Wave is a Free cloud accounting / invoicing for freelancers and micro-businesses by Wave Financial Inc. (a subsidiary of H&R Block). This profile pulls together Wave's ratings across the major review sites, its company and funding details, leadership, features, pricing, and the latest news, with every external source cited at the bottom.
About Wave Financial Inc. (a subsidiary of H&R Block)
Wave is free cloud accounting software built for freelancers, consultants, and businesses with fewer than 10 employees. Founded in 2010 in Toronto by Kirk Simpson and James Lochrie, Wave was designed around the idea that solo business owners and micro-teams should not have to pay a monthly subscription to manage basic accounting and invoicing. The accounting, invoicing, and receipt scanning features remain free, with Wave monetizing through optional paid add-ons: payroll processing (starting at $20/mo plus per-employee fees) and payment processing (2.9% plus 30 cents per card transaction). H&R Block acquired Wave in 2019 for approximately $405 million, integrating it into H&R Block's small business financial services portfolio. Wave serves over 4 million small business owners globally and processes several billion dollars in payments annually through its payments add-on.
| Category | Free cloud accounting / invoicing for freelancers and micro-businesses |
| Company | Wave Financial Inc. (a subsidiary of H&R Block) |
| Founded | 2010 |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Industry | Software Development · Free accounting / invoicing software |
| Team size | ~250–400 |
| Ownership | Subsidiary of H&R Block (acquired June 2019 for ~$405M) |
| Founder / CEO | Kirk Simpson and James Lochrie (co-founders, 2010) |
| Specialties | Free accounting, invoicing, receipt scanning, payroll, payment processing, expense tracking, financial reporting |
| Website | waveapps.com |
Find Wave on: Wikipedia · Crunchbase · LinkedIn · G2 · Capterra · producthunt.com
Wave ratings across the web
Aggregated from the major review platforms. Each links to the source.
Also rated: TrustRadius 7.8/10 (85).
Rating breakdown
Per-category scores from Capterra Wave (~1,700 reviews).
Who uses Wave
Wave reviews from Topickz readers
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What people say about Wave
Our synthesis across ~323 G2 reviews at 4.4/5 and ~1,700 Capterra reviews at 4.4/5, plus TrustRadius. No fabricated quotes, this is the consistent pattern across reviews and third-party analyses.
Most praised
- The genuinely free accounting and invoicing with no client or invoice caps is the dominant praise: reviewers repeatedly contrast Wave against QuickBooks and FreshBooks, both of which require subscriptions
- Clean, simple interface that non-accountants navigate comfortably; multiple reviewers mention getting set up in under an hour without reading any documentation
- Invoicing is polished for a free product: customizable templates, automatic payment reminders, and recurring invoice support all ship in the free tier
Most cited complaints
- Customer support is the most consistent criticism: the free tier gets limited support access (mainly self-serve and chat), and users dealing with a bank sync failure or a payment hold can wait days for meaningful help
- Bank feed connections break periodically, especially after US bank security updates, and fixing them often requires re-authenticating or waiting for Wave to push a connector update
- Payroll is available only in the US and Canada, a hard stop for any business paying contractors or employees in other countries
What we found testing it
What's great
- Core accounting, invoicing, and bank feeds are permanently free; no time limit, no user cap, no hidden tier switch; a common pick at pre-seed stage for the zero-cost period before Series A
- Bank feed integration and transaction categorization work without any configuration; out-of-the-box accuracy is solid for low-volume operations under 200 transactions/month
- Modular paid add-ons (Wave Payroll at $40/mo + $6/employee, Wave Payments at 2.9% + $0.60/transaction) let teams pay only for what they actually need
Watch-outs
- No multi-currency support at any tier; a SaaS company with even one international customer will hit this ceiling within the first quarter
- No deferred revenue, no ASC 606, no accrual adjustments beyond basic journal entries; not designed for subscription SaaS revenue models
- Support is email-only on the free tier with response times measured in days rather than hours; not suitable once a real accounting need hits urgently
Wave funding & ownership
| Round | Amount | Date | Lead investor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | $1.8M | 2011 | Mosaic Venture Partners |
| Series A | $6M | 2012 | OMERS Ventures |
| Series B | $20M | 2014 | Social Capital |
| Series C | $35M | 2016 | National Bank of Canada |
| Series D | $24M (est.) | 2018 | Undisclosed |
| Acquisition | ~$405M | Jun 2019 | H&R Block |
Low-to-moderate risk. H&R Block is a large publicly traded company (NYSE: HRB) with $3.5 billion in annual revenue and no signs of financial distress. Wave's risk is not its parent's solvency but its parent's strategic priorities. H&R Block acquired Wave to cross-sell tax preparation and payroll to small business owners; if Wave does not convert users to paid H&R Block services at expected rates, it could face reduced investment or a strategic pivot. The core accounting and invoicing product has remained free since the acquisition, which is the main signal that H&R Block still values Wave as a top-of-funnel acquisition channel. For freelancers and micro-businesses, the platform is stable enough to build on.
Wave features & integrations
Security & compliance
| Standard | Availability |
|---|---|
| GDPR | Yes |
| HIPAA | No |
| SOC 2 Type II | Yes (SOC 2 Type II) |
| SSO / SAML | No |
Integrations: Stripe, PayPal, Etsy, Shoeboxed, Zapier, Google Workspace, Gusto, Shopify, HubSpot, and Slack.
Wave leadership
Wave pricing
| Plan | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free (Accounting + Invoicing) | $0/mo | Freelancers and micro-businesses needing unlimited invoicing, expense tracking, and financial reports at zero cost |
| Payroll (self-serve states) | $20/mo + $6/employee/mo | US businesses in self-service payroll states that handle their own tax filings |
| Payroll (full-service states) | $35/mo + $6/employee/mo | US businesses in full-service states where Wave files and remits payroll taxes automatically |
| Payments (card processing) | 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction | Businesses that want to accept credit and debit card payments directly from Wave invoices |
The catch: Wave's accounting and invoicing are free without a catch. The revenue model runs on payroll ($20/mo base plus $6/employee for full-service states) and payment processing (2.9% plus 30 cents per card, 1% for bank payments with a $1 minimum). For a freelancer who invoices and collects via bank transfer, Wave can genuinely cost $0/mo. The 2.9% card processing fee is market-standard and hard to avoid if clients insist on card. Payroll is priced competitively versus Gusto at the very small end. The trade-off is support quality: a subscription tier buys you faster human help, which Wave does not offer.
Wave alternatives & where it appears
Featured in our guides
Wave product changelog
What Wave has actually shipped, summarized from its own release notes and dated. Not auto-generated, updated as part of our freshness checks.
- July 10, 2026
Wave Payroll expanded to additional US states
Wave Payroll full-service tax filing expanded to cover additional US states, reducing the number of states where users must handle their own filings manually.
Source - April 28, 2026
Improved invoice customization
New invoice template editor allows more granular control over fonts, column layout, and footer text without requiring custom CSS, addressing a long-standing feature request from creative professionals.
Source - February 5, 2026
Bank connection refresh for major US institutions
Wave refreshed its Plaid-powered bank connection for Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citibank, resolving a round of disconnections that had affected reconciliation for US users since late 2025.
Source
Latest Wave news
Auto-pulled from Google News, refreshed on each deploy. Headlines link to the source.
- FreshBooks vs. Wave Accounting Comparison - NerdWalletFri, 24 Apr 2026
- Wave Accounting: The Ultimate Budget-Friendly Solution for Small Businesses - SerchenFri, 13 Feb 2026
- Wave Financial Review - Business.comThu, 30 Oct 2025
- Wave Review: Highly Accessible and Affordable Accounting for Sole Proprietors - PCMagFri, 07 Nov 2025
- H&R Block enters into agreement to acquire Wave Financial, a small business financial solutions platform - H&R BlockTue, 11 Jun 2019
- Wave Payroll: Features, Pros And Cons - ForbesTue, 11 Nov 2025
Wave FAQs
Is Wave actually free?
Yes. Accounting, invoicing (unlimited), expense tracking, and financial reports are all free with no invoice or client cap. Wave earns money through optional payroll ($20-$35/mo plus per-employee fees) and payment processing (2.9% + 30 cents per card transaction). A solo freelancer who invoices clients and gets paid via bank transfer can use Wave indefinitely at $0/mo.
Who owns Wave?
Wave is a subsidiary of H&R Block, the publicly traded US tax preparation company (NYSE: HRB). H&R Block acquired Wave in June 2019 for approximately $405 million. Wave operates as a standalone brand with its own product team, not as an H&R Block white-label.
How does Wave compare to QuickBooks?
Wave is simpler and free; QuickBooks Online is more powerful and paid. Wave suits freelancers and very small service businesses that need invoicing, basic accounting, and simple financial statements. QuickBooks Online is better suited to businesses that need inventory, complex payroll, job costing, multi-user access with permission controls, or deep integration with third-party apps. The review tradeoff is consistent: Wave wins on price and simplicity, QuickBooks on depth and support.
Does Wave support payroll?
Yes, for US and Canada-based employees and contractors. In the US, full-service payroll (Wave files and remits your payroll taxes) is available in most states at $35/mo plus $6/employee/mo. Self-service payroll (you handle tax filings) is $20/mo plus $6/employee/mo. Canadian payroll is a separate product. International payroll is not supported.
Is Wave secure?
Wave maintains SOC 2 Type II certification and uses bank-level 256-bit encryption for data in transit and at rest. It is GDPR-compliant. There is no HIPAA compliance for Wave, so healthcare practices that handle patient financial data need to verify their obligations before choosing it. SSO is not offered. Bank connections use Plaid, which is a standard and regulated data aggregation service.
Sources
Every external figure on this page traces to a public source, last collected on the dates shown.
- G2: Wave Accounting reviews — rating 4.4/5, ~323 reviews (accessed 2026-08-30)
- Capterra: Wave — rating 4.4/5, ~1,700 reviews, sub-scores and demographics (accessed 2026-08-30)
- TrustRadius: Wave Accounting — score 7.8/10, ~85 reviews (accessed 2026-08-30)
- Wave pricing page — accounting free, payroll $20-$35/mo + $6/employee, payments 2.9% + 30¢ (accessed 2026-08-30)
- Crunchbase: Wave Accounting — funding history, acquisition by H&R Block 2019 for ~$405M (accessed 2026-08-30)
- Wikipedia: Wave (company) — founding, founders, H&R Block acquisition, products (accessed 2026-08-30)
- LinkedIn: Wave company page — employee count, HQ Toronto, industry (accessed 2026-08-30)
- H&R Block press release: Wave acquisition — acquisition confirmed June 2019, ~$405M (accessed 2026-08-30)