The FreshBooks Alternative for Startup Teams
Klerky is a lightweight alternative to FreshBooks for startup teams that need more than freelancer invoicing — a shared ops workspace with runway, AI receipts, unlimited clients, and a people directory in one place. FreshBooks is excellent at time tracking and project-based billing; Klerky doesn't do those, so if you invoice by the hour, FreshBooks may still be the right tool for that workflow.
Teams usually look for an alternative when they realize FreshBooks was built for a solo consultant, not a growing team — the client caps, the per-user upgrades, and the missing ops view start to bite. If that's you, here's an honest read on switching.
Who should switch — and who shouldn't
Switch to Klerky if you're a 2–10 person startup — product, SaaS, or services — that runs on recurring clients rather than billable hours, and you're tired of watching a client cap or paying per user just to add a teammate. You want expenses, a people directory, and a live runway figure in the same place as your invoicing.
Stay on FreshBooks if time tracking and project-based billing are the core of how you work. If you record hours against a client project and invoice from those hours, FreshBooks is well-designed for that, its mobile apps are solid, and recurring invoices and retainers work well. Klerky doesn't include time tracking, so switching would cost you that workflow.
| For a small team | FreshBooks | Klerky |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Freelancers and service businesses billing by time or project | Startup teams of 2–10 running the whole business |
| Time tracking | Core feature — track hours, bill to clients | Not included (not what startups need day to day) |
| Team model | Per-user pricing; team features on higher tiers | One flat workspace fee, whole team included |
| Client limit | Capped by plan (5 on Lite, 50 on Plus, 500 on Premium) | Unlimited clients on all plans |
| Runway tracking | Not included | Live from your real expenses, invoices, and salaries |
| Expense receipts | Upload receipts manually | Upload a receipt; AI fills in vendor, amount, and date |
| Team directory | Not included | People directory with salary and monthly payment tracking |
| Invoices | Yes — strong invoicing, recurring invoices, retainers | Yes — issue, send PDF, track payment in one place |
| Financial snapshot | Reports available but not a live ops view | Income, spend, profit, and runway — always current |
| Price | From $19/mo (5 clients) + per-user fees on Plus and up | Free to start; $69/mo flat for the whole team on Pro |
How to move from FreshBooks to Klerky
There's no one-click importer — but with unlimited clients and no cap to plan around, the move is quick:
- Export your data from FreshBooks (clients, outstanding invoices, recent expenses) for a clean starting record.
- Add your clients in Klerky — there's no limit, so you're not watching a cap as you go.
- Start issuing invoices and logging expenses in Klerky; upload a receipt and the AI fills in the vendor, amount, and date.
- Add your teammates to the people directory and set your cash on hand so the runway figure starts tracking.
- Keep FreshBooks for anything it's uniquely good at — time tracking and project-based, bill-by-the-hour invoicing.
What Klerky does differently
Klerky is an ops workspace for the whole team — not just the billing part of the business. Expenses and receipts, a people directory, a live runway figure, and a shared client list all live in one place. The runway figure updates automatically as invoices come in and expenses go out, so everyone on the team always sees the same number.
Pricing is flat — one workspace fee for the entire team, so adding a fifth or sixth person doesn't change the bill. For a fuller side-by-side, see the full Klerky vs FreshBooks comparison.
Frequently asked questions
Is Klerky a good FreshBooks alternative?
For a startup team, yes — they're built for different customers. FreshBooks was designed for solo consultants and freelancers who bill clients by the hour and track time across projects. A startup team typically doesn't bill by the hour; it runs a product or service with recurring clients, tracks expenses and team costs, and needs to know how long the cash lasts. FreshBooks covers part of that (invoicing is strong), but runway, a team directory, and an ops-first view aren't what it was built for — which is exactly where Klerky fits.
What if I track time as part of my startup's work?
If time tracking is central to how you bill — you're an agency or a consulting-oriented team that invoices by the hour — FreshBooks may still be the better fit for that specific workflow, and switching away would cost you it. Klerky doesn't include time tracking. What Klerky adds is the rest of the back office: a shared team workspace, runway, expense AI, and a people directory — things FreshBooks was never designed to handle.
FreshBooks has a Lite plan at $19/mo — is switching to Klerky more expensive?
FreshBooks Lite limits you to 5 active clients and doesn't include team members. Adding teammates means upgrading to Plus ($33/mo) or Premium ($60/mo), and those tiers still charge per user for team access. Klerky's Pro plan is a flat $69/mo for the entire workspace regardless of headcount, with unlimited clients — the price doesn't change as the team grows.
Can I keep FreshBooks and use Klerky too?
You could, though for most startup teams the overlap on invoicing would make it redundant. If you have an established FreshBooks workflow your clients are used to, a pragmatic approach is to keep FreshBooks for client invoicing and use Klerky for internal ops — expenses, runway, and the team directory — until a consolidation makes sense.
More alternatives
- QuickBooks alternative — a startup ops workspace vs full accounting
- Expensify alternative — expenses folded into a whole back office
- Wave alternative — a paid team workspace vs free solo accounting