What is the best FreeAgent alternative for a sole trader?

It depends why you're leaving. If it's the price for one person, a flat-priced one-person tool like SoloDesks (£12/month, free plan below it) is the direct answer. If it's a missing feature, one of the other products listed above is likelier to have it than we are. And if you file Making Tax Digital for Income Tax through FreeAgent, what you need is another accounting package, not us: SoloDesks makes no submissions to HMRC at all.

Is there a free FreeAgent alternative?

Several, with different catches. Zoho Invoice is free for up to 500 invoices a year, though your documents carry a Powered by Zoho Invoice line. ServiceM8's free tier covers 30 jobs a month. Our own free plan needs no card and never expires, covering 10 quotes, 10 invoices and 10 emailed PDFs a month with unlimited clients and jobs. Pick on whichever limit you'd hit first, and check your bank before you pay anyone: FreeAgent being free is worth more than any discount on this page.

Will I lose my data if I move off FreeAgent?

Export before you cancel, not after: clients, past invoices and anything you might need for HMRC. Most job software can export clients and invoices to CSV or PDF. Whatever you move to, keep a copy of your old records for at least six years: that's how long HMRC expects you to be able to produce them.

FreeAgent alternatives for a one-person trade

We make one of the alternatives, so read this knowing that. What follows is still the honest version: why people leave FreeAgent, who shouldn't, and what the real options are with prices attached. If you finish it and stay put, the page did its job.

Why people look for a FreeAgent alternative

Mostly a change of bank. The free tier is tied to a NatWest, RBS, Ulster or Mettle account, so moving your business banking turns a free tool into a £19 plus VAT subscription overnight, and that is when people look around. The other reason is scope: FreeAgent is built for the books, so anyone who wanted job scheduling and doorstep quoting was always going to find it does a different job well rather than their job badly.

Who should stay on FreeAgent

Anyone banking with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle, without qualification. It is free, it is real accounting software, and no page selling you something should talk you out of that. Stay too if you are filing Making Tax Digital through it, because SoloDesks makes no submissions to HMRC. The only readers this page is really for are the ones paying £19 plus VAT for a tool they use to send five invoices a month.

FreeAgent is accounting software for sole traders and small companies, free with some UK business bank accounts. Switching software costs you a weekend and a month of small annoyances, so it needs to buy you more than that.

The options, with prices

The realistic options, including staying where you are. Prices as published by each company, read on the dates shown.

SoloDesks

£12/month, flat

If you're leaving over the price for one person. Priced per business rather than per seat or per job, with a free plan that has no card and no expiry. Quotes, invoices, payment chasing and a job calendar, and nothing else. That is the trade-off. No team seats, no dispatch, no timesheets.

Side by side with FreeAgent →

QuickBooks

From £10/mo (plus VAT)

QuickBooks is accounting software built around bookkeeping and Self Assessment, with invoicing attached. The nearest like-for-like swap, which is also the risk: check its pricing model is genuinely different before you move, because paying the same money through a new interface solves nothing.

QuickBooks UK pricing page (August 2026)

Xero

From £16/mo (ex VAT, 20 invoices/mo)

Xero is full accounting software, sold in tiers, with a hard invoice cap on the entry plan. The nearest like-for-like swap, which is also the risk: check its pricing model is genuinely different before you move, because paying the same money through a new interface solves nothing.

Xero UK pricing page (August 2026)

Zoho Invoice

From £0 (500 invoices/year, 2 users)

Zoho Invoice is a genuinely free invoicing tool, capped at 500 invoices a year, with Zoho branding on the documents. A different shape of tool from FreeAgent, so this is a change of approach rather than a swap. Worth it only if the product was the problem, not the price.

Zoho Invoice UK pricing page (August 2026)

Stay where you are

If it works and the price doesn't hurt. Migrating costs you an evening of exporting, a week of muscle-memory, and the small risk of losing a client record you only notice needing in eight months. That's a real cost. If FreeAgent is doing the job and the bill isn't the thing that brought you here, the honest advice is to close the tab.

Before you switch anything

Export first, cancel second. Clients, invoice history, anything with a number on it. Do it while you still have an account.
Keep six years of records. That's how long HMRC can ask you to produce them, and “it was in the old app” isn't an answer.
Don't move mid-job. Finish and invoice what's open, then switch on the quiet week. Half a job in each system is how a quote goes missing.
Carry your invoice numbering across. Start the new system at the next number in your sequence, not back at 1. Gaps and restarts are the first thing an HMRC enquiry picks at.

Questions people ask

What is the best FreeAgent alternative for a sole trader?: It depends why you're leaving. If it's the price for one person, a flat-priced one-person tool like SoloDesks (£12/month, free plan below it) is the direct answer. If it's a missing feature, one of the other products listed above is likelier to have it than we are. And if you file Making Tax Digital for Income Tax through FreeAgent, what you need is another accounting package, not us: SoloDesks makes no submissions to HMRC at all.
Is there a free FreeAgent alternative?: Several, with different catches. Zoho Invoice is free for up to 500 invoices a year, though your documents carry a Powered by Zoho Invoice line. ServiceM8's free tier covers 30 jobs a month. Our own free plan needs no card and never expires, covering 10 quotes, 10 invoices and 10 emailed PDFs a month with unlimited clients and jobs. Pick on whichever limit you'd hit first, and check your bank before you pay anyone: FreeAgent being free is worth more than any discount on this page.
Who shouldn't switch away from FreeAgent?: Anyone banking with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle, without qualification. It is free, it is real accounting software, and no page selling you something should talk you out of that. Stay too if you are filing Making Tax Digital through it, because SoloDesks makes no submissions to HMRC. The only readers this page is really for are the ones paying £19 plus VAT for a tool they use to send five invoices a month.
Will I lose my data if I move off FreeAgent?: Export before you cancel, not after: clients, past invoices and anything you might need for HMRC. Most job software can export clients and invoices to CSV or PDF. Whatever you move to, keep a copy of your old records for at least six years: that's how long HMRC expects you to be able to produce them.

Want the whole field rather than one swap? We keep a comparison of eight invoicing apps for UK tradespeople, with every price read off the vendor's own page and dated.

If the price for one person is the problem

That's the one we were built to solve. Start on the free plan, no card, and see whether a month of your own work fits.

Start free Why one-person pricing

Pricing shown for FreeAgent and other named products is as of August 2026, taken from each company's own published pricing page, linked above. Plans and prices change. Verify before you buy. All product names are trademarks of their owners; SoloDesks isn't affiliated with or endorsed by any of them, this comparison is our own, and we make one of the products listed.