Your effective hourly rate is the single number that tells you whether a project was worth your time: the fee you were paid divided by the hours you actually spent earning it. Quote $150/hr, work the revisions and unbilled admin, and you might really earn $90/hr. The frustrating part is that most freelance software cannot show you this number — invoicing apps only know what you billed, and time trackers only know how many hours you logged.
Below is an honest, side-by-side comparison of the tools freelancers most often evaluate when they want to understand their real profitability. We have tried to be fair: each tool is excellent at the job it was built for. The question is whether it answers “what did I actually earn per hour?”
Effective hourly rate tools: feature comparison
| Can it answer… | Sengi | FreshBooks | Wave | Bonsai | Harvest | Toggl | QuickBooks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shows your effective hourly rate per project | Yes — real-time | No | No | No | Hourly only | Hourly only | No |
| Works for flat-fee (fixed-price) projects | Yes | Invoicing only | Invoicing only | Partial | No | No | Invoicing only |
| Automatic scope-creep detection | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Budget alerts at 80% and 100% | Yes | No | No | No | Budget warnings | Limited | No |
| Per-client & per-project profitability ranking | Yes | No | No | No | Partial | No | No |
| Invoicing & PDF export | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Full bookkeeping / tax-ready accounting | No | Yes | Yes | Partial | No | No | Yes |
| Time tracking / effort logging | Effort logging | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Built mobile-first for solo freelancers | Yes | App available | App available | App available | App available | App available | App available |
| Starting price (approx.) | $29/mo | ~$19/mo | Free | ~$25/mo | Free / $11/mo | Free / $9/mo | ~$19/mo |
Pricing is approximate and based on each vendor's entry tier as of 2026; check the provider for current plans. Capability notes reflect each product's primary design, not a feature audit of every add-on.
How each tool handles your effective hourly rate
Sengi
Sengi is the only tool in this list built specifically to surface your effective hourly rate. You log effort against a project, and Sengi divides the fee by those hours in real time, ranks clients and project types by profitability, and alerts you when scope creep starts dragging your rate below target. It does not replace full accounting software — that is by design.
FreshBooks
FreshBooks is polished invoicing and accounting software. Its time tracking is built for hourly billing, so on flat-fee projects it never divides your fee by hours worked. See the full breakdown in Sengi vs FreshBooks.
Wave
Wave is free accounting and invoicing — great for sending invoices and tracking income and expenses, but it has no concept of hours worked, so it cannot calculate an effective rate. Details in Sengi vs Wave.
Bonsai
Bonsai is an all-in-one suite (proposals, contracts, invoicing, time tracking). Its breadth is the trade-off: it tracks a lot but does not isolate per-project effective rate or flag scope creep. See Sengi vs Bonsai.
Harvest & Toggl
Harvest and Toggl are time trackers. They are excellent at measuring input (hours) and can report an hourly rate when you bill by the hour — but on fixed-fee work, logged hours never connect to the project fee. Why that matters: Time tracking vs profitability tracking.
QuickBooks
QuickBooks is full accounting software built for bookkeeping and tax. Like all accounting tools, it organizes money by category, not by project effort, so it cannot produce an effective hourly rate. More in Sengi vs QuickBooks.
Effective hourly rate tools: FAQ
What is the best tool to calculate your effective hourly rate?
Sengi is purpose-built for it: it divides each project fee by the hours you actually work and shows the effective hourly rate in real time, including on flat-fee projects. General invoicing and accounting tools (FreshBooks, Wave, QuickBooks) track what you billed but not the hours behind it, and time trackers (Harvest, Toggl) track hours but not flat-fee profitability.
Can FreshBooks or QuickBooks show my effective hourly rate?
No. Both are accounting-first tools that organize money by transaction and category, not by project effort. They can tell you what you invoiced, but they cannot divide a flat project fee by the hours you spent to reveal your effective hourly rate.
Do I need a time tracker like Harvest or Toggl?
Time trackers are useful if you bill strictly by the hour. But if you charge fixed project fees, logging every minute does not tell you your effective rate, because the hours are never connected to the fee. You need a tool that links effort to the project fee, which is what profitability tracking does.
Is there a free way to check my effective hourly rate?
Yes. You can use the free Sengi effective hourly rate calculator to check any project in about 60 seconds, no signup required. For ongoing, automatic tracking across all your projects, the Sengi app does it in real time.