Free or paid e-invoicing software in France: what you lose with free

Free e-invoicing software is enough to issue an invoice that complies with the French reform: Indy, Tiime and Abby all offer a 0 € plan that produces invoices in the electronic format through a Plateforme Agréée (PA, the accredited platform required by the French tax administration). What free software does not do is set your VAT aside at every payment received, connect your invoices to your bank, and tell you what you can actually spend. If all you need is to issue invoices, take the free plan. If you want to steer your cash and your VAT, a paid tool from 9 € excluding VAT per month does a different job.

Public prices checked on 4 November 2026

Every figure below was read on each vendor's pricing page on 4 November 2026, then checked again on 10 November 2026, the day of publication. Prices exclude VAT and may change: check the page cited before you sign up.

First reading: the entry-level paid price is almost identical everywhere, around 9 € per month. So the difference is not between 0 € and 9 €. It lies in what you get above the invoice itself.

What free plans do well, and it should be said

The three free plans are not crippled versions designed to force your hand. On the pages consulted:

• Indy Essentiel includes e-invoicing through a Plateforme Agréée, unlimited quotes and invoices, automated bookkeeping and a business account with IBAN and card. Indy is registered as a Plateforme Agréée by the DGFiP.
• Tiime Free includes e-invoicing through the Tiime Plateforme Agréée (registration required), unlimited invoices and quotes, several VAT rates, deposits, credit notes and payment tracking with reminders.
• Abby Basique includes e-invoicing, unlimited quotes and invoices, the income and expense ledger, an estimate of social contributions and alerts on VAT thresholds.

If you are a micro-entrepreneur under the VAT exemption scheme, with a few business customers and no expenses to track, one of these three free tools does the job. We say the same in our comparison CashFacture or Indy: turning down a free plan that meets the need makes no sense.

What you really lose with free

1. Your VAT is not set aside

This is the point that costs the most, and it appears on no pricing grid. When a customer pays 1,200 € including VAT, 200 € belong to the State. Free software issues the invoice, records the payment, and stops there. The 1,200 € land in your account undifferentiated, and the VAT is discovered on the day of the return.

A deliberately fictional example: a plumber collects 8,000 € including VAT per month, all at 20 %. Every month, 1,333 € of collected VAT sit in his current account. After six months, 8,000 € have been mistaken for available money. The free software did nothing wrong: it was not its job. Our article on the 3 accounts method explains how to put that money away at the moment of payment.

2. No link with your bank

On the pages consulted on 4 November 2026, Tiime Free does not include bank synchronisation, Abby Basique does not include connecting an account, and Indy Essentiel limits synchronisation to a single account, the one the tool provides. Without that link, your invoices live on one side and your money on the other. You do not know which invoice has been paid without opening your banking app, and nobody reconciles the two for you.

3. The VAT return still has to be done elsewhere

At Indy, the VAT return appears from the Autonomie plan, between 15 € and 49 € per month depending on your legal form. At Tiime and Abby, the pricing page does not attach it to the free plan. So you issue invoices with VAT, but working out what you owe and filing the form remains your job or your accountant's.

4. The business model behind free

A vendor that gives you invoicing for free earns money another way. Indy provides its own business account from the free plan. Tiime states that its Initial plan at 9.99 € requires the Tiime business account. This is neither hidden nor blameworthy, but it means the real price of free is sometimes a change of bank, or a move to the next tier as soon as you need one more feature. Before choosing, ask yourself what you will do the day you need bank reconciliation or the VAT return.

The Qonto case: a bank that invoices

Qonto has no free plan. It is first a business account, at 9 € per month with annual commitment for the Basic plan, and e-invoicing is a tool included in that account, with an Automated Invoicing add-on at 12 € per month. If you want a single app for your account, your card and your invoices, that is a consistent logic. The page consulted does not mention VAT provisioning at payment: the detail is in our comparison CashFacture or Qonto.

What 9 € per month buys you at CashFacture

CashFacture does not sell the invoice: it has become a prerequisite, not a benefit. What you buy from 9 € excluding VAT per month is what comes after it:

• VAT set aside at every payment received, at the actual rate of each line, visible on a dashboard that permanently shows what you owe.
• Reconciliation with your bank, the one you already have: no account to open with us.
• On-site payment by NFC tag or QR code, no terminal to rent, useful on a building site or at the counter.
• An FEC export (the French standard accounting file) for your accountant, with invoices, payments and purchases classified.

The START plan at 9 € covers 50 invoices per month, ESSENTIEL at 29 € covers 500, PRO at 59 € is unlimited. The trial lasts 7 days, a card is requested, nothing is charged before the end of the trial, and cancellation takes one click. For a building tradesperson, the page e-invoicing for construction covers the reverse-charge mechanism and reduced rates; for a freelancer, the page for liberal professions covers fees and the VAT exemption scheme.

Free or paid: the decision rule

Take the free plan if you tick these three boxes: you are under the VAT exemption scheme or your receipts are regular and small, you do not need to know every evening how much you can spend, and your accountant files the VAT return on their side.

Move to paid if a single one of these situations sounds familiar: you have already been caught out by a VAT bill, you collect amounts that vary from month to month, you have several VAT rates on the same invoice, or you want your accountant to receive a clean file without re-keying.

In both cases, first choose a tool that issues Factur-X and transmits through a Plateforme Agréée, and only then compare prices. Our guide invoicing software under 10 € per month reviews the entry-level offers with that filter.