Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Wave Accounting
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
Wave Accounting is a free, cloud-based accounting platform exclusively for small businesses. It supports double-entry bookkeeping and permits unlimited user access, invoicing, and expense management. Wave Accounting integrates with Wave's invoicing, receipt scanning, payment processing and payroll apps.N/A
Xero
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Xero is an online accounting software product for small businesses and personal finance. Its features beyond general ledger and double-bookkeeping include quotable invoicing, bank reconciliation, purchase order and expense management, and tax management. Third party apps can extend its features further.
$13
per month
Pricing
Wave AccountingXero
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Early
$13
per month
Growing
$37
per month
Established
$70
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Wave AccountingXero
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPrices in table are in USD and just apply to the US - other markets & prices are listed below: Canada - Starter $18 CAD/month, Standard $45 CAD/month, Premium 5 $58 CAD/month UK - Starter £14/month, Standard £28/month, Premium £36/month AU - Starter $29 AUD/month, Standard $59 AUD/month, Premium 5 $76 AUD/month NZ - Starter $31 NZD/month, Standard $66 NZD/month, Premium $84 NZD/month
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Wave AccountingXero
Considered Both Products
Wave Accounting
Chose Wave Accounting
I was not impressed with Xero or ZipBooks simply because they were expensive and still as, if not more, confusing than QuickBooks. QuickBooks is, unfortunately, the standard. I dislike it, and I think it is just a huge corporation trying to steal small businesses money, but …
Chose Wave Accounting
Albeit Xero is much more robust and does require a monthly subscription payment. Wave Accounting is perfect for the very small client that does not have funds to pay for accounting subscriptions nor the high level of transactional/account management required of some clients.
Chose Wave Accounting
It is a useful solution but not designed for the UK market. For a businesses that want to see their debtors, creditors, profit and loss and balance sheet it is a great solution, however with those needing legal UK compliance the software will not work as well and the other free …
Chose Wave Accounting
Wave's price point was in line with what my company needed to manage basic accounting (payable and receivable accounts). It made it easy for me to issue monthly invoices to clients and track when invoices were paid. The software makes these tasks easy to manage and inputting …
Chose Wave Accounting
Across the board Wave takes the cake on price at $0/mo aside from payroll fees and credit card processing. That aside I'd say most accounting systems are fairly similar, however what I like about Wave is just how simple the interface is and the outstanding customer support from …
Chose Wave Accounting
It fits a niche of clients that are tech savvy, often self employed and want to manage business and personal finances. We are finding that even as these companies grow new features are allowing them to stay in Wave.
Chose Wave Accounting
entry level software - does not yet compare to XERO
Chose Wave Accounting
Xero Accounting is the only other app that stacks up to Wave. Wave is free, easy to learn and use, compared to others, has a very good support system, continues to evolve, and has a very dedicated and enthusiastic staff.
Chose Wave Accounting
Xero and QBO.
In my opinion Xero is the best platform. However, it is not cheap. While Wave does provide as gret an experience or as much functionality it does provide the necessities for free. This is great for small or new business who would otherwise be doing their …
Xero
Chose Xero
When we reviewed Wave it just didn’t have the features of Xero for payroll and integration with our accounting firm.
Chose Xero
Xero had better recommendations and my accountant preferred it even though it wasn't the cheapest, it came out the most recommended. Wave had a free version and a fairly good mobile experience this was our second choice.
Chose Xero
Personally, I always hated QuickBooks. I'm sure the online/cloud version is a lot different than the older desktop software, but I never found it to be easy to use and my books were always out of sync. Wave [Accounting] was the first Saas accounting software I tried, but I …
Chose Xero
Xero could be slightly more expensive compared to these products but to me, Xero is the most user-friendly platform. It is very easy to use. Their support page and email support are also great. Apart from the platform, Xero has lots of integrations with other software providers …
Chose Xero
In my opinion, the main competitor to Xero is QuickBooks but I migrated from QuickBooks to Xero because I was looking for an accounting software with an interface easier to use.
Chose Xero
Xero stands out as the industry leader in terms of ease of use, functionality, integration possibilities, usability, and reporting functionality. Having extensive experience with various accounting software as a business owner and mentor, Xero consistently proves to be my top …
Chose Xero
I prefer Xero over the other options I have tried because it has a cleaner interface, operates faster on the web, has a strong API relationship with other applications and appears to be gaining ground on Quickbooks in the marketplace. QuickBooks Online is probably the most …
Chose Xero
Ignoring pricing, Xero is among the best options available. It has the most complete feature set along with Quickbooks. It is more user-friendly compared to most of its competitors. It has well-designed mobile apps that can actually do something in contrast with most …
Chose Xero
Xero has remained simple yet robust for years. They have a few items that make it difficult (what product doesn't), but I feel very confident in partnering with them. I have used (and still use) QuickBooks Online and I have witnessed Intuit continually pull the bait and …
Chose Xero
The ease of use and feature sets are miles apart from the competition. The alternatives that I have compared Xero with are just years away from dozens of features which makes a user's life much easier. The competition's localizations are still very far apart, and the …
Chose Xero
Xero as a cloud-based solution cannot be compared with the desktop solution, especially when much of our company's business is done online. The more the market moves online, the more desktop solutions will be cumbersome and outdated. Other cloud-based solutions, such as Accounti…
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Wave AccountingXero
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Wave Accounting
6.2
24 Ratings
19% below category average
Xero
7.5
73 Ratings
0% above category average
Pay calculation7.123 Ratings8.065 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.54 Ratings8.023 Ratings
Direct deposit files1.220 Ratings7.249 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management7.712 Ratings7.241 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.48 Ratings7.154 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Wave Accounting
8.5
13 Ratings
12% above category average
Xero
8.1
151 Ratings
7% above category average
API for custom integration9.99 Ratings7.979 Ratings
Plug-ins7.011 Ratings8.2138 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Wave Accounting
6.6
45 Ratings
22% below category average
Xero
7.3
189 Ratings
12% below category average
Single sign-on capability6.632 Ratings5.772 Ratings
Role-based user permissions6.636 Ratings8.8187 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Wave Accounting
6.4
72 Ratings
19% below category average
Xero
8.4
213 Ratings
8% above category average
Dashboards6.170 Ratings8.3209 Ratings
Standard reports8.069 Ratings8.7211 Ratings
Custom reports5.036 Ratings8.3187 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
Wave Accounting
7.0
75 Ratings
9% below category average
Xero
7.2
223 Ratings
6% below category average
Accounts payable7.158 Ratings8.6203 Ratings
Accounts receivable7.169 Ratings8.8209 Ratings
Cash management8.561 Ratings8.3191 Ratings
Bank reconciliation8.565 Ratings8.9216 Ratings
Expense management7.663 Ratings8.1197 Ratings
Time tracking9.811 Ratings8.073 Ratings
Fixed asset management9.812 Ratings8.4137 Ratings
Multi-currency support10.019 Ratings7.8130 Ratings
Multi-division support7.19 Ratings8.1112 Ratings
Regulations compliance5.016 Ratings8.6112 Ratings
Electronic tax filing5.914 Ratings9.4116 Ratings
Self-service portal8.040 Ratings8.2130 Ratings
Global Financial Support9.02 Ratings6.767 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers9.05 Ratings8.465 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting4.05 Ratings4.540 Ratings
Localizations5.23 Ratings8.039 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations8.530 Ratings9.890 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting4.07 Ratings2.533 Ratings
Configurable Accounting5.017 Ratings3.059 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework1.03 Ratings3.433 Ratings
Standardized Processes7.019 Ratings3.859 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
Wave Accounting
8.1
11 Ratings
11% above category average
Xero
6.4
101 Ratings
12% below category average
Inventory tracking5.68 Ratings7.497 Ratings
Automatic reordering9.95 Ratings6.224 Ratings
Location management8.12 Ratings6.229 Ratings
Manufacturing module9.01 Ratings6.016 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
Wave Accounting
7.6
52 Ratings
1% below category average
Xero
6.2
89 Ratings
21% below category average
Pricing9.926 Ratings6.262 Ratings
Order entry10.018 Ratings6.256 Ratings
Credit card processing2.345 Ratings6.358 Ratings
Cost of goods sold10.033 Ratings6.366 Ratings
Order Orchestration5.85 Ratings6.121 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility8.24 Ratings6.124 Ratings
Order exception Resolution7.02 Ratings6.117 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Wave AccountingXero
Small Businesses
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Score 9.6 out of 10
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Score 9.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Accounting Seed
Accounting Seed
Score 7.4 out of 10
Accounting Seed
Accounting Seed
Score 7.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Score 6.8 out of 10
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Score 6.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Wave AccountingXero
Likelihood to Recommend
4.6
(81 ratings)
8.4
(238 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.8
(3 ratings)
8.5
(35 ratings)
Usability
6.5
(16 ratings)
8.5
(163 ratings)
Availability
6.7
(4 ratings)
9.0
(10 ratings)
Performance
2.9
(2 ratings)
10.0
(8 ratings)
Support Rating
2.1
(12 ratings)
9.3
(36 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Online Training
4.7
(3 ratings)
10.0
(5 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(10 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(122 ratings)
Product Scalability
3.0
(2 ratings)
10.0
(6 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Wave AccountingXero
Likelihood to Recommend
Wave
Wave Accounting was used for a small practice without a lot of the accounting considerations a large company would have. For the price, you really can't beat what Wave offers out of the box. All of the basic tools for things like invoicing and expenses are all easy to use. End of year accounting is easy with exports of data.
Read full review
Xero
In my opinion Xero is well suited for: 1) Standalone organisations, 2) Organisations where the accounting team bench strength is thin, 3) Organisations which are able to leverage on new technologies and apps 4) Organisations which get most of their tech infrastructure within the APAC region Xero may not be as suitable for: 1) Organisations with group structures (especially complex ones) 2) Organisations which are constrained in their use of startup technologies and apps by startups 3) Organisations which get most of their tech infrastructure from the US or EU
Read full review
Pros
Wave
  • Reconciliation is very difficult with multiple Wave transactions that need to be deleted or merged before it can be matched to a bank transaction.
  • Payroll worked fine for us but took several days to get it set up. We have switched to another bookkeeping system and another payroll system. Canceling with Wave took several days and they charge $6 for something even though the month was paid for in advance.
  • Credit card processing is nice and worked fine for us.
Read full review
Xero
  • Repeating invoices (most of my business is monthly recurring invoices) - it does these very well.
  • Reporting - particularly being able to dig into the different lines of the P&L statement.
  • Tracking categories - I assign a category to every line of every invoice so it's easy to see how much has been sold of each type of service every month and year, and compare them to previous periods.
Read full review
Cons
Wave
  • I know that credit card processing is a way for Wave to make money, but I really wish they offered ACH payment on Invoices.
  • I do cash-based accounting, which means I have to make little journal entries at the start and end of each year to get my books to balance because Wave wants to do everything differently. This should just be a setting to flip, whether you want cash-based or accrual-based.
  • They use Yodlee for bank connection, which doesn't play nice with 2FA. Pretty much every time I log in I have to re-enter credentials, get a code sent to me, reauthenticate, and know that I'm going to have to do it again next week. Not really on Wave, but wish they could get it together nonetheless.
Read full review
Xero
  • Having different email addresses for different parts of a customer's business (eg invoices and statements to different places)
  • Easily seeing the text of emails that have been sent through Xero
  • More easily archiving old pay items. Our HR software updates rates when awards are updated which means a lot of old pay rates are in the system and they have multiple clicks to archive each one. Clicking the ones to archive in bulk and then just click archive for all would be much more efficient.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Wave
Easy to use for clients with no accounting background and the price is right.
Read full review
Xero
In addition to the matters covered in this review, my reason for renewing this product is that Xero's functionality and the constant updates that the company provides, makes the software even more business friendly. The software therefore builds a brand loyalty among customers.
Read full review
Usability
Wave
I am a professional bookkeeper and I have no problems using Wave and all of it's features. I can see that certain individuals who have no accounting knowledge might struggle with a few different features and entries, but that is why Wave has an emphasis in connecting users to Wave Pro's who will walk them through things
Read full review
Xero
The dashboard is a simple design where all accounts can be seen from the same screen, unlike other softwares that makes you search for bank accounts that you want to work in. Our clients love that they can easily find their way around their books without having to call our firm to help them.
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Reliability and Availability
Wave
WAVE is always available when we need it ! Peter
Read full review
Xero
We have been actively using and 100% Xero based for our ecommerce accounting practice for over 4 years. There has on been one real outage for more than 5 minutes. Xero was open and transparent about the outage, what they were doing to resolve the issue, and provided 15 minute updates. Showing how they care about their customers and partners. Plus, showing that their customers care too, were understanding, and went surfing or in our case took a nap. Couldn't run our business without Xero as a partner.
Read full review
Performance
Wave
Wave does tend to slow down when filtering your transactions screen especially by date. This is more of an issue when trying to trouble shoot certain transactions or clean-up a set of books.
Read full review
Xero
Pages generally load quickly, but it's a fairly common occurrence to have pages taking a bit longer than I'd like to load (as in, 4+ seconds). Occasionally I have to refresh a page to get it to work. Bank feed and integrations tend to be slow in general, but that could easily be due to API latency on the side of the other parties. Most of the time, though, the bank feeds refresh before I login so it's not a huge problem. Not necessarily good performance compared to a local app like QuickBooks desktop, but definitely good performance for a cloud application. Room for growth? yes.
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Support Rating
Wave
I never had to call Wave Support as we barely experienced any support-related problems on our side. However, I do know a few people that complained about Wave support. It would be nice as well, though if they could have more in your face tutorials for new users or how-to videos should we struggle to do something
Read full review
Xero
Always respond and keep issues open until you are satisfied with the result. Generally good responses, in the past, I had some support responses that were really basic and really annoying. They type where "have your tried restarting your computer" style of answers. Well, of course, I went through all the basics before contacting them. Duh, but I suppose not everyone does. Otherwise, it would be a 10. The last year has shown a marked improvement in the support responses however.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Wave
No answers on this topic
Xero
The format was great; someone was there to ask questions or help if you were stuck.
Read full review
Online Training
Wave
easy to use and east to train on ! Our WAVE clients enjoy the ease of use
Read full review
Xero
All of Xero's training is online and available for anyone (business owner or accountants) to learn and become experts in their system. There is a range of content from product training to real world webinars from their partners. Xero is beautiful accounting software and their training is the same.
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Implementation Rating
Wave
No answers on this topic
Xero
If it can be done, time the implementation near a new fiscal year so you can start clean. Otherwise, you have to go back and do historical data from the beginning of the fiscal year, which can be brain draining.
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Alternatives Considered
Wave
Wave is FREE for most functions. Payment processing costs no matter where you go (as does payroll or taxes). Wave rises above tools like QuickBooks Online because they know that for our small firm, being nimble is the name of the game. We don't need exhaustive reporting and management like QB offers and we certainly don't want to pay for it
Read full review
Xero
Each of the products I listed had their own list of drawbacks, but the one thing they all had in common, which was right on top of that list of drawbacks, was ease of use. I struggled to get myself accustomed to each system and struggled, but when it came to getting a client to even try and use it was when the true struggle started. Just found it easier to make use of Xero from the very beginning.
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Scalability
Wave
Once they out grow what is ability to move up to a more robust system?
Read full review
Xero
I have yet to fully stress test the product given the size of the company where I am using it. I am sure as we scale to more customers, more vendors and more reporting requirements, I will have a better understanding of what it is capable of in terms of bandwidth and processing
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Return on Investment
Wave
  • Wave has been ROI positive for our company. With not having to pay for the service we can use our money for growing our business.
  • The fees on credit card transactions for invoices are reasonable especially as we don't pay a monthly subscription.
  • The invoicing feature has made our lives easier for us and our customers. The invoicing piece and AR tracking has been ROI positive as well.
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Xero
  • We have saved 1 hour per month on reporting on one of our not-for-profits, which is 12 hours a year at minimum from an investment of 30 minutes on initial setup.
  • On cleanup files, we are able to save at minimum half the time we would spend and be able to get them cleaned up and moved to a monthly file quicker
  • Using cash coding on one client as an example it would take us a week to do their bookkeeping last year it took me 8 hours from start to finish.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Xero Screenshots

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