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Short answer: Wave wins on price — it’s genuinely free to start. FreshBooks wins on depth — built-in time tracking, expense capture, and real support. The right pick comes down to one question: are you just starting out, or are you already billing clients every week?
We compared both side by side — pricing, invoicing, the real cost of getting paid, and time tracking — so you can decide in one read. Here’s the full breakdown.
Quick Verdict — Who Should Pick What
| Wave | FreshBooks | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | New freelancers, simple invoicing, $0 budget | Hourly billers, growing client lists, all-in-one workflow |
| Starting price | $0 (Starter, free forever) | $23/mo (Lite) |
| Biggest drawback | No real time tracking; automatic bank imports are paid-only | Monthly cost adds up before you’re earning steadily |
- Pick Wave if: you’re starting out, you send simple invoices, and $0/month matters more than advanced features.
- Pick FreshBooks if: you bill hourly, track expenses, and want invoicing + time tracking + payments in one place — and the monthly fee pays for itself in saved time.
Pricing Compared (Verified October 20, 2026)
| Wave | FreshBooks | |
|---|---|---|
| Invoicing | Free, unlimited (Starter) | Included on all paid plans |
| Accounting | Free (basic, Starter) | Included |
| Plan options | Starter $0 · Pro $19/mo ($190/yr) | Lite $23/mo · Plus $43/mo · Premium $70/mo |
| Billable clients | Unlimited | Lite 5 · Plus 50 · Premium unlimited |
| Time tracking | Not available | Built-in timer included |
| Automatic bank imports | Pro only ($19/mo) — moved behind the paywall in 2025 | Included |
| Receipt scanning | Pro only | Included (mobile app) |
| Free tier / trial | Starter: free forever | 30-day trial, then paid |
What changed at Wave (and why most comparisons are wrong): Wave used to bundle automatic bank imports in the free product. In 2025, auto bank feeds moved to the new paid Pro plan ($19/mo), along with receipt scanning and priority support. The free Starter plan still includes unlimited invoices and basic accounting — so “Wave is free” is still true, just narrower than it was. If a 2024-era article told you bank imports are free on Wave, it’s outdated.
What changed at FreshBooks: List prices are now $23/month (Lite), $43/month (Plus) and $70/month (Premium), with a 10% discount on yearly billing. FreshBooks runs frequent promotions that cut the first months heavily — compare list prices, not promo prices, when you budget.
Invoicing Features Head-to-Head
Creating and sending invoices. Both tools make clean, professional invoices in minutes — this is table stakes. Wave’s free tier gives you unlimited invoices with no client cap; FreshBooks’ Lite tier caps billable clients at 5, which matters if you juggle several clients at once.
Templates and customization. FreshBooks has the edge: more polished templates, easier logo/color branding, and invoice previews that look genuinely client-ready. Wave’s invoices are clean but plainer.
Recurring invoices and retainers. FreshBooks supports recurring invoice profiles natively — set a retainer once, it bills on schedule. Wave supports recurring invoices too, but with fewer scheduling options. If you run monthly retainers, FreshBooks saves you real admin time.
Payment reminders. FreshBooks automates late-payment reminders on a schedule you set. Wave’s automation is thinner — you’ll nudge late payers more manually.
Bottom line on invoicing: Wave covers the basics free. FreshBooks is the better billing operation — automation that matters once you have 5+ active clients.
Getting Paid — The Fee Math That Matters
This is where comparisons usually wave their hands. So let’s do the actual math: one $1,000 invoice, paid by card, and what you keep.
| Fee | Wave (Starter) | FreshBooks |
|---|---|---|
| Standard card (Visa/MC/Discover) | 2.9% + $0.60 = $29.60 → you keep $970.40 | 2.9% + $0.30 = $29.30 → you keep $970.70 |
| AmEx / commercial card | 3.4% + $0.60 = $34.60 → you keep $965.40 | 3.5% + $0.30 = $35.30 → you keep $964.70 |
| Bank payment (ACH) | 1% (min $1) = $10.00 → you keep $990.00 | 1% (capped ~$10) = $10.00 → you keep $990.00 |
Fees verified October 2026 against Wave’s published processing fees and FreshBooks’ published rates. Re-check before relying on them — processors change rates.
What the math tells you:
- Per-transaction, they’re nearly identical. Thirty cents difference on a $1,000 card payment. Fee rates should not decide this comparison.
- The real cost difference is the subscription. Wave: $0. FreshBooks: $23/mo = $276/year before you process a single payment. On ten $1,000 invoices a year, FreshBooks costs you $276 + ~$293 in processing; Wave costs you ~$296 in processing. That gap shrinks as volume grows — and vanishes if FreshBooks’ automation saves you even an hour a month.
- AmEx/commercial cards cost more on both — if your clients pay with corporate cards, budget ~3.5%.
- Bank payments (ACH) are the cheapest way to get paid on either platform — 1% flat. If your clients will do ACH, take it.
Time Tracking & Expenses
This is the section that decides the comparison for a lot of freelancers.
FreshBooks: built-in. Start a timer from any project, log hours against clients, convert tracked time into invoice line items in one click. Expense capture via phone photos of receipts, auto-categorized. If you bill hourly, this is the feature that justifies the subscription — no separate Harvest/Toggl subscription, no spreadsheet reconciliation.
Wave: not really. Wave has no real time-tracking module. You can record expenses, but hourly billing workflows (timer → timesheet → invoice) don’t exist. If you bill 20+ hours a week hourly, Wave will push you toward a second tool — and now you’re paying for two products instead of one.
Who this excludes: hourly freelancers, agencies billing in blocks, anyone who needs to prove hours to a client. If that’s you, this section alone answers the comparison.
Who Should Pick What — The Honest Verdict
No single “winner” — the right tool depends on which freelancer you are:
1. New freelancer, tight budget → Wave.
You’re sending your first invoices and every dollar matters. Unlimited free invoicing, no monthly fee, and you can upgrade to Pro later if manual bank entry starts eating your evenings.
2. Hourly freelancer billing 20+ hrs/week → FreshBooks.
The built-in timer alone pays for the subscription the first time it catches billable hours you’d have forgotten. One tool for time, expenses, invoices, and payments beats a stack of free ones.
3. Freelancer with international clients → neither is perfect; keep reading.
Cross-border fees, FX spreads, and payout availability vary by country — and most US-centric comparisons never mention them. If you’re based outside the US/UK, check signup and payout availability for your country before committing; some tools restrict accounts or payouts by region. Our international-clients comparison covers the tools that actually work across borders — it’s linked at the end of this article series.
FAQ
Is Wave really free?
The Starter plan is free forever — unlimited invoices, basic accounting, expense tracking. What’s not free anymore: automatic bank imports, receipt scanning, and priority support (those moved to the $19/mo Pro plan in 2025), plus payment-processing fees when clients pay you online.
Does FreshBooks have a free plan?
No — FreshBooks offers a 30-day free trial, then it’s paid plans starting at $23/month. There’s no free-forever tier.
Can I switch from Wave to FreshBooks later?
Yes. Export your Wave data (invoices, clients, chart of accounts) and import into FreshBooks — plan a quiet weekend for it, and reconcile the first month carefully. Many freelancers start on Wave and migrate when hourly billing or client volume justifies FreshBooks.
Which is better for taxes?
Both produce the reports your accountant needs (profit & loss, expense categories). FreshBooks’ cleaner expense capture (receipt photos, auto-categorization) makes tax season less painful. Neither replaces an accountant for anything complex.
Final CTA
Still deciding? Grab our free checklist — 15 invoicing tools compared on price, fees, and freelancer fit — and keep it next to you while you trial both.
Download the free checklist (PDF)
Comparing other pairs? Next in this series: Zoho Invoice vs Wave.