Free accounting software that does not lock the features you need

Most “free” accounting tools cap the feature you need most — the third user, the fifth invoice, the bank feed, the report. HelloBooks Free does not. The product behaves like the paid product on every core surface; what you give up is bigger AI quotas, advanced multi-entity, and white-label.

• Unlimited invoices, quotes, and recurring billing
• Unlimited expenses and receipt capture
• Bank connection via Plaid (U.S.) or local rails (UK/IN/AU/CA/SG/NZ/AE)
• AI bookkeeping with 5,000 credits to get started — enough for the first few hundred categorized transactions
• 2 users including your accountant (reviewer seat is free)
• Full P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, and AR/AP aging
• GST / VAT / sales tax handling for all 8 supported countries
• Mobile apps for iOS, Android, and iPadOS

Solopreneurs, freelancers, side-businesses, and SMBs in their first year are the obvious fits. Most of them never need to upgrade — 2,500 AI credits every month covers a typical small business’s transaction volume, and 2 users covers you and your accountant.

You upgrade to Pro when you outgrow the AI quota, when you need more than 2 users, when you want multi-entity consolidation, or when you want advanced features like white-label and the open API.

It is free forever. No credit card to start. No time-bombed trial. No “free for the first 100 transactions” gotcha. HelloBooks is built on the assumption that a meaningful slice of Free users will never upgrade — and that is fine, because the ones who do upgrade do so because the product earned it.

You can stay on Free indefinitely. The only thing that nudges you up is hitting the AI credit limit or the 3-user limit; both are visible in the workspace before you ever hit them.

Wave is the incumbent in “free accounting” and a fine product, but it stopped its U.S. payroll product and lacks any AI bookkeeping. ZipBooks free tier is light on bank reconciliation. Zoho Books free is region-limited.

HelloBooks Free ships AI bookkeeping, bank reconciliation, and multi-country support — the things that used to require a paid plan elsewhere — on day one, with the same ledger you would use if you upgraded.