Invoice Ninja vs Payhawk (2026): Pricing, Features & Verdict
Payhawk is our pick, scoring 7.1/10 against 6.8/10 for Invoice Ninja on our Finance Software criteria. Its biggest advantage: higher Scalability score (8/10 vs 5/10). Only Invoice Ninja has a free plan.
Last updated: November 2026
Invoice Ninja
6.8/10
Source-available invoicing, quoting, payments, expense and time-tracking software for freelancers and small businesses. You can use the hosted cloud service or run it on your own server.
Payhawk
7.1/10
Payhawk is a modular spend management platform combining Visa corporate cards, expense claims, accounts payable, procurement and travel booking for mid-sized and multi-entity companies.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 6.8/10 | 7.1/10 |
| Scalability | 5/10 | 8/10 |
| Analytics | 4/10 | 5/10 |
| Compliance | 7/10 | 8/10 |
| Integration | 7/10 | 9/10 |
| Security | 7/10 | 8/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Cost | 9/10 | 4/10 |
| Customization | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Ease of Use | 6/10 | 8/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | $14/mo Ninja Pro | £149/mo Growth programme (UK/EEA) |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | $18/mo Enterprise | £149/mo Growth programme (UK/EEA) |
| Features | ||
| Expense Management | ||
| Multi-currency | ||
| Tax Compliance | ||
| Accountant Access | Not listed | |
| Accounts Payable | Not listed | |
| Bank Reconciliation | Not listed | |
| Corporate Cards | Not listed | |
| Invoicing | Not listed | |
| Multi-entity Consolidation | Not listed | |
| Online Payments | Not listed | |
| Payroll | Not listed | |
Invoice Ninja vs Payhawk cost by team size
Invoice Ninja costs less from 25 users.
| Team size | Invoice Ninja | Payhawk |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | FreeFree | £149/moGrowth programme (UK/EEA) |
| 5 users | $18/moEnterprise | £149/moGrowth programme (UK/EEA) |
| 10 users | $18/moEnterprise | £149/moGrowth programme (UK/EEA) |
| 25 users | $18/moEnterprise | $299/moTravel |
| 50 users | $18/moEnterprise | $299/moTravel |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Who Invoice Ninja and Payhawk suit
Invoice Ninja fits small business better; Payhawk fits enterprise better.
| Audience | Invoice Ninja | Payhawk |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise | 3/10User caps of 100, no ledger and a very small vendor team make it a poor fit for large organisations. | 7/10It offers SAP, Oracle and Workday connectors, SSO, and PO matching, but very large enterprises may still need deeper procurement suites. |
| Small Business | 8/10Unlimited clients, recurring billing, many payment gateways and up to 10 linked companies suit small firms at low cost. | 4/10There is a discounted Growth programme for UK and EEA firms under 10 staff, but it is capped and reviewers say the cost is high for small companies. |
| Agencies | 7/10Projects, Kanban tasks, client portal and multi-user permissions on Enterprise support small agency billing. | Not rated |
| Consultancies | 8/10Quotes with e-signature, project time tracking and expense rebilling fit consultants who bill by the hour. | Not rated |
| Developers | 8/10Source-available Laravel code, Docker self-hosting, a REST API and SDKs let technical teams run and extend it. | Not rated |
| Finance Teams | Not rated | 9/10It is built for controllers and CFO teams that need card controls, AP approvals and ERP sync in one place. |
| Freelancers | 9/10The free plan, flat-priced Pro tier, time-to-invoice tools and client portal are built around solo billers. | Not rated |
| Legal | 5/10LawPay is a supported gateway, but the product has no legal-specific trust accounting. | Not rated |
| Mid-Market | Not rated | 9/10Module pricing from several hundred dollars a month, plus multi-entity add-ons, targets companies that have outgrown simple expense apps. |
| Startups | Not rated | 5/10The Growth plan and unlimited employee seats help, but annual contracts and the price floor are less startup-friendly than freemium rivals. |
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose Invoice Ninja
- Has a free plan (Payhawk does not)
- Higher Cost score (9/10 vs 4/10)
- Higher Support score (6/10 vs 5/10)
- Better fit for small business (8/10 vs 4/10)
Why choose Payhawk
- Higher Scalability score (8/10 vs 5/10)
- Higher Integration score (9/10 vs 7/10)
- Better fit for enterprise (7/10 vs 3/10)
Pros & Cons
Invoice Ninja
Pros
- The Free plan includes online payments, recurring billing, expenses, projects and a client portal, and Pro is only $140 a year.
- Supports about 20 payment gateways, including Stripe, PayPal, Square, GoCardless, Mollie, Braintree, LawPay and Bitcoin options, and can pass gateway fees on to clients.
- The code is published on GitHub, with Docker and other self-hosting options, so teams can keep their data on their own infrastructure.
- Supports PEPPOL, XRechnung, ZUGFeRD and Facturae e-invoicing, which helps European sellers meet mandates.
- The hosted service reports SOC 2, PCI-DSS, AES-256 encryption at rest and MFA on all accounts.
- Reviewers on G2 and SpotSaaS praise the frequent feature releases, roughly every two months.
Cons
- It is not full accounting: there is no general ledger, balance sheet or payroll, so bookkeeping software is still needed.
- Bank sync, user permissions and e-invoicing require the Enterprise plan, and the Free and Pro plans are limited to a single user.
- Reviewers say custom invoice and portal designs need JSON or CSS knowledge.
- Self-hosted setup and upgrades take technical skill, and forum users have reported bugs and gaps in the documentation after major version changes.
- Reporting is limited to invoice, expense and P&L-style reports, and G2 reviewers call the interface dated.
Payhawk
Pros
- Unlimited employee seats, card transactions and document processing in every module, so costs do not scale per employee.
- Very broad native integration list, covering NetSuite, Sage Intacct, SAP, Dynamics, Xero, QuickBooks, DATEV and 30+ HR systems, plus a partner API and MCP connector.
- Strong for multi-entity European groups, with regulated card issuing entities in the EEA, UK and US and balances in six currencies.
- AP module includes 2- and 3-way PO matching, segregation-of-duties controls, and e-invoicing support for Peppol, KSeF, SDI and Finvoice.
- Reviewers often say employees find receipt capture and expense submission in the mobile app quick and easy.
Cons
- Trustpilot (2.8/5) and some G2 reviews describe mid-contract price increases, automatic renewals and difficult cancellations.
- Several reviewers report slow or AI-first support, with replies taking days or weeks.
- Annual pricing, unit fees for admin seats and cards, and add-on prices are not published, so you have to get a quote.
- Initial setup of workflows, custom fields and integrations is described as complex, and some reviewers note sync errors with Xero and with foreign currency refunds.
- It is not a general ledger or payroll system, so it needs a separate ERP or accounting package.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Payhawk scores higher on our Finance Software criteria: 7.1/10 against 6.8/10 for Invoice Ninja. The largest gap is in Cost: 9/10 for Invoice Ninja and 4/10 for Payhawk.
Invoice Ninja has a free plan; Payhawk does not list one.
Payhawk is the better fit for enterprise: we rate it 7/10 for them, against 3/10 for Invoice Ninja.
