Best Rounded Alternatives in Australia (2026): 8 Sole Trader Options Compared

The strongest of the Rounded alternatives Australia has in 2026 is InvoiceSonic, but only if you are leaving because you want the invoicing itself to be better, not cheaper. If you send a handful of invoices a month, the free sole trader invoice generator on this site builds an ATO-compliant PDF in the browser with no signup. If the tax and GST estimate is the reason you pay for Rounded at all, stay put or look at Solo App, Thriday or Hnry, because most invoicing apps will not replace it. We put all eight through one test: do you get the tax estimate, or just the invoicing?

Quick comparison

"Not listed" means exactly that: the tool's own Australian pricing or feature page did not state the feature at the time of writing, so we have not marked it a yes. If expense tracking is half the reason you are moving, confirm it on a trial before you cancel anything.

How we tested: the sole-trader-tax test. Rounded is Australian-built specifically for sole traders and freelancers, and its draw is that invoicing, expense tracking and a tax and GST estimate sit in one place. So we asked three questions of every alternative. One: does it send a compliant Australian tax invoice — the words "Tax invoice", your ABN, 10% GST where you are registered — without you retyping a template? Two: does it track expenses and deductions, or does that go somewhere else? Three: does it tell you what to set aside for income tax and GST, or does it only tell you what you billed?

The worked number that decides most of this. Rounded Solo is $99 a year regular pricing at the time of writing. InvoiceSonic Pro billed annually is A$168 a year, which works out at A$14 a month. So swapping a sole-trader all-rounder for a dedicated invoicing subscription costs you about A$69 a year more — roughly A$1.33 a week — and you hand back the tax estimate on the way out. An invoicing-only subscription plus a spreadsheet for the tax set-aside is a different trade-off, not automatically a cheaper one. Nobody should leave Rounded to save money. Leave it because you want something it does not do.

Who fails the test. Only three of the eight answer yes to all three questions: Solo App, Thriday and Hnry — and Hnry does it by taking your tax off you entirely, which is a different proposition again. Xero half-passes: it gives you GST and a BAS, but a general ledger is not a sole-trader tax estimate. InvoiceSonic, Invoice-Generator.com.au, Zoho Invoice and Square Invoices all fail question three outright, and three of those four fail question two as well. That is the honest shape of this list. The top of it is the best invoicing, not the closest Rounded replacement.

Why rank it that way? Because of what people actually say when they leave a sole-trader all-rounder. They want the invoice to carry their own logo, to go out on a schedule, to show when it has been opened, and to come straight off an accepted quote. Tax they hand to an accountant once a year regardless. If that is not you, read the Solo App, Thriday and Hnry sections first, and read the paragraph at the end on who should stay on Rounded.

1. InvoiceSonic — Best overall

InvoiceSonic is the best pure invoicing tool on this list, and if invoicing is the part of Rounded you have outgrown it is the obvious move. Unlimited invoices, recurring invoices with automatic reminders, your own logo and colours with no footer, open tracking so you know the moment a client reads it, and online quote acceptance that converts an accepted quote into an invoice in one click.

It passes question one comfortably and fails questions two and three. There is no expense or cost tracking and it is not accounting software — no bank feeds, no BAS lodgement, no payroll — so the tax estimate you had in Rounded does not come with you. What does come with you is money: clients pay by PayID or bank transfer with no gateway to set up and no InvoiceSonic transaction fee, because the money moves bank to bank. Australian fields are built in — ABN, BSB, the 10% GST label — as part of localised support across 19 countries, and you can take a percentage or fixed deposit up front and raise progress claims as separate invoices. There is an iPhone app; there is no native Android app, so Android users add the web app to the home screen.

Pros

• Recurring invoices, automatic reminders and open tracking, so retainers and monthly clients bill and chase themselves.
• PayID and bank transfer with no InvoiceSonic transaction fee — nothing shaved off a A$3,000 project payment.
• Annual Pro is price-locked: the rate never rises while the subscription is active, and historical invoices stay accessible forever if you downgrade.

Cons

• No expense or cost tracking and no tax or GST estimate, so you replace two-thirds of what Rounded was doing with a spreadsheet or an accountant.
• The free plan is capped at 3 saved invoices, 1 tracked email send and 1 automatic reminder a month, and the 7-day Pro trial requires a card up front.

Price: at the time of writing, the free plan is A$0 and the first invoice needs no sign-up and no credit card; Pro is A$19 a month billed monthly, or A$168 a year billed annually, which is A$14 a month and saves A$60. Best for: sole traders and freelancers who want the invoicing to be excellent and are happy for tax to live with their accountant.

2. Invoice-Generator.com.au — Best free tool

Invoice-Generator.com.au is a free tax invoice generator that produces a finished PDF in your browser with no signup, no watermark, no ads and no invoice limit. It is the right tool the day you cancel a subscription and still need to bill someone by five o'clock.

The sole trader invoice generator is pre-set with an ABN field, a 10% GST line and a live compliance checklist that flags a missing ABN before you send. Nothing you type leaves the browser. There are separate free tools for a quote, a receipt and the GST maths. On the sole-trader-tax test it fails two of three questions and only half-passes the first, because it builds the document and does not send it. We would rather say that plainly than pretend a PDF generator replaces a bookkeeping app.

Pros

• Free forever, no signup, no watermark, no invoice limit — a real fallback while you decide what to move to.
• The compliance checklist catches a missing ABN or GST line before your client's accounts payable does.

Cons

• No sending, tracking, reminders or payment collection, and no expense tracking or tax estimate at all.
• No saved customer list, so repeat clients are re-entered every time you invoice them.

Price: free, always. Best for: sole traders under the GST threshold sending a few invoices a month, and anyone who wants a A$0 stopgap between subscriptions.

3. Hnry — Best if you want tax paid, not estimated

Hnry is the only option here that goes further than Rounded on the thing Rounded is known for. Clients pay into your Hnry account, Hnry pays your income tax and GST, and passes on the rest. You do not get an estimate; you get the tax gone.

It passes all three questions, in a way that changes how you work rather than which app you open. The cost is pay-as-you-go: 1% + GST of every payment into your Hnry account, capped at $1,500 + GST a year, with a minimum of $0.50 + GST on payments under $50, at the time of writing. On A$90,000 of income that is A$900 plus GST, or A$990 a year — about ten times Rounded Solo. You hit the cap at A$150,000 of payments in, which is where the maths starts to favour it. Invoicing is unlimited. The real question is not price, it is control: this is not a normal invoicing app, it takes over your tax.

Pros

• Income tax and GST are paid as money arrives, so there is no set-aside to forget and no quarterly scramble.
• Unlimited invoices, and the percentage is capped, so a big year does not scale the fee forever.

Cons

• At 1% + GST it is far more expensive than a subscription until you are near the cap — A$990 a year on A$90,000.
• Client payments have to route through Hnry, so you are handing over the plumbing of your business, not just the software.

Price: at the time of writing, 1% + GST of every payment into your Hnry account, capped at $1,500 + GST a year, minimum $0.50 + GST on payments under $50. Best for: sole traders who would rather never think about a BAS again and will pay a percentage for that.

4. Thriday — Best free option, if you will bank with it

Thriday is Australian and bundles a business transaction account with invoicing and automated bookkeeping and BAS. It passes all three questions, and at the time of writing it is free under A$50,000 of revenue, which makes it the only tool here that replaces all of Rounded for nothing.

The catch is in the design. The value comes from the transactions flowing through Thriday's own account, so you have to move your business banking to get it. That is a bigger switch than changing invoicing app, and it is worth pricing your time to do it. Above A$50,000 of revenue, Standard is A$16.50 a month billed annually at the time of writing, or A$198 a year — A$99 more than Rounded Solo, and A$30 more than InvoiceSonic Pro annually, for a categorically broader product. If you are already thinking about your GST registration threshold, the free tier and the threshold are close enough that you should check where you will actually land.

Pros

• Free under A$50,000 of revenue at the time of writing, with invoicing, bookkeeping and BAS included.
• Automated bookkeeping off real transactions means the tax position is calculated, not typed in.

Cons

• You must bank with Thriday to get the value, which is a migration, not a signup.
• Once you pass A$50,000 of revenue the free tier stops being the answer, so budget A$198 a year.

Price: at the time of writing, free under A$50,000 revenue; Standard A$16.50 a month billed annually. Best for: newer sole traders under A$50,000 who are willing to move their business account to get bookkeeping for nothing.

5. Solo App — Best like-for-like Australian swap

Solo App is the closest match on this list to what you already have. Australian, built for sole traders, and it does invoicing, expenses and tax in one place — the same three-part job Rounded does, from a different team.

It passes all three questions, which makes it the sensible first look if your only complaint about Rounded is Rounded. There is no free plan, so you cannot run a quiet month on it before deciding. Pricing is from A$24 a month at the time of writing, which is A$288 a year against Rounded Solo's $99 — so this is a swap you make because you prefer the product, not the invoice. Do the comparison on a trial with your own client list rather than on a feature grid: with tools this similar, the difference is entirely in how it feels to use on a Friday afternoon.

Pros

• Invoicing, expenses and tax in one Australian app, so nothing from your current setup has to be bolted on.
• Built specifically for sole traders, so the language and the fields match how you actually trade.

Cons

• No free plan, so there is no zero-cost way to trial it against your existing subscription.
• From A$24 a month is A$288 a year, well above Rounded Solo's regular pricing at the time of writing.

Price: from $24/month AUD at the time of writing. Best for: sole traders who want everything Rounded does but have decided they want a different app doing it.

6. Zoho Invoice — Best free app that actually sends

Zoho Invoice is free — Zoho states no cost and no contracts — and unlike a PDF generator it sends the invoice, saves the client and keeps the history. If your budget for this is A$0 and you still need real invoicing, this is the strongest option on the list.

It passes question one and fails question three. Expense tracking is not stated on the Australian page we checked, so we have left it unmarked rather than assume it. The trade-off is the surroundings. Zoho Invoice is the front door to a very large product suite, the interface is dense next to a single-purpose app, and support is really aimed at paid-suite customers. For a sole trader who invoices ten clients a month and hands a folder of receipts to an accountant in July, none of that matters much, and the price is hard to beat.

Pros

• Genuinely free with no contract, and it sends and stores invoices rather than just building a PDF.
• Multi-language invoicing across 19-plus languages, useful if you bill clients overseas.

Cons

• No tax or GST estimate, and expense tracking is not listed, so two-thirds of the Rounded job is unsolved.
• Dense interface and a large upsell suite around it, with support pitched at paying customers.

Price: free (Zoho states no cost, no contracts). Best for: sole traders who want proper sending, tracking and a client list for nothing and will keep tax somewhere else.

7. Xero — Best if you want real accounting and a lodged BAS

Xero is accounting software, not an invoicing app, and that distinction is the whole decision. If you have outgrown an estimate and want bank feeds, reconciled GST and a BAS your bookkeeper can lodge, this is the direction to move — not sideways to another sole-trader app.

On our test it half-passes. Invoicing and expense tracking are both there and the GST handling is Australian and real, but what you get is a general ledger rather than a plain-English "set aside this much" number. There is no free plan. For a solo operator invoicing a handful of clients it is more software than the job needs, and the honest version of that sentence is that most people reading a Rounded-alternatives article do not want Xero. Once you have a bookkeeper, subcontractors or a quarterly BAS you would rather not touch, the picture flips.

Pros

• Invoicing, bank feeds, GST and BAS in one system that almost every Australian bookkeeper already knows.

Cons

• No free plan, and no sole-trader tax estimate — you get a ledger and a BAS, not a set-aside figure.
• Considerably more software than one person with ten clients needs, and it usually comes with a bookkeeper's fee attached.

Price: paid plans available — check current pricing. Best for: sole traders who have grown into real bookkeeping and whose accountant already works in Xero.

8. Square Invoices — Best if clients want to pay by card

Square Invoices gives you unlimited free invoices, estimates and automatic reminders, and the client pays by tapping a card link in the email. For a sole trader chasing a slow-paying business client, that speed is worth real money.

It passes question one and fails questions two and three. Estimate auto-convert and milestone payment schedules sit behind Plus at AUD $30 per month at the time of writing. The number to watch is the card fee: 2.2% on online card payments. On A$90,000 of billings arriving entirely by card that is A$1,980 a year, twenty times Rounded Solo's regular annual price at the time of writing. Card payment is a convenience you are selling to your client, so price it in, or offer bank transfer as the default and card as the fast option.

Pros

• Unlimited free invoices with automatic reminders on the free plan, and estimates included.
• Clients pay by card straight from the invoice, so money often lands the same day it is sent.

Cons

• 2.2% on online card payments is A$1,980 a year on A$90,000 of card-paid billings.
• No expense tracking listed and no tax estimate, and milestone schedules and estimate auto-convert are Plus only.

Price: free, or Plus at AUD $30 per month; 2.2% on online card payments (at the time of writing). Best for: sole traders whose clients will only pay by card and who want the cash in fast.

What to look for in a Rounded alternative

Rounded bundles three jobs, so the only useful way to shop for a replacement is to work out which of the three you actually use. Most people discover they use two and pay for three.

• Decide whether you are replacing invoicing or bookkeeping. If it is invoicing, a dedicated invoicing app will be better at it than any all-rounder. If it is bookkeeping, no invoicing app on earth will do, and you want Thriday, Solo App, Hnry or Xero.
• Price the tax estimate, then decide if you want it. The gap between Rounded Solo and InvoiceSonic Pro billed annually is about A$69 a year at the time of writing. That is what the estimate costs. It is small enough that "I'll just use a spreadsheet" is a preference, not a saving.
• Check what happens to GST money on the day it lands. If you are registered, one-eleventh of every payment is the ATO's. Invoice A$90,000 plus GST and you collect A$99,000, of which A$9,000 is not yours — about A$2,250 a quarter. Our GST calculator does the split; an invoicing-only app will not.
• Look at the payment rail, not just the subscription. Bank transfer and PayID cost nothing and clear overnight. A 2.2% card fee is A$1,980 a year on A$90,000, and 1% + GST on incoming payments is A$990. Fees dwarf subscriptions at every income level worth having.
• Confirm the tax invoice is a real one. Where you are registered for GST the ATO wants the words "Tax invoice", your identity and ABN, the date, a description of what was supplied, the GST amount, and the buyer's identity or ABN for sales of A$1,000 or more. The full list of tax invoice requirements is also on the ATO site.
• Test with your own client list, on a trial, before you cancel. Run a fortnight of real invoices in parallel. Every tool here looks fine in a feature table; the differences show up when you are invoicing at 6pm on a Friday. Our guide to invoicing as a sole trader in Australia covers what your invoices need either way.

Which one should you choose?

Run the annual cost on A$90,000 of invoiced income, at the time of writing. Invoice-Generator.com.au and Zoho Invoice are A$0. Staying on Rounded Solo is $99. InvoiceSonic Pro billed annually is A$168. Thriday Standard is A$198, because A$90,000 is over the free tier. Solo App is A$288 from A$24 a month. Hnry is A$990 at 1% + GST. Square is A$1,980 if every dollar arrives by card. Xero is paid plans available — check current pricing. The subscription is rarely the biggest number on that list.

• If you want the invoicing to be genuinely better and tax can live with your accountant → InvoiceSonic on Pro, billed annually.
• If you want the same three-in-one job from a different Australian app → Solo App, from A$24 a month.
• If you never want to think about income tax or a BAS again → Hnry, and treat the 1% + GST as the fee for that.
• If you are under A$50,000 of revenue and will move your banking → Thriday, free at the time of writing.
• If your budget is zero right now → Zoho Invoice for sending, or the free sole trader invoice generator for a PDF in the next two minutes.

When not to use InvoiceSonic or a free generator. If the reason you pay for software is that it tells you what to set aside, do not move to an invoicing app — you will be replacing the useful part with a spreadsheet. InvoiceSonic does no expense tracking and no tax estimate, and it is not accounting software: no bank feeds, no BAS lodgement, no payroll. A free PDF generator, ours included, does even less. In that case the right answer is often to stay on Rounded, which is Australian-built for exactly this job and $99 a year on Solo regular pricing at the time of writing, or to move up to Solo App, Thriday or Hnry, which keep the tax side intact. And if you have grown past an estimate into real books — subcontractors, a bookkeeper, a BAS you would rather hand over — that is accounting software territory: Xero or MYOB, not an invoicing app.

Frequently asked questions