Looking for an Invoice Simple alternative
Of everything in this category, Invoice Simple is the product closest to what Invoice Local is trying to be: a fast phone app for people who bill their own work. The differences are narrow, which makes them easier to weigh.
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The short answer
Invoice Simple is a polished, well established app with iPhone and Android versions and card payment options. Invoice Local is newer, Android and web only, and does not cap how many invoices you can send on the free plan.
Both build an invoice on a phone in under a minute, both produce a clean PDF, and both are aimed at the person doing the work rather than an accounts department. If you have used one, the other will feel familiar within a few taps.
Free tiers in this category are the thing that changes most often, so rather than quote a number that will drift, the fair statement is this: Invoice Simple has historically limited how many invoices you can send before asking for a subscription. Check their current pricing page for today's figure. Invoice Local has no cap on the free plan, and adding one later would break the promise the app was built on.
What Invoice Simple does well
It is a mature product with a lot of iteration behind it, and that shows in places a newer app has not reached yet.
- iPhone and Android. Native apps on both, which matters if your business or your crew is on iOS.
- Card payment options. Customers can pay the invoice directly rather than initiating a transfer.
- Estimates, receipts and reports. A broader document set with business summaries attached.
- A long track record. Years of app store history and support behind it, which is a reasonable thing to value.
- Web and desktop access. The same account reachable from a browser when you do sit down.
What Invoice Local does differently
The design decisions diverge in three places, and each one is deliberate.
- No cap, ever, on the free plan. Unlimited invoices and quotes. Pro is about how the invoice looks, never about how many you may send.
- Offline first by architecture. Data lives on the device rather than being fetched from a server, so poor signal is not a degraded experience, it is simply irrelevant.
- No account to begin. There is no sign up wall. Install, type a business name, invoice. An account exists only if you want cloud backup and sync.
- WhatsApp as a first class channel. One tap to send the PDF with a professional message written in your language.
- Twelve languages on the invoice itself. Not just the app interface, the printed document too.
Side by side, narrowly
| Invoice Local | Invoice Simple | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan invoice limit | Unlimited | Capped, check current pricing |
| Offline first | Yes, by design | App works, features vary offline |
| Account required to start | No | Account based |
| iPhone app | Web only today | Yes |
| Card payments by customer | No | Yes |
| Invoice designs | Six, one free | Multiple templates |
| Invoice PDF languages | Twelve | English focused |
| Quotes to invoice conversion | Yes, one tap | Yes |
| Paid tier | $4.99 a month | Subscription, check current pricing |
Two rows deliberately say check current pricing. Free tier limits in this category move, and a number written here in August will be quoted back to us in December when it is no longer true.
When Invoice Simple is the right choice
There are real reasons to choose the more established product, and one of them is decisive on its own.
- You or your crew work on iPhones and want a native app
- You want customers to pay by card straight from the invoice
- You want a longer support history behind the tool you rely on
- You want business reports rather than a simple paid and outstanding view
- You switch between phone and desktop through the day
When Invoice Local is the better fit
And the cases where the newer, narrower app is the right call.
- You send more invoices than a free tier cap allows and do not want to pay for the privilege
- You work in basements, plant rooms or rural properties with no signal
- You want to start invoicing without creating an account first
- Most of your customers are easier to reach on WhatsApp than by email
- You invoice in a language other than English and want the document to match
- You want a fixed low price rather than a percentage of what you collect
What you pay, and for what
Invoice Local is free for unlimited invoices and quotes, with saved customers, saved line items and sending included. Pro at $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year adds five more invoice designs, removes the small watermark and puts your logo on the invoice. The free plan is not a trial and it does not expire.
Invoice Simple runs a subscription with a limited free allowance ahead of it. That model is perfectly reasonable and it makes the maths simple: if you send few invoices, it costs nothing, and if you send many, it costs the subscription. Work out your real monthly volume before comparing prices, because that number decides which model is cheaper for you far more than the sticker price does.
Switching questions
Are the invoices as good looking?
Judge for yourself, since both are free to try. Invoice Local ships six designs, from a restrained classic to a formal ledger style and a sidebar layout, each rendered as a print ready PDF with your business name, or your logo on Pro, bank details, itemized lines and totals. One design is free and carries a small watermark, and Pro unlocks the other five and removes it.
Can I move my existing invoices across?
No import tool exists today. Customers are added as you invoice them and your history stays in the old app, so keep access to it for as long as your local record keeping rules require. For most one person businesses the active customer list rebuilds within a month.
What happens to my data if I never pay?
Nothing. The free plan is unlimited and your invoices live on your device, so they do not depend on a subscription staying active. If you sign in for cloud backup, that account and its data stay yours whether or not you buy Pro.
Why is there no iPhone app?
Because the Android build shipped first and a native iOS release is a separate piece of work. On iPhone the web app at app.invoicelocal.com covers the same ground in a browser. It works, but if you want an installed app on iOS today, that is a real reason to choose Invoice Simple.
Which devices does it run on?
Android phones and tablets through Google Play, and any modern browser at app.invoicelocal.com. There is no iPhone app yet, so on an iPhone you use the browser version, which builds and sends the same PDF from the same account.
Other comparisons
If you would rather see the app in context than in a table, the trade pages show it billing real work. There is also a free invoice template and a guide to writing an invoice that gets paid.
Two similar apps, one quick test
Send the same invoice with both this week. The one you finish faster, without hitting a wall, is the one to keep.