Most free invoicing tools stop at the PDF. They let you design an invoice, email it, and that is where it ends. Free e-invoicing software is rarer, because a connection to a national tax platform usually sits behind a paid plan. Enlivy is an exception. Every organization on Enlivy starts on a Free account that includes the ANAF eFactura connection for Romanian companies and PEPPOL BIS 3.0 file export for everyone, with no card to sign up and no expiry date.
This article walks through exactly what the Free account gives you, why it counts as real free e-invoicing software, what the monthly limits are, where the e-invoicing fits in, and what a paid pack adds once you need one. If you have never used Enlivy before, this is the clearest place to start.
What free e-invoicing software usually leaves out
A free invoice generator and free e-invoicing software are not the same thing. The first gives you a nice-looking document. The second sends a structured, machine-readable invoice through an official channel that tax authorities and other businesses can process automatically.
Structured e-invoicing is becoming mandatory across much of Europe, and the rules differ by country. In Romania, for example, the relevant system is ANAF’s eFactura. The wider European network is called PEPPOL. Most tools that handle this properly charge for it, either per invoice or as part of a subscription. Enlivy includes the ANAF eFactura exchange and PEPPOL file export on the Free account, within your monthly invoice limit, at no cost.
That is the gap this article is really about. You can find a dozen tools that print a free PDF. Far fewer let a brand new business handle e-invoicing for nothing.
If you are weighing specific products rather than the category, we keep thirteen comparisons against the tools people actually shortlist here. Wave is the closest on price, with a genuinely free tier, but its footprint is the US and Canada. Zoho Books has a usable free plan for a single user. Each page says where the other product wins.
What “free” actually means on Enlivy
Calling a product free e-invoicing software is easy. Backing that claim up is harder. The word free gets used loosely in software. Sometimes it means a stripped-down demo. Sometimes it means a sandbox where nothing you create can leave the screen. The Enlivy Free account is neither. It runs the same platform paying customers use, with real, usable limits.
Three things make it stand out:
- No card to sign up. You create your organization and start working. There is no payment step hiding at the end.
- It stays free for as long as you use it. There is no countdown and no automatic conversion to a paid plan.
- What you create is real. An invoice you send is a full, compliant document, not a watermarked sample.
So the question is not “how long until I have to pay” but “do the monthly limits cover what I actually do.” For a lot of small businesses and freelancers, they do.
Free e-invoicing software from day one, no paid tier needed
This is the part that surprises people, so it is worth slowing down on. It is also the feature that makes Enlivy free e-invoicing software in the full sense, not just a free PDF maker with a nicer template.
If you have never dealt with structured e-invoicing, it can sound like a heavy technical project. On the Free account it is not. Enlivy connects to ANAF’s eFactura for Romanian organizations, and everywhere else it exports a PEPPOL BIS 3.0 file or a national e-invoice XML that you submit yourself, so the format side is handled for you.
In Romania, it works like this:
- Connect ANAF. You link your ANAF account once, in a few clicks, with no technical setup.
- Incoming invoices come in every hour. Enlivy pulls supplier invoices from ANAF every hour, or on demand.
- You review and register. You see the structured data next to your own invoice fields and link or create records without retyping anything.
- Outgoing invoices are pushed back. Invoices to Romanian clients go to ANAF when you push them from the invoice, or 1 to 4 days after the issue date if you turn on auto-push, with full status tracking the whole way.
Every invoice carries a complete exchange history, from the moment it is received to its final status, and you can search it. The point is that a new Romanian business on the free plan can file eFactura invoices from day one, in a way that used to require a paid integration or an accountant doing it by hand. That is what genuine free e-invoicing software should do, and what most free tools do not. You can see the full exchange setup on the network exchanges page.
On the free plan, once you reach 5 invoices in a month, invoicing turns read-only until the 1st, the e-Factura push included. Add the Invoicing pack to lift the limit, and nothing about the e-invoicing setup changes.
What every Free account includes
These limits apply with no packs and no add-ons. They are the baseline an organization gets for nothing, and they reset on the 1st of each month, so a quiet month and a busy month both stay free.
- 5 invoices per month. Real, compliant invoices to clients, e-invoicing included.
- 5 receipts per month. For recording what you have actually been paid.
- 1 contract per month. Drafted, sent, and signed with a built-in simple e-signature.
- 3 proposals per month. To win new work and turn into invoices once accepted.
- 5 prospects in total. Deals you keep on a visual pipeline board, open or closed.
- 50 bank transactions per month. Entered by hand or imported from a CSV or TXT statement, and linked to the invoices and receipts they belong to.
On top of all of that, you get the core platform. Users and roles, the Customer Portal on an Enlivy subdomain, products, taxes, tasks, the dashboard, data export, the API and the MCP server are all included, with 1 GB of file storage. The limits above are about volume, but a few features need a pack of their own, such as billing schedules, bank connections, payslips, reports, the helpdesk, and Slack, webhook or Zapier notifications.
Real tools, not a trial sandbox
Here is a closer look at the four things people use most on the Free account.
Send real, compliant invoices
Invoicing is the core of any free e-invoicing software, and on Enlivy it is the real thing. You can create professional invoices with your own branding, VAT worked out from both parties’ details, and a clear payment status on each one. These are not drafts or watermarked samples.
What you get on each invoice:
- Custom codes and auto-incrementing numbering
- Multi-currency and multi-language billing
- Links to the related contracts, receipts, and payments
- Both PDF and structured e-invoicing formats
- Fast search by client, status, tag, or amount
You can see the full feature in detail on the invoicing page.
Draft and sign a contract
You can put your first agreement on paper and get it signed without leaving Enlivy. Draft it, send it to the other party, and collect a simple e-signature, with the contract linked to the documents it relates to. The Free account includes one new contract per month, which is enough to formalize a new client relationship as it comes in. The contracts page covers the full signing workflow.
Run a real sales pipeline
Instead of keeping your open deals in your head or a spreadsheet, you track up to five prospects on a visual board. You move them through your own stages, see the full activity history on each one, and when the client accepts your proposal, the invoice takes the same lines with no retyping.
Keep your money organized
You can track up to fifty bank transactions a month and connect each one to the invoice or receipt it belongs to. You classify and tag every transaction, link it to its source document, and see money in and money out at a glance. Your records stay clean and linked, so you always know what was paid, by whom, and against which document.
What this looks like for real people
Limits on a page are abstract. Here is how three different businesses actually use Enlivy as their free e-invoicing software and live inside those limits.
Ana, a freelance graphic designer. Ana works with three or four clients a month and has no patience for admin. She uses the Free account to send each client an invoice, pushes it to ANAF’s eFactura in one click (she and her clients are in Romania), and records each payment from her bank’s CSV statement. She is well inside the 5-invoice limit, so her invoicing costs her nothing.
Marco, who just launched a consultancy. Marco is in his first months and every expense matters. He drafts and signs his first client contract with the built-in e-signature, sends two proposals to prospects he met at an event, and tracks all four open deals on his pipeline. He has not paid for anything yet, and he already looks like an established business to his clients.
A small agency evaluating the platform. A four-person team wants to test Enlivy with real data before committing. They explore the core platform and the Customer Portal, upload a bank statement CSV, and link its transactions to their invoices. When they need more, they add only the packs they use. Nothing they built during evaluation is lost.
The pattern is the same in all three cases. The Free account is enough to run genuine operations, and you only feel a limit when your business has grown enough to justify paying.
Adding a paid pack
Beyond the Free baseline, each organization can add paid feature packs. They are separate from the free limits and entirely optional.
What to know about them:
- Each pack costs EUR 2.99 to 19.99 a month, excluding VAT. Packs are billed per organization, and users are free.
- A card is needed only when you add a pack. Signing up and staying on the Free account never ask for one.
If you are not ready for a pack, you do not have to touch one. The Free account sits there, working, with no card and no expiry.
Growing at your own pace
Outgrowing a limit is a good sign. It usually means your free e-invoicing software has done its job and your business has grown, and Enlivy is built so you only turn on what you need from there. Every limit on the Free account has a matching pack or add-on, and they are independent of each other.
That means you can:
- Pick only what you use. Need unlimited invoices but not recurring billing? Take just the Invoicing pack and nothing else.
- Change anytime. Add or remove packs as your needs shift, with no long-term lock-in.
- Save with annual billing. Pay yearly and save about 20 percent, which works out to roughly two months free on every pack.
You build exactly the plan your business needs and pay for nothing more. The full pricing shows every pack and add-on side by side.
Where to start
If you run a small business, freelance, or simply want compliant invoicing without a subscription, the Free account is the obvious entry point. It is free e-invoicing software that does not expire, asks for no card, and gives you real invoices, contracts, proposals, and bank tracking from the first day. When your volume outgrows the limits, the upgrade is a few clicks away and costs only what you actually switch on.
Create your free Enlivy account and run real work from day one.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a credit card to sign up? No. You create your organization and start working with no card and no payment step. A card is only needed if you later add a paid pack.
Does the Free account expire? No. It stays free for as long as you use it. There is no countdown and no automatic switch to a paid plan.
Does e-invoicing really work on the free plan? Yes. A Romanian organization exchanges invoices for its Romanian clients with ANAF’s eFactura, and any organization can export PEPPOL BIS 3.0 or national e-invoice files to submit itself, all within your monthly invoice limit at no extra cost. For unlimited volume you add the Invoicing pack.
What happens when I hit a monthly limit? The per-month allowances reset on the 1st of each month, so the limit clears when the next month starts. If you regularly hit a ceiling, that is the point at which the matching paid pack starts paying for itself, and you can add just that one pack.
Is the Free account a demo or a real product? It is the real product. You are running the same platform paying customers use, and the documents you create, including invoices sent through e-invoicing, are full and compliant rather than samples.
Is Enlivy really free e-invoicing software, or just a free trial? It is genuinely free e-invoicing software, not a trial. The Free account does not expire, and e-invoicing is included with no card to sign up.
Do I have to buy a pack? No. Packs are optional. Each one lifts a limit or adds a feature, costs EUR 2.99 to 19.99 a month excluding VAT, and asks for a card only when you add it.
Is my data locked in? No. The work you create on the Free account stays with you, and data export is included. You can keep building on the same organization whether you stay free or add paid packs.
