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.
| Wave | Xero | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $19 | From $25 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Paid subscription |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | None | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Not stated | Not stated |
| Covers | Accounting & Tax, Creator Finance | 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 |
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.
Accounting a freelancer can run without help
Xero covers the parts of bookkeeping a creator actually meets: invoices, bank reconciliation, expenses and the reports an accountant asks for in January. Nothing in it assumes you have taken an accounting class. There is no free plan, and the cheapest tier stops at twenty invoices a month, which a busy freelancer clears by the third week.
Our note
Pick Xero over Wave when you have contractors to pay and a real filing to make, and Wave over Xero when you mostly need invoices to look professional. The invoice cap on the entry plan is the thing people hit and get annoyed by, so count last year's invoices before choosing 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.