QuickBooks vs Wave
A source-aware comparison of pricing, documented capabilities and workflow fit.
Short answer
- Price: not directly comparable — QuickBooks is from $85/mo, Wave is free tier available.
- How to start: QuickBooks is from $85/mo, Wave is free tier available.
- Where they differ: only QuickBooks has public api and sso (saml); both offer mobile app.
These lines are generated from the pricing we track, not from a paid placement. How we score tools.
What QuickBooks is
What QuickBooks isQuickBooks is the global standard for small business accounting and finance management. It centralizes everything from income/expense tracking to invoicing, inventory management, and tax preparation. By syncing directly with your bank accounts, it automatically categorizes transactions. It is not just a bookkeeping tool, but a strategic financial advisor that helps you forecast cashflow and monitor your business health through professional reports.
What Wave is
What Wave isWave offers free accounting and invoicing for very small businesses, making money on payments and payroll instead. For a sole trader or a very small firm the free ledger and invoicing genuinely cover the job. It stops being enough once you need inventory, multi-currency or an accountant working in the file alongside you.
Side by side
| QuickBooks | Wave | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Finance Tools | Finance Tools |
| How to start | $85/moverified | Free tiernot a monthly price |
| Public API | Yes | No |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes |
| Open source / self-hostable | No | No |
| SSO (SAML) | Yes | No |
| Visit | QuickBooks ↗ | Wave ↗ |
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What QuickBooks is built to do
- Invoice Management
- Send professional, custom invoices and track payments automatically.
- Expense Tracking
- Categorize every business expense to be fully prepared for tax season.
- Inventory Tracking
- Monitor your stock levels and receive alerts when items are running low.
- Project Profitability
- See exactly how much profit every individual project is earning for you.
What Wave is built to do
- Double-entry accounting
- Keeps a real ledger with reconciliation rather than a spreadsheet.
- Invoicing
- Sends invoices and recurring bills with online payment links.
- Receipt capture
- Scans receipts and files them against expenses.
Choose QuickBooks if
- Small businesses that need accounting their accountant already knows
- Trying it first: 30-day free trial
- Teams: Essentials includes 3 users, Plus 5, Advanced 25
Skip QuickBooks if
- You are budgeting from the advertised price — $19/mo is 50% off for 3 months; Simple Start is $38/mo after that
- You need multiple users on the cheapest plan: Simple Start is ONE user
- You want a free tier; QuickBooks has none
Choose Wave if
- Freelancers and very small businesses that want free invoicing and bookkeeping
- Owners who want bank imports and receipt capture for $19/month or $190/year
- US and Canadian businesses that want payroll as an add-on
Skip Wave if
- You take card payments on the free plan and object to 2.9% + $0.60 per transaction
- You need inventory, multi-currency ledgers or advanced reporting
- You want a dedicated bookkeeper on a budget — Advisors start at $149/month
Evidence and freshness
Where a claim on this page comes from a vendor page, it is linked here.
QuickBooks: pros & cons
- Accountant Standard: Most accountants are accustomed to working with QuickBooks data.
- Detailed Reporting: Generate P&L, balance sheets, and cashflow reports in seconds.
- Bank Sync: Minimizes manual data entry and reduces human error significantly.
- Mobile App: Photograph expense receipts and instantly log them into your system.
- Learning Curve: Can be complex for those with no prior knowledge of accounting concepts.
- Customer Support: Reaching the support team can sometimes be time-consuming.
- Subscription Cost: Monthly fees rise as you add more users and advanced features.
Wave: pros & cons
- Accounting and invoicing at no cost
- Simple enough to use without training
- Payments integrated
- Feature depth is limited
- Support is limited on the free product
- Availability varies by country
Our verdict on QuickBooks
The most trusted accounting tool in the world for keeping your business finances under control.
Our verdict on Wave
Hard to argue with free for simple needs. Growth will push you to paid accounting.
Published plans, side by side
Every figure below was read from the vendor's own pricing page and is shown with the sentence it came from. Where a vendor publishes no plan prices, we say so rather than guess.
QuickBooks
- Essentials$85/mo
Essentials $85/month regular, $42.50 promotional, 3 users
- Advanced$340/mo
Advanced $340/month regular, $170 promotional, 25 users
Wave
- Pro$19/mo
Pro $19/month or $190/year: bank imports, auto-categorisation, receipts, reminders; discounted processing
- Payroll$25/mo
Payroll from $25–$40/month; Advisors from $149–$199/month
- Advisors$149/mo
Payroll from $25–$40/month; Advisors from $149–$199/month
QuickBooks vs Wave: common questions
- Does QuickBooks or Wave have a free plan?
- QuickBooks has no free plan listed, while Wave has a free tier with limits.
- Which is cheaper once you start paying, QuickBooks or Wave?
- Wave has the cheaper first paid step: Pro at $19/mo, against Essentials at $85/mo for QuickBooks — 4.5× the price. Both figures come from the vendors' own pricing pages.
- What is the difference between QuickBooks and Wave?
- On the criteria we check, only QuickBooks has public api and sso (saml); both offer mobile app. The table above lists every criterion side by side.