What is the best quoting software in 2026?

Wave is the easiest answer to "I just need to send a decent estimate". The Starter plan costs nothing and includes unlimited estimates and unlimited invoices. You build the estimate, send it, and when the client says yes, it turns into an invoice without retyping a single line.

Pro costs $19 a month or $190 a year. The upgrade matters mostly for branding: on Pro, the Wave branding comes off your documents, which is worth it once you quote larger clients who read every detail. Card payments on Starter cost 2.9% plus $0.60 per transaction, so on a $300 deposit you lose about $9.30.

Wave stays an invoicing and bookkeeping tool first. Its estimates are clean but plain: they price the work, they don't sell it.

The limit: if your quotes need a cover letter, case studies and optional line items your client can tick, Wave will feel bare. That's PandaDoc or Proposify territory.

Tip: send your first ten estimates on Starter. Switch to Pro only when a client comments on the Wave mention, or when card fees on deposits start adding up to more than $19 a month.

QuickBooks Online is the default accounting tool for a large share of US small businesses and their bookkeepers. That's the reason to quote from it: an accepted estimate becomes an invoice, the payment matches the bank feed, and your accountant sees the whole trail without a single export.

The pricing ladder is clear. A free plan covers one user. Simple Start is $38 a month for one user, Essentials $85 for three, Plus $140 for five, and Advanced $340. Those are the regular monthly prices: if the page shows a promotion for the first months, plan your budget on the regular figure.

Where it beats Wave: multiple users and the accountant ecosystem. Where it loses: price. A three-person team on Essentials pays $1,020 a year, against $0 to $190 on Wave.

The limit: QuickBooks quotes look like accounting documents. They do the job for a plumber or a consultant, not for a $40,000 agency proposal that needs to persuade.

Tip: ask your bookkeeper which plan they support before you buy. Many already manage clients on a specific tier and will steer you away from paying for Plus when Essentials is enough.

Jobber is built for home and field services. The quote is one step in a chain: request, quote, scheduled visit, job, invoice, payment. If your day happens in a van rather than at a desk, that chain is the whole point.

The price needs a careful read. Billed monthly, one user pays $49 on Core, $139 on Connect and $199 on Grow. Billed annually, the same tiers drop to $29, $99 and $149 a month. Each extra user costs $29 a month, so the team size moves the bill more than the tier does.

Its strength is the chain itself: the quote isn't a stray PDF but a step tied to the visit and the invoice that follow, which makes forgotten quotes easier to catch.

The limit: for a consultant or an agency, the scheduling and dispatch side is dead weight. And a crew of four on Connect adds $87 a month in extra users.

Tip: start monthly on Core for the first few weeks, then switch to annual once the crew uses it daily. On Core alone, annual billing saves $240 a year.

FreshBooks prices by client count, which suits service firms with steady accounts. Lite is $23 a month for 5 billable clients, Plus $43 for 50, Premium $70 for unlimited clients. Each extra team member costs $11 a month.

Estimates are clean and turn into invoices without retyping. For a consultant who quotes a project, tracks hours against it and bills at the end, the loop is tight.

Watch the client cap. Lite stops at 5 billable clients. A freelancer with eight small accounts is already on Plus at $43, which is more than QuickBooks Simple Start.

The limit: like Wave and QuickBooks, FreshBooks quotes are functional documents, not persuasive proposals.

Tip: archive clients you no longer bill. The cap counts billable clients, so an old account sitting active can push you a tier up for nothing.

Zoho Invoice is free, and it includes quotes. The plan covers up to 500 invoices a year, 2 users, 3 projects and 2 organizations. For two partners sharing one quoting tool, that second user is the difference with Wave Starter.

The catch is branding: invoices carry a "Powered by Zoho Invoice" mention. For most small clients, nobody notices. For a premium brand, it shows.

Zoho's strength is the rest of the Zoho suite. If you later add Zoho CRM or Zoho Books, your quotes and contacts are already in the family.

The limit: the annual caps. Five hundred invoices a year is roughly 40 a month; a busy shop hits it fast.

Tip: use the two organizations wisely. A freelancer running a side business can keep both on one free account, with separate numbering and branding.

PandaDoc is not an invoicing tool. It's a document and e-signature platform where the quote is part of a proposal your client reads, comments on and signs. That's why it tops many "quoting software" lists for sales teams.

The free plan allows 5 documents a month. Starter is $19 a month, Business $49 per seat per month, both billed annually, with a 14-day trial. Business is where quoting gets serious: custom quotes and CRM integration, so a deal in your CRM produces a priced quote.

Per-seat pricing adds up. Three reps on Business cost $147 a month, or $1,764 a year.

The limit: PandaDoc doesn't do your invoicing or bookkeeping. You still need Wave, QuickBooks or FreshBooks after the signature.

Tip: use the free plan's 5 documents to send your next real proposals. If clients sign faster than with a PDF, the upgrade pays for itself.

Proposify focuses on proposals and nothing else. Build costs $39 per user per month billed annually, or $49 monthly. Grow is $65 and Scale $107, plus a $12,800 yearly platform fee on Scale.

Read the send limits. Each plan has a monthly cap on documents sent, and going over is billed. A team that sends many small quotes can hit it.

Against PandaDoc, Proposify is pricier per user at entry, and Scale's platform fee puts it out of reach for small teams.

The limit: like PandaDoc, it doesn't invoice. For a small business quoting $500 jobs, it's the wrong tool.

Tip: count how many proposals your team sent last quarter before picking a tier. The send cap matters more than the feature list.