Wave is genuinely generous: its free Starter plan includes unlimited invoicing plus basic accounting, which is hard to beat for very small US and Canadian businesses. Over time Wave has moved features like receipt scanning, automatic bank imports, and priority support into a paid Pro tier (around $16/mo), but free invoicing itself remains unlimited.
So the honest difference is not free invoice volume, it is range and reach. InvoiceBirds adds document types Wave simply does not offer (proposals and contracts, alongside estimates), accepts card payments through Stripe in 66 currencies rather than Wave Payments’ North-America-centric processing, and exports EU e-invoices (ZUGFeRD, XRechnung, UBL) on every plan. Wave, in turn, gives you real double-entry bookkeeping that InvoiceBirds intentionally does not.
| Feature | InvoiceBirds | Wave |
|---|---|---|
| Free invoicing | Unlimited invoices, free | Unlimited invoices, free |
| Online payments | Stripe, 66 currencies | Wave Payments (US/CA/UK focus) |
| Estimates | Yes | Yes |
| Proposals & contracts | Yes (Growth) | No |
| Full accounting / bookkeeping | Invoicing-focused | Yes |
| EU e-invoice export (ZUGFeRD, XRechnung, UBL) | Yes, every plan | Limited |
Both have free plans with unlimited invoices; InvoiceBirds Free adds 3 estimates, unlimited expense tracking, and global Stripe payments. Unlimited estimates on InvoiceBirds start at $16/mo.
Proposals and contracts (Wave has neither), card payments through Stripe in 66 currencies rather than Wave’s North-America-focused processing, and EU e-invoice export (ZUGFeRD, XRechnung, UBL) on every plan. Wave, conversely, offers full bookkeeping that InvoiceBirds does not.
InvoiceBirds for getting paid across borders, its Stripe integration supports card payments in 66 currencies, whereas Wave Payments is concentrated on the US, Canada, and UK.