FreshBooks runs four pricing tiers, all paid: Lite at $23 per month or $276 per year, Plus at $43 per month or $516 per year, Premium at $70 per month or $840 per year, and Select with custom pricing for high-volume teams.
Add-ons apply across all paid plans. There is no free forever plan.
Every paid plan includes a 30-day free trial (no credit card required) and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
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FreshBooks pricing is structured around four tiers, with the headline differentiator being how many clients you can bill and how deep the accounting layer goes.
This review walks through each plan, the three add-ons that apply across plans, the yearly versus monthly maths, and how FreshBooks costs compare to QuickBooks Online pricing, Xero, and Wave.
For a fuller view of the platform itself, see the full FreshBooks review on Tekpon, or browse the accounting software category for direct competitors.
The four FreshBooks plans are designed to scale with the business: solo freelancers usually start on Lite or Plus, growing service teams move to Premium, and high-volume agencies sit on Select.
Tekpon score: 4.9/5. FreshBooks sits at the top of our editorial framework for service-business accounting, and the pricing structure is part of why.
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly | Billable clients | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lite | $23/mo | $276/yr | 5 | Solo freelancers with a small client roster |
| Plus | $43/mo | $516/yr | 50 | Active freelancers and small teams (most popular) |
| Premium | $70/mo | $840/yr | Unlimited | Service teams of 3-10 with project profitability needs |
| Select | Custom | Custom | Unlimited | High-volume teams needing dedicated support and lower processing fees |
Lite is the entry-point plan and the FreshBooks tier most freelancers test first. It includes:
Estimates are included but proposals, recurring invoices, scheduled late fees, automated payment reminders, accounting reports, and bank reconciliation are not.
The single most discussed limitation of Lite is the 5-billable-client cap. The cap counts only clients you actually bill in a given period, so dormant clients do not eat the limit, but most active freelancers hit the ceiling within the first quarter of using FreshBooks.
The math: if you bill more than 5 clients in any given month, Plus is the better starting point.
Solo freelancers with a stable client roster of 5 or fewer (think: a designer with three retainers, a consultant with two anchor clients, an attorney with a small contract book). Solo professionals who do not need recurring invoicing, automated late fees, or financial reports.
Anyone testing FreshBooks for the first time and willing to upgrade once they feel the cap.
Plus is FreshBooks’ flagship tier and Tekpon’s recommended starting point for active freelancers and small service teams. The client cap jumps to 50, which covers nearly every solo or 2-3-person business.
Plus also unlocks the features that make FreshBooks a real accounting platform rather than a glorified invoicing tool:
The $20 monthly difference from Lite to Plus pays itself back the first time recurring invoicing or automated late fees save 30 minutes of admin. For agencies on retainer billing, Plus is the entry-point because client retainers (subscription-style billing) live here.
The large majority of FreshBooks customers. Active freelancers billing 6-50 clients, small service teams of 2-3 people, agencies running retainer billing, consultants who need recurring invoices, anyone who has felt the friction of manually chasing payments.
This is the default recommendation for new FreshBooks users.
Premium removes the client cap entirely (unlimited billable clients) and adds the features that growing service teams typically need next: project profitability, accounts payable, automatic bill receipt data capture with line items, customised email templates with dynamic fields, in-person and over-the-phone card payments, secure card storage, and the ability to charge client credit cards on file.
The two features that drive most upgrades from Plus to Premium: project profitability (real-time view of which projects are making money after labour, expenses, and overhead) and accounts payable (managing bills from vendors as a workflow inside FreshBooks rather than via spreadsheets or a separate tool).
For service teams of 3-10 people with a finance lead or an external bookkeeper, Premium is closer to the right starting point than Plus.
Service teams of 3-10 people with project-based work, agencies that need to know which clients are profitable, businesses with a real accounts payable workflow, anyone who has run into the limits of Plus’s reporting depth.
Select is the high-end tier and is sold via a dedicated consultant rather than a self-service signup. It includes everything in Premium plus dedicated phone support, customised onboarding services, Easy Switch data migration, lower credit card transaction fees, capped ACH bank transfer fees, 2 included team member accounts, multi-line bill receipt scanning, and the ability to remove FreshBooks branding from client emails.
Select is priced based on volume.
The plans most commonly negotiated start in the $300-500 per month range and scale up based on team size, transaction volume, and processing fee structure. The headline value drivers: lower payment processing rates (which add up fast for businesses processing $100K+ per month in card payments) and the dedicated support relationship.
Service businesses processing high payment volumes, agencies and firms with 10+ team members, businesses migrating from QuickBooks or Xero needing white-glove onboarding, anyone whose payment processing fee savings would cover the plan upgrade alone.
Three add-ons can attach to any FreshBooks plan and meaningfully change the total monthly bill. Worth modelling these into the plan decision before you commit.
FreshBooks lists yearly pricing at exactly 12 times the monthly rate (Lite $276, Plus $516, Premium $840). The advantage of yearly billing is mostly cash-flow predictability rather than savings.
The decision rule: if you are testing FreshBooks for the first time, run the 30-day free trial first, then move to monthly billing for the first quarter.
Once you have validated that FreshBooks is the right fit and you have stopped switching plans, the seasonal yearly promotion is the moment to lock in the lower effective monthly rate.
FreshBooks sits in a competitive band with three different price profiles. The fast comparison:
The strongest case for FreshBooks pricing: invoicing quality and time tracking integration.
The strongest case against: per-seat economics for teams of 5+ and the absence of a free tier.
Three realistic worked examples to model what FreshBooks actually costs in practice.
Solo designer, retainer billing, 8 clients: Plus at $43 a month plus Advanced Payments at $20 a month for the recurring billing = $63 a month.
Add FreshBooks Payments processing at 2.9% plus $0.30 on cards. Total at $5,000 monthly card volume: roughly $63 plus $145 in processing = $208 a month all-in.
4-person agency on Plus: $43 base plus $33 for 3 extra team members plus $20 Advanced Payments = $96 a month. Plus FreshBooks Payroll at $40 plus $24 for 4 users = $64 a month. Total: $160 a month all-in (excluding payment processing).
10-person consulting firm on Premium: $70 base plus $99 for 9 extra team members plus $20 Advanced Payments = $189 a month. Plus FreshBooks Payroll at $40 plus $60 for 10 users = $100 a month. Total: $289 a month (excluding payment processing). Worth pricing Select against this profile, since processing fee savings on Select can offset the upgrade.
FreshBooks gives every paid plan a 30-day free trial without a credit card and a 30-day money-back guarantee on top of that. The risk-free testing window is real.
The fastest way to validate fit is to load 2-3 active clients into Plus, send a real invoice, and see whether the time savings on invoicing alone justify the monthly cost.
Most reviewers who test FreshBooks honestly report the time-savings break-even hits inside the first week.
FreshBooks costs $23 per month for Lite (5 clients), $43 per month for Plus (50 clients), $70 per month for Premium (unlimited clients). Select has custom pricing. Yearly billing is $276, $516, and $840 respectively at MSRP, with seasonal promotional discounts available.
FreshBooks does not have a free forever plan. It offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required and a 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans. Free alternatives include Wave Accounting and Zoho Invoice.
Lite at $23 per month supports 5 billable clients and includes invoicing, expenses, time tracking, and the client portal. Plus at $43 per month supports 50 clients and unlocks recurring invoices, automated late fees and reminders, accounting reports, bank reconciliation, accountant access, client retainers, and proposals. For most active freelancers, Plus is the realistic starting point.
FreshBooks is cheaper than QuickBooks Online at the entry tier ($23 vs $35) and at the most popular tier ($43 vs $65), but QuickBooks includes more accounting features (inventory, multi-entity, deeper reporting) and a larger accountant ecosystem at every level. The right comparison depends on whether the business sells services or products.
Three add-ons apply across all paid plans: Team Members at $11 per user per month, Advanced Payments at $20 per month (recurring billing, in-person card payments, secure card storage), and FreshBooks Payroll at $40 per month plus $6 per user per month. Advanced Payments is included in Select.
Beyond the plan price and add-ons, FreshBooks Payments charges payment processing fees: 2.9% plus $0.30 per card transaction, 1% (capped at $15) per ACH transfer. These are standard Stripe-level rates. Select offers lower processing rates as part of the negotiated package. There are no setup fees, contract minimums, or cancellation fees.
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