Comparison
A Wave alternative that runs in your browser, no account needed
Wave is one of the most generous free products in this category, and it isn't a loss-leader trick — the core invoicing and accounting genuinely are free. Where most invoice tools stop at producing a document, Wave puts real double-entry bookkeeping underneath it: connect your bank and card accounts, let transactions import automatically, reconcile them, and pull income-and-expense reports that actually reflect your business. It adds online payments so clients can pay straight from an invoice, receipt scanning, recurring invoices with reminders, and — in the US and Canada — a paid payroll add-on. It is strongest in those two countries, and for a small business that wants its invoicing and its books in one free place, Wave is a serious, honest answer.
But "free and capable" and "right for you" are different questions. Wave is a hosted web app: you create an account to use it, your invoices and client list live on Wave's servers, and if you connect it, so does your bank transaction history. Its payments, payroll and some bank features are region-dependent, and both regional availability and what sits in the free tier have shifted over the product's history. If you invoice outside North America, or you simply don't want another login holding your client data, that is a lot of surface area to take on to send one invoice. Crossbill exists for that second case: it runs entirely in your browser, asks for nothing, and stores nothing on a server.
Create a compliant invoice free — no signup
Crossbill builds the correct tax fields and wording for your country in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Open the free invoice generator →What Wave genuinely does well
Be clear-eyed about this before you switch. Wave's real strength is that invoicing sits on top of proper accounting, and it gives that away for free. Connect your bank and card accounts and transactions import on their own; reconcile them, categorise them, and your reports and dashboard stay current without a spreadsheet in sight. Your invoices flow directly into those books, so the money you bill and the money you receive live in the same system.
On top of that it offers online payments, letting a client pay a card or bank transfer directly from the invoice; receipt scanning to capture expenses; recurring invoices with automatic reminders to late payers; and, in the United States and Canada, a paid payroll add-on. The bank connections and payment rails are most complete in those two markets, which is where Wave shines brightest.
Crossbill does none of this and is not trying to. A tool with no server cannot import your bank feed or email a client while your laptop is shut. If connected bookkeeping is what you need, use Wave.
Where the model asks more of you
Because Wave is a hosted application, using it costs something beyond money. To send a single invoice you create a Wave account, verify an email, accept terms, and your invoices, client list and — once connected — your bank history sit on Wave's infrastructure. For a business running ongoing books that is exactly the right trade: the data has to be centralised for the accounting to work at all.
Two things are worth checking rather than assuming. First, Wave has historically been built around the United States and Canada; payments, payroll and some bank-connection features are region-dependent, and availability elsewhere has varied over time. Second, what falls in the free tier versus a paid feature has changed across the product's life. Don't trust any comparison article on either point, including this one — check Wave's current availability and free-tier terms for your own country before you commit.
If you are outside North America, invoice only occasionally, or would simply rather not create another account to hold your client data, those are real reasons to weigh a lighter tool.
Jurisdiction presets and data that stays put
Crossbill answers a narrower question: produce a correct, compliant invoice or quote right now, with no account, and keep the data on your own machine. It is a static site with no backend — the invoice is assembled and rendered to PDF inside your browser, and what you type is saved only in that browser's local storage. There is no signup because there is no server to hold one, and no central database that could be breached, sold or subpoenaed.
The second difference is compliance wording. Wave gives you a tax-rate field and a broadly North-American invoice flow; it does not write jurisdiction-specific legal phrasing for you. Crossbill ships presets that load the right fields and the mandatory wording for a specific case: UK VAT for a registered business, and the separate non-registered sole-trader case; EU cross-border B2B reverse charge with the Article 196 reference; Australian GST with an ABN and the "Tax invoice" heading; Canadian GST/HST; US general and 1099 contractor; and German Kleinunternehmer under §19 UStG, where you must not charge VAT and must state why.
The point is the wording and the fields, not the arithmetic — Crossbill isn't computing your tax position, only making sure the document says what your jurisdiction expects.
Pricing: free accounting versus a one-time unlock
On headline price, Wave's invoicing and accounting are free, which is hard to beat and worth stating plainly. The costs that appear are a processing fee taken per transaction when a client pays you through Wave's online payments, and the payroll add-on billed monthly where it is offered. Whether either applies depends on the features you switch on and your country, so check Wave's current pricing for your region rather than a figure quoted elsewhere.
Crossbill's free tier has no invoice cap and no quote cap: unlimited invoices and quotes, every jurisdiction preset, 25+ currencies, unlimited PDF export. Its only two limits are a small "Made with Crossbill" line in the footer and a maximum of three invoices saved locally in your browser.
Crossbill Pro is $19 once — a lifetime unlock, not a subscription. It removes the footer line, adds your logo and brand colour, opens premium templates, removes the saved-invoice limit, adds multiple company profiles for billing under more than one entity, and includes JSON backup so you can export and keep your own data. A static site with no servers to run is exactly why that price can hold.
Which one you should actually use
Choose Wave if you want your invoicing and your bookkeeping in one free system — if bank-connected accounting, reconciliation, reports, and taking card or bank payments directly on your invoices map onto how you run things, and especially if you're in the United States or Canada, where the product is most complete. It is the more capable business system, and it is free to a genuine and useful extent.
Choose Crossbill if you invoice from a browser and want it done now with no signup; if you want your client data to stay on your own device; if you need a specific UK, EU, Australian, Canadian or German format produced with the correct wording rather than a North-American flow with a tax field; or if you'd rather pay once than sign up for anything. Plenty of people can use both — Crossbill for a quick cross-border or one-off invoice, Wave for the ongoing books.
This page is general information, not tax or legal advice. Invoice requirements and tax rates differ by country and change over time; confirm your obligations with a qualified adviser or your tax authority.
Templates and tax presets are provided for convenience and are not tax or legal advice. Verify the correct fields, rates and wording for your situation before sending.