Wave Pricing 2026: Is Wave Still Free? Starter vs Pro Explained

Yes, Wave is still free, but the free plan does less than it used to. Starter costs $0 and keeps unlimited invoices, estimates, bills and bookkeeping records. Automatic bank imports and logins for an accountant now need Pro, at $19/mo or $190/yr per business. Prices were read on Wave's pricing page on 18 October 2026.

That split matters more than the sticker. A freelancer who types in a dozen transactions a month can run a real double-entry ledger on Starter and pay nothing. A business with a busy card account, a bookkeeper who needs to log in, or a monthly close that depends on a bank feed is a Pro customer, whether it budgets for that or not.

Toolradar data: Wave is listed as an alternative to 35 other tools in the directory, which puts it 13th (joint) among the 279 accounting tools Toolradar tracks as of October 2026. Among the 229 invoicing tools in the same snapshot, only 33% offer a free plan at all. The figures come from Wave's Toolradar profile.

Wave plans at a glance

Plan	US price, October 2026	What it adds	Who it fits
Starter	Free	Unlimited invoices, estimates, bills and bookkeeping records; mobile invoicing	Solo owners who enter transactions by hand
Pro	$19/mo, or $190/yr	Automatic bank import and categorization, receipt capture, late-payment reminders, admin, editor and viewer users	Owners who want a bank feed or an accountant in the file
Pro, new-customer promo	$9.50/mo for the first 3 months	Same as Pro	Monthly billing only, then the list price
Wave Advisors	From $149/mo	Pro features plus a dedicated bookkeeper and monthly statements (mobile receipts excluded)	Owners who want the books done for them

Every Pro charge is per business, not per owner. Wave's pricing FAQ gives the example of three businesses under one login: each one is subscribed and billed separately. Prices exclude sales tax.

Is Wave still free in 2026?

Starter is still free with no time limit, and it is real accounting software rather than a trial in disguise. You can create unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, invoice from the mobile app and track cash flow and customers in one dashboard. What changed is the bank connection. On Starter, bank transactions go into Wave by hand. Importing them automatically through Plaid, and having Wave merge and categorize them, is a Pro feature on today's plan table.

The change hit long-time users hardest. Wave's help center FAQ on legacy plans says that from June 1, 2026, legacy businesses not using payments, payroll or another paid Wave service moved to Starter, and that keeping bank connections means upgrading to Pro. Businesses already using one of those paid services were not moved under that rule.

So the honest answer to "is Wave free" is: the ledger is free, the automation is not. If your close starts with a bank feed, budget for Pro.

What Starter leaves out

Three gaps decide whether Starter works for a finance-minded owner.

• No bank feed. Every transaction is keyed in yourself. That is fine at 20 lines a month and painful at 200, and reconciliation errors grow with volume.
• Limited users. Starter can add a payroll manager or a Block Advisors tax pro for free. The admin, editor and viewer roles that let a bookkeeper or partner work in the books are Pro.
• No included receipt capture. Receipt scanning is an add-on on Starter and included on Pro.

Card fees are also higher on Starter, covered below. None of this breaks a small, simple ledger. It does mean an accountant cannot review a Starter file from their own login, so year-end handoff becomes an export.

What does Wave Pro cost over a year?

Annual billing is the cheapest way to buy Pro, even against the promo. Twelve months at the monthly rate comes to $228, and Wave prints the annual saving at $38. The new-customer promo runs only on monthly billing: three months at $9.50 and nine at the list price total $199.50 for the first year, still more than paying annually.

How you pay for Pro	First-year cost	Later years
Monthly, no promo	$228	$228
Monthly, with the 3-month promo	$199.50	$228
Annual	$190	$190

The promo makes sense only if you want to try Pro for a few months before committing. Wave's FAQ says you can unsubscribe at any time and the cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing period, so a monthly trial run carries little risk. Totals are computed from the prices printed on Wave's pricing page on 18 October 2026.

Add-ons that sit on top of either plan

The subscription is often the smallest line. These are the US add-on prices Wave lists.

Receipts. On Starter, unlimited receipt capture (mobile app, desktop or email, read by OCR into bookkeeping records) costs $8/mo or $72/yr. Pro includes it. That makes the real gap between Starter-with-receipts and Pro $118 a year on annual billing, not the full Pro price.

Payroll. Wave's payroll page lists a $40/mo base fee plus $6 per active employee and $6 per contractor paid, with tax filing included in all 50 states. A business paying three employees spends $58/mo on payroll, $696 a year, which is several times the Pro subscription. For a deeper look at what payroll costs on a rival ledger, see QuickBooks Payroll pricing.

Wave Advisors. A dedicated bookkeeper, monthly financial statements and tax-ready books start at $149/mo, about $1,788 a year at that floor. It bundles Pro features, but Wave notes that mobile receipts are not included. Compare that figure against the outsourced options in best online bookkeeping services before signing.

Card and bank payment fees

Wave earns on payments, and the plan you choose changes the rate. These are the US rates on Wave's pricing and payments pages.

Payment type	Starter	Pro
Visa, Mastercard, Discover	2.9% + $0.60	2.9% + $0 on the first 10 each month, then 2.9% + $0.60
American Express	3.4% + $0.60	3.4% + $0 on the first 10 each month, then 3.4% + $0.60
Bank payment (ACH)	1%, $1 minimum	1%, $1 minimum

Pro's card discount is small: waiving the fixed fee on ten payments a month is worth up to $72 a year, enough to offset part of the subscription but not to justify it alone. The bigger lever is steering clients to bank payment. On a $2,000 invoice, ACH costs $20, while a Visa card costs $58.60 at the standard rate. Card payouts land in 1-2 business days and bank payments in 1-7, so the cheaper rail is also the slower one. Online payments require approval, including identity verification and a credit review.

When does Pro pay for itself?

Pro costs $46 a year more than a well-used Starter setup, once you count what it replaces. Take an owner who would buy the receipts add-on anyway and takes at least ten card payments a month. On annual billing, the receipts add-on it replaces is $72; the waived card fees are worth up to $72. What is left of the annual price, $46, buys the bank feed, the extra user roles and automated late-payment reminders.

The math tilts the other way for a seller who takes few card payments and never scans receipts. That owner pays the whole annual fee for the bank feed and the logins. It is still worth it once keying transactions by hand eats more than an hour or two a year, which for most owners with a business card happens fast.

Two cases where Starter is the right call:

• A side business with a handful of monthly transactions and no accountant reviewing the books.
• An owner who invoices on Wave but keeps the real ledger elsewhere, so Wave only needs the free invoicing.

Wave against the other entry plans

Wave's Pro price is low for a plan with a bank feed. Here is how the cheapest plans of four rivals compare, read on each vendor's US pricing page on 18 October 2026.

Entry plan	List price	Limit worth knowing	Intro offer
Wave Starter	Free	No bank feed, no accountant login	None
Wave Pro	$19/mo	Per business	$9.50/mo for 3 months
Zoho Books Free	Free	Revenue under $50K a year; 1 user plus 1 accountant	None
QuickBooks Online Simple Start	$38/mo	1 user	50% off for 3 months
Xero Early	$27/mo	20 invoices and 5 bills	80% off for 3 months
FreshBooks Lite	$23/mo	5 billable clients	80% off for 4 months

Zoho Books is the free plan to beat if what you lost on Wave was accountant access: its free tier includes an accountant seat, as long as revenue stays under the cap. QuickBooks also has a free tier now, but Intuit's own trade-offs are covered in is QuickBooks free. Xero Early and FreshBooks Lite cost more than Wave Pro at list and both cap volume, invoices on Xero and clients on FreshBooks. The full plan breakdowns are in our Xero pricing, FreshBooks pricing and QuickBooks Online pricing guides.

Head-to-head pages go further on fit: QuickBooks vs Wave on features Wave does not list, such as inventory, and FreshBooks vs Wave for service businesses that bill by client. Toolradar runs the same matchups as QuickBooks vs Wave and FreshBooks vs Wave.

Which Wave plan should you pick?

Pick by how your transactions arrive, not by the price tag.

• Stay on Starter if you enter fewer transactions than you can key in a sitting each month, nobody else needs a login, and you are fine exporting reports at tax time.
• Move to Pro, billed annually, the moment you want a bank feed, a bookkeeper or partner in the file, or receipt scanning. Even at the annual rate it is still one of the cheapest paid ledgers with a feed.
• Price Wave Advisors against a freelance bookkeeper if you want the books off your desk. The $149 floor is a starting rate, not a quote for your volume.
• Look at Zoho Books if accountant access is the only reason you would pay, and revenue is under its cap.

The product beyond pricing, including where Wave's ledger falls short, is in our Wave review. Shortlists for adjacent jobs: best free accounting software, best receipt scanner apps, best invoicing software for freelancers and the cheapest accounting software for small business. If you are setting up books for the first time, start with how to do bookkeeping for a small business.

How we priced this

Plan prices, add-ons, user roles and card rates were read on Wave's pricing page, and payroll and ACH fees on Wave's payroll and payments pages, on 18 October 2026, in US dollars. The June 2026 plan change comes from Wave's help center. Competitor prices were read the same day on each vendor's US pricing page. Annual and first-year totals are arithmetic on those printed prices, with no assumed discounts. Louis Corneloup, founder of Toolradar and Dupple, edited this page. Prices change: confirm the current figure on Wave's checkout before you subscribe.

This page is general information, not personalized financial advice. Confirm plan terms, fees and payment approval with Wave before you rely on them.

FAQ

How much does Wave cost in 2026?

Wave Starter is free. Wave Pro is $19/mo per business, less when billed annually, with a new-customer promo of $9.50/mo for the first three months on monthly billing. Add-ons are extra: payroll starts at $40/mo plus $6 per employee or contractor paid, and Wave Advisors bookkeeping starts at $149/mo, per Wave's US pricing in October 2026.

Is Wave still free?

Yes. The Starter plan costs nothing and keeps unlimited invoices, estimates, bills and bookkeeping records. Automatic bank imports and admin, editor or viewer logins are Pro features, and Wave moved most legacy businesses to Starter on June 1, 2026, so owners who relied on the free bank feed now need Pro to keep it.

Can my accountant access Wave for free?

Not with full access. Starter lets you add a payroll manager or a Block Advisors tax pro at no cost, but the admin, editor and viewer roles an outside bookkeeper usually needs are part of Pro. Zoho Books' free plan includes one accountant user for businesses under $50K in annual revenue, if free accountant access is the priority.

Is Wave Pro billed per user or per business?

Per business. Wave's FAQ says one account can hold several business profiles, and each business you put on Pro is subscribed and billed separately. Three businesses on annual Pro cost $570 a year. Adding users to one business does not change its Pro price.

What are Wave's credit card processing fees?

On Starter, every card payment carries a 60-cent fixed fee on top of 2.9% (3.4% for Amex). Pro waives that fixed fee on the first 10 card transactions each month, then charges the standard rate. Bank (ACH) payments cost 1% with a $1 minimum on either plan.

Is Wave cheaper than QuickBooks?

At list price, yes. Wave Pro is half the price of QuickBooks Online Simple Start, which lists at $38/mo, and both include a bank feed. QuickBooks offers features Wave's pricing page does not list, such as inventory on higher plans, so the cheaper plan wins only if you do not need them.

Cite this: Finpresso, "Wave Pricing 2026: Is Wave Still Free? Starter vs Pro Explained", October 2026.

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