I mentioned a few weeks back that I was maybe looking at a new invoicing software. Then Ronin went and got purchased by Godaddy and my move was sealed.

One of my first stops on the way was Thrive Solo. I had tried the app a few years back and remembered thinking it was nice but for some reason it didn’t stick.

Since my initial trial Solo had updated to version 2 and I figured I should test out this seriously beautiful app.

Well that’s about all the good I have to say about Solo. It’s beautiful.

In theory you can create estimates and invoices and track todo items and track overall projects.

Unfortunately after 2 hours of playing with Solo (and yes watching the tutorials) I was still mostly lost in the interface. Even coming back the next day and putting in a few more hours I had no idea what was going to happen.

Any time I wanted to do any action I felt like I was just pain old blind guessing. I’d even watch a tutorial video and then go back to the interface and stare blankly at it. There simply weren’t enough visual cues that I could latch onto between the training and the site.

I love awesome design and typography and a unique awesome interface is a thing of beauty. In this case I think that beauty trumps usability.

Solo certainly checks all the boxes off a feature list but since I have no idea how to access a feature the ticked boxes don’t matter.

Do I recommend this, not really. If you think you can jump into the big learning curve I hear that Solo is great I’m just not sure that I’m going to recoup my cost in learning a totally obtuse interface any time in the next year.

It certainly is pretty though.