ZipBooks and Wave are cloud-based accounting programs that offer free plans. ZipBooks is ideal for service firms billing clients by the hour, while Wave is the better choice for companies with transactions in multiple currencies. ZipBooks currently doesn’t have a mobile app but allows you to track time and track income and expenses by project. Wave, in contrast, does have an app that lets you create invoices and accept payments on the go but lacks a time tracking feature.
- ZipBooks: Best for service firms that bill by the hour
- Wave: Best free software for basic bookkeeping needs
Neither ZipBooks nor Wave is adequate if you have inventory. We recommend QuickBooks Online for inventory accounting, and it also has the advantage of a huge network of independent ProAdvisors to help you.
- QuickBooks Online: Best for small businesses with inventory or wanting local bookkeeping help
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3.3 ★ | 2.8 ★ | 4.4 ★ | |
Monthly Pricing | $0 to $35 | $0 or $16 | $35 to $235 |
Number of Users | 1 to unlimited | 1 or unlimited | 1 to 25 |
Bank Reconciliation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Send Invoices & Track Collections | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Manage Unpaid Bills | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Track Inventory | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Multiple Currencies | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Create Locations & Classes | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ |
View Transactions per Vendor | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ |
Capture & Organize Receipts | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Manage 1099 Contractors | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Time Tracking | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ |
Track Income & Expense By Project | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ |
Use Cases and Pros & Cons
User Reviews: ZipBooks Wins
ZipBooks | Wave | |
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Average Rating on Third-party Sites | ||
Users Like |
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Users Dislike |
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Most reviewers said they love ZipBooks for its ease of use, layout, and usability. It has straightforward features that some users may prefer, especially if they want to avoid complex features. However, its best features are locked in the highest plan, Sophisticated. Many reviewers expressed that they didn’t like that the free plan lacks many features essential for accounting.
Meanwhile, those who appreciate Wave like that it comes with payroll and tax assistance. If ever you don’t want to do your books, you can get a Wave Advisor to do them for you. What reviewers dislike about Wave is that it doesn’t allow bank account connection in the free plan, which was available prior to the introduction of the new paid plan, Wave Pro.
Pricing: Wave Wins
ZipBooks | Wave | |
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Monthly Pricing |
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Number of Users |
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Number of Billable Clients | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Free Trial (Paid Plans) | 30 days | ✕ |
Businesses looking for an affordable option will be satisfied with either ZipBooks or Wave, as both offer the most basic bookkeeping services for free. However, Wave wins in pricing because its paid plan is only $16 and includes unlimited users, bank feeds, and all the basic bookkeeping features you’ll need. We recommend picking ZipBooks over Wave if you need advanced features like recurring expenses and custom tags.
Features
- Free plan: Wave wins
- Paid plan: ZipBooks wins
FREE | PAID | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
ZipBooks Starter | Wave Starter | ZipBooks Sophisticated | Wave Pro | |
Accounts Payable | 0.6★ | 3.1★ | 3.8★ | 3.1★ |
Accounts Receivable | 2.5★ | 3.1★ | 3.9★ | 3.6★ |
Reporting | 2.3★ | 3.4★ | 4.4★ | 3.4★ |
Sales & Income Tax | 0.5★ | 2.8★ | 3.5★ | 3.3★ |
5.0-4.6★: Excellent 2.5-1.6★: Fair
4.5-3.6★: Very Good 1.5-0.6★: Poor
3.5-2.6★: Good 0.5-0.0★: Very Poor
For features, we give the win to Wave for the free tier and to ZipBooks for the paid plan. Compared with ZipBooks Starter, Wave Starter has more features in A/P and sales tax tracking—you can manage payables easily and track sales tax on transactions.
Most of ZipBooks’ best features are locked in the highest plan, Sophisticated, which is why ZipBooks takes the lead for paid plans. If you pick Sophisticated, you have access to more features such as creating recurring expenses and adding unbilled expenses to invoices, to name a few. While Wave Pro is a capable paid alternative, we still believe that ZipBooks Sophisticated is the best value for money given its feature set.
Accounts Payable: ZipBooks Wins
- Free plan: Wave wins
- Paid plan: ZipBooks wins
FREE | PAID | |||
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ZipBooks Starter | Wave Starter | ZipBooks Sophisticated | Wave Pro | |
Fit Small Business Score | 0.6★ | 3.1★ | 3.8★ | 3.1★ |
Manage & Track Unpaid Bills | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Capture Expense Receipts | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ |
Create Recurring Expenses | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ |
Record Purchase Order | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
Enter a Vendor Credit | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
Pay an Independent Contractor | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Wave wins the free plan category, whereas ZipBooks leads in the paid plan category. Users who prefer to go with the free version should choose Wave since ZipBooks doesn’t allow you to track unpaid bills in the free tier. Meanwhile, ZipBooks’ paid options are better than Wave because they have more features like recurring expenses and billing independent contractor payments to customers.
ZipBooks’ A/P features work great for recording unpaid bills. Users can create vendors, designate vendors as 1099 contractors, and assign bills to expense accounts. The form layout of ZipBooks’ bill creation window is simple and easy to understand. You can add attachments to support your entry and even enter the payment terms. Since ZipBooks doesn’t have inventory tracking, the software doesn’t ask for quantities of goods ordered. You’ll need to use a spreadsheet to keep track of inventory units and costs.
Wave shares the same features as ZipBooks and is also a great application for tracking and managing unpaid bills. Unlike ZipBooks, Wave asks about the quantity of the goods you ordered. This feature puts Wave at a slight advantage over ZipBooks since it shows the number of units, which can be vital for manually tracking units.
Accounts Receivable
- Free plan: Wave wins
- Paid plan: ZipBooks wins
FREE | PAID | |||
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ZipBooks Starter | Wave Starter | ZipBooks Sophisticated | Wave Pro | |
Fit Small Business Score | 2.5★ | 3.1★ | 3.9★ | 3.6★ |
Create & Send Invoices | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Customize Invoices With Logo | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Email & Print Invoices | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Add Unbilled Expenses to Invoices | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
Create Recurring Invoices | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Similar to our evaluation of A/P, Wave takes the lead in the free tier category, while ZipBooks wins for the paid plan. In the free option, Wave is better since it gives users more features to use for tracking A/R and invoices such as creating recurring invoices. ZipBooks has this feature as well, but it is locked in its Sophisticated plan, making ZipBooks a better pick if you prefer paid software.
Recurring invoicing is often reserved for the higher and more premium plans of accounting software like QuickBooks Online Plus. If you like this feature, you must upgrade to Sophisticated. For only $35 a month, you get a flagship feature for an extremely low price.
Invoices in Wave are a bit better looking than those in ZipBooks. You can upload your company logo in either Wave plan and change the invoice theme color in the paid tier. When creating invoices, you can directly add a new customer, which makes Wave easier and more efficient to use. It also includes premium features, like creating recurring invoices and detailed tax reports, which aren’t present in ZipBooks unless you upgrade to ZipBooks Sophisticated.
Reporting: ZipBooks Wins
- Free plan: Wave wins
- Paid plan: ZipBooks wins
FREE | PAID | |||
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ZipBooks Starter | Wave Starter | ZipBooks Sophisticated | Wave Pro | |
Fit Small Business Score | 2.3★ | 3.4★ | 4.4★ | 3.4★ |
Balance Sheet | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
P&L Statement | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Statement of Cash Flows | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
A/R Aging | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ |
A/P Aging | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Income/Loss by Month | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
Income/Loss by Customer | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
Income/Loss by Class | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
Income/Loss by Location | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
Income/Loss by Project | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
Unbilled Charges | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
Unbilled Time | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
Transaction List by Customer | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ |
Expenses by Vendor | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
General Ledger | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Trial Balance | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
In the free plan, Wave comes out ahead, but in the paid option, the win goes to ZipBooks. Though free, Wave lets you generate eight reports, whereas ZipBooks can only make four reports. But with ZipBooks Sophisticated, ZipBooks undoubtedly excels in its reporting compared with Wave—with the ability to generate reports that we believe should be available in small business accounting software. A bonus is the variety of data-driven intelligence reports, which allow you insight into your company’s performance.
It will even assign your business a health score and score your completed invoices by quality. Wave offers only 12 reports, and it doesn’t allow for report customization. However, both ZipBooks and Wave allow you to export reports from the print screen.
Sales & Income Tax: Tie
- Free plan: Wave wins
- Paid plan: ZipBooks wins
FREE | PAID | |||
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ZipBooks Starter | Wave Starter | ZipBooks Sophisticated | Wave Pro | |
Fit Small Business Score | 0.5★ | 2.8★ | 3.5★ | 3.4★ |
Add Sales Tax to Invoices | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Track Independent Contractors | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Adjust Sales Tax on Credit Memos | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
View Sales Tax Liabilities in Detail | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ |
Pay Sales Tax Liability | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
File Sales Tax Returns | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
Wave’s free plan is far better than ZipBooks’ free plan, which doesn’t even allow you to add sales tax to an invoice. ZipBooks Sophisticated leads by one-tenth of a percentage point against Wave Pro, but we see this as a tie. The small lead isn’t a major feature in our evaluation.
In ZipBooks, you can add sales tax items by jurisdiction and then add them to your invoices but you first need to encode sales tax rates in the settings. In Starter, you can include 1099 classification for independent contractors and charge sales taxes to invoices. Wave shares the same features, plus it lets you create sales tax adjustments on credit memos and view sales tax liabilities in detail.
Ease of Use: ZipBooks Wins
ZipBooks | Wave | |
---|---|---|
Fit Small Business Score | 4.4★ | 3.6★ |
Accessibility | Cloud | Cloud |
Dashboard Readability | 5.0★ | 5.0★ |
UI Design | 4.0★ | 5.0★ |
Expert Score | 4.0★ | 2.5★ |
5.0-4.6★: Excellent 2.5-1.6★: Fair
4.5-3.6★: Very Good 1.5-0.6★: Poor
3.5-2.6★: Good 0.5-0.0★: Very Poor
ZipBooks and Wave are designed for the accounting novice, and both make it easy to find what you’re looking for without the need to spend much time learning the software. For overall ease of use, however, ZipBooks takes the win.
Upon sign-in, ZipBooks displays a financial performance dashboard that provides a summary of all recent expense and invoicing activity. An intuitive user interface means less time learning the application. Navigation is easy, with the vertical menu to the left of the main screen offering quick access to all system functions:
- Home: The navigation bar on the left side gives you access to Invoices, Transactions, Reports, Contacts, Tracking, and Payroll. You can also access these at the top of the page.
- Financial performance: This report is shown in graph format and is a summary of your business’ revenue, expenses, and net income.
- Finish setup: This is displayed to show your progress with tasks needed to set up your account, including adding an address and phone number, adding a logo, and connecting a bank.
- Expenses: After you connect your bank account, your transactions will be downloaded and displayed here automatically.
- Tracked time: This feature summarizes your unbilled time so that you can see the status of what is yet to be invoiced. There is also a timer at the top of the page, which you use and then import into ZipBooks.
Sending a Simple Invoice
Because the Starter version doesn’t use items on its invoices, you type the description you want on each line of the invoice. For this reason, we included it as the best free software for simple invoices in our roundup of the best free accounting software. However, while it’s simple, it’s also inefficient because you’ll need to retype product and service descriptions in each invoice.
Wave also has a dashboard that displays current business performance along with a cash flow graph, a two-year net income summary, and a graph that illustrates expenses by category. You accept credit cards on invoices by going through the setup process on this page:
- Left navigation bar: Use this section to navigate to various sections of the software, including Sales, Purchases, Accounting, Banking, Payroll, Reports, Wave Advisors, and Tax Filing.
- Accept payments: This feature walks you through accepting credit card payments on your invoices and signs you up for Payments by Wave.
- Cash flow: This report reflects the cash going in and out of your business.
- Profit and loss: This report shows income and expenses only, including unpaid invoices and bills.
- Payable and owing: This section summarizes both invoices payable to you and unpaid bills, broken down by aging periods.
- Net Income: This is a two-year comparison that shows income, expense, and net income figures.
- Expense breakdown: This graph illustrates your expenses by category so that you can view what percentage is spent in each.
Assisted Bookkeeping: Wave Wins
ZipBooks | Wave | |
---|---|---|
Assisted Bookkeeping Service | ZipBooks | Wave Advisors |
Monthly Pricing | From $125 | From $149 |
Access to Experts | ✓ | ✓ |
Communication | Live chat and chatbot | Live chat and email |
Account Reconciliation | ✓ | ✓ |
Bookkeeping Advice | ✓ | ✓ |
User-friendly Dashboard | ✓ | ✓ |
1099 Reporting & Preparation | ✓ | ✕ |
Accounting & Payroll Coaching | ✕ | ✓ |
ZipBooks doesn’t provide assistance with the preparation and filing of income tax returns, but it offers bookkeeping and tax support services for an additional monthly fee, providing you with a dedicated bookkeeper and online support. Prices range from $125 per month for Simple Bookkeeping to $145 per month for more advanced bookkeeping. Form 1099 reporting and preparation starts at $175 per month and includes all features of Simple Bookkeeping. The bookkeeping plans already include a ZipBooks plan.
Meanwhile, Wave Advisors assist with bookkeeping, accounting coaching, and taxes. You can hire Wave Advisors to handle bookkeeping tasks, such as categorizing bank transactions, performing bank reconciliations, and tax planning.
- Bookkeeping and payroll support: For $149 per month, Wave Advisors will categorize transactions, perform account reconciliations, and take care of your payroll.
- Accounting and payroll coaching: For a one-time fee of $379, Wave Advisors will help you set up your Wave account and teach you how to do the bookkeeping and payroll yourself.
Customer Support: Tie
ZipBooks | Wave | |
---|---|---|
Fit Small Business Score | 2.2★ | 2.3★ |
Phone Support (Callback) | ✕ | ✕ |
Phone Support (You Make the Call) | ✕ | ✕ |
Live Chat Support | ✓ | ✓ |
Chatbot | ✓ | ✕ |
Email Support | ✕ | ✓ |
Self-help Resources | ✓ | ✓ |
Support is limited for both ZipBooks and Wave. ZipBooks offers a chatbot, live chat, and self-help information on its Help Center. Hence, we call this criterion a tie even if Wave scored higher by a little. It offers self-help information, and you can access live chat and email support when you purchase an add-on to the free plan or upgrade to the Pro tier.
We recommend FreshBooks for the best customer support because users have multiple ways of contacting support. Read our FreshBooks review to know more.
How We Evaluated ZipBooks vs Wave
We evaluated ZipBooks and Wave based on ease of use, pricing, and how well each one performed against the ideal features we’re seeking, including banking, A/R, A/P, project accounting, and reporting. We used our internal case study, which evaluates accounting software across 15 areas, as follows:
5% of Overall Score
In evaluating pricing, we considered the billing cycle (monthly or annual) and the number of users.
5% of Overall Score
This section focuses more on first-time setup and software settings. The platform must be quick and easy to set up for new users. Even after initial setup, the software must also let users modify information like company name, address, entity type, fiscal year-end, and other company information.
5% of Overall Score
The banking section of this case study focuses on cash management, bank reconciliation, and bank feed connections. The software must have bank integrations to automatically feed bank or card transactions. The bank reconciliation module must also let users reconcile accounts with or without bank feeds for optimal ease of use. Lastly, the software must generate useful reports related to cash.
5% of Overall Score
The A/P section focuses on vendor management, bill management, bill payments, and other payable-related transactions. A/P features include creating vendors and bills, recording purchase orders and converting them to bills, creating service items, and recording full or partial bill payments.
5% of Overall Score
This takes into account customer management, revenue recognition, invoice management, and collections. The software must have A/R features that make it easy for users to collect payments from customers, remind customers of upcoming or overdue invoices, and manage customer obligations through analytic dashboards or reports.
10% of Overall Score
Businesses with inventory items should choose accounting software that can track inventory costs, manage COGS, and monitor inventory units.
10% of Overall Score
Service or project-based businesses should choose accounting software that can track project costs, revenues, and profits. The software must have tools to track time, record billable hours or expenses, send invoices for progress billings, or monitor project progress and performance.
4% of Overall Score
In this section, we’re looking at sales tax features. The software must have features that allow users to set sales tax rates, apply them to invoices, and enable users to pay sales tax liability.
4% of Overall Score
Reports are important for managers, owners, and decision-makers. The software must have enough reports that can be generated with a few clicks. Moreover, we’d also like to see customization options to enable users to generate reports based on what they want to see.
10% of Overall Score
Customer service is evaluated based on the number of communication channels available, such as phone, live chat, and email. Software providers also receive points based on other resources available, such as self-help articles and user communities. Finally, they are awarded points based on the ease with which users will find assistance from independent bookkeepers with expertise in the platform.
10% of Overall Score
This requires the software to allow users transitioning from other bookkeeping software to import their chart of accounts (COA), vendors, customers, service items, and inventory items. Ideally, there will be a wizard to walk the user through the import process.
10% of Overall Score
Ease of use includes the layout of the dashboard and whether new transactions can be initiated from the dashboard rather than having to navigate to a particular module. Other factors considered are user reviews specific to ease of use and a subjective evaluation by our experts of both the UI and general ease of use.
5% of Overall Score
This includes the availability of integrations for payroll, time tracking, and receiving e-payments. We also evaluated whether an electronic bill pay integration was available.
5% of Overall Score
The software must have a mobile app to enable users to perform accounting tasks even when away from their laptops or desktops. Some of the features we looked into include the ability to create and send invoices, accept online payments, enter and track bills, and view reports on the go.
7% of Overall Score
We went to user review websites to read first-hand reviews from actual software users. This user review score helps us give more credit to software products that deliver a consistent service to their customers.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes, Wave Starter is free with no credit card required or hidden charges. It is good for one user with basic accounting features. However, you can upgrade to Wave Pro if you need more features.
Wave has no inventory features, making it unsuitable for merchandising and retail businesses. In that case, it’s better to pick QuickBooks Online for its inventory tracking features. Moreover, QuickBooks is more popular in the US, which makes it easy to look for ProAdvisors.
Bottom Line
Both ZipBooks and Wave offer free plans for basic accounting needs, but ZipBooks has paid plans if you want more advanced features. ZipBooks can also track time and manage 1099 contractors, two features that aren’t available with Wave. Wave can handle multiple currencies, while ZipBooks cannot. While Wave has an app for invoicing customers and receiving payments, ZipBooks’ app is currently discontinued.
User review references:
[1]ZipBooks | GetApp
[2]ZipBooks | G2
[3]Wave | Software Advice
[4]Wave | G2