Wave vs QuickBooks: Which Accounting Software Is Better?

Wave and QuickBooks now have something important in common: you can start using either for $0. What you can actually do before paying, however, is very different.

Wave Starter puts few limits on everyday invoicing and bookkeeping, while QuickBooks Free restricts monthly activity. Move into the paid plans and the comparison changes again, with QuickBooks adding more tools for time, projects, inventory and complex accounting.

Here’s where each platform differs and what those differences mean in practice.

Wave vs QuickBooks: overview

Both platforms can handle basic accounting tasks, but their free plans and paid options work very differently.

Wave vs QuickBooks at a glance

*QuickBooks says eligible Free customers who qualify for and enable QuickBooks Payments can send unlimited invoices.

Prices checked September 2026.

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Wave vs QuickBooks comparison chart

Looking at the individual plans makes the price difference clearer.

Pricing and key features compared

QuickBooks also offers a 30-day trial of its paid accounting plans. That is separate from QuickBooks Free, which is a permanent $0 product. 

Wave

Wave combines bookkeeping and invoicing in a relatively small plan structure aimed at freelancers and small businesses.

Features

Wave Starter includes unlimited:

• Estimates
• Invoices
• Bills
• Bookkeeping records

It also provides mobile invoicing and tools for managing customers and cash flow.

Wave is a bookkeeping platform rather than simply an invoice app. Its accounting workflow includes income and expenses, a chart of accounts, reconciliation and financial reports.

Wave Pro adds:

• Automatic bank-transaction imports
• Automatic transaction merging and categorization
• Expense tracking
• Unlimited digital receipt capture
• Automated late-payment reminders
• Unlimited account users
• Additional integration and mobile accounting functionality

Pricing

Wave has two main subscription levels:

• Starter: $0
• Pro: $19/month or $190/year

Starter is a permanent free plan rather than a trial.

Online payment processing costs extra. Starter currently charges 2.9% + $0.60 for Visa, Mastercard and Discover transactions and 3.4% + $0.60 for American Express.

Wave Payroll is also separately priced.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Permanent free plan with unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records
• Double-entry bookkeeping and bank reconciliation
• Low-cost Pro plan
• Automated bank imports and unlimited receipt capture on Pro
• Unlimited users on Pro
• Core financial reports

Cons

• Automated expense workflow requires Pro
• Smaller integration ecosystem than QuickBooks
• Inventory management is largely manual
• No comparable built-in QuickBooks Projects workflow
• Less depth for complex accounting requirements

Independent Wave reviews are available through G2 and Capterra.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks Online has a wider product range, starting with QuickBooks Free and extending through four paid accounting plans.

Features

QuickBooks Online supports core accounting tasks such as:

• Income and expense tracking
• Bank connections
• Transaction categorization
• Bank reconciliation
• Invoices and estimates
• Online payments
• Receipt capture
• Financial reports
• Customer and vendor records
• Sales-tax management

The paid plans add more functionality as you move up.

Essentials supports up to three standard users and adds tools for managing bills and tracking time.

Plus supports up to five standard users and adds project profitability, inventory, budgets and broader reporting.

Advanced supports up to 25 standard users and extends into custom reporting, dashboards, workflow automation, user permissions and other accounting controls. 

Pricing

QuickBooks Free costs $0/month, but it is much more restricted than Wave Starter.

Its standard monthly limits include:

• 2 invoices
• 1 estimate
• 1 connected bank account
• 2 receipt uploads
• 5 mileage trips
• 1 user

QuickBooks says qualifying Free customers who enable QuickBooks Payments may be able to send unlimited invoices, so the two-invoice limit has an important exception.

Regular paid QuickBooks Online prices are:

• Simple Start: $38/month
• Essentials: $85/month
• Plus: $140/month
• Advanced: $340/month

QuickBooks also offers a 30-day trial of its paid plans. This shouldn’t be confused with QuickBooks Free.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Permanent free option
• Bank connections, reconciliation and expense management
• Time tracking on Essentials+
• Projects and inventory on Plus+
• Broader reporting on higher plans
• Larger app ecosystem and more advanced accounting controls

Cons

• Free plan has tight monthly limits
• Paid plans cost considerably more than Wave Pro
• Standard paid-plan user limits apply
• Projects and inventory require Plus or Advanced
• Payroll is separately priced
• More features can mean more setup for businesses with simple requirements

Independent QuickBooks Online reviews are available through G2 and Capterra.

Wave vs QuickBooks: detailed comparison

The biggest differences appear when you compare how the two platforms handle specific accounting jobs.

Free plans and pricing

Both companies now have permanent $0 accounting options, but their free plans have very different limits.

Wave Starter includes:

• Unlimited invoices and estimates
• Unlimited bills
• Unlimited bookkeeping records

QuickBooks Free normally includes each month:

• 2 invoices and 1 estimate
• 1 connected bank account
• 2 receipt uploads
• 5 mileage trips
• 1 user

Wave therefore allows substantially more routine invoicing without a subscription. QuickBooks Free users who qualify for and enable QuickBooks Payments may get unlimited invoicing, so check that eligibility if invoice volume is the main concern.

On the paid side, Wave Pro costs $19/month or $190/year, while QuickBooks Online starts at $38/month and reaches $340/month for Advanced.

Accounting and bookkeeping

Both products provide real bookkeeping rather than invoicing alone.

• Wave: Handles income and expenses, bookkeeping records, reconciliation and financial reports. Pro adds automatic bank imports and transaction categorization.
• QuickBooks: Covers those core jobs while adding more automation and accounting controls through its paid plans. Higher tiers extend into projects, inventory, budgets and advanced reporting.

The IRS explains the types of records businesses may need to keep to support income and expenses. The right software setup depends on how those records move through your own bookkeeping workflow.

Invoicing and payments

The free plans differ most clearly on invoice volume.

• Wave Starter: Unlimited invoices and estimates.
• QuickBooks Free: Normally 2 invoices and 1 estimate per month, with a potential unlimited-invoice exception for eligible QuickBooks Payments users.
• Paid QuickBooks: Broader invoicing functionality without the same Free-plan limits.

Both platforms support online payments, with processing costs separate from the accounting subscription.

For the billing side of the workflow, see our guides to invoice automation, how to send an invoice and invoice payment terms.

Bank reconciliation

Both Wave and QuickBooks support bank reconciliation.

Wave Starter can be used for reconciliation without upgrading. Pro is required for automatic bank-transaction imports, along with automatic merging and categorization.

QuickBooks connects bank and credit-card accounts and brings transactions into the bookkeeping workflow. Its paid plans provide more automation as the accounting setup becomes more advanced.

The important distinction is that Wave reconciliation itself isn’t a Pro-only feature. It’s the automatic bank-feed workflow that changes with the paid plan.

Expense tracking and receipts

The platforms take different approaches to expense automation.

• Wave Pro: Adds expense tracking, automatic transaction imports and unlimited digital receipt capture.
• QuickBooks: Includes expense and receipt functionality, while QuickBooks Free limits receipt uploads to two per month.

For service businesses that mainly need to digitize receipts alongside job expenses, a dedicated receipt scanner app is another option.

Payroll

Payroll is a separate cost with both products.

Wave Payroll costs $40/month, plus $6 per active employee and $6 per independent contractor paid. It includes payroll calculations, direct deposit, tax payments and filings, employee access and payroll reports.

QuickBooks Workforce Payroll has a regular price of $50/month plus $7 per employee or contractor. It includes full-service payroll, payroll-tax calculations and filings, direct deposit, payroll reports and 1099 e-filing.

Time tracking and projects

QuickBooks provides more built-in tools when businesses need to connect time and project costs with their accounts.

QuickBooks

• Basic time tracking starts with Essentials.
• Projects are available on Plus and Advanced.
• Projects can track income, expenses, estimates, labor and customer transactions.
• Project profitability is available on Plus and Advanced.

Wave

Wave doesn’t offer a directly comparable built-in project time-tracking and profitability workflow. Its core focus remains bookkeeping, invoicing, expenses and payments.

Businesses that mainly need billable-hour tracking rather than full project accounting can also use dedicated time-tracking software.

Inventory

The difference is clearer with inventory.

• Wave uses a manual accounting workflow based around inventory asset and cost-of-goods-sold accounts. It doesn’t provide comparable automatic unit-level inventory tracking.
• QuickBooks Plus and Advanced can track quantity on hand, inventory value, cost of goods, products and restock information.

Businesses that sell and track physical stock therefore need to look beyond whether both products can technically account for inventory.

Financial reporting

Both platforms provide core financial reports.

• Wave includes reports such as profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow, trial balance, general-ledger transactions and aged receivables and payables.
• QuickBooks also provides core business reports, with reporting depth increasing by plan. Advanced extends further into custom reports, dashboards, KPIs and other management reporting tools.

Integrations and ease of use

QuickBooks has the larger third-party app ecosystem, while Wave supports a smaller range of integrations and automation tools.

Ease of use depends on what you’re trying to manage:

• Wave: The two-plan structure may feel more straightforward for freelancers and small businesses focused on everyday bookkeeping and invoicing.
• QuickBooks: More plans and features create more setup choices, but they also provide room for workflows involving projects, stock, multiple users and deeper accounting controls.

Support also varies by plan and product, so check the current channels if live help or accountant access matters to your business.

Choosing between Wave and QuickBooks

Start with the work that creates complexity in your accounts. A business sending 100 invoices isn’t necessarily harder to manage than one sending 20 while also tracking stock, staff time and project profitability.

When Wave makes sense

Wave may cover your needs if you mainly want:

• Free or low-cost bookkeeping
• High-volume invoicing without a paid subscription
• Estimates and bills
• Core financial reports
• Online payments
• Straightforward expense and receipt management

Starter handles much of that for $0, while Pro adds automation and unlimited users.

When QuickBooks makes sense

QuickBooks offers more built-in support when your workflow includes:

• Accounts payable and more structured bill management
• Multiple accounting users
• Employee or billable time
• Project profitability
• Inventory
• Advanced reporting
• More detailed permissions and controls
• A wider range of connected business apps

Those requirements don’t necessarily appear because a business gets bigger. What matters is whether its accounting becomes more complex.

For wider guidance on managing business finances and operations, the SBA also provides resources for small-business owners.

Another option for service businesses

Not every business looking at Wave or QuickBooks needs accounting software to manage every part of its finances. For contractors, freelancers and other service businesses, the main challenge may be keeping track of a job from the first quote through to payment.

Invoice Fly is built around that process. You can create estimates and quotes, track time and expenses, send unlimited invoices and collect online payments in the same workflow.

Plans cost $8.99/week or $98.99/year, with full details on the Invoice Fly pricing page. Independent reviews are also available on Capterra.

It doesn’t provide the full bookkeeping functionality of Wave or QuickBooks. The focus is narrower: keeping the financial admin around each client job organized from quote to payment.

Wave vs QuickBooks: What to consider

The cheapest plan isn’t always the one that saves the most money. Think about the admin you handle every week and which tasks you want the software to take off your plate.

Wave keeps the setup relatively lean, while QuickBooks gives you more ways to manage work as the accounting becomes more involved. The trade-off is a higher monthly cost and more features to configure.

For businesses focused mainly on client work, Invoice Fly takes a different approach by keeping estimates, time, expenses, invoices and payments together without the wider accounting setup.

Create and Send Invoices with Invoice Fly

Whether you’re billing clients weekly, monthly, or per project, Invoice Fly helps you create professional invoices, track payments, and stay organized from anywhere.

Try it for free >