Wave is a genuinely good free tool. The catch arrives quietly: branding, recurring invoices and automatic reminders sit on the paid plan, and every card payment takes a percentage on the way past.
You have been sending invoices for nothing, which felt like a small win every month. Then a client asked for something on headed paper, or the same client needed billing again this month and you typed it out by hand again, or you realised the only thing chasing your late payers is you. The tool did not change. Your business outgrew the free edge of it.
Tick anything true today. Two or more and free has started costing you something other than money.
Then the choice is not free against paid, it is which paid. The payment fee calculator is the one to run first, because processing percentages are usually the larger number and nobody ever adds them up.
Wave offers a free Starter plan and a Pro plan at $19 a month. On the free plan, per Wave's own pricing and support documentation, branded invoices, recurring invoices and automatic bank transaction import are Pro features, and automatic reminders need either Pro or online payments switched on. There is no e-signature, and payment QR codes appear on Wave Checkout links rather than on the invoice itself.
The other number is the processing rate: 2.9% plus $0.60 per card payment and 1% with a $1 minimum per bank payment, available in the US and Canada only. On a $1,000 invoice that is about $29.60 in card fees. Two of those a month is more than the Pro subscription, and it is charged whether you are on the free plan or the paid one.
Wave's published figures. The second one is the one people forget.
Wave published pricing and support documentation as of August 2026, from waveapps.com/pricing. Prices can change. Billbooks is $7.95 a month flat and connects your own payment gateway, so the processing rate and the countries you can take payment in are that provider's, not ours: see the pricing.
Stay on Wave if free is doing the job. If you send a handful of plain invoices a year, you are in the US or Canada, and an unbranded document does not bother your clients, nothing here is worth paying for and you should keep the money. Wave also includes basic accounting and receipt scanning that an invoicing tool does not replace. The moment to look elsewhere is when you are about to pay for Pro, because that is a real comparison rather than a free one.
Half an hour with a calculator answers this properly, and it sometimes says stay.
Take your card takings and multiply by 2.9%, then add $0.60 per invoice. Compare that with your own gateway rate. For anyone taking more than a few thousand a year this is the biggest single line in the comparison.
Every recurring invoice you rebuild by hand is a few minutes a month, every month, forever. The invoicing cost calculator turns that into a figure.
Wave exports customers and invoices to CSV. Do it while the account is live, whatever you choose. It is the thing people wish they had done.
History can stay in the old account. Rebuilding what is still owed is usually a short list, and it is the only part that has to follow you.
Your own payment gateway
Connect the provider you already use, at their rate, wherever they operate, rather than one fixed percentage in two countries.
Branding on the entry plan
Your logo and colours on invoices and quotes at $7.95 a month, not behind an upgrade.
Recurring and reminders included
Set a monthly invoice once and set the chasing once, both on the cheapest plan, and both covering quotes as well as invoices.
Signatures and QR on the document
A client can sign a quote and scan to pay from the invoice itself.
The honest comparison is Billbooks at $7.95 a month flat against Wave Pro at $19, not against Wave free. Against free, the fair answer is that free wins on price and loses on branding, repeat billing and automatic chasing, and you should pick by which of those actually costs you more.
Wave keeps branding, recurring invoices and automatic reminders on its $19 Pro plan. Billbooks includes all three at $7.95 a month flat and lets you connect your own payment gateway instead of a fixed 2.9% plus $0.60 card rate.
The Starter plan is free to send invoices, and the limits are real rather than hidden. Branded invoices, recurring invoices and automatic reminders need the $19 Pro plan, and card payments cost 2.9% plus $0.60 whichever plan you are on.
You can send invoices, but Wave online payments are available in the US and Canada only, so clients elsewhere cannot pay through the invoice. Tools that connect your own payment gateway work wherever that gateway operates.
Not cheaper than free, and cheaper than Wave Pro: $7.95 a month flat against $19. The bigger difference for most businesses is card processing, because Billbooks uses your own gateway rate rather than a fixed 2.9% plus $0.60.
It tracks expenses against jobs and scans documents, but it does not keep books. Wave includes basic accounting on the free plan, so if you rely on that, keep it or move to an accounting package rather than an invoicing tool.
Whatever your own payment provider charges, because you connect your own gateway. That is usually better at volume and means you can take payment anywhere your provider operates.
Yes, digital signatures are included on every plan, and quotes get automatic follow-ups as well as invoices, which Wave applies to invoices only.
Export customers and invoices to CSV from Wave, rebuild the invoices still unpaid, and leave the rest as history in the old account until your year is filed.
Yes, 30 days and no card. The calculators and generators are free to use without signing up for anything.
A little kit of calculators and generators, on the house.
30-day free trial. No credit card required.
Try Billbooks freeSide by side on price and features: Billbooks vs Wave. Free and needing no account: the payment fee calculator and the invoice generator. If the gating is the thing that annoys you, see which invoicing tools put every feature on the cheapest plan.