Assembly Line

FreshBooks

Cloud-based accounting software service

FreshBooks is commercial accounting software made by FreshBooks. It was first released in 2004. Its English Wikipedia article has about 103 readers a month on phones.

Made by
FreshBooks
Since
2004
Wikipedia readers on phones
103 a month
Source code
Closed

Website Wikipedia

Judgement

What it is
Complete system
What it does
Cloud invoicing and accounting for freelancers and small service businesses, with time tracking, expenses, proposals and online payments.
Adopt it when
A freelancer or small agency bills clients for time and wants invoicing first and accounting second.
Watch out
Per-client limits on lower plans and thin inventory support make it a poor fit for product businesses.
Ready for
Production-ready
Runs as
Cloud service and mobile app
What the license allows
Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code.

Judged on 2026-11-03 from the maker's description and Wikipedia. The license and age lines are worked out directly.

Open-source alternatives to FreshBooks

  1. 1
    TigerBeetle tigerbeetle

    The financial transactions database designed for mission critical safety and performance.

    Building block Usable You are building a payments or ledger system that needs very high throughput and correctness.

    ★ 17k Apache-2.0 Zig Active, pushed 3 days ago
  2. 2
    TaxHacker vas3k

    Self-hosted AI accounting app. LLM analyzer for receipts, invoices, transactions with custom prompts and categories

    Complete system Usable A freelancer or small business wants self-hosted expense capture from receipts and has an LLM API key or local model.

    ★ 6.8k MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 35 days ago
  3. 3
    Invoify al1abb

    An invoice generator app built using Next.js, Typescript, and Shadcn

    Complete system Usable You need to produce good-looking one-off invoices without signing up for an invoicing service.

    ★ 6.4k MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 2 months ago
  4. 4
    Beancount beancount

    Beancount: Double-Entry Accounting from Text Files.

    Developer tool Production-ready You want strict, version-controlled double-entry books for personal or small business finances and are comfortable editing text files.

    ★ 6.1k GPL-2.0 Python Active, pushed 2 months ago
  5. 5
    Hledger hledgerorg

    Robust, fast, intuitive plain text accounting tool with CLI, TUI and web interfaces.

    Developer tool Production-ready You want reliable, private plain-text books for personal or small business finances with good documentation.

    ★ 4.8k GPL-3.0 Haskell Active, pushed 2 days ago
  6. 6
    Bigcapital bigcapitalhq

    💵 Independent financial accounting with intelligent reporting, alternative to Quickbooks, Xero, Wave.

    Complete system Usable A small business or developer wants a self-hosted QuickBooks-style ledger with an API.

    ★ 3.9k AGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed 15 days ago
  7. 7
    Paisa ananthakumaran

    Paisa – Personal Finance Manager. https://paisa.fyi demo: https://demo.paisa.fyi

    Complete system Usable You keep or want to keep personal books in ledger format and want visual reports on top.

    ★ 3.2k AGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed 16 days ago
  8. 8
    Fava beancount

    Fava - web interface for Beancount

    Complete system Production-ready You keep double-entry books in Beancount and want reports and editing in a browser.

    ★ 2.6k MIT Python Active, pushed 8 days ago
  9. 9
    Fineract apache

    Apache Fineract

    Complete system Production-ready You run or build a lending, microfinance or savings business and need an open core banking back end.

    ★ 2.6k Apache-2.0 Java Active, pushed today
  10. 10
    InvoiceShelf InvoiceShelf

    Open Source Invoicing Solution for Individuals & Businesses

    Complete system Usable You need straightforward invoicing on your own server and do not need full accounting.

    ★ 1.9k AGPL-3.0 PHP Active, pushed 6 days ago

Every alternative to FreshBooks

Other commercial accounting software

  1. 1
    QuickBooks Online Intuit

    Organize & manage your business with the #1 rated solution. Fast & easy setup. Sign up for a free trial to join 7 million businesses already using QuickBooks.

    Complete system Production-ready A small business in the US, Canada or UK wants the accounting package most bookkeepers already know.

    1.8k readers a month Since 1992 Commercial
  2. 2
    Xero Xero Limited

    Xero software connects small businesses to their accountant, bank and hundreds of business apps. Start a free trial today.

    Complete system Production-ready A small business in New Zealand, Australia or the UK wants mainstream cloud accounting that local accountants support.

    1.4k readers a month Since 2006 Commercial
  3. 3
    Harvest Harvest

    Time tracking and management software with powerful easy reporting and streamlined online invoicing. Loved by 73,000 businesses. Get started for free.

    Complete system Production-ready An agency or consultancy bills by the hour and wants staff to track time easily against project budgets.

    503 readers a month Commercial
  4. 4
    Stripe Invoicing Stripe, Inc.

    Create and send invoices online in minutes with Stripe. Use our invoicing software to automate payment collection and recover revenue with AI-powered dunning.

    Complete system Production-ready You already take payments through Stripe and want invoices that collect card and bank payments automatically.

    Commercial
  5. 5
    Bill.com BILL Holdings

    The AP, AR, and spend & expense solution that lets you create and pay bills, manage expenses, control budgets, and get the credit your business/firm needs to grow.

    Complete system Production-ready A US small or midsize company or its accounting firm wants to automate bill approval and payment runs.

    363 readers a month Since 2006 Commercial
  6. 6
    Wave Wave Financial

    Create beautiful invoices, accept online payments, and make accounting easy—all in one place—with Wave’s suite of money management tools.

    Complete system Production-ready A US or Canadian freelancer or micro-business wants free bookkeeping and invoicing and does not need integrations.

    353 readers a month Commercial
  7. 7
    Sage Intacct Sage Group

    Sage Intacct is the #1 finance AI software trusted by 30,000+ finance teams. Close 90% faster, gain real-time visibility, and scale with confidence.

    Complete system Production-ready A US-centric midsize finance team needs better close, consolidation and reporting than QuickBooks but does not need inventory-heavy ERP.

    264 readers a month Since 1999 Commercial
  8. 8
    Sage 50 Sage Group

    Sage 50 Cloud accounting software for small business will manage accounting, invoicing, inventory and taxes. Sage 50 Accounting, formerly Peachtree.

    Complete system Production-ready A small business prefers installed desktop accounting with stock control and its accountant already works in Sage 50.

    125 readers a month Commercial
  9. 9
    Zoho Books Zoho Corporation

    Zoho Books is a cloud-based accounting software that simplifies invoicing, expenses, tax management, bank reconciliation, and financial reporting for small businesses.

    Complete system Production-ready A small business wants low-cost accounting, especially if it already uses Zoho CRM or other Zoho apps.

    Commercial
  10. 10
    Zoho Invoice Zoho Corporation

    Complete system Production-ready A freelancer wants free professional invoicing and may move to Zoho Books later.

    Commercial

Under it

Every program, FreshBooks included, runs on a microchip.

How compilers were built, back to punched paper tape

Facts come from Wikipedia and refresh weekly. Readers are counted on Wikipedia's mobile site only, because automated traffic that Wikimedia does not flag inflates desktop counts.