Guides · Comparison · Facts checked 2026-09-07
A Bitrix24 alternative for people who just want to get paid
Bitrix24's free plan is enormous — unlimited users, unlimited invoices, chat, tasks, a site builder. There is one thing it does not do on the free plan, and it is the thing you opened it for: take a card payment.
If you are reading this you have probably already signed up for Bitrix24, met the wizard asking what your primary goal is, and started wondering whether you needed all of it. This page is not going to tell you Bitrix24 is bad. It is a genuine office suite and its free plan gives away more than ours does. It is going to tell you the one thing that decides it for most one-person businesses, with the source, so you can check it yourself.
The one row that decides it
Bitrix24's own Stripe integration app states that it works with Bitrix24 commercial plans only. So on the free plan you can write unlimited invoices and then have no built-in way to collect on them by card. The usual workarounds are to upgrade, or to buy a third-party connector — Stripe24 by EMCsoft is listed at $1 per transaction, which on a $3 market sale is a third of the sale. Read that on their marketplace before you trust us on it; it is their page, not ours.
Their free plan writes invoices. Ours gets you paid. Card, Apple Pay and Google Pay are on the Pocket Business free plan, and so is the in-person till for cash — we take 0.5% (capped at $25) only when money actually moves.
The two free plans, side by side
| Bitrix24 (Free) | Pocket Business (Free) | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $0 | $0 |
| Invoices | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Users | Unlimited | 1 seat — more on Starter and Pro |
| Take a card | Not on the free plan — their Stripe app is commercial plans only | Yes. Stripe's rate (2.9% + 30¢ in the US) + 0.5% to us, capped at $25 |
| Apple Pay / Google Pay | Follows the above | Yes, free |
| In-person selling | — | QR code the customer scans, plus a cash till. No card reader |
| CRM pipeline, deals | Unlimited | None — a job is the invoice, and that is deliberate |
| Chat and video | Yes, up to 300 people | — |
| Tasks, Kanban, Gantt | Yes | — |
| E-signature | Yes | — |
| Website builder | Yes | Storefront page on Starter and up |
| Storage | 5 GB, shared across the account | None on free — uploads are a paid feature |
| If you go quiet | Their helpdesk says a free account is deleted after 50+ days of inactivity | Your account stays. A slow winter is not a reason to lose your invoices |
Bitrix24 figures read from Bitrix24's own helpdesk and app-marketplace pages on the date at the top of this page; Stripe's US card rate from stripe.com/pricing. Both companies change their plans; check before you decide.
Where Bitrix24 is better, plainly
- Unlimited free users. We price Starter and Pro on seats, so a second till costs money and theirs does not. If you have a team of five who all need logins and nobody needs to take a card, that is a real reason to pick them.
- Breadth. Chat, video calls, tasks, Kanban and Gantt boards, e-signature and a website builder are all real work we do not do.
- A sales pipeline. If you track deals through stages and want that in the same place as the invoice, they have it and we chose not to build it.
- They are a funded company with an entire suite. We are a small shop, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.
Where Pocket Business is better
- Getting paid, on the free plan. Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, a QR code with no card reader, and a cash till at a market stall.
- It works on one bar of signal. It installs on your phone and queues what you do while the signal is gone, which is the difference between ringing up a sale at a market table and not.
- Starting in thirty seconds. The builder writes a complete invoice before you make an account — no wizard asking what your primary goal is.
- Estimates that become the invoice when the customer accepts, without retyping anything.
- Ready-made line items for forty trades, in each trade's own words.
- Nothing gets deleted for being quiet. Seasonal sellers keep their history.
The short version
If you want an office suite for a team — chat, tasks, pipelines, signatures — and payments are somebody else's problem, Bitrix24's free plan is more generous than ours and you should use it. If you are one person with a phone who needs to write an invoice and have the money land in your bank, the suite is weight you carry for nothing, and the one feature you actually need is on the far side of a paid plan. That is the whole comparison.
Common questions
Can I really not take a card on Bitrix24's free plan?
Their own Stripe app page says it works with Bitrix24 commercial plans only, checked on the date at the top of this page. There are third-party connectors on their marketplace — one is priced at $1 per transaction — and you can always send a payment link from another service by hand. What you cannot do is collect a card payment on the free plan with their built-in Stripe integration. Check their marketplace yourself; plans change.
I already built my invoices in Bitrix24. Do I have to retype them?
Your customer list is the part worth moving, and you can import it from a CSV — Bitrix24 exports one. Invoices themselves are usually not worth migrating: keep the old ones where they are for your records and start writing new ones here.
Why does Pocket Business charge for extra users when Bitrix24 does not?
Because they sell a suite to offices and we sell a till to one-person businesses, and seats are how our paid plans are priced. It is a fair objection and we are not going to dress it up: if you need several free logins, they win that row.
What does Pocket Business cost when someone pays me?
Stripe's card rate — 2.9% + 30¢ in the US as of the date at the top of this page — plus 0.5% to us, capped at $25 per payment. Cash sales at the till cost nothing. There is no monthly charge for taking payments.