You should not have to pay to find out.
Joist starts at $10 Basics, with no free plan behind it. Invoice Koi is free for a hundred invoices a year, with 33 of the 59 features compared here in the free app, and one paid plan at $99.99 a year.
Last checked 7 September 2026. US list prices.
The features that make Joist worth it are not the ones in the price you were quoted.
Joist is built for contractors and it shows. Work orders, change orders, client contracts, licence and insurance details on the document, and homeowner financing are all things a builder actually asks for, and most of this list has never heard of them.
The catch
Basics is five invoices a month, and almost everything in the paragraph above sits on a plan higher than the one on the front of the pricing page. Joist also publishes plan cards that disagree with its own comparison grid, which is not a promising sign for a document you are meant to buy from.
The features that make Joist worth it are not the ones in the price you were quoted.
Two questions, and they have different answers: what you get for nothing, and what the least you can pay actually buys. Pick one.
A paid tier includes its own free tier, so a mark means available at that price or below. 22 rows go our way, 14 theirs, 1 are the same in both, and 22 are neither or unstated.
| Feature | Invoice Koifree, then $99.99 a year | Joist$10 Basics | Cheaper for a tradesperson |
|---|---|---|---|
| Documents | |||
| Invoices | 100 a year | 5 a month | Invoice Koi |
| Estimates or quotes | ● | in the 5 | Invoice Koi |
| Clients | ● | capped | Invoice Koi |
| Turn an estimate into an invoice | ● | ○ | Invoice Koi |
| Recurring invoices | ● | · | Not stated |
| Credit notes | ● | · | Not stated |
| Work orders | – | ▲ | Them |
| Change orders | – | ▲ | Them |
| Client contracts | – | ▲ | Them |
| Document or project templates | ● | ▲ | Invoice Koi |
| Price book of saved items | ● | ▲ | Invoice Koi |
| How the document looks | |||
| Your logo on the document | ● | ▲ | Invoice Koi |
| Your brand or accent colour | ● | ▲ | Invoice Koi |
| Choice of templates | ● | · | Not stated |
| No vendor branding on it | ● | ● | Level |
| Rename the field labels | ● | · | Not stated |
| Photos and attachments | ● | ▲ | Invoice Koi |
| Terms and conditions block | ● | · | Not stated |
| Licence and insurance details | – | ▲ | Them |
| Your own signature | ● | · | Not stated |
| Client e-signature | ○ | · | Not stated |
| Getting paid | |||
| Accept card payments | – | ○ | Them |
| Bank transfer or ACH | – | · | Not stated |
| Tap to Pay in person | – | ▲ | Them |
| Deposits or milestone payments | ○ | ▲ | Invoice Koi |
| Record partial payments | ● | · | Not stated |
| Pass processing fees to the client | – | ▲ | Them |
| Tips | – | · | Not stated |
| Automatic payment reminders | ● | · | Not stated |
| Overdue alerts to you | ● | · | Not stated |
| Know the invoice was opened | – | · | Not stated |
| A link the client opens | – | · | Not stated |
| Client statements | ○ | · | Not stated |
| Homeowner financing | – | ○ | Them |
| Lending or capital for you | – | ▲ | Them |
| Running the business | |||
| Expense tracking | ● | ▲ | Invoice Koi |
| Receipt scanning | 5 a day | · | Not stated |
| Time tracking | ● | · | Not stated |
| Jobs and job organisation | ● | ▲ | Invoice Koi |
| Schedule visits or a calendar | ● | ▲ | Invoice Koi |
| Routing or GPS | – | – | Neither |
| Reports | ● | ▲ | Invoice Koi |
| Export CSV, spreadsheet or PDF | ● | · | Not stated |
| Accounting sync | – | ▲ | Them |
| Bank feed import | – | · | Not stated |
| Barcode scanner | – | · | Not stated |
| Leads or a CRM | – | ▲ | Them |
| Track client activity | ○ | ▲ | Invoice Koi |
| Request client reviews | – | ▲ | Them |
| A marketing site for you | – | ▲ | Them |
| An AI assistant | 5 a day | ▲ | Invoice Koi |
| Voice note into an invoice | 5 a day | – | Invoice Koi |
| Read a document and answer on it | 5 a day | – | Invoice Koi |
| Account and scale | |||
| Mobile app | ● | ○ | Invoice Koi |
| Web access | – | ○ | Them |
| Sync and backup across devices | books; pictures on Pro | ○ | Invoice Koi |
| Users on the account | 1 user | ○ | Invoice Koi |
| More than one business | ● | · | Not stated |
| Priority support | one to two days | ▲ | Invoice Koi |
The same on all eleven of these pages. One price, billed once a year, with no seat maths and no plan above it. Free is one person and their own books, counted at 100 invoices a year and at nothing else. Pro is what leaves the phone: the photographs on a server, the reading, and the paperwork a client signs or opens.
Everything in Free is in Pro too. Pro is sold through the App Store, so the price you are shown is your own country's.
No trial clock, no card, and no invoice with somebody else's name at the bottom of it. If Pro is worth $99.99 a year to you, it will still be there in a month.
iPhone and iPad, iOS 16.4 or later.
Every Joist cell was read from their own pricing page on 7 September 2026, at US list prices in US dollars. Joist's plan cards disagree with its own comparison grid on unlimited clients and work orders. This column follows the plan cards, because those are what a buyer is shown at the moment of paying. A blank means they do not name the feature on the page where they ask for money, and we count that as not included rather than guessing in our own favour. Processing rates appear only where the vendor is itself the processor: read a missing rate as unstated, never as free. If we have a line wrong, tell us and we will change it.
Joist and every other name and logo on this page belong to their owners. They are here to say which product is being compared, which is the only reason a comparison may use them, and nothing here is endorsed by or affiliated with them.