Buying invoicing on a near-zero budget comes down to whether the free option can actually send and collect, and what the bill scales with once it does — client cap, user seat, or per-transaction fees. Zoho Invoice is the most feature-complete free tier and costs nothing, forever: no paid tier, no ads, and the gates are usage caps rather than price — currently 2 users, 3 projects and 500 invoices a year, with mandatory 'Powered by Zoho Invoice' branding on documents; teams that outgrow it graduate to Zoho Books rather than a paid Zoho Invoice plan. Wave is the other standing free plan and the better fit if branding matters: unlimited invoices, estimates and basic bookkeeping at $0 with no forced branding, limited to US/Canada; Pro at $19/mo ($190/yr, about $15.83/mo) adds auto bank imports, receipt capture and reminders. BILL's free entry is different in kind — the free Spend & Expense plan covers corporate cards and credit lines, while AP/AR automation starts at Essentials $49/user/mo, Team $65 and Corporate $89. FreshBooks is the cheapest invoice-first paid entry in the US at Lite $23/mo (up to 5 billable clients), Plus $43 (50) and Premium $70 (unlimited), with annual billing at $248.40 / $464.40 / $756; extra team members are +$11/mo each. QuickBooks is the cheapest entry into full accounting rather than invoicing — 30-day trial, no free tier, Simple Start $38/mo (1 user) / Essentials $75 (3) / Plus $115 (5) / Advanced $275 (25), about 10% off annually. The cost that decides most zero-budget choices is not the subscription: it is payment processing. Wave charges 2.9% + $0.60 per transaction on the free plan, FreshBooks 2.9% + $0.30 on US cards, and BILL stacks ACH at $0.59, checks at $1.99 and international USD wires at $19.99 on top of the seat price. Comparing headline subscription price without the processing rate is the standard way to misread this category. So the fit question is: free with branding accepted and the fullest feature set (Zoho Invoice), free unlimited with no branding but US/Canada only (Wave), free corporate cards with paid AP/AR above it (BILL), cheap invoice-first client-capped billing (FreshBooks), or full bookkeeping from $38 (QuickBooks). All prices re-checked 2026-09-20 against official pricing pages, evidence=research.
Free forever with no paid tier: up to 2 users, 3 projects and 500 invoices/year, plus a client portal, multi-currency and time tracking. The only cost is the required 'Powered by Zoho Invoice' branding.
Free tier: Yes
Paid from: Free (no paid tiers) (Entirely free, no paid tier and no advertising; limits are usage caps, not price gates. The current free plan covers up to 2 users, 3 projects and 500 invoices/year, with mandatory 'Powered by Zoho Invoice' branding on documents. Larger teams move to Zoho Books (the paid, full double-entry accounting product) rather than a paid Zoho Invoice tier.)
Zoho Invoice is a permanently free invoicing tool with a client portal, multi-currency and time tracking; it is the freemium entry of the Zoho ecosystem and the funnel into the paid Zoho Books accounting suite.
The $0 Starter plan sends unlimited invoices, estimates and bookkeeping records with no branding and no card; Pro at $19/mo adds bank imports and reminders. US/Canada only.
Free tier: Yes
Paid from: $19/mo (Pro) (The only standing free plan in the cluster: unlimited invoices, estimates, bills and basic bookkeeping at $0. Pro at $19/mo ($190/yr) adds auto bank imports, receipt capture and reminders. Online payments are a separate per-transaction cost (2.9% + $0.60 on the free plan); payroll is a paid US-only add-on. Service is limited to US/Canada.)
Wave is a free-forever invoicing and light-accounting platform for US/Canada freelancers — unlimited invoices, estimates and bookkeeping records on the $0 plan, with automation pushed to the paid Pro tier.
A free Spend & Expense plan gives corporate cards and credit lines with no monthly subscription; AP/AR itself is paid per user from $49/mo. No standing free invoice tier.
Free tier: Yes · 30-day free trial
Paid from: $49/user/mo (Essentials) (Priced per user/month by tier: Essentials covers AP or AR with manual CSV sync; Team adds automatic two-way QuickBooks/Xero sync and custom roles; Corporate ($89, most popular) combines AP + AR and adds procurement; Enterprise is quote-only. A free Spend & Expense plan provides corporate cards and credit lines. Transaction fees stack on top (ACH $0.59, check $1.99, international USD wire $19.99, card pay ~2.9%).)
BILL is an AP + AR automation platform for teams that pay many vendors and collect on many invoices — approval workflows, 4M+ vendor network and two-way QuickBooks/Xero sync — priced per user with transaction fees on top.
No free plan — a 30-day trial. Lite is the cheapest paid entry at $23/mo (5 billable clients, annual $248.40) after the 2026-03 price hike; +$11/mo per extra team member.
Free tier: No — trial only · 30-day free trial
Paid from: $23/mo (Lite) (Priced by billable-client cap: Lite up to 5, Plus up to 50, Premium unlimited. An independent 2026-03 price update raised the USD tiers from $15/$34/$57 to $23/$43/$70; extra team members are +$11/mo each and a quote-only Select tier adds dedicated support and lower card rates. Payment processing is billed separately (2.9% + $0.30 standard US cards).)
FreshBooks is a freelancer-first invoicing and light accounting platform that bills by billable-client count, with a polished client-facing invoice, time tracking that auto-fills invoices, and built-in payment collection.
No free plan; a 30-day trial. Simple Start is the floor at $38/mo (1 user, ~$30/mo annual) after the Aug-2026 increase — but it is full accounting, so it is priced like a suite, not an invoice app.
Free tier: No — trial only · 30-day free trial
Paid from: $38/mo (Simple Start) (Priced by user cap: Simple Start 1 user, Essentials 3, Plus 5, Advanced 25. Invoicing ships on every tier but the platform is full accounting — the entry cost is a bookkeeping subscription, not a per-invoice fee. Payroll, Payments and Bill.com AP are separate add-ons.)
QuickBooks Online is the default US small-business accounting platform, strongest on the accountant ecosystem and 750+ integrations; invoicing is one module in a broader bookkeeping suite rather than a standalone invoice tool.
Bottom line: Zoho Invoice is the most complete free tool (client portal, multi-currency, 500 invoices/yr) with required branding; Wave is free with unlimited invoices and no branding but US/Canada-only; BILL's free plan is corporate cards, not free invoicing; and FreshBooks and QuickBooks are trial-only, entered at $23/mo and $38/mo respectively. Free-ness and bill-scaling decide; feature depth is secondary.
Wave and Zoho Invoice are free forever. Wave: unlimited invoices, no branding, US/Canada only. Zoho Invoice: up to 500 invoices/year with a client portal and required Zoho branding. FreshBooks and QuickBooks are trial-only; BILL's free plan is corporate cards, not free AP/AR.
FreshBooks Lite at $23/mo is the cheapest paid invoice-first entry. QuickBooks Simple Start at $38/mo is the cheapest paid accounting-suite entry. BILL starts at $49/user/mo for AP/AR.
Wave and Zoho Invoice both run at $0 for core invoicing. Choose Wave for unlimited free invoices without branding; choose Zoho Invoice for a free client portal and multi-currency, accepting the 500-invoice cap and Zoho branding.