Invoice Ninja
Invoicing Verified May 2026
Invoice Ninja deal: Free plan + free trial available
Invoice Ninja turns late-paying clients into a smaller problem — without the bloated subscription of legacy accounting suites.
- True self-hosting option
- Genuinely useful free plan
- Transparent, affordable pricing
- Open-source codebase
How Invoice Ninja scored 70/100
6 weighted criteria, each scored out of 10 and published with its reasoning. Featured placements never move a score.
Deal Strength
3.0 /10The real draw is the free plan, not a discount. Invoice Ninja is free forever for up to 5 clients with unlimited invoices, and the open-source self-hosted edition is free for unlimited clients if you run it yourself. There is no exclusive coupon; paid Ninja Pro adds a 30-day money-back window instead.
Value for Money
9.0 /10Invoice Ninja is one of the cheapest credible ways to invoice clients. Ninja Pro is $14/month (or $140/year, two months free) and unlocks unlimited clients, white-labeling and every template, undercutting FreshBooks and QuickBooks by a wide margin, while the self-hosted build costs nothing at all.
Capability
8.0 /10For freelancer and small-business billing, the feature set is deep: professional invoices and quotes, recurring and auto-billing, proposals, time tracking, expenses, projects, tasks and a client-side payment portal. It integrates 40+ payment gateways including Stripe, PayPal, Square and GoCardless, so clients can pay however they prefer.
Time to Value
8.0 /10Most users send a first invoice within an hour. Account setup is immediate, invoice branding and templates are ready out of the box, and the four-step flow gets you from sign-up to a payable invoice quickly. Self-hosting is the slower path, since it requires your own server and some technical comfort.
Trust & Reliability
7.0 /10Invoice Ninja has been an established name in open-source invoicing software since 2014, with a large self-hosting community and active development on GitHub. It lacks the published uptime SLAs of enterprise accounting suites, but its open codebase means you can audit and fully control your own instance.
Flexibility & Exit
10.0 /10Lock-in is effectively zero. You can cancel a paid plan anytime, drop back to the free tier, or self-host the open-source edition and own your data outright. Invoices, clients and payment records export cleanly, and the self-hosted option means your billing data never has to leave your own infrastructure.
Free plan + free trial available
Affiliate link — same price for you, and it never moves the score.
- True self-hosting option
- Genuinely useful free plan
- Transparent, affordable pricing
- Open-source codebase
About Invoice Ninja
Quick answer
Invoice Ninja is a freelancer- and small-business-focused invoicing platform with a usable free tier, optional self-hosted open-source edition, and paid cloud plans that unlock unlimited clients, proposals, and project tracking. It's a strong fit if you bill by the hour or project, need clean PDFs, and want clients to pay inside the invoice via Stripe, PayPal, or 40+ other gateways — without paying FreshBooks prices.
What is Invoice Ninja?
Invoice Ninja is an invoicing, billing, and lightweight operations platform built for freelancers, consultants, agencies, and small product businesses. It launched in 2014 as an open-source project and has since grown into one of the most established names in the self-hostable invoicing space, with a parallel cloud offering run by the same team (Hillel Singer and the core maintainers).
The product is essentially a billing command center: you create branded invoices and proposals, send them with embedded payment links, track time against projects, log expenses, and reconcile payments — all from one dashboard. A client portal lets your customers view outstanding invoices, pay, and download PDFs without you forwarding attachments manually.
Two editions ship side by side:
- Hosted (cloud) — invoiceninja.com runs the infrastructure. You get a free tier and paid plans.
- Self-hosted (open source) — you deploy the app on your own server via Docker, Laravel, or shared hosting. The source is on GitHub and the feature set is essentially identical to the paid cloud plans.
Custom-branded invoices
Upload a logo, set brand colors, add custom fields, and produce PDF invoices that don't look like everyone else's. Multiple invoice templates ship out of the box, and you can tweak the underlying CSS if you want full control.
40+ payment gateways
Accept card payments through Stripe, PayPal, Square, Braintree, Authorize.net, Mollie, GoCardless, Razorpay, and many regional providers. Crypto support has been a recurring addition too.
Recurring billing & subscriptions
Set auto-billing cycles for retainers, SaaS-style subscriptions, or maintenance plans. Clients can manage subscriptions from the portal.
Proposals & quotes
Send proposals that convert into invoices on approval — useful for agencies that scope first and bill second. E-signature support is baked in.
Time tracking & tasks
Built-in timers feed directly into invoices, so consultants don't juggle a separate tracker. Round time entries into billable line items automatically.
Client portal
A white-labeled login area where clients can view quotes, pay invoices, upload files, and approve proposals — replacing a lot of back-and-forth email.
Key features in detail
Invoicing engine
The core of the product. You get line items, partial payments, deposits, credit notes, refunds, multi-currency invoicing, and tax handling (inclusive or exclusive). PDFs are generated server-side and can be auto-attached to reminder emails. Late-fee surcharges and automatic reminders are configurable per client, which is a quiet but huge time-saver for freelancers chasing overdue invoices.
Proposals, quotes, and e-signatures
Most invoicing tools treat proposals as an afterthought. Invoice Ninja's quote-to-invoice pipeline is solid: build a quote, send it for signature, and once accepted it converts into a draft invoice with the same line items and pricing intact. That's a real workflow improvement for agencies that scope work before they bill it.
Project, time, and expense tracking
You won't get a full PSA suite, but you do get projects with tasks, a desktop and mobile timer, expense entry with receipt uploads, and per-project profitability reporting. For a solo consultant or a 3-person studio, it's enough to retire Toggl + a spreadsheet.
Automation and recurring billing
Subscriptions, auto-bill, dunning reminders, and scheduled invoice generation are all available. The hosted edition adds Zapier and webhooks for connecting to CRMs or accounting tools like Xero and QuickBooks.
Self-hosting and data ownership
This is the differentiator. If you're comfortable with a LAMP or Docker setup, you can run the full product on your own VPS for free, forever. The codebase is open source, the community is active on GitHub, and there's a paid white-label option (Resller) if you want to host it for clients.
Invoice Ninja pricing
Invoice Ninja's pricing has historically been one of its strongest selling points, but the exact tiers have shifted multiple times. As of our last check, treat the following as a directional guide and verify on the official site before purchasing.
- Hosted Free — limited to a small number of active clients (historically ~5) and basic features. Enough to test the product or run a micro-business.
- Hosted Pro — published pricing has floated in the ~$16/month range when billed annually. Unlocks unlimited clients, removes Invoice Ninja branding, and adds the full feature set including proposals, recurring billing, and project tools.
- Hosted Enterprise — higher tier for larger teams, white-label client portal, priority support, and the reseller/white-label license.
- Self-hosted (open source) — free, with the option to buy a white-label license if you need to remove Invoice Ninja branding for clients.
Payment gateway transaction fees are not added by Invoice Ninja — you pay your processor (e.g., Stripe) directly. There's no per-invoice fee, which is a meaningful difference from tools that take a cut of every payment.
Invoice Ninja vs the alternatives
| Feature | Invoice Ninja | Wave | FreshBooks | QuickBooks Simple Start |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Yes (hosted + self-hosted) | Yes (accounting & invoicing) | No (limited trial) | No (30-day trial) |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No | No | No |
| Payment gateways | 40+ | Stripe, PayPal | Stripe, PayPal, others | QuickBooks Payments |
| Proposals / quotes | Built-in | Quotes only | Proposals add-on | Estimates |
| Time tracking | Built-in | Limited | Team plan feature | Add-on |
| Starting paid price | From ~$16/mo (verify) | $16/mo for payroll add-on | From ~$19/mo | From ~$30/mo |
✓ Use Invoice Ninja if you:
- Bill clients on hourly or project-based retainers and want a clean PDF that doesn't look like a tax form.
- Want a real free plan or a self-hosted open-source build instead of another monthly subscription.
- Need to accept payments through Stripe, PayPal, or a regional gateway your current tool doesn't support.
- Run a small agency that sends proposals, collects signatures, and invoices from the same tool.
- Care about owning your data and are willing to run a Docker container to do it.
✗ Skip if you:
- Need full double-entry accounting, payroll, and tax filing in one product — QuickBooks or Xero will serve you better.
- Are a non-technical user who wants the absolute smoothest onboarding — FreshBooks and Wave have a more polished first-run experience.
- Need deep inventory management or e-commerce integrations out of the box.
- Require in-app live chat support on the cheapest paid tier.
Who Invoice Ninja is for
The platform is purpose-built for a specific buyer: the solo freelancer, independent consultant, creative agency, or SaaS founder who sends between 5 and 200 invoices a month and is tired of accounting software that bills them like an enterprise. It scales up reasonably well into small teams through the project and task features, but it's not trying to replace an ERP.
It's also unusually well-suited to technical users thanks to the open-source edition. If you want to fork it, white-label it, or run it on a $5 VPS, you can — and you don't have to give up features to do it.
What's included
- Invoicing and recurring billing
- Time tracking and timesheets
- Expense logging
- Client portal
- Payment processing integration
- Reporting and analytics
- Multi-user support (paid tiers)
- Self-hosting option
- Open-source codebase
- Mobile app
- Custom branding
- API access
Invoice Ninja pricing
Verified May 2026. Vendor's published rates at the time we checked — always confirm at checkout.
| Plan | Price | Term | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | £0 | forever | Up to 5 clients · Recurring invoices · Time tracking · Expense logging · Basic reporting |
| Pro (Cloud) | ~£90 | per year | Unlimited clients · All free features · Multi-user support · Custom branding · Priority support · Payment processing |
| Self-Hosted | £0 | one-time | Full platform access · Unlimited clients and users · Complete data ownership · Custom deployment · Open-source code |
How to claim it
4 steps. The last one is the part most people skip.
- 1
Open Invoice Ninja through the link on this page
It carries our referral tag. The price you pay is identical either way, and it never changes the score on this page.
- 2
Pick the plan that matches your usage
This offer applies automatically through the link — there is no code to enter.
- 3
Confirm the discount before you pay
The order summary should show the reduced amount. If it does not, stop and tell us — we re-test listings that stop working.
- 4
Check what happens at renewal
Note the renewal date and the rate it reverts to, so the second invoice is not a surprise. Annual plans are usually cheaper per month but harder to exit.
Where Invoice Ninja wins and loses
What works
- True self-hosting option Deploy the entire platform on your own infrastructure for zero cost, eliminating vendor lock-in and giving you complete data sovereignty.
- Genuinely useful free plan Recurring invoices, time tracking, and core workflows included at no cost—not a stripped-down demo designed to frustrate you into upgrading.
- Transparent, affordable pricing Cloud Pro tier at ~£90/year undercuts most competitors' monthly entry fees by an order of magnitude.
- Open-source codebase Full source code visibility means you can audit security, customize features, or fork if the project direction diverges from your needs.
- Integrated time tracking Built-in time logging and billable hours tracking eliminate the need for a separate tool for most freelance and agency workflows.
- Operator-friendly philosophy Designed for founders and operators who value control and technical autonomy rather than hand-holding.
What doesn't
- Self-hosting requires DevOps skills You need server access, basic infrastructure knowledge, and ongoing maintenance responsibility—not suitable for non-technical users.
- Free plan capped at 5 clients Scaling beyond a tiny operation requires paid upgrade, which may feel restrictive early on despite low cost.
- Smaller ecosystem and community Fewer integrations and less third-party tooling compared to market incumbents like FreshBooks or Wave.
The bottom line
Invoice Ninja is the rare invoicing platform that stays genuinely free for small operators and open-source for anyone willing to self-host, yet still covers quotes, recurring billing, expenses and a client payment portal. There is no exclusive coupon here, but the free tier and self-hosted edition make it one of the best-value ways to get paid online.
Invoice Ninja is free forever for up to 5 clients with unlimited invoices. The Ninja Pro plan is $14/month or $140/year (two months free) for unlimited clients and white-labeling, and Enterprise scales by team size from $18/month for two users up to $300/month for 100 users. The self-hosted open-source edition is completely free.
Yes. The hosted free plan is genuinely free forever, supporting unlimited invoices for up to 5 clients with online payments and a client portal. If you need unlimited clients at no cost, the open-source self-hosted edition is free to run on your own server, which is why it is popular with freelancers and small businesses watching costs.
Invoice Ninja is worth it for freelancers and small businesses that want serious invoicing without accounting-suite prices. You get recurring billing, quotes, expenses, time tracking and 40+ payment gateways for $14/month or free self-hosted. It is less suited to teams needing full double-entry accounting, where QuickBooks or Xero remain stronger.
Invoice Ninja is far cheaper and more open than FreshBooks or QuickBooks, and it is the only one of the three you can self-host for free. FreshBooks and QuickBooks offer deeper accounting, bookkeeping and tax features, but for pure invoicing, quotes and getting paid online, Invoice Ninja delivers most of the value at a fraction of the cost.
Hosted Invoice Ninja runs on the company's servers with a free tier and paid Pro plans, so there is nothing to install or maintain. The self-hosted open-source edition is free with unlimited clients but requires your own server, setup and updates. Self-hosting suits technical users who want full data ownership; hosted suits everyone who wants zero maintenance.
Invoice Ninja supports over 40 payment gateways, including Stripe, PayPal, Square and GoCardless, letting clients pay invoices by card, bank transfer or direct debit. You can enable recurring and auto-billing so subscription clients are charged automatically, and the client portal lets customers view and settle invoices online without an account.
