Wave is still the only genuinely free full accounting product in 2026 — invoicing and books at $0, you only pay the payment-processing fee when a client pays by card (2.9% + 60¢) or bank (1%, min $1). For a freelancer with straightforward finances, that's the whole answer.
| Price | What you're paying for | |
|---|---|---|
| Wave | free (Pro ~$16/mo for receipts + auto bank import) | nothing — genuinely free core |
| FreshBooks | Lite $19/mo (5 clients), Plus $33 (50), Premium $60 | time tracking → invoice → project P&L, polished |
| Bonsai | Starter ~$21–24/mo, Professional ~$32, Business ~$66 | invoicing + CRM + contracts + proposals in one |
FreshBooks is the polished paid choice for service businesses. Its real advantage is the chain from time tracking to invoicing to project profitability — hours logged against a project flow straight into an invoice, and tagged expenses roll up into a per-project P&L. If you bill by the hour and want to know which clients are actually profitable, that workflow is worth the $19–33/month. The client caps on lower tiers are the catch.
Bonsai bundles the whole freelance-business stack: invoicing plus a lightweight CRM, contract templates, proposals, and (on some plans, as a $100/year add-on) tax tools. If you'd otherwise be paying for three separate tools, Bonsai's $21–32/month can come out ahead — the value is consolidation, not any single feature being best-in-class.
New freelancer with simple books: Wave, free, upgrade to Pro ($16) only when manual bank entry gets old. Bill by the hour and want project profitability: FreshBooks. Want contracts, proposals and CRM in the same place as invoicing: Bonsai.