The Number That Matters Is Not $23
FreshBooks sells on a headline price and a first-year offer: Lite at $23 a month, currently marked down to $1 a month for your first year. The offer is real and it is printed on the pricing page next to "Was $23.00, Save $22.00." It is also not the number to plan around, for two reasons.
The first is renewal. A first year at $12 becomes a second year at $276.
The second is the client cap. Lite sends invoices to five billable clients. Invoices to those five are unlimited, but client number six moves you to Plus at $43 a month, which is $516 a year. For a freelancer with eight regular clients, the honest price of FreshBooks is not $23. It is $43, and the comparison against everything else changes at that number.
The Plan Ladder, and Where It Bites
| Plan | Regular | Year at regular price | Billable clients | What the tier adds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lite | $23/mo | $276 | 5 | Invoices, expense tracking, estimates, tax-time reports |
| Plus | $43/mo | $516 | 50 | Proposals and client retainers, financial and accounting reports, expense receipt scanning, accountant access |
| Premium | $70/mo | $840 | Unlimited | Bill receipt scanning with line items, project profitability, custom email templates |
| Select | Quoted | Quoted | Unlimited | Lower card rates and capped bank transfer fees, Advanced Payments included, two team members, dedicated phone support |
Add-ons attach to every tier: Team Members at $11 a month per user, Advanced Payments at $20 a month, and FreshBooks Payroll at $40 a month plus $6 a month per person. A solo freelancer on Lite who adds one collaborator is at $34 a month before anyone gets paid.
The promotional ladder is worth reading as carefully as the regular one. Lite runs at $1 a month for a year. Plus and Premium run at 80% off for three months, which is $8.60 and $14, then snap back to $43 and $70. Those are different shapes of discount: one carries you through a full tax year, the other through a quarter.
Three Things Lite Does Not Include
This is the part I would want to know before paying, and it is not in most reviews. Comparing the printed feature lists for Lite and Plus, three items appear only from Plus upward:
- Expense receipt scanning. Lite tracks expenses. Capturing the receipt image against them starts at Plus.
- Accountant access. "Give your accountant access" is a Plus feature. On Lite, the preparer you hire in March does not get a login.
- Financial and accounting reports. Lite generates tax-time reports. The financial and accounting report pack, the thing you would show a lender or a bookkeeper, starts at Plus.
None of that makes Lite a bad plan. It makes Lite an invoicing plan with expense tracking attached, which is a fair description of what most solo freelancers need in year one. But if you picked FreshBooks because you wanted real books, the tier you were promised starts at $43.
Getting Paid: the Rates
FreshBooks publishes what it costs to collect money, which not every competitor does:
- Credit and debit cards: "Starting at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction"
- US bank transfers (ACH): "1% per transaction"
- Buy now, pay later: 6% plus $0.30, subject to eligibility
- Instant payout: 1.5%
Run that against a real month. A consultant billing $2,000 across four invoices pays about $59 in card fees, or $20 if those clients pay by bank transfer. Over a year that is $710 against $240, a $470 swing that has nothing to do with which plan you bought. On a single $500 invoice it is $14.80 by card against $5 by ACH.
The practical move is boring and effective: set bank transfer as the prominent option on invoices and treat cards as the convenience path. The $470 is worth more than the difference between any two plans on this page, and it is the part of a software decision that almost never gets modelled.
The Feature Nobody Expects It to Have
FreshBooks includes automatic mileage tracking, and it says so plainly: the mileage tracker is "a free feature that is included in all our plans, even during the trial period." Trips are captured as you drive and classified by swiping, and the log exports as a CSV mileage expense report.
That matters for the comparison. Xero puts employee expense and mileage claims on its $90 Established plan. Wave answers the mileage question by pointing at a third-party integration. FreshBooks puts it on a $23 plan and does not charge extra, which makes it a more reasonable pick for a driver who also invoices than its invoicing-first reputation suggests. At 72.5 cents a mile through June 2026 and 76 cents after, a tracker that actually runs is worth more than most subscription differences.
Who Should Skip It
If you rarely invoice. The product is a billing engine. Paying $276 a year to categorize expenses is paying for the part you will not use, and the free tiers cover that job.
If you have six or more clients and a tight budget. The jump from $276 to $516 is the real decision, and at $516 the question is no longer FreshBooks versus free, it is FreshBooks versus paying a bookkeeper for a few hours.
If you sell physical products. Inventory is not what this product is organized around. Look at platforms built for it.
If you need your accountant in the file on the cheapest plan. That starts at Plus.
How This Score Works
The criteria below were written before this product was scored, and they are the same five on every review here. Each one takes only inputs you can check yourself on a vendor page: what a plan includes, where it caps you, what processing costs, what is sold separately, and what is printed versus quoted. Nothing in the score depends on how the software feels to use, because that is not something this page can evidence.
| Criterion | 2 points | 1 point | 0 points |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the entry plan includes | The cheapest paid plan does the product’s core job without an upgrade, and nothing a solo user needs monthly sits a tier up | Core job works, but at least one routine monthly need is only on a higher tier | The cheapest paid plan cannot do the core job without an upgrade or a paid add-on |
| Where the caps bite | No hard cap a one-person business would hit in a year | A cap exists but sits above ordinary solo use | A cap sits inside ordinary solo use |
| Cost of getting paid | Processing rates published, and a bank transfer path under 1.5% or capped | Rates published, but card only or the bank path is 1.5% or higher | Rates not published anywhere public |
| Add-on load | Nothing routine is sold separately; add-ons are genuinely optional | One routine need is priced as an add-on | Two or more routine needs are add-ons, or a required add-on costs half the plan again |
| Price transparency | Every plan price and the renewal price is printed, and promotions state what they renew at | Plan prices printed, but a material cost needs a call, a login or a quote | The entry price only exists as a promotion, or key prices are not public |
Ten points available, halved for a score out of five. A high score means the pricing is honest and the plan you buy is the plan you keep. It does not mean the product is the best one for you.
The Score
| Criterion | Score | Why, from the printed facts |
|---|---|---|
| What the entry plan includes | 1 / 2 | Lite at $23 sends unlimited invoices to five clients, tracks expenses, sends estimates, and includes the mileage tracker. Expense receipt scanning, accountant access and the financial and accounting reports are printed as Plus features, one tier and $20 a month up. |
| Where the caps bite | 0 / 2 | Five billable clients on Lite. A freelancer with six regular clients is on Plus at $43, so the cap sits inside ordinary solo use. |
| Cost of getting paid | 2 / 2 | Rates are published: cards "Starting at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction", US bank transfers "1% per transaction". The bank path is under 1.5%. |
| Add-on load | 2 / 2 | Team Members at $11 per user, Advanced Payments at $20 and Payroll at $40 plus $6 per user are all optional for a one-person business doing the core job. |
| Price transparency | 2 / 2 | Lite, Plus and Premium prices are printed with the renewal rate beside the offer ("Was $23.00"), and the $1 first-year deal states what it renews at. Only the Select tier is quote-only. |
| FreshBooks | 7 / 10 | 3.5 out of 5 |
FreshBooks loses its points in one place and keeps them everywhere else. The five-client cap on Lite is a zero because it sits inside ordinary freelance life, and the entry plan drops a point for putting receipt scanning, accountant access and the financial reports one tier up. Against that, it publishes its processing rates when a competitor does not, prices a 1% bank transfer path, keeps the mileage tracker out of the add-on list, and prints what every promotion renews at.
What the score deliberately leaves out is how the software feels after three months of daily use. The 30 day trial asks for no credit card, which is a cheaper way to answer that than any opinion I could offer.
For how FreshBooks compares head to head on cost, see QuickBooks vs FreshBooks vs Wave, and for the wider field the five-platform roundup.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does FreshBooks cost in 2026?
Lite is $23 a month, Plus is $43 and Premium is $70, with a Select tier priced on request. FreshBooks is currently running $1 a month on Lite for the first year, and 80% off Plus or Premium for three months. Add-ons sit on top: Team Members at $11 a month per user, Advanced Payments at $20 a month, and FreshBooks Payroll at $40 a month plus $6 per user.
What is the five-client limit on FreshBooks Lite?
Lite sends invoices to five billable clients. Not five invoices, five clients. Invoices to those five are unlimited, but the sixth paying client means moving to Plus at $43 a month, which is $516 a year against Lite’s $276. Count your clients before you price the plan.
Does FreshBooks track mileage?
Yes, on every plan. FreshBooks describes the mileage tracker as "a free feature that is included in all our plans, even during the trial period," which puts automatic trip logging on the $23 tier. That is worth knowing because Xero places mileage claims on its $90 Established plan.
What does FreshBooks charge to accept payments?
Cards start at 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. US bank transfers are 1% per transaction, buy now pay later is 6% plus $0.30, and instant payout costs 1.5%. On a $500 invoice that is $14.80 by card against $5 by bank transfer, so which method you make easiest on the invoice matters more than which plan you are on.
Is FreshBooks worth it if I barely invoice anyone?
Probably not. The product is an invoicing and client-billing engine first, and $276 a year buys a lot of tool you would not open. If the job is tracking expenses and deductions, the free tiers do that, and the money is better spent on a preparer. The exception is mileage: the tracker is on every plan, so a driver who also invoices a couple of clients gets both in one subscription.
Does FreshBooks include receipt scanning?
Not on Lite. Expense receipt scanning appears on the Plus plan at $43 a month, and Premium adds bill receipt scanning with line item capture. Accountant access and the financial and accounting reports also start at Plus, which is the part of the ladder most reviews skip.
Sources
Prices, plan contents and quoted wording were checked against these pages on September 22, 2026.
- FreshBooks pricing, for plan prices, client caps, per-tier feature lists, add-on prices and the promotional offers
- FreshBooks accept payments, for the card, bank transfer, buy now pay later and instant payout rates
- FreshBooks mileage tracker, for mileage being included on all plans and the CSV export
- Xero US pricing, for the plan that carries mileage claims
- Wave Help Center, How to record mileage, for the Driversnote integration
- IRS, Standard mileage rates, for the 2026 business rates: 72.5 cents January 1 to June 30 (IR-2025-128) and 76 cents July 1 to December 31 (IR-2026-29)
Get Your Income and Expenses Tracked
Before software, before a bookkeeper: the tracking setup that makes tax time a two-hour job instead of a two-week one.
See the Tracking Setup