use to complete your sales tax return.

Automatically Import Bank & Credit Card Transactions

You can eliminate manually entering income and expenses reported by banks and credit card companies by connecting your financial accounts to FreshBooks. Similar to FreeAgent, FreshBooks lets you connect to an unlimited number of bank and credit card accounts.

Automated Recurring Invoices

Recurring invoices are ideal for customers with whom you do business on a periodic basis. You can create a recurring invoice to bill customers on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. The invoices will automatically go out via email to customers on the date that you specify. If you’ve signed up for FreshBooks Payments, a payment link is included in the electronic invoice.

Scheduled Late Fees

One of the features that you won’t find in FreeAgent is the ability to schedule late fees. With FreshBooks, you can automatically add late fees to a customer invoice if it remains unpaid after the due date. This can be set up for all customers or you can specify the customers you would like to turn this feature on for.

Automated Late Payment Reminders

Similar to the scheduled late fees feature, the automated late payment reminders work in the same way. You can create late payment reminders for all customers or specific customers. This reminder can go out to customers automatically based on a certain number of days the payment is late.

Personal Account Manager

The FreshBooks Select plan includes a dedicated account manager. This person can help you get your business set up in FreshBooks. They can also provide you with answers to questions you have or provide you with good resources. Unfortunately, FreeAgent does not offer a personal account manager.

Customized Training

The FreshBooks Select plan also includes customized training for you and your staff. Your personal account manager schedules the training sessions for you. FreeAgent does not offer customized training, but you can sign up for a free 30-day trial before you buy it. FreshBooks also has detailed support articles that answer the most frequently asked questions and cover the basics of how to use the program.

Low Credit Card Transaction Rates

The FreshBooks Select plan is ideal for customers who have a large volume of online credit card payments. Unlike FreeAgent, FreshBooks may lower your credit card processing fees depending on your weekly or monthly volume.

QuickBooks & Xero Integration

If you are currently using QuickBooks or Xero to manage your books, you can get assistance with transferring your data to FreshBooks. The FreshBooks Select plan includes tech support that specialize in converting customers from their existing accounting software to FreshBooks.

FreeAgent Pricing & Features

Unlike FreshBooks, which offers four pricing plans starting at $15 per month, FreeAgent has only one pricing plan that costs $24 per month. Some features you find in FreeAgent are customized invoicing, estimates, time tracking, and sales tax tracking and reporting. Moreover, FreeAgent includes unlimited users, clients, and projects at no additional cost. In contrast, FreshBooks limits the total users and clients in three out of their four plans.

Based on our minimum criteria, here is how FreeAgent stacks up against FreshBooks:

Give Other Users Access to Data

This is one of the areas where FreeAgent beats FreshBooks. FreeAgent puts no limit on the number of users you can add. This means you can give access to your bookkeeper, CPA, or employees who need to track time at no additional cost. Comparatively, FreshBooks only includes one user per plan and charges an additional $10 per user, per month to add more to any plan.

Customized Invoicing

When it comes to creating custom invoices, FreeAgent and FreshBooks are very similar. Instead of starting from scratch, FreeAgent has a gallery of invoice templates with different fonts and styles you can choose from. Plus, you can add your company logo and brand colors to personalize your invoice.

Create Estimates

Both FreeAgent and FreshBooks allow you to create custom estimates and email them to prospective customers. Once you create an estimate, you can email it directly from FreeAgent and track the status of when your customer approves it or rejects it. Once an estimate is approved, you can easily create an invoice to bill your customer when the job is completed.

Manage Accounts Payable

One of the main areas that sets FreeAgent apart from FreshBooks is the ability to track unpaid bills. You can only do this in FreshBooks after bills have been paid. FreeAgent, however, has full accounts payable that lets you enter bills with a due date so the system reminds you to pay them. You can also run an aged creditors report (aka accounts payable aging report) to see what bills are coming due or are past due.

Time Tracking

Similar to FreshBooks, FreeAgent lets you track the amount of time spent on a project, but it has three ways to do it. First, FreeAgent has a timer you can start when you begin working on a project and stop once you’re finished. Second, you can record your hours at the end of the day without using the timer. Finally, you can enter your time for an entire week at once.

When you’re ready to invoice your customer, you can transfer the billable hours to an invoice and send it to your customer. This saves you time you would normally spend manually completing an invoice template.

Project Tracking

FreeAgent allows you to track projects for you and your team. You can budget for an amount or a certain number of hours to ensure that you do not exceed the budget. Because FreeAgent allows you to add an unlimited number of users, you can give any project member access to your data so they can log their hours. Unfortunately, FreeAgent has fewer projects than FreshBooks, making it the better choice if you need a robust project tracking tool.

Accept Online Payments

You can accept online payments from customers in FreeAgent. However, PayPal and Stripe are the only platforms Free Agent accepts. You can connect your existing PayPal and Stripe accounts to FreeAgent or you can create new accounts. Adding this feature allows you to accept debit card, credit card, and ACH bank transfers. Additional fees apply if you use these services, and the amount varies depending on which payment solution you choose.

Financial Reports

FreeAgent includes several reports that you can run to stay on top of your business. They have profit and loss statement, balance sheet report, and accounts receivable aging report (referred to as Aged Debtors report). Unlike FreshBooks, FreeAgent also offers an accounts payable aging report (referred to as Aged Creditors report) to keep track of unpaid bills.

Sales Tax Tracking & Reporting

FreeAgent has the ability to keep track of the sales tax you collect from customers. As with FreshBooks, FreeAgent requires you manually enter the sales tax rate for all jurisdictions you need to track. This includes updating the sales tax rates when they change. There is a sales tax report that you can run for any time period and use it to file your sales tax return.

Automatically Import Bank & Credit Card Transactions

Because FreeAgent is a cloud-based accounting software like FreshBooks, it makes connecting all of your bank and credit card accounts to the software easy. This means transactions automatically import so you don’t have to manually enter them.

Automated Recurring Invoices

You can create an unlimited number of recurring invoices in FreeAgent. This is ideal for businesses with regular customers who need to be invoiced on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. Invoices are automatically emailed to customers on the date you specify. Customers can choose to pay their invoices online with a debit or credit card.

Automated Late Payment Reminders

When creating a customer invoice, you can choose to have the system automatically email the invoice to the customer if it remains unpaid after the due date. Reminders work a little differently in FreeAgent than they do in FreshBooks. The reminders are set on an invoice-by-invoice basis in FreeAgent, whereas you can set reminders for all customer invoices or certain invoices in FreshBooks.

Multicurrency Invoicing

In the same way you can with FreshBooks, you can create invoices in other currencies with FreeAgent. When you create an invoice, you select the currency you need from a drop-down menu. Invoices can be paid in any currency available within FreeAgent.

Multilanguage Invoicing

One of the features FreeAgent has that FreshBooks does not offer is multilanguage invoicing. FreeAgent not only allows you to create invoices in non-U.S. currencies, but it goes one step further to allow you to create invoices in 25 different languages. This is a neat way to personalize your invoices for those customers who speak a different language.

FreeAgent vs FreshBooks: Ease of Use

Both FreeAgent and FreshBooks have colorful and well-organized dashboards. FreshBooks has a left menu bar whereas FreeAgent has a menu at the top of the screen. Both products have graphic depictions of key data, such as accounts receivable balances, expenses, and profit. Each dashboard provides access to business performance details without the need to run a report.

FreshBooks Ease of Use

The FreshBooks dashboard is set up differently from the FreeAgent dashboard. The menu bar is located on the left side of the screen, whereas the menu options on located at the top of the FreeAgent dashboard. Like FreeAgent, FreshBooks has graphic depictions of key performance indicators (KPIs), such as outstanding revenue (accounts receivable balance) and total profit.

A brief description of the information found on the FreshBooks dashboard is below:

1. Left menu bar: Navigate to the different areas of the program, such as invoices, clients, expenses, projects, and time tracking.
2. Create invoice: Create an invoice by clicking on the drop-down button.
3. Outstanding revenue: Review outstanding revenue in both numerical and bar graph form. The red portion of the graph indicates invoices that are past due. In our example above, the total outstanding revenue is $5,274.
4. Total profit: Review total profit in both numeric and line graph form. The red portion of the graph indicates the periods when there was a loss and the green sections represent profitable periods. In our example above, total profit is $16,250.

FreeAgent Ease of Use

The FreeAgent dashboard gives you key business insights, such as accounts receivable, banking, expenses, bills, and profit and loss. These figures are updated in real-time whenever a transaction is entered into the system. Similar to FreshBooks, you can utilize the dashboard for information without the need to run a report.

On the FreeAgent homepage, you find key business insights into key areas, as indicated in the screenshot below:

Key information found on the initial homepage of Free Agent includes:

• Invoicing: In the upper left-hand corner, there are tabs that allow you to navigate to invoices, estimates, projects, and time slips. The invoice timeline shows the status of customer invoices. Red indicates overdue invoices, invoices that are currently due are in yellow, and paid invoices are in green.
• Banking: The banking section shows banking activity for all bank accounts by month. You can also upload a bank statement directly from this screen.
• Expenses and bills: In the lower left-hand corner of the screen, there’s a tab for expenses and bills. In this section, you can see a recap of the expenses and bills you have recorded in FreeAgent.
• Profit and loss: The profit and loss section displays the most current income, expenses, and operating profit. These figures are automatically updated as you enter transactions into FreeAgent.

FreeAgent vs FreshBooks: Customer Service

When it comes to customer service, FreeAgent and FreshBooks have a variety of options. FreshBooks offers telephone support, but FreeAgent does not. However, FreeAgent offers free email support. Both FreeAgent and FreshBooks have great how-to articles in their support databases, and both allow you to try their software for free for the first 30 days (no credit card required).

FreshBooks Customer Service

FreshBooks sets itself apart from competitors like FreeAgent by offering live telephone customer support so you can get help right away. Each pricing plan includes unlimited support so you can call as many times as you like. FreshBooks also has detailed support articles that answer the most frequently asked questions. As with FreeAgent, FreshBooks has a 30-day free trial so you can try it before you buy it.

FreeAgent Customer Service

FreeAgent does not offer live customer telephone support like FreshBooks does. However, they do have email support. Plus, they offer an extensive knowledge database that includes step-by-step articles on how to accomplish most tasks within the system. Like FreshBooks, FreeAgent also lets you try out the software for free for 30 days.

FreeAgent vs FreshBooks: Reviews

FreshBooks and FreeAgent have pretty decent user reviews. FreshBooks users like how easy it is to create custom invoices that reflect their company brand, while FreeAgent users like how user-friendly the software is and how accessible their data is from the mobile app. On the negative side, reviewers say FreshBooks is ideal for startups but not for fast-growing businesses. FreeAgent users mention how difficult it is to retrieve uploaded documents.

FreshBooks Reviews

FreshBooks users like how easy it is to create professional-looking invoices. Online customer payments is another plus mentioned in the customer reviews. On the con side, several users said that FreshBooks did not meet their needs once their businesses started to grow. However, they said that FreshBooks is great for freelancers and startups. Visit our FreshBooks reviews page to read all of the reviews.

FreeAgent Reviews

FreeAgent user reviews are very positive. Users like how user-friendly the software is to set up and use as well as the ability to perform a lot of their work using the mobile app. A couple of negative reviews centered around the difficulty with retrieving documents once they have been uploaded to the software. Plus, users said the time tracking feature can be glitchy at times. Read all of our FreeAgent reviews to learn more.

Pros & Cons of FreeAgent vs FreshBooks

Two major benefits of FreshBooks are its secure multi-user access and automatic late payment reminders and fees. FreeAgent also has automatic late payment reminders; however, it allows you to add unlimited users, customers, and projects. Neither FreshBooks nor FreeAgent includes cash flow statements. Moreover, FreshBooks requires manual accounts payable tracking, and FreeAgent does not offer telephone support.

For comparison, QuickBooks includes automatic accounts payable tracking, a cash flow statement, and telephone support. Check out our FreshBooks versus QuickBooks comparison for more information.

The pros and cons of FreeAgent versus FreshBooks are:

Pros of FreeAgent vs FreshBooks

Cons of FreeAgent vs FreshBooks

Bottom Line

Now that you have a detailed comparison of FreeAgent versus FreshBooks, it’s time for you to make a decision. If you’re on a shoestring budget, FreeAgent is going to be the more economical choice. However, if you need detailed reporting by project or you prefer to be able to speak to a live tech support person when you have questions, choose FreshBooks.

FreshBooks is the most widely used customer invoicing and payment software on the market. It’s user-friendly and allows you to put your accounts receivable process on autopilot. In addition to creating custom, professional invoices, you can add automatic late payment fees and send automatic late payment reminder emails to customers. Get started with FreshBooks by signing up for a 30-day free trial.

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