A FreshBooks alternative, and real project management

FreshBooks is accounting with projects attached. OIO is project management with the quote and the invoice attached: each client job gets one page with its tickets on a kanban or a timeline, status, budget and hours, team chat, files and recorded calls, and the invoice comes from that same project.

Start free

OIO does not process card payments. Your client pays you by bank transfer, your own payment link or crypto, and you mark the invoice paid. FreshBooks takes the payment for you.

What FreshBooks is good at

FreshBooks is accounting software for small businesses that bill clients, and its invoicing is mature. Invoices and estimates on every plan, online card and bank payments, expense tracking with receipt scanning, time tracking, project budgets and a client portal, and from the Plus plan up proposals, retainers, double-entry reports, bank reconciliation and access for your accountant. If you want the invoices and the books in one tool, that is its strength.

Where it stops

Its pricing page describes projects as budget and billing and lists no task boards or timelines, so the work itself runs in another tool.
Plans cap billable clients: five on Lite and fifty on Plus, per its pricing page.
Each team member past the account owner is charged per month on Lite, Plus and Premium.

What OIO does instead

OIO is project management for client work. Each client job gets one page with its tickets on a kanban or a timeline, status, budget and hours, deadline, files, team chat and recorded calls. Around it sit the inquiry form that brings the lead in, the prospect pipeline, and the proposal and invoice that come from the same project.

Your client logs into the same place with their own account and sees only their side: their project, their documents, their invoices. You can invite someone who is not on OIO yet, and they see the project once they sign up. Contracts and proposals go out for signature as a link, and the client signs on any device without an account.

One price covers the work and the money. Viewers are free and use no seat; only people who edit your work do, and Studio comes with five.

OIO also does not send payment reminders on its own. Overdue invoices get their own list, and OIO drafts the reminder for you to send from your own mail.

Feature by feature

What you actually need	OIO	FreshBooks
Invoices and estimates
Proposals
Expenses on the project
Tasks on a kanban or a timeline
Time tracking
Bookkeeping and accounting reports
Takes card and bank payments for you
A free plan

Has it Partly, or a paid add-on Does not

FreshBooks' column was checked against freshbooks.com/pricing on 17 October 2026. The middle mark means it starts at the Plus plan. Prices are left out on purpose because they change. Sources: FreshBooks pricing.

Questions

Is OIO a good FreshBooks alternative?

If your week is mostly delivering client projects with a team and freelancers, and the quote and invoice should sit on the project, yes. If you need bookkeeping, bank reconciliation, payments inside the app and an accountant working in the same tool, FreshBooks does that and OIO does not.

Does OIO take payments like FreshBooks?

No. OIO issues invoices and proposals, shows what is outstanding and what is paid, and drafts the reminder for an overdue invoice. The client pays you by bank transfer, your own payment link or crypto, and you mark the invoice paid. FreshBooks takes card and bank payments online.

Can OIO replace my accounting software?

No. OIO is not bookkeeping software and has no bank reconciliation or tax reports. Many studios run projects, quotes and invoices in OIO and keep their accountant's tool for the books.

Try it against your own work

Free plan, no card. Set up in under a minute, and you can keep using FreshBooks alongside it while you decide.