FreshBooks vs Wave Accounting Comparison

4.4 out of 5 stars based on user reviews collected by G2Crowd as of January 2024. Find the perfect plan to support your business by visiting our pricing page. Friendly help from our team via email and phone—on all plans.

FreshBooks is the best accounting solution for retail, while Wave is the best for side businesses on a budget. This is due to FreshBooks’ inventory tools on all plans (Wave offers none on any of its plans), which are key for tracking retail sales. Wave’s lower price point and deeper features international system of units make it the top choice for smaller operations that need a lot of bang for their buck – as long as they aren’t retailers. NerdWallet’s accounting software ratings favor products that are easy to use, reasonably priced, have a robust feature set and can grow with your business.

1. Servers are housed under physical and electronic protection.
2. Wave Accounting offers free software, meaning you won’t need to submit a credit card or payment information to use it.
3. When you reconcile your books, you’ll navigate to the “Reconciliation” tab within the Accounting menu.
4. FreshBooks has all the features you need to handle invoicing and tons of other business and accounting needs.
5. It’s been one of the best decisions I’ve made when it comes to making sure my accounting is on point.

Move over to FreshBooks and we’ll take care of migrating your data. Both services offer email support, though neither service has 24/7 support across any plan. For information on credit card rates, visit Pricing for details.

More Payment Options for Your Clients

The best accounting software received top marks when evaluated across 10 categories and more than 30 subcategories. Learn more about how we rate small-business accounting software. In addition to its accounting software, Wave offers paid services, including Wave Payments, Wave Payroll and Wave Advisors for bookkeeping support and accounting coaching. Wave Accounting is ideal for micro businesses with fewer than 10 employees, contractors, freelancers and other service-based businesses on a budget. The financial management software is user-friendly and equipped with all the basics, including income and expense tracking, invoicing and reporting.

QuickBooks Online

With FreshBooks Payments your business can start accepting credit card payments online right away, in just a few clicks. Switching from Wave, spreadsheets or a different accounting software? Though both products have apps for sending invoices on the go, FreshBooks’ mobile app capabilities go a step further by letting you snap photos of receipts and track mileage. Compared with free software like Wave, QuickBooks plans are expensive. The most basic plan, Simple Start, costs $30 per month, and the top-tier Advanced plan costs $200 per month, which is a sizable investment if you’re running a business on a tight budget. After providing a few basic details about your business — name, type, currency you use, address — you’ll have instant access to your account.

Best for Additional Features: FreshBooks

Create projects for each client and invite your team to collaborate. NerdWallet does not receive compensation for any reviews. Any connections between you, your bank accounts, and Wave are protected by 256-bit SSL encryption. Wave has helped over 2 million North American small business owners take control of their finances. Wave has helped over 2 million small business owners in the US and Canada take control of their finances. FreshBooks ensures your financial records always follow HMRC’s guidelines.

Invite employees, contractors, and clients to collaborate establishing credit terms for customers on projects. Partly, because they lack the resources to stay compliant with legislations such as Open Banking and MTD. You can create your Wave account, set up your business in minutes, and see for yourself. Invite employees, contractors, and clients to collaborate on your projects. Easily take the hours you’ve logged and add them to a client’s invoice.

We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. Today’s leading accounting platforms offer standard security features, such as data encryption, secure credential tokenization and more. While human error will always play some role in security breaches, you can be confident in your accounting platform when it comes to keeping your information safe. You can invite your accountants, bookkeepers or other business partners to Wave via email and designate what is simple linear regression analysis their user roles. They can receive “editor permissions” and access accounting and reports as well as purchases easily. With a Pro Plan subscription, you can connect your bank account with Wave and automatically import your transactions.