Wave vs Zoho Invoice
We give Wave a 2.4 GPA and Zoho Invoice a 3.6, out of 4.0. Zoho Invoice grades higher on value for money, the free plan, ease of use and platforms. They get the same grade on features.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Wave
Free invoicing and bookkeeping for US and Canadian small businesses
Zoho Invoice
Free invoicing app from Zoho for freelancers and small businesses
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAWaveFair | 3.6GPAZoho InvoiceExcellent | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CPro is $19 a month, or $190 a year, between the cheaper quarter of accounting tools at $15 and the middle at $23. It buys bank feeds, receipt capture, late reminders and lower card fees. Fair, not a steal. | AIt's free, and it's a real invoicing app: quotes, recurring invoices, reminders, a customer portal, expenses and time tracking. There's no paid plan at all, where paid plans in this category start around $15 a month. |
| Free plan and trial | BStarter is free with unlimited invoices, estimates, bills and bookkeeping records, plus a dashboard and reports. One person could live on that. The catch is typing in bank transactions by hand, because bank feeds need Pro. | AEverything is free, with nothing held back for a paid tier. The caps are 2 users, 2 organizations, 3 projects and 500 invoices a year, and every invoice says Powered by Zoho Invoice. |
| Features | CInvoices, online payments, bookkeeping, bank feeds, receipt scanning and payroll as an add-on. The basics are there, but the listing shows no time tracking, projects or inventory, and Wave serves only US and Canadian businesses. | CQuotes, one-off and recurring invoices, reminders, online payments through several gateways, expenses, time on projects and reports. It does invoicing fully, but that's a smaller job than accounting: it hands off to Zoho Books or QuickBooks for the books. |
| Ease of use | C4.37 from 6,664 App Store ratings, which is decent but below most accounting apps here. Live chat and email support come only with Pro or a paid add-on, on weekdays. | A4.86 from 14,879 App Store ratings, the top band. Making and sending an invoice is the whole job here, so there isn't much to learn. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, iPhone and Android, with connections to Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Google Sheets, Capsule CRM and Make. Most third-party integrations need Pro, and there's no desktop app. | AWeb, Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android, with Zoho Payments, PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, Zoho CRM, HubSpot, Slack and QuickBooks. That's every device plus a real list of connections. |
| Best for | free invoicing and books in the US or Canada | free invoicing on every device |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Wave and Zoho Invoice. How we grade
Price against what you get
Wave starts at $19 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Zoho Invoice has no paid plan and scores 3.3.
Zoho Invoice scores higher and starts $19 a month lower. Of the other accounting and invoicing tools on the chart, 5 score higher than Wave for less, and none scores higher than Zoho Invoice for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Wave starts at $19 per month, billed monthly. Zoho Invoice is free.
- Only Zoho Invoice lists Windows and macOS apps.
- Wave also covers bookkeeping and payroll.
- Zoho Invoice also covers time tracking.
At a glance
| Wave | Zoho Invoice | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free |
| Starts at | $19 per month, billed monthly | Free |
| Free plan | Starter plan: unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, a dashboard and reports, and invoicing in the mobile app. Bank transactions are entered by hand. | Free for every business: up to 2 users, 2 organizations, 3 projects and 500 invoices a year, with Powered by Zoho Invoice branding. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Wave Financial Inc. | Zoho |
| Price read from | waveapps.com | zoho.com |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Wave
- Sole proprietors in the US or Canada who mainly need to send invoices
- New businesses that want free bookkeeping before paying for bank feeds
- Owners who would rather hand the books to a bookkeeper
Zoho Invoice
- Freelancers who send fewer than 500 invoices a year
- Small businesses that want free invoicing on phone and desktop
- Teams already using Zoho CRM or Zoho Books
Worth knowing
Wave
- Wave describes itself as serving businesses in the US and Canada, and its pricing page shows prices only in US and Canadian dollars.
- Payroll costs $40 a month in the US plus $6 per active employee and $6 per contractor paid (Canada: $25 CAD base).
- Bank feeds, automatic reminders and most third-party integrations need Pro; Starter has no bank import.
- Live chat and email support come only with Pro or a paid add-on, Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 4:45 PM Eastern.
Zoho Invoice
- The free account allows 2 users, 3 projects and 500 invoices a year, and invoices carry Powered by Zoho Invoice branding.
- It is invoicing, not full accounting: it connects to Zoho Books or QuickBooks for the books, and Zoho points larger needs to Zoho Billing.
- Data of an account left inactive for more than 180 days is deleted within the following 20 days, after a warning.
Key features
Wave
- Invoices and estimates
- Unlimited invoices and estimates on the free plan. Pro removes Wave branding, adds reusable message templates and sends automatic late payment reminders.
- Online payments
- Customers pay invoices by card or bank payment once online payments are approved; deposits can be collected through estimates.
- Bookkeeping and bank feeds
- Unlimited bookkeeping records on every plan. Pro imports bank transactions through Plaid, then merges and categorizes them.
- Receipt capture
- Receipts uploaded from the mobile app, desktop or email become records by OCR. Included in Pro, or $8 a month on Starter.
- Wave Payroll
- Pays employees and contractors, with tax filing in all 50 US states and CRA remittances in Canada. A separate add-on.
- Wave Advisors
- Wave's in-house bookkeepers can keep the books for you or coach you to do them yourself, from $149 a month.
Zoho Invoice
- Quotes and invoices
- Create quotes, turn them into invoices, and send invoices by email or as PDFs from customizable templates.
- Recurring invoices and reminders
- Schedule invoices that repeat and send automatic payment reminders to customers who have not paid.
- Online payments
- Connect Zoho Payments, PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net and other gateways so customers can pay invoices online.
- Expenses, time and projects
- Record and categorize expenses, log time and bill it to projects, up to three projects on the free account.
- Customer portal and reports
- Customers view and pay their invoices in a self-service portal, and reports cover sales, receivables and expenses.
Plans
Wave
Starter$0
Unlimited invoices, estimates, bills and records. Card payments cost 2.9% plus $0.60 each, and bank transactions are not imported automatically.
Pro$19
per month, billed monthly
Bank feeds with auto-categorizing, unlimited receipt capture, late payment reminders, more users and card fees of 2.9% with no fixed fee on the first 10 a month.
Wave Advisors$149
per month and up
Pro features plus a dedicated bookkeeper who keeps the books and prepares monthly financial statements. Mobile receipts are not included.
Zoho Invoice
Free$0
Quotes, invoices, recurring invoices, reminders, expenses, time tracking, a customer portal and reports, within the caps on users, projects and invoices.
Ways to pay less
Wave
- Annual discount
Save $38 with annual Pro billing
Pro costs $190 a year when billed annually, against $228 for twelve monthly payments of $19.
Zoho Invoice
No public discounts listed.
