5 Solid Invoice Generators Every Freelancer Should Try

Being a freelancer pretty much makes you an entrepreneur, which means you are responsible for your own health insurance, taxes, and more. This makes generating and maintaining invoices very important.

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However, the task of raising and managing invoices can get repetitive, tedious, and boring. Well, that is if you still aren’t using an invoice generator to make the task easier for you. 

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While there are plenty of invoice builders in the market, including some free invoice generators, not all of them serve their purpose efficiently. 

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If you’re a freelancer looking for an invoice maker to help you use your time more productively, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve curated a list of what we think are 5 invoice generators every freelancer should know about.

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But before we dive into the list, let’s break down what an invoice generator is and what attributes the ideal invoice maker ought to have.

What is an invoice generator?

An invoice generator is a software tool that creates credit notes and invoices in a format that is acceptable to businesses. 

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As a freelancer, it is important to have a reliable invoice generator in your toolstack for multiple reasons. 

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Generating invoices for every project you work on makes it easy for you to keep track of the clients you have worked with, those that still owe you for the work you’ve done, and those who have already paid you.

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Since invoices help keep track of payments, they also make it easier for you to calculate how much tax you need to pay. This is especially important since, as a freelancer, you are responsible for paying your own taxes. 

What makes a great invoice generator?

Now that we know what invoice builders are meant to do, let’s take a closer look at what features the ideal invoice generator ought to have. 

Ease of use

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Considering the task of generating invoices can get tedious, boring, and redundant, no one would be interested in using software to generate invoices that are difficult to use. The ideal invoice generator ought to be easy to use.

Automation

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The ideal invoice generator should allow for some level of automation, especially if you have to keep generating similar invoices for the same clients. 

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At the same time, it should also be easy to customize and add or remove fields for quick changes, since certain businesses have unique fields required in their invoices. 

Analytics

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The invoice maker you choose should also be able to give you data insights and reports, such as customer summaries and outstanding payments.

Pricing

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And finally, the tool you use to raise invoices should be affordable, if not absolutely free forever, like a lot of the invoice generators on the market are.

Invoice generators for freelancers

Without further ado, let’s dive into our picks for the five best invoice generators for freelancers.

Zoho Invoice

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Zoho Invoice is a feature-packed invoice generator that is ranked among the best invoicing apps for freelancers. 

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In addition to a free invoice generator, the tool also has a free estimate generator, an income tax calculator, can generate expense reports, help with inventory tracking, and forecast revenue. 

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Zoho Invoice is easy to use in most parts and supports multiple currencies. It integrates seamlessly with platforms like PayPal, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Stripe, in addition to other Zoho apps. 

Pros

• Zoho Invoice allows you to easily automate aspects in your workflows such as adding discounts and making calculations.
• You can easily customize invoice templates using Zoho Invoice.
• The fact that Zoho Invoice recognizes multiple languages and currencies makes it easy to use while working with international clients.
• Zoho Invoice is free of cost irrespective of how many invoices you generate.
• The tool integrates seamlessly with Zapier, giving you access to multiple business apps.
• Zoho Invoice allows you to make invoices in advance and schedule to send them later.

Cons

• You cannot edit invoices on your smartphone using Zoho Invoice.
• Some of the advanced features are very difficult to use.

Pricing

Zoho Invoice is absolutely free for all users.

Invoice Ninja  

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If you’re a busy freelancer who needs to generate the same invoices for the same clients repeatedly in a month, Invoice Ninja is just the tool for you. The free subscription on Invoice Ninja allows you to send up to 100 customers unlimited bulk invoices every month.

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The tool is integrated with over 40 payment gateways, has time tracking, and automatic billing, and allows you to brand your invoices before sending them, all included in the free subscription. 

Pros

• Invoice Ninja allows you to automate sending bulk invoices.
• It recognizes multiple languages and currencies, making it easy to work with international clients.
• Has multiple invoice templates and is capable of custom-building invoices from scratch.
• The integration with multiple payment gateways means you can accept payments via PayPal, credit cards, and even bank transfers on the tool. In fact, your invoices can also have one-click pay options.
• You can set up automatic payments for transactions with your regular clients.
• It is easy to use on mobile devices.

Cons

• All invoices generated on the free version have a watermark that reads, “Created by Invoice Ninja.” You will need to subscribe to one of the paid plans for this to go.
• While Invoice Ninja has basic CRM and inventory management software, it isn’t very efficient in these areas. 
• Invoice Ninja has very limited reporting capabilities.

Pricing

While there is a free subscription plan that gives you unlimited invoices for up to 20 customers, the $10 per month subscription, called the Ninja Pro, allows you to send unlimited invoices to an unlimited number of customers, one of whom will not have the Invoice Ninja watermark. You also get access to over 10 invoice templates.

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The $14 per month Enterprise subscription ensures unlimited access to the tool, no watermark, with a lot more templates and customizations.

PayPal

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While you may be familiar with using PayPal to receive payments from your clients, the app also has a pretty handy invoicing tool. 

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PayPal’s easy-to-use invoicing software allows you to easily create invoices from any mobile device. It has a user-friendly interface with large buttons for easy data entry.

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In addition to saving invoice templates, you can use the tool to automatically send payment reminders, refund payments if required, and track your usage of the app.

Pros

• You can send invoices in batches.
• Invoices are customizable, allowing you to add your logo and other custom fields.
• There’s no limit to the number of invoices you can send.
• You can track invoice and payment statuses using the software.
• You can securely receive payments and the platform seamlessly integrates with multiple platforms.

Cons

• If your PayPal account gets suspended for any reason, you’re going to be stuck without funds.
• While receiving funds into your account via PayPal for free can take several days to process, you will be charged a 1% fee for immediate fund transfers.

Pricing

PayPal is free to use for generating invoices. However, there is a flat fee of 2.9% plus 30 cents for every transaction on the platform. 

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There is also a fee of 1% up to $10 for every time you want an immediate fund transfer from your PayPal account to your bank account. 

Freshbooks invoice generator

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Freshbooks is an invoicing and bookkeeping app that works great on both Android and Apple platforms. 

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In addition to giving users the ability to make and send custom templates, Freshbooks also helps track sales, calculate taxes, generate reports, create and send estimates, receive payments directly through bank transfers and credit cards, time tracking, and more.

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However, Freshbooks is a paid subscription, and there are four different tiers for you to choose from based on your business needs. 

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Let’s look at some of the pros and cons of using Freshbooks.

Pros

• Freshbooks has an easy-to-navigate and user-friendly interface.
• They offer a limited-time period free trial, so you actually get a hands-on feel of the tool before paying for it.
• The app keeps improving on its existing features, making it a highly efficient tool to have in your freelancer toolbox.

Cons

• You need to pay to continue using Freshbooks after the trial period, and while it may be cheaper than other accounting software, it is expensive if you’re looking only at an invoice generator.
• The mobile version of the tool is cumbersome and some important features, such as accessing reports, do not work on it.
• They recently hiked their prices, something that made a lot of existing customers unhappy.

Pricing

There are four pricing options that Freshbooks offers its customers. 

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Freshbooks Lite will cost you $15 a month and will let you send unlimited invoices to five customers. In addition, you can create and send unlimited estimates, track expenses as many times as you’d like, calculate taxes, use the tool’s time-tracking capabilities, and accept payments via bank transfers and credit cards.

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The Freshbooks Plus plan will put you down at $25 a month. With this plan, the number of customers you can send customized invoices to increases to 50, and it also has additional functionalities, including running business health reports and enabling you to set up customer retainers and automatic billing for regular customers.

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If you pay $50 a month, you get Freshbooks Premium, which means you can invoice up to 500 clients, track overdue payments, and get access to custom email templates and signatures.

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Freshbooks Select is the fourth option, and for this, you will need to speak with a dedicated account manager to customize a plan that works for your business and pay a fee specific to your plan. 

Prio

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We at Prio have our very own invoice generator that allows you to automate the invoice generation process. 

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Once you subscribe and configure when and how you want invoices sent to your clients, the tool automatically creates drafts for your approval on schedule. All this can be done in three easy steps and is free forever, irrespective of how many invoices you generate.

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Our invoice automation tool also allows you to track the amount of time you spend on projects, adding that as a data field in your invoices. The tool can also be configured to automatically populate repetitive fields based on different client specifications.

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Come visit our website or contact us to discover why our tools are perfect for freelancers like yourself.

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