OneTimeSelf-hosted invoicing for freelancers and small businesses.
FreshBooks charges $19/month, forever, to store your client list and send your invoices from their servers. Billcraft is the same core workflow — clients, invoices, PDFs, shareable payment links, recurring billing — running entirely on your machine (or your $5 VPS).
Billcraft in 60 seconds
Everything in the box
Clients, invoices, PDFs, share links & recurring billing — on hardware you control.
Business profile
Name, logo, address, tax ID, currency and payment/bank instructions printed on every invoice.
Unlimited clients
Full CRUD with company, email, address, notes. FreshBooks Lite caps you at 5 billable clients.
Real invoices
Line items (qty × rate), tax %, discount %, notes, due dates, configurable numbering.
Professional PDFs
Clean server-side template (pdfkit — no headless browser) with your logo and status pill.
Public share links
Clients open /inv/<token>, see a polished invoice page, download the PDF — no login.
Dashboard
Outstanding total, paid this month, overdue list at a glance — overdue computed automatically.
Recurring invoices
Monthly templates auto-create drafts; optionally auto-email them via your SMTP.
100% local
SQLite database, no telemetry, no external services. Your client data stays yours.
Billcraft vs FreshBooks
FreshBooks charges $19/mo. Here's what actually differs.
| Billcraft | FreshBooks | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $99 once | $19/month ($228/yr) |
| Clients | Unlimited | 5 billable clients (Lite) |
| Your data | On your machine/server | Their cloud |
| Invoices + PDF + share links | Yes | Yes |
| Recurring invoices | Yes | Yes |
| Email via your own SMTP | Yes | No (their sender) |
| Works offline (desktop mode) | Yes | No |
| Source code | MIT, yours | Closed |
Six months of FreshBooks pays for Billcraft outright. Everything after that is free, forever.
Pick how you pay
Subscriptions if you want them — but the whole point is the lifetime tier.
Up and running in three steps
Buy once on Whop
One-time $99 for the packaged Windows installer — zero terminal time.
Set up your business profile
Logo, tax ID, numbering, payment instructions — printed on every invoice automatically.
Invoice and get paid
Send polished PDF invoices or share links; recurring templates handle your retainers.
Fair questions
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes — MIT source at github.com/bensblueprints/invoice-generator-mvp. $99 gets you the signed installer, 1-click setup and updates.
Does it do accounting / bookkeeping?
No — and that matters. Billcraft is invoicing: clients, invoices, PDFs, recurring billing. FreshBooks also does expenses, time tracking and accounting reports. If you need double-entry books, keep an accounting tool.
Can clients pay online through it?
Invoices carry your payment/bank instructions and share links, but there's no built-in card processing. Add your Stripe/PayPal link in the payment instructions.
Do invoice emails come from my address?
Yes — bring your own SMTP (Gmail app password, Mailgun, Postmark…). Unlike FreshBooks, mail goes out from your own sender.
Desktop or server?
Both — same code, same SQLite schema. Desktop app for offline invoicing; deploy to a $5 VPS when clients need to open share links from anywhere.
Related tools
More pay-once apps from the OneTimeSuite catalog.
More about Billcraft
Every page we publish about this app — comparisons, personas, platforms and the problems it solves.
Platforms
Stop renting. Own Billcraft.
Clients, invoices, PDFs, share links & recurring billing — on hardware you control.
Get Billcraft — $99 forever