Top 10 free invoice generators: A comparison
Imagine you're living that freelancer life, you have your customers, you've done the work, and then you realize that there's one last thing standing between you and getting your hard-earned money: generating an invoice so your customers can pay you.
Now, depending on your specific situation, you can choose from different types of free invoice generators. Take a look at the solutions they offer and find the most suitable option for you!
If you need a legal way to invoice your customers
One of the hurdles freelancers often face is the question of how to legally invoice your customers. To create invoices, you need to register your company or become self-employed, then you need to handle the tax payments, submit tax reports, and handle other accounting tasks. That takes up a lot of time you'd rather spend on work that actually brings in money. Luckily, there's a solution – company-as-a-service providers.
1. Abillio
Since you've landed on the Abillio's blog, it won't be a big surprise that we'll start with our service. Abillio is a Latvia-based company that offers company-as-a-service solutions. In simple terms – by using Abillio, you can invoice your customers immediately, without registering any kind of legal entity yourself.
You sign up for the service, transfer a one-time 1 EUR membership fee to Abillio (this requirement is for Latvia's residents only), and that's it! Start generating your invoices, get notified when the payments come in, and transfer the incoming money to your bank account. Abillio handles tax payments and reports for you, while you get to focus on your work.
Costs:
- Sign up for free, no subscription fees
- 5% service fee to Abillio from the final payable amount
- Necessary tax payments + bank commission when you transfer the money to your account
A few notes:
- Abillio supports five currencies (EUR, USD, GBP, AUD, CAD) to make invoicing even more convenient.
- You can use Abillio for all types of work with a few exceptions (financial consulting, licensed services, and sale of physical goods).
- You can receive quick payments – depending on the bank you use, you can get the money your customers have paid in a few seconds or the next day.
2. Ruul
Ruul operates similarly to Abillio – it lets you invoice customers for your freelance work without registering your own company. This way, you avoid all the administrative work associated with tax payments and reports while making sure your freelance work payments are not under the table but official and legal.
Sign up for Ruul, fill out your profile, and start issuing invoices. When the money from your customers comes in, the necessary taxes and Ruul's fees are deducted, and you can withdraw your earnings.
Costs:
- Sign up for free, no subscription fees
- Service fee to Ruul – the amount depends on your location, currency, and other factors
- Necessary tax payments
A few notes:
- Ruul lets you issue your first invoice for free without taking its commission fee – think of it as a test run for the service.
- For an additional commission fee, you can opt in for the Early Pay option, which lets you receive the payment from Ruul before your customer has paid your invoice.
- To use Ruul, the services you provide have to be digital.
3. Juuli
Juuli is another company-as-a-service platform that lets you create and send invoices without your own legal entity. Like Abillio and Ruul, it doesn't charge you any subscription fees, instead relying on a pay-as-you-go model. Juuli is based in Estonia and the United Kingdom, so you can issue your invoices globally.
It works the same way as the other companies – once you've signed up, you can start generating invoices. When your customers pay you, Juuli deducts the taxes and its service fee, and you get the money.
Costs:
- Sign up for free, no subscription fees
- A 6% service fee to Juul
- Necessary tax payments
A few notes:
- Juuli lets you create invoices in three currencies only (USD, EUR, GBP).
- You can download free invoice templates to customize the invoices you send to your customers.
- Invoices you issue through Juuli have a minimum limit of €100 and a maximum of €10,000 per invoice.
If you have a legal entity, you still need a systematic way to handle accounting and generate invoices for the work you've done. This way, you'll ensure all your tax reports and payments are accurate and all your invoices are issued correctly and paid for.
4. Wave
Wave offers a variety of handy money management tools for freelancers, including invoice generation. You can handle all aspects of your business in one place, follow your finances, keep up with tax payments, and more.
Wave is one of the few accounting apps that offer a free version, so all you need to do is sign up and start using it. Depending on your needs, you can choose from various features, but note that some are only available in the paid plan.
Costs:
- Free Starter plan available
- $16/month Pro plan with additional features
A few notes:
- The invoice-generating feature is included in the free plan.
- You'll still need your own legal entity to issue invoices – Wave doesn't offer the same kind of service as Abillio or the other previously mentioned tools.
- Wave automatically calculates taxes for your invoices, but make sure to double-check that they correspond to the requirements of your location.
If you want to generate invoices based on the time spent working on a particular project
If you charge your customers an hourly rate, your best choice will be time-tracking solutions that also offer automatic invoice generation. When you work on a task, log the time you spent on it with a time tracker and then use the data to issue precise invoices based on your agreed hourly payment.
5. Toggl
One of the best options you could go for in this case is a time tracker like Toggl. It lets you track time spent on projects and then use the data to issue invoices. Toggl is a particularly useful tool if you work with many different customers. Unlike with many other similar apps, Toggl's free plan lets you add an unlimited number of clients.
When you sign up for a Toggl account, you can immediately start to track project time and generate invoices.
Costs:
- Free plan available
- 30-day free trial for the Premium plan
- Paid plans start at €10/month
A few notes:
- Unlike Abillio, Toggl won't replace the need for your own company to let you issue invoices and receive payment for your work.
- If you use the free plan, the generated invoices will have the Toggl logo on the PDF files; if you want more customization options, you'll need to subscribe to the paid plan.
- You can also track time with the mobile app to make sure no billable hours are missed.
6. Harvest
Harvest is another time-tracking app similar to Toggl – it lets you generate invoices based on the time you spend working on a project. It has fewer options for managers who want to see what their teams are doing, but it has everything you might need as a freelancer who wants to get paid for your work.
Simply create your account on Harvest, download the app, and start tracking time. When necessary, generate invoices using the time-tracking data you've accrued.
Costs:
- Free plan available
- 30-day free trial to test out the paid features
- $12/month Harvest Pro plan
A few notes:
- You'll still need your own company or other legal way to issue invoices – Harvest is simply a tool to generate them quickly and with precise data on how much time you spent working.
- The free plan offers limited features, including only two active projects at a time – to add new ones, you'll need to archive older projects.
- With the free plan, the invoicing feature won't let you upload a company logo or attach other files to invoices.
7. Hubstaff
Hubstaff is a powerful time tracker popular for large teams, but it's also useful for freelancers who need a way to log their hours. The tracker lets you log the time you spend on a project down to the second. Afterward, you can use this data to calculate the amount your customers should pay you based on your hourly rate.
To get started, create a Hubstaff account, download the desktop app for precise time tracking, and add your projects. Use their invoicing feature to generate accurate invoices for your customers.
Costs:
- Free plan available
- Free 14-day trial to test out paid features
- $7/month Starter plan
A few notes:
- Hubstaff's free plan includes invoicing, but note that you can add 3 customers at a time – if you need to add more, you'll need the paid plan.
- The app offers various time tracking features like screenshots and activity tracking, which you can use as proof of work for your customers; however, the free plan has a limited number of screenshots per month.
- Time trackers like Hubstaff don't provide you with a legal entity – to make sure you actually can issue invoices, you'll still need a company of your own or a service like Abillio.
What if you have everything else covered, including your own company and a way to track your billable hours, but you simply want to create professional invoices that reflect your brand? There are several tools to choose from in this case as well.
If you need an editing tool to generate invoices
8. Canva
If you've ever needed to edit a photo but don't know the ins and outs of Photoshop, you're probably familiar with Canva. It's an online image editing tool that's intuitive to use and also offers a simple way to create invoices that suit your business and image.
Simply head to Canva's invoice-generating tool and create your invoice – you don't even need to sign up for an account (although it is recommended since you'll access a lot more options and features).
Costs:
- Free to use
- Premium features, templates, and other elements require a Pro plan (€12/month)
- 30-day free trial for the Pro plan
A few notes:
- Canva offers a large number of ready-made invoice templates, so you won't need to start from scratch; however, many templates will only be available with the paid plan.
- With Canva, you can download the created invoice or share it via a link.
- You'll need to manually fill out all the information that an invoice requires yourself; you can't populate the template with data automatically.
9. Adobe Express
Adobe is a brand name that anyone will be familiar with, and among its wide variety of tools on offer, there's also an invoice generator that's easy and quick to use. Similar to Canva, Adobe Express lets you choose from various templates to create your invoice, and they're easy enough to customize even for inexperienced users.
Go to Adobe Express, choose your template, and customize it. Download the invoice and send it to your customer. A registered account is preferable if you want to save your created invoices but not mandatory – you can download them without signing up.
Costs:
- Free to use
- Premium plan available to access more templates and other features (€12.09/month)
- A 30-day free trial for the Premium plan
A few notes:
- Adobe Express will only let you download the created invoices – you won't be able to share them via a link or send them to customers right from the platform.
- Like Canva, Adobe Express will only help you generate the invoice itself; you'll need to supply all the data.
- Depending on your needs, the free templates and features might not be enough to create the invoice exactly as you imagined.
10. Invoice Generator
If invoice design doesn't matter much and all you need is a simple way to create a professional-looking invoice, then tools like Invoice Generator will be useful. All you have to do is enter the required information you need to see on the invoice and generate it. You won't be able to customize the template much, but if you're looking for the quickest solution, this will be it.
Costs:
- Free to use
A few notes:
- Customization options here are very limited, but you can add your logo.
- You can both customize the empty fields in the template and change the headings and other texts (if you want to generate the invoice in a different language, for example).
- You can sign up for an account, but your generated invoices are also stored on your device (however, this will not be a reliable way of archiving your invoices since clearing your browser's history will delete all the generated invoices).
Choose your free invoice generator and get started
As you can see, there isn't one answer to the question, “Which is the best free invoice generator?” It all depends on your specific needs, so start there – figure out what you need and find the tool to take care of that. You could even combine several tools mentioned in this post (using a time tracker to log billable hours and then generating invoices with Abillio's company-as-a-service solution, for example).
Once you know your requirements, getting payments for your freelance work will be smooth sailing with the right tool.