# ZipBooks > Browser-based invoicing and bookkeeping with a free starter plan ZipBooks is web-based accounting software for small businesses and freelancers, made in Utah. The free Starter plan covers unlimited invoices and contacts with one connected bank account, and the paid plans add recurring billing, time tracking, tagging, reconciliation and more users. It also sells an Accountant plan for bookkeeping firms that manage client books. - **Category:** Accounting & Invoicing - **Made by:** ZipBooks - **Website:** https://zipbooks.com - **Runs on:** Web - **Facts last checked:** Oct 17, 2026 ## Pricing ZipBooks has a free plan. Paid plans start at $15 per month, billed monthly. - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** Starter plan: unlimited invoices, customers and vendors, card payments through Square or PayPal, basic reports and 1 connected bank account. Free with no time limit. - **Free trial:** 30-day free trial of the paid features, no credit card required. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Starter | $0 | Unlimited invoices, customers and vendors, Square or PayPal payments, basic reports and 1 bank account. | | Smarter | $15 per month, billed monthly | Adds recurring invoices with auto-bill, automatic reminders, saved line items, several bank accounts, time tracking and 5 team members. | | Sophisticated | $35 per month, billed monthly | Adds tagging by location, project or custom field, reconciliation, locked books, document sharing, tag-based reports and unlimited users. | Read from https://zipbooks.com/pricing on Oct 17, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with ZipBooks before buying. ## Key features - **Invoices and quotes:** Custom invoices and quotes with taxes, discounts and over 100 currencies. Recurring invoices, auto-billing and payment reminders start on Smarter. - **Online payments:** Customers pay invoices by card through a connected Square, PayPal or Stripe account. - **Bookkeeping with auto-categorizing:** Bank transactions land in one list and are categorized by learned rules, with custom categories and 1099 tracking for vendors. - **Tags and reports:** Income statement and balance sheet on cash or accrual basis. Sophisticated adds tags by location or project and reports built on them. - **Time tracking and projects:** Track time live or by hand at fixed or hourly rates and pull the entries onto invoices, from the Smarter plan. - **Payroll through Gusto:** Payroll is handled by Gusto, which connects to ZipBooks as an integration. ## Good for - Freelancers who want free invoicing with basic books - Small service businesses that bill for time - Bookkeepers who manage several client accounts from one dashboard ## Worth knowing - There is no mobile app: ZipBooks discontinued it and its help center points phone users to the browser. - The free plan connects 1 bank account; team members need Smarter, which allows 5, and unlimited users need Sophisticated. - The Accountant plan for bookkeeping firms is priced by number of clients on a separate page, with no figure in its page text. - ZipBooks is in English only, and its help center says some bank connections outside the US may not sync. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Oct 17, 2026. ZipBooks gives you unlimited invoices and one connected bank account for free, and Smarter at $15 a month adds recurring billing, reminders, time tracking and room for 5 people. It all runs in a browser now, since the phone app was dropped. And reconciling your accounts waits for Sophisticated at $35, which is where it stops being cheap. - **Value for money: C.** Smarter is $15 a month, right at the cheaper quarter of accounting tools, with recurring billing, several bank accounts and time tracking. But reconciling accounts and locking finished books need Sophisticated at $35, above the dearer quarter at $31.10. - **Free plan and trial: B.** Starter is free for good: unlimited invoices, customers and vendors, card payments through Square or PayPal, basic reports and 1 connected bank account. One person could live on that. Recurring invoices, reminders and time tracking need Smarter. - **Features: C.** Invoices and quotes in 100+ currencies, bank transactions sorted by learned rules, cash or accrual reports, 1099 tracking, time tracking and payroll through Gusto. The listing names the gaps: the phone app is gone, and some bank connections outside the US may not sync. - **Ease of use: C.** No store rating on record, as there's no app. Rules that learn how you sort transactions save some clicking, but there's still a bank to connect and bookkeeping to learn. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web only, since ZipBooks discontinued its phone app and points you to the browser. What lifts it is the connections: Square, PayPal, Stripe, Gusto and Slack. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from ZipBooks' own pages on 17 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among accounting and invoicing tools - ZipBooks's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 4 of the 17 other accounting and invoicing tools we grade, and level with 5. - It stands best on free plan and trial (B, above 10 of 17) and worst on features (C, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $15 a month, against a middle price of $19 for the category: 5 of the 16 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 3 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/accounting ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace ZipBooks you would be making live feeds from your bank, which take an agreement with each bank or a service that has them. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 8 of the 17 other accounting and invoicing tools grade higher. It costs $180 a year. - You could make: Invoicing, expense tracking, reports and time tracking: an app builder makes these well. - You could not: Live feeds from your bank, which take an agreement with each bank or a service that has them. - You could not: It plugs into other products, Square, PayPal and Stripe among them. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Square, PayPal, Stripe, Gusto, Slack **Tags:** Invoicing, Bookkeeping, Expense tracking, Reports, Time tracking ## Alternatives - [Wave](https://toolgpa.com/tools/wave): Free invoicing and bookkeeping for US and Canadian small businesses. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/wave-vs-zipbooks) - [FreshBooks](https://toolgpa.com/tools/freshbooks): Invoicing and accounting for freelancers and service businesses. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/freshbooks-vs-zipbooks) - [QuickBooks Online](https://toolgpa.com/tools/quickbooks): Cloud accounting from Intuit, from a free plan to 25-user Advanced. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/quickbooks-vs-zipbooks) - [Zoho Books](https://toolgpa.com/tools/zoho-books): Online accounting from Zoho, with a free plan and six paid tiers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/zipbooks-vs-zoho-books) - [Akaunting](https://toolgpa.com/tools/akaunting): Open-source accounting you can host yourself or use in the cloud. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/akaunting-vs-zipbooks) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 17, 2026: - https://zipbooks.com/pricing - https://zipbooks.com/ - https://zipbooks.com/wp-content/themes/wordpress-theme/css/main.css - https://zipbooks.com/accountant/ - https://help.zipbooks.com/en/articles/2912762-how-do-i-upgrade-or-change-my-subscription - https://help.zipbooks.com/en/articles/3069039-did-my-free-plan-expire - https://help.zipbooks.com/en/articles/4820046-does-zipbooks-have-a-mobile-app - https://help.zipbooks.com/en/articles/3020903-does-zipbooks-work-outside-of-the-united-states Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/zipbooks Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).