Best Billing Software and Invoicing Software of 2021

In 2021, it’s easier and more cost effective than ever for non-accountants (like you!) to manage small-business finances. All you need is the best billing and invoicing software for your business. But with so many options out there, how can you find the right product? Check out our 10 favorite invoicing and billing software options for small businesses, freelancers, and entrepreneurs in 2021.

You can also use FreshBooks to create estimates and proposals, which is particularly useful for contractors, interior designers, and other businesses that need to itemize materials and include contracted workers.

FreshBooks starts out at an eminently reasonable $15 per month. (New customers can get 70% off their first three months, which lowers the cost to $4.50.) Unfortunately, that base plan lets you bill only up to five clients a month. If you enter a new active client that exceeds that limit, FreshBooks automatically charges you for the Plus plan, which lets you bill up to 50 active clients.

Like all Zoho products (including Zoho Books, Zoho’s small-business accounting product), Zoho Invoice does a lot more than what its name suggests. Along with automatic recurring invoicing, each Zoho Invoice plan includes time tracking, expense tracking, and multi-currency support. You can also set up a customer portal where your clients can view and pay invoices and collaborate with you on projects.

Zoho Invoice’s cheapest paid plan starts at just $9 a month and lets you invoice up to 50 customers a month. If you don’t have quite that many customers and want to save a bit of cash each month, Zoho’s free plan lets you bill up to five customers.

Bear in mind that if you want to accept online payments, you’ll also need Zoho Checkout. This nifty plan lets you set up three or more customized online payment pages. However, unless you’re fine billing customers through Stripe only, you’ll need a Zoho Checkout paid plan with multiple payment gateways. And like Zoho Invoice, paid Zoho Checkout plans start at $9 a month, bringing your total billing and invoicing cost to $18 a month.

If you want to both send invoices and accept payments with Wave (one of our favorite accounting software providers), you need two separate Wave products: Wave Invoicing and Payments by Wave. Don’t worry, though—like Wave’s accounting software, both products are completely free, apart from Payments by Wave’s standard processing fees.

With the combination of Wave’s two products, you can send out customized invoices and accept payments from all major credit cards (including American Express).

At 2.9% plus $0.30 for credit cards and 1% for ACH transactions, its fees are the same as FreshBooks’ and Square’s. (As with many other billing and invoicing solutions, Wave charges 3.4% + $0.30 for American Express transactions.) And from a customer-facing perspective, Payments by Wave is super intuitive and easy to use.

Send invoices infrequently? Use Square Invoices. There’s no monthly subscription fee, so you can send invoices for free. Square charges the standard 2.9% + $0.30 to process invoiced and online payments, but if you use a Square Terminal or the Square Point of Sale app for in-person payments, the processing fee is just 2.6% + $0.10. Square Invoices also lets you send free estimates that you can instantly convert to invoices, plus free contract templates that you can easily pass along with your invoices.

Square Invoices includes a free mobile app so you can send estimates and invoices on the go or accept any type of payment wherever you are. The product also integrates perfectly with Square Point of Sale—if you’re already using Square’s mobile credit card reader, it just makes sense to go with Square Invoices. Unfortunately, as far as we can tell, Square doesn't let you accept ACH payments. This shouldn't be a huge problem, but if you frequently take ACH payments, don't switch to Square.

Sage Business Cloud Accounting takes care of all the most important invoicing and billing features for you, but what really sets it apart is its user-friendly dashboard and handy accounting reports. When you sign in, Sage’s dashboard shows you outstanding and overdue invoices, quotes and estimates, net sales, and a bunch of other handy information—all in a scannable and easy-to-understand format made especially for non-accountants.

Sage Business Cloud Accounting plans start at $10 a month, but to get the full Sage accounting experience, you’ll want to sign up for the pricier $25 a month plan. While the cheaper plan, Accounting Start, helps you track overdue invoices, the more expensive plan has more thorough cash flow tracking with better reports. In other words, if you want to grow your business, not just send invoices, you’ll need the more expensive Accounting plan.

Wait, wait, there’s more! If you didn’t find your software match above, these five billing and invoicing software choices merit your time and attention.

Looking for a full-service accounting and invoicing solution that costs less than FreshBooks and QuickBooks? Xero’s fully featured accounting plans start at just $11 a month. And while Xero’s plans used to limit you to just five billable clients a month, you can now send up to 20 invoices with the cheapest plan. Xero’s software also grows with you—its three affordable plans are super scalable, so if you’ve just opened your doors, Xero’s cheapest plan is a great place to start.

QuickBooks is one of the world’s most popular accounting software options, but most QuickBooks products and services are a far cry from the cheapest on the block. However, while you can get only QuickBooks Payments with an existing QuickBooks Online subscription, its transaction fees are completely affordable. For instance, swiped fees are just 2.4% plus $0.25, which is cheaper than any other provider on our list.

There’s a catch, of course (isn’t there always?): the fee climbs depending on the type of payment you’re accepting. Most importantly, transaction fees are higher for bills paid through invoices. You’re looking at a 2.9% plus $0.25 transaction fee, but that’s still cheaper than FreshBooks, Square, and Wave.

Out of all of the software we’ve reviewed, Hiveage accepts the most diverse forms of online payments, which can increase your chances of getting paid. This invoicing software supports a dozen online gateways like PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, and Authorize.Net. They even accept Bitcoin via Coinbase, as well as lots of foreign currencies.

Along with supporting multiple payment gateways, Hiveage also offers a feature for setting up teams, which lets you share the invoicing load with your team. And if you’re not sure you want to sign up for a paid Hiveage plan, try its free invoice generator to start getting paid faster.

A common complaint with invoicing software is its lack of professional-looking, customizable invoicing templates. FreeAgent stands out from competitors by offering eight professional templates that are easy to customize to your business and customers. FreeAgent also includes easy-to-read reports for metrics like sales tax and outstanding invoices.

The only thing keeping FreeAgent out of our top five is its price. FreeAgent starts at $24 a month, though if you sign up as a new client, you’ll pay $12 for the first six months before the price doubles. So if you’re willing to pay a bit more for multi-currency and multi-language options, easy sales tax reporting, and automatic invoicing reminders, FreeAgent could be a good fit.

Tipalti appeals to a mid-market audience, but it can work for small businesses too, especially international B2B operations. Out of all the software we’ve reviewed, Tipalti offers the most technical and extensive accounting solution. In fact, it’s such an extensive solution that it may take an expert to wield successfully. This more comprehensive software includes invoicing and billing features, but it’s specifically known for its accounts payable capabilities. At $299 per month, Tipalti is super pricey, which is another reason it works best for established global businesses.

The right invoicing and billing software makes it much, much easier to track positive cash flow, bill clients exactly what you’re worth, and go home happy at the end of the day. Hopefully, one of the solutions above can help you check all three things off your small-business to-do list.

Looking for more software to keep your business on track? Check out our bookkeeping software recommendations for affordable solutions.

Disclaimer

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don't guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.