Best Free Invoice Software for Small Businesses
For small businesses and freelancers, the last thing you need is extra expenses. While being your own boss is great, it means you’ve got to manage your accounts, taxes, and so much more. Invoice management isn’t one of the favorite to-do things for most business owners. But, if you can’t track down your payments, customers won’t fork it out themselves.
Fortunately, there are so many billing solutions available today to take care of that pain. These solutions strive to automate the most time-consuming and least fun parts of running a successful business. From freelancers who need to send five/ six invoices per month to a large business that needs to track multiple invoices, there is a free solution for everyone.
Before we get to the list, let’s look at what you need to know when choosing an invoicing software.
Factors to consider when looking for an invoice software
Number of invoices
You need an invoicing app that doesn’t put a limit on the number of invoices you send. Some tools limit the number of invoices you can create using the free plan and unless you get an upgrade, you can’t send unlimited invoices. Get a platform that allows you to send unlimited invoices.
Ease of use
What’s the use of a platform whose interface you can’t use within a few minutes? You need a platform that makes the invoicing process easy. One that lets you save product/ service details, standard prices, save customer information, and so much more.
Getting paid online
Well, the most important thing is that the payment gets through. Work with a platform that allows you to accept payments by credit card, bank, and wire transfers.
What are the best invoicing software?
Here is our top list of free and cloud-based invoicing software that can help you manage your invoicing even from your phone.
1. Zoho Invoice
This is one of the most popular invoicing platforms for small businesses. The online invoicing plan is free and you can send unlimited invoices with it. You can integrate it with other Zoho tools including Zoho CRM, Inventory, Commerce, and Zoho Flow.
It is one of the best invoicing software on this list. In addition to the invoicing functionality, it allows you to get customer estimates, access to 10 payment gateways, expense tracking, reports, project, and time tracking. The only shortfall is that this free plan lets you invoice only five clients.
If you love the Zoho Invoice, you can upgrade to the Zoho Books Basic plan for $9/ month to open doors to many more invoicing features.
Best for: Small businesses and freelancers who have up to 5 clients but they are looking for an app with an arsenal of invoicing capabilities.
2. PayPal Invoicing
Almost everyone running an online business has heard or at least uses PayPal. Their most popular services include their payment gateway, POS system, PayPal invoicing, and business financing. The free PayPal Business app comes with free invoicing. All you need to do is sign up and start sending invoices and receiving money.
You’ll be able to customizable and personalized invoices within minutes on your phone or desktop. You’re able to save your customer details, taxes, and item details, on ready-to-use templates making the invoicing process painless and automated.
Clients get emailed immediately after you send them your invoice. And they have the ability to pay via credit card, debit card, or PayPal credit. Your customers don’t have to be PayPal users to pay you.
Best for: Small businesses and freelancers looking for an opportunity to send unlimited invoices quickly even from their phones.
3. Invoice Ninja
One thing that makes Ninja invoicing stand out is that they are an open-source invoicing software so developers can continuously contribute to its features. It comes with a forever free plan and paid plans. That means if you are a tech genius, you can code your own customized invoicing software to suit your needs.
The free plan allows you to have a maximum of 100 active clients and send them unlimited invoices. It has four well-designed invoice templates that you can customize to match your brand. Once you send an invoice, the client gets an immediate notification and you get the same when they pay. And the best thing, you have access to more than 40 payment gateways.
Best for: Business owners who want to write their own code to create a customized invoicing platform. And small business owners with 100 clients.
4. Square
This is another winner up there with PayPal. Their POS is quite popular and it has some pretty robust eCommerce features like business financing, payroll, CRM, marketing, as well as Square Invoicing. Their user interface is highly intuitive that any technophobe can use it. Ease of use is their MO.
The invoicing feature allows you to send unlimited customized invoices and it’s very similar to PayPal in that regard. Customers can pay via Google Pay, Apple Pay, credit card, debit card, or cash. You can also automate payment reminders, set up recurring invoices, and integrate with other platforms.
However, there is a processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 if you get pain on credit or debit card. The good news is you don’t pay it if you are paid by check or cash.
Best for: Small business owners who want to have an option of getting paid by cash or check.
5. Wave
It’s mostly popular as an accounting software but it can handle all your essential invoicing needs. Well, it might not have a robust and flexible invoicing platform like the rest on this list but it can still automate all your invoicing needs.
You get an unlimited invoice and expense tracking, reports, unlimited accounts and partners, unlimited banks and credit cards, and organize your tax categories.
Best for: Small businesses looking for free accounting software that comes with invoicing capabilities.
Like I’d said earlier, we have quite a myriad of invoicing tools in the market today. But these five are free yet versatile, robust, and scalable. They are worth your consideration.