Billbooks vs PayPal Invoicing

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.

PayPal Invoicing lets freelancers, service professionals, consultants, and small businesses bill clients directly. Users can customize invoices with a company name, brand colors, logo, taxes, discounts, shipping details, and notes, then send them by email, SMS, messaging apps, social media, or QR code. A dashboard tracks whether invoices have been sent, opened, or paid. Templates support recurring billing; automatic reminders and QuickBooks and Xero sync can reduce manual work. Invoices can be created and managed on the web, iOS, and Android, including through the PayPal app. A PayPal account is required to create and send invoices, but clients do not need one to pay. Creating and sending invoices costs nothing; transaction charges apply when customers pay. The listed PayPal and Venmo rate is 3.49% + $0.49 per transaction, and Pay Later is 4.99% + $0.49 per transaction. Fixed fees vary by currency received, and international transactions may add a percentage-based fee. Availability is listed in over 200 markets and 24 currencies.