InvoiceAdept vs Zoho Invoice: which free invoicing app for UK trades?

The short answer

Zoho Invoice UK is free at £0 but caps you at 500 invoices a year, two users and three projects, with "Powered by Zoho Invoice" on the PDF. InvoiceAdept is free for just 5 invoices a month, then Pro at £7.99 or Pro+ at £12.99 (both excl. VAT) for unlimited invoices, WhatsApp send, Stripe links and CIS. Neither files your tax return or CIS300.

What are Zoho Invoice and InvoiceAdept?

Zoho Invoice is a general small-business invoicing suite with a UK edition. It has quotes, expenses, time tracking, reminders, a customer portal and native apps across iOS, Android, Windows and Mac. CIS lives in Settings rather than on a trades homepage, and its path into Making Tax Digital is Zoho Books, not Invoice.

InvoiceAdept is built for the plumber, electrician or CIS subcontractor who wants the invoice out of the van and paid. It is made by Tech Me Today Ltd (Companies House 15917255, ICO ZB944663) from Leicester. Free is a trial of the product; Pro and Pro+ are the paid trade tools.

How do InvoiceAdept and Zoho Invoice compare?

The table below was checked against Zoho's UK Invoice pages and InvoiceAdept's own pricing on 29 August 2026. Zoho's self-stated "4.8/5 customer satisfaction" is their figure, not an independent rating, so it is not used here.

	InvoiceAdept Free	InvoiceAdept Pro	InvoiceAdept Pro+	Zoho Invoice UK
Monthly price	£0	£7.99 excl. VAT	£12.99 excl. VAT	£0 (no paid plan listed)
Invoices	5 per month	Unlimited	Unlimited	500 per year
Users	1	Up to 3	Unlimited	2
Projects	Not a project tool	Not a project tool	Not a project tool	3
PDF branding	Basic templates	Your branding	Your branding	"Powered by Zoho Invoice"
CIS invoices	No	No	Yes (0/20/30%)	Yes (Settings > CIS)
Files CIS300	No	No	No	No
WhatsApp	No native send	From the app with pay link	Same as Pro	Share via WhatsApp Web
Card payments	Not on Free	Stripe, no extra fee	Same as Pro	Stripe and others, no extra fee
Native apps	Mobile / browser	Same	Same	iOS, Android, Windows, Mac

See the full InvoiceAdept pricing, the invoicing features, and Zoho Invoice UK for their live numbers.

How many free invoices do you actually get?

Both products use the word "free". The caps are different shapes.

Zoho's UK pricing page is £0, with no paid Invoice plan listed on 29 August 2026. The FAQ on the same page still caps you at 500 invoices a year, two users and three projects, with Zoho branding on the PDF. Five hundred invoices is about 41 a month if you spread them evenly. A sole trader quoting and billing a few retained customers will never see the wall.

InvoiceAdept Free is tighter and more honest about it. Five invoices a month is a trial of the product, not a free-forever trade tool. After five you wait for next month or you pay for Pro. If your only requirement is unlimited invoices at £0 and you will email the PDF yourself, Zoho's annual cap is usually the more generous free offer, until you need a fourth project, a third login, or the Zoho line gone from the footer.

A kitchen fitter who bills deposit, stage and final on two jobs a month is already at six invoices. That person is off InvoiceAdept Free and still well inside Zoho's 500. A CIS subcontractor on a long site raising weekly applications burns InvoiceAdept Free in a fortnight and still has months of headroom on Zoho's year. The people who hit Zoho's wall are high-volume billers and anyone who treats projects as jobs.

Does Zoho Invoice or InvoiceAdept actually do CIS?

Under the Construction Industry Scheme, contractors deduct money from a subcontractor's labour and pass it to HMRC. Those deductions are advance payments towards the subcontractor's tax and National Insurance, not an extra tax. If you are registered you are normally paid under deduction at 20%; if you are not registered, contractors must deduct 30%. Materials and VAT are not in the deduction.

Zoho Invoice does have CIS. The live UK help article, Construction Industry Scheme, sits under Settings > CIS. You pick a role, enter your UTR and National Insurance number, set a deduction rate, and tick "Covered by CIS?" against the services that fall under the scheme. Zoho calculates the deduction and offers a CIS Suffered report. Two limits from that same page still hold today: CIS is not supported on expenses or recurring expenses, and once you have created a CIS transaction you cannot switch CIS off unless you delete those transactions.

InvoiceAdept puts CIS on Pro+ at £12.99. It is not on Free and not on Pro. If CIS is the only reason you are shopping, Zoho's £0 CIS inside the 500-invoice year is the cheaper way to get a deduction on the PDF. InvoiceAdept is worth it only if you also want WhatsApp send, Stripe without a platform fee and a trades-shaped invoice, or you already live in InvoiceAdept and need CIS on the same login. See CIS invoices and the trade directory.

Can I send Zoho invoices on WhatsApp?

Zoho's UK homepage says you can invoice "via email or as a PDF on WhatsApp or iMessage". The live FAQ is more precise. You open the invoice, choose WhatsApp Message from the Send menu, review the text, click Share, and WhatsApp opens in a new browser tab. If you are not logged into WhatsApp in that browser, you log in, then you hit send yourself. The invoice has to be sent, or marked sent, first, and the customer's number needs a country code.

That is WhatsApp Web share. It is useful. It is not a WhatsApp Business API, and it is not InvoiceAdept sending the message from the app with the payment link attached. InvoiceAdept Pro and Pro+ send the invoice through WhatsApp from the app with the Stripe link on it. Free users can still raise a PDF and paste it into the chat by hand. For contractor accounts teams, email still wins: a limited company on 30-day terms wants INV-0142 in the inbox, not a bubble on a site manager's personal phone.

Which is cheaper if I take card payments?

Zoho Invoice accepts online payments. The UK Stripe help page is explicit: transaction charges apply as per Stripe's pricing policy and Zoho does not charge any additional fees. You connect Stripe under Settings > Online Payments, and customers pay from the email, the shared link or the portal. Zoho does not publish a second platform percentage on top of Stripe on that page, so this article does not invent one.

InvoiceAdept Pro puts a Stripe payment link on the invoice and does not add an InvoiceAdept platform fee on top of Stripe. Bank transfer is still the default for anyone who will open a banking app; card, Apple Pay and Google Pay exist because some customers will not.

Stripe's own UK card rate is on stripe.com/gb/pricing the day you connect it. The comparison that matters is simpler: both products can pass Stripe through without an extra app-level cut. The 1% platform fee lives on InvoiceFree's Stripe links, not on Zoho Invoice and not on InvoiceAdept. If you are choosing on card cost alone, the monthly subscription is the difference, not a hidden take-rate.

Does either product actually do Making Tax Digital?

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is the phrase both marketing teams lean on. HMRC's guidance says you need it if you are a sole trader or landlord on Self Assessment with self-employment or property income over the threshold for the relevant year. From 6 April 2026 that means qualifying income over £50,000 for the 2024 to 2025 tax year. Later years use £30,000 (from 6 April 2027) and £20,000 (from 6 April 2028). Check gov.uk MTD guidance rather than a blog sitting on last year's figure.

HMRC is also clear about what compatible software must do: create digital records, send quarterly updates and submit your tax return. InvoiceAdept does the records; it does not send the quarterly updates or the return. Zoho Invoice is invoicing. The UK homepage and pricing page both say "Grow from invoicing to MTD-ready accounting" and send you to Zoho Books for VAT and MTD ITSA filing. If you need filing inside the Zoho family, you are leaving Invoice. Do not buy either because a roundup said the invoicing app "does MTD"; records are necessary, filing is a different product.

Neither product is your monthly CIS return either. Contractors must file a monthly return with HMRC by the 19th of the following tax month, or ask for inactivity. That is the CIS300 process, and neither Zoho Invoice nor InvoiceAdept e-files it. If you are the contractor paying other trades, you still need HMRC's CIS online service or recognised CIS software.

Who should pick which?

Choose Zoho Invoice if you want a finished, forever-free invoicing suite and you will stay under 500 invoices a year, two users and three projects. Quotes, expenses, reminders, a customer portal and time tracking all sit on the free product. It suits a freelancer, consultant or small agency first and a tradesperson second, and it is the rational choice if you already live in Zoho CRM or expect to move to Zoho Books for MTD filing.

Choose InvoiceAdept if you want a UK trade invoice sent the way the job was sold, with WhatsApp delivery from the app and the pay link attached, and you will pay for Pro when five invoices a month runs out. Pro is £7.99 a month excluding VAT for unlimited invoices, Stripe links, quotes, reminders and branding. Pro+ at £12.99 adds CIS invoices, bank reconciliation, cashflow, reports, an audit log and extra users.

Skip both for invoicing if you already run FreeAgent, QuickBooks or Xero through a business or accountant. Those tools file. Adding a second invoicing app is how VAT gets declared twice and CIS gets declared never. Skip both for job management if you need a scheduler, certificates and a crew; that is Tradify's category, at a different price.

We are not "the app thousands of trades already switched to". We are a UK company that invoices trades, with an ICO number you can check. Start free in 30 seconds and send five invoices this month.

FAQs

Is Zoho Invoice really free in the UK?

Yes, as a subscription. The UK pricing page is £0, with no paid Invoice plan listed on 29 August 2026. The same FAQ still caps you at two users, three projects and 500 invoices a year, and puts "Powered by Zoho Invoice" on the documents. Card payments use Stripe or another gateway, and Zoho's Stripe help says Zoho does not add its own fee on top of Stripe's.

Why does InvoiceAdept only allow five free invoices a month?

Because Free is a trial of the product, not the whole product given away. Pro is £7.99 a month excluding VAT for unlimited invoices, WhatsApp send, Stripe links, quotes and reminders. If you need a large free allowance, Zoho's 500-a-year cap is the closer match. If you need unlimited free invoices plus CIS at £0, that is InvoiceFree's offer.

Does Zoho Invoice support CIS?

Yes. Zoho's UK CIS help covers enabling CIS, setting a deduction rate, marking invoice lines as covered, and a CIS Suffered report. It is not supported on expenses or recurring expenses, and it does not file the contractor's monthly return. InvoiceAdept's CIS is on Pro+ only. See CIS invoices and the trade directory.

Can I send a Zoho invoice on WhatsApp?

You can share it. Zoho's FAQ opens WhatsApp in a new browser tab after you click Share, and you send it from the WhatsApp account you are logged into. That is WhatsApp Web, not a Business API. InvoiceAdept Pro sends from the app with the payment link attached.

Does either app file my tax return or CIS300?

InvoiceAdept does not. Zoho Invoice does not. Contractors file CIS monthly returns with HMRC by the 19th. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax needs software that can also send quarterly updates and the return, so start at HMRC's software finder. Zoho's path for that is Books. InvoiceAdept's path is export plus accountant.

I already use Zoho CRM. Should I stay in the family?

If the rest of your admin is already Zoho, Invoice is the invoicing module that talks to it. Switching to InvoiceAdept for a nicer WhatsApp send means a second system. Only do that if the send channel and the CIS invoice shape are worth the split. Most people who are deep in Zoho should look at Books before they look at us.

Can I switch later?

Yes. Export PDFs as you go, switch at a month-end rather than halfway through a CIS period, and tell your accountant which system is now the source of truth. Zoho's pricing FAQ also warns that inactive Invoice accounts can lose data after a long idle period, so read their current wording before you walk away from a login.

The bottom line

Zoho Invoice is free-with-caps and the broader suite. InvoiceAdept is free-as-a-trial and the narrower, trades-first tool. If you fit 500 invoices a year and want the most software at £0, pick Zoho. If you want a short path from job done to paid, with WhatsApp send and CIS on the same login, start InvoiceAdept free in 30 seconds.