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The 9 closest of 13, each with its real monthly cost at 25 clients and what it does that Wave does not. See all 14.
QuickFile does everything we verified about Wave for $12.30 a month less at 25 clients, $6.70 against $19. It is a price cut rather than an upgrade: on the two features checked against the vendors’ own pricing pages the two are level. The trade: Wave is built for the cheapest way to invoice and getting paid first and QuickFile is not, so this is a swap with a cost.
Bank feeds, receipt capture and payment reminders are Pro-only, there are no projects, inventory or multi-currency on the page, and it is sold to US and Canadian businesses only.
It runs $19 a month at 25 clients with the add-ons it forces on you included. 4 of the 13 alternatives to Wave cost less than that.
Ranked by how much of what we record for Wave each platform also does. FreshBooks is the nearest, and it is $51 a month dearer at 25 clients. On every feature this site records, the two are level.
$51 a month dearer$70 at 5
A freelancer or small service business whose job is getting invoices out and paid, with time tracking and projects attached.
Prices are the real monthly cost at 25 clients with the add-ons each platform forces on you included, from the same engine the shortlist quiz uses.
$6.46 a month dearer$25.46 at 5
A UK sole trader, partnership or small limited company that wants VAT, MTD, payroll and Self Assessment handled in one place, especially one banking with NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle, where it is free.
$12.30 a month cheaper$0 at 5
A UK sole trader or small company that wants free, MTD-ready bookkeeping with unlimited users and only pays once the ledger passes 1,000 entries a year.
$40 a month dearer$27 at 5
A small business that wants proper double-entry books its accountant will recognise, with unlimited users on one flat price.
$156.56 a month dearer$175.56 at 5
A UK sole trader or one-person limited company that wants free or very cheap bookkeeping software now and a fixed-fee accountant from the same company when the business needs one.
$1 a month dearer$20 at 5
A small US business that wants a real free plan to start on and a ladder it can climb without changing software, up to multi-currency, inventory and a fifteen-user finance team.
$1 a month dearer$20 at 5
A small business that wants double-entry books with bank feeds, sales tax tracking and unlimited users for one flat price, without a per-client or per-invoice meter.
$38.63 a month dearer$57.63 at 5
A VAT-registered UK small business that wants accounting and payroll from one established vendor, with MTD, CIS and an AI assistant on every plan, and an accountant who already knows Sage.
$1 a month cheaper$18 at 5
A freelancer or small studio that wants a full invoicing, quoting and time-tracking tool for $14 a month or less, and the option to run it on its own server for nothing.
A US or Canadian sole trader or very small business that wants to invoice and keep basic books for nothing, paying only when it takes card payments.
On this site it is the pick for a free plan you can run on, the cheapest way to invoice and getting paid first. If that is you, read the savings above and then ignore them.
The pairs people actually search for, each one priced at the same four sizes off both vendors' own pages.
QuickFile. It is $12.30 a month cheaper at the size we compare on and gives up nothing we verify, though you should read why it exists before swapping: no two of these do exactly the same job.
Wave is $19 a month at every size we price, from 5 to 100 clients, read off their own pricing page and re-checked every week.
Bank feeds, receipt capture and payment reminders are Pro-only, there are no projects, inventory or multi-currency on the page, and it is sold to US and Canadian businesses only.
We compare 13 of them here, every one priced at the same size off its own pricing page, and the whole list of 14 is on the accounting page.
Should yours be on this list? If you make accounting and invoicing platforms and it is not compared here, ask to be shortlisted. Listings are free and cannot be bought.
Two features were checked against each vendor's own pricing page: a price that does not move with clients and a free plan. Those are the ones written above as does and does not. The other 14 are read out of each vendor's own pricing page, so an absence there means we did not find it listed, not that the product lacks it, and those lines say lists and does not list instead. How all of this gets checked.
This page compares everything to Wave. The shortlist asks 7 questions about what you need the books to do and where you are based, and gives you four picks priced at your own numbers, which is a better question than “what is like the one I already have”.
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