Business is booming and you’ve finally outgrown making invoices in your word processor. Congratulations! Whether you’re a freelance designer or the leader of a sales team, you’ve got more important things to do than manually bill your customers.
But a freelancer and a sales team won’t have the same billing process, so they shouldn’t have the same invoicing software. For instance, a designer may not need inventory management, while a sales team may never track billable hours. The best invoice software will be the one whose features meet your business’ needs.
We’ve analyzed those features and broken down our recommendations by category. So you can focus on the features you need, and find the best invoice software for your business.
Or instantly update customer accounts with purchase history, so your sales team can make informed recommendations.
Cost: Included with Sales Hub Starter or above, starting at 45/mo.
Payment Method: Credit card, Debit card, ACH
Payment Cost:
Multiple Currencies? Yes
Free Trial or Demo?Free demo
Integrates with HubSpot? Built-in
What You’ll Love
Freshbooks can grow with you through their tiered pricing model. While their Lite plan focuses more on invoicing, the software quickly becomes an all-in-one accounting solution. Higher plans can also handle payroll, inventory, ecommerce, and more.
Cost: Starting at $6/mo. for 5 clients, up to $20/mo. for unlimited clients
Payment Method: Credit Card, ACH
Payment Cost:
Multiple Currencies? Yes
Free Trial? 30 days
Integrates with HubSpot? Yes
What You’ll Love
Choosing a pre-made model doesn’t limit your billing process though. You can customize your invoices with options like trial periods, one-time fees, promotions, or even freemium offers.
Cost: Starting at $599/mo. (may include setup fee depending on plan level)
Payment Method: Credit Card, ACH (through payment gateway integration)
Payment Cost: Depends on payment gateway
Multiple Currencies? Yes
Free Trial? 30-day access to a sandbox environment
Integrates with HubSpot? Yes
What You’ll Love
Zoho lets you create and send invoices via email or text message. It also lets your customers access a self-service customer portal where they can make payments. And all of this really is free.
Later on, if you find yourself in need of more robust accounting software, Zoho Invoice can integrate directly with Zoho Books. This paid software offers end-to-end accounting, including tracking payables, receivables, and banking.
Cost: Free (up to 1,000 invoices per year)
Payment Method: Credit Card, ACH Payment
Payment Cost: Depends on payment gateway
Multiple Currencies? Yes
Free Trial? It’s always free
Integrates with HubSpot? Yes
What You’ll Love
Most of our recommendations are examples of invoicing software that can also handle payments. PayPal is payment software that can also handle invoicing. Their invoicing tools are simple but intuitive and come free with your merchant account. Just create an invoice by template, and send it by email.
If you’re already in need of a payment gateway, but don’t need fancy time-tracking or inventory management, PayPal may be the right path for you.
Cost: Free
Payment Method: Credit Card, Debit card, ACH Payment, PayPal
Payment Cost:
Multiple Currencies? Yes
Free Trial? It’s always free
Integrates with HubSpot? Through Zapier
What You’ll Love
What sets Harvest apart is its unique ability to track and report on invoices at the project or team level. This means you can analyze past projects to better estimate time or cost for future work. Or automatically generate an invoice based on team hours and expenses.
Cost: Starting at free for 1 user and 2 projects, $12/mo. for unlimited users and projects
Payment Method: Credit card, ACH
Payment Cost: Depends on payment gate
Multiple Currencies? Yes
Free Trial? 30 days
Integrates with HubSpot? Through Zapier
What You’ll Love
QuickBooks Online is way more than simply invoice software, and that’s their biggest strength. With QuickBooks Online, your invoices and payments are automatically connected to your accounting tools. When a customer pays an invoice, it’s instantly recorded in your bookkeeping. And instantly included in your reporting dashboard, letting you peek in on cash flow, profit & loss, and other financial data.
Cost: Starting at $12.50/mo., up to Advanced for $90/mo.
Payment Method: Credit Card, Debit card, ACH Payment
Payment Cost:
Multiple Currencies? Yes
Free Trial? 30 days
Integrates with HubSpot? Yes
What You’ll Love
Ok, so you’ve outgrown spreadsheets and word docs. Couldn’t you just use an invoice template? That might make it a little faster but would still require you to manually enter data each time. Invoice software stores your business data, so you can generate invoices in a matter of seconds.
But invoicing software is about more than just sending out a bill. It can also help your contractors track hours and inventory. Connect sales and marketing teams by putting real revenue in your reporting. And increase cash flow by simplifying the payment process.
Invoice software allows you to manage your full payment process from start to finish.
It may be tempting to choose on price alone, but you should consider invoice software to be an investment. Of course, we all have our budgets to keep, but the right invoice software can free up time and increase sales.
Here are some questions to ask when considering which invoice software is right for you.
Linking your invoice software to your CRM is one of the most powerful connections you can make. Imagine if your service reps could quickly view purchase history or payment activity while talking to your customers. Or if your sales and marketing teams could see how their work impacts recurring revenue.
Whether through built-in APIs or automation software like Zapier, all of the software in our list above can be connected to your HubSpot account. Here are just a few of the other ways businesses use HubSpot to make their invoice software better:
HubSpot lets you connect your billing data to every step of your sales, marketing, and service strategy.
If you send fewer than 1,000 invoices per year, Zoho Invoice is the best free invoice software. It includes invoicing, time tracking, and expense tracking. It even offers simple automation and a self-service customer portal.
Yes, QuickBooks lets you create custom invoices right from your accounting software. You can make custom invoices, turn estimates into invoices, or even duplicate invoices across multiple customers.
QuickBooks is not free to use, but they do offer a 30-day free trial. After that, the starter plan begins at 12.50 per month (as of the time of publishing).
Zoho offers free invoicing through their Zoho Invoice app. Zoho’s online accounting software, Zoho Books, also includes invoicing tools.
Zoho Invoice is free software that focuses exclusively on invoicing tools. It includes features like invoice templates, time tracking, and online payments. Zoho Books is a suite of online accounting software that also handles tasks like tracking income and expenses or tax calculations.
Freshbooks offers a 30-day free trial, with no credit card required. After that, their Lite plan begins at $6 per month (as of the time of publishing).
Now that you’ve outgrown handmade invoices, it’s time to choose invoice software that will keep you growing. Think about the features that will fit your business right now, and also where you want it to be in the future. Then make use of free trials and demos until you’ve found the best invoice software for your business.