QuickBooks Online vs Wave Accounting
The honest version: both are capable, both have real weaknesses their users write about constantly, and there's a third option this comparison won't hide until the end — it's free, so we can afford to be fair about the first two.
QuickBooks Online
From ~$38/mo (1 user, no inventory/projects); ~$140/mo for 5 users
The market leader in small-business accounting, priced per tier with hard user limits.
QuickBooks Online runs ~$38/mo for one user and ~$140/mo (Plus) to reach five after the August 2026 increase — roughly $460–$1,680 a year before payroll, which adds ~$50/mo plus a per-employee fee. The top tier has risen 70% since 2023.
- “Prices went up every single year — Advanced is up 70% since 2023”
- “Hour-long holds and chatbot loops when something breaks”
- “The forced new UI made everything slower and there's no opt-out”
Wave Accounting
"Free" — single-user, no bank feeds, can't even email invoices; Pro ~$19/mo
The best-known free accounting tool — invoicing and bookkeeping for very small businesses in the US and Canada.
Wave's free plan shrank in June 2026: bank feeds, collaborator access, receipts — even emailing invoices from the platform — moved to the ~$19/mo Pro plan, including for long-time free users. Payroll is a paid add-on, and card payments run only through Wave's own processor at their rates.
- “June 2026: bank feeds, collaborators, receipts — even emailing invoices — were pulled from free accounts with a month's notice”
- “'Free forever' turned out to mean 'until the Pro plan needed features'”
- “Support is a chatbot unless you pay”
you've outgrown starter tools and your accountant lives in QBO.
you're US/Canada-based, tiny, and can live inside what's left of the free tier.
The option QuickBooks-vs-Wave articles skip
Coordinator covers what both do — free, with unlimited users and no usage meters — inside one system that also runs the rest of a small business: real books, projects with job costing, booking pages, client records, and a network where your invoice lands in your client's books. The honest trade: it's web-only today, and each specialist keeps its deepest niche feature — both comparison pages above say exactly which.
Free. No card. About two minutes to set up.
Competitor pricing approximate, from published plans as of August 2026.
Settle it with the free one
Try the third option this afternoon — if it doesn't fit, the other two aren't going anywhere.
Free. No card. About two minutes to set up.