FreshBooks
Small business invoicing, accounting, billing and payments software built to get you paid faster
By FreshBooks · HQ Toronto, Canada · 4.5/5 Value-Position score (estimate)
Positioning guardrails
Best for
- Freelancers and solopreneurs who need fast, professional invoicing
- Small service-based businesses with employees or contractors
- Teams that want accounting, time tracking and payments in one place
- Businesses moving off spreadsheets that want a guided data migration
Ideal size: 1-50 people · Freelancers and small service-based businesses moving off spreadsheets
Not for
- Enterprises needing multi-entity consolidation and complex controls
- Companies with heavy inventory or manufacturing costing needs
- Buyers requiring SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA or FedRAMP certification
Value metrics scorecard
Time-to-Value
About 1 week (web-based, no install)
~7 days to first production value
Total Cost of Ownership
$516/yr
Starts at $276 · Per business, not per seat, billed monthly or annually; tiers limited by billable clients. Annual billing saves 10%. Lite $23/mo, Plus $43/mo, Premium $70/mo, Select custom; $1/mo first-year promo…
Implementation Friction
2/5
Engineering + admin effort required
Value-Position score
out of 5 · model estimate
Full cost breakdown
Mandatory implementation fee
None
Seat tiers
One business subscription; extra team members $11/mo per user; 2 team seats included on Select
Add-on costs
- Team Members: $11/mo per user
- Advanced Payments: $20/mo (included on Select)
- FreshBooks Payroll: $40/mo plus $6/mo per user
Company & support
Who is behind FreshBooks, and how your team gets help once it is live.
Company
- Founded
- 2003 · 23 yrs in business
- Headquarters
- Toronto, Canada
How you get support
- PhoneAll plans
- EmailAll plans
- Live chatNot listed
- Support portal / ticketsNot listed
- Community forumNot listed
- Help centre / docsAll plans
- Dedicated account managerEnterprise only
- In person / on-siteNot listed
- Hours
- Not recorded
- Response time
- Not stated
Vendor states free phone and email support during the 30-day trial, a large help centre, and Select-plan add-ons of dedicated phone support, an account manager and customised onboarding. Support rated 4.8/5 across 120,000+ reviews per vendor.
“Not listed” means the vendor’s public pages don’t mention that channel, not that it is unavailable. Ask about it during evaluation.
Market position
Where FreshBooks sits against its closest alternatives. Pick any two of cost, speed, friction and buyer score, and up to 9 companies to compare.
Quadrant view
Typical annual cost × Time-to-value
The lines cross at the median of the solutions shown, so about half sit on each side of each line.
Companies on the chart 6 / 10
- FreshBooks
- LawPay
- Clearscope
- BrightLocal
- Madgicx
- SE Ranking
Add or change companies
Up to 10 companies including FreshBooks. Listed closest first.
Stack fit signal
Compatibility with standard B2B ecosystems.
No supported MCP path today, so it cannot be driven from an AI client.
AI & MCP readiness
What FreshBooks ships in AI, and what it asks of your ecosystem.
Compliance attestations
* IAPP AIGP certifies individuals, not products. It means named staff hold the credential — not that the platform does.
Bottom line
FreshBooks is cloud accounting and invoicing software for freelancers, solopreneurs and small service businesses. It bundles invoicing, estimates and proposals, expense and receipt capture, time tracking, mileage, bank reconciliation, double-entry reports, online payments and payroll add-ons in one web and mobile app. Plans are priced per business by billable-client limits, starting at $23/month for Lite and $43/month for Plus, with a 30-day free trial, a 100+ app marketplace and 500K+ small businesses served.
Frequently asked questions
What does FreshBooks cost for a small business?
At standard rates, Lite is $23/month, Plus is $43/month and Premium is $70/month, billed per business rather than per seat; the Select tier is custom quoted. The vendor is currently promoting $1/month for the first year on Lite and discounting Plus and Premium. Add-ons cost extra: team members $11/month per user, Advanced Payments $20/month (included on Select), and Payroll $40/month plus $6/month per user. Tiers differ mainly by billable-client limits of 5, 50 or unlimited, and annual billing saves a further 10%.
How long does it take to get up and running?
FreshBooks is 100% web-based with no software to install, plus iOS and Android apps, so most teams can start invoicing within days. The 30-day free trial includes all features except Advanced Payments and requires no credit card. Easy Switch supports migrating data from spreadsheets or other accounting software, and a specialist is available to help, so the main effort is data migration and chart-of-accounts setup rather than deployment.
How is FreshBooks priced, per user or per business?
Plans are billed per business, not per seat, and are constrained by billable clients rather than user count. Unlimited time tracking and expenses are included on every tier, and accountant access is free on Plus and Premium for up to 10 accountants. Additional internal team members cost $11/month each, and the Select plan includes two team seats plus a dedicated account manager.
Is FreshBooks secure and compliant?
The vendor states it protects customer and client information with industry-standard SSL encryption, automatic data backups and PCI compliance for card payments, and payment processing runs through FreshBooks Payments, Stripe or PayPal. No SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA or FedRAMP certification is claimed on the pages reviewed, so regulated buyers should validate requirements directly with the vendor.
What support is included, and how fast is it?
FreshBooks provides phone and email support plus a large self-serve help centre and community content; the free trial already includes free phone and email support. The Select plan adds dedicated phone support, an account manager and customised onboarding and training. The vendor reports a 4.8/5 support rating across 120,000+ reviews and over 100 support staff in North America, but publishes no response-time SLA.