Our Take
4.8
NerdWallet rating
The bottom line:
FreshBooks users value the accounting software’s ease of use, and our hands-on testing agrees. The software’s straightforward invoicing, project tracking features and built-in time tracking help it stand out among the competition. However, there’s a clear tradeoff between simplicity and functionality. Businesses with more complex accounting needs may want to look elsewhere.
FreshBooks
Starting at
$21/month Additional pricing tiers (per month): $38, $65, custom.
Promotion
50% off for 6 months. 30-Day Money Back Guarantee.
Learn more
on FreshBooks' website
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Simple to use for freelancers and very small businesses.
- All plans include time tracking, plus the ability to add billable hours and expenses to invoices.
- Can communicate with clients via the mobile app.
Cons
- Highest-tier Select plan comes with only two users, and lower-tier plans have billable client limits.
- No bank reconciliation, accountant access or double-entry accounting reports in the Lite plan.
Full Review
FreshBooks was founded in 2003 as an invoicing solution and eventually evolved into a small-business accounting software product. It’s primarily geared toward freelancers and other small businesses that transact via invoice.
All of its plans include features — like time and mileage tracking, project management and client portals — that service-based businesses will appreciate. Most competitors only include these features in higher-tier plans or as add-ons. FreshBooks’ pricing has increased over the years, like most accounting software price points have. But it’s still less expensive than popular alternatives, like QuickBooks Online.
Some users say FreshBooks is easier to work with than more expensive options. However, its lower cost comes with fewer capabilities. If you run a business with employees and need more detailed transaction tracking and reporting, FreshBooks likely won’t meet your needs.
FreshBooks is best for:
✔️ Service-based businesses.
✔️ Easy invoicing.
✔️ Built-in time tracking and project management.
Not a fit? Consider these competitors
at QuickBooks | at Wave | at Zoho Books |
Starting at $35/month Additional pricing tiers (per month): $65, $99, $235. | Starting at $0 Additional pricing tiers (per month): $16 | Starting at $0 Additional pricing tiers (per month): $20, $50, $70, $150, $275. |
Promotion 50% off for first three months or free 30-day trial. | Promotion N/A | Promotion 14-day free trial of the Premium plan. |
QuickBooks Online: Better for bigger businesses. Multiple FreshBooks reviews say the software doesn’t have as much functionality as QuickBooks Online. If your books are more complex or you run a larger small business, QuickBooks Online is probably a better alternative. Read our full QuickBooks Online review.
Wave: Better price point. At $16 per month, Wave’s most expensive plan is less than FreshBooks’ introductory option. Similar to FreshBooks, Wave is best for very small service-based businesses with simple books. Read our full Wave review.
Zoho Books: Better for in-house apps. If you want an all-in-one business software solution, Zoho Books is a great choice. In addition to accounting software, it has programs for social media management, marketing and human resources. Read our full Zoho Books review.
Looking for more options?
Here’s an in-depth look at how FreshBooks compares to the competition:
» Learn more: See our full list of the top FreshBooks alternatives
FreshBooks plan pricing and features
FreshBooks gives potential users free, unlimited access to its software for 30 days. Or, you can skip the free trial and receive a monthly discount.
Lite | Plus | Premium | Select |
$21 per month. | $38 per month. | $65 per month. | Custom pricing. |
Designed for freelancers.
| Designed for the self-employed. Includes everything in the Lite plan, plus:
| Designed for small businesses with contractors. Includes everything in the Plus plan, plus:
| Designed for small businesses with employees. Includes everything in the Premium plan, plus:
|
All FreshBooks plans, aside from the Select plan, include just one user. Additional users cost $11 per month per person. You can also subscribe to FreshBooks’ advanced payments option for $20 per month. This lets you accept payments over the phone and in person and set up subscription payments for clients.
What users say about FreshBooks
NerdWallet checked online forums like Reddit and reviews from sites like TrustPilot, the App Store and Google Play to gauge how users feel about FreshBooks. We used an AI tool to help analyze this feedback. Here are the major trends we spotted.
👍 Simplicity
Positive reviews of FreshBooks commonly mention its simplicity. Users say it’s more intuitive than QuickBooks Online, the industry standard. This isn’t necessarily surprising, since it has less functionality than QuickBooks Online and is geared more toward freelancers and very small businesses. Reviewers also think FreshBooks is easy to work with, even if you’re new to accounting.
👍 Easy invoicing
People who use FreshBooks often praise its invoicing features. They say the mobile app makes it easy to send invoices on the go, which is particularly useful for freelancers and other service-based businesses. Plus, you can use it to message back and forth with clients who have questions about their invoices. The app includes automated mileage tracking in all plans, too.
👎 Payments
In general, FreshBooks users do not seem satisfied with its payment processing partners — and in particular its built-in option, Stripe. Online reviewers say they’ve experienced payment processing delays with Stripe and long waits for ACH payments to be deposited.
Unfortunately, this type of feedback isn’t necessarily uncommon for accounting software products. One way to get around this would be requiring clients to pay with checks. However, it can be tedious to track that method of payment, since you need to manually record it.
👎 Technical issues
Business owners report several different types of technical problems with the web and app versions of FreshBooks. Some have had issues syncing bank feeds to the software and say they’ve noticed information is missing. Other complaints suggest the mobile app lags behind the web version of FreshBooks and doesn’t update information on a regular basis.
If you only import a handful of transactions each week and primarily use FreshBooks’ web version, this will likely be less of a problem.
👍/👎 Customer support
On Trustpilot, in particular, FreshBooks receives an overwhelming number of five-star reviews. Many of them praise the company’s customer support. A lot of these users are “verified,” meaning FreshBooks invited them to leave reviews. This certainly doesn’t delegitimize that feedback, but it’s something to take into account.
Recent reviews from users who aren’t “verified” — including from some who say they’ve used and recommended FreshBooks for years — highlight declining customer support. Their complaints include less helpful representatives and longer wait times on the phone. Regardless of which accounting software product you choose, you’ll likely find similar negativity.
Before committing to a particular product, think about how much hands-on support you’ll actually need. You can also feel out the quality of that support — and gauge responsiveness — by asking questions about the setup process before signing up. That experience can be a good indicator of what to expect from customer support representatives in the future.
Our experience testing FreshBooks
👋 I'm Hillary Crawford, a lead writer and content strategist for NerdWallet. I've been covering small-business accounting software since 2021 and am QuickBooks certified. I did the testing for FreshBooks.
To do that, I tested out FreshBooks' free trial and evaluated key components in May 2025. Here’s what stood out.
My take: Easy to scan.
FreshBooks’ main dashboard gives you an overview of your outstanding invoices, revenue and expenses, profit, revenue streams, spending and un-billed time. Typically, these data points are displayed as tables and graphs, but the trial didn’t come with demo transactions.
One plus is the dashboard’s customizability. You can edit which data points you’d like to show and the order in which they’re displayed.
Dashboard.
My take: Exceptionally user friendly.
I give FreshBooks’ invoicing props for being so intuitive. If I was a small-business owner who was new to invoicing, I’d want my software to ensure I don’t miss anything. FreshBooks does that in its “Settings” side rail and even lets you set preferences for each client.
Those preferences include payment reminder intervals, late fee charges, currency and attachments. It also clearly displays whether or not you’re allowing your clients to pay via credit card, which incurs processing fees.
Creating an invoice.
However, I wish you could create custom invoice columns or choose which columns to display, like you can with QuickBooks Online. FreshBooks doesn’t have that functionality.
My take: Good for the basics.
Similar to its competitors, FreshBooks’ reporting dash lets you “star” reports so they show up atop the page. To evaluate customization options and readability, I ran the profit and loss report. You can change dates, accounting methods and currency, but customization options are limited. For example, you can’t filter by client (though this is possible in project-related reports).
Profit and loss report.
Like other features within FreshBooks, this type of reporting works well for small businesses with straightforward accounting needs. Businesses with more complex needs, however, will be better off with an alternative that has more filters.
My take: Decent, but should be in all plans.
FreshBooks automatically categorizes new expenses for you as they flow in from your bank feed. And unlike some competitors, the software clearly displays how each transaction has been categorized. That makes it easy to double-check everything is correct and make any necessary changes.
FreshBooks’ YouTube video on categorizing expenses.
Then, on the reconciliation page, FreshBooks lists bank transactions on the left and FreshBooks entries on the right. From there, it suggests likely matches. This is pretty standard, but I wish it was included in the base-level Lite plan. Most competitors include reconciliation tools in all plan options.
My take: A solid value-add for freelancers.
Unlike many of its competitors, FreshBooks includes project management tools in all of its plans. You can create new projects, assign them to a specific client and decide whether you’d like to structure each project as a flat-rate or hourly job. The project management interface is similar to the software’s invoicing page and just as easy to navigate.
Creating a project.
My take: Phone number is listed clearly. Otherwise, you’ll need to go through a bot.
FreshBooks’ help page clearly lists the customer support phone number and hours. If you’re seeking online help, though, you’ll need to go through the company’s chat bot to get it.
This isn’t atypical for accounting software products. But it would be nice if FreshBooks listed an email address or had a separate live chat option that connected you immediately to a human.
FreshBooks' help page.
How we evaluated FreshBooks
NerdWallet independently reviews accounting software products, like FreshBooks, across 10 categories and more than 30 subcategories. We collected the data from FreshBooks’ public-facing website and from company representatives.
Our accounting software ratings range from one to five stars overall. But we also score individual features to help business owners understand a product's strengths and weaknesses. Here’s how FreshBooks stacks up:
FreshBooks is top of the line for the following categories:
- Monthly pricing: $21-$65 and up per month.
- Pricing listed on website: Yes.
- Free trial period: Yes. It offers unlimited access for 30 days.
- Double-entry accounting: Yes, but you can only access double-entry accounting reports in the Plus plan and up.
- Chart of accounts customization: Yes.
- Cash- and accrual-basis reporting: Yes, you can change your report preferences.
- Phone support: Plans come with phone support, available from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST on weekdays.
- Online support: Plans come with chat support, but you need to go through the chatbot to connect with a human. The same goes for sending an email to a support specialist.
- Help library: Yes.
FreshBooks is good — but not the best — in these areas:
- Reporting: FreshBooks has more than 20 reports available, which is less than competitors, like QuickBooks Online and Xero. It includes the basics, like a profit and loss statement, balance sheet and sales tax summary report. All plans let you filter by date, but you can’t create reporting tags. The closest thing to tags are subcategories, but unlike reporting tags, those appear in your chart of accounts.
- Invoicing: All users can convert estimates to invoices, customize invoices with brand logos, set up payment reminders and accept payments online.
- Inventory: FreshBooks lets you track which items you have in stock, and it automatically updates quantities when items are sold via invoice. However, you cannot set up formal reorder points.
- Accounts payable: Yes, but only in the Premium plan and up.
- Mobile app: All FreshBooks users have access to a mobile app that lets you send invoices, track time and mileage, and view business insights. You’ll need the Plus plan or up, though, to snap photos of receipts.
- Project tracking: All plans let you track project billing and budgets. You can also view tracked time, invoices and expenses by project. However, you’ll need the Premium plan or up to track project profitability.
- Transaction categorization: You can categorize transactions by account and subaccount (also called category and subcategory). However, you can’t assign categories that don’t map back to the chart of accounts.
- Industry-specific reports: Not available.
- Payroll: FreshBooks has its own in-house payroll solution and integrates with SurePayroll and Gusto.
- POS: POS system integrations are limited to Square and Stripe.
- Bookkeeping services: FreshBooks integrates with Mazuma.
- Additional integrations: These include apps like BigCommerce, HoneyBook, Expensify and Zendesk. Aside from that, FreshBooks has fewer third-party integrations than competitors, like QuickBooks Online and Xero.
- Bank reconciliation: You must subscribe to the Plus plan or up to access bank reconciliation tools. FreshBooks suggests matching bank statement lines and existing transactions for you. While it automatically assigns categories to expense transactions, there is no bank rule feature to streamline the process.
- Bank feeds: All plans support automatic bank feeds.
- Dashboard customization: Yes. You can choose which graphs you’d like to display or hide on your dashboard.
FreshBooks is decent in the following categories:
- Audit trails: Yes. FreshBooks added an audit log report in 2024.
- Bookkeeper certification: Yes. Accountants can participate in FreshBooks’ training program and become an accounting partner.
- Accountant access: This is only included in the Plus plan and up.
FreshBooks is acceptable in the following categories:
- User limits: Most FreshBooks plans only include one user, but the Select plan includes two. You can add additional users for $11 per month each.
- Capacity to support larger small businesses: FreshBooks says it can support midsize businesses, but its invoicing tools are best for freelancers and other small service-based businesses.
We also took user sentiment into account to gauge what small-business owners think about FreshBooks. This involved looking through individual reviews and feedback on sites like Trustpilot, Reddit, the App Store and Google Play. Then, we used AI tools to help spot larger trends within those comments. We don't incorporate these user reviews in our star ratings, because we can't verify every user's individual experience.
However, we do test the product ourselves to evaluate commonly mentioned pain points and develop our own objective assessment. For more information on how we score accounting software products, see our full methodology.
Learn more
on FreshBooks' website
Frequently Asked Questions
Unlike QuickBooks Online, all FreshBooks plans let you track time and mark expenses as billable. Whereas FreshBooks is best for freelancers and small businesses that do most of their transactions by invoice, QuickBooks Online is a more robust product that can support quickly growing small businesses. For a detailed breakdown, see NerdWallet’s FreshBooks vs. QuickBooks Online comparison.
FreshBooks starts at $21 per month. The company frequently offers discounts for monthly and annual subscriptions.
Freelancers, independent contractors and small businesses with no more than a handful of employees are the best candidates for FreshBooks.
FreshBooks automates some bookkeeping tasks and helps you keep track of income and expenses.
FreshBooks Payroll is a full-service payroll service that is powered by Gusto, and is an optional paid add-on to a FreshBooks subscription.
Bonus offer
