Head to head
Wave Accounting vs Zoho Books
Both products assessed against the same checklist, with ratings drawn from 341 verified reviews.
Wave Accounting
Accounting Software
3.5
117 verified reviews
Free
free plan available
- Rating gap
- 0.7
- Reviews behind this
- 341
- Monthly price gap
- Free
- Features they share
- 0
Side by side
How they compare
Ratings computed from published reviews, and the specifications that change what a product costs to run. The washed column is the higher rated of the two.
| Compared on | Wave Financial Inc. | Higher rated overall |
|---|---|---|
| What reviewers say | ||
| Overall rating | 3.5 | 4.2, higher |
| Ease of use | 3.5 | 4.1, higher |
| Value for money | 3.7 | 4.3, higher |
| Customer service | 3.3 | 3.9, higher |
| Functionality | 3.5 | 4.2, higher |
| Verified reviews | 117 | 224 |
| What it costs | ||
| Starting price | Freefree plan available | Freefree plan available |
| VAT basis | Excl VAT | Excl VAT |
| Free trial | No | Yes |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Published plans | 2 | 4 |
| Vendor and support | ||
| Vendor | Wave Financial Inc. | Zoho Corporation |
| Founded | 2010 | 1996 |
| Support channels | Email, Knowledge base, Community forum | Email, Live chat, Telephone, Knowledge base, Community forum |
| Integrations listed | 4 | 11 |
| Local bank feeds | 1 | 4 |
The local yardstick
South African compliance
Amber marks a gap rather than a feature. This is usually where the decision is actually made.
Wave Accounting
- No VAT201 support
- Generic sales tax configuration only
- No SARS workflow
- No local data residency
Zoho Books
- VAT201 at 15%
- Zero rated and exempt supply handling
- Manual eFiling capture, no direct SARS transfer
- POPIA operator agreement
- Data residency selectable by region
What they cost
Pricing, compared properly
Check the VAT basis on each. Vendors are not consistent, and the difference is 15%.
Wave Accounting
Listed excluding VAT
- Free
StarterPopular
Unlimited users
- R16/mo
Pro
Unlimited users
The ledger is free. Paid add ons are priced in US dollars and the payroll and payments products are not available in South Africa.
Zoho Books
Listed excluding VAT
- Free
Free
1 user plus 1 accountant
- R380/mo
StandardPopular
3 users
- R760/mo
Professional
5 users
- R1 150/mo
Premium
10 users
Zoho publishes rand pricing excluding VAT and discounts annual billing heavily. The free plan is limited by annual revenue rather than by feature crippling.
Capability
The full feature matrix
Every feature either product offers, and whether the other one has it.
| Compared on | Wave Financial Inc. | Higher rated overall |
|---|---|---|
| 21 features across both products | ||
| Bank reconciliation | Not included | Included |
| Budgeting | Not included | Included |
| Client portal | Not included | Included |
| Custom functions with Deluge scripting | Not included | Included |
| Double entry general ledger | Included | Not included |
| Financial statements | Included | Not included |
| Full inventory management | Not included | Included |
| Invoicing, quoting and retainers | Not included | Included |
| Manual bank statement import | Included | Not included |
| Mobile app for iOS and Android | Not included | Included |
| Multi currency | Not included | Included |
| Project time tracking and billing | Not included | Included |
| Purchase and sales orders | Not included | Included |
| Receipt capture on the paid tier | Included | Not included |
| Recurring billing and payment reminders | Not included | Included |
| Recurring invoices on the paid tier | Included | Not included |
| Unlimited invoicing | Included | Not included |
| Unlimited users | Included | Not included |
| VAT tracking and VAT201 report | Not included | Included |
| Vendor portal | Not included | Included |
| Workflow automation rules | Not included | Included |
Our verdict
Which one you should buy
We name a winner. Listing differences and leaving the decision to the reader is not a verdict.
We have not written a full verdict for this pairing yet, so here is the position from the data.
Zoho Books holds the higher rating at 4.2 against 3.5, from 224 reviews against 117. Reviewers rate it 4.1 for ease of use and 4.3 for value for money, against 3.5 and 3.7.
Read the compliance comparison below before deciding on the rating alone. A product that scores well overall can still be missing the one statutory output your business cannot do without.
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