Two iPhone invoice apps, built around different ideas of what an invoice is. Invoice Simple is a popular, polished, general-purpose invoice maker. Milevo is a project-first billing app for people who quote and deliver work in milestones and hours. Here's an honest look at which fits which kind of work — written by the makers of Milevo.
Short version: If you send one-off invoices to many different customers and want the most established, cross-platform option, Invoice Simple is an excellent choice. If your work lives in projects with deposits, milestones, progress draws, or tracked hours — and you want that structure to flow straight into the invoice — that's the specific job Milevo is built for.
Where Invoice Simple is strong
Credit where it's due — Invoice Simple has earned its reputation, and for a lot of freelancers it's the right tool. Its strengths are real:
Maturity and trust. It's one of the most-reviewed invoice apps on the App Store, with a very high rating across a huge number of ratings. That track record matters.
Cross-platform. It runs on iPhone, Android, and the web, so your data follows you across devices and operating systems.
Fast for one-off invoices and estimates. If you mostly send a single invoice to a single customer, the flow is quick and well-polished.
Broad ecosystem. Receipt scanning, expense tracking, and online card payments are part of its wider toolkit.
If that describes how you bill, you may not need to read further — it's a solid, dependable app.
Where Milevo is different
Milevo isn't trying to be a broader invoice maker — it's trying to be the best fit for project-based billing. The difference is structural, not cosmetic:
Projects, milestones, and deposits are first-class. You build a project, set its milestone schedule (Deposit, Mid-project, Final), and bill from each one — with live billed/paid/remaining tracking on the project itself.
Tracked time becomes invoice lines. The built-in timer logs billable hours; those hours convert into grouped line items, so you're not copying a time log into an invoice by hand.
Progress and deposit billing carry forward. Because the project remembers what's already been billed, the next deposit, milestone, or progress draw reconciles back to the contract instead of being recreated from scratch.
Local-first and private by default. Your clients and invoices live on your device with optional iCloud sync — no account required to start — and you can export everything to PDF, CSV, or JSON.
Side by side
Capability
Milevo
Invoice Simple
Professional PDF invoices
Yes — Modern, Classic, Minimal
Yes
Estimates / quotes
Yes
Yes
Projects & milestone billing
Built around it
Not the core model
Deposit & progress / draw billing
First-class
Manual line items
Built-in time tracking → invoice lines
Yes, integrated
Not a focus
Runs on Android & web
iPhone & iPad only
Yes — iOS, Android, web
Works offline, no account required
Yes, local-first
Account-based
Export to PDF, CSV, JSON
Yes
PDF; other exports vary by plan
Free tier
3 invoices / month free
Free tier available
This table reflects how each app positions itself for project-based billing. Invoice Simple is a capable, full-featured app; "not the core model" means project/milestone structure isn't its primary design, not that it can't produce an invoice. Feature availability and plans on either app can change — check each app's current App Store listing before deciding.
Which should you choose?
Choose Invoice Simple if…
You bill many different customers with mostly one-off invoices.
You need Android or a web app, not just iPhone.
You want the longest track record and largest review base.
Receipt scanning and a broad finance toolkit matter to you.
Choose Milevo if…
Your work is organized into projects you bill in stages.
You take deposits and bill milestones or progress draws.
You track hours and want them to become invoice lines automatically.
You're on iPhone and value local-first, no-account privacy.
Bill the way you actually quote
If deposits, milestones, progress draws, and tracked hours describe your work, Milevo turns that structure into invoices in a tap — no spreadsheets, no re-keying. Free to download, with three invoices a month on the house.
Disclosure: this page is published by Milevo (Sparkwell Studios LLC). We've tried to represent Invoice Simple fairly and to highlight its genuine strengths. Invoice Simple is a product of its respective owner and is not affiliated with Milevo. Details about either app can change over time — please confirm current features and pricing on each app's App Store page before you decide.