FreshBooks Review 2021

The bottom line: FreshBooks is one of the best accounting solutions for freelancers and small-business owners who rely heavily on estimates, quotes, and invoicing. Its user-friendly interface, thorough mobile app, and excellent invoices make it a good fit for on-the-go freelancers, and its third-party integrations sell it for business owners with employees.

FreshBooks has a few key limitations—most notably, each plan limits the number of clients you can bill per month. For that reason alone, it won't work for freelancers who work with dozens of clients each month. But its unlimited user numbers makes for easy collaboration, and its low starting price beats out QuickBooks Online and rivals Xero. 

With three plans running from $15 to $50 a month, FreshBooks’ features can match a variety of business needs. But since additional users cost $10 extra per month, it’s a particularly good fit for solopreneurs who plan to keep the books largely on their own.

For $10 more a month, FreshBooks Plus delivers the same features as FreshBooks Lite with some key add-ons:

• Double-entry accounting and automatic bank reconciliation
• Automated recurring invoices and late payment reminders
• Unlimited proposals

FreshBooks Plus also includes a client retainer option, which means you can let clients pay you in advance for long-term projects.

Most importantly, FreshBooks Plus lets you bill up to 50 clients a month, which makes it a better fit for most small businesses (and some freelancers) than FreshBooks Lite.

Apart from the price, the main difference between FreshBooks Plus and FreshBooks Premium is the number of billable clients—Plus limits you to 50 clients, and Premium bumps you up to unlimited clients. It also adds bookkeeping features that make life easier for midsize to large businesses, such as project profitability tracking. 

We've already covered this, but it's hard to move past FreshBooks' lack of bank reconciliation with its cheapest plan. Almost every other accounting software option includes bank reconciliation by default, including Wave Accounting, which is entirely free. 

Speaking of typical accounting software features, FreshBooks' lack of double-entry accounting with every plan gives us cause for concern. FreshBooks argues that freelancers don't need to use the more meticulous double-entry bookkeeping system, since it's most useful for businesses with complex finances. But we don't agree—and neither do most providers, like Xero and QuickBooks Online, both of which offer double-entry accounting with every plan.

Honestly, the double-entry system is more accurate regardless of your annual income. Using it can save you loads of stress come tax time and help you avoid costly mistakes. We're glad FreshBooks includes it with its Plus plan, but if you end up using FreshBooks Lite, you'll want to check (and double check) your bookkeeping entries by hand.

And while we like that FreshBooks doesn't limit the number of users you can add, we don't love that each user costs $10 extra. If you only work with a few other people, your pricing won't spiral too far out of hand—but add more than three or four and FreshBooks' cost increases exponentially. In contrast, Zoho Books charges $2.50 per additional user (much more reasonable), while providers like Wave and Xero don't impose user limits at all.

We’ve talked about the drawback of FreshBooks’ client limit, but we also want to hit on the perk of FreshBooks’ unlimited features. Unlike some other cloud-based accounting software (most notably Xero), FreshBooks doesn’t limit the number of invoices and estimates you can send each month. That’s one perk of the company's’ humble beginnings as an invoicing-centric software: you don’t have to wait until next month to bill a client for a second project.

FreshBooks customer service is available over the phone from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EDT, which gives you a little leeway if you work on the West Coast—you can still get help on a problem that occurs after 2 p.m. your time. FreshBooks also has a robust online support section and helpful chat feature.

Generally, users also like FreshBooks' customer service and support. That's quite a big deal in a world where QuickBooks Online—part of Intuit, a company with a mediocre customer service reputation—remains one of the most popular accounting software worldwide. For instance, on the consumer review site Trustradius, FreshBooks users give it an average of 8.2 out of 10.¹

And while FreshBooks isn't accredited with the Better Business Bureau, the BBB still gives it an A+ rating, and it's only had to resolve four FreshBooks complaints in the last three years.² Admittedly, fewer people use FreshBooks than QuickBooks. Still, FreshBooks' user numbers are in the hundreds of thousands, and the company's still brooked just four complaints to QuickBooks' 2,000+.³

FreshBooks isn’t the least expensive cloud-based software in the business, especially if you want to add more than one user, but it’s more affordable than QuickBooks with about the same degree of functionality. If you’re looking for a good QuickBooks alternative, we say take FreshBooks out for a spin—but if you can, stick with the Plus plan over the Lite plan. Double-entry accounting and bank reconciliation are worth it.

Looking for accounting options other than FreshBooks? Check out our article on the best accounting software of 2021 to explore alternatives.

It depends on what you’re looking for. Price-wise, FreshBooks is much less expensive than QuickBooks: QuickBooks’ cheapest plan starts at $25 a month and offers about the same features as FreshBooks Lite, which starts at $15 a month. Worse, you can’t manage bills or track time unless you upgrade to QuickBooks Essentials, which costs $40 a month to FreshBooks Plus’s $25 a month.

On the other hand, all of QuickBooks’ plans come with mileage tracking, which is ideal if, say, the contracted plumbers for your plumbing business spend a lot of time on the road. Meanwhile, FreshBooks integrates with more than 200 apps, including Everlance for mileage tracking, but you’ll pay a little extra each month for the integration. And for app functionality, it’s hard to beat the QuickBooks app’s solid interface, low learning curve, and comprehensive features.

Like other cloud-based accounting software, FreshBooks stores all your information in the cloud, meaning you don’t have to download anything to start working. Instead, you log into your FreshBooks account online to securely access your FreshBooks dashboard.

FreshBooks’ cheapest plan, FreshBooks Lite, starts at $15 a month with five billable clients. FreshBooks Plus starts at $25 a month and FreshBooks Premium costs $50 a month. FreshBooks also offers a more comprehensive plan with custom pricing, called FreshBooks Select. It includes a dedicated account manager and allows for over 500 billable clients.

To track mileage with FreshBooks, you’ll need to integrate with Everlance, a mileage tracking app that syncs seamlessly with your FreshBooks account but costs an extra few dollars a month.

FreshBooks Classic refers to pre-2017 FreshBooks. FreshBooks still offers customer support to customers who stuck with FreshBooks Classic rather than upgrading to the full-featured accounting program, but if you’re a new user, you can’t sign up for the old version of the software.

To review FreshBooks and calculate a star rating, we evaluated it in the following key areas: 

• Accounting features
• Ease of use, including mobile app access
• Plans and pricing, including number of plans and additional costs
• Customer service hours and reputation
• Overall functionality

We also took our accounting expert's opinion under consideration when calculating our star rating. Star ratings are reevaluated frequently and subject to change.