Honest comparison · last updated May 2026
Less than full bookkeeping, more useful than a spreadsheet.
QuickBooks Self-Employed pulled its Canadian mobile app in March 2024. Wave is free but pointed at small-business accounting, not freelancer compliance. FreshBooks is invoicing-first. MapleBooks fills the freelancer-specific gap: GST/HST threshold, T2125-ready year-end, vehicle logbook, tax reserve. Here's the honest comparison.
At a glance.
The table below is the same set of "what Canadian freelancers actually need" features evaluated across the most common tools. Where a product offers something but requires significant setup or third-party plugins, we mark it partial.
| Feature | MapleBooks | QuickBooks Solopreneur (CA) | Wave | FreshBooks | A spreadsheet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GST/HST $30K threshold monitor | Built-in, both rules | No | No | No | DIY |
| GST/HST remittance summary | Yes, per filing period | Limited | Yes | Yes | DIY |
| PST / QST tracking | All 13 provinces incl. QST ITRs | Limited | Some provinces | Some provinces | DIY |
| T2125-aligned categories & export | Default mapping to T2125 lines | US Schedule C oriented | Generic categories | Generic categories | DIY |
| Vehicle logbook + business-use % | Built-in, multi-vehicle | Yes (US mileage) | No | Add-on | DIY |
| Receipt OCR | Claude Haiku, included | Yes | Yes (Pro tier) | Yes | No |
| Tax reserve estimator | Yes, CRA-rate-aware | US-oriented | No | No | DIY |
| Invoicing | Not yet (Phase 3) | Yes | Yes | Best-in-class | DIY |
| Bank sync | CSV + manual only | Yes | Yes (Pro tier) | Yes | No |
| Double-entry accounting | No (deliberate) | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Pricing (CAD) | $15/mo or $130/yr | USD $25/mo+ | Free or $25/mo Pro | $22–$70/mo | Free (your time) |
| Data stored in Canada | Yes | US data centres | US data centres | US data centres | Your laptop |
Comparison reflects publicly documented features as of May 2026. Vendor offerings change frequently. If you spot something wrong, drop us a line.
Which tool is right for you?
You're invoicing-heavy and client-facing → FreshBooks
FreshBooks built its reputation on invoicing UX. Recurring invoices, late-payment reminders, proposal-to-invoice flow, time tracking that converts to billable hours — they nail this. If your daily pain is "billing my clients and getting paid," FreshBooks is hard to beat. The trade-off: less Canada-specific compliance tooling and a price that scales with client count.
You want a free accounting baseline → Wave
Wave's free tier covers basic invoicing and accounting at no cost. If you can live without bank auto-import and receipt OCR (or pay $25/mo for Pro to unlock them), Wave is genuinely great for cost-conscious small businesses. It just isn't Canada-tax-specific — you'll still need to watch your own GST/HST threshold and map your own categories to T2125.
You used QuickBooks Self-Employed and want a Canadian replacement → MapleBooks
Intuit's intended QBSE successor in Canada is QuickBooks Solopreneur, which is primarily a US Schedule C tool — its Canadian GST/HST tooling is thin. If you liked QBSE for the "freelancer-shaped" workflow (mileage, receipts, quarterly tax estimates, year-end export), MapleBooks is the closest Canadian equivalent — designed for T2125, not Schedule C.
Your books are simple and your accountant is patient → a spreadsheet
For under ~50 transactions a year, an accountant-blessed Google Sheet plus a folder of receipts is honestly fine. Don't let software vendors talk you out of it. The case for software starts when you're tracking 100+ transactions, multiple revenue streams, or the GST/HST threshold — that's where the manual work starts breaking down.
You need full double-entry / payroll / inventory → QuickBooks Online or Xero
Once you have employees, inventory, or multi-entity complexity, you've graduated past the "freelancer tool" category. QuickBooks Online and Xero are the serious choices. Both are overkill for a solo freelancer; both are appropriate for a growing business with bookkeeping help.
What MapleBooks deliberately doesn't do.
We don't pretend to be every tool. Three things we've chosen not to build, and why:
- Bank sync. Canadian open banking is still maturing. Reliable bank-feed products today depend on screen-scraping aggregators that break frequently. Until the Consumer-Driven Banking framework matures, CSV import is more reliable than bank sync.
- Invoicing. FreshBooks and Wave already do invoicing well. We'd rather send you to a great invoicing tool than ship a half-finished one.
- Double-entry accounting. The wedge user is a freelancer below the complexity threshold where double-entry helps. Wave covers double-entry for free if you need it.
Common questions
Is QuickBooks Self-Employed really gone in Canada?
The mobile app was pulled from app stores for new downloads in March 2024. Existing users have been migrated or sunset through 2024–2025. Intuit's positioned successor is QuickBooks Solopreneur, which is currently US-Schedule-C-oriented. For Canadian freelancers, this created a real gap that didn't have an obvious replacement — which is one of the reasons MapleBooks exists.
Can I import my QuickBooks Self-Employed data into MapleBooks?
QBSE exports CSVs of transactions, which import cleanly into MapleBooks. Categories will need to be re-mapped to T2125 (QBSE used a US Schedule C-flavoured taxonomy). Receipts can be re-attached but won't auto-import.
Why isn't there a free tier?
Honest answer: a free tier costs us money in hosting, OCR API spend, and support, and the freelancer market is small enough that we couldn't sustain it long-term. We chose a single fair price ($15 CAD/mo or $130/yr) over a freemium funnel. If price is the blocker, the free SEO calculators on this site give you the same math on your own numbers.
Do you offer an accountant view?
Not yet — it's on the Phase 3 roadmap. For now, the year-end T2125 package and the full ZIP export are designed to be handed to your accountant directly.
See it on your numbers.
Start with the free calculators — same math, your inputs — or join the waitlist to use MapleBooks against your actual transactions when accounts open.