FreshBooks

FreshBooks pricing starts at $21/mo (Lite) on the Lite plan, with Plus and Premium tiers above that raising the billable-client cap and adding receipt capture, accountant access, and project profitability. The entry plan limits the number of billable clients, so check that cap against your client count. The comparison table on this page shows each tier so you can match a plan to how many clients you invoice.

Yes. FreshBooks is built around invoicing, quotes, time tracking, and project profitability, which makes it a strong fit for freelancers, consultants, and small service businesses that bill clients for time and projects. Its invoicing and time tracking are among the best in this comparison. It is less suited to product businesses, since it has no inventory and only light sales tax handling.

No. FreshBooks has no built-in US payroll. It integrates with Gusto for payroll, tax filing, and W-2 reporting, which is priced separately. If running payroll inside your accounting software matters, QuickBooks or Sage with their payroll add-ons are a closer fit. For a freelancer or service business with no employees, the lack of native payroll is rarely an issue.

FreshBooks tracks sales tax on invoices and supports 1099 contractor reporting, so you can apply the right tax to client invoices and flag contractor payments at tax time. Its multi-state sales tax handling is limited compared with QuickBooks or Xero, so high-volume multi-state sellers may find it thin. For single-state service businesses, the tax tracking is adequate.

FreshBooks plans include a single user by default, with additional team members charged as a per-user monthly add-on. Your accountant can be invited separately on the Plus plan and above. If you have several team members who need access, the per-user fees add up, so an unlimited-user platform such as Xero may work out cheaper for larger teams.

FreshBooks includes native AI for expense categorization and receipt OCR, letting you photograph or email receipts and have the line items extracted automatically. These tools are built into the platform and mobile app. For connecting external AI agents and automation workflows, FreshBooks relies on third-party tools such as Zapier rather than an official Model Context Protocol server.