FreshBooks Pricing 2026: Every Plan Explained

FreshBooks pricing in 2026 is four tiers: Lite $19/month (5 clients), Plus $33/month (50 clients), Premium $70/month (unlimited clients), and Select custom. There is no permanent free plan, only a 30-day trial. The Lite plan’s 5-client cap is the constraint that forces most growing businesses to upgrade sooner than they expect.

Last researched: May 2026 | By the BuyerSprint Editorial Team | How we research

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FreshBooks Plans and Pricing at a Glance

The FreshBooks Client-Cap Cost Curve (BuyerSprint Exclusive)

FreshBooks does not price on features, it prices on billable-client count. The tier you pay for is decided by your client roster, not the feature list, so what matters is where your roster forces the next jump. This is the curve we use to project true cost.

Read the curve before you pick a plan. The trap is signing up on Lite at the promo rate, adding a sixth client in month two, and absorbing a 74% jump to Plus you did not budget for. If your roster is anywhere near a cap boundary, price the next tier up as your real cost, the client count, not the headline price, is what you are buying.

FreshBooks Lite Plan: $19/Month

The Lite plan is FreshBooks’ entry tier, designed for solo freelancers and one-person service businesses with a small, stable client base. At $19/month (or $17.10/month billed annually), it covers the core invoicing workflow but imposes a hard cap of 5 billable clients.

What Lite includes:

• Unlimited invoices and estimates, but only to up to 5 clients
• Expense tracking and categorization
• Basic time tracking
• Tax summary reports
• Multiple payment methods (credit card, bank transfer)
• 1 team member seat (additional seats: $11/user/month)
• Mobile app access

What Lite does NOT include: proposals, client retainers, e-signatures, expense receipt scanning, accountant access, accounts payable, or project profitability tracking. All of those require Plus or higher.

The 5-client limit is the defining constraint. For freelancers with a roster of fewer than 5 ongoing clients, Lite works well. The moment you bring on a sixth client, you hit a hard wall and must upgrade to Plus, a 74% price jump. Based on our analysis of Capterra and Reddit reviews, this client ceiling is the #1 reason users upgrade from Lite faster than planned.

FreshBooks Plus Plan: $33/Month

Plus is FreshBooks’ most popular plan and the one most freelancers and small agencies end up on. At $33/month (or $29.70/month billed annually), it supports up to 50 billable clients and adds the collaboration and business development features that growing service businesses need.

Everything in Lite, plus:

• Up to 50 billable clients
• Proposals and client retainers
• E-signature on estimates and proposals
• Expense receipt scanning (capture receipts via mobile app)
• Accountant access (invite your bookkeeper or CPA)
• Recurring invoices and auto-billing
• Accounting reports (profit and loss, balance sheet, sales tax summary)

For most freelancers and independent consultants, Plus is the practical choice. The jump from Lite ($19) to Plus ($33) is $14/month, roughly the cost of one invoiced hour for most professionals. If you have more than 5 clients, it pays for itself immediately.

FreshBooks Premium Plan: $70/Month

Premium removes all client limits and adds advanced financial management tools for businesses that have outgrown Plus. At $70/month (or $63/month billed annually), it’s aimed at established service businesses with multiple team members and complex project workflows.

Everything in Plus, plus:

• Unlimited billable clients
• 2 team member seats included (additional: $11/user/month)
• Project profitability tracking
• Accounts payable (track what you owe vendors)
• Customized email templates and signatures
• Automatic bill receipt capture with line-item extraction (AI-powered)
• Purchase order generation
• Advanced reports and financial statements

Premium is worth considering when the 50-client ceiling becomes a real constraint or when you need project profitability data to know which client engagements are making money. The $37/month jump from Plus to Premium is significant, evaluate it when your client roster is approaching 40+ and you need the reporting depth to match.

FreshBooks Select Plan: Custom Pricing

Select is FreshBooks’ enterprise-adjacent tier. Pricing is negotiated directly with FreshBooks sales, making it hard to benchmark. Based on reported ranges across user communities and review sites, Select typically runs $55-200+/month depending on team size and add-ons included.

Select adds on top of Premium:

• Lower credit card transaction rates (negotiated per account)
• Capped ACH transfer fees (removes the 1% per-transaction cost)
• Dedicated account manager
• Phone support (this is the only plan with inbound phone support)
• Custom onboarding assistance
• Easy Switch data migration tool
• Advanced Payments included (normally a $20/month add-on)

The clearest reason to push for Select is the capped ACH fees. If your business processes a high volume of bank transfer payments, eliminating the 1% per-transaction ACH cost can save more than the plan upgrade costs. The dedicated phone support is the other differentiator, every lower tier is email and chat only.

FreshBooks Add-Ons and Hidden Costs

The plan price is not the full picture. These are the additional costs that regularly catch new FreshBooks users by surprise:

Extra Team Members: $11/User/Month

Lite and Plus include one team member seat. Premium includes two. Each additional user beyond those limits costs $11/month, billed per user. A team of 4 on Plus ($33/month base) adds $33/month in user seats, bringing the real cost to $66/month, barely less than Premium with fewer features.

Payment Processing Fees

FreshBooks charges processing fees on every payment collected through the platform:

• Credit and debit cards: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
• Bank transfers (ACH): 1% per transaction
• Select plan: negotiated lower rates and capped ACH

This is where FreshBooks gets expensive for high-volume invoicers. A business invoicing $10,000/month via credit card pays roughly $320/month in processing fees on top of the $33-70/month plan cost. Multiple Capterra reviews from 2025-2026 specifically flag “monthly fee plus high credit card processing fee is a lot” as their primary frustration.

Advanced Payments: $20/Month

The Advanced Payments add-on ($20/month, included free in Select) enables charge-up-front functionality, subscription billing, and lower checkout card rates for some transaction types. If your business uses FreshBooks for subscription or retainer billing at scale, this add-on can pay for itself. If you just send standard invoices, skip it.

FreshBooks Payroll: Via Gusto Partnership

FreshBooks does not have native payroll. Instead, it partners with Gusto for US payroll processing. The Gusto integration adds $40/month as a base fee plus $6 per employee per month. For a 5-person team, that’s $70/month in payroll fees on top of your FreshBooks plan. If payroll is a core requirement, evaluate whether the FreshBooks plus Gusto bundle is more cost-effective than switching to QuickBooks, which has native payroll built in at higher tiers.

Is FreshBooks Free? Free Trial Details

FreshBooks does not offer a permanent free plan. The free tier question comes up often, “is FreshBooks free” gets 70 searches per month, and the answer is no. What FreshBooks does offer:

• 30-day free trial: Full access to FreshBooks features without a credit card. No automatic charge at the end.
• 70% off for 4 months: The current new-user promotion. After month four, you pay the full plan rate.
• 30-day money-back guarantee: Available on paid plans within the first 30 days.

The 30-day trial is genuinely useful for testing whether FreshBooks handles your specific invoice workflow before committing. The 5-client cap on Lite won’t feel real during a trial unless you proactively add dummy clients to test the limit. Worth testing with your actual client setup.

FreshBooks does publish a dedicated 2026 Price Change FAQ page at freshbooks.com/2026-faq-price-change, confirming that a price adjustment occurred in 2026. The plan structure (Lite/Plus/Premium/Select) remains the same. The specific dollar changes were not accessible via the page during our research, check the FAQ page directly if you’re evaluating a multi-year commitment.

FreshBooks Customer Service: What Support Do You Get?

FreshBooks customer service has historically been a competitive advantage, the company built its reputation on genuinely helpful support. That reputation has taken some hits in 2025-2026 reviews.

Support channels by plan:

• Lite, Plus, Premium: Email and live chat only. No phone support.
• Select: Dedicated account manager + inbound phone support included.

What the support reviews show

FreshBooks’ G2 score of 4.5/5 across 731 reviews and Capterra score of 4.5/5 across 4,510 reviews still reflect strong overall satisfaction. But drilling into 2025-2026 Capterra reviews, patterns emerge: longer wait times than previous years, scripted responses for complex billing issues, and at least one documented case of a user waiting five months for resolution on a platform feature problem.

FreshBooks Trustpilot score (3.7/5 across roughly 180 reviews) is lower than its G2/Capterra scores, which typically reflects billing and cancellation disputes more than product quality. The discrepancy is common across SaaS tools, G2/Capterra skew toward active users evaluating the product; Trustpilot catches frustrated customers leaving during or after cancellation.

FreshBooks vs Wave: Which Is Worth Paying For?

Wave vs FreshBooks is the most common decision freelancers face when evaluating accounting software. Wave’s pitch is simple: free invoicing and bookkeeping. Here’s what that comparison looks like in 2026:

What the Wave comparison shows

Wave’s Trustpilot score of 1.3/5 is the number worth paying attention to. The most common complaints involve payment funds being held for extended periods without explanation, a real operational risk for freelancers who depend on reliable cash flow timing. Multiple small business owners report having $5,000-20,000 held for weeks without resolution.

Wave also quietly moved bank imports behind a paywall in 2025. The free tier no longer includes bank connections, that costs $16-19/month depending on the plan. Once you add that, FreshBooks Lite at $19/month starts looking more competitive, especially when FreshBooks includes time tracking (Wave doesn’t) and has a more reliable payment processing track record.

Bottom line: Wave wins only for US or Canadian solopreneurs who don’t need time tracking, have stable bank connections they don’t need imported, and are comfortable with the lower support quality and payment-hold risk. FreshBooks is the safer pick for anyone billing more than $2,000/month, where a payments hold causes real business disruption.

FreshBooks vs QuickBooks Pricing Compared

FreshBooks vs QuickBooks Online comes down to what your business does, and the gap widened after QuickBooks’s May 1, 2026 increase took Essentials from $60 to $70:

FreshBooks wins on ease of use and built-in time tracking. QuickBooks wins on integrations, inventory, reporting depth, and the accountant ecosystem. FreshBooks is also cheaper at comparable tiers for service businesses that don’t need inventory. If your CPA uses QuickBooks, which most US accountants do, that single practical constraint often settles the decision.

What’s New in FreshBooks in 2026

FreshBooks has shipped a steady stream of updates in early 2026, several of which meaningfully expand what you get for the subscription price:

• YouLend embedded financing (April 14, 2026): FreshBooks now connects your accounting data directly to YouLend’s small business lending product. You can apply for business financing from within FreshBooks using your own revenue and invoice data, no separate bank application. Useful for cash-flow-sensitive service businesses.
• Self-driving bookkeeping via Kick (February 26, 2026): FreshBooks partnered with Kick to add automated transaction categorization. Instead of manually assigning expense categories, the system learns your patterns and categorizes transactions automatically. Early access, still rolling out.
• Buy Now Pay Later payments (March 2026): FreshBooks added Afterpay and Stripe BNPL as payment options on invoices. Clients can pay in installments; you receive the full amount upfront. Particularly useful for service businesses sending large one-time invoices.
• Trial Balance report overhaul (March 2026): Rebuilt to standard double-entry accounting treatment, fixing long-standing complaints about the report’s accuracy for accountant review.
• CSV bank import drag-and-drop (April 2026): Easier manual bank import for businesses whose banks don’t support Plaid automatic connection.

Company health: layoffs and funding

FreshBooks laid off roughly 140 employees (about 20% of its workforce) in October 2024, citing a “challenging 18 months.” As of February 2026, the company has 391 employees and raised $125 million in March 2025. The layoff context is worth noting: the company is leaner and focused on profitability, which has coincided with a tighter feature release cadence but also sharper focus on the core use case (service business invoicing and billing).

Which FreshBooks Plan Fits You? By Business Type

FreshBooks works best for a specific shape of business. Match yourself to the closest profile.

Best for solo freelancers and independent consultants

Lite at $19/month if you have 5 or fewer ongoing clients. You get professional invoicing, time tracking, and expense capture in one place without QuickBooks complexity. The moment you near a sixth client, budget for the Plus jump.

Best for small agencies and creative studios

Plus at $33/month for 2-10 people billing by project or hour. The proposal and retainer features map directly to the agency workflow, and accountant access lets your bookkeeper in.

Best for service businesses with a steady client roster

Plus or Premium depending on count. 10-30 recurring clients fits Plus well; past 50, Premium removes the cap. Hundreds of one-time clients burn the cap fast, price Premium from the start.

Best for teams that prioritize ease of use

Any FreshBooks tier over QuickBooks. It is consistently rated easier to learn, which matters when the team is not financially trained and you do not want a bookkeeper babysitting the software.

Best for contractors and nonprofits

Lite or Plus. Both use cases are supported, project and time tracking suit contractors well, though FreshBooks lacks nonprofit-specific features that dedicated platforms offer.

When FreshBooks is the wrong fit

FreshBooks is probably not right if you sell physical products (no inventory), have a large team needing complex payroll, need deep financial forecasting, or your accountant works only in QuickBooks and wants direct access to your books.

FreshBooks Plan Decision Tree

Two rules, in order. The first that matches is your plan.

Choose Lite if you have 5 or fewer clients and no team

Solo, stable small roster, no need for proposals, retainers, or accountant access: Lite at $19/month is enough. Re-evaluate the day you add a sixth client, that is a forced upgrade, not an option.

Choose Plus (or price Premium) if you are growing or need proposals

More than 5 clients, or you need proposals, retainers, e-signatures, or accountant access: Plus at $33/month is the practical default. If your roster is heading past 40-50 or you need project profitability, price Premium ($70) as your real cost now.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How much does FreshBooks cost per month in 2026?

FreshBooks costs $19/month for Lite (5 clients), $33/month for Plus (50 clients), $70/month for Premium (unlimited clients), and custom pricing for Select. Annual billing saves 10%, bringing Lite to $17.10/month and Plus to $29.70/month. New users typically get 70% off for the first four months, then pay full price.

Is FreshBooks free?

FreshBooks does not have a permanent free plan. It offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans. New users also typically receive a 70% introductory discount for the first four months. After the trial or promo period, paid plan pricing applies.

What are FreshBooks plans?

FreshBooks has four plans: Lite ($19/month, up to 5 clients), Plus ($33/month, up to 50 clients), Premium ($70/month, unlimited clients), and Select (custom pricing, for larger teams needing phone support and lower transaction rates). All plans include invoicing, expense tracking, and time tracking. Plus and above add proposals, retainers, and accountant access.

What is the FreshBooks Lite plan?

FreshBooks Lite is the entry plan at $19/month (or $17.10/month billed annually). It includes unlimited invoices, expense tracking, basic time tracking, and tax reports, but only for up to 5 billable clients. It includes one team member seat. Additional users cost $11/month each. Lite lacks proposals, retainers, e-signatures, and accountant access, those require Plus.

Does FreshBooks charge per client?

FreshBooks does not charge per client, instead, it gates the number of billable clients by plan. Lite supports up to 5, Plus supports up to 50, and Premium and Select support unlimited clients. There is no per-client fee, but exceeding your plan’s client limit requires upgrading to the next tier.

What is the FreshBooks Select plan price?

FreshBooks Select pricing is not publicly listed, it requires contacting sales. Select builds on Premium with lower credit card transaction rates, capped ACH fees, dedicated phone support, an account manager, and custom onboarding. It’s designed for businesses processing high payment volumes where negotiated transaction rates offset the higher plan cost.

Is FreshBooks worth it compared to Wave?

FreshBooks is worth the cost over Wave for most service businesses in 2026. Wave’s “free” tier now requires a paid add-on for bank imports, and Wave’s Trustpilot score (1.3/5) reflects widespread complaints about payment funds being held without explanation. FreshBooks is more reliable for cash-flow-sensitive businesses. Wave remains viable only for US or Canadian solopreneurs with very basic invoicing needs and no time tracking requirement.

Does FreshBooks have a promo code or discount in 2026?

FreshBooks frequently runs new-user promotions, typically 60-90% off for the first 3-4 months. As of April 2026, a 70% off for 4 months promo is active on the freshbooks.com pricing page for new signups. FreshBooks promo codes are less commonly available; the standard new-user discount is applied automatically at checkout without a code. Annual billing adds another 10% savings on top.

What is FreshBooks customer service like?

FreshBooks customer service has historically been above average. Current support includes email and chat on Lite, Plus, and Premium plans, with phone support reserved for Select customers. G2 (4.5/5) and Capterra (4.5/5) reviews remain positive overall, but 2025-2026 reviews specifically note longer response times and less proactive support than earlier years. If phone access is important, budget for the Select tier.

Can I use FreshBooks for self-employed or contractor work?

Yes. FreshBooks is well-suited for self-employed professionals and contractors. The invoicing, time tracking, and expense tracking features map directly to the freelance billing workflow. The Lite plan works for contractors with 5 or fewer regular clients; Plus handles up to 50. FreshBooks also supports mileage tracking and tax-category expense tagging, useful for self-employed individuals tracking deductions.