9 Best Invoicing Software for Small Businesses 2025

While every invoice software fills a niche for someone, the best invoice software for small businesses and freelancers is Zoho Invoice. It offers great customer service, generous limits for both invoices and estimates, and all at a reasonable price (starting at $11 per month). For businesses that need a broader range of financial tools, consider exploring the best small business accounting software to see how invoicing fits into a complete accounting solution.

Any business that grows beyond a couple of customers a month can stand to benefit from an invoice software. Invoice software allows a business to create and track invoices and estimates, which can then be tracked and paid through easily accessible payment portals.

While FreshBooks is considered the overall best software for freelancers, each invoicing software platform on this list comes with its own advantages and disadvantages, so to find the best one for your business, keep reading!

Best Invoice Software for Small Businesses

1. Zoho Invoice – Best for invoice customization
2. FreshBooks Invoice – Best for micro businesses
3. Xero Invoice – Best for growing businesses
4. QuickBooks – Best for advanced invoice reporting
5. Wave – Best free invoicing software
6. Square Invoices – Best for retail stores

In this guide:

• Best Invoice Software for Small Business
• Methodology: How We Test Invoice Software for Small Business
• Verdict: What Is the Best Invoice Software for Small Business
• Frequently Asked Questions

1. Zoho Invoice – Best for Small Businesses

• Price from: $11 per month (free options available)

Zoho Invoice is our best-rated invoicing platform that is particularly well suited to small businesses and freelancers, due to its surprisingly feature-rich free plan, and affordably priced paid packages.

After researching the provider, we were really impressed with how customizable its invoices are too, suggesting that Zoho will also be a great option for design-focused businesses, or any venture that wants to be more creative with its invoices.

Zoho Invoice pros

• Zoho offers a free plan for small businesses and sole traders to get started on
• Zoho’s invoices are very customizable, making it a good choice for creative businesses
• Users can add tracked hours to invoices, making Zoho a great choice for businesses that charge based on time

Zoho Invoice cons

• Zoho doesn’t offer email marketing or ecommerce integrations, making it less suitable for online retailers and growing businesses
• The platform also doesn’t let you create sales tax reports, which could be a dealbreaker for businesses selling large volumes of goods
• Zoho’s free plan has strict invoicing limits, so will only be eligible for businesses with few clients

While it’s easy to think of invoices as white documents with black text on them, Zoho Invoice’s selection of 16 templates allows you to customize your templates to suit your business’s branding. Specifically, users can edit the format and color scheme of invoices, and even incorporate their own logo for an extra layer of professionalism.

Editing an invoice was easy for our team, with clear indicators for all sections and a simple, intuitive layout. Source: Tech.co testing

As far as other strengths go, the free plan is a definite plus, even if it’s low on clients. In fact, the client limit is the only area where the free plan is compromised, as it still comes with all the features and templates of the superior plans, including payment recording, project management, and automated payment reminders. Simply put, if you’re a very small business, a side hustle freelancer, or just starting out, the free plan will probably be enough to sustain you, as long as you don’t need to send too many invoices.

Another noteworthy feature is the ability to add tracked hours to invoices. Its Time Tracker lets you accurately track hours, and log them however you want – whether you prefer to track work in real-time or once a week. With huge providers like QuickBooks lacking this feature, it gives Zoho Invoice a real competitive advantage, especially for businesses that charge based on time.

Zoho Invoice lets you track work hours accurately with its Time Tracker. Source: Zoho Invoice

Zoho Invoice isn’t perfect, however. Firstly, there is no support for ecommerce or email marketing integrations, so if you’re the kind of business that likes all its information accessible in one place, you’d have to look to Xero or QuickBooks, instead. You also won’t be able to produce sales tax reports through Zoho, either. It’s a small feature, but you might find yourself in need of sales tax reports, and being unable to generate one automatically can be a pain.

Zoho Invoice pricing

Zoho Invoice technically offers four plans, but one of them is a free plan that only allows for five clients, so won’t last very long in any growing business. But if you’re a small business looking to test out the software, or only send a few invoices a month, it might be perfect for you.

Otherwise, you can opt for the Basic plan ($11 per month), the Standard plan ($22 per month), or the Professional plan ($33 per month).

FreshBooks Invoice – Best for Versatile Payments

• Price from: $15 per month

FreshBooks is a user-friendly invoicing platform that lends itself perfectly to users with little accounting experience. The system has a crisp, modern interface, and in the unlikely case of you coming across issues with its software, its AI chatbot, FreshBot, is on hand to help 24/7.

FreshBooks pros

• FreshBooks has a great selection of third-party integrations, with options ranging from CRM, ecommerce, to email marketing
• FreshBooks has an ultra-low learning curve, making it suitable for newbies to accounting software
• FreshBooks lets you resolve queries with a 24/7 chatbot, unlike alternatives like Xero

FreshBooks cons

• FreshBooks’ multi-currently invoicing features are quite limited, making it less ideal for international businesses
• The platform has quite stringent invoice limits on all tiers, so if you send invoices out regularly you might have to upgrade to a pricier tier
• FreshBooks’ app isn’t very easy to use, making the platform a bad choice for users interested in managing finances remotely

FreshBooks features

FreshBooks is an all-on-one invoicing and accounting platform, so it does a whole lot more than manage invoices. From customizable invoices to pre-populated charts of accounts and time tracking, the platform offers a wealth of capabilities to help businesses manage their finances.

When we tested FreshBooks ourselves, we were particularly impressed with how precise its time-tracking features were, and how easy they made it for us to track billable hours and convert them into invoices for accurate billing.

FreshBooks lets you track time with the timer, or by logging time manually. Source: Tech.co user testing

If your business is looking to use other software, then you’re in luck too, as FreshBooks supports integrations from various CRM, ecommerce, and email marketing platforms, allowing you to keep your financials and customer relationships all in one place. Noteworthy integrations include Shopify, Square, and HubSpot.

The Freshbooks home dashboard is stripped back and easy to get started on. Source: Tech.co testing

As far as weaknesses go, FreshBooks’ invoice limits are pretty stringent compared to competitors. Even their top paid tier, the Premium tier, doesn’t offer unlimited invoice clients, unlike a lot of FreshBooks’ competitors, meaning 500 clients is the max. Even the bespoke option doesn’t remove the client limit entirely like competitors like QuickBooks and Xero.

While a small business or freelancer might not find themselves pushing the 500-client limit, it can be nice to know that you can expand infinitely on other platforms.

FreshBooks Invoice pricing

FreshBooks offers three priced tiers, the Lite tier ($15.00 per month), the Plus tier ($25.00 per month), and the Premium tier ($50.00 per month). There is also the Select tier – a bespoke option for those who want to go above 500 clients.

Compared to a lot of its competitors, FreshBooks is very reasonably priced. Looking at the lowest tier, a monthly $15 is around the same as its competitors, especially when compared to QuickBooks’ lowest tier of $15 per month and Zoho’s top tier of $11 per month. It also offers unlimited monthly invoices and estimates on all tiers, which is extremely generous.

Not only is their pricing very reasonable, but they also offer greatly decreased rates for the first three months. FreshBooks pricing plans have dropped to $4.50, $7.50, and $15.00 per month for any new users for the first three months.

FreshBooks is also the only platform on this list that accommodates customer payments through three different methods. Customers can use first-party payment processing (through FreshBooks directly), third-party payment processing (through a service like PayPal or Stripe), or a billing portal.

3. Xero Invoice – Best for Growing Businesses

• Price from: $12 per month

Established businesses with large client rosters and healthy profits may find themselves being short-changed with simpler platforms like Zoho Invoice and FreshBooks. Instead, we’d recommend using Xero Invoice, due to its flexible invoicing options, generous user limits, and vast ecosystem of third-party integrations.

However, after testing out Xero, we found that its learning curve is markedly steeper than alternatives like Zoho Invoice and FreshBooks. For this reason, we’d only recommend Xero Invoice for users with some prior accounting experience, or those who are willing to put in a couple more hours to get to grips with the feature-rich platform.

Xero pros

• Xero offers industry-leading cash flow forecasting and budgeting tools, making it a great option for businesses looking to expand their bottom lines
• Xero gives users access to a comprehensive client portal, helping businesses streamline relationships with their clients
• Xero third-party app library is unmatched, the service lets you connect with over 1000 integrations

Xero cons

• Xero’s learning curve is quite steep, so it’s less suitable for small businesses after an easy-to-use solution.
• Xero’s interface isn’t as modern as competitors like QuickBooks and FreshBooks, which negatively impacts its overall user experience
• Xero doesn’t offer a free plan, like alternatives like FreshBooks and Zoho Invoice

Xero features

Xero gives businesses complete autonomy over the look of their invoices. The platform lets users customize invoice templates using Microsoft Work, allowing them to create custom receipt templates, modify the data format of documents, and insert additional fields. This makes the software ideal for businesses that want to maintain a professional relationship with clients, especially those with specific branding requirements.

Xero also gives users the ability to add tracked hours to their invoices, which can be a hugely helpful tool for any businesses that charge by the hour. And when it comes time for payment, customers can pay by either bank transfer or card.

The platform also boasts some brilliant integrations. With 1,000 add-ons in total, including 39 ecommerce integrations, 82 CRM integrations, and three email marketing integrations, you’ll be able to attach a lot to your Xero account to make it that much more handy.

It’s also worth noting that Xero is just one product, so if you invest in this for invoice purposes, you’ll be able to use its other features, like accounting. In fact, we consider Xero to be one of the best accounting software choices for a small business.

However, for all of the platform’s strengths, if you’re more creatively inclined, Xero might not be for you, since it doesn’t allow you to change invoice colours, and there’s only one template. And, on the lowest tier, the invoice limit is very strict at only 20 invoices a month.

Xero isn’t the easiest invoicing system to get started on, either. After having a go on Xero ourselves, we found its interface to be quite dated – especially compared to modern solutions like FreshBooks and Wave. Managing simple processes, like creating bills and invoices, was quite complex too, which may be offputting for businesses carrying out these tasks for the first time.

Xero pricing

It has three tiers, the Early tier ($20 per month), the Growing tier ($47 per month), and the Established tier ($80 per month).

While it offers unlimited clients, users, and estimates, the Xero Early tier only allows for 20 invoices per month, which might serve a smaller business but isn’t really enough for any business looking to grow. However, there are no limits on the Growing tier ($43/month), so it’s a great choice for businesses on the rise.

The only difference between the Growing tier and the next tier, the Established tier, is the ability to use multiple currencies on your invoices, which can be essential for larger businesses that deal internationally but don’t add anything beyond that.

When compared to its competitors, Xero’s price point is slightly steep, especially with no free plan in sight. But considering the platform’s impressive raft of financial management features and integration options, we think its prices are justified. What’s more, with Xero’s current deal, businesses are able to get 90% off all pricing plans for three months, bringing its entry price down to just $2 per month.

QuickBooks pros

• QuickBooks doesn’t place limits on invoices, clients, or estimates, making it a great option for established and growing businesses
• QuickBooks offers some of the best reporting tools we’ve researched, including invoice status tracking, advanced financial reporting, and more
• QuickBooks lets you automate tasks like sending recurring invoices, and payment reminders, making it a great option for businesses looking to save time

QuickBooks cons

• Like Xero, QuickBooks takes a bit of time to get used to, so we wouldn’t recommend it for beginners to invoicing software
• QuickBooks doesn’t let you connect to third-party payment processors like Stripe, which could be a dealbreaker for businesses relying on these options

QuickBooks features

QuickBooks is a comprehensive invoice management software, as it has no limits on invoices, clients, or estimates. It also allows users to add hour-tracking to their invoices, as well as six different invoice templates.

The platform excels when it comes to financial reporting, too. Not only are users able to build custom reports based on their specific preferences, but QuickBooks also provides a wide range of sales, accounts receivable, and invoicing reports, to help businesses gain a detailed overview of their cash flow.

It also offers over 750 third-party integrations, with 55 ecommerce integrations and 96 CRM integrations, as well as a handful of email marketing integrations on offer. It’s also worth noting that QuickBooks is just one product, so if you invest in this for invoice purposes, you’ll be able to use its other features, like accounting.

As for cons, there are a couple, but nothing deal-breaking. Firstly, users are limited to using Quickbooks’ own service for processing invoice payments, which might be annoying for anyone used to using PayPal or another third-party service.

It also limits phone and email customer support to the highest tier, meaning that anyone below the Advanced tier will have to stick to the live chat option.

QuickBooks pricing

QuickBooks offers a total of six plans, making it one of the most scalable options for growing businesses. It’s tiers include: Solopreneur ($20/month), Simple Start ($35/month), Essentials ($65/month), Plus ($99/month), and Advanced ($235/month).

All of QuickBooks’ plans let you send off invoices, but if you want to unlock its one-click invoice option, you’ll have to upgrade to its Simple Start package. A good element of QuickBooks is its lack of limits on invoices, estimates, and clients. Even their $20-a-month tier offers no limits on anything except for users, as they only allow a single user.

As your business grows, you might find yourself wanting to accommodate more users, in which case, the Essentials, Plus, and Advanced tiers will be able to expand the amount of available users to up to 25 people. This makes QuickBooks a great option for any business looking to expand.

Wave pros

• Wave lets you get started for free, helping businesses keep overheads as low as possible
• Wave’s interface is modern and easy to navigate, positioning the platform well for newbies to invoicing
• Wave doesn’t have invoice limits,, which is pretty unprecedented for a free platform

Wave cons

• Wave doesn’t offer in-depth invoice customization options, which could be a dealbreaker for established businesses
• Wave’s reporting options are quite basic, especially compared to rivals like QuickBooks

Wave features

Wave lets users choose between three invoice templates, which isn’t the biggest amount on the market, but is a very considerable amount for a free service.

The platform also lets you customize the layout and colors of the invoices, and even deck them out with your businesses logo. However, if you want granular control over your invoices formatting, or you prefer to customize templates using DOCX files, you’d be better off going with a paid alternative like Xero instead.

While Wave’s app library isn’t as impressive as many of its competitors, it supports a handful of CRM, ecommerce, and email marketing integrations, giving businesses multiple avenues to streamline their financial data with their existing applications.

And as far as customer support is concerned, Wave offers a live chat option, which is a great resource for anyone trying to fix a problem in a pinch, and something that is often only available on a higher paid tier. The platform doesn’t let you reach out to live agents for help, however. If you’d prefer to resolve queries with the help of a human, this could be off putting, but it’s pretty expected from a free service.

For Wave’s lower points, it doesn’t have the most comprehensive list of features. Obviously, you can’t expect the world when you’re getting the product for free, but it doesn’t allow users to attach files or display applied discounts or tracked hours to invoices. You also won’t be able to create custom reports of your invoice data.

Users are also limited to using Wave’s own service to process invoice payments, which means that if you’ve already adapted to a service like PayPal or Stripe, you’ll have to put them to bed.

Wave pricing

Wave is an almost entirely free invoice software, with the only costs coming in the form of a nominal fee for every invoice. This fee is 2.9% of the invoice cost plus 30 cents (if the customer pays with American Express, the fee is 3.4% plus 30 cents). This is unless the customer pays via a bank transfer, in which case it’s only 1% and no additional cents.

As Wave is a free service, it only has one-tier. But this tier offers unlimited clients, users, invoices, and estimates. While there aren’t tiers to upgrade to, the lack of limits means that any growing company will be at home using Wave.

Square Invoice pros

• Square Invoice doesn’t charge monthly fees, making it a good option for smaller businesses with simple financial processes
• Square has an ultra-low learning curve, making it much more beginner friendly than platforms like QuickBooks and Xero
• The platform seamlessly integrates with the Square ecosystem, which will be a huge plus for businesses using Square products

Square Invoices cons

• Square charges businesses per invoice, making it less cost-effective for established businesses
• Square lacks some advanced features,, like complex inventory management and detailed reporting
• Square’s helpdesk isn’t available 24/7, making it harder for users to resolve queries outside of traditional working hours

Square Invoice features

Despite Square Invoice’s tiny price tag, the platform offers a decent array of invoicing features – from recurring invoicing and invoice tracking, to pricing estimates.

Businesses can use the software to create custom invoices too, customized with their company logo and colors, and personalized messages. Users can also upgrade to the Plus plan, for more granular customization options, including more detailed branding controls, field name edits, custom fields, and extra layout choices.

You can also integrate Square Invoices with a lot of other Square products. Since Square sells POS software, card readers, and registers, having all of these services connect to each other can be very helpful, and speed up the payment process.

However, since Square Invoice’s basic plan is free, you can expect to be making a couple of compromises. Firstly, their biggest restriction is the fact that users are limited to using Square’s own service for processing invoice payments, which can be limiting for some, but is totally fine if you’re already using Square card readers or POS systems.

You also can’t add multiple currencies or time-tracked hours to invoices. There’s also only one template, so you can’t experiment too much with how your invoices look.

Square Invoice pricing

While it’s free to get started with Square Invoice, the platform does charge a 2.9% fee on each invoice, plus 30 cents.

Like Wave, Square only has one tier, but this tier has no limits. You’ll be able to add unlimited clients and users, and you can send unlimited invoices and estimates, meaning any business looking to grow will be sustained on Square Invoices.

Buying Guide: What to Look For When Buying Invoicing Software?

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to invoicing software. Each platform has its own perks and drawbacks and will be better suited to certain types of businesses over others. To ensure you land on a solution that’s able to cover all your bases, we recommend paying close attention to the following factors:

• Customization options – If you want to make sure your invoices look as professional as possible, you should prioritize software that offers advanced customization options. Key features to look out for include customizable color schemes, flexible formatting options, and the ability for you to add your company’s logo.
• Invoice limits – A lot of invoicing plans have stringent limits. So, if your business churns out regular invoices, you’ll be better off opting for a platform that lets you send out a generous, or unlimited number of invoices, like Zoho Invoice, over a platform with stricter caps, like FreshBooks.
• Payment processing options – If you want to manage invoices and other bookkeeping processes on one unified platform, we recommend choosing accounting and invoicing software, like FreshBooks, over systems that are limited to invoice management, like Zoho Invoice and Xero Invoice.
• Third-party integrations – If you want to integrate your invoicing platform with your business’s pre-existing software for a seamless data flow, you’ll need to ensure the solution offers the right add-ons first. Certain accounting platforms, like Xero and QuickBooks, offer better app stores than others, so we’d recommend factoring this in before signing up.