If you're reading this, you're probably a Canadian freelancer who's been using Wave, you noticed the pricing page has a lot more tiers than it used to, and you're starting to shop around.
You're not alone. Wave ran a free Canadian invoicing and accounting product for more than a decade. That model has been shifting. Bank-transaction auto-import, a core feature many Wave users relied on weekly, moved behind a CA$16/month Pro tier, and a broader paid plan followed. Wave's own position, stated in a BetaKit interview, is that a free tier will remain, with paid tiers layered on for features customers need as their businesses grow.
For Canadian freelancers who'd built an invoicing workflow on top of Wave, the calendar has a decision on it.
This post is about that decision. What actually changed at Wave, what to look for in a replacement if you're a solo freelancer, and where Loot fits in that picture. Loot is ours. We'll talk about it toward the end. The first two-thirds of this is the plain story.
What changed at Wave in 2026
The headline change is the paywall on bank-transaction imports. If you used Wave's bank connection to pull in payments and expenses automatically, that feature is now Pro-tier. The free plan still sends invoices and records payments, but the automation that made it feel effortless has been priced.
Two other things have been getting mentioned in freelancer communities:
The Wave user forum, which used to be the go-to place for resolving weird edge cases, was shut down in 2024. Canadian freelancers in r/freelance and r/PersonalFinanceCanada have been pointing this out for months. Support has moved to email-based channels that are slower than the community used to be.
Reports of payout delays and account reviews appear regularly in review aggregators. Trustpilot sits below 2 out of 5 from hundreds of reviews as of April 2026. Not every freelancer will hit these issues, but they commonly appear in 2026 "Wave alternatives" roundups.
None of this is a takedown of Wave. The product worked well for a long time and a lot of Canadian businesses built on it. The point is narrower: if you signed up for the free-invoicing-and-accounting story, the product you bought into in 2018 or 2022 is a different product in 2026.
What to look for in a Wave replacement (if you're a solo freelancer)
A few things matter more than the feature list suggests.
Built for Canadian tax. GST and HST rules are province-specific. Quebec's QST is a separate system. Most invoicing tools built for US freelancers handle this with a "custom tax field," which works but puts the burden of knowing the rules on you. A Canadian-built tool bakes the presets in.
CAD-native. Wave handled CAD well. A lot of the "alternatives" being recommended by US listicles don't. They quote in USD, convert for reporting, and leave you doing mental math on every dashboard. If your invoices are in CAD and your bank account is in CAD, you want the tool to be, too.
Payment processing you control. Stripe is the standard-setter for Canadian small-business payments. You want a tool that integrates with Stripe and leaves the money flow between you and your client. No platform sitting in the middle holding your payout.
Reports that line up with CRA filing periods. If you're GST/HST-registered, your life is organized around quarters. Reports that show revenue and GST collected by CRA quarter save you hours at filing time. Reports that don't, cost you hours.
PIPEDA compliance. Canadian privacy law applies to Loot. If your tool stores client data, and any invoicing tool does, PIPEDA compliance is the baseline.
A free tier that means free. No 30-day trial. No "free for your first five invoices and then surprise." If the tool claims free, you should be able to run your business on it forever, even if you outgrow it later and choose to upgrade.
What Loot does
Loot is a Canadian-built invoicing tool for freelancers. It was started in 2025, built entirely for solo operators, and launched in April 2026. Here's what the product does on the free tier:
Unlimited invoices. Unlimited quotes. GST and HST on every invoice, per-province, with QST handling for Quebec. Up to five active clients. A dashboard that shows collected, outstanding, and month-over-month. CRA-aligned quarterly reporting. Log expenses on the same dashboard, no cap. PIPEDA-compliant by default. Payment processing via Stripe, with the payout going directly to the freelancer's connected bank account.
Pro is CA$24.99 a month, or CA$19.99 a month billed yearly. It opens unlimited clients, custom email branding on invoices, custom invoice and quote copy, automated payment reminders after a due date passes, and a CSV export your accountant will actually like. Pro exists for freelancers who've grown past the five-client limit and want to replace the Loot-branded client emails with their own.
Send the invoice. Log the payment. Do it again next week. Loot makes the steady version of the job visible, so the weeks you're on top of it add up to something you can point at.
Switching over
Can I import my data from Wave? Not yet. Wave doesn't offer a clean third-party export, and we don't want to ship something half-broken. The cleanest migration path for most solo freelancers: close out the current Wave quarter, keep Wave around read-only for the filing period, and run new invoices through Loot starting from a fixed date. If you need a hand, email support@getloot.ca.
Do I need to be GST-registered? No. If you're under the CA$30,000 annual threshold, you're not required to register, and Loot handles both cases. Register yourself later when your revenue crosses the line and the tool adjusts.
Is Loot a bookkeeping tool? No. It's an invoicing tool. If you need double-entry accounting, pair it with QuickBooks, Xero, or ReInvestWealth. Most solo freelancers don't need double-entry until they start paying a bookkeeper.
What happens if I outgrow the free tier? You hit the five-client limit and upgrade to Pro when you're ready. No forced upgrade mid-quarter. The free tier keeps working.
One last thing
If you've been on Wave for years and you're reluctant to change, that's a fair instinct. Switching invoicing tools mid-year isn't free, even when the new tool is. What we'd say is: the version of Wave you signed up for isn't the version you'll be paying for a year from now, and that's worth knowing before the renewal lands.
If it helps: Loot's free tier is free to try. No credit card, no trial clock. Sign up, send a test invoice to yourself, see if the workflow fits. If it does, start running your quarter on it. If it doesn't, nothing lost.
Your streak starts on day one.