FreshBooks, QuickBooks Online, Xero and Wave all promise to handle your invoices, expenses and tax-time prep — but each one meters something different. One counts your billable clients, one counts your users, one counts your invoices, and one is free until you need automation. This guide compares them on the meter that will actually decide your bill.
Lite, at list price. Annual billing takes 10% off ($248.40/year). Introductory discounts run for a few months only — see the first-year math below.
Simple Start, at list price (1 user). New customers are commonly offered 50% off the first 3 months instead of a trial.
Early, at list price. Every plan includes unlimited users; you pay per business (organization), monthly only in the US.
Starter is free with unlimited invoices and bookkeeping records. Pro is $19/mo (or $190/year) and adds automation.
| FreshBooks | QuickBooks Online | Xero | Wave | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Freelancers and service firms whose work is client → invoice → paid | Small businesses that need a full ledger, inventory or the US accountant ecosystem | Growing teams that want unlimited users and strong bank reconciliation | Solo operators who want invoicing and books at $0 to start |
| What the price meters | Billable clients (5 / 50 / unlimited) | Users and feature tier (1 / 3 / 5 / 25 users) | Per business (organization); invoice volume on the entry plan | Nothing on Starter; automation and payments on Pro |
| Free option | No free plan — 30-day free trial | No free tier on the main plans — 30-day trial, or take the intro discount instead | No free plan — 30-day free trial | Yes — Starter is free, not a trial |
| Paid plans (list price) | Lite $23/mo · Plus $43/mo · Premium $70/mo · Select custom | Simple Start $38/mo · Essentials $85/mo · Plus $140/mo · Advanced $340/mo | Early $27/mo · Growing $59/mo · Established $97/mo | Pro $19/mo or $190/year (Starter $0) |
| First full year at the realistic plan* | Plus: $378.40 in year one with the intro offer, then $516/year at list ($464.40 billed annually) | Plus: $1,470 in year one with the intro offer, then $1,680/year at list | Growing: $566.40 in year one with the intro offer, then $708/year at list | Pro: $199.50 in year one paying monthly with the intro offer — or $190 billed annually, which is cheaper |
| Extra people | 1 user included; each extra team member is $11/mo | Users are bundled by tier; a 6th user forces Advanced | Unlimited users included on all plans | No per-seat fee published; Pro is priced per business |
| Payroll | Add-on: $40/mo + $6 per person | Add-on: Core from $50/mo + $6.50 per employee; higher tiers cost more | Not built in for the US — runs through partners such as Gusto, priced separately | Add-on (US): $40/mo + $6 per person |
| Getting paid by card | Processing fees apply per transaction (around 2.9% + a fixed fee; confirm the current rate) | Processing fees apply per transaction; rates vary by plan and channel | Via connected payment services; fees set by the payment provider | 2.9% + $0.60 per card transaction on Starter; the $0.60 is waived on the first 10 each month on Pro. Bank payments 1% (min $1) |
| Trade-off to know | The client cap is the plan: your 6th billable client forces Plus, your 51st forces Premium | Prices rose in August 2026 and the tier cliffs are steep — one extra user can mean +$200/mo | Entry plan's 20-invoice cap is easy to outgrow, and US payroll is a separate contract | Free means manual: bank imports, receipt capture and reminders are Pro features; US/Canada only for payments and payroll |
* "Realistic plan" = the tier most working freelancers and small teams actually land on (FreshBooks Plus, QuickBooks Plus, Xero Growing, Wave Pro), because the entry tiers carry the caps described above. First-year figures are calculated from the vendors' published list prices and published introductory offers (FreshBooks: 80% off for 4 months; QuickBooks: 50% off for 3 months; Xero: 80% off for 3 months; Wave Pro: $9.50/mo for 3 months) and are shown in full in the next section. Introductory discounts apply to the base plan — QuickBooks, for example, does not discount payroll per-employee fees. Prices are USD, before tax, as published in November 2026. Both QuickBooks (August 2026) and Xero (October 2026) raised US list prices during 2026, so older comparisons you find may show lower, stale prices. Always confirm the current price on the vendor's site before you buy.
Every vendor in this category leads with a discounted monthly figure. The discount is real — but it lasts three or four months, and the plan then renews at list price. Here is the arithmetic, using only published list prices and published intro offers, so you can check it yourself.
FreshBooks Plus: 80% off for 4 months makes it $8.60/mo ($43 × 0.2), then $43/mo. Year one = $8.60 × 4 + $43 × 8 = $378.40. Year two at list = $516 (or $464.40 billed annually). The "$8.60 plan" is a four-month price.
QuickBooks Online Plus: 50% off for 3 months makes it $70/mo, then $140/mo. Year one = $70 × 3 + $140 × 9 = $1,470. Year two at list = $1,680. The discount does not extend to payroll or other add-ons.
Xero Growing: 80% off for 3 months makes it $11.80/mo ($59 × 0.2), then $59/mo. Year one = $11.80 × 3 + $59 × 9 = $566.40. Year two at list = $708.
Wave Pro — the exception that proves the rule: the intro price ($9.50/mo for 3 months, then $19/mo) totals $199.50 over year one paid monthly — while simply paying annually costs $190. The promotion is not always the cheapest route.
The second hidden lever is the cap cliff. FreshBooks charges by billable clients, so adding your 6th client moves you from $23 to $43 a month (+$240 a year) even if that client is tiny. QuickBooks charges by users, so a 6th person who needs access moves you from Plus ($140) to Advanced ($340) — a $200-a-month jump for one seat. Xero's Early plan stops at 20 invoices a month, a level a growing freelancer reaches quickly, and the step to Growing is +$32 a month. Wave's cliff is gentler — $0 to $19 when you want bank transactions imported automatically — but it is the difference between typing every line yourself and not.
Finally, add the add-ons before you compare totals. A two-employee business running payroll pays roughly: FreshBooks Plus $43 + payroll ($40 + $6 × 2) = $95/mo; QuickBooks Essentials $85 + Payroll Core ($50 + $6.50 × 2) = $148/mo; Wave Pro $19 + payroll ($40 + $6 × 2) = $71/mo (or $52/mo on free Starter plus payroll). Xero's US total can't be stated the same way because payroll is a separate partner contract — treat that opacity as a cost of its own when you budget.
FreshBooks started as invoicing software and grew accounting around the invoice, and it still shows: time tracking, estimates, proposals and client-facing payment flows are the center of the product. Lite ($23/mo) covers unlimited invoices, expenses and time tracking for up to 5 billable clients, but leaves out double-entry reports, bank reconciliation and accountant access — which is why most working freelancers should budget for Plus ($43/mo), which raises the cap to 50 clients and adds those accounting basics. Premium ($70/mo) removes the client cap and adds project profitability and accounts payable. Annual billing takes 10% off list. Payroll ($40/mo + $6 per person) and Advanced Payments ($20/mo) are add-ons, and each extra team member is $11/mo.
QuickBooks Online is the fullest accounting system of the four: a complete general ledger, the largest app and accountant ecosystem in the US market, and inventory and project profitability on Plus. Simple Start ($38/mo, 1 user) covers invoicing and income/expense tracking. Essentials ($85/mo, 3 users) adds bill management and multi-currency. Plus ($140/mo, 5 users) adds inventory and projects, and Advanced ($340/mo, 25 users) adds advanced reporting and automation. Note the date on any price you see elsewhere: Intuit raised Essentials, Plus and Advanced for renewals from August 1, 2026, and a lot of the web still shows the old numbers. Payroll is separate — Core starts at $50/mo plus $6.50 per employee — and the popular "50% off" intro applies to the base plan only, for three months.
Xero is a cloud accounting platform built around bank reconciliation and a large integration ecosystem (1,000+ connected apps per the vendor). Its pricing has one unusual virtue: every plan includes unlimited users, so adding staff or your bookkeeper costs nothing extra; you pay per business instead. Early ($27/mo) includes invoicing and bank reconciliation but caps you at 20 invoices and 5 bills a month. Growing ($59/mo) removes those caps and is the realistic plan for most small businesses. Established ($97/mo) adds multi-currency, project tracking and expense claims. US prices rose on October 1, 2026 (from $25 / $55 / $90), and there is no annual-billing option in the US — it is monthly only. US payroll is not included; it runs through partners such as Gusto under a separate contract.
Wave's Starter plan is genuinely free: unlimited invoices, estimates, bills and double-entry bookkeeping records, with a mobile app and cash-flow dashboard. Wave earns its money when your clients pay you — card payments cost 2.9% + $0.60 per transaction, bank payments 1% (minimum $1) — and from paid extras. Pro ($19/mo, or $190/year) adds the things that save weekly time: automatic bank transaction imports and categorization, unlimited receipt capture, automated late-payment reminders, and a break on card fees (the $0.60 is waived on your first 10 card payments each month). Receipt capture alone is sold at $8/mo, which makes Pro's bundle easier to judge. Payroll is an add-on at $40/mo + $6 per person. Two limits matter: payments and payroll are US/Canada only, and Wave is built for simple, single-entity books — there is no inventory or multi-currency invoicing story here.
Before prices: how many clients will you bill in 12 months (FreshBooks), how many people need access (QuickBooks), how many invoices a month (Xero), and will you import bank transactions by hand (Wave)? Your growth, not your current size, picks the tier.
Intro discounts last 3–4 months. Compare the list-price annual totals — $516 for FreshBooks Plus, $1,680 for QuickBooks Plus, $708 for Xero Growing, $190–228 for Wave Pro — and check whether annual billing beats the intro offer, as it does for Wave.
Payroll adds roughly $52–63/mo for a two-employee business on top of any plan here, and card processing takes about 3% of every paid invoice. A "free" plan with payroll costs more than a paid plan without it. Total the stack you will actually run.
If an accountant files your taxes, their preferred platform can outweigh a price difference. Then run one real month — invoices, expenses, reconciliation — through the trial or Wave's free plan before committing a year of records to it.
Reading this from Japan? All four products are built around US (or other home-market) tax rules. None of them is designed for Japanese consumption-tax invoice rules (the qualified invoice system) or a Japanese tax return (kakutei-shinkoku). If you bill overseas clients from Japan, one of these tools can handle the invoicing — but expect to keep a Japan-specific accounting tool, or an accountant, for the Japanese filing itself.
At list price, FreshBooks starts lower ($23 vs $38) and its realistic freelancer plan, Plus at $43/mo ($516/year), costs far less than QuickBooks Plus at $140/mo ($1,680/year). But they meter different things: FreshBooks caps billable clients (50 on Plus), QuickBooks caps users (5 on Plus) and includes inventory. A solo consultant with 30 clients pays $516/year on FreshBooks Plus versus $456/year on QuickBooks Simple Start — the answer flips depending on whether your constraint is clients or features. Run your own client and user counts through both pricing pages.
The Starter plan is free with no time limit: unlimited invoices, estimates, bills and bookkeeping records. Wave makes money from payment processing (2.9% + $0.60 per card transaction; 1% for bank payments) and from paid extras — Pro at $19/mo, receipt capture, and payroll. What "free" costs you is time: on Starter, bank transactions are entered and categorized manually rather than imported automatically.
Because prices moved in 2026 and many pages have not caught up. QuickBooks Online raised Essentials, Plus and Advanced on August 1, 2026; Xero raised all three US plans on October 1, 2026; FreshBooks repriced in March 2026. This page uses the post-increase list prices published by the vendors, checked in November 2026 — and separates introductory discounts from the list prices you will renew at.
Only if you have employees. Payroll is an add-on everywhere here: about $40/mo plus $6 per person at FreshBooks and Wave, from $50/mo plus $6.50 per employee for QuickBooks Payroll Core, and a separate partner contract (e.g. Gusto) with Xero in the US. Contractors you pay occasionally are usually handled through regular bill payments instead — check each vendor's contractor-payment terms.
For invoicing overseas clients, yes. For Japanese tax compliance, treat these as insufficient on their own: they are not built for Japan's qualified invoice system or Japanese return formats, and Wave's payments and payroll don't operate in Japan at all. Most Japan-based freelancers who use tools like these pair them with a domestic accounting service or a tax accountant for the filing.
Because this guide is compiled from the vendors' published specifications and pricing, not from hands-on testing or paid placements. Every judgment on this page — for example, that a cap is a "cliff" — is arithmetic on published prices and limits, shown next to the claim so you can verify it yourself.