Best Free Invoicing Software in 2026
Wave, Zoho Invoice, Invoice Ninja, PayPal, Square and more: what each free tier includes, the catch, card fees compared, and when a paid plan is cheaper.
Updated September 24, 2026. Some links may be affiliate links; this never affects our rankings.
"Free invoicing software" comes in three flavours. Some products are free because the vendor makes money when your customer pays by card (Wave, PayPal, Square, Stripe). Some are free as a loss leader for a bigger suite (Zoho Invoice, QuickBooks Free). One is free because it is open source (Invoice Ninja). Each model has a different catch, and the catch is usually the payment processing fee, not the software.
This guide covers what each free tier actually includes as of September 2026, where it stops being free, and when a $15 to $20 paid plan works out cheaper than the "free" one.
Free invoicing software compared
| Product | Free tier limits | Online card fee | ACH / bank fee | Branding on free plan | Paid upgrade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wave | Unlimited invoices, estimates and customers; full accounting | 2.9% + 60¢ (Amex 3.4% + 60¢) | 1%, $1 minimum | Wave logo on invoice footer | Pro $19/mo |
| Zoho Invoice | 500 invoices/yr, 2 users, 3 projects | Depends on gateway (Stripe 2.9% + 30¢) | Via gateway | None | None (upgrade path is Zoho Books) |
| Invoice Ninja | 5 clients, unlimited invoices, 4 templates | Depends on gateway (Stripe 2.9% + 30¢) | Via gateway | "Created by Invoice Ninja" | Pro $14/mo or $140/yr |
| PayPal Invoicing | Unlimited invoices | 2.99% + 49¢ (card, Apple Pay); 3.49% + 49¢ (PayPal, Venmo) | Not offered on invoices | PayPal-branded checkout | None |
| Square Invoices | Unlimited invoices, estimates, contracts | 3.3% + 30¢ | 1%, $1 minimum | Square-branded payment page | Plus $20/mo |
| Stripe Invoicing | Pay-as-you-go | 2.9% + 30¢ plus 0.4% per paid invoice | 0.8%, $5 cap, plus 0.4% | Stripe-hosted page | Plus tier at 0.5% |
| QuickBooks Free | 2 invoices and 1 estimate per month, 1 user | About 2.99% | 1%, $10 cap | QuickBooks branding | Simple Start $38/mo |
Fees are US rates for online payments checked in September 2026. Square's public pricing page rendered incomplete during our check, so verify its invoice rate before relying on it.
How we picked
We looked for tools where the free tier is permanent rather than a trial, where you can send a logo-branded PDF invoice and get paid online, and where the plan does not expire at a volume you would reach in a normal month. No vendor paid for placement, the order below is not a ranking, and links that later become affiliate links will not change the analysis.
Wave
Wave is the most complete free option because it is not just an invoicing tool. The $0 Starter plan includes unlimited invoices, estimates, recurring invoices, customer statements, bill tracking, the mobile app, and a full double-entry ledger that produces a profit and loss statement and balance sheet.
The catch: Wave's card fee is 2.9% plus 60¢, double the fixed fee at Stripe or Square. On a $50 invoice that is 4.1% all-in. Automatic bank feeds, receipt scanning, custom invoice branding beyond your logo, and late-payment reminders all require Pro at $19/mo ($190/yr). Pro also waives the 60¢ fee on the first ten card payments each month. ACH payments are 1% with a $1 minimum, which is competitive.
Who it fits: sole proprietors and small service businesses who want invoicing and bookkeeping in one free system, and whose invoices are large enough that the 60¢ does not matter. If you send fewer than 20 invoices a month and average over $500, Wave is hard to beat.
Zoho Invoice
Zoho made Zoho Invoice permanently free in 2022 as an on-ramp to Zoho Books. It is the most feature-rich tool on this list at $0: client portal, time tracking, expense capture, recurring invoices, multi-currency templates and automatic payment reminders.
What's free: everything in the product, up to 500 invoices per year, two users, three projects, and two organisations under one account. There is no revenue cap and no "Zoho" branding on your invoices.
The catch: 500 invoices a year is about 42 a month, plenty for most freelancers and tight for a busy trade. Zoho Invoice has no payment processing of its own; you connect Stripe, PayPal, Square or another gateway and pay that provider's fees. There is no paid tier: when you outgrow it, the upgrade is Zoho Books, which starts at $20/mo but has its own free plan for businesses under $50K revenue.
Who it fits: freelancers and consultants who bill by time, anyone who wants a client portal without paying for FreshBooks, and businesses already using Zoho CRM or Zoho Projects.
Invoice Ninja
Invoice Ninja is open source. You can run the hosted version free for up to five clients, or self-host the full product for nothing on your own server or a $5/mo VPS.
What's free (hosted): unlimited invoices for up to 5 clients, quotes, recurring invoices, 4 invoice templates, a client portal, time tracking, expenses, and connections to 40-plus payment gateways including Stripe, PayPal, Square, GoCardless and Braintree.
The catch: five clients is a hard cap, and free-plan invoices carry a "Created by Invoice Ninja" line. Ninja Pro at $14/mo ($140/yr) removes the branding, lifts the client cap, adds 11 templates and a branded portal on your own subdomain. Enterprise starts at $18/mo for one or two users and scales with team size; it adds a fully custom domain and e-invoicing (PEPPOL) credits. Self-hosting is free with no client limit, but you are your own IT department.
Who it fits: technical founders and agencies happy to self-host, developers who want an API-first invoicing system, and anyone with a handful of retainer clients who can live with the footer credit.
PayPal Invoicing
PayPal's invoicing tool is free to use and needs no separate software. You create an invoice in your business account, PayPal emails it, and the customer pays by card, PayPal balance or Venmo without creating an account.
What's free: unlimited invoices and estimates, recurring invoices, partial payments and tips, a basic template with your logo, and tracking of paid, unpaid and overdue invoices. Funds land in your PayPal balance immediately.
The catch: the fees are the highest of any option here for card payments: 2.99% plus 49¢ for card and Apple Pay payments, 3.49% plus 49¢ when the customer pays with PayPal balance or Venmo. There is no ACH option on invoices. Transferring money from PayPal to your bank is free on the standard timeline; instant transfers carry an extra fee. Reporting is thin, and there is no expense tracking, so you will still need a ledger elsewhere. Customers see PayPal branding throughout.
Who it fits: businesses that already collect most payments through PayPal, sellers with international customers who already trust PayPal checkout, and anyone who needs to send an occasional invoice without setting up another account.
Square Invoices
Square Invoices is free, unlimited, and attached to a payments platform many small businesses already use for in-person sales. The free plan includes invoices, estimates, recurring invoices, contracts and simple project grouping.
What's free: unlimited invoices, estimates and contracts, automatic reminders, customer profiles, and the ability to accept card, ACH, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Cash App Pay and Afterpay on a single invoice.
The catch: Square's online invoice card rate is 3.3% plus 30¢, higher than Stripe's 2.9%. ACH is 1% with a $1 minimum. Square Invoices Plus at $20/mo adds milestone payment schedules, custom fields and templates, batch invoicing and an ACH fee cap of $10. If you also sell in person, your card-present rate (2.6% plus 15¢ as of our last check) is separate and lower.
Who it fits: trades, salons, caterers and retailers who already run Square at the counter and want invoices for the jobs that are not paid on the spot; anyone who wants ACH, cards and buy-now-pay-later on the same invoice.
Stripe Invoicing
Stripe has no subscription but is not free: you pay 2.9% plus 30¢ for card payments plus 0.4% of each invoice paid through Stripe Invoicing (0.5% on the Plus tier). ACH Direct Debit is 0.8% capped at $5, plus the invoicing fee. You get hosted invoice pages, recurring billing, automatic reminders and dunning, a customer portal, and the best developer API in payments.
The catch: a $1,000 invoice costs $29.30 in processing plus $4 in invoicing fees, and there is no expense tracking or accounting. Most small businesses reach Stripe indirectly, as the gateway behind Zoho Invoice or Invoice Ninja.
Who it fits: SaaS and subscription businesses, and anyone already on Stripe who sends a few one-off invoices.
QuickBooks Free
Intuit launched QuickBooks Free in September 2026 as a permanent $0 plan. It is real QuickBooks Online, which matters if you expect to upgrade later, but the limits are severe: 2 invoices and 1 estimate a month, 1 bank connection, 1 contractor, 3 reports, 1 user, no accountant access. Payments run roughly 2.99% on invoiced cards and 1% (capped at $10) on ACH. It fits someone who bills one or two clients a month and plans to move to Simple Start ($38/mo) anyway.
Free software vs. a template
If you send fewer than five invoices a month and your customers pay by check or bank transfer, you may not need software at all. Our free invoice template generates a numbered, branded PDF, Word or Excel invoice in the browser with line items, tax and totals calculated for you. There are matching estimate, quote and receipt templates.
| Feature | Template | Free invoicing software |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $0 | $0 plus payment fees |
| Online card payment | No | Yes |
| Automatic reminders | No | Usually (Wave: Pro only) |
| Tracks who has paid | Manually | Yes |
| Recurring invoices | Manual copy | Yes |
| Reports (aged receivables, income) | Your spreadsheet | Yes |
| Setup time | 2 minutes | 20 to 60 minutes |
The template wins when you invoice rarely, get paid by bank transfer, or want zero fees. Software wins once you have several open invoices at once and start losing track of who owes what.
When free stops being enough
Free tiers hit a wall in predictable places:
- Client or invoice caps. Invoice Ninja's 5 clients, Zoho Invoice's 500 invoices a year, QuickBooks Free's 2 invoices a month.
- Branding. Wave and Invoice Ninja footer credits, PayPal and Square payment pages that advertise the processor rather than you.
- Multiple users. Zoho Invoice allows two; Wave allows one on Starter; PayPal and Square tie invoices to the account owner unless you add staff permissions.
- Bookkeeping. PayPal, Square and Stripe are payment tools. Once you need a profit and loss for your tax return, you are exporting CSVs into something else. Wave and Zoho are the exceptions.
- Automation. Late-payment reminders, deposits and milestone billing, retainer tracking, and time-to-invoice workflows are where FreshBooks ($23/mo), Zoho Books ($20/mo) or Wave Pro ($19/mo) start paying for themselves.
If you spend more than an hour a month chasing payments or re-keying invoices into a spreadsheet, a $15 to $25 plan is cheaper than your time.
Payment fees vs. a paid plan: the real cost
Free invoicing is not free once a customer pays online. The fixed fee and the percentage bite differently depending on invoice size, so compare on your own numbers.
Worked example: $10,000 a month invoiced, all paid by card.
| Scenario | Invoices/mo | Avg. invoice | Monthly processing fees | Software | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe via Zoho Invoice, 2.9% + 30¢ | 10 | $1,000 | $293.00 | $0 | $293.00 |
| Wave Starter, 2.9% + 60¢ | 10 | $1,000 | $296.00 | $0 | $296.00 |
| Square Free, 3.3% + 30¢ | 10 | $1,000 | $333.00 | $0 | $333.00 |
| PayPal Invoicing (card), 2.99% + 49¢ | 10 | $1,000 | $303.90 | $0 | $303.90 |
| Stripe via paid plan at $15/mo | 10 | $1,000 | $293.00 | $15 | $308.00 |
| Same customers paying by ACH at 1% | 10 | $1,000 | $100.00 | $0 | $100.00 |
The lesson is not that the paid plan is cheaper; it is that the software subscription is a rounding error next to processing fees. At $10,000 a month, the difference between Square's 3.3% and Stripe's 2.9% is $40 a month, nearly three times the cost of a $15 plan. And moving customers from card to ACH saves around $190 a month, more than any subscription.
Now change the invoice size. At $10,000 a month across 100 invoices averaging $100:
| Scenario | Processing fees |
|---|---|
| Stripe 2.9% + 30¢ | $320.00 |
| Wave 2.9% + 60¢ | $350.00 |
| Square 3.3% + 30¢ | $360.00 |
| PayPal 2.99% + 49¢ | $348.00 |
At small ticket sizes Wave's 60¢ costs $30 a month more than Stripe's 30¢. Wave Pro ($19/mo) waives the 60¢ on only ten transactions, so it does not fix this; a gateway with a 30¢ fixed fee does.
Rules of thumb:
- If your average invoice is under $200, prioritise a low fixed fee (Stripe or Square at 30¢) over a low percentage.
- If your average invoice is over $1,000, push customers to ACH. A 1% fee capped at $10 (QuickBooks, Square Plus) or 0.8% capped at $5 (Stripe) beats every card rate.
- Decide on a paid plan based on features, not fees. $15 to $20 a month buys reminders, branding and multi-user access; it does not meaningfully change your processing cost.
- Consider passing the fee on. Several states allow card surcharges up to the processing cost (typically capped at 3 to 4%), and an ACH discount is legal everywhere.
FAQ
What is the best completely free invoicing software?
For most small businesses, Wave or Zoho Invoice. Wave includes full bookkeeping with unlimited invoices but charges 2.9% plus 60¢ on cards. Zoho Invoice has no branding, a client portal and time tracking, is capped at 500 invoices a year, and lets you choose a cheaper payment gateway. Invoice Ninja is the best choice if you can self-host or have five or fewer clients.
Is there free invoicing software with no payment fees?
Only if your customers do not pay online. Every tool on this page is free to send invoices; fees apply when the customer pays by card or bank transfer through the tool. Accepting checks or direct bank transfers outside the software costs nothing, and our invoice template supports that workflow without an account.
Can I use free invoicing software for my taxes?
Wave and Zoho Invoice give you income reports you can use for Schedule C. PayPal, Square and Stripe provide transaction exports and, above IRS thresholds, a Form 1099-K, but you will still need to record expenses elsewhere. Pair a payments-only tool with our expense tracker and profit and loss template if you are not ready for accounting software.
Does free invoicing software look professional?
Zoho Invoice and Square generate clean, logo-branded PDFs with no vendor credit on the invoice itself. Wave and Invoice Ninja add a small footer line on free plans. PayPal's invoice is functional but obviously PayPal. If branding matters, Zoho Invoice is the strongest free option.
What is the cheapest way to accept invoice payments?
ACH bank transfer. Wave, Square and QuickBooks charge 1% (Square with a $1 minimum, QuickBooks with a $10 cap); Stripe charges 0.8% capped at $5. On a $2,000 invoice that is $5 to $20 instead of $58 to $66 by card.
Should I upgrade from free invoicing software to accounting software?
When you need bank reconciliation, a balance sheet, payroll, or to give an accountant access. See our comparison of the best accounting software for small business for the paid options and what each costs after promotional pricing ends.
Sources
Fees and limits were checked on the vendor pages on 24 September 2026:
- Wave pricing: https://www.waveapps.com/pricing
- Zoho Invoice pricing: https://www.zoho.com/us/invoice/pricing/
- Invoice Ninja pricing: https://invoiceninja.com/pricing-plans/
- PayPal merchant fees: https://www.paypal.com/us/business/pricing
- Square Invoices pricing: https://squareup.com/us/en/invoices/pricing (page rendered incomplete; card and ACH rates from secondary sources)
- Stripe Invoicing pricing: https://stripe.com/invoicing/pricing
- QuickBooks Free: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/oa/online/free/