FreshBooks is a polished invoicing and accounting app with time and mileage on every plan. If you are one person filing Schedule C, here is what changes at $6 a month with no client caps.
Start freeFreshBooks lists at $23 a month for its Lite plan, which bills up to 5 clients, $43 for Plus (50 clients), and $70 for Premium (unlimited), before introductory discounts. Self Employment Toolkit is $6 a month or $48 a year with no client or invoice caps. FreshBooks is stronger at getting paid online and running a team; Self Employment Toolkit is narrower and cheaper, and organizes the year around Schedule C.
| Self Employment Toolkit | FreshBooks | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, or $6/mo or $48/yr | Lite $23, Plus $43, Premium $70 a month (list) |
| Client limit | None | 5 on Lite, 50 on Plus, unlimited on Premium |
| Time tracking | Yes | Yes, all plans |
| Mileage | Yes, IRS rate by trip date | Yes, all plans |
| Receipt scanning | Pro, plus email-to-expense forwarding | Plus plan and up |
| Online card payments on invoices | Not yet | Yes |
| Team members and payroll | No, by design | Paid add-ons |
| Schedule C export | Year-end bundle in Schedule C order | Tax-time reports |
Competitor prices and features were checked against each company's own pricing and help pages in November 2026. Prices change, so check theirs before you decide.
Every new account gets 30 days of Pro, no card required. Then stay on Free (unlimited trips, clients, expenses, and invoices, 10 time entries a month) or keep Pro for $48 a year ($4 a month).
See pricingFreshBooks has been an invoicing company for a long time and it shows. Invoices look good, clients can pay online, and every plan includes time tracking and mileage. Reviewers regularly single out its customer support.
It also scales in ways I deliberately do not. You can add team members, run payroll as an add-on, and move up to double-entry reports on the Plus plan. If you plan to hire, FreshBooks grows with you.
FreshBooks prices by billable clients. Lite covers 5, Plus covers 50, and you need Premium at $70 a month list for unlimited. A consultant with six clients is already past Lite.
Self Employment Toolkit has no client cap and no invoice cap on any plan, including Free. Pro is $6 a month for one self-employed person, and that is the whole price list.
FreshBooks is accounting software. Self Employment Toolkit is a Schedule C record. Expense categories map to Schedule C lines, trips are valued at the IRS rate for the date you drove, and the year-end bundle comes out in Schedule C order so you can carry it straight to your tax software or preparer.
Self Employment Toolkit is a web app that works in your phone's browser. There is no App Store app yet and no automatic drive detection: you start and end each trip yourself, and the route distance is filled in for you. Invoices are emailed as PDFs, but clients cannot pay them by card inside the app yet. It does not file your tax return.
FreshBooks lets you export expenses and clients as CSV files. Expenses go in through Import on the Expenses tab using the spreadsheet option, with a preview and duplicate detection before anything saves. Trips from any CSV or Excel mileage log go in through Import on the Mileage tab.
Clients and open invoices are entered by hand today. Keep your FreshBooks exports as your record of past years.
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The tax year starts January 1, so the cleanest time to switch is before your first trip of the year. Every new account gets 30 days of Pro, no card required, so you can import what you have and try every feature. After that, keep Pro for $6 a month or $48 a year, or stay on Free.
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