Free is the easy part. The invoice is the point.
Wave gives away the accounting. The question is what your client opens and how they can pay, and that is exactly where Drupd is built to win.
$6/mo
Drupd
Free, then 2.9% + $0.60 per card payment
Wave
Free plan, no card
The tally · 16 things that matter for billing
10
/ 16Drupd pulls ahead
3
/ 16Both hold their own
3
/ 16Left out, on purpose
Not a feature count for its own sake. Drupd wins where billing speed and the finished invoice matter, and steps aside where Wave is doing a different, heavier job.
Wave's free tier is genuinely good, and Drupd is not trying to undercut free. Drupd makes one bet: a beautiful invoice, sent in under three minutes, paid on any rail your client prefers, anywhere in the world.
Every template is hand-typeset and server-rendered at true A4, so what lands in your client's inbox looks designed, not generated by an accounting app. And where Wave's online payments are card and ACH for US and Canadian accounts only, Drupd hands you global bank details and crypto, with no payment processor required to get paid at all.
The same work, two very different tools.
An ember check marks the side that leads; a dash means that tool leaves it to the other, on purpose.
Four reasons the switch pays off.
01 / The artifact
An invoice that looks like you charge what you charge
Five handcrafted templates, typeset to the millimetre and server-rendered at true A4, carry your brand color, your logo, and even your crypto wallet icons. The PDF a client opens is a beautiful, professional document, not a form generated by an accounting app. Free templates rarely look like this.
02 / Payments
Get paid anywhere, on any rail
Card link, bank details with country-aware fields, and five crypto chains, all one-click-copy on the public invoice. Wave's online payments stop at US cards and ACH and Canadian EFT, so a client outside North America cannot pay you through it at all.
03 / No cut
Free is not free when it taxes every payment
Wave gives away the software, then takes 2.9% + $0.60 of each card payment you collect. Drupd takes nothing on top of your processor, and nothing at all on bank transfer and crypto. On real volume, the math flips fast.
04 / Focus
An invoice, not a ledger
No chart of accounts, no receipt inbox, no reports to reconcile. Drupd does invoicing, sending, and getting paid, and keeps the screen calm so the work goes out fast.
04 · The price
Free software that taxes 2.9% + $0.60 on every card payment. On real volume, a flat $6 costs less, and bank and crypto cost nothing.
The invoice is the part your client sees.
Every other screen serves this one document, so we treat it as a thing worth crafting. Drupd hand-typesets each template and renders it server-side at true A4 — your brand color, logo, and payment details set with a designer’s care — so the invoice landing in your client’s inbox looks deliberate, polished, and unmistakably professional. Not generated. Made.
Invoice
INV-0042
From
Studio North
Billed to
Halberd & Co.
Ready when you are
Send your next invoice in Drupd.
Keep Wave for everything around the work if you want it. Let Drupd handle the part your client actually opens.
- Drupd
- $6/mo
- Wave
- Free, then 2.9% + $0.60 per card payment
- Free plan
- No card
Fair questions.
The honest answers, including the ones where Wave is the better fit.
Wave is free. Why pay $6/mo for Drupd?
Wave's software is free, but its online payments cost 2.9% + $0.60 per card transaction, and the invoice itself looks like accounting-software output. Drupd is $6/mo for a hand-typeset, true-A4 invoice, global payment rails including crypto, and no cut of your payments. If you collect any real volume by card, Drupd's flat price often costs less than Wave's per-transaction fees, and the document looks far better.
Does Drupd do accounting like Wave?
No, and that is deliberate. Wave is accounting software with invoicing attached; Drupd is the invoice. Drupd handles invoicing, payments, and follow-ups, then exports a clean ZIP of CSVs and PDFs for your accountant or your accounting tool. If free bookkeeping is what you need, Wave earns its place.
I have clients outside the US and Canada. Will Wave work?
Wave's online payments are limited to US and Canadian accounts, so an international client cannot pay you through it directly. Drupd puts IBAN, SWIFT, and other country-aware bank fields plus crypto wallets right on the invoice, so anyone, anywhere can pay you.
Does Drupd take a percentage of my invoices?
No. Drupd never takes a cut. You pay only your own card processor's fee, or nothing at all when a client pays by bank transfer or crypto. Wave, by contrast, charges 2.9% + $0.60 on every card payment you collect through it.