Square Invoices vs Wave: Two Free Tools, Very Different Bills

Direct comparison · Rates last checked 14 August 2026 · Both linked to source

Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you sign up through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change what we recommend — both tools below are measured against the same criteria.

Both of these cost nothing a month. Both let you send unlimited invoices to unlimited clients. On every pricing page they look like the same product with a different logo.

They are not. One of them charges 1% when a client pays by bank transfer. The other charges 2.9% plus sixty cents on every card payment and has no bank-transfer route of its own. On a single $2,000 invoice, that is $20.00 against $58.60 — a gap of $38.60, on one invoice, between two tools that are both described as free.

So the question is not which is cheaper. It is: how do your clients pay you?

The short answer

The rates, side by side

On these figures. Square's rates are its published United States rates, read from its own fees page on 14 August 2026. Wave's are from its pricing page on the same date. Square's card rates improve on its paid tiers (2.9% + 30¢ online on Plus); the Free-plan figures are shown here because that is what a business of one starts on. Where a figure could not be verified, this article says so rather than guessing.

The arithmetic, on the same invoice

One invoice, three payment methods. This single table is the reason to read this page.

Read the middle column against the others. At $5,000, moving that one payment from card to bank transfer saves $115.30 — more than a hundred dollars, on a single invoice, for free. Nothing in either product's marketing puts that in front of you.

Two things follow, and they are worth more than any feature comparison:

One. On cards, these two are nearly identical. Wave is marginally cheaper below about $1,000 and Square is marginally cheaper above it, and the gap is small enough that it should not decide anything.

Two. Off cards, it is not close. Square's ACH route at 1% is the cheapest way to be paid in this entire category, and Wave does not have an equivalent. If you can persuade clients to pay by transfer, that alone settles the comparison.

The fee cap almost nobody notices

Square caps its ACH fee at $10 on paid tiers. Take that seriously if you send large invoices.

If you send even two large invoices a month by transfer, the cap alone can justify a paid Square tier — which inverts the usual logic, because you would be paying a subscription specifically to reduce a fee rather than to unlock a feature. That is an unusual and genuinely useful thing to know, and it appears on no comparison page we found.

How to actually move payments off cards

Everything above says the same thing: the cheapest invoice is the one paid by bank transfer. That is easy to write and harder to make happen, because clients pay the way you make it easy for them to pay. Four things move the number, and none of them costs anything.

Put the transfer option first, not second

Most invoice templates lead with a large "Pay now" button and bury bank details underneath in small type. Clients take the path of least resistance, which is the button. Reverse the order — bank details prominent, card as the alternative — and a meaningful share of business clients will simply use the first option they see. This costs nothing and is the single highest-leverage change available to you.

Set a threshold and state it

"Invoices over $500 are payable by bank transfer" is a normal, unremarkable line on a business invoice. Nobody objects to it. It works because it removes the decision from the client rather than asking them to be helpful. Pick a threshold where the fee starts to sting — on Wave's rates, anything above about $500 costs you $15 or more per invoice — and write the line.

Offer a discount rather than a surcharge

Adding a fee for card payment is regulated, varies by country and state, and can breach your processor's terms. Offering 2% off for bank transfer is the same economics expressed in a way that is uncontroversial almost everywhere. If you go this route, check your own jurisdiction first — this is a general observation, not advice about your situation.

Accept that consumers will pay by card

If your clients are individuals rather than businesses, none of the above will work reliably. Consumers expect to tap something, and fighting that costs you completed payments. In that case stop optimising the payment route and choose on what else the tool gives you — which, on these two, means bookkeeping.

What each one is actually for

Which one, concretely

You invoice businesses for $1,000 and up. Square, and ask for bank transfer. The 1% rate and the $10 cap on paid tiers make this the cheapest route to being paid that exists in this category.

You invoice consumers for small amounts. Wave. Consumers pay by card whatever you ask for, so the ACH advantage never materialises, and Wave gives you bookkeeping for the same $0.

You already use Square for in-person sales. Square Invoices. Adding a second system to a working till costs you time for no benefit.

You want one place for invoices and books. Wave. Square's reporting will not replace an accounting product; Wave is one.

Your invoices vary wildly in size. Square, with a policy: transfer for anything above a threshold you set, card below it. That single rule is worth more than either product's feature list.

What a year looks like

One invoice makes the gap look academic. A year makes it look like a decision.

The last row is the one to sit with. A consultant billing $120,000 a year across two invoices a month pays $3,494 to Wave on cards, or $1,200 to Square by bank transfer. Same work, same money earned, a difference of $2,294 a year decided entirely by which button the client clicks.

And on a paid Square tier, where ACH is capped at $10 per payment, that same year costs 24 × $10 = $240 in fees plus the subscription. The fee saving alone is several times the cost of the plan.

Between the columns, notice how small the Square-versus-Wave card difference is compared with the card-versus-bank difference. You are choosing the wrong variable if you spend your time on the first one.

Three things worth knowing before you commit

Refunds do not return the fee

Refund a client and the processing fee generally stays gone on both platforms. On a $200 job that is a rounding error; on a $5,000 project cancelled after payment it is $145 you will not see again. The protection is not the choice of tool — it is taking a deposit rather than full payment on work that might not proceed.

Bank transfers are slower

ACH takes days rather than the near-instant settlement of a card. If your cash flow is tight enough that three days matters, the cheaper route is not automatically the better one. Most solo businesses can absorb the delay; some genuinely cannot, and that is a legitimate reason to accept the card fee.

Leaving takes your history with it

Client lists export from both. Payment history does not move in any usable form — you can download reports, but you cannot import a working ledger into the other product. Whichever you choose, export a full archive once a quarter. Ten minutes, and it makes the choice reversible.

Questions people actually ask

Can I just ask clients to pay by bank transfer?

Yes, and most business clients will if you make it the default rather than the alternative. Put bank transfer first on the invoice and card second. Consumers are harder — they expect to tap something — so this lever mostly works in business-to-business work.

Is it legal to charge clients the card fee?

Surcharging rules vary by country, by state and by card network, and breaching your processor's terms is a real risk. What is uncontroversial nearly everywhere is offering a discount for bank transfer instead — same economics, different framing. Check your own jurisdiction before doing either.

Do I have to use Square's card reader to use Square Invoices?

No. Invoices work on their own, sent by email and paid online. The hardware only matters if you also take payments in person.

Why is Square's online card rate higher than Wave's?

Because Square's free plan is priced to bring you into its ecosystem, where it expects to earn on in-person payments and hardware. Wave's is priced to be the cheapest standalone card route it can offer. Neither is being unreasonable; they are optimising for different next steps. Square's paid tiers bring the online rate down to 2.9% + 30¢, which is where the comparison would flip again — another reason to model your own volume rather than trust a general recommendation.

Does either limit how much I can invoice?

No. Both are unlimited on invoices, clients and total value on their free tiers. That is unusual and worth appreciating: the caps in this category normally sit on client count or monthly volume, and neither of these has one. What you pay scales purely with money received.

Which is better if I am not in the United States?

Both operate in several countries, but rates and available payment routes differ — ACH in particular is a United States mechanism, and its equivalents elsewhere are priced differently. Everything on this page is based on published US rates. If you are billing from another country, the structure of the argument still holds (move payments off cards where you can), but check your own country's fee page before relying on any figure here.

Can I run both?

You can, and for once it is defensible: Wave for bookkeeping, Square for taking the money. It works because they do different jobs. What does not work is sending invoices from both — that way lies two sets of numbers and a client who pays the wrong link.

The thing that actually decides it

Not the monthly fee, because both are zero. Not the card rate, because they are within a few dollars of each other on any realistic invoice.

What decides it is whether you can move payments off cards. If you can — because you invoice businesses, or because your amounts are large enough that clients expect to transfer — Square's 1% ACH route is the cheapest option available and the $10 cap on paid tiers makes it cheaper still. If you cannot, the fee difference is noise, and you should choose Wave for the bookkeeping you get for the same nothing.

Before you decide, go and look at your last ten payments and count how many arrived by card. That number, not any pricing page, is the answer.

If eight or more came by card and your clients are consumers, take Wave and stop thinking about it — you will not move that behaviour, and the bookkeeping is worth more to you than a few dollars a month. If four or more came by transfer, or your clients are businesses who would transfer if you asked, take Square and put your bank details at the top of the invoice. That one layout decision will save you more over a year than any feature on either pricing page.

Related: Best invoicing software for a business of one — the six-tool comparison including FreshBooks, Zoho, Bonsai and Invoice Ninja. And FreshBooks vs Wave, if your shortlist went toward paid automation instead.