For a one-person business that wants to pay nothing, Wave’s Starter plan allows more: unlimited invoices, estimates, bills, and records, where QuickBooks Free stops at 2 invoices a month unless you qualify for and enable QuickBooks Payments. When you pay, Wave Pro is $19 a month for the business, with as many users as you need, and QuickBooks Simple Start is $38 a month for 1 user; a second person on QuickBooks means Essentials, at $85 a month. QuickBooks is worth the higher bill when you need what Wave doesn’t sell: employee time recorded and added to invoices, inventory, project profitability, or invoice templates translated into Spanish.
The free plans side by side
Both free plans keep real books for one person. They end in different places. The QuickBooks block describes the standard QuickBooks Free plan: Intuit is also testing a beta “AI Edition” of QuickBooks Free with different features, and which version you get when you sign up may depend on what Intuit shows you.
Wave’s Starter plan
- What the free plan includes
- Users: 1
- Invoices per month: Unlimited
- Plan name: Starter
- Estimates, invoices, bills, bookkeeping records: Unlimited
- Bank connections: Not included (manual entry)
- What ends it
- Wanting bank transaction imports, extra users, or the discounted card rate. Automated late-payment reminders work on Starter once online payments are on, and receipt capture is a paid add-on on Starter.
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QuickBooks Free
- What the free plan includes
- Users: 1
- Invoices per month: 2
- Plan name: Free
- Estimates: 1 per month
- Receipt capture: 2 per month
- Bank accounts: 1
- Mileage: 5 trips per month
- Accountant access: None
- What ends it
- A third invoice or a second estimate in a month (unlimited invoices if you qualify for and enable QuickBooks Payments), a third receipt upload, a sixth mileage trip, a second bank account, or accountant access.
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Which free plan ends first for you?
- You send more than a couple of invoices a month. Wave’s Starter plan. QuickBooks Free stops at 2 invoices a month, with estimates at 1 per month, unless you qualify for and enable QuickBooks Payments, which lifts the invoice limit.
- You invoice rarely, and one bank account carries the business. QuickBooks Free. It connects 1 bank account and brings its transactions in; on Wave’s Starter plan you type your bank transactions in yourself.
- Someone else needs to look at the books. Neither free plan fits a partner or a bookkeeper. Wave’s Starter plan lets you add a payroll manager or a Block Advisor tax pro free; QuickBooks Free has no accountant access.
- You want to work from your phone. QuickBooks Free doesn’t include the mobile app.
So Starter lasts longer for anyone who invoices every week, and QuickBooks Free only suits a business that invoices a few times a month and wants one bank account imported.
What the first paid step costs
Here’s the first year on each tool’s first paid plan, for one person, at the regular price:
| Tool | Plan | Basis | First 12 months | Required one-time fees | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wave | Pro | 12 months at the list price | $228 | None listed | October 15, 2026 |
| QuickBooks Online | Simple Start | 12 months at the list price | $456 | None listed | October 15, 2026 |
QuickBooks Online Simple Start: new customers choose a discount worth $57 or the free trial worth $38; the discount is for new customers. The 12-month figure is the regular price.
Wave Pro is $19 a month, or $15.83 a month billed yearly, per business. It adds the bank import and sorting, users, and receipt capture, and it takes Wave’s branding off your invoices. Wave lists no trial of Pro; Starter is how you try Wave, and upgrading happens inside the same account.
QuickBooks Simple Start is $38 a month, billed monthly only, for 1 user plus 2 accountants. New customers choose between a discount worth $57 and a free trial worth $38; the discount is the better deal once you’ve decided, the trial if you haven’t.
What a second person costs
On Wave, nothing more: Pro allows unlimited users, as admins, editors, or viewers, for the same $19 a month. On Wave’s Starter plan, only a payroll manager or a Block Advisor tax pro can join.
On QuickBooks, a second person is a plan change. Simple Start is for 1 user, so two or three people means Essentials, at $85 a month for 3 users, and four or five means Plus, at $140 a month. Your accountant doesn’t count: each paid plan has accountant seats of its own. QuickBooks Simple Start or Essentials covers that step in detail.
What getting paid costs
Card and bank payments go through each vendor’s own payments service, Wave’s online payments or QuickBooks Payments, and each checks whether you qualify before you can take them. The processor’s fee is separate from the plan price.
On a $400 invoice paid by card online, Wave’s Starter plan takes $12.20, Wave Pro $11.60 on your first ten card payments of the month, and QuickBooks $11.96. On a $1,000 invoice it’s $29.60 on Starter and $29.90 on QuickBooks: Wave’s fee has a fixed part and QuickBooks’ doesn’t, so the order changes with the amount. Pro’s lower rate saves at most $6 a month, so it’s no reason on its own to pay for Pro. Paid by bank transfer, the $400 invoice costs $4 on Wave and $4 on QuickBooks.
What invoicing costs once customers pay by card works the fees out at your own volume.
What each one doesn’t do
Wave has one paid plan, and its plan comparison lists no inventory, project costing, purchase orders, or time tracking. You can still bill by the hour: add an item, enter the hours as its quantity and your rate as its price, and rename the columns if you like. What Wave doesn’t do is record the time or tie it to a project. Its app is in English only and translates nothing, but you can type Spanish into any editable field on an invoice; wording you can’t edit stays in English. If you need what Wave doesn’t sell, Pro won’t fix it.
QuickBooks sells those features, but each is a step up: recording employees’ time and adding billable time to invoices starts on Essentials, and inventory, project profitability, and budgets on Plus, at $140 a month. QuickBooks can translate an invoice’s template text into Spanish on every plan, Free included; your own text, like item names and the email, stays as you wrote it.
A worked example
Say you run a two-person event photography studio: you and a partner who books shoots and sends the invoices. You send about ten invoices a month, around $600 each, and in this example all ten are paid online with a standard card (Visa, Mastercard, or Discover).
Both of you need to log in, so it’s Wave Pro at $19 a month or QuickBooks Essentials at $85 a month. Card fees come to $174 a month on Wave Pro and $179.40 a month on QuickBooks, close enough that the plan price is the real difference. American Express costs more on Wave, so a month with Amex payments would change the fee figures. Wave Pro covers both of you, imports the bank, and sends unlimited invoices.
QuickBooks earns the difference only if you’d use what Essentials adds, like second shooters recording their hours as they work so the billable time goes straight onto the couple’s invoice, or if your accountant works in QuickBooks and would charge more for Wave. If you’re happy to type the hours onto the invoice yourself, start on Wave.
Our view
For a very small business that works in English and doesn’t hold stock or run projects, start on Wave: Starter keeps full books with no invoice cap, and Pro adds the bank import and every login you need for one price. Choose QuickBooks for a specific reason: employee time recorded and added to invoices, inventory, projects, invoice templates translated into Spanish, or an accountant who works in it. QuickBooks Free is the narrow case, for someone who invoices a few times a month and wants one bank account imported. What choosing Wave gives up is room to grow inside one tool: when you need inventory or projects, you’ll move. What choosing QuickBooks gives up is a bill that stays put: each step in people is a plan change.
Your next step
Count the invoices you sent last month and the people who need to log in. If it’s just you and more than a couple of invoices, start Wave’s free plan; Wave pricing covers when Pro is worth it. If you need employee time recorded onto invoices, inventory, or projects, see QuickBooks’ plans and choose the discount or the trial; QuickBooks Online pricing sets out each plan. When free invoicing is enough compares every free plan in this guide.