FreshBooks vs. Wave Accounting

FreshBooks

Wave Accounting

Overview
Product	Rating	Most Used By	Product Summary	Starting Price
FreshBooks	Score8.6 out of 10	Small Businesses (1-50 employees)	FreshBooks is an accounting service for small businesses. The solution enables users to send and manage invoices, track billable time and collect online payments. The vendor’s value proposition this that their solution provides a straightforward service that simplifies the billing process.	$21 per month
Wave Accounting	Score8.3 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.	$16 per month

Pricing

FreshBooks

Wave Accounting

Lite: $21
per month
Plus: $38
per month
Premium: $65
per month
Select: Custom Pricing

Starter: $0
Pro: $16
per month
Pro - billed annually: $170
per year

Pricing Offerings
FreshBooks	Wave Accounting
Free Trial
Yes	No
Free/Freemium Version
Yes	Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No	No

No setup fee

10% discount for annual pricing.

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Community Pulse
Key User Insights
	FreshBooks	Wave Accounting
Considered Both Products	FreshBooks Lisa Keyser Web Designer & Marketing Consultant at LMK Web Design and Consulting (Information Technology and Services, 1-10 employees) Chose FreshBooks We evaluated a few different solutions before landing on Freshbooks. Part of the reason we decided on FB were the integrations offered with PayPal (which we were already using) and with other apps through Zapier. It connects to our legacy Google sheets, and to the time tracker … Incentivized Helpful?	Wave David Schwartz IT Director in Information Technology at Qualtech Technologies Inc. (Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, 11-50 employees) Chose Wave Accounting I trialled FreshBooks a while back but they pack too much into the system for what it is. Wave has a super simple UI and dashboard and doesn't feel overly complicated to navigate yet offers all the features everyone is looking for. Being able to customize the system to brand … Incentivized Helpful? J.P. VanderLinden Owner in Corporate at EmberTribe (Marketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees) Chose Wave Accounting For the pricing arrangement, the ease of use and the user-friendliness of the app, Wave crushes QuickBooks Online and Zoho Books. FreshBooks was a little bit closer as the two are more of an apples-to-apples comparison, but FreshBooks doesn't offer a non-paid option and they … Incentivized Helpful? Daniel Jaworski Certified Public Accountant in Finance and Accounting at Deeagle Tax and Accounts Limited (Accounting, 1-10 employees) 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 … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Wave Accounting The best feature about wave is that they let you use it for free for basic accounting and pay per use payments. But based on my horrible experience with how they cancelled my payments feature, I would never use them again! Incentivized Helpful? Patrick Contreras Creative Executive at Creative Man Studio (Design, 1-10 employees) Chose Wave Accounting Basically, we selected Wave because it was a free accounting system. We have not tried another accounting system that is so much better than Wave Accounting that we should leave Wave Accounting. Every time, we find another online accounting system we do a review of the system … Incentivized Helpful? Michael Schwanzer Founder in Corporate at Challenge Labs Technologies Inc. (Information Technology and Services, 1-10 employees) Chose Wave Accounting Back then I was freelancing and it was great for that. But after incorporation I needed more features and Wave has them for free. Helpful? Elaine Orr Morgan CEO & Founder in Finance and Accounting at BalanceSheets.ca (Accounting, 1-10 employees) Chose Wave Accounting Wave has advanced from its early days by adding features that put it on a parallel with the bigger software packages such as QuickBooks and Xero. It doesn't have time tracking like FreshBooks does but it brings a lot more to the table in terms of financial reporting. Helpful? Melissa Whaley Owner in Corporate at Melissa Whaley Tax and Bookkeeping (Accounting, 1-10 employees) Chose Wave Accounting Wave's biggest selling point is by far it's price, because their base product for free. Most people sign-up because of that advantage. But here are my opinions of Wave Vs these three other programs I've worked in. Wave vs Freshbooks Helpful? Michele Craig CPA,CMA Founder and Owner in Finance and Accounting at BookSmarts (Accounting, 1-10 employees) Chose Wave Accounting Accounting by Wave has a similar target market to FreshBooks, however Accounting by Wave is a full GL solution whereas FreshBooks provides cash flow and receivables tracking. I would definitely recommend Accounting by Wave over FreshBooks for that reason. Also FreshBooks isn't … Helpful? Peter Cullen Partner at Core Performance in Finance and Accounting at Corelytics (Accounting, 1-10 employees) Chose Wave Accounting entry level software - does not yet compare to XERO Helpful? Verified User Chose Wave Accounting I've used Freshbooks and Freshbooks is just a glorified invoicing tool and not a true accounting system. Helpful? Tory Norman, CPA Senior Small Business & Technology Advisor at Squire (Accounting, 51-200 employees) Chose Wave Accounting It is hard to compare Wave to many of the QuickBooks products because QuickBooks desktop products have a different feature set and client focus. Clients already using QuickBooks likely would not switch to Wave. Wave is designed as an entry-level accounting software for recent … Incentivized Helpful?
	Would buy again
	No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic
	Delivers good value for the price
	No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic
	Happy with the feature set
	No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic
	Lived up to sales and marketing promises
	No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic
	Implementation went as expected
No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic

Features

FreshBooks

Wave Accounting

Comparison of Customization features of FreshBooks and Wave Accounting
Feature	FreshBooks 9.1 35 Ratings	Wave Accounting 8.5 13 Ratings
API for custom integration	9.330 Ratings	9.99 Ratings
Plug-ins	9.026 Ratings	7.011 Ratings

Comparison of Security features of FreshBooks and Wave Accounting
Feature	FreshBooks 10.0 41 Ratings	Wave Accounting 6.4 45 Ratings
Single sign-on capability	10.01 Ratings	6.432 Ratings
Role-based user permissions	10.041 Ratings	6.436 Ratings

Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of FreshBooks and Wave Accounting
Feature	FreshBooks 7.5 57 Ratings	Wave Accounting 6.3 72 Ratings
Dashboards	9.057 Ratings	6.070 Ratings
Standard reports	8.855 Ratings	8.069 Ratings
Custom reports	4.82 Ratings	5.036 Ratings

Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of FreshBooks and Wave Accounting
Feature	FreshBooks 7.5 56 Ratings	Wave Accounting 7.0 75 Ratings
Accounts payable	8.041 Ratings	7.158 Ratings
Accounts receivable	9.455 Ratings	7.169 Ratings
Cash management	7.03 Ratings	8.561 Ratings
Bank reconciliation	7.02 Ratings	8.565 Ratings
Expense management	6.651 Ratings	7.563 Ratings
Time tracking	7.642 Ratings	9.811 Ratings
Multi-currency support	7.01 Ratings	10.019 Ratings
Regulations compliance	6.021 Ratings	5.016 Ratings
Self-service portal	9.13 Ratings	8.040 Ratings
Fixed asset management	00 Ratings	9.812 Ratings
Multi-division support	00 Ratings	7.19 Ratings
Electronic tax filing	00 Ratings	5.914 Ratings
Global Financial Support	00 Ratings	9.02 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers	00 Ratings	9.05 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting	00 Ratings	4.05 Ratings
Localizations	00 Ratings	5.23 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations	00 Ratings	8.530 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting	00 Ratings	4.07 Ratings
Configurable Accounting	00 Ratings	5.017 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework	00 Ratings	1.03 Ratings
Standardized Processes	00 Ratings	7.019 Ratings

Comparison of Order Management features of FreshBooks and Wave Accounting
Feature	FreshBooks 9.5 49 Ratings	Wave Accounting 7.6 52 Ratings
Pricing	8.839 Ratings	9.926 Ratings
Order entry	9.337 Ratings	10.018 Ratings
Credit card processing	9.741 Ratings	2.345 Ratings
Cost of goods sold	10.01 Ratings	10.033 Ratings
Order Orchestration	00 Ratings	5.85 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility	00 Ratings	8.24 Ratings
Order exception Resolution	00 Ratings	7.02 Ratings

Comparison of Payroll Management features of FreshBooks and Wave Accounting
Feature	FreshBooks - Ratings	Wave Accounting 6.2 24 Ratings
Pay calculation	00 Ratings	7.123 Ratings
Benefit plan administration	00 Ratings	7.54 Ratings
Direct deposit files	00 Ratings	1.220 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management	00 Ratings	7.712 Ratings
Reimbursement management	00 Ratings	7.48 Ratings

Comparison of Inventory Management features of FreshBooks and Wave Accounting
Feature	FreshBooks - Ratings	Wave Accounting 8.1 11 Ratings
Inventory tracking	00 Ratings	5.68 Ratings
Automatic reordering	00 Ratings	9.95 Ratings
Location management	00 Ratings	8.12 Ratings
Manufacturing module	00 Ratings	9.01 Ratings

User Ratings
	FreshBooks	Wave Accounting
Likelihood to Recommend	9.4 (75 ratings)	6.0 (81 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew	7.6 (18 ratings)	7.8 (3 ratings)
Usability	9.6 (20 ratings)	7.0 (16 ratings)
Availability	10.0 (2 ratings)	6.7 (4 ratings)
Performance	8.0 (1 ratings)	2.9 (2 ratings)
Support Rating	6.0 (11 ratings)	2.1 (12 ratings)
Online Training	- (0 ratings)	4.7 (3 ratings)
Implementation Rating	10.0 (1 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
CPA Rating	7.0 (1 ratings)	8.0 (8 ratings)
Product Scalability	- (0 ratings)	3.0 (2 ratings)

FreshBooks vs. Wave Accounting

FreshBooks

Wave Accounting

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