← Paid: Invoice & Estimate Maker

An invoice app without the subscription

August 2026 · 4 min read · by the maker of Paid

Most invoice apps charge between $8 and $22 a month. The cheapest plans cap how many invoices you can send. Unlimited plans cost $15 or more. If you send invoices for three years, you'll spend $500 to $800 on software that makes PDFs.

There's another way. An invoice app that charges a one-time price and never asks again. We built one called Paid. It costs $14.99 once, for iPhone and iPad, with no subscription and no invoice limit.

Why most invoice apps charge monthly

Invoice apps that collect payments for you (through Stripe, PayPal, or their own system) need servers running around the clock. Servers cost money every month, so the app costs money every month. If you need payment links or a customer portal where buyers can pay online, a subscription model pays for the service behind it.

But a lot of contractors and freelancers don't need any of that. They send a PDF with their bank details or Venmo handle and get paid directly. The customer reads the invoice, opens their banking app, and sends the money. No payment link, no processing fee, no middleman.

For that use case, the app doesn't need a server. Everything can run on the phone. And if it runs on the phone, there's no reason to charge every month.

What $14.99 once gets you

Paid is an invoice and estimate app that runs entirely on your iPhone or iPad. Your first 6 documents are free with every feature. After that, one $14.99 purchase removes the limit forever. Here's what's included:

• Invoices and estimates with no limit on how many you create.
• Convert an estimate to an invoice in one tap when the customer says yes.
• Saved customers and line items with their rates, so the second invoice takes two taps instead of two minutes.
• A clean PDF with your business name, logo, payment instructions, and due date. Send it by text, email, or anything else on your phone.
• Tax calculation. Set your rate once and every new document uses it.
• Discounts as a percentage or a dollar amount.

What you give up

A one-time-purchase app that runs on your phone leaves out some things that subscription apps include. Be honest with yourself about whether you need them:

• No online payment collection. Paid prints your payment details on the PDF (bank account, Venmo, Zelle, etc.). Your customer pays you directly. If you need a payment link where customers tap and pay with a card, you need a subscription app with payment processing.
• No cloud and no web version. Your invoices live on your phone. You can't pull them up on a laptop or share access with a bookkeeper.
• No recurring invoices. Every invoice is created one at a time. If you bill the same customer the same amount every month, a subscription app can automate that.
• No expense tracking, time tracking, or financial reports.
• No multi-currency picker. Amounts display in your phone's regional format.

If your business needs payment links, a web dashboard, or recurring billing, a subscription app earns its monthly fee. Pay for it and don't resent it.

But if you quote a job, do the work, send a PDF, and get paid by bank transfer or Venmo, you don't need any of that. You need an app that makes the PDF and stays out of the way. That's what Paid does, and it costs $14.99 once.

The subscription math

Subscription invoice apps typically charge between $7 and $22 a month. Here's what that adds up to over time, compared to a one-time purchase:

• $7/month plan: $84/year, $252 over three years, $420 over five.
• $15/month plan: $180/year, $540 over three years, $900 over five.
• $22/month plan: $264/year, $792 over three years, $1,320 over five.
• Paid: $14.99 once. Same price in year one, year three, and year ten.

Even the cheapest subscription costs more than Paid after two months.

Who this app is for

Paid was built for people who bill from their phone between jobs. Contractors, handymen, plumbers, electricians, painters, cleaners, landscapers, freelancers. The person who quotes the job is the same person who does the work and sends the invoice. There's no office and no bookkeeper.

They want to write an estimate on site, send it before they leave the driveway, turn it into an invoice when the customer says yes, and get paid. They don't want to think about their invoice app again until the next job. And they definitely don't want a subscription for it.