# Invoice Ninja Alternatives (2026)

Source: https://lotsinvoice.com/blog/invoice-ninja-alternatives
Published: 2026-10-29T00:30:20.060556+00:00

If the free plan's 5-client limit, paying by user count for a team, or running your own server is why you're looking, LotsInvoice is $12 a month per business with unlimited clients and team members. Zoho Invoice and Wave's Starter plan are free. Prices below were checked on 28 October 2026.

Invoice Ninja is a capable tool, and plenty of freelancers and small businesses run their invoicing in it happily. I opened its own pricing page, its self-hosting documentation and its GitHub repository on 28 October 2026, then every alternative's own pricing page the same day. I compared them on what you actually deal with: the price, what adding a teammate costs, client and invoice limits, and what comes out of each payment. Prices are US dollars before tax, list prices only (no promotions). Sources are linked at the end.

## What Invoice Ninja does well, and why people look elsewhere

Invoice Ninja's Free plan covers up to 5 clients with unlimited invoicing, 11 templates, your logo, online payments through a gateway you connect, recurring invoices with auto-billing, deposits and partial payments, a client portal, products and inventory, projects with billable time, Kanban boards, and vendors and expenses. Ninja Pro is $14 a month ($140 billed annually) and adds unlimited clients, removal of the "Created by Invoice Ninja" line, custom invoice designs, automatic late-payment reminders, reports, the API, a branded portal address and up to 10 companies under one login. There are native apps for macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android, and you can host it yourself.

People look for an alternative for a few reasons that come straight from how the plans are set up:

- **The free plan stops at 5 clients.** More than that, and Pro at $14 a month is the next step.
- **A teammate means Enterprise.** Account users and per-user permissions are on Enterprise, priced by the number of users, from $18 a month for 1 to 2 users to $300 a month for 51 to 100. Premium Business is custom, from $280 a year.
- **Self-hosting is your job.** The code is free to run on your own server, but you provide PHP 8.2, a MySQL or MariaDB database, a web server with HTTPS and a cron job, and you handle updates and backups (Invoice Ninja offers a command-line tool for that).
- **It does a lot.** Inventory, projects, Kanban, expenses and vendors are all in the app. If you only want to send exact invoices and follow them up, that's more to look through than you need.

## Invoice Ninja alternatives at a glance

| Tool | Price | Free option | Your team | Client and invoice limits | Payments and fees (US) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Invoice Ninja** (for reference) | Pro $14 a month or $140 a year; Enterprise from $18 a month (1 to 2 users) | Free: 5 clients, unlimited invoicing | Account users on Enterprise only | Free: 5 clients; Pro and up: unlimited | A payment gateway you connect |
| **LotsInvoice** | $12 a month per business, $120 a year | Free credits at sign-up, no card | Unlimited team members | None inside a business | A Pay button through your own Stripe or Razorpay account, plus your own options (PayPal, Square, bank, ACH, Zelle, check). No cut |
| **Zoho Invoice** | $0 | Free, no end date | Up to 2 users | 500 invoices a year, 3 projects, "Powered by Zoho Invoice" branding | Online gateways you connect |
| **Wave** | Starter $0; Pro $19 a month or $190 a year, per business | Starter | Admin, editor and viewer users on Pro | Unlimited invoices and estimates | Cards 2.9% + $0.60 on Starter (3.4% + $0.60 Amex) |
| **Square Invoices** | Square Free $0; Plus $49 and Premium $149 a month per location | Square Free | Not stated on the pricing page | Invoices and recurring invoices on the plans | Online and invoice cards 3.3% + 30¢ on Free (2.9% + 30¢ on Plus and Premium); ACH 1%, $1 minimum |
| **FreshBooks** | Lite $23, Plus $43, Premium $70 a month | 30-day trial, no card | $11 a month per team member | Lite 5 billable clients, Plus 50, Premium unlimited | Cards 2.9% + $0.30; ACH 1% |
| **Bonsai** | Per user: Basic $15, Essentials $25, Premium $39, Elite $59 a month ($9, $19, $29, $49 billed annually); invoices from Essentials | 7-day free trial | Every user is a paid seat | Unlimited clients | Cards 2.9% + $0.30; ACH as low as 1% |
| **Harvest** | Free; Teams from $11 per seat a month ($9 billed annually) | Free: 1 seat, 2 projects | Teams: per seat | Extra invoices, projects, clients and tasks billed by use on paid plans | Integrates with Stripe |
| **QuickBooks Online** | Simple Start $38, Essentials $85, Plus $140, Advanced $340 a month | Free plan, 1 user | 1, 3, 5 and 25 users by plan | Free plan: 2 invoices a month | Card rates not stated on the pricing page |

Checked on 28 October 2026 on each vendor's own pricing page.

## 1. LotsInvoice: exact invoices, the whole team included, no cut of payments

An invoice is your name on a request for money. It should be right. I built LotsInvoice for business owners, freelancers and consultants who invoice their own clients and want that one job done well, without an accounting suite and without paying for each extra person.

- **One price per business, the team included.** Starter is $12 a month or $120 a year for one business. Inside the business, clients, invoices, estimates, credit notes, items, templates, reminders and team members are unlimited. Invite your partner, an assistant or your bookkeeper as an editor or viewer at no extra cost. [See pricing](https://lotsinvoice.com/pricing).
- **Nothing goes out unchecked.** Every invoice starts as a draft next to a preview of the real PDF. Quantities, discounts and several named taxes per line are calculated to the cent and match in the preview, the PDF and the reports. You send it when you are ready.
- **A record you can trust.** Sent invoices are numbered and locked. Changes are revisions with a reason, or credit notes.
- **No cut of your payments.** LotsInvoice never holds or moves your money. Connect your own Stripe or Razorpay account and each sent invoice gets a Pay button for its exact balance, with a deposit or part payments if you allow them. The money goes straight to your account and the payment is recorded on the invoice by itself. Your invoices and client portal can also show the options you already use: a pay link, PayPal, Venmo, Cash App or Square, bank transfer or ACH details, Zelle or a check address, and you record those payments by hand when they arrive. Your provider's own fees apply, and LotsInvoice adds none.
- **Different payment details for one client.** Each invoice has a Payment details card: it shows your business details by default, and "Change for this invoice" uses other details, such as euro bank details for a client abroad, for that one document.
- **Followed up until you're paid.** Invoices go out from your business name with the PDF and a private client portal link. You see when they're opened. Reminders go out before and after the due date, in your words, on every plan, and stop when the invoice is paid.
- **Set up once.** Your logo, colours and font, one of nine designs (US Letter or A4) or your own template, your numbering, your columns, item and accounting codes, custom fields, tax IDs and declarations.
- **Retainers and quotes.** Recurring invoices weekly, monthly or yearly, as drafts to review or sent on schedule. Estimates accepted with a typed name, converted in one click. Any currency.

New accounts get free credits when they sign up, no card, enough to run one business for about a month.

**Where Invoice Ninja fits better:** LotsInvoice doesn't track time or expenses, has no card form of its own (online payments go through your own Stripe or Razorpay account, and payments by bank transfer, check or Zelle are recorded by hand), has no desktop or phone apps, and is hosted only, so it can't be installed on your own server. If you need those, Invoice Ninja is the better fit. I compared the two in detail in [LotsInvoice vs Invoice Ninja](https://lotsinvoice.com/blog/lotsinvoice-vs-invoice-ninja). [Start at lotsinvoice.com](https://lotsinvoice.com).

## 2. Zoho Invoice: free, with a two-user limit

Zoho Invoice costs $0. It covers quotes, invoices, recurring invoices, payment reminders, expenses, time logging with projects and a customer portal, and you can connect online payment gateways. Its pricing page lists the limits: up to 2 users, up to 3 projects, up to 500 invoices a year, up to two organizations under one account, and "Powered by Zoho Invoice" branding on what you send.

Choose Zoho Invoice if you're a freelancer or a two-person business, you send fewer than 500 invoices a year and you don't mind Zoho's branding. I compared it with LotsInvoice in [LotsInvoice vs Zoho Invoice](https://lotsinvoice.com/blog/lotsinvoice-vs-zoho-invoice).

## 3. Wave: free invoicing with bookkeeping

Wave's Starter plan is $0 and includes unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, mobile invoicing and a dashboard. Pro is $19 a month or $190 a year per business and adds automatic bank-transaction import, receipt capture, automated late-payment reminders and users with admin, editor or viewer roles. Online payments are an option: on Starter, cards cost 2.9% + $0.60 (3.4% + $0.60 for Amex).

Choose Wave if you want invoices and simple books together at no cost. More in [LotsInvoice vs Wave](https://lotsinvoice.com/blog/lotsinvoice-vs-wave) and [Wave alternatives](https://lotsinvoice.com/blog/wave-alternatives-for-agencies-and-freelancers).

## 4. Square Invoices: invoicing inside a payments account

Square puts invoices and recurring invoices on its plans, including Square Free at $0, with automatic payment reminders, deposit requests and payment schedules. The cost is in processing: card payments through an invoice are 3.3% + 30¢ on Square Free and 2.9% + 30¢ on Square Plus ($49 a month per location) and Premium ($149 a month per location). ACH bank transfers on an invoice are 1% with a $1 minimum, capped at $10 on Plus and Premium.

Choose Square Invoices if you already take payments with Square and want invoices in the same account.

## 5. FreshBooks: invoicing with accounting

FreshBooks combines invoicing with expenses, estimates, time tracking, projects and accounting reports. Lite is $23 a month for 5 billable clients, Plus is $43 for 50 and Premium is $70 for unlimited. Each team member is $11 a month. Clients can pay by card, ACH, Apple Pay or Google Pay through FreshBooks, with cards at 2.9% + $0.30 and ACH at 1%. There's a 30-day free trial with no card.

Choose FreshBooks if you want bookkeeping next to your invoices. More in [FreshBooks alternatives](https://lotsinvoice.com/blog/freshbooks-alternatives-for-agencies).

## 6. Bonsai: a client and project workspace

Bonsai is priced per user. Basic ($15 a month, $9 billed annually) covers time tracking, tasks, projects and a CRM. Invoices and payments start on Essentials at $25 a month ($19 billed annually), which also adds proposals, contracts, scheduling, a client portal and expense tracking. Premium is $39 ($29 annually) and Elite is $59 ($49) with a 3-user minimum. Bonsai's payments page lists cards at 2.9% + $0.30 and ACH as low as 1%.

Choose Bonsai if you want proposals, contracts, time and invoices in one workspace. More in [Bonsai alternatives](https://lotsinvoice.com/blog/bonsai-alternatives-for-freelancers-and-small-agencies).

## 7. Harvest: time tracking first, then the invoice

Harvest is built around tracking time and invoicing it. The Free plan is 1 seat and 2 projects with time tracking, invoicing and expense tracking. Teams starts at $11 per seat a month ($9 billed annually, $108 per seat a year) with team reporting and integrations with Stripe, QuickBooks Online and Xero. Harvest's page says that as your team grows, additional invoices, projects, clients and tasks are billed by use, so the seat price is a starting point. There's a 30-day free trial with no card.

Choose Harvest if you used Invoice Ninja mostly for time tracking and hourly invoices.

## 8. QuickBooks Online: full accounting

QuickBooks Online is accounting software with invoicing inside it. Simple Start is $38 a month for 1 user, Essentials $85 for 3, Plus $140 for 5 and Advanced $340 for 25. Its pricing page also shows a Free plan for 1 user that sends 2 invoices a month.

Choose QuickBooks if your accountant works in it or you need full books, not just invoices.

## Self-hosting: if that's why you use Invoice Ninja

Every tool above is hosted by its vendor, LotsInvoice included. Invoice Ninja's self-hosted edition is free to run, includes the Pro and Enterprise features in its source-available code (Elastic License 2.0), and its README lists a $40 a year white-label license to remove the Invoice Ninja branding from client-facing screens. If keeping your data on your own server is the reason you use Invoice Ninja, staying is the straightforward choice. Other open-source invoicing projects exist, and I haven't compared them here.

## For small studios and agencies

If several people touch your invoices, the useful differences are who can join and what clients expect on the page. In LotsInvoice the account manager, project lead, partner and bookkeeper all join the business as editors or viewers, with no per-person charge. Your client's finance team can ask for a PO number, a project code on every line, a tax ID or a declaration, and those are settings you make once: columns you rename, reorder, hide or add, item and accounting codes, custom fields and a template of your own. Pro ($29 a month) covers 5 businesses and Business ($79) covers 20, for people who run several brands or sister companies, and both include LotsNotes Pro while the plan is active. See [where to put a PO number on an invoice](https://lotsinvoice.com/blog/where-to-put-a-po-number-on-an-invoice) and [invoicing several businesses from one account](https://lotsinvoice.com/blog/invoicing-several-businesses-or-brands-from-one-account).

## Which Invoice Ninja alternative should you pick?

- **You want exact, on-brand invoices with your whole team included and no cut of payments:** LotsInvoice, $12 a month or $120 a year.
- **You want to stay at $0:** Zoho Invoice (2 users, 500 invoices a year), Wave Starter, Harvest's free plan (1 seat) or Invoice Ninja's own free plan (5 clients).
- **You want bookkeeping too:** Wave, FreshBooks or QuickBooks Online.
- **You already take payments with Square:** Square Invoices.
- **You want proposals and contracts next to invoices:** Bonsai.
- **You bill tracked hours:** Harvest.
- **You're a founder billing business customers by invoice:** LotsInvoice or Zoho Invoice, depending on whether you want a team on it.
- **You want your own server:** stay with Invoice Ninja's self-hosted edition.

For the wider picture, see [invoice software for freelancers](https://lotsinvoice.com/blog/invoice-software-for-freelancers) and [the best invoicing software for agencies and freelancers](https://lotsinvoice.com/blog/best-invoicing-software-for-agencies-and-freelancers).

## How to move from Invoice Ninja to LotsInvoice

Keep Invoice Ninja open while your last invoices there get paid, and start new invoices in LotsInvoice:

1. **Export your clients and products.** Invoice Ninja's Reports screen exports CSV files.
2. **Create your business** with your legal name, address and email, then confirm the email from your inbox.
3. **Set it up once:** logo, design, columns, taxes and payment options.
4. **Import customers and items** from the CSV files. Columns are matched by name, and you can run a dry run first.
5. **Continue your numbering,** so your next invoice follows the last one you sent from Invoice Ninja.
6. **Invite your team** as editors or viewers.
7. **Move retainers** to recurring invoices, as drafts to check each month or sent on schedule.
8. **Send your first invoice** from a draft, after checking the PDF preview.

LotsInvoice also works with the AI agent you already use, when you want it. If you work in Claude or ChatGPT, connect it at [lotsinvoice.com/mcp](https://lotsinvoice.com/mcp) and hand it the import:

> Read https://lotsinvoice.com/skill.md. Then import the clients in clients.csv and the items in items.csv into my LotsInvoice business, running a dry run first, and set the next invoice number to follow on from INV-0148. Draft the first invoice for Example Co and show me the preview before anything is sent.

It asks before anything goes out, and the dashboard is where you check everything.

## FAQ

### What is a free alternative to Invoice Ninja?

Zoho Invoice is free for up to 2 users and 500 invoices a year, with Zoho branding. Wave's Starter plan is $0, and Harvest's free plan covers 1 seat and 2 projects. Invoice Ninja's own Free plan covers 5 clients. LotsInvoice has no free plan; new accounts get free credits when they sign up, no card, enough to run one business for about a month. Checked on 28 October 2026.

### How much does Invoice Ninja cost?

Invoice Ninja is free for up to 5 clients. Ninja Pro is $14 a month or $140 a year with unlimited clients. Enterprise is priced by account users, from $18 a month for 1 to 2 users up to $300 a month for 51 to 100. Premium Business is custom, from $280 a year. Checked on 28 October 2026.

### Does Invoice Ninja charge per user?

On Enterprise, yes: the price depends on the number of account users. The Free and Pro plans don't add account users. LotsInvoice doesn't charge per user: team members are unlimited in every business.

### Can I self-host an Invoice Ninja alternative?

Not among the tools compared here: they are all hosted by the vendor. Invoice Ninja itself can be self-hosted for free under the Elastic License 2.0, and its documentation lists PHP 8.2, MySQL or MariaDB and a web server with HTTPS as requirements.

### Can I bring my clients from Invoice Ninja to LotsInvoice?

Yes. Export your clients and products as CSV from Invoice Ninja's reports, then import them into LotsInvoice. Customer columns are matched by name (name, email, phone, address, city, state, zip, country, currency, tax ID), and you can try a dry run first.

### Can clients pay online with LotsInvoice?

Yes. Connect your own Stripe or Razorpay account in Settings, Payment, and each sent invoice gets a Pay button for its balance, with a deposit or part payments if you allow them. The money goes straight to your account; LotsInvoice adds no fee and never holds it. The payment is recorded on the invoice by itself. Payments by bank transfer, Zelle, check and similar are still recorded by hand, and your provider's fees (Stripe's or Razorpay's) apply.

## Sources

All checked on 28 October 2026:

- Invoice Ninja: [pricing](https://invoiceninja.com/pricing-plans/), [apps](https://invoiceninja.com/apps/), [self-host installation docs](https://invoiceninja.github.io/docs/self-host/self-host-installation), [self-host site](https://www.invoiceninja.org/), [GitHub repository and license](https://github.com/invoiceninja/invoiceninja), [reports docs](https://invoiceninja.github.io/docs/user-guide/reports)
- LotsInvoice: [lotsinvoice.com](https://lotsinvoice.com), [pricing](https://lotsinvoice.com/pricing), [skill.md](https://lotsinvoice.com/skill.md); online payments checked on 30 October 2026 on the home and pricing FAQs and the [Stripe](https://lotsinvoice.com/help/connect-stripe) and [Razorpay](https://lotsinvoice.com/help/connect-razorpay) help pages
- Zoho Invoice: [pricing](https://www.zoho.com/us/invoice/pricing/)
- Wave: [pricing](https://www.waveapps.com/pricing)
- Square: [invoices](https://squareup.com/us/en/invoices), [pricing](https://squareup.com/us/en/pricing)
- FreshBooks: [pricing](https://www.freshbooks.com/pricing)
- Bonsai: [pricing](https://www.hellobonsai.com/pricing), [payments](https://www.hellobonsai.com/payments)
- Harvest: [pricing](https://www.getharvest.com/pricing)
- QuickBooks Online: [pricing](https://quickbooks.intuit.com/pricing/)