9 Best Invoicing Software for Small Businesses

While every invoice software fills a niche for someone, the best invoice software for small businesses and freelancers is Zoho Invoice. It offers great customer service, generous limits for both invoices and estimates, and all at a reasonable price (starting at $11 per month).

Any business that grows beyond a couple of customers a month can stand to benefit from an invoice software. Invoice software allows a business to create and track invoices and estimates, which can then be tracked and paid through easily accessible payment portals.

While FreshBooks is considered the overall best software for freelancers, each invoicing software platform on this list comes with its own advantages and disadvantages, so to find the best one for your business, keep reading!

Best Invoice Software for Small Businesses

In this guide:

• Best Invoice Software for Small Business
• Methodology: How We Test Invoice Software for Small Business
• Verdict: What Is the Best Invoice Software for Small Business
• Frequently Asked Questions

Pros and Cons

Zoho is the best choice for those who want to be more creative with their invoices. While it’s easy to think of invoices as white documents with black text on them, Zoho Invoice’s selection of 16 templates allows you to customise your templates to suit your business’s branding.

As far as other strengths go, the free plan is a definite plus, even if it’s low on clients. In fact, the client limit is the only area where the free plan is compromised, as it still comes with all the features and templates of the superior plans. If you’re a very small business or a side-hustle freelancer, or just starting out and don’t have a lot of spare cash, the free plan might be enough to sustain you, as long as you’re not looking to grow, or don’t need to send too many invoices.

Another noteworthy feature is the ability to add tracked hours to invoices. This can be hugely helpful, especially if your business charges based on time, so it can be a make-or-break feature for some.

When looking at Zoho’s shortcomings, there are a couple things worth mentioning. Firstly, there is no support for ecommerce or email marketing integrations, so if you’re the kind of business who likes all their information accessible in one place, you might want to look elsewhere, like Xero or QuickBooks.

You also won’t be able to produce sales tax reports through Zoho. It’s a small feature, but you might find yourself in need of sales tax reports, and being unable to generate one automatically can be a pain.

Scalability

If you’re looking to the future of your business, Zoho is able to foster a good amount of growth. Starting on the free tier is a zero-risk assessment to see if you like the software. Then, the 50 client limit on the Basic tier is suitable for any small business, but as the tiers increase, you’ll be able to register 500 clients, and then unlimited clients.

One of the best things about Zoho is that invoices and estimates are unlimited on any tier, with the only increases being clients and users, so businesses with a few clients who make many monthly purchases won’t need to look to other tiers in order to grow.

Pros and Cons

Compared to a lot of its competitors, FreshBooks is very reasonably priced. Looking at the lowest tier, a monthly $15 is around the same as its competitors, especially when compared to QuickBooks’ lowest tier of $15 per month and Zoho’s top tier of $11 per month. It also offers unlimited monthly invoices and estimates on all tiers, which is extremely generous.

Not only is their pricing very reasonable, but they also offer greatly decreased rates for the first three months. FreshBooks pricing plans have dropped to $4.50, $7.50, and $15.00 per month for any new users for the first three months.

FreshBooks is also the only platform on this list that accommodates customer payments through three different methods. Customers can use first-party payment processing (through FreshBooks directly), third-party payment processing (through a service like PayPal or Stripe), or a billing portal.

If your business is looking to use other software, then you’re in luck, as FreshBooks supports integrations from various CRM, ecommerce, and email marketing platforms, allowing you to keep your financials and customer relationships all in one place. Noteworthy integrations include Shopify, Square, and HubSpot.

It’s also worth noting that FreshBooks is just one product, so if you invest in this for invoice purposes, you’ll be able to use its other features, like accounting.

As far as weaknesses go, there are really only two points of interest. Firstly, there is no live chat option for support, so if you don’t like talking on the phone but would like an immediate response, you’ll have to bite the bullet and call or email.

Secondly, even their top paid tier, the Premium tier, doesn’t offer unlimited invoice clients, unlike a lot of FreshBooks’ competitors, meaning 500 clients is the max. Even the bespoke option doesn’t remove the client limit entirely. While a small business or freelancer might not find themselves pushing the 500 client limit, it can be nice to know that you can expand infinitely on other platforms.

Scalability

For businesses looking to grow, FreshBooks is a good choice. Their Lite and Plus tiers don’t have much wiggle room, offering only five and 50 clients respectively, but the Premium tier offers 500 clients, which should be more than enough for a small business.

Not only that, but even on the lowest tier, there is no limit on the number of invoices and estimates that can be sent every month, meaning that a business that deals with a small number of clients who incur frequent transactions will be right at home on even the smallest tiers.

But while 500 clients is a decent amount on the Premium tier, it can be frustrating that FreshBooks doesn’t offer a tier with unlimited clients – a feature boasted by a lot of FreshBooks’ competitors, such as Xero or QuickBooks.

Pros and Cons

Looking at Xero’s best points, they offer users the ability to add tracked hours to their invoices, which can be a hugely helpful tool for any businesses that charge by the hour. And when it comes time for payment, customers can pay by either bank transfer or card.

But one of Xero’s best aspects is their support line. While they only offer email support, a knowledge base, and a community forum, they receive a lot of praise from their customers for their support networks.

Also, when compared to their competitors, Xero is just-slightly less costly, with their lowest tier costing $12 per month. Even their top tier, the Established tier, costs $65 per month. This is extremely affordable when looking at even other similar options, like QuickBooks’ Advanced tier at $150 per month, or OneUp’s Unlimited tier at $169 per month.

They also have some brilliant integrations. With 39 ecommerce integrations, 82 CRM integrations, and three email marketing integrations, you’ll be able to attach a lot to your Xero account to make it that much more handy.

It’s also worth noting that Xero is just one product, so if you invest in this for invoice purposes, you’ll be able to use its other features, like accounting. In fact, we consider Xero to be one of the best accounting software choices for a small business.

For weaknesses, there’s not much to consider with Xero. If you’re more creatively inclined, Xero might not be for you, since it doesn’t allow you to change invoice colours, and there’s only one template. And, on the lowest tier, the invoice limit is very strict at only 20 invoices a month.

Scalability

While it offers unlimited clients, users, and estimates, the Xero Early tier only allows for 20 invoices per month, which might serve a smaller business but isn’t really enough for any business looking to grow. However, there are no limits on the Growing tier ($43/month), so it’s a great choice for businesses on the rise.

The only difference between the Growing tier and the next tier, the Established tier, is the ability to use multiple currencies on your invoices, which can be essential for larger businesses that deal internationally, but doesn’t add anything beyond that.

Pros and Cons

QuickBooks is a fairly comprehensive invoice management software, as it has no limits on invoices, clients, or estimates. It also allows users to add hour-tracking to their invoices, as well as six different invoice templates.

It also offers a hefty amount of integrations, with 55 ecommerce integrations and 96 CRM integrations, as well as a handful of email marketing integrations on offer. It’s also worth noting that QuickBooks is just one product, so if you invest in this for invoice purposes, you’ll be able to use its other features, like accounting.

As for cons, there are a couple, but nothing deal-breaking. Firstly, users are limited to using Quickbooks' own service for processing invoice payments, which might be annoying for anyone used to using PayPal or another third party service.

It also limits phone and email customer support to the highest tier, meaning that anyone below the Advanced tier will have to stick to the live chat option.

Scalability

A good element of QuickBooks is their lack of limits on invoices, estimates, and clients. Even their $15-a-month tier offers no limits on anything except for users, as they only allow a single user.

As your business grows, you might find yourself wanting to accommodate more users, in which case, the Essentials, Plus, and Advanced tiers will be able to expand the amount of available users to up to 25 people. This makes QuickBooks a great option for any business looking to expand.

Pros and Cons

The first, and most obvious benefit of using Wave is the fact that it’s free, beyond the small fee for each transaction. This can be a huge benefit for any small business that doesn’t have the most capital to drop on invoicing software.

There are three invoice templates, which isn’t the biggest amount on the market, but is a very considerable amount for a free service. It also supports a handful of CRM, ecommerce, and email marketing integrations.

And as far as customer support is concerned, Wave offers a live chat option, which is a great resource for anyone trying to fix a problem in a pinch, and something that is often only available on a higher paid tier.

For Wave’s lower points, it doesn’t have the most comprehensive list of features. Obviously, you can’t expect the world when you’re getting the product for free, but it doesn’t allow users to attach files or display applied discounts or tracked hours to invoices. You also won’t be able to create custom reports of your invoice data.

Users are also limited to using Wave’s own service to process invoice payments, which means that if you’ve already adapted to a service like PayPal or Stripe, you’ll have to put them to bed.

Scalability

Wave only has one tier, but this tier offers unlimited clients, users, invoices, and estimates. While there aren’t tiers to upgrade to, the lack of limits means that any growing company will be at home using Wave.

Pros and Cons

The first pro is that Square Invoice software is free. Outside of the small fee on top of each invoice, you won’t have to worry about leaking money on a service you might not be using to its full potential.

You can also integrate Square Invoices with a lot of other Square products. Since Square sells POS software, card readers, and registers, having all of these services connect to each other can be very helpful, and speed up the payment process.

There are also a lot of support options. Whether it’s live chat, a phone call, or email support, there will be a way to contact Square to resolve an issue or figure out an action.

Since it’s free, you can expect to be making a couple of compromises. Firstly, their biggest restriction is the fact that users are limited to using Square’s own service for processing invoice payments, which can be limiting for some, but is totally fine if you’re already using Square card readers or POS systems.

You also can’t add multiple currencies or time-tracked hours to invoices. There’s also only one template, so you can’t experiment too much with how your invoices look.

Scalability

Like Wave, Square only has one tier, but this tier has no limits. You’ll be able to add unlimited clients and users, and you can send unlimited invoices and estimates, meaning any business looking to grow will be sustained on Square Invoices.

Pros and Cons

An easy pro straight off the bat – Invoice2Go is very affordable. While the top tier allows users to create estimates, if you’re not looking for that ability, the next tier down offers a load of great features, like tracked hours, discount display, and tax calculation.

If you want to jazz your invoices up, they also offer eight invoice templates. While this isn’t the most templates offered by an invoice software (that crown belongs to Zoho’s 16 templates), it’s still a great benefit for anyone looking to match their business’s aesthetic.

However, due to its relatively cheaper price, it does have some setbacks. It doesn’t support any ecommerce, CRM, or email marketing integrations, and with monthly limits on estimates and invoices on everything but the highest tier, it can feel a bit limiting.

And if you’re looking to save money by opting for the lowest plan, you should know that you won’t be able to attach files to your invoices or create/send estimates to potential customers.

Scalability

Invoice2Go is a tricky one, as its final tier does allow for a good amount of growth, due to the unlimited clients, invoices, and estimates. However, every tier below the Unlimited tier imposes strict limits on monthly invoices.

Even the second-highest tier, the Advanced tier, only allows 400 invoices a month, which sounds like a fair amount, but a growing business might find themselves brushing up against this limit as they grow. If you’re looking to expand your business, the only real recommendation is the Unlimited tier ($39.99 per month)

Pros and Cons

As long as you only need one user, Sage’s invoice software is extremely affordable, as $10 a month is very cheap for unlimited invoices, clients, and estimates.

You’ll also be able to add tracked hours, multi-currency, and attachments to your invoices, which can be created from the two templates offered by Sage.

As far as weaknesses, users can’t create custom reports of their invoicing data, which can be a pain if you’re trying to get a sense of your business’s broader finances, or show off to clients or investors.

You also won’t be able to send payment reminders to customers who have yet to pay, which is a fairly common feature elsewhere, so to have it missing here is noteworthy.

 Scalability

As mentioned, Sage offers unlimited invoices, clients, and estimates on any tier. The only upgrade you might need to expand your business is the jump to the Accounting plan, which offers unlimited users instead of a single user. Lack of reporting options might be a bit of a pain for bigger businesses, but the lack of limits from the beginning is a big help for anyone.

Pros and Cons

OneUp is an accounting platform, so you’ll have a lot of accounting features on top of your invoice software, as well as a built-in CRM functionality. This can help you foster ongoing relationships with your clients, as you’ll be able to view all of their records in one place, not just their invoice history.

The invoice software itself is decent, but not the best. There are no invoice or client limits, even on the lower tiers, meaning businesses won’t need to keep tabs on their monthly activity to make sure they aren’t running out of room.

However, there are a lot of basic features that OneUp neglects to include. Features like multiple templates, recurring invoices or payment reminders, any kind of invoice tracking, custom data reports, or even online payment of invoices, which can make your customers’ lives harder.

There are also no ecommerce, CRM, or email marketing integrations available, meaning this software is somewhat isolated from the rest of your business.

Scalability

Interestingly, there are very few limits on OneUp. Even on the lowest tier, invoices, clients, and estimates are all unlimited, with the only increase being the amount of users in each tier. Any company looking to grow will be able to start on the lowest tier and level up as they grow.

Methodology: How We Test Invoicing Software for Small Business

Benefits of Investing in Invoicing Software

The main benefit of invoice software is the ability to automate the invoicing process. With the correct software, you’ll be able to track invoices, send reminders and keep detailed tabs on each of your invoices. Software like FreshBooks and Invoice2Go offer a wide array of features that can help you stay on top of the various aspects of your invoices.

As your business grows, it’s likely that you’ll need to make more and more invoices. That’s why the ability to create invoices based on premade templates, like those found in Zoho or Invoice2Go, can be a huge help and time saver.

A lot of invoice software can compile reporting and analytics information, like information about sales tax and receivables, which can be used to get a broad sense of your business. Software with the most detailed reporting abilities include FreshBooks, Xero, and QuickBooks, on any tier.

Possibly the most unassuming benefit of invoice software is their support lines. When dealing with your business’s financials, you want to be sure you know what you’re doing. So robust support networks, like those found in QuickBooks’ Advanced tier and Square Invoices, can be pivotal in making sure you’re sending and receiving the correct information.

Frequently Asked Questions