You signed up for Indy because it promised to hold your whole freelance business in one place: contracts, proposals, time tracking, invoices, a client portal. Six months later you notice something. You live inside two of those tools. The rest sit unused. And the invoice you sent three weeks ago is still unpaid, because the software told you it was overdue and then did nothing else about it.
That is the honest reason most freelancers start searching for Indy alternatives. Not because Indy is bad software. Because paying for nine features to use two of them stops making sense, and because none of the nine features actually collect the money.
Here is how to pick what to move to.
First, name what you actually use
Before you open a single pricing page, open your Indy account and look at the last 60 days. Write down every feature you genuinely touched. Most freelancers end up with a list that looks like this:
- Sent proposals or contracts
- Sent invoices
- Chased at least one late payment by hand
That is it. Time tracking gets abandoned within a month for most project-rate freelancers. The client portal gets used when a client bothers to log in, which is rarely. If your list is short, you do not need a replacement all-in-one. You need a tool that does the short list properly.
If your list is genuinely long, and you are running multi-person projects with dependencies and a real CRM pipeline, then you want a project management tool, not an invoicing tool. Those are different products and the distinction matters more than the price.
Where Indy stops
Indy's contract and proposal templates are solid. The legal scaffolding is better than what most freelancers would write alone. The problem is what happens after you press send.
Indy will mark an invoice overdue. It will not write the follow-up. It will not send the follow-up. It will not send the second one when the first gets ignored. That work stays on your plate, and it is the single most draining part of freelancing: writing a polite note to an adult who owes you money, then writing it again.
Most of the tools people compare Indy against have the exact same gap. They are document generators with a payment button attached. The chasing is still manual.
The alternatives, grouped by what you need
If you need real project management
Plutio and Agiled are the closest like for like swaps with more depth. Plutio is listed at around $19 per month at the time of writing, with Kanban boards, task dependencies and a branded client portal. Agiled leans into CRM, team seats and HR features. Both are heavier than Indy, not lighter. Choose one only if the project management is the reason you are switching.
If you need accounting and tax filing
If your real problem is bookkeeping, categorising expenses and preparing for tax season, an invoicing tool is the wrong shape of answer. Look at dedicated accounting software, or pay an accountant. The IRS Self-Employed Individuals Tax Center is a better starting point than any freelance app for understanding what you are actually required to track.
Worth reading first: our breakdown of when you do not need full accounting software.
If you need proposal to payment and nothing else
This is where most freelancers actually land. You want to send a proposal, have the client accept it, have an invoice appear, and have the money arrive without you writing another email about it.
That is what Nvoyce is built for. You describe the work in plain language, AI drafts the proposal or invoice, and a Stripe payment link is attached automatically. When a client accepts a proposal, the invoice generates itself. When an invoice goes unpaid, the follow-ups send on their own until the money lands.
The difference is not the invoice. Every tool on this page makes a clean invoice. The difference is that the chasing stops being your job.
Nvoyce is $19.99 per month on Solo, with unlimited invoices and proposals and every feature included. Team is $39.99 per month. There is a 7 day free trial and no credit card required to start.
Before you migrate, do these four things
- Export your client list. Names, emails, billing addresses. Every tool lets you export contacts as CSV. Do this before you cancel anything.
- Download every paid invoice as PDF. You need these for tax records, and access usually dies with your subscription. Check your retention requirements against IRS recordkeeping guidance.
- Note your last invoice number. Continuing the sequence in your new tool keeps your records clean and your accountant calm.
- Finish or reissue open invoices. Do not leave live payment links pointing at an account you are about to close.
We wrote a fuller version of this process in how to export your data and switch without losing anything.
The pricing question, answered honestly
Most freelance tools cluster between $10 and $40 per month. At that spread, price is not the deciding factor. Ten dollars a month is one unpaid invoice reminder away from irrelevant.
The question worth asking is different: how many hours a month do you spend on billing admin, and how many invoices slip past due because you forgot to follow up? If the answer is more than a couple of hours and more than one invoice, the tool that automates chasing pays for itself regardless of its sticker price.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Indy shutting down?
There is no announced shutdown. Freelancers switching from Indy are generally doing so because the feature set is broader than what they use, or because payment chasing remains manual, not because the product is going away.
Can I keep my invoice numbering when I switch tools?
Yes, in most tools. Note your last issued number before you leave and set your new tool to continue from there. Nvoyce assigns numbers at send time in the format INV-YYYY-NNN, so drafts stay unnumbered until they are real.
Do I need time tracking if I bill per project?
Probably not for billing. It can still be useful for working out whether your project rate is accurate, but you do not need it inside your invoicing tool. See day rate vs project rate for how to decide which you should be charging.
What happens to my existing payment links when I cancel?
They usually stop working. Settle or reissue any open invoices before your subscription lapses, and confirm with your payment processor. Stripe's payment links documentation explains how link lifecycle works if you are handling this yourself.
Is an all-in-one tool always worse than a focused one?
No. If you genuinely use the whole suite, an all-in-one is cheaper and simpler than stitching five tools together. The problem is only when you pay for a suite and use a corner of it.
Will switching tools confuse my clients?
Not if your branding is consistent. Clients see an invoice with your logo and a payment link. Most never notice which software produced it.
Related Reading
- Bonsai Alternatives in 2026: What Freelancers Are Actually Switching To
- From Proposal to Paid: The Best Freelance Software That Handles the Whole Flow in 2026
- The Best AI Invoice Generator for Freelancers in 2026
Stop chasing payments
If the thing you want from your next tool is simply to stop writing follow-up emails, that is the one job Nvoyce does. Proposal, invoice, payment link, automatic reminders until the money lands.
Start your 7 day free trial at nvoyce.ai. No credit card required.