[Side Project] I built a "Buy Once, Use Forever" QR Bill app for freelancers (No Subscriptions)

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Hi everyone,

my previous post got flagged as spam (rightfully so, I realized I came in way too hot with the marketing-speak and links). I’m a real person, not a bot, so I wanted to try again properly.

The short version: I’m a local dev and I’ve been doing side-hustles in IT for years. The thing that always annoyed me was the “subscription tax” on software. I refused to pay CHF 30/month for Bexio just to send three invoices a month, but the free Excel templates were a pain to maintain.

So, I built my own native iOS and Android apps to solve it.

The philosophy (which I think fits this forum):

  1. Buy Once, Cry Once: It’s a one-time purchase (price of a coffee). No recurring costs.

  2. Privacy: It runs 100% offline on your device. I don’t want your data, and I don’t run a server.

  3. Efficiency: It generates the new “Structured Address” QR codes (mandatory from Nov 2025) automatically.

I won’t post direct links this time to keep the peace. If you are interested in a “pay once” tool for your side gigs, you can search for “Swiss QR Bill & Invoice” on the App Store or Google Play store (ch qr rechnung in German).

I’d genuinely love feedback on the pricing model—do you guys prefer one-time purchases for admin tools, or is the market totally moved to subscriptions now?

Cheers,
c0desurfer

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A few years ago, my dad needed help managing the billing for his side business (around 200 invoices per year).

Like you, I quickly realized that using Word or Excel alone was inefficient and error-prone, while subscription-based tools become costly over time. So I decided to build a custom solution with a different approach: the data is entered in Excel, processed with Python/pandas, and the invoice (PDF) is generated using a LaTeX Jinja2 template (QR payslip and envelope included).

  • The data remains vendor-independent, stored in a simple xlsx file.
  • Data entry can be handled by anyone familiar with Excel, ideally on a desktop.
  • The Jinja2/LaTeX templates are fully customizable to meet any layout or business requirements.

If anyone is interested in getting started with this stack, feel free to reach out. The code is not on GitHub, would need to clean up all the personal stuff from the templates.

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