Xero's real strength is scaling smoothly from a solo operation into a small business with employees and a bookkeeper on the account — which is exactly the capability most freelancers are paying for and never using. If you're on Xero purely for basic invoicing, expense tracking, and a single set of books, there's a real chance you're paying $25-90/month for headroom you don't need. Here's what to switch to instead, and what you'd actually give up.
Quick comparison
| Wave | Zoho Books | FreshBooks | QuickBooks Online | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | $0 invoicing (US/Canada) | Most usable free tier outside the US/Canada | Hourly billing, time tracking built in | Handing off to an accountant who already uses it |
| Starting price | $0 (US/Canada only) | $0 (Free plan, under $50K revenue), then $20/mo | $19/mo | ~$38/mo |
| Free tier | Yes, genuinely full-featured | Yes, real double-entry bookkeeping included | No | No |
| Multi-currency | Limited | Included from the Standard plan ($20/mo) | Add-on on higher tiers | Included on mid-tier plans up |
| Migration effort from Xero | Moderate — CSV export/import for most data | Moderate | Moderate | Lowest, if your bookkeeper already knows it |
Wave — the $0 option, if you qualify
Wave's invoicing and accounting are free, full stop, for freelancers based in the US or Canada — not a trial, not a limited tier. The trade-off for the free price is real: no built-in multi-currency handling worth relying on, and payment processing fees run slightly above some competitors. For a freelancer whose Xero usage was mostly "send invoices, track expenses, generate a P&L," Wave replaces that entirely at no cost. The regional restriction is the dealbreaker for anyone outside North America — Wave isn't a fit if you're not US/Canada-based, regardless of how good the free tier is.
Best for: US/Canada freelancers whose accounting needs are genuinely simple and want to pay nothing for it.
Zoho Books — the most usable free tier for everyone else
Zoho Books' free plan (for businesses under $50,000 in annual revenue) is a real double-entry accounting system, not a stripped-down invoicing tool — genuinely comparable in depth to what a freelancer was using Xero for, at $0. Past that revenue threshold or once multi-currency support is needed, the Standard plan runs $20/month, still meaningfully below Xero's entry price. The trade-off: Zoho Books works best if you're open to the broader Zoho ecosystem (or at least don't mind its UI conventions) — it's a different design language than Xero, and there's a real adjustment period switching over.
Best for: freelancers outside the US/Canada (where Wave isn't available) who want the most complete free accounting tool on the market.
FreshBooks — built around hourly billing specifically
FreshBooks' accounting depth is narrower than Xero's, but for a freelancer whose core workflow is tracking hours and turning them into invoices, that narrower focus is the point — time tracking, project-based invoicing, and client communication are built in as core features rather than add-ons. At $19/month it's also meaningfully cheaper than Xero's entry tier. What you lose moving from Xero: more limited multi-currency handling and less depth for anyone managing inventory or more complex bookkeeping.
Best for: freelancers who bill primarily by the hour and want time tracking built into the same tool as invoicing.
QuickBooks Online — the easiest handoff to an accountant
If the actual reason you're on accounting software at all is "my accountant needs my books in a specific format," QuickBooks is worth checking first — it remains the most widely used platform among bookkeepers and accountants, so switching to it (rather than a less common tool) may cause the least friction on that end. It's priced closer to Xero than the other options here (~$38/month), so it's not a cost-saving move on its own — the case for it is compatibility, not price.
Best for: freelancers switching primarily to simplify handoff to an accountant or bookkeeper, not to save money.
What actually gets lost in the switch
Migrating off Xero is rarely difficult at the mechanical level — most of these tools accept a CSV export of your chart of accounts, contacts, and historical transactions. What's easy to underestimate is the small stuff: saved report templates, specific automation rules, and integrations with other tools in your stack that were quietly built around Xero's particular way of doing things. Budget an afternoon to rebuild those, not just an hour to import the data.
Bottom line
For most freelancers switching off Xero, the decision comes down to region and workflow more than price alone: Wave if you're US/Canada-based and want the accounting bill to disappear entirely, Zoho Books if you're elsewhere and want the closest thing to Wave's value, FreshBooks if hourly billing is the actual core of how you invoice, and QuickBooks only if accountant compatibility matters more than the switch saving you money. See our Xero vs QuickBooks comparison if QuickBooks is the direction you're actually leaning, for a closer look at how the two compare feature-by-feature.
Pricing across all four tools changes periodically — confirm current plans directly with each provider before migrating your books over.