Best for
Best for freelancers and small service businesses that want invoicing-first accounting with time and expense tracking, double-entry books and a simple plan lineup.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
Accounting & Invoicing Comparison
FreshBooks vs. Holded
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for freelancers and small businesses in Spain that want invoicing, accounting and tax filing in one system, with room to add payroll, inventory or POS later.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | FreshBooks | Holded |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $23 / month Lite plan at its regular monthly price, for up to five billable clients. | From €15 / month plus VAT Plus plan, 1 user and 250 invoices a year. Basic €29, Standard €59, Advanced €99 and Premium €199 per month plus VAT; monthly or annual billing. A limited-time offer halves the first three months. Extra users €10 / month each. |
| Free trial | Free for 30 days | 14 days free, no credit card required |
| Users | Not stated | More than 900,000 users |
| API | Yes, a JSON API with OAuth2, plus more than 100 integrations | Yes, a REST API with webhooks, plus a remote MCP server |
| Hosting | Cloud (SaaS) | Cloud (SaaS) |
| Made in | Not stated | Spain (Visma Group) |
| Invoicing and quotes | Yes, professional invoices that auto-add tracked time and expenses and calculate taxes, plus estimates and proposals | Yes, quotes, proformas and invoices from more than 50 templates, multi-currency, recurring invoices, client portal, online payments and payment reminders, with Verifactu in every plan |
| Bookkeeping and bank feeds | Yes, double-entry accounting with a general ledger and bank reconciliation via bank connection or CSV upload | Yes, bank connections with reconciliation rules (1 bank on Plus up to unlimited from Standard), AI transaction categorisation, automatic accounting entries and analytical accounting from Standard |
| Expenses and receipts | Yes, mobile receipt scanning, bank imports and automatic expense categorization | Yes, an AI and OCR expense scanner that turns receipts into journal entries, unlimited from Basic, plus recurring purchases |
| Tax and compliance | Yes, sales tax applied to invoice line items, posted to a Taxes Payable account, with tax reports | Yes, Verifactu, IRPF tax models, corporate tax and SII submission, and TicketBAI for the Basque Country (Spain) |
| Payroll | Available as a paid add-on at $40 per month plus $6 per user per month | Yes, as a paid add-on at €5 per employee per month: payslips with automatic accounting entries and Spanish tax forms 111 and 190 |
| Reports and exports | Yes, financial and accounting reports, including profit reports and the general ledger | Yes, profit and loss dashboard, cash flow and cash flow scenarios, with advanced reports from Standard |
| Integrations and API | Yes, a JSON API authenticated with OAuth2, plus more than 100 integrations | Yes, a REST API with webhooks, a remote MCP server, and connections through Zapier and Make |
| AI features | No | stated Yes |
| MCP-ready | No | stated Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | Email helpdesk, Phone | more entries Email helpdesk, Phone, Chat |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base, Guided onboarding | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Live online demos and webinars, Guided onboarding |
| Company size | Freelancers, Small and mid-sized | Freelancers, Small and mid-sized |
| Integrations | PayPal, Stripe, Affirm, Afterpay | more entries Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Wix, Amazon, Stripe, PayPal, Square, GoCardless, Zapier, Make, Pleo, Dropbox, Google Drive, Sendcloud |
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The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price FreshBooks From $23 / month Holded From €15 / month plus VAT
- Free trial FreshBooks Free for 30 days Holded 14 days free, no credit card required
- Support FreshBooks Email helpdesk, Phone Holded Email helpdesk, Phone, Chat
- AI features FreshBooks No Holded Yes
- MCP-ready FreshBooks No Holded Yes
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
FreshBooks
Strengths
- Invoices automatically pull in tracked time and expenses
- Double-entry accounting with bank reconciliation and a general ledger
- JSON API with OAuth2 and more than 100 integrations
- Unlimited billable clients from the Premium plan
Limitations
- Plans are capped by billable client count on the lower tiers
- Payroll is a paid add-on rather than part of the plan
Holded
Strengths
- Spanish compliance built in: Verifactu in every plan, plus IRPF models, SII and TicketBAI
- AI transaction categorisation and receipt scanning that learn from corrections
- Payroll, HR, inventory, manufacturing and POS available as add-on modules in the same system
- REST API, webhooks and an official MCP server for AI assistants
Limitations
- Built around Spanish tax rules, so it suits businesses in Spain specifically
- Plans cap invoices per year and connected banks, not just users
- No permanent free plan, only a 14-day trial
- Payroll, HR, inventory and POS cost extra on top of the plan
Plans
Pricing
FreshBooks
- Lite $23 / month Up to five billable clients; invoicing, expense tracking, estimates, payments and tax reports.
- Plus $43 / month Up to fifty billable clients; adds proposals, accounting reports, receipt scanning and accountant access.
- Premium $70 / month Unlimited billable clients; adds project profitability, bill receipt scanning and automated client emails.
- Select Not stated Custom pricing; adds lower card fees, data migration, two team members, dedicated phone support and removes FreshBooks branding.
Holded
- Plus €15 / month plus VAT 1 user, 250 invoices a year, 1 connected bank, 15 active reconciliation rules. Verifactu included.
- Basic €29 / month plus VAT 2 users, 1,000 invoices a year, 5 connected banks. Adds unlimited expense scanner, cash flow, project profitability and IRPF tax models.
- Standard €59 / month plus VAT 4 users, 3,000 invoices a year, unlimited banks. Adds automatic accounting entries, advanced reports, analytical accounting, corporate tax, SII integration and bank remittances.
- Advanced €99 / month plus VAT 7 users, 10,000 invoices a year. Adds custom user roles and fields and priority support.
- Premium €199 / month plus VAT 15 users, unlimited invoices, 1,000 recurring invoices, unlimited reconciliation rules and phone support.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
FreshBooks
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
Holded
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
How we check reviews
Reviews are not published yet. The form on a tool's page works and reaches us, but nothing from it appears on this site, so no score here is based on a review. The rules below are the ones that will apply once reviews go live.
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Where this comes from
Where this comes from
FreshBooks https://www.freshbooks.com · checked against the official source on 2026-08-19
Holded https://www.holded.com · no check date recorded yet
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.