A simpler FreshBooks alternative
If you're a solo freelancer paying for an accounting suite to do four things — log hours, attach receipts, send invoices, record payments — this app does those four things well, for free on your device or $12.00 a month in the cloud, and stops there.
Why this app exists
I built it because I was a FreshBooks customer and my bill kept going up for features I cared little about. The core of what I needed hadn't changed in years. Double-entry accounting, accounts payable, project profitability, team seats, payroll — all perfectly good things, none of them things I used. I wanted the hours-to-invoice pipeline and a clear view of what I'd earned, at a price that didn't climb.
What you pay for
FreshBooks is a full small-business accounting platform sold in four tiers, priced primarily by how many clients you bill. Its entry tier caps you at 5 billable clients, the middle tier at 50, and only the top tier removes the cap. Extra team members and payroll are separate add-ons on top of the plan. There is no permanently free tier — you get a 30-day trial, and promotional first-months pricing that steps up to list price afterwards.
This app has one price and no tiers. Free forever if your data stays on your device; $12.00 a month, tax included, if you want it on our servers and reachable from any device. There is no client cap on either option, no per-seat charge, and no feature held back to create an upgrade path. The paid option buys you storage location, not features.
Side by side
| My Time Well Spent | FreshBooks | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Free forever on your device | 30-day trial only |
| Account required to start | No | Yes |
| Billable client limit | None | 5 / 50 / unlimited by tier |
| Price structure | One price: $12.00/month, or free | Four tiers plus add-ons |
| Time tracking & expenses | ✓ | ✓ |
| Recurring work schedules that pre-fill hours | ✓ | — |
| Live earnings as you work | ✓ | — |
| Set-asides toward taxes and goals | ✓ | — |
| Branded PDF invoices | ✓ | ✓ |
| Client portal & online card payments | — | ✓ |
| Double-entry accounting & financial reports | — | ✓ (Plus and above) |
| Payroll, accounts payable, team seats | — | ✓ (add-ons / higher tiers) |
| Bank feeds & reconciliation | — | ✓ |
When FreshBooks is the right answer
If you need your books to be books — double-entry, bank reconciliation, tax-ready financial statements your accountant can work from — FreshBooks does that and this app does not. Same if you have employees to pay, a team who needs their own logins, accounts payable to manage, or clients who expect to pay by card through a portal. Those are real requirements, and a $12 tool that ignores them isn't a bargain.
The case for switching is narrower and specific: you're one person, your accounting needs are a spreadsheet and a shoebox of receipts, and what you actually want is to know what you worked, bill it accurately, and see what's already committed before you spend it.
What you'd gain
- A bill that doesn't move — or no bill at all
- No stopwatch. Describe your recurring hours once and days pre-fill from the schedule
- Live earnings ticking up as you work, rather than a figure you assemble at month end
- Money set aside toward taxes and goals as it's earned, as a percentage or a target by date
What switching involves
Realistically: you re-enter your clients, their default rates, and their schedules — an afternoon at most for a handful of clients — and start logging forward from a clean date. Leave the old invoices where they are. There's no import from FreshBooks, and pretending otherwise would waste your time. Since starting costs nothing and needs no account, the cheapest way to decide is to set up one client and run a week in parallel.
FreshBooks is a trademark of its owner. This comparison reflects publicly available information at the time of writing and is not affiliated with or endorsed by FreshBooks.
