FreshBooks vs Invoice Ninja
Invoice Ninja has a free plan for up to 5 clients and a self-hostable source, while FreshBooks has no free plan but adds payroll and a 30-day trial.
Pick FreshBooks if…
You want a polished invoicing and light accounting tool, including payroll, and don't mind paying from $23.00/month. Its 30-day trial needs no credit card.
Pick Invoice Ninja if…
You have few clients and want to start free, or you want to self-host. Note the Elastic License is source-available, not formally open source.
Price
- Paid
- Freemium
Starting price
Free plan
Open source
Works on
| Feature | Cloud invoicing and accounting software for freelancers and small businesses, sold by monthly subscription. | Invoicing, quotes, expenses and time tracking, with a free hosted plan and self-hostable source code. |
|---|---|---|
| Price |
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| Starting price | Lite: $23.00/month regular price (USD); promo of $4.60/month for the first 4 months shown | Free plan $0 (up to 5 clients); Pro $14/month, or $140/year |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Open source | No | No |
| Works on | Web, iOS, Android | Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android |
| Try FreshBooks (opens the FreshBooks website in a new tab) | Try Invoice Ninja (opens the Invoice Ninja website in a new tab) |
FreshBooks bills by billable-client count: Lite is $23.00/month (5 clients), Plus $43.00/month (50 clients) and Premium $70.00/month (unlimited). A promotion showed 80% off for 4 months. Team members ($11/month each), Advanced Payments ($20/month) and Payroll ($40/month plus $6/user) cost extra. There is a 30-day free trial but no free plan.
Invoice Ninja's hosted Free plan is $0 for up to 5 clients with unlimited invoicing. Pro is $14/month ($140/year) with unlimited clients, and Enterprise starts at $18/month for 1-2 users. Paid plans have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Both handle invoices, online payments, expenses, time tracking, recurring billing and client portals. FreshBooks adds payroll and mileage tracking on its pages and says it integrates with 100+ apps. Invoice Ninja lists Stripe, PayPal, Square and GoCardless and connects through Zapier, Make and Pabbly.
Invoice Ninja's code is on GitHub under the Elastic License 2.0, which its README calls source-available. You can self-host it, and the README says Pro and Enterprise features are included. FreshBooks is closed-source and runs only as a hosted service.
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Last updated 16 October 2026. How we make money