Small business accounting software · Comparison
Wave vs Xero
2 products compared side by side: what you pay for with each one first, then the five access facts, entry prices, recorded plan limits and the bottom line of each review. The evidence note under the table says how each product was checked.
Side by side
| Metric | Wave | Xero |
|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Worth the priceInvoices, bills and bookkeeping for free, and bank imports, users and reminders for $19 a month per business. | Worth the priceAccounting priced per business, not per user, with inventory, purchase orders and bank feeds on every plan. |
| Overall score | 6.7 | 7.1Best |
| Free option | Free plan | 30-day free trial |
| Card to start | –Not measured | Card required |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $19/mo | $27/mo |
| Pricing model | Tiered | Tiered |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing unit | Per business per month or year | Per organization per month; no per-user license fees |
| Free option | Free Starter plan (unlimited invoices and bills, no bank import) | No free plan; one month free with billing details taken at sign-up |
| Reference scenario (3 users, monthly) | $19/mo on Pro, computed | $59/mo on Growing, computed |
| Users per plan | Admins, editors and viewers on Pro; payroll manager and tax pro on all plans | No per-user fees on any plan |
| Multi-currency | Foreign currency invoices and bills | Established ($97) |
| Inventory and projects | Not listed | Inventory in every plan (Inventory Plus $39/mo); projects on Established |
| Card / bank payment fees | 2.9% + $0.60 (first 10 a month at 2.9% + $0 on Pro) / 1%, $1 minimum | 2.9% + 30¢ / ACH debit 1% capped at $9 (Stripe, managed by Xero) |
| Payroll | $40/mo + $6 per employee and per contractor paid | Xero Payroll, powered by Gusto: $36/mo + $6 per employee or contractor |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Not stated; Level 1 PCI DSS | SOC 2 Type II report on request; ISO/IEC 27001:2022 |
| Custom roles / audit log | Fixed roles that cannot be customized; no audit log described | Fixed user roles; History and notes audit trail |
| Data export | Data Export: journal entries and transactions, bills, customers, vendors (XLS or CSV) | Any report exported to Excel or PDF; API |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Wave is the lowest-cost way here to keep small business books: free invoices and bills, and bank imports and users for $19 a month. It lists fewer bookkeeping and security features than the larger suites. | From its public pages, Xero is full small business accounting priced per organization with no per-user fees, with inventory and purchase orders on every plan. Most businesses that pay bills start on Growing, and currencies and projects need Established. |
Evidence: Wave: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Xero: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
Entry price
Baseline: each product's cheapest paid plan, per month. Included usage differs, so read the line under each price.
- WaveLowest pricePro$19/mo$190 billed yearly; per business
- Automatic bank imports and auto-categorized transactions
- Admin, editor and viewer users
- Payment reminders and recurring invoices
- First 10 card payments a month at 2.9% + $0
- XeroEarly$27/moBilled monthly; 80% off for 3 months shown for new US customers
- Quotes and 20 invoices a month
- Enter 5 bills a month
- Bank reconciliation, sales tax, W-9 and 1099
- Auto-reconcile as a $5/mo add-on
Prices as listed on each pricing page, in USD per month, excluding tax. Observed: Wave 2026-10-16, Xero 2026-10-16.
Which one fits
- If you need to start today without a sales call
- XeroSelf-serve sign-up, card required; the highest score of the 2 self-serve products here (7.1/10).
- Lowest starter price
- Wave$19/mo for the Pro ($190 billed yearly) plan.
- Highest overall score
- Xero7.1/10 (Good). The review shows the score breakdown and the run behind it.
Picked by fixed rules from the table above, not by hand. How we score
Full reviews
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