Wave
Accounting and invoicing that are genuinely free rather than trial-free, paid for by the payment processing sold alongside.
What Wave is best for
The categories Wave is listed in, and how strong a fit it is in each.
Business, Finance & Professional Work
Business strategy, investing, market research, legal, sales, HR, accounting, consulting.
Works, not its focus
Wave’s biggest strengths
Business, Finance & Professional WorkAccounting and invoicing that are genuinely free rather than trial-free, paid for by the payment processing sold alongside.
Where it may not be the best fit
Business, Finance & Professional WorkFree means the accounting; payments and payroll are charged, and that is where the business model actually is. Pro mostly buys away the $0.60 per-transaction fee rather than features, so on annual billing it only starts paying for itself somewhere above roughly 26 card transactions a month. Light on AI compared with the rest of this list.
Wave pricing
Wave has a free plan. Starter plan at $0, indefinitely: unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, invoicing from the mobile app, and one dashboard for cash flow and customers. Card payments can be switched on at 2.9% plus $0.60 a transaction, or 3.4% plus $0.60 on Amex
FreeStarter plan at $0, indefinitely: unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, invoicing from the mobile app, and one dashboard for cash flow and customers. Card payments can be switched on at 2.9% plus $0.60 a transaction, or 3.4% plus $0.60 on Amex
$0ProEverything in Starter, plus the flat $0.60 per-transaction fee waived so cards run at 2.9% and Amex at 3.4% with nothing added, and bank transactions imported, merged and categorised automatically
$19/moPayments and payroll are billed separately from these two plans and are not quoted on the plan cards
Checked by hand on 4 September 2026. Prices change often, so confirm on the provider’s own page before spending.
Who makes Wave
Genuinely free accounting, paid for by the payments and payroll it sells alongside. Owned by H&R Block since 2019.
CompanyWave
Founded2009
Based inToronto, CA
SectorProductivity & agents
ModelThird-party
StatusAcquired
Primary usersFreelancers, SMB
Free planYes
ComputeThird-party
Public listingAcquired by H&R Block, 2019
Best alternatives to Wave
Tools that do comparable work, best fit first, drawn from the catalogue rather than hand-picked. Every one is listed whether or not there is money in it for us.
ChatGPT
Free
Broad professional coverage with strong spreadsheet and chart handling. Good default for analysis you would otherwise do by hand.
View ChatGPT →Claude
Free
The general option most used for professional work — strategy memos, contract reading, financial reasoning over documents you upload.
View Claude →Microsoft 365 Copilot
Paid
Sits inside Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams, so it works on the documents and meetings a company already has. The closest thing to AI that needs no change of habit.
View Microsoft 365 Copilot →Apollo
Free
Contact data, sequences and call recording in one place, so research and outreach do not live in separate tools.
View Apollo →Beefi
Free
A plain REST API over SEC EDGAR — company records, stock prices, financial statements, insider trades and filings across more than ten thousand listed companies, with a free key and a hundred requests a minute.
View Beefi →Clay
Free
A spreadsheet where each row can call data providers and models, which makes research that used to take a week into an afternoon.
View Clay →Wave by job
Where Wave sits in the wider category pages.
Best AI for Business
Works, not its focus — Business strategy, investing, market research, legal, sales, HR, accounting, consulting.
Questions about Wave
Is Wave free?
Yes — Starter plan at $0, indefinitely: unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, invoicing from the mobile app, and one dashboard for cash flow and customers. Card payments can be switched on at 2.9% plus $0.60 a transaction, or 3.4% plus $0.60 on Amex. The cheapest paid tier is Pro, at $19/mo month to month or $15.83/mo billed yearly.
What is Wave best at?
Accounting and invoicing that are genuinely free rather than trial-free, paid for by the payment processing sold alongside. It is listed under Business, Finance & Professional Work.
What should I watch out for with Wave?
Free means the accounting; payments and payroll are charged, and that is where the business model actually is. Pro mostly buys away the $0.60 per-transaction fee rather than features, so on annual billing it only starts paying for itself somewhere above roughly 26 card transactions a month. Light on AI compared with the rest of this list.
What are the alternatives to Wave?
6 tools do comparable work: ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Apollo, Beefi, Clay. 5 of them have a free plan.
How current is this Wave pricing?
Checked by hand on 4 September 2026. Prices change often — confirm on the provider's own page before spending.