Invoice Ninja vs FreshBooks vs Zoho Books

Compared on	Invoice Ninja Free plan · from $11.67/mo VisitRemove	FreshBooks Free trial · from $20.70/mo VisitRemove	Zoho Books Free plan · from $15/mo VisitRemove
What it is	Source-available invoicing, payments, expenses and time tracking, hosted from free or self-hosted	Invoicing and accounting for freelancers and service businesses, priced by number of billable clients	Accounting with a free plan under $50K revenue, six US plans priced per organization and the Zia AI assistant
Free plan	Up to 5 clients with unlimited invoicing, 11 invoice templates, online payments, recurring invoices and auto-billing, expenses, projects and time tracking, client portal; Invoice Ninja branding stays on	No	For businesses with financial-year revenue under $50K: 1 user plus 1 accountant, up to 1,000 invoices and 1,000 expenses a year, 50 receipt autoscans a month, 5 scheduled reports, email support. Bank feeds are not included; document autoscans are the only add-on allowed.
Cheapest paid plan	$11.67/mo billed annually (Ninja Pro)Invoice Ninja pricing	$20.70/mo billed annually (Lite)FreshBooks pricing	$15/mo billed annually (Standard)Zoho Books pricing
What it covers	Unlimited clients and invoices, no Invoice Ninja branding; $140 billed yearly. 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans.	Invoice up to 5 billable clients; extra team members $11/month each; $248.40 billed yearly. Promotion: 80% off ($4.60/month) for the first 4 months.	Per organization; 3 users, up to 5,000 invoices and 5,000 bills/expenses a year, 200 receipt autoscans a month. Extra users $3/user/month ($2.50 billed yearly). Prices exclude local taxes.
Free trial	None stated	30-day free trial, no credit card required	14-day free trial
Platforms	Web, iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux, API	Web, iOS, Android	Web, iOS, Android, Windows, API
Integrations (vendor's figure)	Dozens of payment gateways, plus hundreds of apps via Zapier, Make and Pabbly	100+ apps in the FreshBooks AppStore	Not stated
Open source	Yes, self-hostable	No	No
Good for	Freelancers with a handful of clients who want free invoicing Businesses that want to host their invoicing data themselves European businesses that need PEPPOL e-invoicing	Freelancers and consultants who bill a small number of clients Service businesses that invoice for tracked time and project work Owners who want their accountant working in the same books	Micro businesses under $50K revenue that want free double-entry accounting Product businesses that need inventory and purchase orders inside the accounting tool Teams that want custom workflows, approvals and custom modules
Watch out for	The hosted Free plan is limited to 5 clients and keeps Invoice Ninja branding Bank sync, team users and permissions need Enterprise Its pages do not describe payroll, tax filing or AI features	Lite invoices only 5 clients and Plus 50; unlimited clients need Premium ($70/mo) Each team member costs $11 a month on top of the plan Bank reconciliation, receipt scanning and accountant access are not on Lite	The Free plan applies only while annual revenue stays under $50K, with 1 user and no bank feeds Annual invoice and bill caps on every plan, from 5,000 on Standard to 100,000 on Elite and Ultimate Multi-currency, projects and inventory need Professional ($50/mo); budgets and cash flow forecasting need Premium
Made by	Invoice Ninja LLC	2NDSITE Inc.	Zoho Corporation Pvt. Ltd.

Entry prices are the cheapest paid plan, as each vendor publishes it; “What it covers” says what that price is per (a user, a channel, a brand, a number of contacts). The sources are listed on each tool's page.

Every tool in accounting and invoicing software is on its category page, with the written head-to-heads on Compare.