Waitlist open for Hermit: the most-wanted dupes get built firstFreshBooks alternative Hermit, quotes, jobs and invoices for one-person trades for $99 once
Quotes, a job schedule and invoices for a one-person trade business. Runs in your browser, works offline, $99 once instead of every month.
Pay once
$99 once (planned), against $828 for three years of FreshBooks Lite.
Works offline
Clients, quotes and invoices live on your device, with one-click backup and a CSV for your accountant.
Build it free
Paste our starter prompt into Claude Code and build the core of Hermit yourself, step by step.
| Feature | FreshBooksLite · $23/mo | Hermit$99 once · planned |
|---|---|---|
| Invoices and estimates | Yes | Yes |
| Unlimited clientsFreshBooks: Premium only | No | Yes |
| Jobs and a schedule | No | Yes |
| Your data on your device, works offline | No | Yes |
| One payment, no subscription | No | Yes |
| Recurring invoices | Yes | Planned |
| Expense tracking and bank import | Yes | No |
| Accounting reports and reconciliationFreshBooks: Plus and up | Yes | No |
| Card payments built inHermit: your own payment link | Yes | No |
| Three years, one person | $99 |
FreshBooks prices from its pricing page, per person. All FreshBooks plans.
What's the best FreshBooks alternative?
It depends what you want from it. The short answer, by need:
- No subscription
- Hermit: $99 once (planned; waitlist open), against $828 for three years of FreshBooks Lite. Web app · phone and computer.
- Free
- Zoho Invoice: 500 invoices a year, 2 users.
More options and their catches in Other FreshBooks alternatives.
Why people switch
Why people look for a FreshBooks alternative
What FreshBooks users raise in reviews and forums, and what its own pages say. In our words, with the source; checked Oct 12, 2026.
FreshBooks raised its US prices from March 2026: Lite $23, Plus $43 and Premium $70 a month.
Source: freshbooks.comLite allows only 5 billable clients and Plus 50. Each extra team member costs $11 a month.
Source: freshbooks.comThe original
What FreshBooks does
- Cloud accounting and invoicing for freelancers and small service businesses.
- Lite bills up to 5 clients, Plus up to 50, Premium unlimited.
- Expense tracking, bank import and mileage on every plan; accounting reports and reconciliation from Plus.
- Each team member costs $11 a month.
The dupe
What Hermit does
- Quotes from your own price list, turned into a job when the client says yes.
- A week schedule, with today's jobs, addresses and checklists on your phone.
- Invoices from finished jobs, with your logo, due dates, partial payments and your own payment link.
- Everything on your device, with one-click backup and CSV export for your accountant.
The face of Hermit
Meet Gwenna Prichard
plumber and handywoman in Cardiff
Gwenna has fixed leaking radiators and stubborn pipes around the Cardiff docks for twenty-four years without paying a landlord a penny. She runs her week from a battered phone tucked in her shell, and won't pay a monthly fee to do her own job.
A subscription is just a leak you decided to normalize.
Hermit is named after the hermit crab, which carries its home on its back and never pays rent. Gwenna is a fictional character we made with ppl.studio, not a customer.
Waitlist open · Hermit
Get Hermit first
We build the dupes people sign up for first. Join and you'll get one email, the day Hermit is ready.
$828 FreshBooks Lite, 3 years$99 once
- Just your email: no card, no account
- One email when it ships, nothing else
- Planned price $99, once
Free
Build Hermit yourself
Paste this into Claude Code in an empty folder. It builds the core of Hermit in steps and stops after each one so you can try it.
- Built withWeb app (PWA) · IndexedDB · PDF in the browser
- You needClaude Code
- Not includedThe full spec, polish, updates
Build me a web app called Hermit: quotes, jobs and invoices for a one-person trade business (cleaning, landscaping, plumbing, handyman). It runs in the browser, keeps everything on my device, and works offline. What it does - Clients: name, address, phone, email, notes, and every quote, job and invoice for them on one page. - Quotes: line items from a reusable price list, tax, discount, deposit, notes and photos. Send as a PDF or a link. Mark as accepted, which turns it into a job. - Schedule: a week view of jobs. Drag to reschedule. Open today's jobs on my phone, with the address, a button to open it in Maps, and the job checklist. - Invoices: one click from a finished job. Due dates, partial payments, overdue list, and a payment link field (paste my own Stripe or PayPal link). Download as a PDF that looks professional with my logo. - A simple dashboard: quoted, won, invoiced, paid and overdue this month. - Backup: export and import everything as one JSON file, plus CSV export for my accountant. Tech - Vite, TypeScript and plain CSS, no framework. Data in IndexedDB. PDFs generated in the browser. - Installable as a PWA, works offline. No server and no account. How to work Build it in steps and stop after each so I can try it: 1) clients and price list, 2) quotes and PDF, 3) jobs and schedule, 4) invoices and payments, 5) dashboard and backup. After each step tell me exactly how to run and test it. Brand - The app's mascot is Gwenna Prichard, a hermit crab in a navy boiler suit and a leather tool belt, carrying her shell. Use her portrait (https://dupe.software/characters/hermit-icon.jpg) as the app icon, and her full-length picture (https://dupe.software/characters/hermit.jpg) on the first-run and empty screens. - Write every label and message in her voice: gravelly, deadpan and bluntly sincere, with a Welsh cadence. Gwenna would say: "A subscription is just a leak you decided to normalize."
All of their plans
What FreshBooks costs
From FreshBooks's pricing page, per person, checked 2026-10-12.
| Plan | Billing | Per month | 3 years | Catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FreshBooks Lite | monthly | $23 | $828 | 5 billable clients |
| FreshBooks Plus | monthly | $43 | $1,548 | 50 billable clients |
| FreshBooks Premium | monthly | $70 | $2,520 | unlimited clients |
| Hermit | once | — | $99 | planned price |
Not sold on a dupe?
Other FreshBooks alternatives
Hermit isn't for everyone. These do the same job in other ways: free plans, open source, teams, other platforms. Prices from their own pricing pages, checked Oct 12, 2026.
Jobber
Field-service software for home-service businesses: quotes, scheduling, invoices and payments.
Jobber alternativeInvoice2go
A mobile-first invoicing app for freelancers and small contractors, now part of Bill.com.
Invoice2go alternativeHousecall Pro
Home service pros who want online booking, dispatch and payments in one app
The catch: Expensive for a one-person shop: $79 a month and no free plan. Runs on Web, iPhone, Android.
ServiceM8
Solo trades who want jobs, quotes, scheduling and invoices in one app
Free plan: 1 user, 30 jobs a month. The catch: Plans cap jobs per month: Free stops at 30, Starter at 50. Runs on Web, iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Windows.
Joist
Contractors who mainly need fast estimates and invoices from their phone
The catch: Free plan is gone. Job scheduling needs the top Run plan. Runs on Web, iPhone, Android.
Invoice Ninja
Freelancers who want quotes, recurring invoices and time tracking, or to self-host
Free plan: 5 clients on hosted plan; self-hosting free. The catch: Free cloud plan stops at 5 clients. License is source-available, not open source. Runs on Web, iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux.
Zoho Invoice
Anyone who wants quotes and invoices free for good, with nothing to upgrade
500 invoices a year, 2 users. The catch: Invoices show Zoho branding, capped at 500 a year. No job scheduling. Runs on Web, iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows.
Wave
Freelancers who want free invoicing and simple bookkeeping in one place
Free plan: unlimited invoices; recurring invoices need Pro. The catch: Free plan card fee is 2.9% + $0.60. No job scheduling. Runs on Web, iPhone, Android.
We don't earn anything from these links, and none of these companies is affiliated with dupe.software. Seen a price change? Tell us. How we research these pages.
Leaving FreshBooks?
Take your FreshBooks data with you
Whatever you switch to, export first, then cancel. From FreshBooks's own help center, checked Oct 12, 2026.
1 · Export
Export your FreshBooks data
- Clients: go to Clients > More Actions and export to CSV. Active and archived clients are included, split into files of up to 1,000 clients.
- Invoices: go to Invoices > More Actions > Export Invoices, pick a date range, and click Download CSV. Use Bulk Actions to download invoices as PDFs.
- Payments: go to Reports > Payments Collected > More Actions > Export for Excel (a CSV). Expenses and receipt images each have their own export.
- Estimates and proposals: download PDFs from Estimates. For a CSV, ask Support with a date range and they email it to you.
- FormatsCSV for clients, invoices, expenses, items, services, vendors, chart of accounts and reports; PDF for invoices, estimates and reports; receipt image downloads
- Watch outThere's no self-serve CSV export for estimates and proposals; you have to request it from Support. Only Admin and Manager roles can export clients.
2 · Cancel
Cancel FreshBooks
- Save your data and disconnect any bank connections (Plaid or Yodlee) first.
- As the business owner, in a web browser: click your profile icon, then Billing and Upgrade, then the 'cancel your account' link at the bottom, and confirm.
- If you pay through Apple or Google Play, cancel through that store. Select plan customers have to contact Support.
Afterwards: Access continues until the end of the billing cycle. FreshBooks says your data is kept and you can reactivate later, but also that accounts inactive for 30 days or more may be deactivated and deleted after an email warning, so export first. Clients can no longer pay invoices, team members can't log in, and recurring invoices, expenses and retainers stop.
Source: support.freshbooks.comQuestions
FreshBooks alternative FAQ
Is Hermit a FreshBooks clone?
No. FreshBooks is accounting software. Hermit does the quoting, scheduling and invoicing part for one-person trades, and hands your accountant a CSV. We aren't affiliated with FreshBooks.
Is there a free FreshBooks alternative?
For invoicing, build Hermit yourself from the starter prompt on this page. For full accounting you'll still want accounting software.
When can I get Hermit?
Hermit is on the waitlist: we build the dupes people sign up for first. Join and you'll hear the day it's ready.
More dupes
Hermit also replaces
Hermit
Quotes, a job schedule and invoices for a one-person trade business. Runs in your browser, works offline, $99 once instead of every month.
Invoice2go alternativeHermit
Quotes, a job schedule and invoices for a one-person trade business. Runs in your browser, works offline, $99 once instead of every month.
Hermit is an independent app, not affiliated with or endorsed by FreshBooks. FreshBooks is a trademark of its owner, named here only to describe what Hermit is an alternative to. All dupes.