Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover accounting & tax and creator finance. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Wave | Zoho Books | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $19 | From $20 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | None | None |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Not stated | Not stated |
| Covers | Accounting & Tax, Creator Finance | Accounting & Tax, Creator Finance |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
Invoicing and bookkeeping that costs nothing
Wave does invoices, receipts and double-entry bookkeeping for free, and earns on card payments and on a paid tier that automates the parts you would otherwise do by hand. For a sole trader sending a dozen invoices a year it is the cheapest honest answer. Payroll and the advisor service exist in some countries only, which is worth checking before a whole tax year lives in it.
Our note
Free accounting that is genuinely accounting, which is rare enough to be worth the check it needs: confirm that payments and payroll are supported where you live before a tax year is built on it.
Free accounting for a one person business
Zoho Books gives a solo business a genuinely free plan with invoices, expenses, bank reconciliation and 1099 tracking on it, which is more than most vendors put behind their cheapest paid tier. It is worth the trade if you already use anything else Zoho makes. On its own it is a heavier, more form-driven thing to learn than the tools built for freelancers first.
Our note
This is the strongest free accounting product a solo creator can get, and the catch is not the features but the interface: it is built by a company that sells fifty products and it feels like it. If you already resent bookkeeping, Wave will annoy you less.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.