The introductory price ended, a sixth client pushed you up a tier, and an extra login costs more again. If what you actually do is send invoices and chase them, you are paying for a ledger you never open.
The renewal email arrives and the number is not the number you remember agreeing to. You look at the plan page, and the feature you actually need sits one tier up. You are not unhappy with the software. You are unhappy that a tool you bought to send invoices keeps asking for more money as your business does exactly what you hoped it would do: grow.
Tick anything true of your setup today. Two or more and you are paying for capability rather than using it.
Then the question is not which tool is better. It is whether you are buying accounting software to do an invoicing job. Both answers are respectable, and they cost very different amounts. The invoicing cost calculator puts a number on what the admin is worth before you decide.
FreshBooks is capable accounting software, and it is priced like it. The published plans run from $23 a month on Lite to $70 on Premium, with extra users at $11 each per month. Lite bills up to 5 clients, Plus up to 50.
None of that is unfair, and it is the ordinary shape of tiered software. It just means the cost of sending an invoice rises with your client list, your team and the calendar, rather than staying still. If your invoicing needs are simple and steady, you end up paying for the parts of an accounting platform you do not use.
FreshBooks list prices, taken from their own published pricing page.
FreshBooks list prices as of August 2026, from freshbooks.com/pricing and their support documentation. Prices can change. Billbooks is $7.95 a month flat, with 100 clients and 2 users on the entry plan: see the pricing.
Stay with FreshBooks if you genuinely use the accounting. If you need double-entry books, a profit and loss your accountant works from, expense and mileage tracking in the same place, or you file your own returns from it, that is a real job and FreshBooks does it well. Nothing here does. Switching to save money and then paying a bookkeeper to rebuild the accounting is not a saving. The question is only whether you are using that half of it.
Be realistic about this before you start. It is an afternoon, not five minutes, and it is easiest at the start of a month.
FreshBooks exports clients to CSV. That list, with email addresses and addresses, is the part that takes longest to retype and the part you must not lose.
Everything already paid can stay where it is as history. Rebuild only what is still owed, which for most small businesses is a handful of documents, not years of them.
Downgrade rather than delete until you have filed for the year. You will want the history available even if you never open it.
The point of moving is to stop chasing by hand. Put the reminder schedule in before you send the first invoice, or the new tool becomes the old habit. The quote follow-up planner gives you the timing if you want to run it manually first.
One price that stays
The entry plan is a flat monthly price with no introductory rate to revert, and no per-user fee inside your plan limit.
Every feature on every plan
Reconciliation, the scheduler, digital signatures and quote follow-ups are on the cheapest plan, not gated above it.
100 clients to start
The entry plan bills up to 100 clients and includes two users, so ordinary growth does not move you up a tier.
Invoicing, not a ledger
Nothing to reconcile at year end that you did not want in the first place. Your accountant keeps doing the accounting.
To be plain about what Billbooks is: an invoicing tool, not an accounting platform. It sends quotes and invoices, takes payment, chases what is late and tracks expenses against jobs. It does not keep your books. That is the whole trade, and for a lot of small businesses it is the right one.
If you use FreshBooks mainly to send invoices and chase payment, Billbooks covers that at $7.95 a month flat with 100 clients and 2 users included. If you rely on its double-entry accounting and reports, stay with FreshBooks or move to another full accounting package instead.
Usually one of three things: an introductory discount ended and the list price returned, you passed the billable client limit on your plan, or you added a user at $11 a month. List prices are $23 for Lite, $43 for Plus and $70 for Premium as of August 2026.
Yes. Export clients and invoices to CSV from FreshBooks, then recreate only the invoices still unpaid in the new tool and keep the old account as read-only history. Paid invoices rarely need moving, which makes the job an afternoon rather than a project.
Yes on list price: $7.95 a month flat against $23 to $70, with no per-user fee inside your plan limit. Whether it is cheaper for you depends on whether you use the accounting in FreshBooks, because Billbooks does not replace that part.
No. It handles quotes, invoices, payments, reminders and expenses against jobs. There is no general ledger and no tax filing. If you need those, keep an accounting package or work with an accountant who has their own.
Keep the FreshBooks account on its lowest tier until you have filed for the year, so the history stays reachable. Rebuild only the invoices that are still unpaid, which for most businesses is a small number.
Yes, two ways. Add them as one of the users included in your plan, or push invoices and expenses into Xero or QuickBooks Online so they work in the software they already use.
No. Automatic reminders are included on the entry plan, and so are automatic follow-ups on quotes, which FreshBooks applies to invoices only.
Yes, 30 days with no card required. The free calculators and generators need no account at all, so you can test how you would quote and invoice before signing up for anything.
A little kit of calculators and generators, on the house.
30-day free trial. No credit card required.
Try Billbooks freeSide by side on price and features: Billbooks vs FreshBooks. Free and needing no account: the invoicing cost calculator and the invoice generator. Also worth reading: which invoicing tools put every feature on the cheapest plan.