FreshBooks vs Wave: Is Paying $33/Month Worth It When Free Exists?

The question every freelancer faces: Wave is free and works. FreshBooks costs $33/month and works better. When does “better” justify $396/year?

I used both extensively — Wave for 8 months, FreshBooks for 3+ years. Here’s the honest answer: it depends on where you are in your freelance journey.

The Real Comparison

The comparison boils down to: Wave does the essentials well. FreshBooks does everything well, plus features Wave doesn’t have.

What I Gained by Switching to FreshBooks

1. Proposals → Invoices (Saves 15-20 min/project)

On Wave, my proposal workflow was: create proposal in Google Docs → email to client → client accepts via email → create invoice in Wave → send invoice.

On FreshBooks: create proposal in FreshBooks → send → client accepts online → click “Convert to Invoice” → invoice pre-populated and ready to send.

At 3-4 new projects per month, this saves me about an hour monthly. Small but consistent.

2. Faster Payments (7 Days Faster on Average)

My average payment time on Wave: 18 days My average payment time on FreshBooks: 11 days

I can’t prove it’s entirely the tool — correlation vs. causation. But FreshBooks’ payment flow is smoother, the “Pay Now” button is more prominent, and the reminder sequence is more aggressive. Whatever the reason, I get paid a week faster on average.

On $8,000/month in invoices, getting paid 7 days faster means better cash flow. For a freelancer managing irregular income, that week matters.

3. Project Profitability Tracking

FreshBooks groups income and expenses by project. I can see that Project A generated $5,000 in revenue with $200 in expenses (97.5% margin) while Project B generated $3,000 with $800 in expenses (73% margin). This data informs my pricing decisions.

Wave doesn’t have project-level tracking. Every transaction is just a transaction — there’s no grouping by client project.

4. Time Tracking Without a Separate App

When I billed hourly (first 2 years), FreshBooks’ built-in timer eliminated the need for Toggl. One fewer app, one fewer login, time entries that auto-populate invoices. Even now with project-based pricing, I occasionally track time to validate my pricing estimates.

5. Deposit Invoicing

My standard payment terms: 50% deposit before work starts, 50% on delivery. FreshBooks handles this natively. One invoice with two payment milestones.

On Wave, I created two separate invoices — one for the deposit, one for the balance. It worked, but looked less professional and was harder to track.

What I Miss About Wave

1. The Price (Obviously)

$0 vs $396/year. When I was making $40K in my early freelance days, that $396 felt significant. It still feels significant — it’s not nothing. FreshBooks’ price increases make it feel more expensive every year.

2. The Mobile App Speed

Wave’s app is faster than FreshBooks’. It opens in under 2 seconds, receipt scanning is instant, and navigation is snappy. FreshBooks’ app takes 4-5 seconds to load and feels laggy. For a daily-use app, this matters.

3. The Simplicity

Wave has fewer features, which means fewer menus, fewer settings, fewer decisions. Open Wave → Invoicing → Create Invoice. Open Wave → Accounting → Transactions. Everything is 1-2 clicks away because there’s less to navigate.

FreshBooks has more power but also more complexity. I still occasionally can’t find a setting because it’s buried three menus deep.

The Break-Even Analysis

FreshBooks Plus costs $33/month = $396/year.

Time savings from FreshBooks:

• Proposals: ~1 hour/month saved = 12 hours/year
• Invoicing efficiency: ~30 min/month = 6 hours/year
• Project tracking (vs manual): ~1 hour/month = 12 hours/year
• Time tracking (vs Toggl juggling): ~30 min/month = 6 hours/year
• Total: ~36 hours/year saved

At my effective hourly rate (~$115/hour), 36 hours = $4,140 in billable time I could recover.

Even at a modest $50/hour, that’s $1,800 — more than 4x the $396 annual cost.

Cash flow improvement from faster payments: 7 days faster on ~$96,000/year in invoices means roughly $1,840 in improved cash flow timing annually. Not money earned, but money available sooner — which matters when rent is due.

The math is clear for established freelancers: FreshBooks pays for itself multiple times over. But “established” is the key word.

When Wave Is the Right Choice

You’re making less than $40K/year. At this income level, $396/year is 1% of gross revenue going to software. Wave gives you 90% of the functionality for $0.

You have fewer than 5 active clients. Wave’s invoicing limitations matter less when you’re sending 3-5 invoices/month. You don’t need proposals, project tracking, or complex invoicing at this volume.

You don’t bill hourly. If you don’t need time tracking, one of FreshBooks’ key advantages disappears.

You’re still figuring out freelancing. Your first 6-12 months should be about learning the basics of business finance, not optimizing tools. Wave teaches you invoicing, expense tracking, and bookkeeping without the distraction of advanced features.

You genuinely can’t afford $33/month. No shame in this. I was here too. Wave kept my business finances together during the leanest period of my freelance career.

When to Upgrade to FreshBooks

You’re consistently making $50K+ and growing. The efficiency gains justify the cost.

You’re juggling 5+ active clients. More clients = more invoices, proposals, and projects = more value from FreshBooks’ features.

You’re tired of workaround solutions. If you’re using Wave + Toggl + Google Docs for proposals + a spreadsheet for project tracking, consolidating into FreshBooks simplifies your workflow.

Clients are commenting on your invoices. If prospects or clients have mentioned your invoices look unprofessional (it happens), FreshBooks’ templates are a legitimate upgrade.

You want to switch from hourly to project pricing. FreshBooks’ project and proposal features support the transition better than Wave.

My Migration Story

Switching from Wave to FreshBooks took about 4 hours spread over a week:

Hour 1: Set up FreshBooks account, imported client list from Wave CSV export. Hour 2: Customized invoice template, set up payment reminders, configured auto-reminders. Hour 3: Connected bank accounts, set up expense categories. Hour 4: Created first proposal and invoice in FreshBooks, tested the payment flow.

I ran both tools for one month to make sure nothing fell through the cracks. By month 2, I was fully on FreshBooks and never opened Wave again.

One thing I wish I’d done: Exported all historical reports from Wave before canceling. I eventually needed year 1 data for a loan application and had to contact Wave support to retrieve it.

The Verdict

Wave is an excellent product. Free, functional, and honest about what it does. If it’s serving your needs, don’t switch just because a review told you to.

FreshBooks is a better product — for freelancers who’ve outgrown Wave’s limitations and can justify the cost.

The transition usually happens naturally. You’ll start bumping into Wave’s walls — a client asks for a proposal, you waste 20 minutes creating two invoices for a deposit split, you forget to start Toggl for the third time this week. When the friction accumulates, you’ll know it’s time.

Start with Wave. Graduate to FreshBooks. That’s the path most successful freelancers follow, and there’s a reason for it: both tools serve you well at the right stage of your journey.