Zoho Invoice alternatives for a one-person trade
Zoho Invoice is free, so the price is not the complaint. It is the Powered by Zoho Invoice line printed at the bottom of a document you are handing to a customer who is deciding whether you look like a professional outfit, and the fact that the quote that won the job and the chasing that gets it paid both happen somewhere else. Here is what replaces it, including the honest case for keeping something that costs nothing.
We make one of the alternatives, so read this knowing that. If you finish the page and stay put, it did its job.
Why people look for a Zoho Invoice alternative
Rarely the price, obviously. It is usually the line at the bottom of the invoice: a Powered by Zoho Invoice mark on a document going to a customer who is deciding whether you look like a professional outfit. The second reason is the gap either side of the invoice. Zoho Invoice starts when the work is finished, so the quote that won the job and the chasing that gets it paid both happen somewhere else, usually in a notes app and a series of awkward texts.
What Zoho Invoice costs one person
Nothing, and there is only one plan, so there is no tier to be moved up into and no renewal month to brace for. The limits are 500 invoices a year and two users. Five hundred is roughly ten a week, which most sole traders will never approach, so for practical purposes the cap is not the cost. The cost is the Powered by Zoho Invoice line printed on documents you send to customers. Whether that is worth £12 a month to remove is a question about the work you win, not about software.
Zoho Invoice UK pricing page, read August 2026. Every plan and the full side-by-side is on SoloDesks vs Zoho Invoice.
Who should stay on Zoho Invoice
Anyone whose admin genuinely is just emailing an invoice. If you quote verbally, get paid on time, and the Zoho line at the bottom has never cost you a job, then you are being well served for nothing and there is no argument here worth £12 a month. Its free plan is more generous on volume than ours, at 500 invoices a year against our 10 a month, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
Zoho Invoice is a genuinely free invoicing tool, capped at 500 invoices a year, with Zoho branding on the documents.
What you would be giving up
Nothing you are paying for, which makes this the shortest answer on the site. Zoho Invoice does invoices well and does not pretend otherwise. What it never had is the quote that won the job and the chasing that gets it paid, so leaving it is not really leaving anything: it is deciding whether the parts either side of the invoice are currently happening in a notes app and a run of awkward texts, and whether you want them somewhere else.
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.
QuickBooks
From £10/mo (plus VAT)
QuickBooks is accounting software built around bookkeeping and Self Assessment, with invoicing attached. A different shape of tool from Zoho Invoice, so this is a change of approach rather than a swap. Worth it only if the product was the problem, not the price.
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. A different shape of tool from Zoho Invoice, so this is a change of approach rather than a swap. Worth it only if the product was the problem, not the price.
FreeAgent
From £0 (while the account is open)
FreeAgent is accounting software for sole traders and small companies, free with some UK business bank accounts. A different shape of tool from Zoho Invoice, so this is a change of approach rather than a swap. Worth it only if the product was the problem, not the price.
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 Zoho Invoice 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
The order you do it in matters more than which one you pick, and getting it wrong costs more than any subscription you are leaving.
How to switch invoicing software without losing your records
Questions people ask
- What is the best Zoho Invoice 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 Zoho Invoice is already doing the whole job for nothing, the honest answer is to keep it.
- Is there a free Zoho Invoice alternative?
- Several, with different catches. FreeAgent is free, and is full accounting software, if you bank with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle. 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 Zoho Invoice?
- Anyone whose admin genuinely is just emailing an invoice. If you quote verbally, get paid on time, and the Zoho line at the bottom has never cost you a job, then you are being well served for nothing and there is no argument here worth £12 a month. Its free plan is more generous on volume than ours, at 500 invoices a year against our 10 a month, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
- How much is Zoho Invoice for one person?
- Nothing, and there is only one plan, so there is no tier to be moved up into and no renewal month to brace for. The limits are 500 invoices a year and two users. Five hundred is roughly ten a week, which most sole traders will never approach, so for practical purposes the cap is not the cost. The cost is the Powered by Zoho Invoice line printed on documents you send to customers. Whether that is worth £12 a month to remove is a question about the work you win, not about software. Figures from Zoho Invoice UK pricing page, read August 2026.
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.
Pricing shown for Zoho Invoice 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.