While you won't find a bunch of advanced features or customization options with PayPal invoicing, it could still be an easy and effective option for some small businesses.
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Editor & Senior Staff Writer
Last updated onUpdated
REVIEWED BY
Expert Contributor
| Total Rating |
4.0 |
|---|---|
| Pricing4.8 | |
| Ease Of Use4.1 | |
| Features2.6 | |
| Customer Service4.7 | |
| User Reviews4.3 | |
Invoice Limit
UnlimitedPricing
$0/monthBusiness Size
Freelancers & small businessesTable of Contents
If you’ve made a purchase online or from a friend or family member, you’ve probably used PayPal. As a small business owner, you may even accept PayPal payments for goods or services. PayPal is a secure, easy way to make online payments and boasts a number of great features for businesses, including a business debit card, buy now pay later financing, and — the focus of this review — invoicing.
If you need an easy and affordable way to invoice customers, PayPal Invoicing may be right for you. While PayPal does cover the basics, you won’t find advanced invoicing automations and customizations here. And while there are great payment features, you also won’t find some of the other strong features you’d find with traditional invoicing software, such as time tracking or project management.
However, if you already use PayPal (or don’t mind spending a few minutes getting signed up) and you want an efficient way to send basic invoices, PayPal Invoicing is a solid choice.
| Pricing4.8 |
|---|
| Software Plans 5.0 |
| Pricing Transparency 5.0 |
| Pricing Customization 4.0 |
One of the best things about using PayPal for Small Business for invoicing is that there are no monthly fees and no setup fees.
| PayPal Invoicing Plans | Price | When To Use |
|---|---|---|
| PayPal for Small Business | $0/month | If you want to easily create and send invoices and get paid online |
There are, however, fees that apply when an invoice is paid. While these fees aren’t the lowest in the industry, you won’t have to pay a monthly subscription fee like you would with other invoicing software, potentially helping you save money. You can’t beat free software, which is why we’ve given PayPal a 4.8/5 rating for pricing.
Your free PayPal for Small Business account includes:
There are no fees to use PayPal for sending invoices. However, you will have to pay processing fees when you get paid. These fees are as follows:
Besides invoicing, PayPal also offers a variety of other business services, including:
Costs and fees for these services vary.
| Ease Of Use4.1 |
|---|
| Initial Setup 3.0 |
| Software Reliability 4.0 |
| Everyday Use 5.0 |
| Integrations 5.0 |
PayPal makes it extremely easy to invoice customers. You can sign up for an account, design your invoices, and send your first invoice in just minutes.
While PayPal Invoicing lacks many customizations compared to other invoicing software, this is a benefit for businesses that want simple, easy-to-use software.
One of the best things about PayPal is that it integrates with tons of apps and software. It integrates with eCommerce stores like Shopify and Squarespace, accounting software like Xero and QuickBooks, bill payment software, recurring payment options, marketplaces, and more.
One area where PayPal could improve is importing customers and items—currently, these have to be added manually. There are also a handful of complaints about mobile apps freezing and other glitches.
Due to its impressive number of integrations and quick setup, PayPal is rated 4.1/5 for ease of use.
| Features2.6 |
|---|
| Invoicing Basics 3.0 |
| Invoice Automations 4.0 |
| Inventory 2.0 |
| Currency & Languages 2.5 |
| Time Tracking 0.0 |
| Reporting 3.0 |
| Accounting & Bookkeeping 1.0 |
PayPal isn’t going to have many of the features you’d find with other invoicing software because it isn’t true invoicing software. Instead, it is an online payment platform that also offers invoicing.
| PayPal Invoicing Features | Availability |
|---|---|
| Customizable Invoices | |
| Estimates | |
| Client Portal | |
| Contact Management | |
| Expense Tracking | |
| Multilingual Invoicing | |
| Invoice Scheduling | |
| Automatic Invoice Reminders | |
| Inventory | |
| Time Tracking | |
| Project Management | |
| Sales Tax Support | |
| Payment Gateway Integrations | |
| Number Of Reports | 15+ |
As such, you won’t find many of the bells and whistles of traditional invoicing software. There’s no time tracking, project management, or inventory management. Automations are also very basic, as are customizations and invoice templates.
Businesses that want to create fully customized invoices, have projects to track, or want to keep up with inventory will want to either choose another invoicing solution or integrate PayPal with other software and apps. Businesses that want fast and easy invoicing and already use PayPal may find that PayPal’s invoicing feature is sufficient.
While PayPal covers the invoicing basics, it falls short in some areas, earning a score of 2.6/5.
PayPal’s invoicing feature isn’t the most advanced but does offer:
Estimates are just as easy to create as invoices. Here are the highlights of creating estimates with PayPal:
While it doesn’t have a true inventory feature, PayPal does have an items list you can use to add your products and services without having to manually enter them for every invoice.
The highlights of this feature include:
PayPal has a basic customer management feature. This feature allows you to add and save:
| Customer Service4.7 |
|---|
| Personal Support 4.4 |
| Self-Service 5.0 |
PayPal offers several ways to get in touch, as well as numerous self-help resources.
| PayPal Invoicing Customer Service | Availability |
|---|---|
| Phone Support | |
| Email Support | |
| Support Tickets | |
| Live Chat | |
| Dedicated Support Representative | |
| Knowledge Base or Help Center | |
| Videos & Tutorials | |
| Company Blog | |
| Social Media |
A chatbot is available to help guide you to various resources, or you can chat with a representative. You can also contact PayPal by phone.
There is a great help center that allows you to easily search for answers to questions surrounding invoicing, getting paid, reporting fraud, and other topics. A community forum is also available. PayPal also has active profiles on Facebook, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. PayPal also has a YouTube channel with lots of videos.
As far as the quality of customer support, reviews are positive for the most part, although there are a handful of complaints. Some people note that reaching a live rep can take some time, and not all users are pleased with the service they receive. Overall, though, customer service is good, and there are lots of resources and ways to get in touch. We give PayPal a rating of 4.7/5 for its customer service.
| User Reviews4.3 |
|---|
| User Feedback 4.0 |
| Review Site Aggregate 4.5 |
PayPal Invoicing receives mostly positive reviews, with a few complaints mixed in. It has earned ratings of 4.7/5 (based on 570+ reviews) on GetApp and 4.4/5 (based on 79+ reviews) on G2. Many other reviews also exist online, but these aren’t exclusive to PayPal Invoicing and are based on PayPal’s other services.
We did a deep dive into PayPal’s user reviews to calculate our own score of 4.3/5.
While the positives outweigh the negatives, there are several complaints worth noting. Specifically, it’s important to note that PayPal is a payment aggregator and isn’t a true merchant account. This allows you to sign up quickly and easily to accept payments, but it also means that you may face account freezes, payment holds, or even account cancelation.
While fraudulent activity can trigger one of these actions, some users complain that their funds were held or accounts were frozen seemingly for no reason. In addition to these issues, users also complained about:
While PayPal Invoicing has its drawbacks, many users enjoy using the software. Here’s what users like the most:
PayPal uses a variety of security measures to protect its users. This includes:
PayPal Invoicing isn’t the fanciest software on the market. Invoices you create through PayPal look professional but are pretty basic, with limited customization options. You won’t find advanced automations or customizations here.
What you will find is a free, easy-to-use option for invoicing clients. PayPal’s primary purpose is to send and receive payments — the ability to send invoices is a nice bonus. Because it isn’t traditional invoicing software, you won’t get advanced inventory, time tracking, or project management. However, you can easily set up an account in just minutes (even quicker if you’re already a PayPal user). Sending an invoice is just as quick and easy.
PayPal Invoicing supports multiple currencies and is a great option for international invoicing. There are no monthly subscription fees (although you will pay fees when you are paid), and you can access other PayPal services for your business, including the PayPal Business Debit Card and business funding.
PayPal Invoicing is a solid choice if you want no-frills invoicing for your business. There are plenty of support options to help you along the way, although the software is very straightforward. This option is great for freelancers and smaller businesses. Overall, we give PayPal Invoicing a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.
We encourage you to sign up for a free PayPal account and give these feature a try for yourself to determine if it’s a good fit for your business.
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The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
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