Wave vs Zoho Books vs Xero comes down to one question: what do you get for free, and where does free stop? Wave Starter costs $0 forever, Zoho Books is free while your yearly revenue stays under $50,000, and Xero has no free plan, starting at $27 a month. None of the three gives you bank feeds for free.
What free actually means here
Free means three different things across these tools, and the word hides the real trade. Wave gives you free invoicing and bookkeeping for one person, but no bank feed and no second user. Zoho Books gives you free full accounting under a revenue line, with your accountant included, but again no bank feed. Xero gives you no free tier at all, but it never charges per user, so a small team can still come out ahead. Pick by your numbers, not by the word free on the pricing page.
Bank feeds are the feature that ends free in every case. A bank feed pulls your transactions in on its own, so you do not type them in by hand. Without one, you import statements by hand or key in each payment. That is fine at ten transactions a month. At a hundred, it eats your evenings. So the honest price of each tool is not the $0 headline. It is the cheapest tier that includes feeds, plus what you pay for card payments and payroll.
Wave Starter: free forever, with one big catch
Wave Starter costs $0 and covers unlimited invoices, estimates, and bills, plus double-entry bookkeeping and receipt scanning. For a solo freelancer who sends a few invoices a month and tracks costs in a simple way, that is a real free plan, not a trial dressed up as one. You can run your books on it for years without paying Wave a cent for the software itself.
The catch is who can use it and how money gets in. Starter is owner only, one user, so your bookkeeper or partner cannot log in. And automatic bank import needs Wave Pro at $19 a month, or $190 a year. On 1 June 2026, Wave moved free legacy accounts that did not use Wave Payments or Payroll onto Starter, and those accounts lost their bank connections. If a friend told you Wave was free with bank feeds, they were talking about the old plan. That deal is gone, so check the current plan on the Wave pricing page before you count on it.
Wave also makes its money on payments. Card processing runs 2.9% plus $0.60 per transaction, and Amex runs 3.4% plus $0.60. Payroll is a paid add-on, and sources give a range of about $25 to $40 a month, so treat that figure as unsettled and check the vendor page. Wave supports one currency per business, so if you bill clients in dollars and euros, look elsewhere. For a deeper look at how Wave fits a solo shop, see our FreshBooks vs Wave comparison for small business.
Zoho Books Free: the $50,000 line
Zoho Books Free costs $0 while your annual revenue stays at or under $50,000. It covers one user plus one accountant, up to 1,000 invoices and 1,000 expenses a year, and 50 receipt scans a month. That is the most generous free plan of the three for a small firm, because your accountant gets in free and the invoice cap is high enough for most micro-businesses. Bank reconciliation is included, so you can match your books to your statements by hand.
Automatic bank feeds are not included. Feeds start on Standard, which costs $20 a month, or $15 a month billed annually, and adds two more users for a total of three. Above Standard, Professional is $40 a month annual ($50 monthly), Premium is $60, Elite is $120, and Ultimate is $240. Multi-currency starts on Standard, and inventory starts on Professional. Zoho added native IRS e-file for 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC in January 2026, which matters if you pay contractors and want the forms filed without a separate tool. Cross that $50,000 revenue line and you move to Standard anyway, so treat the free plan as a starter tier with a clear exit, not a permanent home.
Xero: no free plan, and why $27 can still win
Xero has no free plan, only a trial. Its US prices from 1 October 2026 are Early at $27 a month, Growing at $59, and Established at $97. Early caps you at 20 invoices and 5 bills a month. Growing removes those caps. Established adds multi-currency, projects, and expense claims. If you send more than 20 invoices a month, Early will not last you long, and you should price Growing from the start.
What makes Xero win for teams is the user rule. Every plan includes unlimited users, so a three-person team pays $59 on Xero Growing against $85 on QuickBooks Essentials, a saving of $312 a year at full price. Wave Starter allows only the owner, and Zoho Books Free allows one user plus one accountant, so both would force an upgrade or a workaround for the same team. Payroll on Xero runs through a Gusto add-on, quoted at $36 plus $6 per person by one source only, so verify that on the Gusto page before you budget for it. For the wider QuickBooks comparison, read our QuickBooks vs Xero guide for small business.
The bank feed test: the feature that ends free
Run this test before you pick. Count your bank transactions for one month. If it is under 30, manual import is a small chore and a free plan can work. If it is over 100, you want a feed, and the free plan is the wrong pick. The cheapest usable tier with feeds is Wave Pro at $19 a month or Zoho Books Standard at $15 a month billed annually. Xero includes feeds from Early at $27, so its entry price already covers what the other two charge extra for.
Also ask who needs to see the books. If it is only you, Wave Starter or Zoho Free can carry you for a while. If your accountant, partner, or one staff member needs in, Zoho Free covers the accountant, Wave Starter covers nobody else, and Xero covers everyone. That one question settles more choices than any feature list.
| Tool | Free plan | Cheapest tier with bank feeds | Users on free plan | Multi-currency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wave | Starter $0, unlimited invoices | Pro $19/mo ($190/yr) | Owner only | No, single currency |
| Zoho Books | Free $0 while revenue $50,000 or less | Standard $15/mo annual ($20 monthly) | 1 user plus 1 accountant | From Standard |
| Xero | None, trial only | Early $27/mo, feeds included | Unlimited on every plan | From Established $97/mo |
Pick by your numbers
Solo and under $50,000 a year, with few transactions and no second user, start with Zoho Books Free if you want your accountant in, or Wave Starter if you want unlimited invoices and the simplest setup. Both are honest free plans inside their limits. Solo with over 100 bank transactions a month, pay for Wave Pro at $19 or Zoho Standard at $15 annual and stop hand-keying payments.
Two or three people who all need access, go with Xero Growing at $59. It is the only plan here where the third person costs nothing extra, and the $312 a year saving against QuickBooks Essentials is real money for a micro-team. Selling overseas in more than one currency, Xero Established at $97 or Zoho Standard at $15 annual both work, so pick by invoice volume and whether you need projects. If you want the wider cost picture across business software, see the best AI bookkeeping software for small business.
When to leave free behind
Leave free behind when one of four triggers hits. Your revenue passes $50,000 and Zoho Free ends. Your invoice count passes 1,000 a year on Zoho Free. A second person needs access and you are on Wave Starter. Or your bank transactions pass the point where manual import eats an evening a week. Any one of those is the signal to pay for the tier that fits, not to keep squeezing a free plan that no longer fits.
QuickBooks Free exists as a reference point only: one user, one bank connection, and two invoices a month unless QuickBooks Payments is on. It is too small for most trading businesses, and this post is not a QuickBooks article, so do not build your choice around it. Prices in this post were checked against October and November 2026 sources and re-checked on 11 November 2026, including this October 2026 accounting comparison. If a price on a vendor page differs, trust the vendor page, because prices change and this post is a snapshot.
The bottom line on Wave vs Zoho Books vs Xero
Wave vs Zoho Books vs Xero has no free winner with bank feeds, because none of the three gives you feeds for free. Wave Starter is the best free invoicing plan for one person. Zoho Books Free is the best free accounting plan under $50,000, with your accountant included. Xero is the best pick for a small team, at $59 a month with unlimited users. The cheapest usable tier with feeds is Wave Pro at $19 or Zoho Standard at $15 annual. Pick by revenue, users, and transaction count, and check the current price on the vendor page before you sign up.