Made for South African buyers. Every price in rand, read from the vendor.
In depth review
Wave · Accounting software
Free accounting and invoicing, run from North America, with card payment and payroll add ons for US and Canadian businesses.
Wave offers free accounting, invoicing and bookkeeping for small businesses, with its money coming from payment processing fees and paid add ons. Its Pro plan is about R318 a month for automatic bank import, receipt capture and reminders. Wave is run from North America, its support runs on Eastern time, and its card payments and payroll add ons serve US and Canadian businesses.
Starter
Free
Unlimited invoices, bills and bookkeeping
Pro
About R318 a month
Bank import, receipt capture, reminders
Pro for a year
About R3 180
About R265 a month
Card payments
2.9% plus about R10
On Starter
Payroll
From about R669 a month
For US and Canadian businesses
Founded
2010
Wave
Figures marked as a vendor's own are that vendor's claims about itself and are not tested here.
Every plan Wave Accounting lists, in rand, with a button to Wave's own pricing page.
Free plan
R0
Free to use, as the vendor lists it
Unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records.
Plan
R314
a month
Save 17 percent paying for a year
Automatic bank import, receipt capture and reminders. About R3 180 a year when billed annually.
Each button opens Wave's own page in a new tab, where you buy or sign up. Prices are the vendor's, shown in rand.
Wave Accounting lists 2 priced plans: Starter at no cost, Pro at R314. Every figure is shown in rand, converted from the vendor's own price at the day's reference rate.
The vendor does not say whether VAT is in these figures, so ask before you set them beside a price that does. South African VAT is 15 percent.
Card payments cost 2.9 percent plus about R10 on Starter. Payroll is from about R669 a month and a bookkeeper from about R2 490 a month.
Read from waveapps.com/pricing on 11 October 2026.
A plan priced per user or per employee shows the price of one. Both VAT footings are shown where the vendor states its basis.
ProSaves 17 percent
Prices in rand, converted at the day's reference rate where the vendor lists in another currency.
How much paying for a year takes off the monthly price
17%
Taken off the monthly price when the year is paid at once.
R314 a month, R262 paid yearly
All prices are in rand. Where a vendor lists in dollars, pounds or euros we convert at R16.53 per US dollar, R21.86 per pound and R18.53 per euro (European Central Bank reference rates, via Frankfurter, 9 OCT 2026).
Amounts written out in the text of this review are at the reference rate of 2 October 2026. The charts and the calculator use the rates above, so a figure can differ by a rand or two.
Pick a plan, your team size and any extras. It adds Wave Accounting's own prices in rand and shows the month and the year, with VAT in and out where the vendor states its basis.
Your bill
R314.15
a month, as the vendor lists it
The vendor does not say whether VAT is in its price, so none is added or taken out.
Paying for a year instead of monthly saves about R1 887 over three years at the team size and extras above.
| Time | Paying monthly | Paying for a year |
|---|---|---|
| Start | R0 | R0 |
| 6 months | R1 885 | R1 570 |
| Year 1 | R3 770 | R3 141 |
| 18 months | R5 655 | R4 711 |
| Year 2 | R7 540 | R6 282 |
| 30 months | R9 425 | R7 852 |
| Year 3 | R11 310 | R9 423 |
Opens Wave's own page in a new tab. Nothing is bought on this site.
Free to start
Starting prices of the priced products in the same category, cheapest first. This is a price sort, not a ranking: the cheapest product is not the best one, and some are priced per user, some per month and some excluding VAT.
Bar lengths use a square root scale, so a very high price does not flatten the rest. The figures are exact.
The middle starting price of the paid products here is R415.
Positions use a square root scale, so a very high price does not flatten the rest. The figures are exact.
A dot is one plan. Free plans and plans on request have no price to place. A per user price is the price of one user.
A founding year says how long a company has existed. It says nothing about how good the product is.
An official video from Wave: Small Business Software on YouTube. Software Register did not make or edit them. They are the vendor's own account of the product, so read them beside the prices and limits on this page.
A tour of the dashboard
Overview, 2:24, published 16 January 2023. From the Wave: Small Business Software channel on YouTube.
A video loads from YouTube only when you press play. The still picture before that comes from YouTube's image servers.
Wave built its reputation on giving small businesses free invoicing and bookkeeping. It earns money from payments, payroll, receipt scanning and a bookkeeping service called Wave Advisors.
Strengths
Limits
Best for
Think twice if
In short
A well regarded free tool, run from North America. For a South African business that needs VAT and local banks, the closest free alternative on the register is Zoho Books.
Start where the vendor sells it, and keep this page open beside you for the limits.
Free to start
Its Starter plan costs nothing. The card payment and payroll add ons are for US and Canadian businesses, and the pages describe no VAT return or South African bank connection.
Wave Accounting starts at R314 a month, with a free plan as well. It lists 2 priced plans, from Free to R314.
The vendor's page does not say whether VAT is included, so we show the plain figure and do not guess. Ask before you compare it with a price that states its basis.
Yes: Wave Accounting offers a free plan.
Free accounting and invoicing. Wave is run from North America, so its card payment and payroll add ons serve US and Canadian businesses.
On this register the closest are FreshBooks, QuickBooks Online, Sage 50cloud Pastel, Sage Accounting, Sage Intacct. Each has its own page, and the compare tool sets any two side by side.
South African guides that help you weigh Wave Accounting: what the rules ask, what to test and what to put in writing.
Six products, one checklist
Most advice on accounting software is written for America or Britain. These are the six questions that decide whether a product works for a South African business, with the register's own tables to check each one against.
Read the guideWhere a full tax invoice starts to need more detail
R5 000
A customer who is registered for VAT can only claim back the VAT on an invoice that meets the law. Your software should produce one every time, and you should know what to look for.
Read the guidePrepared by your software, filed on SARS eFiling
VAT201
The VAT201 is the return a registered vendor submits to SARS. Accounting software can prepare it, and some can transfer it into eFiling. Those are different things.
Read the guideEvery price and fact on this page was read from Wave's own pages, researched on 11 October 2026. A figure the vendor states about itself is marked as the vendor's. This review gives no score and no rank, and a vendor cannot pay to change it. Read how the register works.
Something wrong on this page? Suggest a correction, with a link to the vendor's page that shows it.
Wave Accounting is free to start. Go to the vendor to buy or to ask, or compare it with another product first.
Free to start
Use Wave Accounting? Tell other South African buyers what it does well, where it falls short and who it suits. An editor reads each review before it appears, and it is published as written.
Wave Accounting
Free to start
