Index › Receivables and billing › September 2026 Edition

Invoicing software

Asked as “invoicing software”, and as “online invoicing tool for a business”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 43 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.

Standing

Wave

Contested

19% of first choices, contested.

ShowinginAll 41 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

Small business

Zoho Invoice31%ContestedStanding →Mid-market

Wave19%ContestedThis page Enterprise

NetSuite17%ContestedStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.

ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant

Wave23%35accepted challenger

Zoho Invoice8%38accepted challenger

BILL4%26accepted challenger

Invoiced20%15accepted challenger

QuickBooks22%40accepted challenger

Xero0%26accepted challenger

Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate

FreshBooks30%30criticized challenger

Square Invoices19%21accepted challenger

Invoice Ninja15%13accepted challenger

Stripe Invoicing0%14accepted challenger

Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.

Head to head

Wave vs Zoho Invoice Wave vs BILL Zoho Invoice vs BILL

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default

Negative label rate →

Accepted challengerEndorsed leader

0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative30%

Key

Wave19%

Zoho Invoice14%

BILL14%

Invoiced14%

QuickBooks12%

Xero2%

Stripe Invoicing0%

Square Invoices0%

FreshBooks0%

Invoice Ninja0%

02What they warned about

One of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.

FreshBooks

30%

9 of 30 labels negative · 8 of 12 models

“users increasingly complain about **"feature rot"** (removing features in updates), rigid template customization, and rising prices” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt

Invoicely

100%

7 of 7 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 6 hard negative

“Invoicely is a legacy invoicing platform that has garnered a "Poor" rating (around 1.8/5) on Trustpilot.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt

QuickBooks

22%

9 of 40 labels negative · 7 of 12 models

“Users frequently complain about the mobile app, which is noted for slow loading times, glitches and poor customer service” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt

Wave

23%

8 of 35 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 2 hard negative

“Invoicemonk says to avoid US/Canada-only tools like **Wave** if you need **multi-currency/global compliance**” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

62 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 841 links across 255 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

forbes.com

30 answers · 34 citations · 10 models

softwareadvice.com

25 answers · 28 citations · 9 models

geekflare.com

25 answers · 25 citations · 9 models

techrepublic.com

19 answers · 19 citations · 9 models

learn.g2.com

18 answers · 26 citations · 8 models

bill.com

vendor site · BILL17 answers · 19 citations · 9 models

gitnux.org

17 answers · 17 citations · 8 models

toolradar.com

16 answers · 18 citations · 9 models

quickbooks.intuit.com

14 answers · 25 citations · 6 models

getapp.com

14 answers · 17 citations · 8 models

bookipi.com

vendor site · Bookipi13 answers · 13 citations · 8 models

nerdwallet.com

13 answers · 13 citations · 6 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-invoicing-software

28 answers · 10 models

geekflare.com/software/best-invoicing-software

25 answers · 9 models

softwareadvice.com/accounting/billing-invoicing-software-comparison

20 answers · 8 models

techrepublic.com/article/best-invoicing-software

19 answers · 9 models

gitnux.org/best/b2b-invoicing-software

15 answers · 8 models

learn.g2.com/best-billing-software

15 answers · 8 models

bill.com/blog/best-invoice-automation-software

13 answers · 8 models

bookipi.com/bookkeeping/best-invoicing-software

13 answers · 8 models

toolradar.com/guides/best-invoicing-software

13 answers · 8 models

everhour.com/blog/b2b-invoicing-software

12 answers · 8 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.

ModelDirect“What is the best invoicing software for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which online invoicing tool for a business would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top invoicing tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best invoicing software for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an invoicing software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which invoicing tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”

Claude Haiku 4.5Sage Intacct

Three alternatives

BILL, DealHub AI, Younium

no first choiceChangedagainst: Waveno first choiceWave

Three alternatives

Invoice Ninja, Paymo, ZipBooks

no first choiceagainst: Invoice Simple, Invoiced, QuickBooks

GPT-5.4 miniNetSuite SuiteBilling

Two alternatives

BILL, Sage Intacct

against: QuickBooksSage IntacctChanged

Two alternatives

BILL, QuickBooks

Zoho Invoice

Five alternatives

FreshBooks, QuickBooks, Square Invoices, Wave, Xero

Zoho Invoice

Two alternatives

Square Invoices, Wave

no first choiceagainst: AliBilling, DocuClipper, Harvest, Invoice2go, Invoicely

Gemini 3.5 FlashVersapay

Seven alternatives

BILL, Billtrust, Chargebee, Invoiced, Lago, Orb, Quadient AR

against: FreshBooks, QuickBooks, WaveInvoicedChanged

Six alternatives

Chargebee, Quadient, Stripe Billing, Versapay, Xero, Zoho Books

against: QuickBooks, WaveZoho Invoice

Five alternatives

FreshBooks, QuickBooks, Square Invoices, Wave, Xero

Wave

Four alternatives

Billbooks, Invoice Ninja, Square Invoices, Zoho Invoice

no first choiceagainst: FreshBooks, Invoice Simple, Invoicely, PayPal Invoicing, QuickBooks, Wave

Perplexity SonarInvoiced

Three alternatives

BILL, NetSuite, QuickBooks

BILL, QuickBooksChangedno first choice

Seven alternatives

FreshBooks, QuickBooks, Square Invoices, Stripe Invoicing, Wave, Xero, Zoho Invoice

Wave, Zoho Invoiceagainst: FreshBooks, QuickBooksno first choiceagainst: Square Invoices, Wave, Zoho

Grok 4.1 FastBILL

Four alternatives

Chargebee, NetSuite, QuickBooks, Xero

QuickBooksChanged

Two alternatives

Xero, Zoho Invoice

no first choiceZoho Invoice

Four alternatives

Invoice Ninja, Square Invoices, Wave, ZipBooks

no first choice

Five alternatives

BILL, NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Stampli, Tipalti

against: BILL, FreshBooks, Invoicely, KashFlow, QuickBooks, SAP Ariba

Mistral SmallInvoiced, SAP

Three alternatives

AvidXchange, BILL, Tipalti

BILL, XeroChanged

Two alternatives

Bill360, Zoho Invoice

no first choiceZoho Invoice

Two alternatives

QuickBooks, Wave

no first choiceagainst: FreshBooks, Invoiced, Invoicely, Wave, Zoho Invoice

DeepSeek V4 FlashBilltrust, Invoiced

Seven alternatives

BILL, Chargebee, HighRadius, Quadient AR, Sage Intacct, Tipalti, Versapay

InvoicedChanged

Four alternatives

QuickBooks, Xero, Zoho Billing, Zoho Invoice

no first choice

Ten alternatives

Bonsai, FreshBooks, Harvest, Invoice Ninja, QuickBooks, Square Invoices, Stripe Invoicing, Wave, Xero, Zoho Invoice

Wave, Zoho Invoice

Two alternatives

Invoicey, ZipBooks

against: FreshBooksBILL

Four alternatives

Brex, Ramp, Stampli, Tipalti

against: GST Invoice Billing Inventory, Invoice Simple, Invoice2go, Invoicely, PayPal Invoicing, QuickBooks Payments, Square Invoices

Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldno first choiceBilldu

Two alternatives

Invoice Ninja, Wave

NetSuite

Four alternatives

QuickBooks, Sage, Xero, Zoho Invoice

nothing named

Qwen 3.7 FlashBillforward

Four alternatives

BILL, ChargeOver, NetSuite SuiteBilling, Vendormedia

QuickBooksChanged

Three alternatives

BILL, FreshBooks, Xero

against: Invoice Ninja, StripeQuickBooks

Four alternatives

FreshBooks, Stripe Invoicing, Xero, Zoho Invoice

against: Square InvoicesWave

Three alternatives

Square Invoices, Stripe Invoicing, Zoho Books

no first choiceagainst: FreshBooks, NetSuite, QuickBooks, Sage Intacct, Zoho Invoice

Kimi K2HighRadius

Four alternatives

BILL, Billtrust, Invoiced, Versapay

BILL, QuickBooksChanged

Two alternatives

FreshBooks, Xero

against: WaveQuickBooks

Six alternatives

FreshBooks, Square Invoices, Stripe Invoicing, Wave, Xero, Zoho Invoice

Wave

One alternative

Zoho Invoice

no first choiceagainst: Akaunting, FreshBooks, Harvest, Invoice Ninja, Invoicely, QuickBooks, Skynova, Wave

GLM 4.7 FlashXInvoiced

Three alternatives

Chargebee, QuickBooks, Zoho Invoice

QuickBooksChanged

Three alternatives

Chargebee, Invoiced, Xero

against: FreshBooksno first choiceagainst: SAP ConcurWave

Six alternatives

Invoice Ninja, InvoiceASAP, InvoiceBee, InvoiceBloom, Toolcie, Zoho Invoice

no first choiceagainst: InvoicePlane, InvoiceShelf, PayPal Invoicing, QuickBooks Enterprise Payment Gateway, Square Invoices, Stripe Atlas/Capital, Zoho Invoice

MiniMax M2.5BILL

Two alternatives

Stampli, Tipalti

ChaserChanged

Two alternatives

QuickBooks, Zoho Invoice

against: SAPFreshBooks, Zoho Invoice

Four alternatives

Invoice Ninja, QuickBooks, Stripe Invoicing, Wave

Wave, Zoho Invoice

Two alternatives

Invoice Ninja, Square Invoices

no first choiceagainst: Invoice Simple, Invoiced, Invoicely

Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record

Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.

Prompt	Model	Version string	Time (UTC)	Searched	Sources	Latency
Direct recommendation	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 18:12	yes	9	7 s
Direct recommendation	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 19:17	yes	3	6 s
Direct recommendation	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 18:26	yes	14	24 s
Direct recommendation	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 19:19	yes	20	4 s
Direct recommendation	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 19:15	yes	31	15 s
Direct recommendation	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 17:56	yes	5	4 s
Direct recommendation	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra`	2026-09-17 19:14	yes	20	62 s
Direct recommendation	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 20:00	yes	5	2 s
Direct recommendation	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 19:33	no	0	31 s
Direct recommendation	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 20:57	yes	15	32 s
Direct recommendation	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 18:07	yes	38	36 s
Direct recommendation	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 19:55	yes	9	29 s
Paraphrase	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 20:39	no	0	5 s
Paraphrase	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 20:00	yes	3	5 s
Paraphrase	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 21:53	yes	19	47 s
Paraphrase	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 20:18	yes	20	5 s
Paraphrase	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 18:23	yes	41	19 s
Paraphrase	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 19:29	yes	15	8 s
Paraphrase	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 21:05	yes	18	22 s
Paraphrase	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 19:47	yes	5	3 s
Paraphrase	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 19:58	no	0	25 s
Paraphrase	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 19:07	yes	15	24 s
Paraphrase	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 19:21	yes	18	53 s
Paraphrase	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 19:38	yes	13	27 s
Comparative	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 18:47	yes	9	8 s
Comparative	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 18:10	yes	7	7 s
Comparative	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 19:05	yes	9	22 s
Comparative	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 20:35	yes	20	9 s
Comparative	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 20:51	yes	24	15 s
Comparative	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 18:31	yes	8	9 s
Comparative	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 18:35	yes	17	21 s
Comparative	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 20:13	yes	5	3 s
Comparative	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 18:01	yes	5	25 s
Comparative	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 19:10	yes	15	53 s
Comparative	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 18:16	yes	29	39 s
Comparative	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 18:29	yes	13	32 s
Budget constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 18:49	yes	9	7 s
Budget constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 19:14	yes	4	8 s
Budget constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 21:54	yes	20	59 s
Budget constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 18:45	yes	20	6 s
Budget constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 20:04	yes	11	7 s
Budget constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 18:42	yes	5	4 s
Budget constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra`	2026-09-17 18:06	yes	15	28 s
Budget constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 20:28	yes	5	3 s
Budget constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 19:19	no	0	24 s
Budget constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 18:23	yes	5	11 s
Budget constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 19:41	yes	15	46 s
Budget constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 18:06	yes	10	21 s
Scale constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 19:45	no	0	6 s
Scale constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 17:53	no	0	6 s
Scale constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 21:19	no	0	38 s
Scale constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 20:39	yes	19	20 s
Scale constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 18:36	yes	14	13 s
Scale constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 18:42	no	0	4 s
Scale constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 19:38	yes	19	23 s
Scale constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 21:04	yes	5	4 s
Scale constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 20:40	no	0	26 s
Scale constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 18:09	yes	10	17 s
Scale constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 20:30	yes	15	52 s
Scale constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 20:50	no	0	7 s
Negative framing	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 20:26	yes	16	9 s
Negative framing	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 19:44	yes	4	7 s
Negative framing	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 21:18	yes	22	46 s
Negative framing	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 19:32	yes	20	8 s
Negative framing	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 19:10	yes	39	18 s
Negative framing	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 19:15	yes	10	7 s
Negative framing	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra`	2026-09-17 18:16	yes	28	65 s
Negative framing	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 20:48	yes	10	4 s
Negative framing	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 20:40	yes	20	28 s
Negative framing	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 19:50	yes	20	36 s
Negative framing	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 20:17	yes	24	53 s
Negative framing	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 19:13	yes	14	27 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings

BILL AP/AR read as BILL

Bill.com read as BILL

QuickBooks Online read as QuickBooks

QuickBooks Online (Advanced/Enterprise tiers) read as QuickBooks

QuickBooks Online (Plus) read as QuickBooks

QuickBooks Online Advanced read as QuickBooks

Square read as Square Invoices

Wave Accounting read as Wave

Unresolved, counted raw

AliBilling

Billforward

GST Invoice Billing Inventory

Harmonise

InvoiceASAP

InvoiceBee

InvoiceBloom

InvoicePlane

InvoiceShelf (Crater Invoice)

Invoicey

Moxie

Novo Invoicing

QuickBooks Enterprise Payment Gateway

Stripe Atlas/Capital

Toolcie

Vendormedia

Discontinued, still offered

No shut-down product was recommended here.

Invoicing software

By buyer segment

01The standing

Recommended versus criticized

02What they warned about

03What they cite

Sites the answers cite

Pages the answers cite

04How they answered

05The record

Normalization in this category

Also in receivables and billing