Start free. Upgrade when you need more power.
Most "free" invoice generators are traps. They watermark your PDF until you upgrade, cap you at 3–5 invoices per month, demand a credit card "just to verify," or downgrade your invoice quality the moment you cross some hidden threshold. We do none of that. The InvoiceQuick free plan is the same product on day one and day one thousand: unlimited invoices, no watermarks, no credit card, no trial timer.
The free plan exists because most freelancers and small businesses can do their entire invoicing workflow in 5 minutes a month. Charging them for that would be silly. Pro ($9/mo) and Business ($29/mo) are for the smaller group whose volume or workflow needs justify the spend — recurring billing, client database, team access, API. If you never cross those thresholds, stay on Free forever. That's the deal.
The free tier handles unlimited invoices, 50+ currencies, and clean PDF export. For most solo freelancers in their first 1–2 years, this is the right plan.
The Pro tier is built around the moment manual workflow stops scaling. If you're chasing payments, juggling 6+ retainers, or losing time on bookkeeping, Pro pays for itself in the first week. Read the recurring-invoice playbook →
Most solo freelancers and one-person operations stay on Pro indefinitely. Business is for the next step up — a team, a system integration, or both.
The free-tier invoicing market in 2026 is bigger than people think. Here's the honest side-by-side of the four free or near-free options most freelancers compare before choosing — what each one actually gives you on the free or entry tier, where the cliffs are, and which one fits which freelancer.
| Feature | InvoiceQuick Free | Wave Starter | Zoho Invoice | Bonsai |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price (entry tier) | $0 forever | $0 (Starter) | $0 forever | No free tier; $19+/mo |
| Invoice cap on free tier | Unlimited | Unlimited | 500/year | — |
| Credit card required to start | No | No | No | 7-day trial → CC required |
| Watermarks on PDF | None | None | None | — |
| Logo / custom branding | Pro ($9/mo) | Free | Free | Included on paid |
| Recurring / retainer invoices | Pro ($9/mo) | Pro ($16/mo) | Free | Included on paid |
| Multi-currency invoices | Free (50+ currencies) | Limited | Free | Included on paid |
| Client database | Pro ($9/mo) | Free | Free (1,000 clients) | Included on paid |
| Per-user pricing penalty | No (flat tiers) | No | 2 users on free | Yes (cost scales w/ team) |
| Sign-up friction | Email only | Email + business setup | Zoho account | CC + trial gate |
Pick InvoiceQuick Free if you want a clean, fast invoice generator with no friction — unlimited invoices, no watermarks, no credit card, no setup wizard, and a clear $9/mo upgrade only when you actually need recurring billing, branding, or a client database.
Pick Wave Starter if you want bookkeeping bundled in and you're fine with the broader accounting-software setup. Logo and client database are free on Starter, but recurring invoices and ACH/auto-reminders move to Wave Pro at $16/mo — almost 2× InvoiceQuick's equivalent tier.
Pick Zoho Invoice if you're already inside the Zoho ecosystem (Books, CRM, Mail). The 500 invoices/year cap is a real ceiling once you cross ~40 invoices/month, and you'll graduate to Zoho Books ($15+/mo) — not Zoho Invoice paid — when you outgrow free.
Skip Bonsai for invoicing alone. Bonsai is a full freelance OS (CRM, contracts, proposals, tasks, banking) priced like one — $19–$79/mo per user with no free tier. If you only need invoicing, you're paying for nine features you don't use. Bonsai is the right pick if you're consolidating five tools into one, not if you're replacing one.
Pricing and feature data verified May 2026 against each vendor's public pricing page. Vendors change pricing — check the source before committing.
Retainer and recurring billing is the most common reason freelancers upgrade. Here's the exact threshold:
On the 1st of each month, duplicate the previous month's invoice, update the period in the line description (e.g. "Retainer for May 2026 per agreement dated November 1, 2025"), and send. About 20 seconds per client. Below 5 retainers, this beats the $9.
Set the cadence once and Pro auto-generates the invoice each cycle, attaches the right period and overage rate, and pings the client on the schedule you set. At 6+ retainers, the time savings clear the $9 in the first week — and you stop forgetting the 1st-of-month invoice.
Want the full operational playbook (cadence, renewal mechanics, overage rates, the three retainer models)? Read the retainer billing guide →
Not at 5 retainers yet? Most freelancers fill their retainer book from their existing project clients, not from cold pitches. Our companion guide on converting project clients into retainer clients covers the exact offboarding-email pitch templates (maintenance, content, trial) and the followup cadence that gets you to the upgrade threshold.
There is no catch. The free plan gives you unlimited invoices, PDF download, 50+ currencies, and zero watermarks — no credit card required, no trial timer, no invoice limit. We make money on Pro ($9/mo) and Business ($29/mo), not by crippling the free tier. If you can do your invoicing in 5 minutes a month on the free plan, stay on it forever.
Upgrade when manual work starts leaking revenue. Concrete triggers: (1) you're billing 5 or more retainer or recurring clients each month — duplicating invoices manually starts to cost more than the $9; (2) you've missed an invoice or sent a duplicate number — auto-numbering and a client database prevent both; (3) you want your logo and brand colors on every invoice. Below those thresholds, the free tier is usually the right answer.
Yes, for 1–5 retainer clients. The workflow: create the invoice once, then duplicate the previous month's invoice on the 1st of each month, update the period in the line description, and re-send. That's about 20 seconds per client per month. Once you cross 5 retainers, Pro's recurring-invoice automation pays for itself — see our guide on recurring invoices for freelancers for the full retainer-billing playbook.
Business ($29/mo) makes sense once you have a team that needs to send invoices on your behalf (up to 5 users), or you want to push invoices into other systems via API or Zapier. Solo freelancers and most one-person agencies stay on Pro. The custom-domain invoices on Business matter mostly to consultancies where invoice deliverability and brand control across email is part of the client experience.
No credit card to use the free plan — start creating invoices immediately. Pro and Business are month-to-month with no contract; cancel anytime from your account settings and you keep access until the end of the billing period. We don't auto-upgrade you and we don't hide a cancel button.
Your invoice history stays accessible. If you downgrade from Pro to Free, you keep all the PDFs you've already generated — you simply lose access to Pro-only features (recurring invoices, client database, custom branding) for new invoices. Cancel a paid plan and you drop to the free tier, not zero. We never lock you out of your own invoice records.
Start with the free plan. Upgrade only when you actually need to.
Create your first invoice →