Honest comparison
Free invoice generator
Invoices, quotations, proformas and delivery challans as clean PDFs, with the tax worked out, no watermark, no account and no limit. They are documents, not a system: nothing is stored, nothing is numbered for you and nobody is chasing on your behalf.
12 free tools linked from this page · 11 with no account at all · 1 AI tools that need one
The tools here draw a document. Line items, tax, totals, your letterhead and accent colour, an acceptance block on a quotation, the GST split decided from the state codes in the two GSTINs rather than a box you tick. The PDF is yours, there is no watermark, there is no limit and there is nothing to sign up for.
They are not an invoicing service. Nothing is stored, no number is allocated for you, nobody is told when an invoice is opened or paid, and there is no payment link on it. If what you actually want is a system that knows what is outstanding, this page will tell you plainly where that line falls — and the line is not in our favour.
What an invoicing service does that we do not
Six things, and the first two are the ones that cause real trouble.
- It remembers. Customers, items, every invoice you sent and what was paid against it. We remember nothing at all: each document starts from the defaults, and closing the tab is the end of it.
- It allocates the number. Tax authorities in most places expect an unbroken serial series, and a system that issues the next number cannot skip one. Typing the number yourself is exactly where gaps and duplicates come from, and our page can only remind you of that — it cannot stop you.
- It knows what is outstanding. Paid, part paid, overdue, by customer, without you maintaining anything. Our ageing tool will tell you the same thing, but only from a list of unpaid invoices that you keep and give it.
- It takes the money. A payment link on the invoice, a card page, a bank feed that marks an invoice paid when the money lands. None of that is here, and none of it can be.
- It chases on its own. Reminders on a schedule, without anybody remembering. Our reminder letters are drafted for you — naming the invoices, the days late and the total, with the tone stepping up — and then you send them.
- It is the record. If somebody asks for every invoice you raised over the last six years, a service can produce them. We can produce the one on the screen.
Side by side
7 rows go their way and 4 go ours, and the ones they win are printed first. Nothing in the right-hand column is a claim about any particular product’s price or features — we have no way to check those, so we do not state them.
| What you need | Here, free, in your browser | An online invoicing service |
|---|---|---|
| Storing your invoices | Nothing is stored. The PDF is the record and it is yours to keep. | Held, searchable and exportable. |
| Allocating the next number | You type it. The page reminds you the series should have no gaps; it cannot enforce it. | Issued in sequence, so it cannot skip. |
| Knowing what has been paid | Only from a list you keep yourself and feed to the ageing tool. | Tracked against the invoice. |
| Taking payment | No payment link and no card page. | Often the main reason people subscribe. |
| Chasing automatically | Letters are drafted from your ageing list; you send them. | Sent on a schedule without you. |
| Recurring invoices | No. Each document is drawn fresh. | Scheduled. |
| Your bookkeeper seeing the same invoices | Only the files you send them. | Shared access. |
| One good-looking document, right now | Open the page, type, download. No sign-up, no trial, no card. | Sign-up, then a trial, then a plan. |
| GST on an Indian document | Intra-state splits into CGST and SGST at half each and inter-state charges IGST — worked out from the state codes in the two GSTINs, so it cannot disagree with the numbers printed on the face of the document. | Handled by Indian services too; check the one you are looking at. |
| Your customer list sitting on somebody’s server | There is no server. Names, rates and bank details are drawn on your own device. | A hosted service necessarily holds your customer list. |
| Cost, and what you may do with the output | Free and unlimited, no watermark, no branding of ours on the document, commercial use fine. | A subscription. The vendor has the current figure. |
When you should pay for an invoicing service
The dividing line is roughly “documents” against “a ledger of who owes you what”. If you need the second, buy it.
- You send more than a handful a month. The numbering alone is worth the fee, because a gap in the series is a conversation with an auditor.
- You need to know what is outstanding without maintaining a spreadsheet to tell you.
- You want to be paid from the invoice itself, by card or by link.
- You are registered for a tax that expects an unbroken series and a retrievable record for years afterwards.
- Somebody else — a bookkeeper, an accountant — needs to see the same invoices you do, without you emailing them.
What you can do here for nothing
Everything below runs in your browser unless it is marked “free to try”, which means an AI tool with an account and a monthly allowance. None of it files anything.
The documents themselves
Proper PDFs, laid out as documents rather than printouts of a web page.
The bits around them
Terms, the e-invoice payload, labels and a signature.
Knowing who owes you, and asking
The part that actually gets you paid.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use these invoices commercially?
Yes. The documents are yours, there is no watermark, no branding of ours on them and no limit on how many you make.
Is it a legally compliant invoice?
It produces the layout. Whether it is compliant depends on your jurisdiction and what you put on it — a VAT registration number, the tax point date, reverse charge wording where it applies. Check the requirements where you are, or ask your accountant, before you issue one.
How do I keep my invoice numbers in sequence without a system?
Keep the series in one place and never in your head: a single sheet with the number, the date, the customer and the amount, updated as you raise each one. That sheet is also exactly what the ageing tool wants, so it does two jobs. It is not as safe as software issuing the number, and we are not going to pretend it is.
What is the difference between a quotation, an estimate and a proforma invoice?
A quotation is a firm offer to supply at a stated price, open until it expires. An estimate is an indication of the likely price and is not binding. A proforma is invoice-shaped and sent before the supply, usually so the buyer can raise a purchase order or pay in advance — but it is not a tax invoice, no input tax credit arises from it, and the tool prints that on its face so an auditor cannot mistake it.
Does anything I type leave my computer?
No. The document is drawn on your device, so client names, rates and bank details never leave it. That is also why nothing can be stored for you: there is nowhere to store it.