Accounting · head to head
freee vs Ottimate
freee
Accounting
Japanese integrated cloud accounting software for sole proprietors and corporations
- From
- 980/month
- Rated
- -
Ottimate
Accounting
Invoice capture and accounts payable automation trained on food and beverage distributor formats
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: freee pricing varies significantly across multiple product categories and tiers; Ottimate nothing is published about price, and quotes are structured by location and invoice volume, so a group with a few high-volume sites and one with many low-volume sites can receive very different numbers for the same total spend
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which freee and Ottimate actually diverge.
Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Accounting).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in freee
Nothing recorded that Ottimate does not also cover.
Only in Ottimate
- Line-item invoice capture
- GL coding
- Approval routing
- Supplier payments
- Price change alerts
- Purchase order matching
- Digital invoice retrieval
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
freee
- Filing Japanese tax documents electronically each yearnot Ottimate
- Calculating payroll and year-end adjustments automaticallynot Ottimate
- Creating opening documents without visiting tax officenot Ottimate
- Tracking company expenses across departments centrallynot Ottimate
Ottimate
- A 40 site restaurant group whose bookkeepers key distributor invoices line by line to track food costnot freee
- An operator that wants to know within a week when a supplier raises the price of an item outside the contracted schedulenot freee
- A hotel group standardising accounts payable approvals across properties that each have their own general manager sign-off rulesnot freee
- A finance team migrating from paper invoice files that needs digital retrieval from supplier portals rather than chasing branches for copiesnot freee
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
freee
- Pricing varies significantly across multiple product categories and tiers
- Some corporate tiers (Advance) reach ¥39,780+/month
Ottimate
- Nothing is published about price, and quotes are structured by location and invoice volume, so a group with a few high-volume sites and one with many low-volume sites can receive very different numbers for the same total spend
- The line-item extraction advantage is trained on food and beverage distributor formats, so accuracy on long-tail suppliers, service invoices and one-off vendors falls back to general OCR and needs human review
- It is an accounts payable layer, not an inventory or recipe costing system, so operators still need Restaurant365 or an equivalent for true plate costing and the value depends on that integration behaving
- The company has rebranded once already from Plate IQ, and much of the third party comparison material still uses the old name or wrongly attributes it to AvidXchange, which makes independent due diligence unusually hard
- Payment execution through the platform introduces a dependency on Ottimate for supplier relationships, and moving away later means re-establishing payment details with every vendor rather than simply exporting data
Pricing, plan by plan
freee
980/month- freee會計 Starter$980/month
- Individual business owner accounting tier
- freee會計 Corporate Solo$2980/month
- Corporate accounting tier
- freee人事労務$400/month per employee
- HR and payroll module per-employee pricing
- freee勤怠管理$300/month per employee
- Attendance tracking per-employee
Ottimate
On request- Ottimate$undefined/year
- Quoted by location count and invoice volume
- Payment rails may carry separate transaction charges
- Implementation and accounting system integration scoped separately
Which should you pick?
Choose freee if
Nothing in the data separates freee from Ottimate on the points above - pick on price and on how each one feels to use.
Choose Ottimate if
- You need line-item invoice capture.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want gl coding.
Questions people ask
- Is freee or Ottimate better?
- Neither clearly leads. freee starts at 980/month and Ottimate at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, freee or Ottimate?
- freee starts at 980/month and Ottimate at On request.
- Does freee or Ottimate run on more platforms?
- freee runs on Web. Ottimate runs on Web, iOS, Android.
- What is freee best used for?
- freee is most often used for filing japanese tax documents electronically each year, calculating payroll and year-end adjustments automatically, creating opening documents without visiting tax office, tracking company expenses across departments centrally. Of those, filing japanese tax documents electronically each year and calculating payroll and year-end adjustments automatically are not what Ottimate is typically brought in for.
- What can freee do that Ottimate cannot?
- Ottimate covers Line-item invoice capture, GL coding, Approval routing, Supplier payments.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
freee: What is freee's accounting software pricing?
Individual business owners start at ¥980/month for Starter, while corporate accounting begins at ¥2,980/month for Solo Corp, with prices extending to ¥39,780+/month for Advance plans.
SourceOttimate: Is Ottimate owned by AvidXchange?
No. Ottimate is the rebranded Plate IQ and operates as an independent venture-backed company. AvidXchange is a competitor, not the parent.
freee: Does freee charge per employee for HR and payroll?
Yes, freee人事労務 (HR/Payroll) costs ¥400-¥1,100 per employee per month, and freee勤怠管理 (Attendance) costs ¥300 per employee per month.
SourceOttimate: What was it called before?
Plate IQ. The company kept the same product and renamed it Ottimate.
freee: Are there free freee products?
Several freee products are completely free, including freee開業 (Business Opening), freee請求書 (Invoicing), freeeカード (Card), and certain features like payroll rules creation.
SourceOttimate: Does it work outside restaurants?
It will process any invoice, but the line-item extraction accuracy that justifies the price is tuned to food and beverage distributors. Other industries should test carefully before committing.
freee: Does freee offer a free trial?
Freee offers a 30-day free trial for its accounting software and provides annual payment discounts on most plans.
SourceOttimate: Does it replace Restaurant365?
No. It handles invoice capture, approval and payment. Recipe costing and restaurant-specific inventory stay in Restaurant365 or an equivalent.
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