9 best invoice apps for small businesses in the UK

Invoice apps are gaining ground in the UK, but which are genuinely trusted by small businesses? The short answer: not many. There’s no shortage of invoicing tools out there, but they vary hugely in costs and features.

Many companies offer an invoicing app as an added extra to a main product. They can be grouped into:

• Invoicing in accounting software
• Invoicing from payment company
• Invoicing from digital bank

Some allow you to receive payments directly through the invoice through a link, others are not integrated with a payment system. For instance, certain apps just have free invoice templates where you can include your bank details for a manual bank transfer.

We’ve tested different invoicing apps and shortlisted what we think are the best options.

Best invoice apps for a small business in the UK:

The invoicing feature is accessed via a “Request money” button in the Business app dashboard on your iPhone or Android smartphone. The menu gives you a choice between sending a payment link, generating a QR code, creating a payment page to share online, or sending an email invoice.

When you choose ‘invoice’, a user-friendly screen lets you create one. You can add a customer (new or saved), message for the email, currency (28 to pick from), item(s) and costs, and an invoice note. Invoices can recur on a schedule or be sent as a one-off, with or without automatic reminders to pay.

We really like the fact you have full control over which payment methods the customer can use. This includes card payments (Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay), Revolut Pay (from other Revolut accounts), and ordinary or streamlined bank transfers where the payer doesn’t need to manually enter account details.

Pricing

Monthly cost: £0-£100 for business account

UK consumer cards, bank transfers, Revolut Pay: 1% + 20p per transaction

All business and non-UK cards: 2.8% + 20p per transaction

The easy bank transfer option lets the payer pick their bank from a list and verify the payment via their banking app, which is simpler than manually entering account details.

“I found it fast and easy to create Revolut invoices and accepting payments through them. It’s big plus for me that the invoices include both card payment and streamlined bank transfer options to maximise the chance of a fast payment.”

– Emily Sorensen, Senior Editor, MobileTransaction

Transaction fees are low for domestic consumer cards and bank transfers, while all other cards cost more. The fact you can opt for a free Business account plan makes Revolut great value, particularly if you need a multi-currency business account to save money on cross-border transfers.

Just beware that all of the payment features are only available with a Merchant Account requiring a separate application after getting the Business Account. Once approved, you receive payouts the next day in the Revolut account.

Integrated payments: Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Revolut Pay, bank transfer

Best for: Revolut Business account users whose clients like a choice between card and bank payments.

SumUp has no contract terms, and there’s no monthly fee for standard-template invoicing, just a pay-as-you-go rate of 2.5% per card transaction. Upgrading to the Pro plan gives you invoice customisations, bank transfers to any bank account, and 14 invoice languages. Crucially, the transaction rate drops to 1.25% for all cards on Pro.

It’s easy to get started: just sign up on the website, connect your bank account and start invoicing clients from the SumUp App or browser dashboard.

SumUp App is actually a payment and simple point of sale (POS) app. It has a product library, transactions overview and checkout interface for accepting cards, cash, QR code payments, keyed transactions and payment links.

In another section of the app, you can create, manage and monitor invoices and quotations with your own terms and conditions attached.

Pricing

Monthly fee: £0 (Free plan) or £7 + VAT/month (Pro plan)

Transaction fee: 2.5% (Free plan), 1.25% (Pro plan)

There is no limit on how many email invoices you can send, and items from your library of products and customers can be added. If you log into your SumUp account on a computer, you can create credit notes and delivery notes as well, neither of which are available in the app.

“Apart from the very user-friendly invoice management in SumUp App, I was struck by how professional the extra invoicing features in the browser dashboard are.”

– Emily Sorensen, Senior Editor, MobileTransaction

Payouts take 1-3 working days to reach your bank account. With the free SumUp Business Account and Card (online account and prepaid debit card), you can receive transactions the next day, including on weekends.

Integrated payments: SumUp (Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, American Express, Diners Club, Discover, JCB)

Best for: Selection of free payment methods, not just invoices, from the same app.

If you’re already using QuickBooks for bookkeeping, you might as well use the invoicing features, included to some extent on all plans. The less dispersed your documents, invoices and receipts are, the more streamlined your admin can be. A plus is that QuickBooks is HMRC-recognised and adheres to the government-incentive Making Tax Digital.

The app is compatible with iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets.

The number of invoicing features depends on your plan. The cheapest subscription, called Self-Employed (£10 + VAT/month), is for sole traders who are not VAT-registered. It includes unlimited invoices by email and the ability to track which ones have been read.

The next tier, Simple Start (£14 + VAT/month) is for sole traders and companies, whether VAT-registered or not. This plan has more customisation tools, payment tracking, recurring invoices and the ability to accept invoice payments online.

Pricing

Monthly fee: £10 + VAT/mo for Self-Employed, £14 + VAT/mo for Simple Start

GoCardless bank transfer: From 1% + 20p for (domestic) and 2% + 20p (international)

PayPal payments: From 1.45% + 30p for Visa and Mastercard, 3.5% for Amex, 2.9% + 30p for PayPal Wallet

Higher plans do not include more invoicing functions, only more accounting tools.

You can either accept payments outside the QuickBooks system and mark when invoices are paid, or accept payments through a link on the electronic invoice (except on the Self-Employed plan).

The latter can be done as a GoCardless Direct Debit integration which has no setup fee or monthly costs, just a transaction fee from 1% + 20p. PayPal can be integrated too – but again, only on Simple Start and higher plans.

Integrated payments: PayPal (Visa, Mastercard, American Express), GoCardless Direct Debit

Best for: SMEs wanting a complete, HMRC-compliant invoicing and accounting system.

The invoicing apps are supported on macOS, iOS, Android and Windows mobile devices. To be clear: the Invoice Generator app is a separate app you can download and use for free. What we describe below requires the free Zoho Invoice app, which has more in-depth features.

Features include recurring invoices, estimates, retainers, expense tracking, time tracking, multi-currency features, digital signatures, automated workflows, integrations with external apps, and much more.

The Zoho Invoice app lets you create up to 1000 per year, adapted to comply with your local tax laws, language and currency.

Pricing

Monthly cost: None

Transaction fees: Via payment processor (PayPal, Stripe, etc.)

Zoho can integrate with a number of payment services, so you can accept payments through the invoice rather than outside the platform. Transaction fees depend on the chosen payment system.

Integrated payments: Braintree, CSG Forte, GoCardless, PayPal, Square, Stripe, Verifone

Best for: Cheap way to start small, with options to expand features later on.

Once subscribed, you can generate invoices in the Monzo Business app on your smartphone. Customisation options include products or services paid for, your own logo and a note on each invoice.

Invoices are generated in a PDF format and sent via email, text or messaging app on your phone.

To accept card payments, you have to register with Stripe and connect that with Monzo. This is easily done via the Monzo app. It means transactions are processed via Stripe, so you are charged Stripe’s processing fees.

The biggest advantage of Monzo invoicing is its new integration with “easy bank transfers”, enabling customers to pay via bank transfer in a few taps on their phone. It involves selecting their bank from a drop-down menu and verifying the transaction in their banking app. These payments are free to accept for the rest of 2024.

Pricing

Monthly fee: £5/mo for Business Pro

Card transaction fee: 1.5% + 20p (UK consumer cards), 1.9% + 20p (UK premium cards), 2.5% + 20p (EEA cards), 3.25% + 20p (all other cards)

‘Easy’ bank transfers: Free until year 2025

Card payments via Stripe cost between 1.5% + 20p and 3.25% + 20p, depending on the type of debit and credit card. Funds arrive in your Monzo bank account within a few working days, or faster via bank transfer.

Integrated payments: Stripe (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Google Pay, Apple Pay), bank transfer

Best for: Monzo Business account holders who want the cheapest, easy way to accept bank transfers.

Invoice2go has three plans that can be paid upfront monthly or annually (the latter works out cheapest per month). The cheapest subscription, Starter, includes 30 invoices for the whole year on an annual plan (£4.17/month) or 2 invoices per month on the monthly plan (£4.99/month).

The annual Professional plan costs £6.67/month and includes 100 invoices annually. The same plan paid monthly (£7.99/month) allows for 5 invoices per month.

Premium (£29.99/month on a monthly plan, £25/month on annual) allows unlimited invoices to be sent.

All the subscriptions allow you to have unlimited clients, team members and projects, and send unlimited estimates. The system integrates with Stripe for card transactions that take around 3-5 working days to reach your bank account (or up to 7 working days in some cases – quite slow!).

The higher your plan, the lower is your transaction fee through Stripe.

Pricing

Monthly fee: £4.17-£25/month for annual plans, £4.99-£29.99/month for monthly plans

Card payments: 1.9%-2.4% + 20p for domestic cards and Amex, 3.4%-3.9% + 20p for foreign cards

PayPal transactions: 2.9% + 30p

PayPal is also integrated for a fixed fee of 2.9% + 30p per transaction regardless of the plan, though PayPal tends to add more fees to that.

On the plus side, Invoice2go specialises in invoicing features rather than the general accounting tools that QuickBooks and Xero, for example, offer together with invoicing. However, many users have reported the app is cumbersome to use, the disappearing of features or data saved in the app, and generally the high price for an increasingly problematic user experience.

Integrated payments: PayPal (Visa, Mastercard, American Express)

Best for: Those who don’t mind paying more for a reputable, dedicated invoice app.

The cheapest plan, Starter (£15 + VAT/month), lets you send quotes and up to 20 invoices per month from the app, and enter 5 bills monthly. The higher plans, Standard (£30 + VAT/month), Premium (£42 + VAT/month) and Ultimate (£55 + VAT/month), provide unlimited invoices, quotes and bills.

Regardless of the plan, you get accounting reports, Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) calculations, VAT returns to the HMRC, and Hubdoc capture of receipts. The Standard plan lets you reconcile transactions in bulk, while Premium also lets you work in multiple currencies.

You can add a button to invoices for accepting cards via Stripe and direct bank payments via GoCardless. Rather than paying transaction fees to Xero, each accepted card payment or Direct Debit transfer incurs a cost via Stripe or GoCardless.

Pricing

Monthly fee: £15-£55 + VAT

Stripe payments: 1.5% + 20p for consumer UK cards, 1.9% + 20p for premium UK cards, 2.5% + 20p for EEA cards, 3.25% + 20p for international cards; 2% currency conversion

GoCardless transfers: Fees via GoCardless

It’s possible to add a payment button on invoices that’s handled by another card processor – Xero is flexible like that.

That being said, Xero reportedly has a steep learning curve that some only find worth the time if they use it for a larger company. But the interface has improved over the years, and it is generally a solid system for keeping the books in order.

Integrated payments: Stripe (Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay), GoCardless bank transfers

Best for: Xero users who’d like their invoices integrated with bookkeeping.

Customisation options are not the most extensive, but they cover both the legal requirements for invoices and additional extras like allowing partial payments, tips, postage cost, doscounts and custom terms and conditions. Like most invoice apps, you can itemise the invoice, attach a reference, note to the customer and VAT details. For repeat billing, you can save customers and invoiced items so you don’t have to spell out the same service for the next invoice.

Clients receive the invoice via email, with buttons to pay straight away via their PayPal account, debit or credit card, or PayPal Pay Later (credit option). Since many people are familiar with the PayPal brand, they are likely to trust these methods and pay faster.

Transactions clear right away in your online PayPal Business account, not a bank account, minus transaction fees.

Pricing

Monthly cost: None

Transaction fee: 2.9% + 30p for domestic Visa and Mastercard

If you need the money in your bank account, you must transfer it from the app to the business bank account associated with the PayPal account.

“I’ve used PayPal invoices many times because some clients prefer it (mostly for convenience), but I do hate the fees. I much prefer another invoice solution that doesn’t eat into my margins just to get paid.”

– Emily Sorensen, Senior Editor, MobileTransaction

What about fees? Well, that’s the hardest part to swallow. PayPal isn’t cheap even for domestic consumer cards. The standard rate is 2.9% + 30p per card transaction, plus 1.29% for EEA cards or  1.99% for other international cards, if a non-UK card was used. There is also a currency conversion fee of 3% if at any point you receive a foreign-currency amount into your GBP account.

Integrated payments: PayPal (Visa, Mastercard, American Express)

Best for: Existing PayPal merchants who want to bill clients in the most convenient way possible, despite higher transaction fees.