Xero vs Freshbooks vs Quickbooks vs Wave – PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

If you are looking for a Xero vs Freshbooks vs Quickbooks vs Wave comaparison review, then chances are, you own a small digital business.

These accounting softwares have been around for a long time and in this article, I’ll be comparing them. My review is based on the experience of actuals, interviews, industry experts and my experience with one of their major competitors.

Can you feel the excitement? Let’s do this!!

Main Differences Between Xero vs. Freshbooks vs Quickbooks vs. Wave

The main differences between Xero vs Freshbooks vs Wave vs Quickbooks are:

• Xero costs $9 a month and is a bit costlier, whereas Freshbooks costs $4.90 a month and is cheapest. Wave is starting at $20 per month and Quickbooks is starting at $10
• Xero is more for small and medium-sized businesses and accounting practices, whereas Freshbooks is more for individuals who need help with paperwork. Quickbooks is for small and medium-sized businesses while wave is for bigger brands.
• Again and again Xero is rated as very easy (especially for beginners) to use by its customers, whereas Freshbooks is rated as a bit difficult to understand if you have not used software like that before. Wave and Quickbooks is simple to use too
• Xero offers excellent support, whereas Freshbooks is a pain when it comes to dealing with your account or canceling a subscription. Quickbooks support is great, but can’t say the same for Wave.

Now, let’s compare Xero and FreshBooks to see which software is best for your business. First, what’s your platform?

Platforms Supported	Xero	FreshBooks	Quickbooks	Wave
Ratings	4/5	4.8/5	3.8/5	3.4/5
Web-based	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
iPhone app	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Android app	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Phone app	No	No	No	No

Unfortunately, there is no support for windows smartphone at the moment.

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Who Uses Xero, FreshBooks, Wave and Quickbooks?

All of the options listed above cater to the needs of freelancers, small businesses, and bigger brands to create customized, yet affordable options. For small business owners, whichever one you decide to settle with will serve you well.

Xero vs. FreshBooks vs. Wave vs. Quickbooks Match-up

Here’s a quick cheat sheet to begin the comparison, with another one to follow at the end of today’s review:

Support	Xero	Freshbooks	Quickbooks	Wave
Phone Support	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Online Support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Knowledge Base	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Video Tutorials	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

 

Both Freshbooks, Xero, Wave, and Quickbooks offer business affordable, cloud-based platforms that makes accounting tasks really simple. If you look at it, they do seem similar in many features: including user experience, price, and how they operate.

Although I generally recommend FreshBooks to beginners, I still would advise you check each out to find which one fits your business best.

In This Corner: Xero

Their  slogan is “Beautiful Accounting Software.” Couldn’t be more true!

My ecpericence has been great so far!

About Xero

Xero features include cloud-based accounting solutions for small to mid-sized businesses, known for being easy to use for their users and yes, having an attractive interface.

It is one of the most popular growing software as a Service (SaaS) companies globally boasting more than 862,000 subscribers worldwide.

It is founded in New Zealand in 2006, Xero is able to help small businesses do better via information, tools, and connections.

Who Xero Helps

Xero are best in making accounting solutions for small businesses and is the popular choice of personal, retail, high-tech, e-commerce, hospitality, nonprofit, advertising industries and coffee shops.

What Xero Offers

Xero handles payments, expenses, and invoicing; and it offers extra features like inventory management tools, bank reconciliation, and purchase ordering.

Managing your business is as simple as connecting Xero to your bank account for seamless transactions, reporting and reconciliations.

Note: As of right now there is no good Xero mobile integration for on the go accounting.

How Much Does Xero Cost?

Xero pricing are affordable. Here are their plans and its features:

Starter	Limited to send five invoices, five bills, and 20 transactions per month
Standard	Includes unlimited invoices, bills, and bank transactions and includes a payroll for five employees
Premium	Features unlimited invoices, billing, and bank transactions as well as payroll for ten employees accounts. It also includes multiple currency support.

The Premium and Standard package lets you create customizable purchase orders, payroll direct deposits and checks too, and there is a federal and state e-file and e-pay options.

Why Users Like Xero:

Customers have rated Xero super high due to the following reasons:

Intuitive interface (Many argue that is beautiful to look at)

An Amazing support center that is available 24/7 all through the year vua live chat, email, and on-site support.

Customers have also commended their online accounting bookkeeping community that boasts of a community forum page and blog.

Their feedback and comments regarding means by which Xero brand can improve their interface have inspired the company’s representatives online, and some of these chats have led to extra upgrades to improve the user experience.

Xero’s 5 Best Features:

• Interface is simple to use
• UI is beautiful too
• Comes with complete tools and features that support many tax rates and currencies.
• There are more than 500 integrations including Paypal, Stripe, and Square.
• Real-time financial reporting with a dashboard to quickly view bank balances, invoices, bills, and expense claims.
• Xero comes with a secure collaboration option that allows owners the ability to invite employees like an accountant and a bookkeeper to view financial records online. Owners can invite an unlimited amount of people to collaborate, with their access controlled by an administrator.

Now, the rest of the competitions.

Meet, FreshBooks

FreshBooks is a cloud-based accounting service app that lets small-businesses owners manage their business irrespective where they are.

It boasts of a simple-to-use interface perfect for people who run business on the go!

About FreshBooks

Over 10 million people have used FreshBooks to receive, send, print, and pay invoices. Like you, it was a small business owner who developed this platform.

He was tired of the stressful and unending invoicing practices available to him so he birthed FreshBooks.

FreshBooks is an intuitive interface and is built around different areas of functionality: invoicing, payments, time tracking, reporting, and expense management.

Who FreshBooks Helps

This cloud-based accounting solution is popular with contracting, legal, accounting, consulting, personal services, and creative agencies in large part because of its time-tracking feature.

What FreshBooks Offers

FreshBooks are widely used by people such as psychologists and lawyers and other professionals that bill customers for their expertise and time.

Online reviewers love how it makes complex accounting principles so easy even for a layman.

One reviewer commented: “FreshBooks is a simple cloud accounting application designed to help small business owners to get organized and get paid.”

FreshBooks offers the following features:

• Expense and time tracking
• Taxes
• Accounting reports
• Online payments and
• automatic updates.

It also allows you to customize FreshBook invoice and there is an option to send payment reminders, and with FreshBooks, you can manage various projects all at once.

How Much Does FreshBooks Cost?

All of their plans support customization, automatic late payment fees and reminders, features to help you track time, data that is 100% secured and automatically backed up, and invoice status

Optionally, you can add and categorize expenses, accept online credit card payments, and it works on various device such as tablet, a computer, mobile, tablet, android or ios.

Why Users Like FreshBooks:

Online reviewers enjoyed how easy FreshBooks have made accounting for the business. They love the guided step-by-step wizard and help boxes that appear each time you carry out a simple task like adding a new customer or creating a new invoice.

Time and time, ease of use has been one of the strong points of FreshBooks with many calling it the best in the industry.

FreshBooks’ 5 Best Features:

• Once projects are completed, you can convert estimated into invoices.
• There is an option to use either a snail mail invoicing or an online invoicing option
• FreshBooks offers different add-ons and intergrations.
• Reviewers have loved FreshBooks with its apps and many claiming that it is the best due to the amazing customer service, and the ability to do everything on-the-go.
• The time-tracking feature lets you easily manage billabale hours providing the needed data to back up the invoices.

FAQs

• Is Xero good software for startups?

Yes, it is. Plus, its features will still suit you even if you outgrow it.

• Is Xero safe to use?

Xero is 100% safe to use. The brand performs daily backups of your information that is safe and encrypted on different locations online, and you can rest assured that no one else will get.

• How can I learn Xero?

You can begin learning by watching videos on Youtube. Optionally, you can use the company’s tutorials and even sign up for a course on platforms like Udemy.

• Is there a free version of FreshBooks?

FreshBooks have a freeversion where you enjoy all the features for 30 days without paying a dime. The great part of this offer is that it saves all your data, so you can pay for an upgraded plan whenever you are ready without losing anything.

• Is FreshBooks good for freelancers?

Absolutely! FreshBooks allow freelances to get paid on time and contact clients easier and require payment which they can make however they want. FreshBooks also allow you to track all your previous payments and be ready to do your taxes in only in a small time.

The Bottom Line – Xero vs Freshbooks

First, here’s a cheat sheet that highlights their differences:

Features	Xero	FreshBooks
API	No	Yes
Authentication & Security	No	Yes
Balance Sheet	Yes	No
Bank Reconciliation	Yes	No
Billable Hours	No	Yes
Currency Conversion	Yes	No
Data Import	No	Yes
Electronic Payments	No	Yes
Expense Claims	Yes	No
Expense Tracking	No	Yes
Invoice Management	No	Yes
Invoices	Yes	Yes
Mobile Integration	No	Yes
Payroll Management	Yes	No
Project Tracking/Project Time	No	Yes
Receipt Management	No	Yes
Sales Tax Management	No	Yes
Time and Expense Tracking	No	Yes
Timesheets/Timesheet Mgmt	No	Yes

Either FreshBooks, Xero, Wave, or Quickbooks will help businesses appear more professional and help better manage your finances while efficiently categorizing your expenses.

For charges per time, I recommend FreshBooks.

For sending invites to bookkeepers or accountant to review financial records, I vote Xero.

If you are more interested in whole-business financial management for bookkeeping and accounting, Xero is the online software for you.