Price comparison

This is very specific to our needs. There are a variety of pricing models out there – some favour the way we do business, others don’t.

Some models are a pure flat-fee per month, others limit the number of invoices you can send, others limit the maximum number of clients you can manage at any one time.

Our Requirements

• 2 users – two people in my business need access to this application
• 200 invoices per month – roughly how many invoices we issue
• 1500 clients – the number of clients we need to manage at any one time

Price comparison of shortlisted billing applications

1. KashFlow - $30 USD flat fee per month, no limits. 60-day free trial
2. Less Accounting – $24 USD flat fee per month, no limits. 30-day free trial
3. Free Agent Central – $20 USD flat fee per month, no limits. 30-day free trial
4. Freshbooks – $89 USD flat fee per month, limited to 2,000 active clients. Unlimited free trial
5. Blinksale – $24 USD flat fee per month, limited to 250 invoices. Unlimited free trial
6. Acuinvoice – $39 USD flat fee per month, limited to 500 invoiced clients (as distinct from unlimited contacts. Unlimited free trial
7. Zoho – $25 USD flat fee per month, limited to 500 invoices. Unlimited free trial

So, it looks like we’ll be paying anywhere between $20 USD and $89 USD per month for this thing. (I chose USD because it’s the only common currency option for all solutions).

Even though the dollar is not so strong at the moment, $89 is still approximately 45 GBP or 65 Euros – seems kind of steep to me. Then again, Freshbooks may well offer some brilliant features that justify the price tag – we’ll see.

Free trial essential

All of these alternatives offer some kind of a free trial and quick signup. That’s essential in this category of application – because the real cost of evaluating them will be measured in time, rather than money.

It’s one of the things that completely put me off evaluating QuickBooks Online – I just couldn’t figure out how to do a free trial. It was only by doing a Google search that i found this link for a free trial for existing QuickBooks clients – and even then I couldn’t import from our UK version of QuickBooks- gah!

Other alternatives

Some of the applications I rejected in the first round are free to use – full stop.  Price wasn’t one of my decision points but, all things being equal, I’ll choose the least expensive option. 

For now, each of the 7 shortlisted applications falls inside my gut-feel of being a reasonable cost – particularly when you factor in that we’ll have no application installation/maintenance/upgrade overheads to consider.

Nest step: A review of Acuinvoice

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