Best WordPress Invoice Plugins

Seven plugins do real invoicing on WordPress in 2026 — and the differences between them are bigger than their feature lists admit: one charges a hidden 3% on every transaction in its free version, one gates card payments behind a $179/year bundle, and one hasn’t meaningfully changed in years. We build one of the seven — DuePress — so read this as a maker’s comparison with the bias disclosed up front: we’ll tell you exactly where competitors beat us. Every price and feature claim below was verified in June 2026 against the vendors’ own sites.

The short version

• Best free payment stack: DuePress — the only free tier with Stripe and Square plus deposits, no transaction fees.
• Best free all-rounder (PayPal is fine): Easy Invoice — generous free tier, one-time lifetime Pro license.
• Best for estimate-driven agencies: Sprout Invoices — the deepest quote→invoice workflow in WordPress.
• Avoid if you take card payments on a budget: WP Simple Pay Lite (3% added fee) and Sliced free (no card gateway until you pay).

How we evaluated

Five things decide whether an invoicing plugin earns its install. Free-tier gateways — where most plugins gate hardest; “free invoicing” means little if your client can’t pay by card without you buying an upgrade. Hidden costs — per-transaction fees and extension creep matter more than sticker price. Deposits and partial payments — service work runs on money up front; this shouldn’t be a premium feature. The reminder loop — does it chase overdue money for you? WooCommerce dependency — many “invoice plugins” are really order-PDF generators that are useless without a store.

The comparison at a glance

1. DuePress — best free payment stack

Ours — bias disclosed. The design goal was simple: the things every service business needs to get paid should not live behind a paywall. So the free plugin includes what this category usually charges for: both Stripe and Square with Apple Pay and Google Pay appearing automatically, deposits and partial payments (fixed amount or percentage) with the outstanding balance tracked per invoice, overdue detection with automatic reminder emails, client records with full history, an activity log (created → sent → viewed → paid), and a branded, mobile-responsive invoice page on your own domain with print/PDF.

Architecture matters here too: zero external dependencies — no Composer, no vendor directory, pure PHP 8.2+ on WordPress APIs — and no WooCommerce requirement (though if you run Woo, DuePress reuses its Stripe/Square configuration). Payment secrets are encrypted at rest. Pro ($79/yr) adds the automation layer: recurring invoices, multi-currency, late-fee automation, client portal, QuickBooks/Xero export.

Honest weaknesses: it’s the newest plugin on this list, with the smallest install base and track record; there’s no built-in quote/estimate document (Sliced and Sprout both have one); and the free tier has no recurring billing (nobody’s does — but Easy Invoice’s lifetime license makes their recurring cheaper long-term). Download · full feature list · how it works.

2. Easy Invoice — best free all-rounder

The most visible plugin in the category right now, and deservedly so. The free tier is genuinely functional: unlimited invoices and quotes, PDF generation, client management, tax calculations, and email notifications, with nothing artificially crippled. Two real limits: free payment collection is PayPal-only — Stripe, Square and the rest of its 9-gateway pack arrive in Pro — and partial payments are Pro-gated, so deposit-based work needs the upgrade from day one.

Its trump card is the pricing model: Pro is a one-time lifetime license, not a subscription. If you plan to run the same plugin for 3+ years, that beats every yearly license on this page, ours included — we’d rather tell you that than have you discover it. Pro also brings recurring billing, a client portal, CSV export and QuickBooks/Xero sync. Full head-to-head: DuePress vs Easy Invoice.

Pick it when: PayPal collection is acceptable to start, you want quotes built in, and a pay-once license appeals more than the best free card stack.

3. Sprout Invoices — best for estimates → invoices

The premium veteran, and the deepest workflow tool here. If your sales motion is formal estimates that clients approve before work begins, Sprout’s estimate-to-invoice conversion, approvals, and integration ecosystem (forms, CRMs, time trackers) have no equal in WordPress. Gateway support is broad — PayPal, Stripe, Square, Authorize.net, and more.

The catch is the tier ladder: the free version collects via PayPal only, and card gateways like Stripe require at least the Plus tier — roughly $119/year as of June 2026 (entry licenses from ~$79, Pro around $224; their pricing page varies by promotion, so verify before buying). For a simple “send invoice, get paid by card” need, you’re paying for workflow machinery you may never open. Head-to-head: DuePress vs Sprout.

4. Sliced Invoices — lean veteran, à la carte pricing

A genuinely lean quotes-and-invoices core (~7,000 installs) with flexible taxes, pre-defined line items, reminders, and multi-currency/multi-language support — free. The business model is the thing to understand: features ship as paid extensions and bundles. As of June 2026: the Freelancer bundle is $79/yr (PDF, recurring, deposits — but no card gateway); Stripe lives in the Business bundle at $179/yr, alongside partial payments and the client area; Agency is $299/yr.

Add it up for a typical freelancer who wants card payments + deposits: $179/year, every year. The same combination is $0 in DuePress — which is the whole argument of that comparison. Sliced still wins if you want free quotes with minimal footprint and don’t need cards.

5. GetPaid — payment forms + invoicing hybrid

Free invoicing plus buy-now buttons and payment forms, with Stripe available via add-on. GetPaid shines when you sell fixed-price items and send occasional invoices from the same site — it’s more “payments toolkit” than dedicated client-ledger system. Invoice lifecycle management (balances, reminders, client history) is shallower than the dedicated tools above; gateway add-ons add cost per gateway.

6. WP Simple Pay — great Stripe forms, costly “free,” not really invoicing

Excellent at what it actually is: Stripe payment forms, one-time and recurring, zero cart overhead. But be clear-eyed about two things. First, it’s not an invoicing system — there’s no client ledger, no invoice lifecycle, no balance tracking; it collects payments. Second, the cost structure: the free Lite version adds an extra 3% fee on every transaction on top of Stripe’s processing fee — on $20,000 of client billing that’s $600/year for the “free” plugin. Removing it means Pro, which runs $99 to $599 per year by tier (June 2026).

Pick it when: you need polished Stripe checkout forms (donations, bookings, fixed services) rather than invoices — and buy a license if you do real volume.

7. WP-Invoice — the free legacy option

One of the first invoicing plugins WordPress ever had: completely free, no paid tier anywhere, Stripe supported. Respect where due — but the install base (~1,000 and declining) and an interface from an earlier WordPress era tell the maintenance story. Before committing, check its recent update history against your PHP version. For occasional invoices on a personal site where none of that matters, it still does the job. Head-to-head: DuePress vs WP-Invoice.

Which one should you pick?

• You want card payments + deposits without paying anything: DuePress — nothing else on this list does both free.
• PayPal is fine and you hate subscriptions: Easy Invoice (lifetime Pro when you outgrow free).
• Your business runs on formal estimates and approvals: Sprout Invoices — budget ~$119+/yr for card payments.
• You want free quotes and minimal footprint, cards can wait: Sliced Invoices.
• You’re collecting payments, not managing invoices: WP Simple Pay (Pro, to kill the 3%) or GetPaid.
• Zero budget, zero expectations: WP-Invoice.

Common questions

Do any of these work without WooCommerce?

Everything on this list is standalone — that was an inclusion criterion. The many WooCommerce-PDF-invoice plugins we excluded generate documents for store orders; they can’t bill a client for quoted work. The distinction in full: invoices vs orders.

Which plugins take Stripe payments completely free?

Only two: DuePress (no added fees) and WP Simple Pay Lite (adds 3% per transaction). Everyone else gates Stripe behind a paid tier: Easy Invoice (Pro), Sprout (~$119/yr Plus), Sliced ($179/yr Business), GetPaid (add-on).

What about deposits and partial payments?

Free only in DuePress. Easy Invoice and Sliced both gate them behind paid tiers; Sprout’s live in its upper tiers; WP Simple Pay and WP-Invoice don’t track invoice balances at all.

Methodology: every pricing and feature claim verified June 2026 against vendor sites and wp.org listings. We build DuePress; where a competitor wins, we’ve said so. Mapping the whole territory first? Start with the complete WordPress invoicing guide.