• What to Look For
  • The Tools

Developers who bill clients need invoicing software that turns tracked hours into invoice lines, sends recurring invoices for support or maintenance retainers, takes online payments, and connects to the tools they already use. This page compares five tools using what each vendor says on its own website, opened on October 29, 2026.

Billed publishes this page and is listed first. The other tools follow in alphabetical order and aren't ranked. Prices change, so check each vendor's pricing page.

What to Look For

  • Hourly billing from tracked time, so the hours on the invoice match the hours you logged.
  • Recurring invoices for support, hosting or maintenance retainers.
  • Online payments by card, and by bank transfer if your clients prefer it.
  • Saved services and rates, so repeat line items take seconds.
  • Integrations with the apps you already use, without writing your own glue code.
  • Multiple currencies if you bill clients abroad.

The Tools

Billed

  • Hourly billing: Billed's time tracking page says: "Create an hourly rate project, set its hourly rate, and Billed tracks the charge for each task as you log it. From the project dashboard you can invoice one task or several at once."
  • Recurring invoices: the recurring invoices page says "Invoices are created automatically and sent to your customers according to your settings."
  • Payments: the invoice software page says "Connect your Stripe account and every invoice you send gets a pay button, so clients can pay by card. Connect PayPal to add a PayPal option as well."
  • Saved items and currencies: you can "save the products and services you sell so you can pull them into an invoice instead of retyping them", and "Invoice customers in multiple currencies, choosing a different currency for each invoice or customer."
  • Integrations: Billed's Zapier integration page says "Billed has an app on Zapier, so a workflow can start when something changes in Billed, or create and update Billed records from another app, without code."

FreshBooks

From FreshBooks' invoicing page:

  • You can track your hours and client expenses, "then turn them into professional invoices in seconds so every bill reflects the full value of your work."
  • "Automate your entire billing workflow, from recurring invoices and card-on-file payments to sending reminders and charging late fees."
  • "Clients can pay instantly with credit card, ACH, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Buy Now Pay Later".

Harvest

From Harvest's features page:

  • "Easily create and send accurate invoices using your team's time and expenses already tracked in Harvest."
  • "PayPal and Stripe integrations let your clients quickly and conveniently pay invoices online."
  • "Automatically copy your Harvest invoices and payments to QuickBooks Online or Xero for simplified accounting."

Invoice Ninja

From Invoice Ninja's home page:

  • It lists "invoicing & payments, expenses, time-tracking and projects" for freelancers and small businesses.
  • "Integrate with dozens of payment gateways, plus hundreds of apps via Zapier, Make, and Pabbly".

QuickBooks Online

From QuickBooks' invoicing page:

  • "Set up recurring invoices to auto-send every day, week, month, or year."
  • "Accept cards, ACH, Apple Pay®, PayPal, and Venmo, and manage it all right in QuickBooks."
  • "When customers pay through QuickBooks, we'll record and match it for you."

Worked Example: A Month of Hourly Development Work

These are sample figures for a fictional developer billing a client at $120.00 an hour, with hosting passed through at cost.

  • API integration: 12.5 hours × $120.00 = $1,500.00
  • Bug fixes and code review: 8 hours × $120.00 = $960.00
  • Hosting for the month (passed through): $45.00
  • Invoice total: $1,500.00 + $960.00 + $45.00 = $2,505.00

List the ticket or task reference next to each line so the client's approver can match the hours to the work. For more on billing hours, see the guide to hourly invoicing.

Related Guides

FAQ

How should developers invoice for ongoing maintenance and support?

Use a recurring invoice for the fixed monthly fee, state the support period and what's included, and bill any extra hours separately from your time records. Billed, FreshBooks and QuickBooks Online each describe recurring invoices on their own pages.

Which of these tools turn tracked time into invoices?

Billed, FreshBooks, Harvest and Invoice Ninja each describe time tracking on the pages quoted here. Billed's time tracking page describes invoicing tasks from an hourly rate project, and Harvest's page says you can "create and send accurate invoices using your team's time and expenses already tracked in Harvest."

Should developers include time details on client invoices?

For hourly work, list the hours and the task or ticket for each line, so the client can check the charges. In the sample on this page, 12.5 hours of API integration and 8 hours of bug fixes are separate lines.

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