The best invoice app for freelancers comes down to one question: do you want a dedicated invoicing tool, or invoicing built into the app that already tracks your money? The shortlist worth comparing is FreshBooks, Wave, Invoice Ninja, Bonsai, and PennyBot. The first four are invoicing-first tools. PennyBot is the odd one out: it is AI bookkeeping built for freelancers (not SMB teams with a controller on staff), so invoicing lives inside the same app that syncs your bank, categorizes expenses, and tracks deductions. If you are already tracking freelance expenses in PennyBot, invoicing lives one tier up, not in a separate app. One catch to know up front: PennyBot's invoicing is a Pro plan feature at $15/month, and it is not included on the $5 Starter or $10 Plus tiers.
Last updated: August 2026
The shortlist at a glance
Five tools cover almost every freelancer's invoicing situation, from "I just need a free way to bill three clients" to "I want invoices and bookkeeping in one place." Here is who each one is for.
| Tool | Best for | Invoicing and expenses in one app? |
|---|---|---|
| PennyBot (Pro) | Freelancers who already track expenses and want invoicing in the same app | Yes, on the Pro plan |
| FreshBooks | Freelancers who invoice constantly and want a polished client experience | Invoicing-first, pair with a separate books tool |
| Wave | Brand-new freelancers who need free basic invoicing | Invoicing yes, no bank-feed categorization |
| Invoice Ninja | Freelancers who want a free or self-hosted, open-source option | Invoicing-focused |
| Bonsai | Freelancers who want contracts and proposals bundled with invoicing | Invoicing plus contracts, not full bookkeeping |
The honest summary: if invoicing is the only job you need done, a dedicated tool will do it well. If invoicing is one of several money chores (expenses, categorization, taxes, mileage), the case for keeping it in your bookkeeping app gets strong fast.
How the invoice apps compare on features
The core invoicing features are similar across all five. Where they diverge is everything that happens after the invoice is sent: whether the payment lands in your books automatically, and whether the same app also watches your spending.
| Feature | PennyBot | FreshBooks | Wave | Invoice Ninja | Bonsai |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Send invoices (line items, multi-currency, payment terms like Net 15/30/60) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Auto-send and payment reminders | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Card and ACH payment collection | Yes (via Stripe) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Recurring invoices, saved templates, client portal | No | Generally yes | Generally yes | Generally yes | Generally yes |
| Bank-feed expense categorization | Yes | Not its focus | No | Not its focus | Not its focus |
| AI tax categorization | Yes | Not its focus | No | Not its focus | Not its focus |
| Mileage tracking | Yes | Not its focus | No | Not its focus | Not its focus |
| Starting price (as of writing) | $5/mo | about $17/mo | Free (basic) | Free / open-source option | See vendor |
| Invoicing available on | Pro plan ($15/mo) only | Its paid plans | Free | Free / self-hosted | Its plans |
A few notes on that table, because the details matter. Wave is genuinely free for basic invoicing, which is hard to argue with, but it does not categorize from a bank feed and has no mileage tracking, so it stops short of being a bookkeeping tool. FreshBooks starts at about $17/month as of writing and is the most polished client-facing option of the group. Invoice Ninja has a free and open-source (self-hosted) option, which is unusual and appealing if you are technical. Bonsai bundles contracts and proposals alongside invoicing, which freelancers who send a lot of scope-of-work documents tend to like. Vendor pricing changes often, so confirm current numbers before you commit.
If you want a fuller accounting tool rather than an invoicing-first one, Xero is worth a mention: its Starter plan runs about $15/month as of writing, but it caps you at 20 invoices and 5 bills per month, which is tight for an active freelancer.
The row to read twice is the last one. PennyBot can send invoices, but only on the Pro plan at $15/month. That is by design, not an oversight, and it is the single most important thing to know before you choose PennyBot specifically for invoicing.
Why one app beats an invoicing tool plus an expense tool
Here is the workflow most freelancers end up with when they buy a dedicated invoicing tool: invoices go out from one app, expenses get tracked in a second app or a spreadsheet, and at tax time you reconcile the two by hand so they finally agree. That third step is pure overhead, and it is the one that quietly falls behind by month three.
Keeping invoicing in the same app as your bookkeeping removes that step. When a client pays a PennyBot invoice, the payment is already recorded as income against the same books that categorize your spending. There is no export from the invoicing tool, no import into the expense tool, and no manual matching of a deposit to an invoice. Income in and expenses out live in one place, so your profit number is a real figure you can trust at any moment, not something you assemble later.
That "one app" advantage compounds for freelancers specifically, because freelancers wear every hat themselves. A few examples:
- Income tracking stays connected to the invoices that create it. The money you bill and the money that lands in your account are the same records, not two lists you cross-check. Our guide to a freelance income tracking app covers what that view should show you.
- Deductions are captured as they post, not reconstructed in April. A bank-connected app categorizes an expense the moment it clears, which is the whole point of an expense tracking app for tax deductions. An invoicing-only tool cannot do this because it never sees your spending.
- Your business money stays separate from your personal money automatically. If invoices, income, and expenses all run through the same bookkeeping app, the boundary is enforced by the system, which is far easier than the manual discipline described in separating personal and business finances.
A dedicated invoicing tool is a good screwdriver. The problem is that freelance finance needs a whole toolbox, and buying each tool separately means you are the one holding them all together.
Where PennyBot's invoicing is genuinely thinner
An honest comparison has to name the gaps, and PennyBot has real ones against dedicated invoicing tools. If any of these are core to how you bill, a purpose-built invoicing app may serve you better.
PennyBot invoicing does cover the essentials well: line items, multiple currencies, due dates and payment terms (Net 15, 30, 60, and so on), memos and internal notes, auto-send, payment reminders, and card or ACH payment collection through Stripe. For most freelancers billing a handful of clients, that is the full job.
What PennyBot invoicing does not do today, and where dedicated tools generally pull ahead:
- Recurring invoices. If you bill the same retainer every month, PennyBot cannot yet set that invoice to send automatically on a schedule. You would create each one. Dedicated tools generally automate this.
- Saved invoice templates. There is no library of reusable, pre-built invoice templates to pull from. FreshBooks, Bonsai, and the others generally do offer this.
- A client portal. Your clients pay the invoice, but there is no branded portal where they log in to see their history, download past invoices, or manage documents. For freelancers who want a premium, self-serve client experience, that is a genuine gap.
So the honest rule of thumb is this. If you run recurring retainers, want templated invoices at scale, or need a polished client portal, a dedicated tool like FreshBooks or Bonsai is the better invoicing product. If you send straightforward invoices and care more about the money being tracked correctly the moment it arrives, PennyBot's combined approach wins. Knowing what is safe to spend once that income lands is a separate skill worth building either way, which we cover in freelance cash flow management.
Pricing: invoicing is a Pro plan feature
This is the part the pricing page does not spell out, so read it here first. PennyBot has exactly three plans, and invoicing is gated to the top one.
| Plan | Price (as of writing) | Invoicing included? |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $5/month | No |
| Plus | $10/month | No |
| Pro | $15/month | Yes |
If you sign up for Starter or Plus expecting to send invoices, you will hit a wall: invoice creation requires the Pro plan or higher, and PennyBot will tell you exactly that. Invoicing is one of the reasons to move up to Pro, alongside the full financial reporting suite and cash flow forecasting. So the mental model is simple. Starter and Plus are for tracking your money. Pro is the tier where you also bill for it. At $15/month, Pro still comes in under FreshBooks (about $17/month as of writing) while doing a broader job, since it is a full bookkeeping app and not an invoicing tool alone.
The bottom line
The best invoice app for freelancers is the one that fits how you actually work. If invoicing is the only thing you need, and especially if you want recurring invoices, saved templates, or a client portal, a dedicated tool like FreshBooks or Bonsai is a fair choice, and Wave is hard to beat on price if your needs are simple. If you would rather not run two apps, and you want every invoice payment to land in books that already track your expenses, mileage, and deductions, PennyBot puts invoicing inside the same app, on the Pro plan.
Just go in knowing the tier: invoicing is a Pro ($15/month) feature, not a Starter or Plus one. If that fits, See Pro plan pricing to compare all three tiers side by side.
One honest note: PennyBot organizes your invoices and expenses, it does not give tax or legal advice, and no specific deduction or refund is guaranteed. For anything specific to your situation, that is a conversation for a tax professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which plan do I need to send invoices in PennyBot? The Pro plan at $15/month. Invoicing is not available on the $5 Starter or $10 Plus tiers. If you try to create an invoice on a lower plan, PennyBot will tell you that invoice creation requires the Pro plan or higher.
Does PennyBot support recurring invoices? Not today. If you bill the same retainer every month, you would create each invoice rather than set it to repeat automatically. Recurring invoices, saved templates, and a client portal are the main features where dedicated invoicing tools currently pull ahead of PennyBot.
Can PennyBot collect card and ACH payments on invoices? Yes. Invoices include card and ACH payment collection through Stripe, plus line items, multiple currencies, payment terms like Net 15/30/60, memos, auto-send, and payment reminders. When a client pays, that payment is recorded as income in your books automatically.
Is a free tool like Wave or Invoice Ninja good enough? For invoicing alone, often yes. Wave is free for basic invoicing and Invoice Ninja has a free, open-source option. The tradeoff is that they are invoicing tools, not bookkeeping apps, so they will not categorize expenses from your bank feed or track mileage. You would pair them with a separate expense tool, which is exactly the two-app setup that combined tools are built to replace.
Do I still need a separate invoicing tool if my bookkeeping app handles invoices? Not necessarily. When invoicing and expense tracking live in the same app, the invoice you send and the income it produces stay connected, so there is nothing to reconcile between two disconnected tools at tax time.
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