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The 9 closest of 13, each with its real monthly cost at 25 clients and what it does that FreshBooks does not. See all 14.
Wave does everything we verified about FreshBooks for $51 a month less at 25 clients, $19 against $70. It is a price cut rather than an upgrade: on the two features checked against the vendors’ own pricing pages the two are level. The trade: FreshBooks is built for time and project billing and a one-person business and Wave is not, so this is a swap with a cost.
Double-entry reports, bank reconciliation and accountant access only arrive on Plus, every extra user is $11 a month, and the 5-client cap on Lite is the tightest in the category.
It runs $70 a month at 25 clients with the add-ons it forces on you included. 11 of the 13 alternatives to FreshBooks cost less than that.
Ranked by how much of what we record for FreshBooks each platform also does. Wave is the nearest, and it is $51 a month cheaper at 25 clients. Nothing we verified is missing; the only gaps are features FreshBooks lists and Wave does not, which is weaker evidence.
$51 a month cheaper$19 at 5
A US or Canadian sole trader or very small business that wants to invoice and keep basic books for nothing, paying only when it takes card payments.
Everything this site records for FreshBooks is also recorded for these, and they cost less at 25 clients. That is not the same as saying they are better: the last column is what FreshBooks is built for that they are not, and for someone who needs that, the saving is not a saving.
| Platform | At 25 clients | You save | What FreshBooks does that it does not |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zoho Books | $20 | $50 | getting paid first, time and project billing and a one-person business |
Prices are the real monthly cost at 25 clients with the add-ons each platform forces on you included, from the same engine the shortlist quiz uses.
$44.54 a month cheaper$25.46 at 5
A UK sole trader, partnership or small limited company that wants VAT, MTD, payroll and Self Assessment handled in one place, especially one banking with NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle, where it is free.
$50 a month cheaper$20 at 5
A small US business that wants a real free plan to start on and a ladder it can climb without changing software, up to multi-currency, inventory and a fifteen-user finance team.
$70 a month cheaper$0 at 5
A freelancer or very small business that wants to invoice, chase payments and log expenses for nothing, and does not mind two users and 500 invoices a year.
$52 a month cheaper$18 at 5
A freelancer or small studio that wants a full invoicing, quoting and time-tracking tool for $14 a month or less, and the option to run it on its own server for nothing.
$11 a month cheaper$27 at 5
A small business that wants proper double-entry books its accountant will recognise, with unlimited users on one flat price.
$11 a month cheaper$59 at 5
A freelancer or small agency that wants proposals, contracts, time tracking, projects and invoicing in one client-facing tool, and is happy to hand the books to QuickBooks or Xero through the integration.
$63.30 a month cheaper$0 at 5
A UK sole trader or small company that wants free, MTD-ready bookkeeping with unlimited users and only pays once the ledger passes 1,000 entries a year.
$50 a month cheaper$20 at 5
A small business that wants double-entry books with bank feeds, sales tax tracking and unlimited users for one flat price, without a per-client or per-invoice meter.
A freelancer or small service business whose job is getting invoices out and paid, with time tracking and projects attached.
On this site it is the pick for getting paid first, time and project billing and a one-person business. If that is you, read the savings above and then ignore them.
The pairs people actually search for, each one priced at the same four sizes off both vendors' own pages.
Wave. It is $51 a month cheaper at the size we compare on and gives up nothing we verify, though you should read why it exists before swapping: no two of these do exactly the same job.
Zoho Books is cheaper and level with FreshBooks on every feature we verify. Nothing here is strictly better: each one exists to do a slightly different job.
FreshBooks is $70 a month at every size we price, from 5 to 100 clients, read off their own pricing page and re-checked every week.
Double-entry reports, bank reconciliation and accountant access only arrive on Plus, every extra user is $11 a month, and the 5-client cap on Lite is the tightest in the category.
We compare 13 of them here, every one priced at the same size off its own pricing page, and the whole list of 14 is on the accounting page.
Should yours be on this list? If you make accounting and invoicing platforms and it is not compared here, ask to be shortlisted. Listings are free and cannot be bought.
Two features were checked against each vendor's own pricing page: a price that does not move with clients and a free plan. Those are the ones written above as does and does not. The other 14 are read out of each vendor's own pricing page, so an absence there means we did not find it listed, not that the product lacks it, and those lines say lists and does not list instead. How all of this gets checked.
This page compares everything to FreshBooks. The shortlist asks 7 questions about what you need the books to do and where you are based, and gives you four picks priced at your own numbers, which is a better question than “what is like the one I already have”.
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