Wave Accounting review: genuinely free bookkeeping, and where the free plan stops
Wave gives unlimited invoicing and bookkeeping at $0, which almost no competitor does. Here is what the free Starter plan covers, what Pro adds at $19, and where the real cost hides.
Verdict
Wave is the only serious accounting tool with genuinely unlimited free invoicing and bookkeeping. Pro at $19 a month adds bank imports and receipt scanning. The real cost is payment processing at 2.9 percent.
Wave Accounting at a glance
- Starting price
- Free, then $19/mo
- Free plan
- Yes
- We tested for
- Two weeks
Pros and cons
What works
- The free Starter plan includes genuinely unlimited invoices, estimates, bills, and bookkeeping records, which no other mainstream accounting tool offers at $0
- Double-entry bookkeeping and a real cash flow dashboard are included free, not held back for a paid tier
- Pro at $19 a month is cheaper than the entry tier of QuickBooks or Xero while covering the same core small-business needs
- Wave Advisors gives access to a dedicated bookkeeper from $149 a month for businesses that want the books handled rather than done
What does not
- The real cost is transaction fees: 2.9 percent plus $0.60 per credit card payment on the free plan, which for an invoicing-heavy business dwarfs any subscription saving
- Bank transaction auto-import requires the $19 Pro plan; on free you are entering transactions by hand
- Receipt digitisation is Pro only, so the free plan means manually recording every expense
- No inventory tracking, project profitability, or multi-currency, so a growing business eventually outgrows it
What Wave actually is#
Wave is accounting and invoicing software aimed at freelancers and small service businesses, and its defining feature is that the core product is free. Not a trial, not a feature-crippled demo: unlimited invoices, unlimited bills, and real double-entry bookkeeping at $0 a month, permanently.
$0
Cost of unlimited invoicing and bookkeeping
No other mainstream accounting platform offers unlimited invoices on a free tier. QuickBooks, Xero, and FreshBooks all start at a paid plan.
Where Wave actually makes its money#
This is the part worth understanding before signing up, because the subscription price is not the number that matters for most businesses.
Wave charges 2.9 percent plus $0.60 per credit card transaction on the Starter plan. On Pro, the per-transaction fee drops to zero for the first ten payments each month, but the 2.9 percent stays.
What the free plan actually makes you do by hand#
The Starter plan's real limitation is not features, it is manual work. Bank transaction import, auto-categorisation, and receipt scanning are all Pro-only. On the free plan you are typing transactions in yourself.
| Task | Starter (free) | Pro ($19/mo) |
|---|---|---|
| Send invoices | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Bank transactions | Manual entry | Auto-imported via Plaid |
| Receipt capture | Manual | Unlimited scanning |
| Late payment reminders | Manual | Automated |
| Branded invoices | No | Yes |
For a business with a handful of transactions a month, that is fine. Past roughly thirty or forty transactions, the time cost of manual entry exceeds $19 a month quickly.
Where Wave runs out#
Wave has no inventory tracking, no project profitability reporting, and no multi-currency support at any tier. A product business, an agency tracking margin per project, or anyone billing internationally will eventually need to move to QuickBooks, Xero, or similar.
That is not a criticism so much as a scope statement: Wave is built for service businesses with straightforward books, and within that scope the free tier is genuinely hard to beat.
Wave Accounting pricing
| Plan | Price | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $0free forever | Unlimited invoices, estimates, bills, and bookkeeping records, cash flow dashboard, mobile invoicing app | A freelancer or solo business that invoices regularly and is willing to enter transactions manually |
| Pro | $19per month, or $190 per year | Everything in Starter, plus automatic bank transaction import via Plaid, auto-categorisation, unlimited receipt scanning, late payment reminders, branded invoices, multiple users | A business past a handful of monthly transactions where manual entry has become the bottleneck |
| Wave Advisors | $149per month and up, varies by region | Everything in Pro, plus a dedicated bookkeeper, monthly financial statements, and expert support | An owner who would rather hand the books to someone than learn accounting software |
Prices in US dollars, checked on August 13, 2026. Vendors change pricing without notice.
Who Wave Accounting is for
Buy it if
- You are a freelancer or solo business whose main need is sending professional invoices and keeping clean books, without inventory or projects
- Your invoice volume is low enough, or your clients pay by bank transfer often enough, that 2.9 percent card fees are not your dominant cost
- You want to start at genuinely zero and only pay once manual data entry becomes the bottleneck
Skip it if
- You take a high volume of card payments; at that point the transaction fees make a paid competitor with better rates cheaper overall
- You need inventory tracking, project profitability, or multi-currency, none of which Wave offers at any tier
Frequently asked questions
- Is Wave Accounting really free?
- Yes. The Starter plan costs $0 and includes unlimited invoices, estimates, bills, and bookkeeping records with no time limit. Wave makes its money on payment processing fees and the paid Pro tier rather than by capping the free plan.
- How much does Wave Pro cost?
- Wave Pro is $19 a month, or $190 a year. It adds automatic bank transaction import, auto-categorisation, unlimited receipt scanning, late payment reminders, and branded invoices on top of the free Starter plan.
- What does Wave actually charge for payments?
- Credit card payments cost 2.9 percent plus $0.60 per transaction on the Starter plan. Pro reduces this to 2.9 percent with no per-transaction fee for the first ten transactions each month. For a business invoicing heavily by card, this is the real cost of using Wave, not the subscription.
- Is Wave good enough to replace QuickBooks?
- For a freelancer or simple service business, often yes. For a business that needs inventory tracking, project profitability, or multi-currency support, no. Wave does not offer those features at any price tier, so growth eventually forces a move.
Written by
Marcus O.Hara
Automation and operations reviewer
Marcus led operations at a 40-person direct-to-consumer brand where a broken automation meant unshipped orders. He builds every workflow tested on this site against a live sandbox with real order and invoice data, then deliberately breaks it to see how the tool recovers. He covers automation, agents, and integrations.
- Eight years in e-commerce operations
- Built and maintained 200-plus production automations