Making the work
Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover creator finance and accounting & tax. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Form the company, then keep its books
Invoicing built for freelancers, not accountants
doola | FreshBooks | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $297 | From $23 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Paid subscription | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing (they differ) | Annual only | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | 30 days |
| API | Not stated | Yes |
Form the company, then keep its books
doola sets up a US company for somebody who does not have one, including the people doing it from outside the country, and then sells the upkeep that follows. Formation is the cheap part. What costs money is the annual compliance, the bookkeeping and the filings, which is exactly the work that gets forgotten until it is late. Pricing is annual and the state's own filing fee sits on top.
Our note
The state fee is the number this page does not add up for you, and it ranges from under a hundred dollars to several hundred depending on where you file, so the real first-year cost is Starter plus a figure you have to look up. Formation alone is cheap almost anywhere; what you are buying at the dearer tiers is somebody else remembering the annual report.
Only on this side
Invoicing built for freelancers, not accountants
FreshBooks is double-entry accounting wearing a friendly invoice app, which is the right shape for somebody who bills a handful of clients and dreads January. Time tracking and expenses feed the invoice directly. Client limits on the cheap plan are the thing that pushes people up a tier.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
|---|
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
|---|
| Runs on (they differ) | Web | Web, iOS, Android |
|---|
| Covers | Creator Finance, Accounting & Tax, Legal & Contracts | Accounting & Tax, Creator Finance |
|---|
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
|---|
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
|---|
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
|---|
| Live deals | None right now | 1 |
|---|
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Our note
Wave does invoicing and bookkeeping free and is enough for most creators. Pay for FreshBooks when the client count, the retainers or the proposals are the reason, not because it looks more serious.