Invoice Ninja

Overview

Invoice Ninja brings estimates, invoicing, online payment collection, billable time and project management together. Quotes can be sent for e-signature and converted to invoices; tracked work can also flow into billing. That breadth is useful for service businesses that bill for work as it happens, though teams seeking a narrow invoice-only tool may not need the added project and time features.

The hosted service states that it encrypts data in transit with TLS 1.2+ and at rest with AES-256, and offers MFA. It has completed a SOC 2 examination and identifies PCI-DSS and GDPR compliance; the SOC 2 report is available to customers and prospective customers under NDA. Self-hosting keeps invoice, client and financial data on the operator’s own server, but also makes that operator responsible for securing the environment. The code is under Elastic License v2: business use and modification are permitted, while commercial resale or providing it as a managed service to others requires a separate agreement.

Key features

Quotes, invoices and payments

Users can prepare quotes and invoices, manage products and preview PDFs. Clients can sign quotes electronically before they become invoices. Online payments work through gateways including Stripe, PayPal, Square, GoCardless, Authorize.net and Mollie. This covers the path from estimate to collection without forcing a small business to add a separate payment workflow, and recurring invoices and payment requests support ongoing billing.

Projects, time and integrations

Billable time tracking, task management and Kanban project boards connect delivery work to invoices. Vendors and expenses are also supported. For teams automating handoffs or connecting existing systems, Invoice Ninja offers REST API access and webhooks, plus integrations through Zapier, Make, Pabbly, n8n and Integrately. API access is included with Pro, so users who need that capability should account for the paid tier rather than assume it comes with hosted Free.

The maker offers web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android apps, with data syncing across devices. Community forums and documentation are available on all plans; direct priority support is for paid plans.

Pricing

Invoice Ninja is freemium, with no free trial. The hosted Free plan costs 0.00 USD per free, billed Forever free. It includes five clients, unlimited invoicing, 11 professional invoice templates, online payments, projects, time tracking, vendors and expenses. Unlimited invoices make the cap less restrictive for a very small client roster, but businesses with more than five clients must move to Pro or Enterprise or consider self-hosting.

Self-hosted costs 0.00 USD per free, billed Free to download and self-host; server hosting is separately paid. It has no stated client limits, invoice caps or feature paywalls. That is attractive to operators comfortable maintaining their own server, but the download price is not the whole cost: hosting and security remain their responsibility.

Ninja Pro costs 14.00 USD per month, billed monthly, or $140 billed annually. It adds unlimited clients and invoices, API access, custom invoice designs, automatic reminders, reports and 10 interlinked companies. It is the practical step up for a growing solo business or multi-company operator that has outgrown the five-client ceiling.

Enterprise costs 18.00 USD per month, billed monthly, with price scaling by account users. It supports up to 100 account users and adds user permissions, bank sync, e-Invoicing and PEPPOL, 250 PEPPOL credits and document uploads. This is the relevant tier for larger teams with role and e-invoicing needs; per-user scaling means the starting monthly price is not necessarily the full account cost.

Premium Business is billed from $280/year, with custom pricing. It includes Pro and Enterprise features, developer concierge, direct priority support, invoice design service, data migration assistance and custom reports. The service layer and migration help suit businesses wanting a more supported rollout, but the starting annual figure is materially above the monthly Pro and Enterprise prices.

Platforms

Invoice Ninja spans web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and API access. Device syncing makes it workable across desktop and mobile use; self-hosting is also an option for teams that want to keep financial data on their own server.

Who it's for

Invoice Ninja is strongest for freelancers, contractors and small businesses that want quotes, billing, payment collection and tracked project work together. Pro fits growing client books, while Enterprise is aimed at teams needing permissions, bank sync or PEPPOL support. It is less suitable for businesses that want a hosted free plan without a low client ceiling, or organizations unwilling to take on server security when self-hosting.

For more options in this category, see Contractor Invoicing Software.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Quotes, e-signatures, invoices, online payments and billable time connect into a single service-business workflow.
• Pro: The hosted Free plan allows unlimited invoices and includes online payments, projects, time tracking, vendors and expenses.
• Pro: Self-hosting removes stated client and invoice caps, while keeping financial data on the operator’s server.
• Con: Hosted Free stops at five clients, a meaningful constraint once a small business’s roster grows.
• Con: Self-hosting transfers server security work to the user and requires separately paid hosting.
• Con: Enterprise pricing scales with account users, so its 18.00 USD per month starting rate does not define every team’s cost.

Alternatives

• FreshBooks is a paid alternative with no free plan and monthly Lite, Plus and Premium tiers at 23.00 USD, 43.00 USD and 70.00 USD; consider it if those paid tiers better fit your requirements.
• Contractor+ offers a free forever FREEDOM plan with basic CRM, up to 250 leads and clients, and five estimates or invoices per month; choose it if a lead-and-client cap is preferable to Invoice Ninja’s unlimited invoicing but five-client hosted limit.
• Bookipi has a free tier limited to three invoices and three eSignatures per month, making it an option for a very light monthly workload.
• Invoice Plus has a free Basic plan with 10 invoices per month, basic expense tracking and offline mobile-app use; consider it if that smaller invoice allowance meets your needs.
• InvoiceGo is an iOS option with a free download and in-app purchases; choose it if an iOS-only invoicing app fits your setup.
• Invoicely has a free plan limited to five monthly invoices and three saved clients, with PayPal-only payments; it may suit a very small billing volume that can use PayPal.
• Just Invoice offers a no-account guest generator with unlimited invoice PDFs, but business details, clients and line items must be re-entered each time; consider it for one-off invoice creation rather than ongoing client records.
• Zoho Invoice is a free alternative.

Verdict

Choose Invoice Ninja if your business needs estimates, invoicing, payment collection and project time in a connected workflow, particularly if you expect to grow beyond a handful of clients and can budget for Pro. Its hosted Free tier is useful for trying the core workflow without a trial period, but the five-client ceiling is a real boundary. Look elsewhere if you need a larger hosted free client roster, or choose self-hosting only if you are prepared to own the server security and hosting work.