Invoice Ninja vs PayPal Invoicing

Two invoicing & payments tools side by side. Prices are the starting plan a small business would pick, in USD.

Compare	Invoice NinjaInvoice Ninja	PayPal InvoicingPayPal
In one line	Open-source invoicing with a free tier and self-hosting	Invoices clients can pay with PayPal, Venmo, or card
Starting price	Free	Free
Six-person team	$0/mo	$0/mo
On $10,000 of card sales	Your own card processor	$309/mo
Plans	Free up to 5 clients; Ninja Pro $14/mo ($140/yr); Enterprise from $18/mo for 1-2 users	No monthly fee; PayPal or Venmo 3.49% + 49¢; cards 2.99% + 49¢; +1.5% international
Pricing model	Free tier	Free
Free trial	—	—
Users	1 on free	Unlimited
Both connect to	QuickBooks Online
Also connects to	No others on record	Xero, Zoho Books, Akaunting, ZipBooks
Team size	Just me · 2–10 people	Just me · 2–10 people
Available in	US · UK · CA · AU	US · UK · CA · AU
Phone support	None listed	Plans not stated
Live chat	None listed	Every plan
Support hours	Not published	Not published
Incidents posted	Invoice Ninja has a public status page. Status page	PayPal has a public status page. Status page
Capterra score	4.7 / 5 from 167 reviews	4.7 / 5 from 595 reviews
Trustpilot score	2.8 / 5 from 6 reviews (few reviews)	Not listed
Fit: Retail shop	30	35
Fit: Restaurant or café	20	20
Fit: Service business	85	80
Fit: Agency or studio	85	75
Fit: Trades or contractor	70	75
Fit: Online store	45	60
Why people pick it	Open source and self-hostable Cheap paid tiers	Clients trust and already use PayPal No monthly fee
Where it falls short	Dated interface Fewer native integrations	Higher fees than Stripe or Square Account holds are a known risk
	Visit Invoice Ninja ↗	Visit PayPal Invoicing ↗

Six-person prices are what a team of six would pay on the published plans; "Not listed" means those plans don't cover six. Card sales costs include the plan price and card fees at US rates, at a $500 average sale. How we calculate prices