Billbooks vs Express Invoice

Billbooks is an online billing application for freelancers and small businesses, covering invoices, quotes, scheduling, expenses, and reports. It supports recurring invoices, online payments, payment reminders, multi-currency invoicing, digital signatures, and a client portal. Every paid plan includes recurring invoices, automatic reminders, multi-currency support, digital signatures, and reports. Payment gateway options include PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, and Authorize.Net. The public REST API covers invoices, estimates, clients, items, expenses, expense categories, and taxes; API keys are not limited by plan. The API has no webhooks and is limited to 300 requests per five minutes per resource. Xero, QuickBooks Online, and Zapier connectors are available on Professional; Xero connects directly, while the other listed apps connect through Zapier. Billbooks offers iOS and Android apps that sync with the web app, alongside web, macOS, Windows, and API access. Pricing starts with Basic at $7.95 a month. A 30-day trial costs nothing and includes one user, five clients, 100 items, three projects, and five invoices and estimates. Billbooks says it encrypts data in transit and backs it up daily off-server to Amazon S3, with a seven-day retention window.

Express Invoice creates and tracks invoices, quotes, and orders for businesses. It can schedule recurring invoices, automate statements, and send payment reminders. Users can email, print, or fax invoices and quotes, and save or send invoices as PDFs using included templates. Reports cover payments, overdue accounts, salesperson performance, inventory, aging, and sales tax. The software supports multiple tax rates and invoicing for multiple businesses, and it can generate invoices and quotes when the internet is unavailable. It integrates with NCH’s Inventoria to maintain inventory data across a business. Its free version costs nothing, does not expire, and is intended for home users or businesses with one user; it includes most professional-version features. Express Invoice is listed for Android, iOS, macOS, web, and Windows. The mobile apps do not include web access, and remote access through a mobile browser requires the desktop version. NCH recommends regular data backups and offers technical support, video guides, a help manual, and a forum.