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Bokeping vs Wave: an honest comparison.
Wave proved small-business software could be free and friendly, and it’s still a great starting point. Here’s a fair look at where Wave shines and where a growing business hits its edges.
The honest version
Two good tools, built for different stages
Wave is genuinely good at what it set out to do: free, friendly invoicing and simple books for businesses that are just getting going. Its free tier is manual entry — bank auto-import and receipt scanning live on Pro at $19/mo or $190/yr — and if that’s all the job needs, it may be all you need. Bokeping starts free too, but it’s built for the next chapter: inventory with real cost of goods, purchase orders, multi-currency, and financial statements your accountant can file from, with a product that leads each day with the next thing to do — all on the same plain-English surface you moved to Wave for in the first place.
At a glance
Bokeping
- An action list, not just a dashboard
- Inventory with real cost of goods sold
- Statements your accountant can file from
At a glance
Wave
- A genuinely free tier — Starter at $0
- Auto bank import and receipt scanning on Pro $19
- Wave Advisors if you’d rather hand it to a human
| What matters | Bokeping | Wave |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free — Starter $29/mo ($23 annual) | Free — Pro $19/mo or $190/yr |
| Free plan | 20 invoices & estimates / mo | Yes — Starter $0, manual entry |
| What the entry plan caps | Free: 20 invoices & estimates a month, CSV import only | Starter: manual entry — no bank auto-import, no receipt scanning |
| Plain-English interface | “Cash, coming in, going out” | Simple and friendly |
| Tells you what to do next | Action list with direct links | Dashboards |
| Real double-entry ledger | Yes | Yes |
| Bank feeds included from | Starter $29 — Plaid, read-only | Pro $19 — auto bank import |
| Receipt scanning | Not offered | Pro $19 — not on Starter |
| Inventory & cost of goods | Growth $59/mo | Varies by plan — check Wave |
| Multi-currency | Growth $59/mo | Varies by plan — check Wave |
| Card processing fees | Stripe’s standard rates, no Bokeping markup | 2.9% + $0.60 (Amex 3.4% + $0.60); Pro waives the $0.60 on the first 10 card payments a month |
| Done-for-you bookkeeping | Not offered — invite your accountant free | Wave Advisors, roughly $149–199/mo |
| Accountant seats | Free on every plan, incl. Free | Varies by plan — check Wave |
| Import & migration cost | Free — CSV + QBO on every plan | CSV import included |
| Data export if you leave | Full CSV export, yours to keep | CSV exports available |
| Learning curve | An afternoon | Easy |
Competitor pricing as of July 2026 — plans and promotions change often, so check Wave before you buy. Prices shown are US list prices, billed monthly, in USD. Wave is a trademark of Wave Financial Inc., used here for identification only. Bokeping is not affiliated with or endorsed by Wave Financial Inc.
Who should choose what
The recommendation we’d give a friend
Worth saying plainly: if the plan is to type everything in by hand, Wave’s free tier is the better free tier — Starter costs $0 and asks nothing of you, where ours stops at twenty invoices and estimates a month. The trade shows up when the typing stops being the job. Bokeping’s Free plan is the front door to a ledger that already knows about stock, purchase orders, currencies, and a period lock, and to a product that tells you what to do next instead of waiting to be asked.
Choose Wave if…
- You’ll hand-enter everything and a $0 plan is the whole job — Wave’s Starter tier costs nothing where our Free plan stops at 20 invoices and estimates a month, and we’d say so out loud.
- You want auto bank import and receipt scanning for the least money — Pro is $19/mo or $190/yr and includes both.
- You’d rather hand the books to a person than learn a product — Wave Advisors runs roughly $149–199/mo and Bokeping has no equivalent service.
Choose Bokeping if…
- You carry stock — Bokeping tracks inventory and posts real cost of goods sold with every sale, on the Growth plan.
- You’re past the starting line: bills, purchase orders, multi-currency, and statements that tie out become the daily work.
- You want the day to open with a next step — chase this invoice, confirm this feed, a bill is due Friday — each with a link that does it.
Outgrowing Wave? CSV does the moving.
Export your customers, invoices, and transactions from Wave as CSV and import them straight into Bokeping — duplicates skipped, free on every plan.
FAQs
Fair questions about switching
Yes, via CSV. Wave lets you export customers, invoices, and transactions as CSV files, and Bokeping imports them directly — duplicates are detected and skipped. The step-by-step guide lives at /solutions/switching.
Both tools keep the surface friendly. The difference shows up in what’s underneath and what’s next: Bokeping runs inventory with real cost of goods, purchase orders, multi-currency, and full statements — and leads each day with an action list, not just a dashboard.
Nothing. CSV import is included on every Bokeping plan — including Free — with no setup fees and no contracts. Since Wave businesses tend to have lighter histories, most imports finish well inside an afternoon. Leaving is free too: your data exports in full as CSV, whenever you want it.
Yes — and this is often the reason people move. Bokeping gives your accountant free access on every plan to a true general ledger, statements on cash or accrual basis, and clean exports, so year-end stops being an archaeology project.
Also comparing:Bokeping vs QuickBooks ·Bokeping vs Xero ·Why Bokeping
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