Keep every cent you invoiced for.
Most freelancers need three things: send a clean invoice, get paid without losing a slice of it, and chase politely when it is late. Almost every tool does the first. The difference is the second and third. Here is what each option is genuinely best at, including where they beat InvoiceSonic.
Updated 2026 · Honest comparison · Free to try, no signup
The short answer — Billing a handful of clients and want to keep the full amount? InvoiceSonic. Billing by the hour with time tracking? FreshBooks or Harvest. Want invoicing bolted to real accounting? Zoho or Xero.
Free to create and download invoices, A$19/month for emailing, recurring invoices and reminders. Get paid by bank transfer, PayID, Venmo, Zelle, Cash App or PayPal — we never process the payment, so we never take a cut. Weakest point: no built-in time tracking.
The strongest time tracking and retainer handling of the group. Lower tiers cap billable clients, so it gets expensive if you have many small clients.
Genuinely capable and free, and it plugs into the wider Zoho suite. Best if you are willing to live inside that ecosystem.
Free invoicing plus accounting, funded by payment processing. Note it withdrew from Australia, so Australian freelancers should not start here.
Free to send, excellent card experience, but it earns a percentage of every payment. Fine for small invoices, expensive at scale.
If your accountant already works in Xero, the reduced friction usually outweighs the higher price. Overkill purely for invoicing.
If most clients pay by bank transfer, a percentage-based tool is charging you for a rail it barely touches. If most pay by card, that convenience may be worth the fee.
If you invoice hours, time tracking that feeds the invoice saves real effort. If you invoice fixed fees or milestones, it is a feature you will never open.
Automatic reminders are the single feature most correlated with getting paid on time, and the one freelancers most often skip.
Create it in about a minute — no signup, no watermark, and you keep the full amount.
Create a free invoiceIf you bill fixed fees or milestones and want to keep the full invoice amount, InvoiceSonic is the strongest fit — free to create invoices, A$19/month for emailing, recurring invoices and automatic reminders, and no percentage taken because we never process the payment. If you bill hourly, FreshBooks or Harvest are better because time tracking feeds the invoice. If you want free and full-featured, Zoho Invoice is the best of those.
Yes. InvoiceSonic is free to create and download invoices with no signup, and Zoho Invoice has a capable free tier. Wave is free in the US and Canada but has withdrawn from Australia. Be aware that most free tools are funded by payment processing fees, so free to send is not always free to get paid.
Bank transfer, PayID in Australia, and Zelle in the US move money with no fee to either side. Venmo and Cash App are free for personal transfers but charge on business accounts. Card and PayPal payments always carry a percentage. Sending an invoice that shows your bank details prominently is the simplest way to steer clients to a free rail.
A template is fine for a handful of invoices a year. Once you are chasing payments, repeating the same clients monthly, or need to know what is outstanding, software pays for itself — mainly through automatic reminders, which is the part a template cannot do.
Your name or business name and tax number, the client's details, an invoice number and date, a clear description of the work, the amount and any tax, payment terms, and how to pay you. If you are registered for tax, that number is not optional.