I’ve done some in-depth exploration into several other online invoicing systems since deciding Blinksale wasn’t quite what I was looking for. I set up my client list complete with recurring payments in each of these systems – really tried them out.
The first service I looked at closely was BillingOrchard. I liked a number of things about BillingOrchard, primarily that it is already a mature system and has a number of flexible features and options. They seem to take a very different slant to invoicing than Blinksale does; instead of sending out invoices, they invite your clients to log into their site to view the invoice and pay it. This is way too much hassle for me to put my clients through. Also, the $15/month price tag is a little high for my ~5 invoices/month.
SecondSite offers almost all of the functionality I want, and I could use their free account. However, they also take the ‘log in to pay’ approach to recurring billing. I believe that both SecondSite and BillingOrchard also offer integrations with various payment systems and mechant accounts – really not the approach I’m looking to take. I don’t want a payment system, just an invoicing system.
The closest solution I’ve found is VEBIO. With VEBIO, I could have my invoices e-mailed as PDF attachments on a recurring basis. Unfortunately, VEBIO also has a $15/month baseline for their service.
In the end, I may end up waiting for Blinksale to get their recurring functionality in place. Blinksale takes the approach I prefer in sending invoices – sending out e-mails of the invoices directly. I also like the care they’ve taken in making the system look good and the ease of customization/personalization via CSS. However, the lack of access to my data and lack of security of my data is still a rather large concern.
Or perhaps I’ll find a stand-alone system or (shudder) have to build my own1, as I’ve been considering doing for the last couple years..