Why I Built FreshBill
Last year, I spent 20 minutes trying to send a single invoice.
Not because the invoice was complicated. It was two line items: a website redesign and a month of support. The kind of invoice I'd sent a hundred times before. But the tool I was using had just rolled out a redesign, and suddenly I couldn't find the button to download a PDF. It was buried three menus deep behind a "Reports" tab that had nothing to do with what I needed.
That was the moment I decided to build FreshBill.
The problem nobody talks about
If you're a freelancer or running a micro-business, you've probably been through the same cycle I have. You start out creating invoices in Word or Google Docs. It works, but it's tedious — you're copying and pasting client details, manually numbering invoices, and hoping you didn't mess up the math.
So you go looking for invoicing software. And you find plenty of options. The problem is, most of them aren't really invoicing tools. They're full-blown accounting platforms that happen to have an invoicing feature buried somewhere inside. They want you to connect your bank accounts, categorize expenses, run profit-and-loss reports, and set up chart-of-accounts configurations you'll never touch.
All you wanted to do was send an invoice.
What FreshBill actually is
FreshBill is an invoicing tool that does one thing and does it well. You create an invoice, send it as a professional PDF, and mark invoices as paid so you can see what's outstanding at a glance. That's it.
No accounting modules. No expense tracking. No bank integrations. No 47-step onboarding wizard. You sign up, fill in your business details once, and you're sending invoices within a minute.
Here's what you get:
- Clean, professional invoices with three design templates to choose from
- One-click PDF delivery straight to your client's inbox
- Payment status at a glance — mark invoices as paid, spot overdue ones instantly, and always know where you stand
- Client management that remembers addresses, emails, and tax IDs
- Invoice duplication for recurring work — clone last month's invoice, adjust the dates, send
I built it for people like me: freelancers, consultants, designers, developers, and small business owners who just need to get paid without fighting their software.
Why it's free to start
FreshBill has a genuinely usable free tier. Not a 7-day trial. Not a crippled version that nags you to upgrade every time you click something. A real free plan that lets you send invoices, email PDFs, and manage your clients.
If you send a handful of invoices a month, the free plan might be all you ever need. And I'm genuinely fine with that.
The Pro plan at $9/month is there for when you want extras — your own logo on invoices, more templates, and removing the FreshBill branding. It's for people who've already decided FreshBill is their invoicing tool and want to make it fully their own.
What's next
FreshBill is now live (freshbill.app) and I'm actively building on it. In the coming months, I'll be adding features based on what users actually ask for — not what looks good on a feature comparison chart.
If you're a freelancer who's tired of overcomplicating invoicing, give it a try. It takes less than a minute to send your first invoice, and I'd genuinely love to hear what you think.
You can reach me directly at axel@muto.is. I read every message.
Here's to getting paid without the headache.
— Axel