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• GigPaper vs Wave

Free invoices, or the whole workflow?

Wave is a genuinely good free invoicing and accounting tool — hard to beat on price. But it stops at invoices and books. If your work runs proposal → contract → invoice → nudge, GigPaper covers the whole thread, with clients who never sign up.

Start free — 30 days See how it works

From $10/month flat · no client accounts · no cut of your money

Side by side

Pricing checked in 2026 — always confirm current rates on Wave's site.

 GigPaperWave
Starting price$10/mo flatFree (Pro $19/mo)
Card processing feeYour processor's standard rate~2.9% + $0.60/txn (free plan)
Free trial30 days, no cardFree tier
Client portal to sign / payNo — just a linkNo portal
ProposalsYesNo
Click-to-accept contractsYesNo
Time tracking → invoiceYes, live timerNo
Automatic overdue nudgesYesReminders (Pro)
End-to-end encryptionYesNo
Accounting / bookkeepingExport (PDF + CSV)Yes
Free data exportAlways, one tapYes

Where each one wins

Pick Wave if…

Your needs are invoices plus basic accounting, and price is the deciding factor. Wave's free tier is legitimately useful, and for straightforward billing-and-books it's tough to argue with $0.

Pick GigPaper if…

You sell projects, not just send bills. GigPaper adds proposals, click-to-accept contracts, time tracking, and automatic nudges — the parts of freelance work that happen before and after the invoice. Clients open a link (no account), card payments land straight in your account, and your client book is end-to-end encrypted. At a flat $10/month, it's the workflow tool; Wave is the free ledger. Plenty of freelancers even use both.

Questions freelancers ask

Is GigPaper a good Wave alternative?

If you want the full proposal-to-paid workflow rather than just invoices and books, yes. For free invoicing alone, Wave is excellent.

Is Wave actually free?

Invoicing is free, but card payments carry processing fees (about 2.9% + $0.60 per transaction on the free plan as of 2026), and some automations require the paid Pro plan.

Can I use both?

Sure — some freelancers run GigPaper for proposals, contracts, and getting paid, and keep Wave for bookkeeping. GigPaper exports clean CSVs to make that easy.

The whole thread, not just the invoice.

30 days free, no card. Clients never sign up. You keep 100% of your money.

Start your free month

Comparison is GigPaper's summary for general guidance, based on publicly listed information as of 2026. Wave is a trademark of its respective owner and is not affiliated with GigPaper. Pricing and features change — please verify current details on Wave's website.