Free is never the whole price.
Wave gives away invoicing with no cap on it, and charges $19 Pro for the rest. Invoice Koi is free for a hundred invoices a year, with uncapped estimates and clients, and one paid plan at $99.99 a year.
Last checked 7 September 2026. US list prices.
Wave is for the evening. Invoice Koi is for the driveway.
Wave is real accounting given away. Double entry, bank feeds, expenses, reports, card payments and ACH, free, from a company that has been doing it for years.
The catch
It is an accounting product that also makes invoices, and it is priced like one: the reminders, the receipt scanning and the extras that make it pleasant sit on Pro at $19 a month. It is also a desk product. Nobody does their books on a driveway.
Wave is for the evening. Invoice Koi is for the driveway.
Two questions, and they have different answers: what you get for nothing, and what the least you can pay actually buys. Pick one.
A paid tier includes its own free tier, so a mark means available at that price or below. 8 rows go our way, 6 theirs, 13 are the same in both, and 32 are neither or unstated.
| Feature | Invoice Koifree, then $99.99 a year | Wavefree | Cheaper for a tradesperson |
|---|---|---|---|
| Documents | |||
| Invoices | 100 a year | ● | Level |
| Estimates or quotes | ● | ● | Level |
| Clients | ● | ● | Level |
| Turn an estimate into an invoice | ● | ● | Level |
| Recurring invoices | ● | · | Not stated |
| Credit notes | ● | · | Not stated |
| Work orders | – | · | Not stated |
| Change orders | – | · | Not stated |
| Client contracts | – | · | Not stated |
| Document or project templates | ● | · | Not stated |
| Price book of saved items | ● | · | Not stated |
| How the document looks | |||
| Your logo on the document | ● | ○ | Invoice Koi |
| Your brand or accent colour | ● | ○ | Invoice Koi |
| Choice of templates | ● | · | Not stated |
| No vendor branding on it | ● | ● | Level |
| Rename the field labels | ● | · | Not stated |
| Photos and attachments | ● | · | Not stated |
| Terms and conditions block | ● | · | Not stated |
| Licence and insurance details | – | · | Not stated |
| Your own signature | ● | · | Not stated |
| Client e-signature | ○ | – | Invoice Koi |
| Getting paid | |||
| Accept card payments | – | 2.9% + 60c | Them |
| Bank transfer or ACH | – | 1% | Them |
| Tap to Pay in person | – | · | Not stated |
| Deposits or milestone payments | ○ | · | Not stated |
| Record partial payments | ● | ● | Level |
| Pass processing fees to the client | – | · | Not stated |
| Tips | – | · | Not stated |
| Automatic payment reminders | ● | ○ | Invoice Koi |
| Overdue alerts to you | ● | · | Not stated |
| Know the invoice was opened | – | · | Not stated |
| A link the client opens | – | ● | Them |
| Client statements | ○ | · | Not stated |
| Homeowner financing | – | · | Not stated |
| Lending or capital for you | – | · | Not stated |
| Running the business | |||
| Expense tracking | ● | ● | Level |
| Receipt scanning | 5 a day | ○ | Invoice Koi |
| Time tracking | ● | · | Not stated |
| Jobs and job organisation | ● | – | Invoice Koi |
| Schedule visits or a calendar | ● | – | Invoice Koi |
| Routing or GPS | – | – | Neither |
| Reports | ● | ● | Level |
| Export CSV, spreadsheet or PDF | ● | ● | Level |
| Accounting sync | – | ● | Them |
| Bank feed import | – | ○ | Them |
| Barcode scanner | – | · | Not stated |
| Leads or a CRM | – | · | Not stated |
| Track client activity | ○ | · | Not stated |
| Request client reviews | – | · | Not stated |
| A marketing site for you | – | · | Not stated |
| An AI assistant | 5 a day | · | Not stated |
| Voice note into an invoice | 5 a day | · | Not stated |
| Read a document and answer on it | 5 a day | – | Invoice Koi |
| Account and scale | |||
| Mobile app | ● | ● | Level |
| Web access | – | ● | Them |
| Sync and backup across devices | books; pictures on Pro | ● | Level |
| Users on the account | 1 user | ● | Level |
| More than one business | ● | · | Not stated |
| Priority support | one to two days | paid add-on | Level |
The same on all eleven of these pages. One price, billed once a year, with no seat maths and no plan above it. Free is one person and their own books, counted at 100 invoices a year and at nothing else. Pro is what leaves the phone: the photographs on a server, the reading, and the paperwork a client signs or opens.
Everything in Free is in Pro too. Pro is sold through the App Store, so the price you are shown is your own country's.
No trial clock, no card, and no invoice with somebody else's name at the bottom of it. If Pro is worth $99.99 a year to you, it will still be there in a month.
iPhone and iPad, iOS 16.4 or later.
Every Wave cell was read from their own pricing page on 7 September 2026, at US list prices in US dollars. Wave is read from its published plan comparison. A blank means they do not name the feature on the page where they ask for money, and we count that as not included rather than guessing in our own favour. Processing rates appear only where the vendor is itself the processor: read a missing rate as unstated, never as free. If we have a line wrong, tell us and we will change it.
Wave and every other name and logo on this page belong to their owners. They are here to say which product is being compared, which is the only reason a comparison may use them, and nothing here is endorsed by or affiliated with them.