FreshBooks Review: Pricing, Features, Pros and Cons

FreshBooks has been the go-to invoicing tool for freelancers and small service businesses since 2003, and for good reason: no other accounting platform makes creating, sending, and getting paid on invoices as fast or as painless. We’ve evaluated FreshBooks across all four of its pricing tiers, tested its invoicing, time tracking, expense management, project tools, and reporting capabilities, and compared it against competitors like QuickBooks Online, Xero, and Wave. Our verdict: FreshBooks remains one of the best accounting platforms for sole proprietors and small service-based businesses, but it has real limitations in reporting depth, general ledger management, and scalability that buyers need to understand before committing.

The platform’s strength is its laser focus on the needs of people who bill clients for their time: consultants, freelancers, contractors, designers, and agency owners. If that describes you, FreshBooks deserves a spot on your shortlist. If you sell physical products, manage complex inventory, or need enterprise-grade financial reporting, you’ll find it limiting.

FreshBooks pricing starts at $19 per month for the Lite plan (some sources list $21 per month; pricing varies by billing cycle and promotions), with a 30-day free trial that requires no credit card. The platform frequently runs steep introductory discounts, sometimes up to 90% off for the first few months, so the sticker price is rarely what new customers actually pay out of the gate.

What Is FreshBooks?

FreshBooks is a cloud-based accounting and invoicing platform headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Founded in 2003 by Mike McDerment after he accidentally overwrote an invoice in Excel, the company has evolved from a simple online invoicing tool into a broader small business accounting platform with double-entry bookkeeping, time tracking, expense management, project management, and online payment acceptance. FreshBooks remains privately held and reports serving over 50,000 customers globally.

The company’s core philosophy is that business owners shouldn’t need an accounting degree to manage their finances. The interface is designed for non-accountants, with clean navigation, plain-language labels, and workflows that prioritize speed over configurability. FreshBooks added double-entry accounting to its Plus plan and above, which brought it closer to feature parity with competitors on the bookkeeping side. However, it still lags behind QuickBooks Online and Xero in general ledger depth, reporting breadth, and accounts payable functionality. That trade-off is deliberate: FreshBooks optimizes for simplicity and invoicing speed rather than trying to be all things to all businesses.

FreshBooks Key Features

Invoicing

Invoicing is where FreshBooks pulls ahead of virtually every competitor. You can create professional, branded invoices using customizable templates, set up recurring invoices on automatic schedules, and configure payment reminders that go out without any manual intervention. Clients can pay directly from the invoice via credit card, debit card, or ACH bank transfer. FreshBooks notifies you in real time when a client views an invoice and again when they pay it, which eliminates the guessing game of “did they even see it?” In our evaluation, the entire workflow from creating an invoice to receiving payment felt faster and more polished than what we experienced with QuickBooks Online, Xero, or Wave. The ability to accept deposits and set up client retainers (on Plus plans and above) adds further flexibility for service businesses.

Time Tracking

FreshBooks includes a built-in time tracker that works on both the web platform and mobile apps. You can start a timer, assign hours to a specific client and project, designate them as billable, and then convert those logged hours directly into invoice line items. For contractors and consultants who bill by the hour, this eliminates the need for a separate time-tracking tool like Toggl or Harvest. Time entries must be tied to projects, which enforces good organizational habits but can feel slightly rigid if you want to log miscellaneous time without creating a project first. The pop-up timer on the web app is a nice touch that keeps the clock running while you work in other areas of FreshBooks.

Expense Tracking

FreshBooks connects to your bank accounts and credit cards via Plaid and automatically imports transactions daily. You can categorize expenses, assign them to specific clients or projects for rebilling, and capture receipts using the mobile app’s camera. The expense categorization is straightforward, though it lacks some of the rule-based automation that QuickBooks Online offers for recurring transactions. On the Plus plan and above, expenses integrate with the double-entry accounting system, so they flow correctly into your financial reports without manual journal entries.

Project Management

FreshBooks goes beyond basic accounting by offering project management tools that let you create projects, assign team members, set budgets, track time against milestones, and monitor profitability. Each project page provides an overview of hours logged, expenses incurred, and amounts invoiced, giving you a real-time snapshot of whether a project is on track financially. This is a feature that most competing accounting platforms either don’t offer at all or handle through third-party integrations. For agencies and consultants managing multiple client engagements simultaneously, this built-in capability saves both money and the hassle of syncing data between separate tools.

Double-Entry Accounting

Available on the Plus plan and above, FreshBooks supports double-entry bookkeeping with a chart of accounts, journal entries, and bank reconciliation. The system handles debits and credits in the background, so you don’t need to understand accounting mechanics to use it. If you do want direct access to the underlying bookkeeping, you can enable “Advanced Accounting” to edit the chart of accounts and create manual journal entries. Standard financial reports include profit and loss, balance sheet, trial balance, general ledger, and tax summary. That said, the reporting suite is noticeably thinner than what you’ll find in QuickBooks Online or Xero. If your accountant regularly needs custom reports or detailed financial analysis, FreshBooks may feel limiting.

Estimates and Proposals

FreshBooks lets you create professional estimates and proposals with your branding, send them to clients for approval, and convert accepted estimates into invoices with a single click. This streamlines the entire quote-to-cash workflow and ensures consistency between what you quoted and what you bill. The feature is available on the Plus plan and above, which means Lite plan users miss out on proposals entirely.

Mobile Apps

The iOS and Android apps are well-designed and cover most of what you’d need on the go: creating and sending invoices, tracking time, capturing receipts, logging expenses, and managing clients. The mobile experience is one of the better ones in the category, and contractors who bill from job sites will find it genuinely useful. However, one significant gap remains: the mobile apps cannot generate or view financial reports. If you need to check your profit and loss statement or balance sheet, you’ll have to use the web interface.

Online Payments

FreshBooks Payments processes credit cards, debit cards, and ACH bank transfers directly through your invoices. The standard processing rate is 2.9% plus $0.30 per credit card transaction, with lower rates for ACH transfers. You can also connect Stripe or PayPal as alternative payment processors. Enabling online payments on invoices significantly reduces the time between sending an invoice and receiving payment, and FreshBooks reports that users who accept online payments get paid up to 11 days faster on average.

FreshBooks Pricing and Plans

FreshBooks offers four pricing tiers. Pricing varies somewhat depending on whether you pay monthly or annually, and FreshBooks frequently runs promotional discounts for new customers (sometimes as steep as 90% off for the first four months). The prices below reflect standard monthly rates based on the most recent available data. Note that some sources list slightly different prices (for example, Lite at $19 or $21 per month), which may reflect different billing cycles, regional pricing, or recent adjustments. We recommend confirming current pricing directly on the FreshBooks website.

All plans include a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. Annual billing provides a discount (typically around 10%). Additional team members cost approximately $11 per month each on any plan, which can add up quickly for businesses with more than a few users. FreshBooks does not include built-in payroll; you’ll need a third-party integration like Gusto, and 1099 filing requires an add-on such as Yearli. These are costs that competitors like QuickBooks Online bundle more directly into their ecosystem.

Integrations

FreshBooks integrates with a range of third-party tools, though its integration ecosystem is smaller than what QuickBooks Online or Xero offer. Key native integrations include:

• Payment processing: Stripe, PayPal, FreshBooks Payments (built-in)
• Payroll: Gusto
• Banking: Plaid (for automatic bank and credit card transaction imports)
• CRM: HubSpot, Salesforce (via third-party connectors)
• Project management: Asana, Trello (via Zapier)
• Tax filing: Yearli (for 1099 preparation)
• E-commerce: Shopify (for importing sales data)

FreshBooks supports Zapier, which opens up connections to hundreds of additional apps, including Slack, Mailchimp, Google Sheets, and many others. The platform also provides an API for custom integrations, though the developer documentation is more limited than what you’d find with QuickBooks or Xero. If your business relies heavily on connecting multiple software tools, you should verify that the specific integrations you need are available before committing to FreshBooks.

Customer Support

FreshBooks offers support via phone, email, and live chat during business hours (Monday through Friday). The Select plan includes a dedicated account manager and priority phone support. There is no 24/7 support option on the standard plans, which could be a limitation for businesses operating outside North American business hours.

The self-service resources are solid. FreshBooks maintains an online help center organized by topic (dashboard setup, invoicing, payments, reporting), along with video tutorials and webinars. The help center covers both how-to guides for the platform and broader small business topics like Making Tax Digital (MTD) compliance. Unlike QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks does not offer free setup assistance, though the chatbot can guide you through common setup questions.

User feedback on FreshBooks support is generally positive. Customers frequently cite responsive, knowledgeable phone support and helpful email responses. The most common complaint is wait times during peak periods and the lack of weekend or after-hours support. Overall, FreshBooks’ support reputation is above average for its category.

Pros and Cons

Based on our evaluation and analysis of extensive user feedback, here is where FreshBooks genuinely excels and where it falls short. The pros and cons reflect patterns we’ve observed consistently, not isolated complaints or cherry-picked praise.

Who Should Use FreshBooks?

FreshBooks is an excellent fit for freelancers, independent contractors, consultants, and small service-based businesses with 1 to 25 employees. It works particularly well for professionals who bill clients by the hour or by project: think graphic designers, web developers, marketing consultants, lawyers, architects, and IT contractors. If your primary accounting need is sending professional invoices, tracking time, and managing expenses without wading through complex accounting interfaces, FreshBooks is one of the best options available.

Industries that benefit most include professional services, creative agencies, IT consulting, construction trades (especially subcontractors), and any business where invoicing clients and tracking billable time are the core financial activities.

FreshBooks is not the right choice for product-based businesses managing complex inventory, retailers with high transaction volumes, or companies that need advanced accounts payable workflows with multi-level approval processes. Businesses with more than 10 to 15 users will find the per-member pricing expensive compared to platforms that offer more generous team plans. If you need deep financial reporting, custom report builders, or advanced budgeting and forecasting, QuickBooks Online or Xero will serve you better. And if payroll is a must-have built into your accounting platform, FreshBooks’ reliance on third-party integrations for payroll may be a dealbreaker.

FreshBooks Alternatives

QuickBooks Online is the most direct alternative and the broader platform overall. It offers stronger reporting, more integrations, built-in payroll (as an add-on), and better inventory management. However, it’s more complex to learn and its invoicing workflow isn’t as streamlined as FreshBooks. Choose QuickBooks Online if you need a full-featured accounting platform that can scale with a growing team or if you sell physical products alongside services.

Xero excels at multi-currency support, unlimited users on all plans, and a large app marketplace with over 1,000 integrations. Its reporting is more flexible than FreshBooks, and it handles accounts payable more capably. The learning curve is steeper, and the invoicing experience is functional but less polished. Xero is the better pick for businesses with international clients, multiple team members, or a need for extensive third-party integrations.

Wave is a free accounting platform that covers invoicing, expense tracking, and basic reporting at no cost (it monetizes through payment processing and payroll add-ons). If you’re a solo freelancer on a very tight budget, Wave gets the basics done without a monthly fee. However, it lacks time tracking, project management, and the polish of FreshBooks’ invoicing experience. Customer support is also limited on the free tier.

Zoho Books offers a strong feature set at a lower price point than FreshBooks, including inventory management, project tracking, and a free plan for businesses with under $50K in annual revenue. It integrates tightly with the broader Zoho ecosystem (CRM, Projects, Desk), which is a major advantage if you already use Zoho tools. The interface is less intuitive than FreshBooks, and the invoicing workflow isn’t as refined, but the value for money is hard to beat.

HoneyBook is worth considering if you’re a creative professional or event-based service provider who needs client management, contracts, proposals, and invoicing in one platform. It’s less capable as an accounting tool than FreshBooks, but stronger as a client relationship and project booking platform. Choose HoneyBook if your workflow is more proposal-and-contract-driven than invoice-and-expense-driven.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does FreshBooks offer a free plan?

No, FreshBooks does not have a permanent free plan. It does offer a 30-day free trial on all plans with no credit card required. FreshBooks also frequently runs promotional pricing for new customers, sometimes offering up to 90% off for the first four months, which significantly reduces the initial cost.

Can FreshBooks handle double-entry accounting?

Yes, but only on the Plus plan ($33 to $38 per month) and above. The Plus, Premium, and Select plans include double-entry bookkeeping with a chart of accounts, journal entries, bank reconciliation, and standard financial reports like balance sheet, profit and loss, and trial balance. The Lite plan does not include these features.

Does FreshBooks include payroll?

No. FreshBooks does not have built-in payroll. You’ll need to integrate with a third-party payroll provider like Gusto. Similarly, 1099 preparation and filing require an add-on such as Yearli. This is a notable gap compared to QuickBooks Online, which offers payroll as a paid add-on within the same platform.

How much does it cost to add team members to FreshBooks?

Additional team members cost approximately $11 per month each, regardless of which plan you’re on. The Select plan includes two team members in the base price. For businesses with more than a handful of team members, this per-user cost can make FreshBooks significantly more expensive than platforms like Xero, which includes unlimited users on all plans.

Is FreshBooks good for product-based businesses?

FreshBooks is primarily designed for service-based businesses. It lacks meaningful inventory management features and doesn’t support complex product catalogs, purchase orders, or manufacturing workflows. If you sell physical products, QuickBooks Online, Xero, or Zoho Books are better choices.

Can I use FreshBooks on my phone?

Yes. FreshBooks has well-regarded iOS and Android apps that support invoicing, time tracking, receipt capture, expense logging, and client management. However, the mobile apps cannot generate or display financial reports. You’ll need to log in to the web interface for any reporting tasks.

What payment processing fees does FreshBooks charge?

FreshBooks Payments charges 2.9% plus $0.30 per credit card transaction. ACH bank transfer fees are lower. You can alternatively connect Stripe or PayPal as your payment processor if you prefer. There are no additional monthly fees for enabling online payments on your invoices beyond the per-transaction processing costs.

The Bottom Line

FreshBooks earns a 4.1 out of 5 in our review. It is, without question, the best invoicing experience in the small business accounting category. The combination of customizable invoices, automatic payment reminders, real-time open/paid notifications, built-in time tracking, and a genuinely intuitive interface makes it the obvious choice for freelancers and service businesses that prioritize getting paid quickly with minimal friction.

Where FreshBooks falls short is in the areas beyond invoicing. Its reporting suite is thinner than competitors, its general ledger capabilities are below the category average, and the lack of built-in payroll or meaningful inventory management means it simply won’t work for certain business types. The per-team-member pricing also makes it an expensive choice for growing teams, especially compared to Xero’s unlimited-user model.

Our recommendation: if you’re a sole proprietor, freelancer, or small service business with fewer than 10 team members, and your primary need is professional invoicing with time tracking and basic accounting, FreshBooks is one of the smartest investments you can make. Start with the 30-day free trial and take advantage of the introductory discounts. If you need deeper financial reporting, inventory management, or a platform that scales cost-effectively to 20 or more users, look at QuickBooks Online or Xero instead.