An honest FreshBooks alternative — free, no caps
For freelancers who like FreshBooks' invoicing but not the price creep or client caps.
Businessily is a free, uncapped alternative to FreshBooks: polished invoices, expenses, mileage and US taxes with no subscription and no client limit, while FreshBooks runs roughly $23–70/mo and its entry "Lite" plan caps you at about 5 billable clients. FreshBooks links bank data through providers like Plaid/Yodlee; Businessily never asks for your bank login.
Pricing and plan limits reflect publicly listed plans as of 2026 and change often — check freshbooks.com before deciding.
Businessily vs FreshBooks
| Businessily | FreshBooks | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ✓ $0, no tier | ✗ ~$23–70/mo |
| Client limit | ✓ Unlimited | ✗ Lite caps ~5 |
| Free forever (not a trial) | ✓ | ✗ Trial only |
| No bank login / no Plaid | ✓ Import a file | ✗ Plaid/Yodlee |
| On-device data option | ✓ Apple apps | ✗ Cloud only |
| Polished PDF invoices & estimates | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mileage tracking | ✓ Free | ~ Limited |
| US tax tooling (Sched C, quarterly, 1099) | ✓ Full | ~ Limited |
| POS & scheduling / booking | ✓ Included | ✗ |
| Native Mac app | ✓ Only one in category | ✗ Web/phone |
| Team / project collaboration tools | ~ Solo-focused | ✓ Mature |
| Established accountant network | ✗ Not yet | ✓ |
✓ = yes · ~ = partial/with a catch · ✗ = no. Summarized from publicly listed plans; verify with FreshBooks. Last reviewed June 2026.
When FreshBooks is the better choice
FreshBooks has years of polish in project tracking, time-tracking and multi-person collaboration that a solo-first app doesn't match.
FreshBooks pulls transactions through bank connections. We import statement files instead — a little more manual, no login shared.
FreshBooks has long-standing compliance audits and a support org we don't have yet.
Its time-tracking-to-invoice flow is deep. Ours is lighter and built for the solo operator.
What's different about Businessily
No Plaid, ever
We never ask for your bank password. Import a statement file (CSV/OFX/QFX), parsed on your device — no login routed through a third party.
We never hold your money
Payments go straight to your own account. We're not a processor, so there's no balance for us to freeze.
No caps, no upgrade wall
Unlimited clients and invoices, every feature unlocked, $0 — and on Apple your books stay on-device.
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Get it free — really.
Unlimited clients, every feature, $0. No card. Nothing to cancel.