Billed vs Hiveage
Quick Summary
Hiveage is a focused online invoicing platform founded in 2008 that provides professional billing, recurring invoices with auto-pay, and broad payment gateway support including Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, and others. It serves freelancers and small businesses that want clean invoicing without feature bloat but does not include time tracking or project management at any tier. Billed is an invoicing and project management platform that starts with a permanent free plan offering unlimited invoices and clients, adds time tracking and full project management at $9/month, charges no per-user fees, and supports multiple businesses from one account. Hiveage excels at focused billing automation. Billed excels at unifying billing with the project work that drives it — making it the more complete and cost-effective choice for service businesses that bill by the hour or manage client projects.
Pricing Comparison
Billed
- Free plan available, paid from $9/mo
Hiveage
- Free (limited), from $16/mo (Basic)
- $25/mo (Pro)
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Billed | Hiveage |
|---|---|---|
| Unlimited invoicesInvoicing | ||
| Custom templatesInvoicing | ||
| Recurring invoicesInvoicing | ||
| Multi-currencyInvoicing | ||
| Payment remindersInvoicing | ||
| Partial paymentsInvoicing | ||
| Estimates / quotesInvoicing | ||
| Online paymentsPayments | ||
| Stripe integrationPayments | ||
| PayPal integrationPayments | ||
| Auto-pay / subscription billingPayments | ||
| Multiple payment gatewaysPayments | ||
| Time trackingBusiness Tools | ||
| Project managementBusiness Tools | ||
| Task assignment & deadlinesBusiness Tools | ||
| Expense trackingBusiness Tools | ||
| Client managementBusiness Tools | ||
| Team collaborationBusiness Tools | ||
| Role-based accessBusiness Tools | ||
| Multiple businessesBusiness Tools | ||
| Financial reportsReporting | ||
| Project profitability reportsReporting | ||
| Tax summariesReporting | ||
| Free plan availablePricing | ||
| Team members included (no per-user fee)Pricing |
Comparison based on publicly available information. Last updated March 2026.
Which Should You Choose?
Choose Hiveage
Hiveage is the better pick if your workflow centers on sending invoices and collecting payments and you do not need built-in time tracking or project management. Businesses with retainer clients benefit from Hiveage's auto-pay feature, which charges clients automatically on a recurring schedule without manual invoice intervention — a genuine time saver for predictable monthly billing. If you rely on payment gateways beyond Stripe and PayPal — like Braintree, Authorize.Net, or Razorpay — Hiveage supports more payment processors than Billed, which matters for businesses operating in regions where specific gateways dominate. Teams that already use dedicated project management and time tracking tools they prefer can add Hiveage as a clean billing layer without disrupting established workflows. Hiveage's Zapier integration also opens up connections to thousands of apps, which helps if you need to trigger invoicing events from other systems automatically. If focused, distraction-free invoicing with strong recurring billing automation is your priority, Hiveage delivers reliably.
Choose Billed
Choose Billed if you need time tracking, project management, or a genuinely useful free plan to start without financial commitment. At $9/month versus Hiveage's $16/month Basic plan, Billed includes time tracking and project management that Hiveage does not offer at any price — eliminating the need for separate paid tools that can add $15 to $40/month to your total software stack. Freelancers who bill by the hour save meaningful time each billing cycle by converting tracked hours directly into invoice line items instead of copying data from a separate timer. Teams benefit from flat pricing with no per-user fees, making Billed predictably affordable as headcount grows without surprise cost increases. Businesses managing multiple brands, entities, or side ventures can run everything from a single Billed account without paying for duplicate subscriptions. The permanent free plan with unlimited invoices and unlimited clients lets you test the full invoicing experience with zero risk and no time limit, while Hiveage's free tier imposes tighter usage restrictions that push you toward a paid plan sooner.
Detailed Feature Analysis
Invoicing Capabilities
Both Hiveage and Billed deliver professional invoicing with custom templates, recurring billing, multi-currency support, and automatic payment reminders. Hiveage adds partial payment tracking, shipping charges, and a broad selection of invoice customization options refined over 15+ years of development. The invoice editor supports detailed line items, taxes, discounts, and formatted descriptions with clean output. Billed matches these core capabilities and adds a project-to-invoice pipeline: time entries and expenses tracked against a project convert directly into invoice line items, eliminating the manual data transfer step that causes billing errors and missed hours. For businesses that create standalone invoices for fixed-price work, both platforms are equally capable and reliable. For businesses that bill for tracked hours or need to pass through project expenses to clients, Billed's integrated approach reduces billing friction significantly and improves accuracy.
Payment Processing
Hiveage supports a wider range of payment gateways than most tools in its category — Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, Authorize.Net, Razorpay, PayPal Payflow, and several others. This gateway breadth is a genuine advantage for businesses operating in regions where specific processors dominate or for those who need gateway redundancy for reliability. Hiveage also offers auto-pay for recurring billing, where clients authorize a payment method and are charged automatically each cycle — reducing collections effort to near zero for predictable billing. Billed integrates directly with Stripe and PayPal, covering the vast majority of online payment needs for most businesses. The Stripe integration connects to your own Stripe account with transparent pricing and full dashboard visibility — no intermediary layer between you and your payment data. For businesses that need specific payment gateways beyond Stripe and PayPal, Hiveage clearly offers more gateway options. For businesses that want deep, direct integration with Stripe as their primary payment infrastructure and the ability to negotiate volume rates, Billed's approach is cleaner and more scalable.
Time Tracking and Project Management
This is the widest functional gap between the two platforms. Hiveage includes neither time tracking nor project management at any pricing tier. Users who bill by the hour must log time in a separate tool — Toggl, Harvest, Clockify, or a spreadsheet — and manually recreate those entries as invoice line items in Hiveage. Users who manage client projects need yet another separate tool — Asana, Trello, Basecamp, or similar — creating information silos between project context and billing data that require manual reconciliation. Billed integrates time tracking and project management into the same workspace as invoicing. Create projects with tasks and deadlines, assign work to team members, run timers against specific deliverables, and convert tracked hours into invoices with a few clicks. The hours, descriptions, and rates carry over automatically. For solo freelancers with simple flat-rate billing, the absence of these features in Hiveage may be acceptable. For agencies and teams managing multiple concurrent client engagements with hourly billing, the cost of separate tools — both in dollars and in workflow friction from context-switching — makes Billed's integrated approach significantly more efficient and less error-prone.
Expense Management
Both platforms offer manual expense tracking with categorization and receipt attachment. Hiveage lets you mark expenses as billable and add them to client invoices, which is useful for passing through costs like subcontractor fees, stock photos, or software licenses. Billed provides the same functionality with the added context of project-level expense linking, so you can see per-project profitability alongside your invoicing data without manual calculation. Neither platform offers automatic bank feed imports or OCR receipt scanning — if those automation features are critical to your workflow, you will need a dedicated accounting or expense tool regardless of which billing platform you choose. For basic expense logging tied to client billing, both tools handle the essentials competently.
Reporting and Analytics
Hiveage generates financial reports including revenue summaries, invoice aging, expense breakdowns, and tax-relevant data. The reports give business owners clear visibility into billing activity, outstanding receivables, and payment trends. Billed offers similar financial reporting plus project-specific analytics: project profitability, time utilization rates, revenue by client, and billing efficiency metrics. The project-level insights are a natural extension of Billed's integrated approach — when time, expenses, and invoices all live in the same system, the platform can calculate profitability per engagement without manual data aggregation or spreadsheet work. For billing-focused reporting, both tools are adequate. For operational insights into which clients and projects generate the most value relative to the effort invested, Billed's reporting goes meaningfully deeper.
Integrations and Ecosystem
Hiveage offers Zapier integration alongside its broad payment gateway support, which opens up connections to thousands of third-party apps for custom automation workflows. The REST API provides additional flexibility for developers building custom integrations or connecting Hiveage to internal systems. Billed's integration library focuses on the tools service businesses use most — Stripe and PayPal for payments — with a growing list of additional connections. Businesses that need complex multi-tool automation across CRM, email marketing, and billing systems may find Hiveage's Zapier connection and API more immediately useful. Businesses that primarily need reliable payment processing and a unified billing workspace will find Billed's focused integrations more than sufficient for daily operations.
In-Depth Comparison Guide
Billed vs Hiveage is a comparison that comes up frequently among freelancers and small business owners shopping for a clean, reliable way to send invoices and get paid online. Both platforms handle core invoicing well, but they come from different starting points. Hiveage is a focused billing tool that does invoicing, recurring billing, and payment collection without trying to be anything more. Billed is an invoicing and project management platform that wraps billing, time tracking, expense management, and team collaboration into one workspace.
That difference in scope shapes every feature decision, pricing tier, and design choice in each product. This guide breaks down pricing, features, user experience, support, and the specific scenarios where one tool is the clear winner.
Company Background and Target Audience
Hiveage launched in 2008 under the name CurdBee, a simple online invoicing tool built by a small team based in Sri Lanka. In 2013 the product was redesigned and relaunched as Hiveage, with a sharper focus on professional billing for freelancers, solopreneurs, and small businesses. Hiveage has since grown steadily, attracting users who want a straightforward invoicing experience without the overhead of a full accounting suite. The product philosophy is minimalism — do billing well and avoid feature creep.
Billed launched as an invoicing and project management platform designed specifically for service businesses, freelancers, and agencies. Rather than stopping at the invoice, Billed builds the billing workflow around the work itself — projects, tracked hours, logged expenses, and team collaboration all feed into the invoicing process. The target user is someone who delivers client work and needs to bill for it accurately: designers, developers, consultants, marketing agencies, law firms, and similar service providers.
The overlap between the two audiences is real. Both tools serve freelancers and small businesses that send invoices regularly. The divergence is in what happens around the invoice. Hiveage users typically manage their projects and time tracking in separate tools and use Hiveage strictly for billing. Billed users want one platform that handles the full cycle from project kickoff through final payment.
User Experience and Interface Comparison
Hiveage has a clean, professional interface that has been refined over more than a decade of development. The dashboard provides a quick summary of outstanding and paid invoices, recent activity, and account metrics. Navigation is straightforward — invoices, estimates, expenses, clients, and reports are organized in the sidebar. Creating an invoice involves selecting a client, adding line items, choosing payment terms, and sending. The entire process takes a few minutes and requires no technical knowledge.
The strength of Hiveage's UX is focus. There are no project management screens, no timer interfaces, and no task boards competing for your attention. If you open Hiveage to send an invoice, you send an invoice. For users who want a dedicated billing tool that stays out of the way, this simplicity is a genuine advantage.
Billed's interface is organized around clients and projects. The dashboard shows active projects, pending invoices, recent time entries, and financial summaries. Creating an invoice is equally fast — select a client, add line items or pull in tracked time, and send — but the surrounding context is richer. You can see project progress, team activity, and expense totals alongside your billing data without leaving the platform.
First-time setup in Hiveage takes about 10 minutes: add your business details, connect a payment gateway, and create your first invoice. Billed takes a similar amount of time for basic invoicing, though users who also set up projects and time tracking categories may spend a few extra minutes configuring their workspace. Both platforms skip the heavy accounting configuration that tools like QuickBooks or FreshBooks require upfront.
Invoicing Features Head-to-Head
Invoicing is the primary use case for both platforms, and both handle it competently.
Hiveage supports unlimited invoices on paid plans, customizable invoice templates with your logo and brand colors, automatic invoice numbering, multi-currency billing, and the ability to add taxes, discounts, and shipping charges to line items. You can duplicate previous invoices for repeat billing, save draft invoices, and email invoices directly to clients with a payment link embedded. Hiveage also supports partial payments, letting clients pay a portion of an invoice with the balance tracked automatically.
Billed offers the same core capabilities — unlimited invoices, custom templates, recurring invoices, multi-currency support, automatic reminders, and branded invoice design. Where Billed adds value is in how invoices connect to work. Time entries tracked against a project convert into invoice line items directly. Expenses logged to a client or project can be added to an invoice with one click. This project-to-invoice pipeline eliminates the manual data entry that causes billing mistakes and missed billable hours.
Both platforms let you customize payment terms per client, send invoices via email, and track invoice status from sent to viewed to paid. For straightforward invoicing — creating, sending, and tracking professional invoices — both tools are highly capable.
Recurring Billing and Automation
Recurring billing is essential for freelancers and businesses with retainer clients, subscription services, or any predictable monthly arrangement.
Hiveage offers robust recurring invoice support. You can set up an invoice to repeat on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly schedule, configure the number of recurrences or let it run indefinitely, and have invoices sent to clients automatically on the scheduled date. Hiveage also supports auto-pay, where clients authorize a payment method and are charged automatically each billing cycle. This combination of recurring invoices plus auto-pay reduces the manual work of chasing payments to near zero for predictable billing arrangements.
Billed supports recurring invoices with flexible scheduling options. You set the frequency, start date, and duration, and Billed generates and sends invoices on schedule. Automatic payment reminders help with collection. Both platforms cover the core recurring billing workflow that retainer-based businesses need.
Hiveage's auto-pay feature is a notable differentiator for businesses that want fully hands-off billing. If a significant portion of your revenue comes from retainer clients who pay the same amount each month, Hiveage's auto-pay can reduce your billing overhead to essentially zero for those clients.
Payment Processing and Collection
Getting paid quickly depends on making it easy for clients to pay. Both platforms support online payments, but the gateway options and integration depth differ.
Hiveage integrates with a wide selection of payment gateways including PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, Authorize.Net, PayPal Payflow, Razorpay, and others. This breadth of gateway support is one of Hiveage's strengths — if your clients are in regions where certain payment processors dominate, Hiveage is more likely to support the gateway you need. Clients can pay directly from the invoice email or through a branded payment page.
Billed integrates directly with Stripe and PayPal, giving you access to Stripe's full payment infrastructure including credit cards, ACH bank transfers, and international payment methods. The direct Stripe integration means you use your own Stripe account with transparent pricing rather than routing payments through an intermediary. For businesses processing significant volume, the ability to negotiate rates directly with Stripe can lower your effective processing costs over time.
Both platforms support automatic payment reminders for overdue invoices, which is critical for maintaining healthy cash flow. Hiveage lets you configure reminder schedules and messaging. Billed offers similar automation. The faster your clients pay, the healthier your business — and both tools are designed to reduce the friction between receiving an invoice and completing payment.
Time Tracking
Time tracking is where the two platforms diverge most significantly.
Hiveage does not include built-in time tracking. If you bill by the hour — as many freelancers, consultants, and agencies do — you need a separate time tracking tool like Toggl, Harvest, Clockify, or a simple spreadsheet. That means logging your hours in one system, then manually entering or copying them into Hiveage when you create an invoice. This workflow adds time to your billing process and introduces the risk of human error: transposed numbers, forgotten hours, or misassigned entries.
Billed includes time tracking natively. Start a timer, assign it to a specific project, client, and task, and let it run while you work. When you are ready to bill, select the tracked hours and convert them directly into invoice line items with descriptions, rates, and totals already populated. No manual transcription, no switching between apps, no risk of billing for hours logged against the wrong client.
For freelancers and agencies that bill hourly, this difference is not marginal. A consultant tracking 30 hours per week across three clients saves 15 to 30 minutes per billing cycle by eliminating the manual transfer step. Over a year, that adds up to several hours of administrative work — time that could be spent on billable work instead.
Expense Management
Both Billed and Hiveage offer expense tracking, though the depth and integration differ.
Hiveage lets you log expenses manually, categorize them, and attach receipts or supporting documents. Expenses can be marked as billable and added to client invoices, making it easy to pass through project costs like software licenses, stock photos, or subcontractor fees. Hiveage's expense tracking is straightforward and functional for businesses that need basic cost logging alongside their invoicing.
Billed provides similar expense tracking — manual entry, categorization, receipt attachment, and the ability to mark expenses as billable. The difference is that Billed links expenses to specific projects and clients within the same workspace where time tracking and invoicing live. This unified view lets you see the true profitability of each engagement: revenue from invoiced hours minus project expenses, all in one place without exporting data or cross-referencing between tools.
Neither platform offers bank feed imports or OCR receipt scanning. If automatic expense categorization from your bank transactions is critical to your workflow, you will need a dedicated accounting tool alongside either platform. For manual expense logging tied to client billing, both Hiveage and Billed cover the essentials.
Project Management
Hiveage does not include project management. If you manage client projects — which most service businesses do — you need a separate tool like Asana, Trello, Basecamp, Monday.com, or ClickUp. That means your project context lives in one tool, your time tracking in another, and your invoicing in Hiveage. Coordinating between three separate systems adds overhead and creates information silos.
Billed includes project management natively. Create projects, break them into tasks, assign tasks to team members, set deadlines, and track progress — all in the same workspace where you track time and create invoices. When projects, time tracking, and invoicing share the same platform, you see the complete picture for every engagement: hours worked, expenses incurred, tasks completed, and revenue generated. No switching between apps, no duplicate data entry, no reconciling project records against billing records at the end of the month.
For solo freelancers with one or two active clients, the lack of project management in Hiveage may not be a dealbreaker — you can manage simple projects with a task list or calendar. For agencies and teams juggling multiple concurrent client projects with different team members, Billed's integrated approach eliminates an entire category of administrative overhead.
Integrations Ecosystem
Hiveage integrates with a broad range of payment gateways — more than most tools in its category — and connects with Zapier for custom workflow automation. The Zapier integration opens up connections to thousands of third-party apps, though each Zap adds cost if you exceed Zapier's free tier. Hiveage also offers a REST API for developers who want to build custom integrations.
Billed integrates directly with Stripe and PayPal for payments and is building out its integration library. The Stripe integration is deeper than what most competitors offer — you connect your own Stripe account and retain full visibility into transaction data from the Stripe dashboard. For businesses that primarily need reliable payment processing and a clean billing workflow, Billed's integrations cover the critical path.
If your business relies on a large ecosystem of interconnected tools — CRM, email marketing, e-commerce, payroll — and you need those systems to trigger or consume invoicing data automatically, Hiveage's Zapier connection gives you more flexibility today. If your integration needs center on payment processing and you value a direct, transparent relationship with your payment provider, Billed's Stripe integration is a strength.
Mobile Experience
Hiveage provides a mobile-responsive web interface that works across devices. You can create invoices, check payment status, and manage clients from your phone's browser. However, Hiveage does not offer dedicated native mobile apps for iOS or Android. For quick tasks like checking whether a client has paid or sending a follow-up reminder, the mobile web experience is adequate. For more intensive workflows, the lack of a native app with offline support and push notifications is a limitation.
Billed offers mobile access for invoicing, time tracking, and expense management. You can create invoices, start and stop timers, record expenses, and manage client information on the go. For freelancers and service professionals who work outside a traditional office — at client sites, coffee shops, or on the road — mobile access to time tracking and invoicing is essential for capturing billable work in real time.
Customer Support Comparison
Hiveage offers email support and maintains a knowledge base with articles, guides, and FAQs. Response times are generally within 24 hours on business days. The knowledge base is well-organized and covers common setup and usage questions. For a platform in this price range, the support is adequate, though the absence of live chat or phone support means urgent issues may take longer to resolve.
Billed provides email and live chat support across all plans, including the free tier. Live chat offers faster resolution for time-sensitive questions — like troubleshooting a payment issue before a deadline or clarifying a feature during onboarding. There is no paywall separating you from the faster support channel, which is notably generous compared to competitors that gate live chat behind premium plans.
Neither platform offers 24/7 support, which is standard for tools in this price range.
Pricing Breakdown: The Real Cost
Hiveage Pricing (2026)
- Free: Limited features and usage caps. Suitable for testing the platform or very low-volume invoicing.
- Basic — $16/month: Full invoicing features, recurring billing, expense tracking, multiple payment gateways, and team members with role-based access.
- Pro — $25/month: Everything in Basic plus additional team features, enhanced branding, and higher usage limits.
Billed Pricing (2026)
- Free — $0/month: Unlimited invoices. Unlimited clients. Core invoicing features. No credit card required.
- Pro — $9/month: Everything in Free plus time tracking, project management, team collaboration, expense tracking, and reporting.
- Business — $24/month: Everything in Pro with additional team features, multiple business support, and priority support.
Billed does not charge per user on any plan. Team members are included in the plan price.
Cost Comparison by Scenario
Solo freelancer sending invoices only: Hiveage Free (limited) or $16/month Basic vs. Billed Free at $0. If Hiveage's free tier limits your workflow, you pay $16/month. Billed's free plan has no invoice or client limits. Annual savings with Billed: up to $192.
Freelancer needing time tracking and invoicing: Hiveage Basic at $16/month plus a separate time tracker like Toggl at $9–13/month ($25–29/month total) vs. Billed Pro at $9/month with built-in time tracking. Annual savings with Billed: $192–240.
Small team of 4 managing client projects: Hiveage Pro at $25/month plus a project management tool at $10–20/month ($35–45/month total) vs. Billed Business at $24/month. Annual savings with Billed: $132–252.
The cost gap becomes most apparent when you factor in the separate tools that Hiveage's focused approach requires. Time tracking, project management, and team collaboration tools that Billed includes by default can easily add $15 to $40 per month to a Hiveage-centered workflow.
Who Should Choose Which Tool
Choose Hiveage for Focused, Clean Invoicing
Hiveage is the right choice if your billing workflow is straightforward — create invoices, send them, get paid — and you do not need time tracking or project management in the same tool. Businesses with retainer clients benefit from Hiveage's auto-pay feature, which handles recurring collection automatically. If you already use and like your existing time tracking and project management tools, Hiveage slots in as the billing layer without forcing you to change your broader workflow.
Choose Billed for Billing Plus Project Management
Billed is the right choice if you bill for client work and want one tool to handle invoicing, time tracking, expense management, and project organization. The free plan lets you start without financial risk. The $9/month Pro plan adds time tracking and project management that Hiveage does not offer at any price. Teams benefit from flat pricing with no per-user fees. Businesses that manage multiple brands or entities can do so from a single account.
The Bottom Line
Hiveage is a mature, focused invoicing tool that does billing well and stays out of the way. It has earned a loyal user base by delivering clean invoicing, robust recurring billing, and broad payment gateway support without unnecessary complexity. Billed is a more comprehensive platform that connects billing to the work that generates it — projects, tracked hours, and team collaboration — at a lower price point.
The right choice depends on how much of your workflow you want unified in one tool. If invoicing is the only gap in your toolset, Hiveage fills it cleanly. If you want to consolidate billing, time tracking, and project management into a single platform and save money in the process, Billed is built for that.
Try both. Hiveage offers a free tier and Billed offers a free plan with no time limit. Spend 20 minutes in each and the right tool will become clear.
Try Billed free today and see if it fits your workflow.
Switching from Hiveage?
Switching from Hiveage to Billed is straightforward. Export your client list, invoice history, and expense records from Hiveage as CSV files — you will find export options in your Hiveage dashboard under account or settings. Import the CSV files into Billed through the Settings > Import screen, mapping your data fields during the process to ensure client names, amounts, dates, and categories transfer correctly. The migration typically takes 30 to 60 minutes for a business with fewer than 500 invoices. Recreate any active recurring invoice schedules in Billed before disabling them in Hiveage to avoid gaps in billing cycles. Running both tools in parallel for one billing cycle is recommended to confirm everything transferred correctly.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Bottom Line
Hiveage is a mature, focused invoicing platform that excels at clean billing, recurring invoices with auto-pay, and broad payment gateway support. It has served freelancers and small businesses well for over 15 years by doing invoicing without unnecessary complexity. However, it lacks time tracking and project management entirely, which means most service businesses need one or two additional paid tools alongside it. Billed is a more complete platform that connects invoicing to the work that generates it — projects, tracked hours, expenses, and team collaboration — at a lower starting price with a permanent free plan. For businesses that only need invoicing, Hiveage is a solid, focused choice. For businesses that bill for client work and want one tool for the full workflow, Billed delivers significantly more value per dollar.
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