Zoho Invoice is worth considering when you want hosted invoicing with time tracking, a customer portal and payment-gateway connections. Pepper fits businesses that want fixed-price client work, invoices and team tasks on their own hosting, with full source code. Pepper includes timers, weekly timesheets and invoice drafts from tracked time. It does not include a customer login portal or card checkout.
Zoho Invoice lists project timesheets, invoices from tracked hours, customer portal access and payment-gateway integrations. Its pricing page describes a free service with limits of two users, three projects and 500 invoices per year. Sources checked 13 October 2026: Zoho Invoice’s features and pricing and usage limits. Check the offer and gateway availability for your country.
Compare how you bill client work
| Requirement | Pepper | Zoho Invoice |
|---|---|---|
| Billable work | Approved fixed-price milestones and tracked time can share an invoice draft | Project and task hours can become invoices |
| Customer access | Signed quote-response links; no customer login portal | Customer portal for transactions and quote responses |
| Payments | Staff record payments received elsewhere | Payment-gateway integrations; provider terms and fees apply |
| Installation | Your hosting, database and licensed source copy | Hosted service |
Where Pepper fits
Choose Zoho Invoice for evaluation when its hosted workflow and usage limits fit your business, particularly for hourly work or customer self-service. Consider Pepper when control of the installation and connected work boards matter more than those features.
Pepper includes quotes, invoices, reminders, manual purchases and accountant exports. You arrange hosting, email, backups and updates. Source access allows changes within the licence, but adding a missing portal or payment gateway would be a separate development project.
Compare costs and moving work
Pepper costs $199 for one production installation, full source, a perpetual licence, and one year of updates and support. Updates and support renew automatically at $199/year unless you cancel. Cancel anytime to stop future charges; your downloaded copy keeps working after the paid period ends. Hosting, email and maintenance are separate costs. Licence and support terms.
Pepper has no Zoho migration tool. Keep old documents accessible and use a separate test installation to check a complete job before moving live work. The public demo is read-only.
Follow a fixed-price milestone invoice to assess Pepper’s billing approach. Review source rights and maintenance if control of the installation is your reason to choose it.