Here are the best free invoicing apps and tools for freelancers and small business owners. Pick the one that’s best for you.
If you're a freelancer, small business owner, or entrepreneur, then you already know the headaches that can come from creating and managing invoices. Without invoices, you won't get paid. They're pretty important!
But the thing is, not all invoicing solutions are equal. The best one for you will depend on your particular needs, how complex your invoices are, and your budget. Unsurprisingly, the best invoicing apps will cost you money.
If you don't want to pay, you'll want to look into one of the fantastic free invoicing solutions covered below. They're available on the web, for Android, and for iOS.
Invoice Ninja is an excellent tool for freelancers and small business owners who have more complex needs beyond simple hand-crafted invoices.
As a free user, you can manage up to 100 clients and unlimited invoices, plus advanced features like time tracking, auto-billing, branded invoices, direct payment integration with over 40 gateways, and the ability to accept deposits and partial payments. However, invoices have a "Created by Invoice Ninja" watermark.
Upgrading to the $10 per month plan increases your max clients to unlimited, grants access to 10 professional invoice templates, a custom Invoice Ninja URL where clients can view and pay invoices, the ability to create custom invoices, auto-reminder emails, and much more.
If you're looking to grow your income as a freelancer, you might want to explore these excellent places to find new clients.
Download: Invoice Ninja for Web | Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)
Invoicely serves the same kinds of users as other invoicing apps: freelancers and small business owners who deal with complex accounting needs beyond simple invoices.
One of the more advanced features is managing multiple businesses with multiple team members and clients for each business, which comes in handy for serial entrepreneurs. You can also receive payments online directly to your invoice, which Invoicely uses to auto-update an invoice's paid status.
Free users get five invoices per month, while you can create unlimited business units to receive and manage payments. However, the free option ends here.
To take stock of the notable advanced features, you need to pay $9.99 per month. With the Basic plan, you get features like time tracking, taxes, mileage, customized branding, and online payment methods other than PayPal.
Download: Invoicely for Web | Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)
Akaunting is a completely free web tool that lets you invoice, track expenses, and handle all your freelance or small business accounting needs right in the browser. It works well on PC, Android, and iOS devices.
Notable features include unlimited clients and invoices, billable expenses, inventory tracking for sales, dynamic reports, direct payment for invoices, per-client discounts, full accounting with deposits and transfers with bank accounts, and multilingual panels for admins and clients.
What's unique about Akaunting is that it's open-source, and you can download the software and host it on your own web server. You'd still access it using a web browser, but all the data remains with you. For privacy-minded folks who want remote invoice access, Akaunting is a smart choice.
Download: Akaunting for Web | Android (Free)
Wave Invoicing is the best-known invoice app on this list, especially for small business owners, but it is ranked fourth because it can be a bit slow at times. Moreover, the interface can be a bit rough to navigate—especially compared to some of the newer and more streamlined solutions.
However, Wave is completely free and comes in three parts: the invoicing software (for creating and sending invoices for payment), the accounting software (for tracking income and expenses), and receipt scanning (for scanning receipts with a mobile device for expense tracking).
Notable invoicing features include auto-reminders for overdue clients, professional invoice templates, custom branding for your invoices, invoice sending and management on mobile devices, see when clients view an invoice, automatic cloud backups, and more.
You'll only have to pay if you want to use Wave's online payment processing or payroll management services. If you don't care about either of those, Wave is entirely free to use—and it's one of the best freelance tools that doesn't cost anything to use.
Download: Wave Invoicing for Web | Android | iOS (Free)
Zoho Invoice is a completely free invoicing app, with no ads or hidden fees. Zoho Invoice was one of the company's first products; it's diversified over the years and now makes enough income elsewhere to offer Zoho Invoice at no cost. It also claims that it won't sell your data, so it's a win all round.
The only limitation you need to account for is that you can only generate up to 1,000 invoices per year. As a freelancer or small business, it's unlikely you'll reach that limit anyway—but if you do, you can contact Zoho's support team to discuss your options.
With Zoho Invoice, you can bill multiple clients, account for multiple currencies, automate payment reminders, collect payments directly (which makes this a great free billing app too!), log project time, and much more. You can do all of this from the website, or on-the-go through the handy Android or iOS app.
Download: Zoho Invoice for Web | Android | iOS (Free)
Let's be clear about one thing: whichever invoicing app you choose, you're trusting that it will do what it says and won't fail you.
This is why we only recommend free invoicing apps for freelancers and small business owners without complex invoicing needs. If your accounting is complicated, you should definitely pay for a robust invoicing solution. Getting an accountant can also help you focus your energy elsewhere, especially if you've begun earning a lot of money from your endeavors.
That said, if you're okay with free, then we highly recommend Invoicely (for basic and straightforward invoicing), Invoice Ninja (for growing freelancers and small business owners), or Akaunting (for privacy-minded folks). The others on this list, of course, will also do the job.
Joel Lee was formerly the Editor in Chief of MakeUseOf from 2018 to 2021. He has a B.S. in Computer Science and over nine years of professional writing and editing experience.