Comparison · Accounting and invoicing
QuickBooks vs FreshBooks vs Wave for Canadian contractors
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- Under the GST threshold, a handful of invoices a month: Wave Starter. It's free.
- You bill five or fewer contractors and want it simple: FreshBooks Lite at $26 CAD a month. Its limit is billable clients, so five regular customers fits.
- Your accountant uses QuickBooks, you'll hire, or you want the strongest books: QuickBooks Online, with Lite or EasyStart to start.
Prices and limits side by side
| QuickBooks Online (Canada) | FreshBooks (Canada) | Wave | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billed in | CAD (Canadian pricing page) | CAD (prices marked CAD) | CAD option shown (Pro listed as $250 CAD/year) |
| Entry plan, list price (before promotions) | Lite $20/mo EasyStart $30/mo | Lite $26/mo | Starter $0 |
| Next plans | Essentials: check current price Plus $110/mo Advanced $220/mo | Plus $42/mo Premium $72/mo Select: custom | Pro $250/yr billed annually |
| Main limit | Users: EasyStart 1, Essentials 3, Plus 5, Advanced 25 | Billable clients: Lite 5, Plus 50, Premium unlimited | Starter has no automatic bank import; Pro adds it |
| Extra people | Free seat for your accountant | Team members $13/mo each | Check plan details |
| Free trial | 30 days, or a buy-now discount instead (not both) | 30 days, no card needed | Starter is free to use |
| Promotion seen on November 14, 2026 | QuickBooks showed a promotional price of $3 CAD/mo for EasyStart (list $30 CAD) on November 14, 2026, for a limited period. Check the terms and how long it lasts. | 80% off for 4 months | Annual savings shown |
| Card payments | Check current rates | Cards, Apple/Google Pay, pre-authorized debit | 2.9% + $0.60 per card (Starter) |
Which one fits a contracting business?
Wave: free and enough for many new subs
Starter gives unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, with optional card payments. The trade-off is that you enter bank transactions yourself, because auto-import is a Pro feature. Wave's free plan is supported by paid add-ons such as card processing and Pro. (Wave pricing) For a sub sending ten invoices a month to two or three contractors, that's manageable.
FreshBooks: built around invoicing clients
Plans are limited by how many clients you bill, counting archived ones: 5 on Lite, 50 on Plus. You can delete old clients to free up spots. (FreshBooks pricing) If you sub to only a few general contractors, Lite's limit of 5 may be all you need. Receipt scanning starts on Plus.
QuickBooks Online: if your accountant already uses it
Limits are by users, and every plan includes a seat for your accountant at no charge. QuickBooks says that by choosing a free trial you give up the buy-now discount. Payroll is a paid add-on. (QuickBooks Canada pricing) Ask your accountant first. Using the software they already work in can make year-end smoother.
What none of them do for you
- Decide whether you need to register for GST. See our GST guide.
- Know Saskatchewan PST rules for real-property work. You set up the rate. See SK PST for contractors.
- File your return. You or your accountant still do that.
Need scheduling and quoting too?
If you're booking residential jobs, sending quotes and running a crew, a field-service tool may make more sense than accounting software alone. See Jobber vs Housecall Pro.
We haven't run paid accounts on these three for this comparison yet. It's based on each vendor's public pricing and plan pages. See how we review.