The 9 Best Invoicing Apps for Freelancers in 2026

Quick answer: For most freelancers who bill for services, FreshBooks is the invoicing app to pick, as long as you watch its client limits: the $23 Lite plan only invoices 5 clients. If you'd rather pay nothing, Wave sends unlimited invoices on a free plan with built-in bookkeeping, and Zoho Invoice is completely free up to 500 invoices a year. If you sell packages with proposals and contracts, look at Bonsai or HoneyBook instead.

Three numbers decide which invoicing app is cheapest for you, and the subscription price is only one of them. The second is the client or invoice cap: FreshBooks limits clients, Zoho Invoice and Xero limit invoices, QuickBooks limits the free plan to 2 invoices a month, and Invoice Ninja's free plan stops at 5 clients. The third is the payment processing fee, which you pay on every invoice a client settles online and which usually costs more over a year than the app itself.

Card fees cluster around 2.9% plus a fixed fee, so the real differences are in bank transfers (ACH). On a $2,000 invoice, a 2.9% + $0.30 card fee costs you $58.30, while the 1% ACH fee most of these apps charge costs $20, and Zoho Payments' 0.8% ACH fee, capped at $5, costs $5. If your clients are businesses that can pay by bank transfer, ask them to. All fees below were read off each vendor's live pricing page on October 11, 2026, and they change often.

How they compare

App	Free plan	Client or invoice limits	Paid from	Card fee on invoices	Bank transfer (ACH)
FreshBooks	30-day trial	Lite 5 clients, Plus 50, Premium unlimited	Lite $23/mo	2.9% + $0.30	1%
Wave	Yes, unlimited invoices	None stated	Pro $19/mo or $190/yr	2.9% + $0.60 (Pro: first 10 a month at 2.9% + $0)	1%, $1 minimum
Zoho Invoice	Yes, all features	500 invoices a year, 2 users	Free	Zoho Payments 2.90% + 30¢	0.8%, capped at $5
QuickBooks Solopreneur	Yes	Free: 2 invoices a month unless you use QuickBooks Payments	Lite $20/mo	2.99%	1%
Invoice Ninja	Yes	Free: 5 clients, unlimited invoices	Pro $14/mo or $140/yr	Your gateway's rate	Your gateway's rate
Bonsai	7-day trial	Unlimited clients	Essentials $19/user/mo yearly ($25 monthly)	Varies by method, not shown on pricing page	Varies
HoneyBook	30-day trial	Unlimited clients and projects	Starter $29/mo yearly ($36 monthly)	From 2.7% + 10¢ or 2.9% + 25¢ (page lists both)	1.5%
Square Invoices	Yes, unlimited invoices	None stated	Plus $49/mo	Free 3.3% + 30¢, Plus 2.9% + 30¢	1%, $1 min (capped at $10 on Plus)
Invoice Simple	Free trial	Essentials 3 invoices/mo, Plus 10, Premium unlimited	Essentials $6.99/mo (App Store)	Not confirmed	Not confirmed

1. FreshBooks: Best overall for service freelancers

• Developer: 2ndSite Inc
• Client limits: Lite 5, Plus 50, Premium and Select unlimited
• App Store: 4.7/5 (10,978 ratings)
• iOS app released: 2016

FreshBooks started as an invoicing tool for freelancers, and it still reads that way. NerdWallet's freelance invoicing roundup names it the best for freelancers and points out that every plan includes time tracking, mileage tracking and billable expenses, so you can bill hours and pass through costs without a second app. PCMag rates it 4 out of 5 and calls it "an appealing accounting software solution for businesses that sell services," praising its support and user experience. You also get real double-entry accounting and tax-time reports, which a pure invoicing app won't give you.

The catch is the client limit, and it's stricter than it looks. Lite costs $23 a month and only invoices 5 clients, and FreshBooks' own FAQ says that number counts archived clients too, so you have to delete old clients to free a slot. Plus raises the cap to 50 clients for $43 a month, and only Premium, at $70 a month, is unlimited. Yearly billing takes 10% off. There's no free plan, just a 30-day trial with no card. Card payments cost 2.9% + $0.30 and bank transfers 1%, through either FreshBooks Payments or Stripe.

Video tutorial: Ultimate FreshBooks Tutorial 2026 | Accounting Software for Service Businesses by Stewart Gauld

2. Wave: Best free plan with bookkeeping

• Developer: Wave Financial Inc
• Free plan: unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records
• App Store: 4.4/5 (6,660 ratings)
• iOS app released: 2014

Wave is the free option that doesn't feel like a trial. The Starter plan costs $0 and lets you create unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, with no client cap on the pricing page, and you can invoice from the mobile app. PCMag gives it 4 out of 5 and calls it a user-friendly accounting tool "designed for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs." NerdWallet picks it for basic, free accounting features. If you're a sole proprietor who mainly gets paid by invoice, Wave covers the books and the billing without a subscription.

Wave makes its money on payments, and its card fee has a bigger fixed charge than most: 2.9% + $0.60 per card transaction and 3.4% + $0.60 for Amex on the free plan. Bank payments cost 1% with a $1 minimum. Pro, at $19 a month or $190 a year, drops the fixed fee to $0 on your first 10 card transactions each month, adds bank imports and receipt capture, and automates late-payment reminders. You also have to apply for online payments, and Wave does identity and credit checks first. NerdWallet's complaint is that there's no easy way to mark expenses as billable to a client.

Video tutorial: How To Send An Invoice With Wave In 2026 by Tutorials By David

3. Zoho Invoice: Best free invoicing-only app

• Developer: Zoho Corporation
• Free plan limits: 500 invoices a year, 2 users, 3 projects
• App Store: 4.9/5 (14,795 ratings)
• iOS app released: 2011

Zoho Invoice is free, full stop: there are no paid tiers on its pricing page. You get quotes, recurring invoices, automated payment reminders, expense tracking, time tracking with projects and a self-service client portal, on the web and in apps for iPhone, Android, Windows and Mac. NerdWallet names it the best free invoicing software and notes that every feature is available at no cost. The iPhone app holds 4.9 out of 5 from nearly 15,000 ratings.

The limits are 500 invoices a year, 2 users and 3 projects, and invoices carry "Powered by Zoho Invoice" branding. Zoho also deletes your data if you're inactive for more than 180 days (it warns you first), so export a backup if you invoice seasonally. Its own Zoho Payments charges 2.90% + 30¢ on domestic cards and 0.8% on ACH debits, capped at $5, tied with Stripe for the cheapest bank transfer rate in this roundup. You can connect Stripe, PayPal or Square instead. NerdWallet's complaint is thin integrations outside Zoho's own apps and QuickBooks Online.

Video tutorial: Zoho Invoice FULL Tutorial for Beginners 2026 by Drew Brockbank | Brockbank Consulting

4. QuickBooks Solopreneur: Best for tax time

• Developer: Intuit Inc.
• Built for: Schedule C self-employed taxes
• App Store: 4.7/5 (271,202 ratings) (Intuit QuickBooks for Business app)

QuickBooks Solopreneur is Intuit's plan for one-person businesses, and its pitch is tax time rather than invoicing. It tracks income, expenses and mileage with your phone's GPS, sorts them for Schedule C, and lets you pay and track 1099 contractors. The Lite plan adds Expert Assisted Tax powered by TurboTax, where you pay only when you file. Invoicing is built in, and clients can pay by card, ACH, Apple Pay, PayPal or Venmo, which is a wider set of payment options than most apps here offer.

The free plan caps you at 2 invoices a month, 2 receipt uploads and 5 mileage trips, but the invoice cap goes away if you qualify for and turn on QuickBooks Payments. That's the trade: free invoicing in exchange for Intuit processing your payments, at 2.99% on cards and 1% on bank payments (the rates page says they're accurate as of September 18, 2026). Lite lists at $20 a month, with a 50% discount for the first 3 months, and removes the receipt and mileage caps. Free and Lite have no accountant access, so if you work with a bookkeeper you'll need Simple Start at $38 a month.

Video explainer: What is QuickBooks Solopreneur and is it right for you? by Jamie Trull

5. Invoice Ninja: Best free plan for a few clients

• Developer: Invoice Ninja LLC
• License: source-available (Elastic License 2.0), self-hostable
• Apps: web, macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android
• App Store: 4.6/5 (177 ratings)

Invoice Ninja's free plan is unusually complete. With up to 5 clients you get unlimited invoices, recurring invoices with auto-billing, deposits and partial payments, a client portal, projects with time tracking and expense tracking. NerdWallet names it the best for payment flexibility and says the free version is so complete "you may never need to upgrade, as long as you don't exceed 5 clients." It doesn't process payments itself: you connect Stripe, PayPal, Square, GoCardless or another gateway and pay that gateway's rate, so you can pick the cheapest one for your clients.

Ninja Pro removes the client cap and the "Created by Invoice Ninja" footer and adds late-payment reminders, reports and API access for $14 a month or $140 a year. Extra users require Enterprise, from $18 a month for 1 to 2 users. The code is on GitHub, where the repo has more than 10,000 stars, so you can run it on your own server, but it's source-available under the Elastic License rather than a classic open-source license, and self-hosting means you handle updates and backups. The iPhone app has only 177 ratings, so mobile reviews are thin.

Video: Invoice Ninja Overview by Invoice Ninja

6. Bonsai: Best for proposals and contracts

• Owner: Zoom (acquisition announced November 2025)
• Client limits: unlimited clients
• App Store: 4.3/5 (310 ratings), listed as Bonsai by Zoom
• iOS app released: 2018

Bonsai covers the whole freelance job, not just the bill at the end. The Essentials plan bundles proposals, contracts, intake forms, scheduling, a client portal, invoices and payments, and expense and income tracking, so the proposal, the contract and the invoices that follow live in one app. That's its main advantage over invoicing-only tools. Clients are unlimited on every plan. Zoom announced on November 5, 2025 that it would buy Bonsai and said Bonsai would keep running under its own brand, and the iPhone app is now listed as Bonsai by Zoom.

Watch which plan you buy. The $9 Basic plan doesn't include invoices at all; invoicing starts at Essentials, which is $19 per user a month billed yearly or $25 monthly. Removing Bonsai branding and connecting QuickBooks, Xero or Zapier takes Premium at $29 yearly or $39 monthly. There's a 7-day trial and no free plan. The pricing page says payment fees vary by method and links to a help article that blocked our requests, so read it before you send your first invoice. Long-term, it's fair to wonder how Bonsai will change inside Zoom.

Video review: Bonsai Review: Is It Worth It? by Tool Finder

7. HoneyBook: Best for creative client bookings

• Developer: HoneyBook, Inc.
• Client limits: unlimited clients and projects on every plan
• App Store: 4.8/5 (16,321 ratings)
• iOS app released: 2016

HoneyBook is client management software for creatives, consultants, marketers and event professionals, with invoicing built in. Its files let a client pick a package, sign and pay from a single document, and its invoices handle one-time, recurring and custom payment schedules, autopay, payment plans, late fees and tips. That's a good fit for event work where a deposit is due at booking and the rest before the date. Every plan includes unlimited clients and projects, and HoneyBook says it will never charge you to add more.

PCMag rates it 3.5 out of 5 and sums it up as capable but "very pricey." Starter is $29 a month billed yearly or $36 monthly, and automations, the scheduler and the QuickBooks Online integration need Essentials at $49 yearly or $59 monthly. Bank transfers cost 1.5%, higher than the 1% most rivals charge. The card fee is unclear: the plan table on the pricing page says fees start at 2.9% + 25¢, while the FAQ further down says 2.7% + 10¢, so confirm your rate in the account. There's a 30-day free trial with no card and a 60-day money-back guarantee.

Video review: Is HoneyBook Still The Best CRM Software For Small Business? by Darcy's Business

8. Square Invoices: Best if you also get paid in person

• Developer: Block, Inc.
• Free plan: unlimited invoices and recurring invoices
• App Store: 4.8/5 (93,164 ratings)
• iOS app released: 2019

Square Invoices makes sense if some of your clients pay you face to face. The free plan sends unlimited invoices, recurring invoices on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly schedule, deposit requests and automatic reminders, and the same Square account takes tap-to-pay and card reader payments at a market, a shoot or a job site. NerdWallet picks it as the best POS and invoicing combo and notes that Square also lets you send contracts. The Square Invoices app holds 4.8 out of 5 from more than 93,000 ratings.

The free plan is free in subscription only. Invoice card payments cost 3.3% + 30¢ on the free plan, the highest standard card rate among our picks, and drop to 2.9% + 30¢ on Plus, which is $49 a month. Bank transfers cost 1% with a $1 minimum, and only Plus and Premium cap that at $10. NerdWallet also points out that you must use Square's own payment processing to accept online payments, so you can't plug in a cheaper processor. Cash and check payments are free.

Video: How to Create and Send an Invoice with Square by Square

9. Invoice Simple: Best phone-first invoice maker

• Developer: Zenvoice Inc.
• Plan limits: Essentials 3 invoices a month, Plus 10, Premium unlimited
• App Store: 4.9/5 (122,801 ratings)
• iOS app released: 2013

Invoice Simple is for writing an invoice standing next to the client. It makes estimates, invoices and receipts from your phone, pulls client details from your contacts, adds photos and your signature, and sends by email, text or WhatsApp, with an alert when the client opens or pays it. It holds 4.9 out of 5 from more than 122,000 App Store ratings, and its own description pitches it at jobs like landscaping and side gigs that don't need bookkeeping.

It's also the only pick that caps invoices per month on paid plans. Essentials allows 3 invoices a month, Plus 10, and only Premium is unlimited. Invoice Simple's web pricing page blocked our requests, so the prices we could confirm are the App Store's in-app subscriptions: $6.99 a month for Essentials, $14.99 for Plus and $21.99 for Premium. The app says you can add the card fee to the invoice so it costs you nothing, but we couldn't confirm the actual processing rates. There's a free trial, not a free plan.

Also worth a look

• PayPal Invoicing (free to send): handy if your clients already pay with PayPal or Venmo. PayPal's fee page lists 2.99% + $0.49 for card payments on invoices, 3.49% + $0.49 when clients pay through PayPal or Venmo, 1% capped at $10 for bank payments, and an extra 1.50% on international invoices.
• Stripe Invoicing (0.4% per paid invoice): no subscription, but Stripe adds 0.4% per paid invoice on Starter, or 0.5% on Plus, on top of its 2.9% + 30¢ card rate. Its 0.8% ACH Direct Debit fee is capped at $5.
• Xero ($27/mo after an intro price): full accounting software, but the Early plan only sends 20 invoices a month, which is tight for a busy freelancer.

If you're choosing a client management tool and invoicing is only part of it, our CRM software for small business roundup covers more client-tracking options. And for your personal side of the money, see our budgeting apps guide.

How we picked

We ranked these from desk research, not hands-on use. We read NerdWallet's freelance invoicing roundup, PCMag's reviews of FreshBooks, Wave and HoneyBook, Zoom's announcement about Bonsai, vendor help pages, and App Store ratings pulled from Apple's own data. Every price, client limit and payment processing fee was read off the vendor's live pricing or fee page on October 11, 2026. Where a vendor blocked us (Invoice Simple's pricing page and Bonsai's fee article), we said so and quoted App Store prices or nothing. We weighted free-plan limits and processing fees heavily, because those cost freelancers the most over a year.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free invoicing app for freelancers?

Zoho Invoice and Wave are the strongest free options. Zoho Invoice gives you every feature free, up to 500 invoices a year, and Wave's free Starter plan sends unlimited invoices and includes bookkeeping. Invoice Ninja is also free for up to 5 clients, and Square Invoices is free if you accept its higher card fee.

Which invoicing app has the lowest payment processing fees?

For bank transfers, Zoho Payments is cheapest at 0.8% capped at $5, the same as Stripe's ACH rate. For cards, most apps charge 2.9% + 30¢, Wave's free plan charges 2.9% + $0.60, and Square's free plan charges 3.3% + 30¢. Fees change often, so check the vendor's fee page before you choose.

Does FreshBooks limit how many clients I can invoice?

Yes. Lite invoices up to 5 clients, Plus up to 50 and Premium is unlimited. FreshBooks counts archived clients toward the limit, so you have to delete old clients to free a slot, though their invoices stay accessible.

Is Wave really free?

The Starter plan is free and includes unlimited invoices, estimates and bookkeeping. Wave earns money on payments: 2.9% + $0.60 per card payment and 1% per bank payment with a $1 minimum. Bank imports, receipt capture and automatic late reminders need Pro at $19 a month.

Do I need accounting software or just an invoicing app?

If you file a Schedule C and track expenses yourself, an app with bookkeeping, like FreshBooks, Wave or QuickBooks Solopreneur, saves work at tax time. If an accountant handles your books or you invoice only a few clients, a free invoicing app like Zoho Invoice or Invoice Ninja is enough.

The bottom line

Start with how many clients you bill and how they pay. FreshBooks is the most complete pick for service freelancers, but check its client caps. Wave and Zoho Invoice are the best free options, and Zoho's capped ACH fee is the cheapest way to get paid by bank transfer. Pay for Bonsai or HoneyBook only if proposals and contracts are part of every job.

Disclosure: none of the links in this post are affiliate links, we don't earn a commission from any of the apps in it, and nobody paid to be included. Prices and payment processing fees are what each vendor's pricing page, fee page or App Store listing showed on October 11, 2026, and they change often.