Whether you’re a freelancer, business owner, or financial manager, creating and sending invoices is an important part of the job. The best app for invoicing will help you generate accurate invoices quickly—and some tools will even automate the process for you.
Streamlining your invoicing system will also help your clients pay you on time, which means you can pay yourself (and your team) without delays.
Let’s take a closer look at a few of the best apps for invoicing.
What is the best app to send invoices?
There isn’t a definitive “best” app for sending invoices, but there are quite a few contenders. We’ve reviewed seven invoicing apps that help to serve different needs, including:
- QuickBooks: A well-rounded accounting app that’s great for bookkeeping, invoicing, and managing multiple clients.
- Xero: Another accounting app with robust invoicing features, Xero is straightforward to use and a great choice for beginners.
- Zoho Invoice: A mature invoicing app that’s entirely free to use.
- Invoicely: A great tool for small teams. You can track time and expenses, accept payments, generate recurring statements and reports, and more.
- FreshBooks: A fully fledged account app with powerful invoice customisation.
- Invoice Ninja: A powerful invoicing app with time and expense tracking that lets you send bulk invoices, tie invoices to specific projects, mark expenses as billable, accept payments, and more.
- Invoice Generator: Of all the invoicing apps we’ve tried, this one is the easiest to use and doesn’t require you to sign up. Get started with ready-made, easy-to-customise templates.
Is there a free app to make invoices?
Yes, there is. Apps like Zoho Invoice and Invoice Generator are entirely free to use, while some tools like Invoice Ninja offer generous free plans.
Our top 7 choices for the best app for invoicing
Whether you’re looking for an end-to-end accounting app or a simple invoicing tool, we’ve got you covered.
1. QuickBooks
If you’re looking for a fully fledged accounting app that lets you generate invoices, QuickBooks is a solid choice. It’s a mature, reliable platform that lets you track and manage expenses, create and send custom invoices, track taxes, manage bills and payments, and more.
QuickBooks comes with lots of advanced features. You can customise your invoices for different accounts, track invoice payments in real-time, set automated reminders, and manage multiple currencies (which really helps when you have international clients).
The most popular Essentials plan is £24/month, but QuickBooks sometimes runs special offers. Its Self-employed and Simple Start plans go for £10 and £14/month respectively, and its Advanced plan for £70/month. QuickBooks also offers a free 30-day trial with no credit card required.
The Simple Start plan gives you access to QuickBooks’ core features, like income and expense tracking, and the option to create and send custom invoices. Also, any subscription gets you access to the QuickBooks mobile app, but the app only supports features from the Simple Start plan upwards. That means you won’t have access to multi-currency features, time tracking, and some other functions.
2. Xero
Xero is another accounting app that lets you manage as many clients and businesses as you need, all in one place. Its invoicing capabilities are solid, too. You can accept payments in different ways (credit, debit, and bank transfer), and you can customise your layouts by adding your logo and including any legal or payment terms.
Beyond generating and sending invoices and accepting payments, Xero also lets you track projects, manage your contracts, claim expenses, and pay your bills. Xero offers mobile apps for both Android and iOS, which support the tool’s core features. Not only can you create and send invoices via the app, but you can also set up automated reminders for your clients.
Xero’s plans start at £14, for the Starter plan. This plan limits you to sending 20 quotes and invoices a month, and it only lets you enter five bills/month. It’s a good choice for freelancers and solo entrepreneurs, and even small businesses that are just getting started. But for better limits, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the higher plans. The Standard plan, which costs £28/month, lets you send unlimited quotes and invoices and enter unlimited bills, making it a much better choice for growing businesses.
3. Zoho Invoice
Zoho Invoice is a Zoho Corporation product, a multinational company that specialises in business software. Its solutions, such as Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects, are popular—and it’s this popularity that lets the company offer Zoho Invoice for free.
The app works just as well as paid invoicing tools and is one of the best all-round invoicing software. It lets you manage multiple clients, log time for each project, collect payments directly from the app, and supports multiple currencies, too. All these features are available on Zoho Invoice’s web, Android, and iOS apps.
The only limitation is that you can only generate 1,000 invoices annually—which is more than enough for most freelancers and solo entrepreneurs, and even small businesses. If you reach your limit, though, you can contact Zoho’s support team about your options.
4. Invoicely
Invoicely is another accounting app for managing invoices and billings that offers exceptional multi-currency support and generates helpful reports. With Invoicely, you can set a chief currency to be used for your transactions, and you can specify the country you’re operating in. You can also track time and expenses, generate recurring statements, and accept online payments (via PayPal or Stripe) through the app. It also offers lots of export options, including PDF, XLS, and CSV.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t let you do much to customise your invoices beyond this, and the free plan doesn’t even let you use your own branding. The free plan has some other limitations: you can only save three clients and generate five invoices per month, for example, so you might outgrow it quickly.
Fortunately, the Basic plan is quite affordable, priced at $9.99/month, and it gives you access to much better limits and all of Invoicely’s core features. The Basic tier lets you generate 100 invoices per month, save up to 25 clients, add up to two team members, generate recurring statements, and more. (While Invoicely quotes its plans in US dollars, it is available in the UK.)
Overall, while Invoicely doesn’t have particularly unique features, it has all the essential ones at a great price. This makes it popular amongst solo entrepreneurs and small business owners that need an affordable, reliable invoicing app.
5. FreshBooks
FreshBooks has humble roots—it was originally a simple invoicing app, but it has since evolved into a fully fledged, double-entry accounting app. FreshBooks lets you manage accounts payable and receivable, payroll, client billing and invoicing, and inventory, too. It has a really simple, intuitive interface that makes it easy (and even fun) to use.
To manage and generate invoices, you’ll need to head on over to the Projects feature and select the Invoices tab. Then, you can customise and see what the final version will look like using the Preview tab. FreshBooks’ invoicing feature is quite mature—you can customise your messages to clients, display unbilled time and expenses, and even collect payments from your client.
When you get on the FreshBooks app, it’ll ask you a few questions about your business to customise your experience. The app has four pricing plans: Lite (£12/month), Plus (£22/month), Premium (£35/month) and Select (custom quote). You can try any plan out for free for 30 days thanks to FreshBooks’ trial, and you don’t need to enter your credit card details to activate it.
6. Invoice Ninja
Invoice Ninja is another powerful accounting app with a very generous free plan. As a free user, you get unlimited invoices, and you can manage up to 20 clients. You’ll also have access to most of Invoice Ninja’s core features, such as time tracking, direct payment integrations, logo branding, taxes per line item, auto-billing, and the option to accept partial payments and deposits.
Upgrading to the Ninja Pro tier, which costs $10/mo or $100/year if you pay annually, removes the “Created by Invoice Ninja” watermark, takes your clients limit up to unlimited, gives you access to six additional invoice templates, and you get access to many more features. (Again, Invoice Ninja is available in the UK, even though its pricing plan is dollar-based.)
You can use Invoice Ninja to send clients invoices in different currencies, set up automated email reminders, send bulk invoices and quotes, and collect payments by integrating with a gateway (Invoice Ninja supports dozens of them). We also really like the app’s comprehensive tracking features and the option to link invoices to specific projects. You can track how much time is spent on each task, and transfer data to the relevant invoice. You’ll also have the option to track expenses and mark them as billable.
Ninja has a web app, Android and iOS apps, and desktop apps for MacOS and Windows.
7. Invoice Generator
While many of the apps we’ve reviewed serve multiple functions, Invoice Generator does one thing really well: generating invoices. It’s incredibly simple to use, free, and you don’t even need to sign up. It also supports multiple currencies.
Get started with the app’s quick and easy invoicing template, add your line items, billing address, date, and other important details, and insert any payment links. You can include details about taxes, shipping, and any discounts, and your logo to customise the template. When you’re done, either download your invoice or choose the option to email it directly to your client.
If you’re looking for a quick, free, and convenient invoicing app, then Invoice Generator is an excellent option. But if you want an app with more accounting or tracking features, or you need better customisation options, then you might want to consider one of the other apps we’ve reviewed. Unfortunately, Invoice Generator doesn’t save your previous invoices either, but you can download them if you need a record.
Which invoicing app is right for you?
There are lots of different invoicing apps that cater to different needs, from powerful accounting solutions like FreshBooks, to dedicated invoicing apps like Zoho Invoice, and bare-bones tools like Invoice Generator. When you’re choosing an app for your team, it’s best to carefully consider your business’s needs, like:
- Your budget: Are paid tools on the table?
- How many clients you have: Do you need higher limits to manage multiple accounts?
- Multi-currency options: Are your clients based in different countries?
- Internal needs: Do you need an accounting app or a simple invoicing tool?
Most invoicing apps and accounting software have free trials or free plans, so you can try one or more of them before committing.
Also read:
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- When Does the Tax Year Start in the UK?
- The basics of business insurance