# Wave

> Free invoicing and bookkeeping for US and Canadian small businesses

Wave is accounting and invoicing software for very small businesses in the US and Canada. The free Starter plan covers unlimited invoices, estimates, bills and bookkeeping records, and the Pro plan adds bank feeds, receipt capture and cheaper card payments. Payroll and a bookkeeping service from Wave's own advisors are sold on top.

- **Category:** Accounting & Invoicing
- **Made by:** Wave Financial Inc. (since 2010)
- **Website:** https://www.waveapps.com
- **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 17, 2026

## Pricing

Wave has a free plan. Paid plans start at $19 per month, billed monthly.

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **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 trial:** None listed.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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. |

Read from https://www.waveapps.com/pricing on Oct 17, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Wave before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Save $38 with annual Pro billing** (Annual discount): Pro costs $190 a year when billed annually, against $228 for twelve monthly payments of $19. Source: https://www.waveapps.com/pricing

## Key features

- **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.

## Good for

- 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

## Worth knowing

- 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.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Oct 17, 2026. Wave gives small businesses in the US and Canada invoicing and bookkeeping for free, with no limit on invoices, which is rare in accounting. Pro at $19 a month adds the bank feeds you'll want before long. If your business is anywhere else, or you bill by the hour, it isn't really for you.

- **Value for money: C.** Pro 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.
- **Free plan and trial: B.** Starter 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.
- **Features: C.** Invoices, 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.
- **Ease of use: C.** 4.37 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.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, 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.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Wave's own pages on 17 October 2026, and its App Store rating. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among accounting and invoicing tools

- Wave's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 4 of the 17 other accounting and invoicing tools we grade, and level with 5.
- It stands best on free plan and trial (B, above 10 of 17) and worst on features (C, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $19 a month, against a middle price of $19 for the category: 8 of the 16 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 5 tools score higher and cost less.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/accounting

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Wave you would be making live feeds from your bank, which take an agreement with each bank or a service that has them. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 8 of the 17 other accounting and invoicing tools grade higher. It costs $228 a year.

- You could make: Invoicing, expense tracking and reports: an app builder makes these well.
- You could not: Live feeds from your bank, which take an agreement with each bank or a service that has them.
- You could not: Payroll taxes worked out and filed with the government for you.
- You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, Amazon, Etsy and eBay among them.
- You could not: People on the other end: coaches. No app builder makes those.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## What people say

- **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.4 out of 5 from 6,664 ratings in the United States, read Oct 17, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id881629660

## Works with

Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Google Sheets, Capsule CRM, Driversnote, Fundbox, Make

**Tags:** Invoicing, Bookkeeping, Expense tracking, Payroll, Reports

## Alternatives

- [QuickBooks Online](https://toolgpa.com/tools/quickbooks): Cloud accounting from Intuit, from a free plan to 25-user Advanced. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/quickbooks-vs-wave)
- [FreshBooks](https://toolgpa.com/tools/freshbooks): Invoicing and accounting for freelancers and service businesses. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/freshbooks-vs-wave)
- [Zoho Books](https://toolgpa.com/tools/zoho-books): Online accounting from Zoho, with a free plan and six paid tiers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/wave-vs-zoho-books)
- [Xero](https://toolgpa.com/tools/xero): Cloud accounting for small businesses, with unlimited users. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/wave-vs-xero)
- [Akaunting](https://toolgpa.com/tools/akaunting): Open-source accounting you can host yourself or use in the cloud. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/akaunting-vs-wave)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 17, 2026:

- https://www.waveapps.com/pricing
- https://www.waveapps.com/payroll
- https://www.waveapps.com/wave-app
- https://www.waveapps.com/integrations
- https://www.waveapps.com/about-us/about

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/wave
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).