Comparison
A free Wave alternative for the invoicing half on its own
How Lalo Docs and Wave actually differ, with the numbers each of us publishes.
Wave’s Starter plan is genuinely free and genuinely unlimited for invoicing, so this page will not pretend otherwise. The difference is scope, not price.
Wave is an accounting product with invoicing inside it: the ledger, the bank feed, the financial statements, the advisors. If you keep books in Wave, that is exactly what you want and you should stay.
Lalo Docs is only the document half, and it is built to be the whole job rather than a way in to something larger. Unlimited invoices, estimates and receipts on the free plan, six layouts, 13 document languages — and a Wave mapping preset in the CSV importer for when you want your client list and item catalog to come with you.
Which one fits you
Where Wave is the better pick
- You want bookkeeping, bank reconciliation and financial statements in one place.
- You already run payroll or advisors through Wave.
- You want receipt scanning and automatic bank import, which is Wave’s $19/mo Pro tier.
Where Lalo Docs is the better pick
- You do not want an accounting product attached to your invoicing.
- You bill in more than one currency or language — 13 document languages, 160 currencies.
- You want a European e-invoice-ready PDF with Factur-X XML embedded in it.
- You want profession defaults — a call-out fee line for a plumber, a day rate for a designer — without building the template yourself.
Honest comparison
| Feature | Lalo Docs Free | Wave |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0, permanent | $0, permanent (Starter) |
| Invoice volume | Unlimited | Unlimited on Starter |
| Bookkeeping and bank import | No | Bank import is Pro, $19/mo |
| Receipt scanning | No | Pro, $19/mo |
| Document languages | 13 | Not stated |
| Profession templates | 38 | Not stated |
| Branding on free PDFs | Small “Made with Lalo Docs” line in the footer; removable on Pro | Not stated |
Competitor details checked 27 July 2026.
“Not stated” means the vendor’s own pricing page did not publish that detail when we checked, so we are not asserting a number for it.
Moving your list over
Export clients and items from Wave to CSV, then pick the Wave mapping preset in the Lalo Docs importer. It brings across your client list and your item catalog. Historical invoices do not come across.
Most people switching mid-year leave the old year where it is and start the new numbering in Lalo Docs.
The mapping presets import a client list and an item catalog. They do not import historical invoices — those stay in Wave.