TapTax vs Invoice Simple
An invoice maker, or invoicing that feeds your tax return

Invoice Simple is a widely used invoice and estimate maker, and it is good at what it does. You fill in a client, add lines, send a professional invoice from your phone and get paid by card or PayPal. What it does not do is anything with that income afterwards.

That matters more in the UK from April 2026 than it did before. Under Making Tax Digital, a sole trader with qualifying income over £50,000 keeps digital records and sends HMRC a quarterly update. An invoice app on its own leaves you to rebuild those figures somewhere else.

A note on where these prices come from

Invoice Simple's website refused automated reads on 7 October 2026, so its own pricing page could not be checked. The plan limits below come from Invoice Simple's help centre, and the prices from the UK App Store listing for the iPhone app, sold by Zenvoice Inc., on the same day. Prices bought through the website can differ from in-app prices, and we could not verify the web prices, the annual prices in pounds or the trial length. Every figure on this page is dated so you can check it against the current page before you buy.

Side by side

Sources: Invoice Simple help centre articles on the Essentials, Plus and Premium plans, the UK App Store listing and HMRC's find software service, all checked 7 October 2026.

The invoice cap is the first thing to price

Invoice Simple's plans are named by features but priced by volume. Essentials allows up to 3 invoices a month, Plus up to 10 and Premium unlimited. A gardener with a dozen regular customers would be on Premium, at £19.99 a month on the App Store, about £240 a year before any annual discount.

TapTax does not count invoices once you pay. Starter, at £4.99 a month or £49 a year, has unlimited invoices, and the free plan includes three in total so you can try it. For anyone sending more than ten invoices a month, that is the biggest price difference on this page.

Invoice cap

A limit on how many invoices a plan lets you send in a month. Many invoice apps use it to move regular invoicers onto a higher tier.

What Invoice Simple does better

Invoice Simple is a more complete invoice maker. Estimates live in the app and convert to invoices, where TapTax's quote generator is a free web tool that does not save the quote to your account. Clients can pay by card, debit card, PayPal or by scanning a QR code, and you get a read receipt when they open the invoice. Premium adds deposits and client signatures, which suit jobs where you take money up front.

If card payments and signed estimates are central to how you work, those are real advantages, and TapTax does not match them.

What TapTax does better

TapTax's advantage starts where the invoice ends.

It chases late payers for you, before, on and after the due date, and for business clients it can add statutory interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate plus fixed compensation of £40, £70 or £100, under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act. Invoice Simple's help centre did not mention late fees or interest when we checked.

It reads the other half of your records too. Photograph a receipt or upload a supplier bill and TapTax reads the supplier, date, VAT and total, checks the arithmetic and the VAT rate, and matches it to the payment on your bank statement.

And it files. Your income and expenses become your quarterly update to HMRC, for sole trader income on every paid plan and UK and overseas property on Pro. With Invoice Simple you would export your figures and pay for MTD software as well.

What a year costs

For a sole trader sending around 12 invoices a month and filing under Making Tax Digital:

• Invoice Simple Premium plus separate MTD software: £239.88 a year at the App Store monthly price, before any annual discount, plus whatever the MTD software costs. Budget MTD tools on HMRC's directory start at £0.
• TapTax Starter: £49 a year on the annual plan, with unlimited invoices, 50 receipt and bill reads a month and every quarterly update.

If you send three invoices a month or fewer and already have MTD software you like, Invoice Simple Essentials at £6.99 a month is a fair price for a better invoice maker.

Who should choose which

A photographer taking deposits and card payments from the public

Invoice Simple. Deposits, signatures and card payments on the invoice match how you work, and you can pair it with any MTD tool for the tax.

A plumber with regular landlord and agency clients

TapTax. Unlimited invoices on Starter, the Trades template and a rate card for your usual jobs, reminders that chase slow agencies, and the quarterly update done from the same records. See the plumber invoice template first if you want to compare the layout.

Someone just starting out who sends one or two invoices

Either, for free. TapTax's free plan includes three invoices, and our free invoice generator makes a PDF with no account at all.

The bottom line

“Invoice Simple makes a better invoice. TapTax makes the invoice part of your tax. Under Making Tax Digital, the second one saves more time.”

Invoice Simple is a capable invoice maker with card payments, but its price climbs with every invoice you send and it does nothing for your tax. For a UK sole trader who invoices regularly and files under Making Tax Digital, TapTax does the invoicing, the receipts and the quarterly update for less than Invoice Simple's cheapest plan.

People also ask

Is Invoice Simple good for UK sole traders?

As an invoice maker, yes: it takes card and PayPal payments, keeps estimates and sends from your phone. It is not UK tax software, so a sole trader under Making Tax Digital still needs separate software for quarterly updates.

What is the cheapest way to send unlimited invoices in the UK?

Among apps with unlimited invoicing, SumUp Invoices Free is £0 and TapTax Starter is £4.99 a month, which also includes receipt reading and MTD filing. Invoice Simple’s unlimited plan was £19.99 a month on the UK App Store on 7 October 2026.

Can I move my clients from Invoice Simple to TapTax?

Yes. Add each client once with their payment terms and TapTax remembers them, then build a rate card of the jobs you do. Past invoices can stay in Invoice Simple as your record.

Do TapTax invoices show VAT?

Yes, if you are VAT-registered: each line is added up with its VAT, and your VAT number goes on the invoice. If you are not registered, the invoice shows no VAT, which is correct for most sole traders under the £90,000 threshold.