FreshBooks

FreshBooks starts at £16/mo (Lite) for the Lite plan, which covers up to five billable clients. The Plus plan is £30/mo (Plus) for up to 50 clients, and the Premium plan is £42/mo (Premium) for unlimited clients. Prices are billed in GBP; the on-page headline is often a promotional rate rather than the standard monthly price.

Yes. FreshBooks is HMRC-recognised for Making Tax Digital and supports direct VAT return filing on every plan. It does not support the Construction Industry Scheme or Self Assessment filing, so contractors and sole traders needing those specifically should compare against Sage or FreeAgent.

FreshBooks has no payroll module (N/A). Businesses that need to run UK payroll (PAYE, RTI, pension auto-enrolment) will need a separate solution alongside FreshBooks.

FreshBooks includes 1 on all plans, with the option to add team members as paid collaborators. Accountants can be invited at no charge.

FreshBooks is designed primarily for service-based sole traders and consultants who invoice clients and track time and project costs. Its strengths are polished invoicing, time billing, and expense tracking. It is less suited to businesses that need inventory, payroll, or CIS support, and its billable-client caps on lower plans can be limiting as a client list grows.

FreshBooks excels at time tracking and project billing, making it popular with consultants and creatives. Xero covers a broader set of UK compliance needs, including CIS support, built-in payroll, and a much larger accountant network. For a sole trader doing simple invoicing, FreshBooks is intuitive; for anyone needing payroll, CIS, or a wider app ecosystem, Xero or Sage are more practical options.

FreshBooks offers limited multi-currency support, useful for UK freelancers billing occasional international clients, though it is less complete than the multi-currency support on Xero or QuickBooks Essentials and above.