5 Reasons the Pancake app is the best invoicing software for freelancers

As freelancers, we like to have all our tools in one place, one dashboard. When it comes to invoicing, proposals, project management, time tracking, etc., it’s hard to find all of these features in one place without paying a high price. Fortunately, there’s the Pancake app, the hands-down best all-in-one solution for your freelance business. Here are 5 reasons why you should consider it:

My personal experience

I wrote an article a couple of months ago called “The Best Invoicing and Accounting Software for Freelance Web Designers.” Don’t click on it….the times, they have-a-changed.

In that article, I concluded that Zoho Books was the best app overall. This was largely due to the ability to budget my business bank accounts within the app. However, I later realized this is completely unnecessary to try to budget bank accounts this way, and that it was instead more beneficial (and more efficient) to just keep track of Income and Expenses….i.e. what comes in and what goes out. On top of this I had some irritating technical and customer support issues with Zoho.

So I made the move over to Freshbooks and liked it. But as soon as I had more than 5 clients, I was asked to upgrade to the $25/month plan. Ugh. Was there any other solution that I wouldn’t have to pay a subscription to use….one that offered the same options for less?

And then I came across Pancake, a “funny-named” alternative that not only offered the same for less, but much, much, more than I had expected.

Here are 5 reasons why I now use the Pancake app and why it will remain my “one-stop shop” in my freelance business.

5 Reasons the Pancake App is the Best Invoicing Software, and more

1. It is a one-time fee for the Pancake app, not a recurring, third-party subscription

As mentioned above, Freshbooks went up to $25/month after my fifth client. That’s $300 a year ($270 if you pay annually).

Pancake is a one time fee only of $149….no subscription.

Let’s do the math….. that is the price of 6 months of Freshbooks….forever.

Pay the one time fee….and you are set for life. No subscriptions.

2. The Pancake app has all the features you need

Now this was the biggest perk for me. I hate having to jump back and forth between programs to get tasks done. I want it all in one place!

Here are the features of Pancake:

Invoicing, including Paypal and Stripe
Time tracking
Expense tracking
Project management
Proposals
Client areas for each client, managed by you.
Detailed reporting
Estimates
Ticketing
Custom branding
Free install

Now take a minute and think of any other solution with all of these features in one place! I mean…custom branding, not only with invoices but the look of the entire app, front-end and back??

Visit the Pancake website --> Lets Go

3. The Pancake app is self-hosted

This is another unique feature.

When you purchase the Pancake app, you download a zip file that contains a folder that you upload to your own server. This app has it’s own database AND its own stylesheets.

So if you leave the name of the folder ‘Pancake’, then your access to it would be yoursite.com/pancake/admin

That’s great. Why?

Because there is no third-party at all! No subscriptions. No tiers. No logging into other sites to access it.

In addition, this looks great to your clients, that they can access their invoices, project info, proposals, etc., right there on your own company website.

I actually received a compliment on how easy and unique things were on my very first invoice sent with Pancake!