FreshBooks vs QuickBooks vs Wave: True Invoicing Cost
FreshBooks' Lite plan costs $23.00 USD per month at regular (non-promotional) price.
FreshBooks' Plus plan costs $43.00 USD per month at regular (non-promotional) price.
FreshBooks' Premium plan costs $70.00 USD per month at regular (non-promotional) price.
FreshBooks charges a separate $20/month add-on fee for Advanced Payments (Virtual Terminal) on its Lite, Plus, and Premium plans, but includes it free on the Select plan.
FreshBooks Payments charges a starting rate of 2.9% plus $0.30 per credit or debit card transaction.
Pricing for invoicing software is split across two places. One is the monthly subscription fee. The other is the per-invoice fee triggered when a customer pays it. Vendors keep the two on separate pages.
Until you put them together, you cannot tell which vendor is cheaper. A business on a free plan that takes mostly card payments can end up paying more than one on a paid plan that takes bank transfers. The table below pulls both numbers from each vendor's official pages and sets them side by side.
One thing to flag up front: QuickBooks blocks automated retrieval of its pages, so the QuickBooks figures on this page are the only ones we could not check byte-for-byte against the live source. Those entries are marked unverified in the footnotes — not because we believe the values are wrong, but because we have no way to re-confirm them.
FreshBooks · QuickBooks Online · Wave — monthly subscription fee and per-invoice payment fee in one table (confirmed on 19 August 2026)
FreshBooks · QuickBooks Online · Wave — monthly subscription fee and per-invoice payment fee in one table (confirmed on 19 August 2026)
The cheapest plan and the cheapest bill are different questions
Read the table by row and one vendor looks cheap; read it by column and a different one does. That is not a quirk of these three products — it is what happens whenever a subscription fee and a per-transaction fee are quoted separately. A free plan charges nothing until an invoice is paid, and then charges on every one. A paid plan charges every month whether you invoice or not, and may or may not lower the per-transaction rate in exchange.
The crossover depends on two things the vendors cannot know: how many invoices you send, and how your customers pay them. Card payments and bank transfers are priced very differently here, and the gap between them is wide enough that steering customers toward bank transfer changes the answer more than switching vendors does.
The rates in the table are the rates before anything special happens
Each of the card rates above is a baseline that applies to an ordinary domestic card typed by nobody — the customer clicks a link and pays. Depart from that and the rate moves: a card keyed in by hand costs more, a premium or commercial card costs more, a payout pulled forward costs more, and an installment option costs a great deal more.
Only some of those surcharges are published on the pricing pages we cite. FreshBooks documents several of its own on a help-center article rather than the pricing page, and that article is rendered client-side in a way we could not capture as a literal quote — so those figures are deliberately absent from the table rather than cited from memory. They are listed among the open questions below, which is the honest place for a number we believe exists but cannot show you.
Two of these prices are promotional, and one page will not let us check it
The subscription prices we quote are regular prices, not the discounted first-term offers that these pages lead with. That distinction matters when comparing: a first-year promotional rate and a renewal rate can differ by an order of magnitude, and the number you will actually pay in year two is the regular one.
Separately, QuickBooks blocks automated retrieval of its pricing and payment-rate pages. Our figures came through a rendered-text extraction and were cross-checked against a web archive; that cross-check caught two quotes that were not literal and both were corrected. Every QuickBooks item is nonetheless labelled unverified in the footnotes, because no path we have re-reads the live page. If a QuickBooks price matters to your decision, click the source and read it yourself — that is the one verification we cannot perform for you.
What these providers do not publish
Not disclosed by the provider
We looked for these on the provider's own pricing page and they were not there.
FreshBooks' Select plan (custom pricing, contact-sales only) offers preferred/discounted credit and debit card processing rates over the standard 2.9%+$0.30, but the page does not disclose the actual discounted percentage.
Blank cells in the table above
Amex / higher-cost cards — FreshBooks
Amex / higher-cost cards — QuickBooks Online
Manually keyed-in card — FreshBooks
Manually keyed-in card — Wave
Buy now, pay later — QuickBooks Online
Buy now, pay later — Wave
Surcharge to get paid out faster — QuickBooks Online
Surcharge to get paid out faster — Wave
Volume discount, published — FreshBooks
Volume discount, published — Wave
Virtual terminal add-on — QuickBooks Online
Virtual terminal add-on — Wave
Limits of this page
These are things we did not verify, listed so you can judge the rest.
QuickBooks blocks automated retrieval of quickbooks.intuit.com/pricing/, /payments/ and /payments/payment-rates (TLS completes, HTTP response hangs; WebFetch times out). Figures were captured through a rendered-text extraction and independently cross-checked against a web-archive snapshot, which surfaced two quotes that were not literal — one substituted word and one full paraphrase, both corrected. Because no path re-fetches the live page byte-for-byte, all eight QuickBooks items are labelled unverified rather than verified: the prices are believed current, but a reader clicking the source is the only one who can confirm them against what QuickBooks shows today.
FreshBooks' Select plan (the tier with the lowest advertised card-processing rates) requires talking to a sales consultant for pricing — no monthly price or discounted transaction-fee percentage is published anywhere on freshbooks.com, so both figures are recorded as not_found rather than estimated.
FreshBooks publishes surcharges for Amex and commercial cards, international cards, and currency conversion on a support.freshbooks.com help-center article rather than on its pricing or payments pages. A direct fetch of that article returns an essentially empty document — the help widget renders client-side — so the on-page text could not be captured as a literal quote. The figures are therefore omitted from this page entirely rather than printed without a source a reader can check. If Amex or cross-border cards are a meaningful share of your invoices, read that article directly before comparing.
Monthly search volumes for all 16 longtail keywords were not measured — no keyword-volume tool was available in this pass, so monthly_volume is left null for every keyword rather than estimated.
The subscription prices in the table are regular, non-promotional rates. At the time of research all three vendors were running limited-time introductory discounts that their pricing pages display more prominently than the regular price, so a reader signing up today will pay less for an initial period and then revert. The promotional figures are not reproduced here because they expire and would be stale the moment they change; the regular price is the one that describes what you pay from the second term onward.
Currency and region: every figure on this page is USD, US-market pricing as shown to a US-based visitor. Wave publishes a separate CAD schedule on the same page, and FreshBooks and QuickBooks may vary pricing by country — none of which was checked in this pass. The CAD figures are not reproduced here because they were not independently confirmed.
Neither FreshBooks' nor Wave's public pricing pages disclose a currency-conversion or foreign-exchange fee percentage directly on the pricing/payments pages checked (FreshBooks' FX fee was only found on the unverifiable support article per the gap above); this comparison point is therefore incomplete for FreshBooks and entirely absent for Wave in this cluster's verified evidence.
QuickBooks Online's page also listed a $0/mo 'Free' tier alongside Simple Start/Essentials/Plus/Advanced at the time of research; because this may be a QuickBooks Money (not QuickBooks Online accounting) offering bundled onto the same pricing page, it was not included as a directly comparable evidence item and was left out of the FAQ comparison to avoid conflating two different products.
Free Founders Invoicing & Cashflow Checklist
Audit your invoicing workflow, payment terms, and automated reminders to reduce DSO (Days Sales Outstanding) and eliminate hidden processing fees.
At regular (non-promotional) pricing, FreshBooks' Lite plan is $23.00/mo, Plus is $43.00/mo, and Premium is $70.00/mo. A custom-priced Select plan is also available for larger teams by talking to a consultant. All three published tiers currently run limited-time promotional pricing well below these regular rates.
What are QuickBooks Online's monthly plan prices?
At regular, non-promotional pricing, QuickBooks Online's Simple Start plan is $38 per month, Essentials is $85 per month, and Plus is $140 per month; a higher-tier Advanced plan also exists with pricing shown on the same page. A limited-time introductory discount was running on all tiers at the time of research, so the price shown to a new signup will be lower for an initial period before reverting to these rates.
Is Wave accounting software really free?
Wave's Starter plan itself is $0/month with no subscription fee, but a paid Pro plan at $19 USD/month unlocks unlimited user seats, automated bank sync, and discounted card-processing rates on the first 10 transactions each month. Card and bank payment processing fees apply on both plans regardless of the subscription tier.
Which invoicing software has the lowest credit card processing fee: FreshBooks, QuickBooks, or Wave?
FreshBooks charges 2.9% + $0.30 per card transaction, Wave's free Starter plan charges 2.9% + $0.60 (or 2.9% + $0 for the first 10 transactions/month on Wave's paid Pro plan), and QuickBooks Payments charges a flat 2.99% with no added cents. On a small transaction, FreshBooks' lower flat fee ($0.30 vs $0.60) can beat both; on a larger transaction, QuickBooks' cents-free 2.99% can come out ahead of FreshBooks' 2.9%+$0.30 depending on the amount.
Do FreshBooks, QuickBooks, and Wave charge a fee for ACH/bank transfer payments?
Yes, all three charge 1% per transaction for ACH bank transfer payments: FreshBooks (1%, US customers only), QuickBooks Payments (1%), and Wave (1% with a $1.00 minimum fee). None of the three offer fee-free bank transfer payments on invoices.
Is it cheaper to use a free plan or to pay for one?
It depends less on the plan than on how your customers pay. A free plan costs nothing monthly but charges the full card rate on every paid invoice, so the bill scales with volume. A paid plan charges every month whether you invoice or not, and buys back some of the per-transaction cost. The larger lever is the payment method: on Wave a card payment costs 2.9% + $0.60 per credit card transaction while a bank transfer costs 1% per transaction ($1.00 minimum fee), and that gap is wide enough that steering customers toward bank transfer usually changes the total more than switching plans does.
What does FreshBooks Advanced Payments cost and what does it do?
FreshBooks charges $20/month for the Advanced Payments (Virtual Terminal) add-on on its Lite, Plus, and Premium plans; the custom-priced Select plan includes it at no extra charge.
What we could not verify
QuickBooks blocks automated retrieval of quickbooks.intuit.com/pricing/, /payments/ and /payments/payment-rates (TLS completes, HTTP response hangs; WebFetch times out). Figures were captured through a rendered-text extraction and independently cross-checked against a web-archive snapshot, which surfaced two quotes that were not literal — one substituted word and one full paraphrase, both corrected. Because no path re-fetches the live page byte-for-byte, all eight QuickBooks items are labelled unverified rather than verified: the prices are believed current, but a reader clicking the source is the only one who can confirm them against what QuickBooks shows today.
FreshBooks' Select plan (the tier with the lowest advertised card-processing rates) requires talking to a sales consultant for pricing — no monthly price or discounted transaction-fee percentage is published anywhere on freshbooks.com, so both figures are recorded as not_found rather than estimated.
FreshBooks publishes surcharges for Amex and commercial cards, international cards, and currency conversion on a support.freshbooks.com help-center article rather than on its pricing or payments pages. A direct fetch of that article returns an essentially empty document — the help widget renders client-side — so the on-page text could not be captured as a literal quote. The figures are therefore omitted from this page entirely rather than printed without a source a reader can check. If Amex or cross-border cards are a meaningful share of your invoices, read that article directly before comparing.
Monthly search volumes for all 16 longtail keywords were not measured — no keyword-volume tool was available in this pass, so monthly_volume is left null for every keyword rather than estimated.
The subscription prices in the table are regular, non-promotional rates. At the time of research all three vendors were running limited-time introductory discounts that their pricing pages display more prominently than the regular price, so a reader signing up today will pay less for an initial period and then revert. The promotional figures are not reproduced here because they expire and would be stale the moment they change; the regular price is the one that describes what you pay from the second term onward.
Currency and region: every figure on this page is USD, US-market pricing as shown to a US-based visitor. Wave publishes a separate CAD schedule on the same page, and FreshBooks and QuickBooks may vary pricing by country — none of which was checked in this pass. The CAD figures are not reproduced here because they were not independently confirmed.
Neither FreshBooks' nor Wave's public pricing pages disclose a currency-conversion or foreign-exchange fee percentage directly on the pricing/payments pages checked (FreshBooks' FX fee was only found on the unverifiable support article per the gap above); this comparison point is therefore incomplete for FreshBooks and entirely absent for Wave in this cluster's verified evidence.
QuickBooks Online's page also listed a $0/mo 'Free' tier alongside Simple Start/Essentials/Plus/Advanced at the time of research; because this may be a QuickBooks Money (not QuickBooks Online accounting) offering bundled onto the same pricing page, it was not included as a directly comparable evidence item and was left out of the FAQ comparison to avoid conflating two different products.
Sources
FreshBooks' Lite plan costs $23.00 USD per month at regular (non-promotional) price. — https://www.freshbooks.com/pricing (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: verified)
FreshBooks' Plus plan costs $43.00 USD per month at regular (non-promotional) price. — https://www.freshbooks.com/pricing (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: verified)
FreshBooks' Premium plan costs $70.00 USD per month at regular (non-promotional) price. — https://www.freshbooks.com/pricing (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: verified)
FreshBooks charges a separate $20/month add-on fee for Advanced Payments (Virtual Terminal) on its Lite, Plus, and Premium plans, but includes it free on the Select plan. — https://www.freshbooks.com/pricing (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: verified)
FreshBooks Payments charges a starting rate of 2.9% plus $0.30 per credit or debit card transaction. — https://www.freshbooks.com/accept-payments (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: verified)
FreshBooks charges a flat 1% fee per transaction for ACH bank transfer payments (US customers only). — https://www.freshbooks.com/accept-payments (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: verified)
FreshBooks charges 6% plus $0.30 per transaction for Buy Now, Pay Later payments. — https://www.freshbooks.com/accept-payments (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: verified)
FreshBooks charges an additional 1.5% transaction fee for its Instant Payout option. — https://www.freshbooks.com/accept-payments (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: verified)
FreshBooks' Select plan (custom pricing, contact-sales only) offers preferred/discounted credit and debit card processing rates over the standard 2.9%+$0.30, but the page does not disclose the actual discounted percentage. — https://www.freshbooks.com/accept-payments (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: not_found)
QuickBooks Online's Simple Start plan costs $38 per month at regular (non-promotional) price. — https://quickbooks.intuit.com/pricing/ (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: unverified)
QuickBooks Online's Essentials plan costs $85 per month at regular (non-promotional) price. — https://quickbooks.intuit.com/pricing/ (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: unverified)
QuickBooks Online's Plus plan costs $140 per month at regular (non-promotional) price. — https://quickbooks.intuit.com/pricing/ (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: unverified)
QuickBooks Payments charges 2.99% per transaction for invoice, recurring, and quick-request payments made with cards or digital wallets. — https://quickbooks.intuit.com/payments/payment-rates (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: unverified)
QuickBooks Online offers free ACH bill-pay, but charges $0.50 per standard ACH transaction once a business exceeds its monthly free allotment. — https://quickbooks.intuit.com/pricing/ (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: unverified)
QuickBooks tells merchants processing more than $2,500 per month to call about qualifying for up to 25% off standard rates — the discount is not automatic and the resulting rate is not published. — https://quickbooks.intuit.com/payments/ (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: unverified)
On Wave's free Starter plan, accepting a credit card payment on an invoice costs 2.9% plus $0.60 per transaction (3.4% plus $0.60 for American Express). — https://www.waveapps.com/pricing (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: verified)
Wave's Pro plan costs $19 USD per month billed monthly. — https://www.waveapps.com/pricing (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: verified)
On Wave's paid Pro plan, the first 10 credit card transactions each month waive the $0.60 flat fee, charging only 2.9% (3.4% for Amex) per transaction, before the standard $0.60 flat fee resumes. — https://www.waveapps.com/pricing (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: verified)
Wave charges 1% per transaction (with a $1.00 minimum fee) for ACH/EFT bank payments on invoices, the same rate on both the Starter and Pro plans. — https://www.waveapps.com/payments/bank-payments (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: verified)
FreshBooks includes its Advanced Payments (Virtual Terminal) add-on at no extra charge on the custom-priced Select plan, versus a $20/month add-on fee on Lite, Plus, and Premium. — https://www.freshbooks.com/pricing (verified on: 2026-08-19, confidence: verified)
