Best invoicing app for tradespeople in the UK

There is no single best one, and the honest version of this page says so in the first line. What you should pay depends on whether you need Making Tax Digital, whether anyone else is on the tools with you, and who you bank with. Below: eight apps, what each one actually costs, and the one job each is genuinely the right answer for.

Prices checked July 2026 or later. Every figure links to the page it was read from.

The short answer

Work down until one of these is you. Stop at the first yes.

  1. Do you bank with NatWest, RBS, Ulster or Mettle?

    FreeAgent, free

    Then stop here. FreeAgent comes with the account at no cost, and it is real accounting software. Check this before you pay anyone on this page, us included.

  2. Does Making Tax Digital for Income Tax apply to you?

    QuickBooks or Xero

    Then you need accounting software, not an invoicing app. QuickBooks Sole Trader Plus at £10 plus VAT is the cheapest credible answer, Xero at £16 plus VAT if your accountant has already asked for it. Check your own position on gov.uk.

  3. Is anyone else on the tools with you?

    Tradify

    Then you are buying scheduling and dispatch, and Tradify at £34 per user is the going rate for it. Per seat is the right shape when there are seats to fill.

  4. Do you just need to send an invoice, and nothing else?

    Zoho Invoice, free

    Then pay nothing. Zoho Invoice does 500 invoices a year for free, with a Powered by Zoho line on them. It knows nothing about quoting or chasing, which may be fine.

  5. None of the above, and you quote on the doorstep on your own?

    This is our bit

    That is the gap SoloDesks was built for: one person, quote in the hallway, accepted quote becomes the invoice without retyping, chasing happens on its own. £12 a month flat, free plan under it. We made this page, so weigh that accordingly.

Or by category, if you already know which one you are

If this is youPickCost
A trades business with someone else on the toolsTradify£34 per user, per month
Doing your books and your Self Assessment in one placeQuickBooks£10 per month (Sole Trader Plus)
When your accountant has already asked for XeroXero£16 per month (Ignite)
Anyone banking with NatWest, RBS, Ulster or MettleFreeAgent£19 per month (Sole Trader)
Sending an invoice for nothing at allZoho InvoiceFree
Quiet months, because it charges by job volumeServiceM8From $29 per month
A growing firm with an office and a scheduling deskJobberFrom $29 per month
One person who quotes on the doorstep and keeps their books elsewhereSoloDesks£12 per month, flat

Costs are the regular published price, not the introductory discount. Most of the accounting packages were advertising six months at half price or less when we checked, which is the number you see first and not the number you end up paying.

What they actually cost

Six of the eight publish a price in pounds. Here they are next to each other, cheapest first, at the regular rate rather than the six-months-half-price rate you see on the way in.

Monthly cost of the cheapest plan, in pounds

Regular price, not the introductory offer. Cheapest first.

Not on the chart

ServiceM8 and Jobber publish in US dollars. We have not converted them, because the rate moves and a converted figure is a number nobody published. Both are covered below with their prices as their own pages state them.

Prices are the regular published rate for the cheapest plan that sends invoices, taken from each vendor's own pricing page on the date shown against that app below. +VAT marks the vendors that state their price excludes VAT; where nothing is marked, the vendor did not say either way on the page we read. SoloDesks is one of the products on this chart, which is why the order is set by price and not by us.

Side by side

AppRegular priceFree planMTD for Income Tax
Tradify£34 per user, per monthNo free plan. 14-day trial, then paid.Not an accounting package. Tradify expects to sit alongside Xero or QuickBooks, not replace them.
QuickBooks£10 per month (Sole Trader Plus)No free plan. 30-day trial.Yes. HMRC recognised, and it advertises MTD for Income Tax submission checks on the Sole Trader plan.
Xero£16 per month (Ignite)No free plan. One month free was being offered when we checked.Yes. HMRC recognised, and MTD for Income Tax readiness is listed on every plan including Ignite.
FreeAgent£19 per month (Sole Trader)Free with a qualifying bank account. Otherwise a 30-day trial.Advertised as MTD ready. Confirm your own position on gov.uk.
Zoho InvoiceFreeYes, and it is the most generous free plan on this page.No. Zoho Invoice is not accounting software.
ServiceM8From $29 per monthYes, up to 30 jobs a month.No. Field service software, not accounting.
JobberFrom $29 per monthNo free plan.No.
SoloDesks£12 per month, flatYes. 10 quotes, 10 invoices and 10 emailed PDFs a month, unlimited clients and jobs.No, and this is the honest catch. Not accounting software, no MTD submissions. If MTD for Income Tax applies to you, you need one of the accounting packages above as well.

The eight, one at a time

Tradify

Best for: A trades business with someone else on the tools

The most complete trade job-management app on this list, and the one most UK tradespeople have actually heard of. Job sheets, scheduling, quoting, invoicing and CIS in one place. The price is per user, which is the right shape for a firm and the wrong shape for one person: on your own you pay a team rate for a single login.

Price
£34 per user, per monthLite £34, Pro £37, Plus £44, all per user, per month. An Instant Website add-on is £10/month and texts are £0.10 each. Priced per seat, so two people is two lots.
Free plan
No free plan. 14-day trial, then paid.
CIS
Yes, CIS is part of the job and invoicing flow.
Making Tax Digital
Not an accounting package. Tradify expects to sit alongside Xero or QuickBooks, not replace them.
Not for
One person on their own. You are buying dispatch and crew scheduling that you are the only user of.

Price read from Tradify's UK pricing page on 2 August 2026. Longer head-to-head: SoloDesks vs Tradify.

QuickBooks

Best for: Doing your books and your Self Assessment in one place

If Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is the thing keeping you up, this is a straight answer and the cheapest credible one. Sole Trader Plus is £10 plus VAT with bank feeds, receipt capture, mileage and invoicing. It is accounting software that also invoices, which is a different tool from an app built around quoting on a doorstep.

Price
£10 per month (Sole Trader Plus)Sole Trader Plus £10, Simple Start £16, Essentials £38, Plus £56, Advanced £123. All plus VAT at 20%. A 50% discount for the first six months was running when we checked, so the price you first see will be lower than the one you end up paying.
Free plan
No free plan. 30-day trial.
CIS
QuickBooks advertises CIS calculation and submission on its UK plans.
Making Tax Digital
Yes. HMRC recognised, and it advertises MTD for Income Tax submission checks on the Sole Trader plan.
Not for
Anyone who wants to build an itemised quote in a customer's hallway and have them accept it on their phone. That is not what it is for.

Price read from QuickBooks UK pricing page on 2 August 2026.

Xero

Best for: When your accountant has already asked for Xero

The one number worth knowing, and the one every other roundup leaves out: the £16 Ignite plan sends quotes and twenty invoices. Twenty. If you turn over more than twenty invoices in a month you are on Grow at £37 plus VAT, which changes the comparison completely. Above that cap it is excellent software and your accountant will thank you.

Price
£16 per month (Ignite)Ignite £16, Grow £37, Comprehensive £50, Ultimate £65, all excluding VAT. An 80% discount for the first six months was running when we checked. Read the invoice cap on Ignite before you commit to it.
Free plan
No free plan. One month free was being offered when we checked.
CIS
Xero advertises automated subcontractor CIS calculations and reports, including on Ignite.
Making Tax Digital
Yes. HMRC recognised, and MTD for Income Tax readiness is listed on every plan including Ignite.
Not for
A busy sole trader who reads £16 and budgets for £16. Count your invoices from last month first.

Price read from Xero UK pricing page on 2 August 2026.

FreeAgent

Best for: Anyone banking with NatWest, RBS, Ulster or Mettle

There is a specific person for whom this is unambiguously the right answer: you already bank with NatWest, RBS, Ulster or Mettle, in which case the Sole Trader plan costs you nothing and does your books. Check your bank before you pay anyone on this page, including us. Free accounting software you are already entitled to beats every paid recommendation here.

Price
£19 per month (Sole Trader)Sole Trader £19, Partnership or LLP £27, Limited Company £33, all excluding VAT. A 50% introductory discount was running when we checked. Free, not discounted but free, with a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle account.
Free plan
Free with a qualifying bank account. Otherwise a 30-day trial.
CIS
Not advertised as a CIS feature on the pricing page we read, so check it yourself before you rely on it.
Making Tax Digital
Advertised as MTD ready. Confirm your own position on gov.uk.
Not for
Anyone banking elsewhere who wants job scheduling. At £19 plus VAT you are paying accounting-software money for accounting software.

Price read from FreeAgent's pricing page on 2 August 2026.

Zoho Invoice

Best for: Sending an invoice for nothing at all

If all you need is a tidy VAT invoice emailed to a customer and you do not want to pay anybody, this is the honest answer and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Five hundred invoices a year is more than most sole traders send. The trade-off is that it knows nothing about quoting a job, chasing the payment or where you are on Thursday.

Price
FreeGenuinely free rather than a trial. Capped at 500 invoices a year and 2 users, and invoices carry a Powered by Zoho Invoice line.
Free plan
Yes, and it is the most generous free plan on this page.
CIS
Not a CIS tool. It invoices.
Making Tax Digital
No. Zoho Invoice is not accounting software.
Not for
Anyone who wants their own branding on the invoice without a Zoho line, or who wants the quote and the job to live in the same place.

Price read from Zoho Invoice UK pricing page on 2 August 2026.

ServiceM8

Best for: Quiet months, because it charges by job volume

Well built, and the free tier at 30 jobs a month is more generous than ours. The catch is the shape of the pricing rather than the amount: a good month pushes you into the next bracket, so the bill goes up in exactly the month you were busiest. Some people find that fair. Some find it maddening.

Price
From $29 per monthPublished in US dollars: free up to 30 jobs a month, Starter $29 for 50 jobs, Growing $79 for 150, Premium $149 for 500. UK entry tier was around £25 when last read. Priced by jobs per month, so a busy month costs more.
Free plan
Yes, up to 30 jobs a month.
CIS
Not advertised as a CIS feature. Check before relying on it.
Making Tax Digital
No. Field service software, not accounting.
Not for
Anyone whose workload is spiky and who wants to know what next month costs.

Price read from ServiceM8's pricing page on July 2026. Longer head-to-head: SoloDesks vs ServiceM8.

Jobber

Best for: A growing firm with an office and a scheduling desk

A capable platform aimed at firms dispatching crews, and priced accordingly. It is on this list because it ranks for the search, not because it is a natural fit for a UK sole trader: the pricing is in dollars and the product assumes somebody is running a schedule from an office.

Price
From $29 per monthPublished in US dollars. Core from $29 to $49 for one user depending on annual or monthly, then Connect, Grow and Plus above it. Extra users add $29 a month each.
Free plan
No free plan.
CIS
Built for the North American market. Do not assume UK CIS handling.
Making Tax Digital
No.
Not for
One person in the UK. Wrong currency, wrong scale, and you would be paying for dispatch.

Price read from Jobber's pricing page on July 2026. Longer head-to-head: SoloDesks vs Jobber.

SoloDesks

This is us

Best for: One person who quotes on the doorstep and keeps their books elsewhere

We built this, so read the rest of the page first. It is aimed at exactly one shape of business: one person, quoting in a customer's hallway, who wants the accepted quote to become an invoice without retyping it and wants the chasing to happen without writing the emails. Flat price, no seats, no job counter.

Price
£12 per month, flatFlat per business rather than per seat, because there is one of you. No per-job counter. Free plan below it with no card and no expiry.
Free plan
Yes. 10 quotes, 10 invoices and 10 emailed PDFs a month, unlimited clients and jobs.
CIS
A free CIS deduction calculator, and CIS-aware invoicing.
Making Tax Digital
No, and this is the honest catch. Not accounting software, no MTD submissions. If MTD for Income Tax applies to you, you need one of the accounting packages above as well.
Not for
Anyone who needs accounting, MTD submissions, payroll, a team, or software that takes the customer's card. It does none of those and is not going to.

Price read from our own pricing page on 2 August 2026.

Four things that decide this, and three traps

Check your bank before you pay anyone

If you bank with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle, FreeAgent is free on your account. Not discounted, free. That is real accounting software, and for a lot of sole traders it ends the question before it starts. It is the first thing to check and the last thing any roundup mentions.

Invoicing and accounting are two different purchases

An invoicing app puts a professional PDF in front of a customer and tells you whether it got paid. Accounting software files with HMRC. Plenty of people need both, and the roundups blur them because blurring them makes a longer list. If Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies to you, check your own position on HMRC's guidance rather than on any software company's marketing page, including this one.

Trap one: the invoice cap

Xero's entry plan is £16 a month excluding VAT and sends twenty invoices. Every roundup quotes the £16 and none of them quote the twenty. Count last month's invoices before you budget, because the next plan up is £37.

Trap two: the six-month discount

QuickBooks was advertising half price for six months when we checked, and Xero eighty percent off. Those are real offers and worth taking. They are not the price. Work out what you are paying in month seven, because that is the decision you are actually making.

Trap three: per seat and per job

Tradify is £34 per user. ServiceM8 charges by how many jobs you run in a month. Both are sensible models for the businesses they were built for, and both mean your bill moves for reasons other than the software getting better. On your own, per seat means paying a team rate for one login. Priced by job, a good month costs you more than a quiet one.

Questions people ask

What is the best invoicing app for tradespeople in the UK?
There isn't one answer, and any page that gives you one is selling something. If you need Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, it is QuickBooks at £10 a month plus VAT or Xero at £16 plus VAT. If you bank with NatWest, RBS, Ulster or Mettle, FreeAgent is free and you should take it. If you have people on the tools, Tradify at £34 per user. If you want to send an invoice for nothing, Zoho Invoice. If you are one person who quotes on site and wants the chasing done for you, that is what SoloDesks is for, and we made this page, so weigh that.
Is there a genuinely free invoicing app for tradespeople?
Yes, two. Zoho Invoice is free up to 500 invoices a year with a Powered by Zoho Invoice line on the invoice. ServiceM8 is free up to 30 jobs a month. SoloDesks has a free plan too, at 10 quotes, 10 invoices and 10 emailed PDFs a month. FreeAgent is free outright if you bank with NatWest, RBS, Ulster or Mettle, which is the best deal on this page for the people it applies to.
Do I need accounting software as well as an invoicing app?
Often, yes, and it is the thing these comparisons gloss over. An invoicing app puts a professional PDF in front of a customer and tracks whether it got paid. Accounting software files things with HMRC. If Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies to you, an invoicing app on its own will not satisfy it. Check your own position on gov.uk rather than taking any software company's word for it, including ours.
Which invoicing apps handle CIS?
Tradify has CIS in its job and invoicing flow. Xero advertises automated subcontractor CIS calculations on all its plans including the £16 Ignite tier. QuickBooks advertises CIS calculation and submission on its UK plans. SoloDesks has a free CIS deduction calculator and CIS-aware invoicing. For the others on this page, check before you rely on it, because CIS is the feature roundups most often get wrong.
How much should a sole trader pay for invoicing software?
Between nothing and about £20 a month plus VAT, unless you need full job management with staff, where £34 per user is the going rate. Anything above that is buying you team features. The trap is the introductory discount: most of the accounting packages advertise six months at half price or less, so check the regular price before you decide, which is why the regular price is the one shown on this page.
Why should I trust a comparison written by one of the apps on it?
On its own merits, don't. Check the links. Every price here was read off the vendor's own pricing page on the date shown next to it, and the regular price is shown rather than the promotional one. That is checkable in about five minutes, which is the only reason to believe any of it. We also put SoloDesks last, told you what it can't do, and pointed you at a free option from a bank you might already be with.

How we checked this

  • Every price was read off the vendor's own public pricing page, on the date shown under that app. Nothing here was copied from another comparison article. Two of the pages ranking for this search in August 2026 still had Tradify at £29 per user when its published UK price had been £34 for months, which is what happens when roundups copy each other.
  • Where a vendor advertises an introductory discount, the regular price is the one shown, and the discount is noted underneath.
  • Feature claims are limited to what each vendor advertises on the page we read. Where we could not confirm something, it says so rather than guessing. That is why some CIS rows tell you to check for yourself.
  • No statutory or tax figure on this page is invented. Making Tax Digital questions go to HMRC, and the tax figures used elsewhere on this site are held in one place and dated. Our sourcing policy explains how.
  • Nobody paid to be on this page and there are no affiliate links. We have no commercial relationship with any product listed. The links to vendors are ordinary links that earn us nothing.

If the one-person option is the one that fits

Quote in the hallway, turn it into an invoice without retyping it, and let the chasing happen on its own. Free plan, no card. £12 a month flat when you want the caps gone.

Start freeOr just use the free invoice generator

Prices and features change, and the ones above were accurate on the dates shown. Verify on the vendor's own site before you buy. All product names are trademarks of their owners; SoloDesks is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any of them, and this comparison is our own opinion, offered as information rather than as financial or tax advice.