Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover accounting & tax and creator finance. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Harvest | Wave | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $9 | From $19 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | 30 days | None |
| API | Yes | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web, macOS, iOS | Not stated |
| Covers | Accounting & Tax, Creator Finance, Project Management | 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 | None right now |
Time tracking that turns into an invoice
Harvest counts hours against a project and then bills them, which removes the worst half hour of any freelance month: reading a timesheet back and typing it into an invoice. Expenses and receipts attach to the same project. The free plan covers one person and two projects, and for a solo creator that is often where it stops.
Our note
Harvest is the pick when the hours are the invoice. If work is billed as a fixed project fee, Moxie or Bonsai cover more of the job for similar money and the time tracking is the smaller part of what you need.
Only on this side
Invoicing and bookkeeping that costs nothing
Wave does invoices, receipts and double-entry bookkeeping for free, and earns on card payments and on a paid tier that automates the parts you would otherwise do by hand. For a sole trader sending a dozen invoices a year it is the cheapest honest answer. Payroll and the advisor service exist in some countries only, which is worth checking before a whole tax year lives in it.
Our note
Free accounting that is genuinely accounting, which is rare enough to be worth the check it needs: confirm that payments and payroll are supported where you live before a tax year is built on it.
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.