The best free invoicing software in Switzerland in 2026 comes down to four options: Magic Heidi (3 invoices and 3 receipts free, with every feature included, even the AI receipt scanner), CashCtrl (free forever, but built for accounting pros), Banana (free up to 70 entries, desktop only) and AbaNinja (up to 500 free invoices, with a stripped-down feature set). Which one fits you depends less on price and more on how many invoices you send and how much accounting knowledge you bring along.

What if the "free" plan ends up costing you more than a paid one?

Take Sandra, a fictional copywriter from Winterthur who's just gone self-employed. Her first project is done, CHF 1,800, and the client is waiting for the invoice. Software budget: zero. So she googles "free invoicing software Switzerland" and lands in a jungle of free plans, trial versions and asterisk footnotes. Three tools later, she still hasn't sent a single invoice — but she does have two accounts she'll never open again.

Sound familiar? Then you're in the right place. Almost every Swiss freelancer starts with the same question, and the honest answer is: yes, you can invoice for free in Switzerland, but the free options differ massively in what "free" actually means.

In this comparison I'll show you which free invoicing software really works in Switzerland in 2026, where the catches are, and when switching to a paid plan actually pays off. I've tested these tools myself, as a freelancer and as a co-founder of Magic Heidi. I'm putting that perspective on the table upfront — and it's exactly why I stick to verifiable facts instead of marketing fluff.

Key Takeaways

• Completely free and still Swiss-compliant is possible: all four free plans in this comparison create QR-bills that follow the SIX standard.
• The free models differ fundamentally: Magic Heidi limits the number of stored documents (3 invoices, 3 receipts), AbaNinja limits features, Banana limits entries (70), and CashCtrl limits how easy it is to use.
• Word and Excel are no longer a real alternative in 2026: without a QR-bill you wait longer for your money, and manual Swiss VAT (MWST) calculations are error-prone.
• Bexio doesn't offer a permanent free plan, only a 30-day trial. After that, the entry price is CHF 45 per month (CHF 35 on the annual plan), and receipt scanning only comes with the bigger package.
• From about 5 invoices per month, free software costs you more in time than a paid plan costs in money. You'll find the maths further down.

What "free" really means with invoicing software

Before you commit to free Swiss invoicing software, you need to understand one thing: no provider gives away software out of pure kindness. Behind every free plan sits a business model, and that model determines where the limits are. In Switzerland you'll run into three models — you'll find them as an overview further down.

So the real question isn't "What's free?" but "Which limit bothers me the least?". Someone writing 2 invoices a year has different priorities than someone with 15 clients.

A tip from experience: always check whether the free plan asks for a credit card. Legitimate free plans (like Magic Heidi's free plan) work without a credit card and without a time limit. If a provider wants your card details before you've written your first invoice, it's a trial with a built-in subscription trap.

Free invoicing software Switzerland compared: the free plans in 2026

You'll find the full comparison table of the free offers further down. Here we'll look at each tool in more detail, as of July 2026.

Magic Heidi: few invoices, but everything included

Magic Heidi's free plan flips the usual model on its head: instead of taking features away, it only limits the quantity. You can store 3 invoices and 3 receipts, with everything Pro customers get: QR-bills, quotes, the AI receipt scanner, bank import with automatic payment matching and VAT tracking. No credit card, no time limit. And the limit counts stored documents: delete an old invoice or receipt and you free up space for a new one.

The honest downside: 3 stored invoices fill up fast once your business gets going, and you'll want to keep old invoices for your records. The plan is built so you can test whether the workflow suits you on real projects, not so you can invoice for free for years. After that, Pro costs CHF 25 per month on the annual plan (CHF 30 monthly), with unlimited invoices, quotes, expenses and clients.

Who it's for: self-employed people who have little time for bookkeeping and want a tool that works just as well on the phone as on a Mac or Windows PC.

CashCtrl: free forever, but built for pros

CashCtrl offers one of the most generous free plans in Switzerland: permanently free, with no invoice limit. The catch is elsewhere. CashCtrl is a full double-entry accounting system, built for fiduciaries (Treuhänder), accountants and technically minded users. If you've never heard of a chart of accounts or debit/credit, you'll spend your first evenings with manuals instead of invoices. For a detailed look at how the two tools differ, see the Magic Heidi vs. CashCtrl comparison.

Who it's for: self-employed people with accounting knowledge who want maximum control and don't need a mobile app.

Banana: the classic for numbers people

Banana Accounting has been a fixture in Switzerland for decades and is free to use up to 70 entries. After that, the licence costs CHF 89 per year, which is fair. But: Banana is desktop software with spreadsheet logic. There's no receipt scanner, no automatic payment matching, and if you want to invoice from your phone on the go, you're out of luck.

Who it's for: numbers-minded sole proprietorships that deliberately want to keep classic books and work at a desk.

AbaNinja: lots of free invoices, not much around them

AbaNinja (part of Swiss21, backed by Abacus) allows up to 500 invoices on its free plan. That sounds like the best deal, and for pure occasional invoicers it is. The feature set on the free plan is reduced, though: the convenience features that actually save you time day to day (automated receipt capture, advanced reports) are missing or sit inside paid Swiss21 bundles from about CHF 15 per month. You'll find the details in our AbaNinja alternative comparison.

Who it's for: clubs and side hustlers who write lots of simple invoices and can live without automation.

And bexio? No free plan

For completeness: Bexio, the market leader among Swiss SMEs, doesn't offer a permanent free plan. After the 30-day trial, the entry package costs CHF 45 per month (CHF 35 on the annual plan), and receipt scanning isn't included at that level. For that you need the next package up at CHF 52 per month (CHF 42 on the annual plan), and even there you're capped at 50 receipts per month. For companies with employees, that can be worth it. As a solo freelancer, though, you end up paying for features you'll never use. More on that in our comparison of Magic Heidi as a bexio alternative.

Beyond these, there's a growing number of smaller providers with free entry plans, such as ERPLight or Ezyrechnung. They're young and moving fast; before you enter your client data, check above all that QR-bills, Swiss VAT rates and data export work properly.

Want to see the difference for yourself? Create your first Swiss QR-bill for free with Magic Heidi — no credit card, in under a minute.

The reality check: what free invoicing software in Switzerland must handle

Free is no excuse for missing basics. These are the four things every invoicing software for Switzerland has to get right, free or paid:

• QR-bills that follow the SIX standard. Since October 2022, QR-bills have completely replaced the old payment slips. The technical requirements are defined by SIX in the QR-bill specification. Without a compliant QR code, your clients can't pay with a single scan, and you wait longer for your money. Our guide to creating a QR-bill shows how it works in practice.
• Current Swiss VAT rates. 8.1% standard rate, 2.6% reduced rate, 3.8% special rate for accommodation. The details are set by the Federal Tax Administration. This matters once you pass CHF 100,000 in annual revenue — that's when you become liable for VAT.
• Mandatory invoice details. Your name and address, your client's, the date, a description of the service, the amount. Sounds trivial, but generic free tools from abroad love to forget Swiss specifics like the VAT number in the correct format.
• Data export. When you grow and want to switch, your client and invoice data has to come with you. A free plan without an export function is a one-way street.

The hidden costs of free invoicing software

Now for the uncomfortable truth missing from most comparisons: you pay for free software with your time. And as a self-employed person, your time has a concrete hourly rate.

Picture Reto, a fictional electrician from Aargau with an hourly rate of CHF 110. He uses a free tool with no receipt scanner and no bank reconciliation. Every month he types up around 25 receipts by hand (about 2 minutes per receipt) and manually matches incoming payments against his e-banking (another 30 minutes). That's roughly 80 minutes of admin per month that software with an AI receipt scanner and automatic payment matching would take almost entirely off his plate. At CHF 110 per hour, his free tool "costs" him nearly CHF 150 a month — six times the price of a Pro subscription.

This calculation is deliberately simplified, and if you only write 2 invoices a year it will never add up. But it shows the point where "free" tips over: from about 5 invoices and a handful of receipts per month, the time a paid plan saves you is worth more than the subscription fee.

On top of that come softer costs you only feel once it's too late:

• Support. On free plans you're at the very back of the queue — if there's any support at all.
• Error risk. Manually typed VAT amounts are a classic source of mistakes that costs you nerves when it's time to file.
• Duplication. If you keep invoices in one tool and expenses in Excel, you're building your books out of patchwork. It comes back to bite you at year-end at the latest. Integrated accounting software for the self-employed keeps everything in one place.

Can you just use Word, Excel or a template instead?

The completely honest answer: for your very first invoice, yes — after that it gets painful fast.

With a clean invoice template you can create a formally correct Swiss invoice in Word or Excel, including all the mandatory details. It costs nothing, and it's enough if you write a handful of invoices a year and your clients pay by IBAN transfer.

You hit the limits in three places:

1. QR-bill. Word and Excel can't generate a valid Swiss QR code. Your clients have to type in your IBAN by hand, and you look less professional.
2. Overview. Which invoice is paid? Which is overdue? From 10 open items onwards, you lose track in file folders.
3. VAT and year-end. As soon as VAT or your tax return enters the picture, you want clean numbers at the push of a button instead of copy-paste from 30 files.

A modern invoicing tool for Switzerland solves all three, and free invoicing software costs you exactly as much as your Word template: nothing.

How to find the right free tool in 10 minutes

Instead of burning three evenings on tool research, work through the four steps you'll find as a checklist further down: count your invoices, honestly assess your accounting knowledge, test with a real invoice and check the data export. That's how you find the free invoicing software whose limit fits the day-to-day reality of your Swiss business.

To wrap up, back to Sandra, our fictional copywriter from Winterthur: she chose the full-feature route, created her first QR-bill for CHF 1,800 in four minutes and sent it straight from her phone. Her 3 free invoices lasted her the first two months. When the fourth project came in, she knew exactly what she'd be paying CHF 25 a month for, because she'd already tested the complete product with real clients. That's exactly how a free plan should work.

The bottom line: start free, upgrade deliberately

In Switzerland in 2026, free invoicing software is no longer a compromise — as long as you pick the limit model that fits your situation:

• Few invoices, full comfort: Magic Heidi (3 invoices + 3 receipts, all features, 5 platforms)
• Unlimited and free with accounting knowledge: CashCtrl
• Classic desktop accounting: Banana (up to 70 entries)
• Lots of simple invoices without the extras: AbaNinja (up to 500 invoices)
• No free plan: Bexio (30-day trial, then from CHF 35/month on the annual plan, receipt scanning only in the CHF 52 package)

The most important advice from this comparison: don't pick the tool with the biggest free limit, pick the one whose limit costs you the least time. Your working hours are the most expensive currency in this equation.