Invora — Invoicing & Billing System (PHP + MySQL, Self-Hosted) vs. renting SaaS
Self-hosted invoicing you own — no monthly fee, no per-invoice cut.
The subscription math
Invora — Invoicing & Billing System (PHP + MySQL, Self-Hosted) — yours
$39.00
one-time · self-hosted · your data, your server
Available soon — get notified
FreshBooks — rented
Lite $23.00/mo (monthly billing)
[1]
Break-even:
2 months
of FreshBooks equals the one-time price.
Assumption: Calculator uses the regular Lite price $23.00/mo - the '90% Off for 6 Months' promo shown on the page is temporary.
Invoice Ninja (hosted) — rented
Ninja Pro $14/mo, billed monthly
[2]
Break-even:
3 months
of Invoice Ninja (hosted) equals the one-time price.
Assumption: Hosted Ninja Pro; an open-source self-host option also exists free. Enterprise from $18/mo (1-2 users).
Savings calculator
SaaS figures use the cited plan price above (see the sources below);
per-seat plans scale by the seat count from the same cited price. This is arithmetic, not a quote.
Also in this category
Zoho Invoice [3]
Free - $0 (single plan, no paid tiers)
Genuinely free SaaS comp - compare on ownership/self-hosting, not price.
Why owning beats renting here
- One payment. No per-month, per-seat, or per-location fees — the license is perpetual.
- Your data stays on your server. Customer records never live in someone else's cloud.
- No plan ceilings. Records, users, and usage are limited by your hosting, not a pricing tier.
- It keeps working if the vendor doesn't. Self-hosted software can't be sunset out from under you.
Fair trade-offs: you host it, you back it up, and updates are yours to apply — see the
product page for honest limitations.
Sources
-
FreshBooks — price checked 2026-07-05 —
source
“Lite $2.30USD/mo”
-
Invoice Ninja (hosted) — price checked 2026-07-05 —
source
“$14 per month, billed monthly”
-
Zoho Invoice — price checked 2026-07-05 —
source
“$0 for Seamless & Dependable Invoicing”
Competitor prices change — always confirm on the linked page. We only
print figures we could verify on the date shown.