TLDR (Summary)
Zoho Invoice is free but caps freelancers at 500 invoices per year, 3 projects, and 1GB of storage, with no upgrade path. The free plan also limits teams to 2 users, and the only growth path is migrating to Zoho Books, starting at $15/month. Plutio is a fully branded platform where proposals, projects, time tracking, invoicing, and client portals are all connected. When a proposal gets signed, the project creates itself, tracked hours flow into invoices, and clients check progress and pay from a branded portal.
Project management that Zoho Invoice doesn't have
Zoho Invoice limits freelancers to 3 projects with no task management. Plutio includes Kanban boards, Gantt charts, task dependencies, and milestones with no project caps.
Zoho Invoice's 3-project limit means any freelancer with more than three active clients hits the ceiling immediately. And those 3 projects only support basic time tracking, with no task lists, no boards, no timelines, and no milestones. Growing past 3 projects means migrating to Zoho Projects ($5/user/month), which is a completely separate app with separate login, separate data, and no connection to invoicing.
Plutio's project management starts with Kanban boards and adds what Zoho Invoice doesn't include: Gantt timelines that show dependencies between tasks, milestones that mark phase transitions, and templates that create entire project structures from a single click. A website project can have design, development, and launch phases with tasks that automatically unlock when the previous phase finishes.
The difference is how the project work connects to billing. In Plutio, time tracked on a task feeds into an invoice line item, a completed milestone triggers a client notification, and project status updates in the client portal without sending a single email.
Plutio's project management connects tasks to time tracking, invoicing, and client portals, so the work and the business run from the same place.
Invoicing without the 500-per-year cap
Zoho Invoice caps invoicing at 500 per year and offers no late fee automation. Plutio's invoicing is unlimited and populates from tracked hours automatically.
500 invoices per year runs out faster than it looks. A freelancer billing 10 clients monthly hits 120 invoices in a year from recurring billing alone, leaving room for fewer than 32 additional one-off invoices per month. Add deposit invoices, milestone billing, and expense reimbursements, and the cap arrives within the first few billing cycles. Zoho Invoice also has no late fee automation, so overdue invoices require manual follow-up with no penalty attached.
In Plutio, invoices populate from a date range with every tracked hour, task name, and rate already filled in. There's no annual cap on how many invoices go out, no project limits that gate access to billing, and no "Powered by Zoho Invoice" branding on outgoing invoices.
Recurring invoices auto-send on schedule with late payment reminders built in. Payment processing through Stripe, PayPal, or bank transfer happens inside the same platform, and multi-currency support lets international freelancers bill clients in local currencies.
Plutio's invoicing turns tracked hours into paid invoices with no annual cap, no third-party branding, and no manual number copying.
Proposals and contracts that create projects automatically
Zoho Invoice has no proposal builder and no contract management. In Plutio, a signed proposal creates the project and activates the client portal automatically.
There is no native proposal tool in the entire Zoho ecosystem. Contracts and e-signatures require Zoho Sign, which costs $12/month extra as a separate subscription with separate login and no connection to Zoho Invoice's billing data. The pre-project workflow, from pitch to signed agreement to project kickoff, happens entirely outside the invoicing platform.
Plutio's proposal builder includes drag-and-drop sections, pricing tables, and built-in e-signatures. Clients review and sign from any device. When the signature goes through, Plutio creates the project with pre-configured tasks and deadlines based on the proposal scope.
Contracts attach to proposals and projects, so the signed scope stays connected to the actual work. The client portal activates with branded access, and the first invoice can generate directly from the approved pricing in the proposal.
In Plutio, a signed proposal becomes a live project with contracts, tasks, and client portal access, all from one signed document.
Time tracking built into every project, not just three
Zoho Invoice limits time tracking to 3 projects. Plutio tracks time inside every project with no caps, and tracked hours convert to invoices automatically.
Zoho Invoice's time tracking only works within the 3-project limit. Once a freelancer exceeds 3 active clients, time tracking stops being available for new work unless older projects get archived. Billing hourly for a fourth client means opening a separate time tracker like Toggl or Harvest, copying numbers manually, and creating invoice line items from memory or a spreadsheet at the end of the billing cycle.
Plutio's time tracking runs inside every project with no cap. A built-in timer starts from any task with one click, or hours get logged manually with notes and rates attached. Billable and non-billable hours stay separated so only client-facing work hits the invoice.
At invoice time, tracked hours convert to line items with the task name, duration, and hourly rate already filled in. Time reports break down hours by project, client, or date range, showing exactly where billable hours went and which projects ran over budget.
Every hour tracked in Plutio turns into an invoice line item without manual entry, app switching, or a 3-project ceiling.
Client portals that replace status update emails
Zoho Invoice's client portal covers invoice viewing and payment, but offers no project visibility, no file sharing, and no milestone tracking. Plutio's portals give clients a branded workspace for the entire project.
Zoho Invoice's portal lets clients see unpaid invoices and pay online. But there's no project visibility, no file sharing, no milestone tracking, and no task-level messaging. Clients still need email threads for progress updates, separate file-sharing tools for deliverables, and status meetings just to know what's happening. The portal also carries Zoho Invoice branding on the free plan, so the client experience reflects Zoho's brand, not the freelancer's.
Plutio's client portals are branded with a custom logo, colors, and domain. Clients log in and see project progress alongside milestones, shared files, unpaid invoices, and messages. Files upload directly to the project instead of arriving as email attachments. Messages attach to specific tasks so conversations stay in context.
Clients approve deliverables and pay invoices from the portal without downloading additional apps or juggling multiple logins. The portal replaces the email chains and the "just checking in" messages that pile up between project milestones.
Plutio's client portals replace status update emails with a branded space where clients track progress, share files, and pay invoices.
With Plutio we don't jump between apps anymore! Everything from projects to invoicing is finally connected in one fully-branded app.
How to switch from Zoho Invoice to Plutio
Most freelancers switch between projects, finishing active billing in Zoho Invoice while starting new clients on Plutio.
- Start a free trial: Plutio offers 14 days of full access with no credit card required. Every feature, including projects, invoicing, proposals, time tracking, and client portals, works from day one.
- Import client contacts: Export contacts from Zoho Invoice as a CSV and import them into Plutio. Client names, emails, and company details carry over in minutes.
- Set up a project template: Create one project template with the standard task list, milestones, and deliverable structure. Every new project starts from the template instead of manual setup.
- Start new clients on Plutio: Send the next proposal from Plutio. When the client signs, the project creates automatically with the template structure, portal access, and contract attached.
- Finish Zoho Invoice billing where it is: Active invoicing stays in Zoho Invoice until completion. Running both platforms in parallel avoids disrupting client relationships mid-cycle.
- Cancel Zoho subscriptions: Once all active invoicing wraps up, cancel Zoho Invoice and any additional Zoho subscriptions (Zoho Sign, Zoho Projects, Zoho CRM). Export remaining data as backup.
The hardest part of leaving Zoho Invoice isn't the data migration. The hardest part is accepting that a free invoicing tool was never going to replace the project management, proposals, contracts, time tracking, and client portal features a freelance business actually needs.
The switch happens between projects, not mid-project. New clients start on Plutio while Zoho Invoice billing cycles finish naturally.
