FreshBooks is an accounting service for small businesses. The solution enables users to send and manage invoices, track billable time and collect online payments. The vendor’s value proposition this that their solution provides a straightforward service that simplifies the billing process.
$15
per month
Xero
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Xero is an online accounting software product for small businesses and personal finance. Its features beyond general ledger and double-bookkeeping include quotable invoicing, bank reconciliation, purchase order and expense management, and tax management. Third party apps can extend its features further.
$13
per month
Pricing
FreshBooks
Xero
Editions & Modules
Lite
$15
per month
Plus
$30
per month
Premium
$55
per month
Select
Custom Pricing
Early
$13
per month
Growing
$37
per month
Established
$70
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
FreshBooks
Xero
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
—
Prices in table are in USD and just apply to the US - other markets & prices are listed below:
Canada - Starter $18 CAD/month, Standard $45 CAD/month, Premium 5 $58 CAD/month
UK - Starter £14/month, Standard £28/month, Premium £36/month
AU - Starter $29 AUD/month, Standard $59 AUD/month, Premium 5 $76 AUD/month
NZ - Starter $31 NZD/month, Standard $66 NZD/month, Premium $84 NZD/month
Freshbooks is an extra cost when used with Xero (or even QuickBooks) and I wouldn't suggest it. Freshbooks needs to find a pivot as they are known as invoicing software, but every other platform (that does more) has that feature built in. Time tracking was a good move, now they …
QuickBooks Online and Xero are the most obvious comps to FreshBooks. FreshBooks pricing is based on the number of billable clients while QuickBooks Online will charge additional for additional features regardless of number of billable clients. Xero has additional functionality …
I actually switched from a FreshBooks and QuickBooks Online combination to using Harvest and Xero at the request of my bookkeeper. It seems like FreshBooks and QuickBooks Online are both market leaders in their space. Harvest is more focused on time tracking than being an …
Don't get me wrong — I like Xero for accounting purposes. But Xero's invoicing isn't great. There's too many features I depend on that FreshBooks has that Xero just does not. I need to be able to take deposits, send automatic reminders, and create an extremely user-friendly …
I really liked Wave Apps for a bit. It had some limitations, but I really like how easy it was to use and intuitive. Great pricing too. So I would recommend that over Freshbooks at this point for someone who is just getting started. Quickbooks is great for accounting. Super …
FreshBooks is an invoicing software that wants to do accounting. Xero is an accounting software that wants to do billing. Both are pretty solid at their core functionality, and weak on the other. However, it's a shorter step for Xero to add interest and recurring CC billing, so …
We do not consider other options since our client wants the implementation of this platform in order to use it in the two countries where it has operations.
At the moment, full integration was not possible and we still share the information with a Mexican system to complete …
We switched off of FreshBooks to Xero. It is somewhat apples to oranges, in that FreshBooks is not a general ledger nor does it claim to be (at least at the time 2 years ago). Our business grew though and having a general ledger with reconcillation features like Xero was …
Xero has more intuitive user interface which makes it much more easier to use as compared to the other products. It also offers a wider collection of accounting and financial management features which makes it possible to have just one product for manning all the financial …
Xero is really basic and our team can easily adapt with it rather than using other some other non-user friendly apps. We could focus on the work itself rather than having problems with learning its complexity. Xero is very user-friendly and also gives tutorial which is great! …
Xero stands out as the industry leader in terms of ease of use, functionality, integration possibilities, usability, and reporting functionality. Having extensive experience with various accounting software as a business owner and mentor, Xero consistently proves to be my top …
Xero ranks highly among the competitors, however multi-level reporting is better done in QuickBooks. More price sensitive, micro-businesses can find decent cheaper or free alternatives. Those wanting integration with other apps like cashflow management, inventory, reporting …
Xero has enterprise capabilities but can be used for small businesses. Coming from a large enterprise, I had a certain way of looking at the business that I was used to. Xero met that whereas the other products didn't - they appealed directly to small businesses with a …
Ignoring pricing, Xero is among the best options available. It has the most complete feature set along with Quickbooks. It is more user-friendly compared to most of its competitors. It has well-designed mobile apps that can actually do something in contrast with most …
We really liked Xero because it was incredibly affordable when compared to the other solutions that we evaluated. There are some things that need to be improved but overall it's a really enjoyable online accounting solution. I'm happy with my experience of Xero and I know there …
Xero hits our "maximum point" on the curves of simplicity, usability, and feature set. In my opinion it is by far the best in class, and the only reason it hasn't taken over Quickbooks entirely is that industry-standard products, no matter how inferior, are difficult to …
Previously exclusively a desktop QuickBooks "shop". Hate the version control issues and need to collect and transfer data files to get source documents. Auto bank downloads clunky and not as intuitive as Xero bank recon features. Few clients use FreshBooks - nice customer …
Xero is the best. Xero thinks about the accountants and supports that role very well. Xero "makes sense" to average business owners and also is very powerful tool for the accountants. They have built the product right and keep improving it with every release they do. We picked …
Four years ago, Xero was the market leader. I had written an article on cloud accounting and compared all of the offerings. I had concerns as Xero was from New Zealand and preferred to use a UK company. However, Xero had more flexibility via its APIs and was, at that time, …
Verified User
C-Level Executive
Chose Xero
Quicken is really old, that's what I used to use and I like it but there is no bank feed support. QuickBooks is incredibly bloated. Freshbooks is just for invoicing (we still use it for that).
Xero was chosen by the client simply because it integrates with FreshBooks. I prefer QuickBooks for its ease of use, but it doesn't integrate with FreshBooks. The bank reconciliation feature of Xero is very similar to QuickBooks which is a benefit. The reporting feature in …
I have written several reviews comparing Quickbooks/Freshbooks/Xero. In many categories they offer very similar features. What sets them apart and will continue to set them apart in the long run is their approach to the market. Quickbooks has a closed ecosystem approach, while …
FreshBooks is the perfect tool for businesses who have hundreds of clients and customers whom they invoice regularly. It removes the need to manually send invoices to clients and customers, by streamlining inputted information to create an automated invoicing system which keeps clients and customers up to date with their bills. It is also a great tool for managing expenses, especially for companies with different teams working on varying projects, ensuring these teams do not exceed the budget ceiling.
If they are using foreign exchange I always use Xero. If I need reporting to be customized we always use Xero. If the client is already working in a software and it is working for them we will leave them in the software they are in.
FreshBooks is pretty intuitive to use. I did have some questions when I first started using the system, but it wasn't a long learning curve.
FreshBooks provides more capability than other billing applications such as PaySimple or BlinkSale. FreshBooks does provide an easy invoicing function. It's easy to create invoices that can be sent via email or snail mail to one or more individuals (for example, the decision-maker and the accounting dept). Clients can pay online or send a check and then I note that the payment has been received. If paid by credit card, the system automatically marks the invoice paid. Your business accounts such as bank accounts can be linked to FreshBooks. Then, the system can automatically draw in expenses and will create simple P&L reports, overdue invoices, client history, etc. If you don't have inventory and complex payroll, etc. FreshBooks provides just the right level of capability to make financial tracking simple.
FreshBooks integrates with a number of credit card companies. I use Stripe, which has fees similar to Paypal, but much more reliable processing. I can accept all credit cards, including American Express, for a reasonable fee.
Their method of moving between screens was very logical and intuitive which is not a "given" attribute among software packages.
Finding transactions was relatively easy with just common sense.
The use of this software was generally well received in that the accountants did not discredit the software as cheap, poorly organized, or timely to learn. No one at Corporate had a vendetta against using Xero.
It does a good job of allowing the users to drill down to the final detail of an account balance - which is fundamental to the accounting department's needs.
I can brand invoices with my business logo, but I might like to change colours of the invoices themselves to match the rest of my business documents. That isn't a major point at all, but it's something that I'd like to see.
Freshbooks doesn't remember the categories that similar expenses were previously assigned to. It would be nice if Freshbooks would suggest a category for an already saved vendor, to ensure the consistency of expense reporting.
The home page of a Freshbooks account has a great graph display of expenses and income, but it only shows the last 6 months. This is still very useful, but I'd like to be able to see this kind of graph for different periods of time.
I would like to have the ability to sign up a holding company and all its trading entities under one subscription, in order to have amalgamated and separate accounting records and reports for each trading entity.
This is pertaining to my own Xero business clients: I would like to have a full featured, customizable practice client support /ticketing and task manager system, with reminders that can be sent to my clients and my team for various tasks due.
I would like Xero to have a cheaper option for their packages that include invoicing and related documents, as in my country we have options with an opposition accounting firm that offers a subscription where clients can create up to 2000 invoices per year for free.
At the current needs of our business, FreshBooks suits us perfectly - it allows online access by our accountant to the system for GST purposes, easy input of expenses and tracking of Profit and Loss statements. FreshBooks customer service is great as well - very understanding and accommodating.
In addition to the matters covered in this review, my reason for renewing this product is that Xero's functionality and the constant updates that the company provides, makes the software even more business friendly. The software therefore builds a brand loyalty among customers.
FreshBooks is very easy to use even for novices. If you're looking for an online accounting software that is full of features, has great aesthetics and is user-friendly, then this is definitely the software for you. I've been using it for several years now and despite being tempted to switch by other vendors, I like the feel of FreshBooks and it's mobile features.
Xero has all the features that you need, basically. From chart of accounts, reconciling books, to making annual financial reports. What I'm currently looking for Xero right now is to provide more broader integration with the other apps so we can use it for customer-facing experience also. All in all, everything works well!
We have been actively using and 100% Xero based for our ecommerce accounting practice for over 4 years. There has on been one real outage for more than 5 minutes. Xero was open and transparent about the outage, what they were doing to resolve the issue, and provided 15 minute updates. Showing how they care about their customers and partners. Plus, showing that their customers care too, were understanding, and went surfing or in our case took a nap. Couldn't run our business without Xero as a partner.
Pages generally load quickly, but it's a fairly common occurrence to have pages taking a bit longer than I'd like to load (as in, 4+ seconds). Occasionally I have to refresh a page to get it to work. Bank feed and integrations tend to be slow in general, but that could easily be due to API latency on the side of the other parties. Most of the time, though, the bank feeds refresh before I login so it's not a huge problem. Not necessarily good performance compared to a local app like QuickBooks desktop, but definitely good performance for a cloud application. Room for growth? yes.
I think the support level for FreshBooks is on par with a 6 because the folks behind this application do a fairly good job at providing support for their customer base. I still don't think they are at an elite level when it comes to supporting but are getting there although too slow in my opinion.
Always respond and keep issues open until you are satisfied with the result. Generally good responses, in the past, I had some support responses that were really basic and really annoying. They type where "have your tried restarting your computer" style of answers. Well, of course, I went through all the basics before contacting them. Duh, but I suppose not everyone does. Otherwise, it would be a 10. The last year has shown a marked improvement in the support responses however.
All of Xero's training is online and available for anyone (business owner or accountants) to learn and become experts in their system. There is a range of content from product training to real world webinars from their partners. Xero is beautiful accounting software and their training is the same.
If it can be done, time the implementation near a new fiscal year so you can start clean. Otherwise, you have to go back and do historical data from the beginning of the fiscal year, which can be brain draining.
We do not consider other options since our client wants the implementation of this platform in order to use it in the two countries where it has operations.
At the moment, full integration was not possible and we still share the information with a Mexican system to complete everything necessary.
I've used a lot of different accounting systems. Many of them so big and powerful, but a hassle to get set up. Xero is light, inexpensive, and easy to use. When I originally selected them they seemed like they were developing new features at a quick rate as well. I was invited to be part of focus sessions to make the product better. That part has slowed down significantly though.
I have yet to fully stress test the product given the size of the company where I am using it. I am sure as we scale to more customers, more vendors and more reporting requirements, I will have a better understanding of what it is capable of in terms of bandwidth and processing
Freshbooks saves me time compared to when I managed to invoice without an app.
Freshbooks make keeping my invoices organized which saves me time.
Freshbooks helps me to know who is late on payments. When I was doing this by hand, some invoices would get lost in the clutter and I would not find out I haven't been paid until much later.
Saved many hours through automatic invoices and followups
Saved many hours by allowing transactions to start via bank feeds (ie I don't have to input a transaction and mark it against what is in the bank/cc account; rather, the transaction in the account is where you input the transaction into the books.
Has the scalability my business requires, and not much more.