Top Wave Alternatives for Boosting Your Business Efficiency

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📝Key Takeaways:

  • You will find the best Wave alternative.
  • By the end of the article, you would have made up your mind with which estimating and invoicing software you want to go ahead.
  • Despite being free, Wave has some pitfalls. Get to know that so you make the correct decision for your growing business.

According to Capterra, Wave claims to have more than 4 million users of their accounting and payroll management software. Still, if you are looking for a Wave alternative, then there could be a strong reason(s). We know what it is and that’s the reason behind articulating this article.

So, just the way you invest your time in growing your business, invest a few minutes here to save those hours you spent in creating estimates and invoices.

Most Reviewed
start4.5

Freshbooks

Freshbooks

Sends payment reminders

Recurring invoices

Swift customer service

200+ third-party integration

Editor’s Pick
star4.9

InvoiceOwl

invoiceowl

Editable estimates

Custom invoices

Digital signatures

Online payments

Free trial available

Premium Pick
star4.3

Zoho

Zoho

Intuitive mobile application

Easy to use interface

Suitable for every business type

Allows to create international invoices

Everything About Wave Alternative

InvoiceOwl – Best Wave Alternative for Small Businesses, Freelancers, & Contractors

A growing business needs a helping hand to unload a particular set of tasks, such as creating invoices and estimates. And what’s better than InvoiceOwl. It is ahead of specific areas where users face challenges with Wave.

  • Had a bad customer service experience with Wave? Get ready for prompt response with a resolution at InvoiceOwl.
  • Always need to carry a laptop or visit the office personally to access Wave? You get InvoiceOwl mobile application, which you can access anywhere, anytime.
  • Don’t know whether your sent estimates or invoices opened/viewed? Receive real-time notifications as soon as your client views or opens estimates/invoices.
  • Having trouble remembering what quantity and price the item is ordered? Purchase order by InvoiceOwl is your solution. Create a purchase order through InvoiceOwl and send it to your vendor.
  • Managing how much you owe to your customer could be complex. But, with the help of InvoiceOwl’s credit memo feature, that’s not the pain anymore.

Agreed that Wave accounting software offers half of the features listed above free of cost, but a few major features are missing. Besides, if there are a few extra, then those are irrelevant to your business.

Comparison Between InvoiceOwl & Wave

InvoiceOwl Wave Winner
Price Starts from $28.99/mo Free Wave
Customer service Good Average InvoiceOwl
Access anywhere, anytime Yes No InvoiceOwl
Real-Time Notifications Yes No InvoiceOwl
PO Generator Yes No InvoiceOwl
Credit Note Yes No InvoiceOwl

Choose wisely since free accounting software offers nothing in return. On the other hand, with a minimum investment, you would be able to streamline a lot many things for your business. Whether you are small business owners or freelancers, InvoiceOwl would be the best Wave alternative with all the features essential for managing a business.

Pros Cons
  • No recurring invoices feature

What InvoiceOwl users have to about the software:

Lucas Ferreira Review

Mnahil Mnahil Review

Verdict

InvoiceOwl is an estimating and invoicing software that ensures saving of time and lets you focus on crucial business areas. So, if you want a helping hand without wasting much of your money, you can anytime subscribe to InvoiceOwl.

Wave Hands to Wave & Shake Hands With InvoiceOwl

Why spend much time when all your challenges with Wave gets resolved with InvoiceOwl?

FreshBooks – Best Wave Alternative for Independent Contractors

FreshBooks

The cloud-based accounting software is one of the best wave accounting alternatives due to its invoicing feature. Preparing invoices through Freshbooks is a child’s play. With a few clicks and form-filling, your work is done.

Not only preparing, and sending invoices is also not only a game this online accounting software entertains you. Besides, Freshbooks even sends payment reminders for outstanding invoices. This helps in processing an agile payment with which your bottom line of the business would increase.

Moreover, Freshbooks also has a feature called recurring invoices; this works when there is no change in order, price, and quantity. You won’t have to create an invoice every single time for the particular customer who has been buying items or availing services from you.

Another area where Freshbooks stays ahead of Wave is offering prompt and effective customer support. This is one of the areas where most users have complained since Wave is poor at responding with a resolution. That makes customers feel frustrated which is one of the reasons why most wave users have started looking for an alternative.

Therefore, if you are facing such issues, you can consider Freshbooks alternatives to wave.

Comparison Between Freshbooks & Wave

Freshbooks Wave Winner
Price Start from $15 Free Wave
Customer service Good Poor Freshbooks
Integrations 200+ 4 Freshbooks
Project management Yes No Freshbooks
Adding more users Yes No Freshbooks

So this is the basic comparison between Freshbooks and Wave. Get to know all the pros and cons below.

Pros Cons
  • More than 70 integrations
  • Three different pricing plan options
  • Quite expensive
  • Doesn’t allow unlimited users
  • Steep learning curve

Verdict

If you are looking for a project management software, you must try Freshbooks since it stands ahead of wave when it comes to managing projects.

Invoice Ninja – Best Wave Alternative for Small Businesses

Invoice Ninja

According to the Invoice Ninja website, around 200,000+ small business owners, freelancers, and contractors trust this wave alternative platform. The reason is

  • Swift invoice and estimate creation
  • Accepting online payments
  • Time-tracking
  • Expense tracking
  • Third-party app integrations
  • Report generation

Apart from this, there are 40+ payment integrations in this invoicing solution. And talking about the customer support service, it is way beyond expectations. They are prompt and attentive to all the queries.

Best of all, Invoice Ninja’s forever-free plan is great for sole proprietors and freelancers since it allows you to add 20 clients with unlimited invoice and quote creation for life.

Talking about Invoice Ninja’s pricing plan, it offers three different pricing models, including one freemium version as well. The paid plans consist of Enterprise and Ninja Pro plans, which cost $14 and $10 respectively.  You can pay both monthly and annually, but if you pay annually, you would get a discount on the total price.

Let’s quickly compare both Invoice Ninja and Wave:

Invoice Ninja Wave Winner
Pricing Plan Starts $10 Free Wave
Is it accounting software No Yes Wave
Customizable invoice templates? Yes, more than wave Limited Invoice Ninja
Project Management Feature? Available Not Available Invoice Ninja
Payment Processing Options? More than Wave Limited Invoice Ninja

So that’s all about Invoice Ninja and its benefits. Let’s quickly look at some pros and cons of Invoice Ninja.

Pros Cons
  • Great service after sales
  • More than 30 payment integrations
  • Limited features & integrations

Verdict

Invoice Ninja is one of the best invoicing software for small businesses. The pricing plans are affordable and the services are commendable. Another reason to choose Invoice Ninja over Wave is it offers ample benefits even in a free version, which the other invoicing software fails to.

Zoho Books – Best Wave Alternative for One Device

wave financial quickbooks alternative

Zoho Books is another feature-packed, small business accounting software that comes at an affordable rate. No matter if you are a newbie to the accounting world, using this accounting software would be no big-brainer deal.

Besides, its mobile app is super-amazing and intuitive. Just like a web app, the mobile app is easy-to-use and one would not find any difficulty accessing or performing actions.

With great customer service and excellent invoicing solutions, Zoho Books turned out to be one of the best wave alternatives. Small businesses would benefit from this invoicing software.

Since Zoho Books is made for small to medium-size businesses, this one fits well with their requirements. Their pricing plan is also quite budget-friendly.

So, it starts with a free plan that allows 1 user with less than $50k yearly revenue. If you have 1-3 users and invoice creation of around 5k, then you can go ahead with Zoho standard plan. for if you are into the business where there are frequent purchases, then you can go ahead with the Zoho Books Professional plan which costs around $40 per month. Lastly, if you have expanded your business, Zoho Books Premium would be the best fit for you.

Now that you know the pricing plan, let’s sum up Zoho Books.

Pros Cons
  • Plans for every business type
  • Lets you create international invoices
  • Pocket-friendly rates
  • No payroll feature
  • Fewer integrations available

Verdict

Zoho Books is for every type of business seeking an accounting solution. You have multiple pricing plan options as your business grows and lets you add more clients.

Intuit Quickbooks – Best Wave Alternative for Multiple Users

wave accounting alternative

Quickbooks is software that ensures the proper management of your business. It is great for freelancers and big enterprises for whom taxation holds equal importance to revenue and sales.

Intuit Quickbooks online offers some great features:

  • Expense tracking
  • Tax support
  • Deduction tracking
  • Direct turbo tax integration

This software satisfies all your accounting needs in just a few clicks. And that too at a rate that doesn’t put a hole in your pocket.

So, it starts with 

  • $12.50 per month: allows 1 user and several basic features
  • $40 per month: allows up to 5 users with unlimited invoice creation
  • $90 per month: allows up to 25 users with all the features
  • $349 per month: plan for desktop

So this is all about Wave accounting alternatives that does what most other bigger platforms fail to do even after charging hefty.

Pros Cons
  • Manages business finance
  • Help with tax deductions
  • Helps with online invoicing
  • Save time
  • Keeps data safe
  • Improper customer support
  • Limited tax support

Verdict

Intuit QuickBooks is software for all types of businesses that want to streamline their business activities. Plus, the software ensures a smooth and swift process. However, if you’re looking for an alternative to QuickBooks online, there are various other tools available that offer similar features for managing your business operations efficiently.

Moon Invoice – Best Wave Alternative Expense Tracking

waves competitors

Finding an invoicing solution that requires no special degree? Then, the Moon invoice is that hidden gem. Everything is so perfectly placed in the software that whatever you want is right in front of your eye.

And right from the invoicing era, Moon invoice has been bagging a large number of clients to its clientele. No matter if you are running a small business or large enterprise, Moon invoice would be playing an integral part in it.

With the help of tax configuration, you would easily track time and tax. Another task that the Moon invoice would swiftly execute is generating recurring invoices and reports. So, don’t worry about any reports, you are just a few clicks away and you will get it.

Moreover, in the list of full-featured Moon invoices, one of which is, inbuilt team timesheets that helps to create and send estimates and invoice without much hassle.

Lastly, the pricing plan literally wins the heart. And the reason is where most competitors’ basic plan starts, Moon invoice’s premium plan ends. It means their premium or gold plan is available at $16.67 per month. 

Pros Cons
  • Manage projects with a time tracking feature
  • Takes seconds to execute expense tracking
  • Manages multiple languages
  • Poor quality of text quality

Verdict

Moon Invoice is one of the best wave alternatives since it offers services at quite low rates. Also, it offers its services in several languages which is one of the great features as well as benefits for users across the globe.

Billdu – Best Wave Alternative for Bank Reconciliation

waveapps alternative

If you are a consultant, minor association, or bookkeeper looking for professional bookkeeping software, Billdu is the software you must not miss. 

With the help of cutting-edge features, Billdu makes the customer experience memorable. There is a high chance of increasing customer retention rate. As the best wave alternative, this one ensures to offer what one entrepreneur or freelancer requires smooth their business.

Billdu’s main focus is on making receipts for a business. You can also alter the already created receipts. Another great feature is accepting multi-currency and language, which is why it is popular across the world. The only downside is its price, which is why most large enterprises only choose to subscribe to this invoicing and estimating software.

Pros Cons
  • Access from anywhere anytime
  • Quite expensive 
  • Not ideal for small businesses

Verdict

Billdu is software that is made for invoicing, sales, and communication. This software is best for large businesses and not for independent contractors.

Bill.com – Best Wave Alternative for Billing Clients

wave app alternative

Bill.com is a billing application that makes the accounts receivables and payables process smoother and better. This will let the bookkeepers and other administrators free from their tasks. 

The software is cloud-based, meaning you can use it from your home. With the use of Bill.com, most of the back-office tasks get reduced and you would be able to focus on other key areas.

From established to already successful businesses trust Bill.com, which means this software meets expectations. Since the paper trails are a time-consuming and resource-reserving task, bill.com makes it smooth. Just as we said above, doing this makes accounts receivables and payables easy-going.

So at what price does Bill.com start doing tasks on your behalf:

  • For corporates, Bill.com charges somewhere around $79 and comes with Quickbooks online integrated, Xero, and Quickbooks Premier.
  • For essentials, Bill.com offers its services at $45 and for the team, it asks for $55.

So this was all about Bill.com, Now let’s take a look at the pros and cons

Pros Cons
  • Easy-to-use
  • Create and send invoices
  • Allows credit card payments
  • Gets paid quickly with regular emails
  • Requires too much spending

Verdict

Bill.com caters to your accounts payables and receivables, so it becomes a great tool for the small businesses out there.

Bill4Time – Best Wave Alternative for Tracking Time

Bill4Time

Bill4time is a different type of software; it ensures time tracking stockpiling, accounting reports, and invoicing. This is why you count on this wave accounting software.

Unlike other software that are compatible with selected company sizes, this one fits all businesses. The software is integrated with some of the finest third-party apps, such as Quickbooks,  Calendly, and Document Container, which help do most of the tasks on the go.

It even accepts online payment, so you don’t have to worry about getting paid faster. Moreover, you would be able to create an invoice as per your wish. It lets you add details like discounts, special charges, and notes.

Talking about Bill4time pricing models, Bill4time offers three pricing plans:

  • The time & Billing plan charges $29 per month.
  • Legal Pro charges $49 per month
  • Legal Enterprise charges $89 per month

So this is how Bill4time charges from their customers. If you do not want to pay, you can even use a 14-day trial period. So start using it and see if it matches your requirement.

Pros Cons
  • High-end data security
  • Not up-to-mark customer experience

Verdict

If time-tracking is your preference, Bill4time is one of the best alternatives to ponder upon. With more features, this software stands out differently from others online.

So these are the best wave alternatives that let you send invoices on time and get paid quickly. Now let’s see why should you find the wave alternative.

Reasons to Find Wave Alternative

Though Wave offers its accounting software access free of cost, it still is worthless since it doesn’t offer what most users seek. And when that happens, it’s time to look for wave alternatives.

So, what are those reasons which make one abandon the completely free accounting software?

  • Need a quick customer support service
  • Limited integrations available in Wave
  • Outdated mobile applications
  • Lack of multiple users to feature
  • Un Updated time-tracking feature
  • No more complex accounting features
  • Not a project management feature
  • No idea if your business is exponentially growing

Not all but one of them might be the reason you are facing, and that is sufficient to look for an alternative to wave accounting.

Even after knowing the reasons and different accounting software, if you still have questions or doubts, you can go ahead to the next section. This section consists of questions asked by most users across the globe.

Found Any Wave Alternative?

If not? Try InvoiceOwl once and make your life easier. Get your free trial now

Frequently Asked Questions
  1. What is better than Wave accounting?

    InvoiceOwl would be a great alternative to wave accounting since it offers what most users seek in estimating and invoicing software. Plus, the software is available at a pocket-friendly rate, which means you get most things at a minimum price. There are several other substitutes for Wave but not as feature-rich as InvoiceOwl is.


  2. Is InvoiceOwl better than Wave accounting?

    Yes, InvoiceOwl is an ideal alternative to Wave since it doesn’t charge a hefty subscription amount as others. Plus, it contains all the features that are a must-have in any online accounting software. Lastly, no matter whether you are using a mobile app or web app, it runs without any glitch, meaning it wouldn’t be stuck or handled while creating an estimate or invoice.


  3. Is wave a free accounting software?

    Yes, Wave is a free accounting platform that allows you to process payments, prepare payroll, and maintain bookkeeping. It is cloud-based software, meaning you can access it from anywhere, anytime.


  4. Why should you look for wave alternatives?

    Several reasons consist when it comes to looking for wave alternative, and those are

    • Slow customer service
    • Isn’t able to manage projects
    • Poor mobile app
    • Limited integration of third-party apps

Conclusion

Estimating and invoicing industry has a lot of potentials and getting the best accounting software is like finding a diamond in the coal mine. But don’t worry, we have done that job for you.

That diamond is – InvoiceOwl. Compiled with all the key features, this best wave alternative lets you create unlimited invoices, accept online payments, send invoices, and let your business grow multifold times.

Apart from all these benefits, InvoiceOwl estimating and invoicing software offers a free plan. With this free plan, you would be able to get familiar with different features of the software. So, what are you waiting for? Get yourself enrolled with the free plan and explore the software.

Author Bio
Jeel Patel
Jeel Patel
Founder

Jeel Patel is the founder of InvoiceOwl, a top-rated estimating and invoicing software that simplifies the invoicing and estimating processes for contractor businesses. Jeel holds a degree in Business Administration and Management from the University of Toronto, which has provided him with a strong foundation in business principles and practices. With understanding of the challenges faced by contractors, he conducted extensive research and developed a tool to streamline the invoicing and estimating processes for contractors. Read More

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