Eonebill vs. Wave: The Best Free Invoice Software for 2026

Wave has been the go-to free invoicing tool for over a decade. Eonebill is the new AI-native challenger. If you've been weighing both, here's the honest comparison — no marketing fluff, just the actual differences that matter in 2026.

Both platforms advertise free invoicing. But "free" means different things depending on what you actually need to run your business day-to-day. And the differences go well beyond a few extra features.

TL;DR

• Wave: Best for small businesses that need full accounting (invoicing + bookkeeping + payroll in one platform)
• Eonebill: Best for freelancers and contractors who want AI-powered speed and a complete document workflow (invoices, estimates, contracts, proposals, receipts)
• Both offer free invoicing; the real differences show up in AI capabilities, document types, workflow depth, and who each tool is actually designed for

Free Invoice Software Comparison: Eonebill vs. Wave (2026)

Here's the full picture across 14 dimensions that actually affect how you work.

| Feature | Eonebill | Wave |

|---|---|---|

| Free Invoicing | ✅ Unlimited | ✅ Unlimited |

| AI Invoice Generation | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |

| Invoice Templates | 33 Industry Templates | ~15 General Templates |

| Document Types | 5 (Invoice, Estimate, Contract, Proposal, Receipt) | 2 (Invoice, Receipt) |

| Expense OCR Scanning | ✅ Yes | ✅ Limited |

| Contract / Proposal Tools | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |

| E-Signature | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |

| Credits System | ✅ (Pays for AI, e-sign, overages) | ❌ |

| Industry-Specific Templates | ✅ 33 Industries | ❌ General only |

| Payment Processing | Stripe / Cards | PayPal + Cards + ACH |

| Accounting / Bookkeeping | ❌ (document-focused) | ✅ Full suite |

| Payroll | ❌ | ✅ Paid add-on |

| Mobile App | ✅ iOS + Android | ✅ iOS + Android |

| Starting Price | Free (core plan) | Free (core plan) |

Wave's Origins: Why It's Still Dominant

Wave launched in 2010 as a genuinely free accounting tool when QuickBooks was charging $1,000+/year. It built a massive user base among micro-businesses and freelancers who couldn't afford traditional accounting software. In 2019, H&R Block acquired Wave for approximately $40M — and has kept the core product free, monetizing through payment processing and payroll.

This matters because Wave's DNA is accounting-first. Every feature — invoicing, receipts, accounting — is designed to feed into financial statements and tax preparation. If your primary pain point is bookkeeping, Wave is purpose-built for that.

Wave's genuine strengths:

Full bookkeeping integration. Wave generates balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow reports. You can categorize income and expenses, run financial reports, and hand a complete set of books to your accountant at year-end. Eonebill doesn't do this — it's document-focused, not accounting-focused.

PayPal processing. Wave accepts PayPal as a payment method natively. If a significant share of your clients pay via PayPal (common in creative and consulting work), Wave's integration handles this without a workaround.

Payroll. Wave offers full payroll processing for employees and contractors — direct deposit, tax filings, W-2s, 1099s. Cost starts at $45/month + per-employee fees. HVAC businesses, cleaning companies, and any service business with employees eventually need this.

Client payment portal. Wave clients can pay invoices via credit card, bank transfer, or PayPal through a hosted payment page. It's professional and straightforward.

The catches: Wave's accounting features create complexity that many freelancers don't need. The learning curve is steeper. And while Wave's core invoicing is free, payment processing fees (2.9% + $0.60 for cards; 1% for bank transfers) still apply — Wave just processes them itself.

Eonebill's Edge: Built for the Document Side of Freelancing

Eonebill launched in 2024 as an AI-first alternative to clunky, template-based invoicing. It's built for freelancers and contractors who spend too much time on admin and not enough time on paid work.

Where Wave thinks in terms of accounting and financial reports, Eonebill thinks in terms of documents and workflows. An invoice is part of a larger process: you send a proposal, the client signs a contract, you deliver work, you send an invoice, you get paid. Eonebill is designed for that entire cycle.

Eonebill's genuine strengths:

AI invoice generation. This is the real differentiator. Describe what you did — "Monthly consulting, 20 hours at $150/hr, client Acme Corp" — and Eonebill's AI generates a complete, formatted invoice in seconds. No template hunting. No line-item-by-line-item entry. For freelancers billing 10+ clients per month, this alone saves hours.

Five document types, one platform. Eonebill handles invoices, estimates, contracts, proposals, and receipts. Wave handles invoices and receipts. If you're still using Google Docs for proposals and DocuSign for contracts, you're running three platforms when you could run one.

33 industry-specific templates. Eonebill's templates aren't generic. They reflect how HVAC contractors actually bill, how consultants structure proposals, how photographers price sessions. The fields, line items, and formatting are industry-native. Wave's templates are general-purpose — better than nothing, but not designed for anyone specifically.

Built-in e-signatures. Eonebill contracts and proposals support e-signatures without leaving the platform. No DocuSign subscription required. No printing, scanning, or PDF back-and-forth. Send, sign, done.

Credits system. Eonebill's free plan covers unlimited invoices, AI generation, all document types, and 33 industry templates. Credits are used for high-volume AI generation, e-signatures on large documents, or other premium features. It's transparent about what costs money and what doesn't.

Head-to-Head: Real Scenarios

Scenario 1: The Freelance Developer Billing 8 Clients/Month

You write code, not invoices. You want to generate an invoice in 30 seconds and move on.

Wave: You'd fill in a template, add line items manually, select a client from your list, and send. Takes 3–5 minutes if you're fast.

Eonebill: Describe the work to the AI. Review the generated invoice. Send. Takes under a minute.

If you're billing 8 clients per month, that's potentially 30+ minutes per month recovered. Over a year, that's a full work week.

Scenario 2: The HVAC Contractor Needing to Project Financial Health

You've been in business 18 months. You want to see if you're actually profitable — not just how much is in your checking account.

Wave: Run a P&L report. See income vs. expenses by category. Get a real picture of margins by job type.

Eonebill: Eonebill doesn't generate financial statements. You'd need separate accounting software for this.

If financial reporting matters to you, Wave wins here. If you're just trying to bill faster and look professional, Eonebill wins.

Scenario 3: The New Freelancer Who Needs Proposals and Contracts

You're a brand new consultant. You have a potential client who needs a proposal before they'll sign. You also need a contract to protect yourself.

Wave: Send a plain invoice template as a "proposal" (bad impression). Use a separate tool for the contract.

Eonebill: Use the proposal template. Use the contract template. Get an e-signature. Done in one platform.

For freelancers at the start of their business journey, Eonebill's all-in-one document workflow is a significant advantage.

The Honest Verdict

Choose Wave if:

• You run a small business with employees and need payroll
• You need full bookkeeping and financial reporting
• You or your accountant requires QuickBooks-style financial statements
• PayPal is your primary payment collection method
• You want a single platform that handles invoicing through full accounting

Choose Eonebill if:

• You're a freelancer, consultant, or independent contractor
• You spend too much time on admin documents
• You want AI to accelerate your billing workflow
• You need proposals, contracts, and e-signatures alongside invoices
• Industry-specific templates would make your billing more professional
• You value speed and simplicity over accounting depth

The truth: most freelancers don't need Wave's accounting complexity. They need to bill faster, look more professional, and spend less time on paperwork. That's the problem Eonebill was built to solve.

Ready to Make the Switch?

Eonebill's free plan gives you unlimited invoices, AI generation, all five document types, and 33 industry templates — no credit card required.

Try Eonebill free →

What Wave Users Say on Reddit: Real Pain Points Behind the Switch

If you've been researching Eonebill vs. Wave, you've probably seen feature comparison tables. They tell you what's in each box. What they don't tell you is why people are leaving Wave in 2026 — in their own words.

Here's a curated look at what actual Wave users are saying on r/waveapps and across Reddit, rewritten to remove identifying details while preserving the core complaints. These aren't cherry-picked outliers. These are the patterns that show up thread after thread.

"I finally ditched Wave. The trust is gone."

This line — or something close to it — appears in dozens of threads from users who've been on Wave for 2, 3, 5+ years. The trigger varies. Sometimes it's a billing dispute that support won't resolve. Sometimes it's a feature that worked fine last year and quietly changed. Sometimes it's just the creeping sense that H&R Block (which acquired Wave in 2019) has different priorities than a freelance invoicing tool should have.

One user put it plainly: "Wave used to feel like MY tool. Now it feels like a product H&R Block uses to collect leads for tax season."

The Eonebill difference: Eonebill has no parent corporation with conflicting incentives. Its business model is transparent — a free plan with optional paid features, and a subscription model that doesn't depend on extracting fees from your transactions.

"2-Year Review: Stay Far Away"

Long-form reviews of Wave on Reddit tend to be the most damning — and the most detailed. Users who've given Wave a genuine multi-year try describe a consistent arc:

1. Year 1: Impressed by the free promise. Set up invoicing. It works well enough.
2. Year 2: Frustrations build. Support response times slow. Features stop improving. The interface feels stuck in 2012.
3. Year 3: Discovery that comparable tools now offer what Wave used to offer — plus AI, plus better UX — often at the same price point or less.

One 2-year reviewer wrote: "The moment I realized I was tolerating Wave rather than actually liking it, I switched. Took 20 minutes to set up Eonebill. I should've done it a year ago."

The Eonebill difference: Eonebill is actively developed in 2026. AI features, new template libraries, and workflow improvements are shipped regularly. When you use Eonebill, you're using software that's trying to get better — not software that's coasting on a 2010 reputation.

"Find a Wave Replacement Today" — The Breaking Point

For many users, there's a specific moment that tips the decision. Common triggers:

• Payment processing failures — invoices sent but money never received, with no clear explanation from support
• Account access issues — two-factor authentication problems, locked accounts, slow support response
• Feature degradation — a feature that worked last month suddenly behaves differently
• Data export frustration — realizing how difficult it is to get your own data out of Wave when you want to leave

One freelancer summarized it: "I didn't leave because Wave got worse. I left because Eonebill got better — and Wave didn't."

The Eonebill difference: Eonebill's data portability means you can export everything anytime. Your client list, invoice history, and documents are yours. No lock-in. No leverage.

The Common Thread: What Wave Got Right — and Where It Fell Short

To be fair, Wave isn't without strengths. Long-time users consistently cite what they liked about Wave:

• The free model was genuinely freeing — for years, it was the only real option for free invoicing
• The accounting basics were solid — double-entry bookkeeping, financial reports, receipt scanning
• PayPal integration was seamless — valuable for freelancers whose clients preferred PayPal

Where Wave fell short:

• AI features: nonexistent — while competitors shipped AI invoice generation in 2024-2025, Wave has not
• Acquisition baggage — H&R Block ownership raised legitimate questions about data use and product focus
• Stagnation — the interface, templates, and workflow haven't meaningfully evolved in years
• Support quality — free users report increasingly long wait times for support responses

Both tools are legitimate options. The right choice depends entirely on what "free" actually needs to do for your business.

Eonebill Team