For most small businesses: Wave. It comes out ahead of Zoho Books.
FREE · NO ACCOUNT · NO SALES CALL
Currently watching the facts used by Best accounting software for small businesses. We send one email only when a published fact or calculation used here changes.
If your accountant requires a specific tool: that requirement decides, and no comparison overrides it. Three of the five here are chosen for that reason rather than on their merits, and there is nothing wrong with that — it is simply not something we can derive.
Three of these five advertise an entry price that is a promotion. We publish the price you pay once it ends, and name the promotion and its window next to it. The gap reaches ten times on one of them.
A business that invoices occasionally and wants books that stay free until volume justifies paying.
Walk away if: You take card payments every week. The transaction fee is where this one gets expensive, and it is not in the plan price.
Wave: The free tier charges 2.9% + $0.60 per card transaction. If you invoice regularly, processing fees cost more than any of the paid plans here. Checked against the Wave pricing page. Checked Aug 21, 2026 on the vendor's page.
A business already running on Zoho, where the pieces talk to each other without work.
Walk away if: You are not in the Zoho ecosystem. The integration advantage is the reason to pick it, and you would not get it.
A freelancer or one-person business that invoices clients and wants time tracking in the same place.
Walk away if: More than one person needs access. Each additional seat costs about half the entry plan.
A business that wants an accountant to be able to work in the same file without being taught the tool.
Walk away if: You expect the advertised price to hold. The entry rate here is a six-month offer, and the durable price is ten times it.
Your accountant has not been asked. They will work in whatever you choose, and the one they already know saves more hours than any feature on this page.
Publisher evidence and limits are used where they support the choice; unsupported claims stay out of the recommendation.
Which option fits this buyer, using only what these vendors publish?
◇ The answer holds for the source-backed evidence this guide names and compares — nothing beyond it.
◇ The main graphic answers the breakpoint / crossover question for the stated buying condition.
◇ The comparison table adds real cost, free tier, user / collaboration limits, billing / transaction limits, integrations / addons, operational scope, plan limits, volume / billing unit, project / workspace limits, collaboration fit, commerce economics, platform fit and usage limits where vendor evidence supports it.
· Every dimension this decision needs has source-backed evidence on this page.
│ Accountant requirements, collaboration/access limits, operational scope, and card-payment volume can each change the accounting answer.
Changes the answer when a free plan is viable only inside its published limits.
Supported by the vendor evidence used on this page.Changes the answer when per-seat pricing or user access makes the cheap-looking option expensive.
Supported by the vendor evidence used on this page.Changes the answer when invoices, payments, transactions or card volume create operating cost.
Supported by the vendor evidence used on this page.Changes the answer when the tool has to fit an existing stack or paid add-ons move the real cost.
Supported by the vendor evidence used on this page.You are paid by card — what do the books cost, all in?
Card payments a month
Fewer than 77
Wave Starter
$0
2.9% + $0.60 per card transaction (Amex 3.4% + $0.60)
At 77, the lines cross
$23.00 a month of subscription against 30¢ saved on each payment: past 76 payments, the subscription pays for itself.
77 or more
FreshBooks Lite
$23.00
2.9% + $0.30 per transaction — one published rate across Lite, Plus and Premium
Zoho Books Free ($0): No rate of its own to compare — Zoho Books publishes no card rate of its own — payments run through third-party processors (Stripe, Square, PayPal), whose fees are theirs — and the free plan holds « As long as your revenue for the financial year does not exceed the threshold of $50K »
QuickBooks Online Simple Start (US$38): Not yet Checked against by us — card fees not enough evidence to publish — it cannot enter a total-cost comparison until they are
Subscription plus card fees, monthly billing, price alone; plans as published on August 21, 2026. Card rates read from each vendor's published pricing on August 23, 2026. Reading a published formula at a volume is a reading, never an interpolation.
What does the total depend on?
Every rate read here takes the same 2.9% of the amount — the percentage cancels out of the comparison. What differs is the subscription and the fixed fee per payment: the total is a published formula, and reading it at a volume is arithmetic, not an estimate.
Where does the lead change, and why?
Card rates read from each vendor's published pricing on August 23, 2026
What does each vendor publish?
Read to 200 payments a month. Past the crossing the gap only widens — the leader also has the lowest fixed fee, and two straight lines cross once.
wave · Published entry price · Seats · 1 seat: Checked 2 times at the source, 21 Aug 2026 to 21 Aug 2026. A price trend needs at least 3 dated checks; this one has 2 so far.
Evidence coverage for wave · Published entry price · Seats · 1 seat: 2 readings · latest read 21 Aug 2026 · waveapps.com
Observed price stable at US$20 per organisation per month across 3 dated readings from 21 Aug 2026 to 22 Aug 2026.
Evidence coverage for zoho-books · Published entry price · Seats · 1 seat: 3 readings · latest read 22 Aug 2026 · zoho.com
Observed price stable at US$23.00/month across 3 dated readings from 21 Aug 2026 to 22 Aug 2026.
Evidence coverage for freshbooks · Published entry price · Seats · 1 seat: 3 readings · latest read 22 Aug 2026 · freshbooks.com
xero · Published entry price · Seats · 1 seat: Checked 2 times at the source, 21 Aug 2026 to 21 Aug 2026. A price trend needs at least 3 dated checks; this one has 2 so far.
Evidence coverage for xero · Published entry price · Seats · 1 seat: 2 readings · latest read 21 Aug 2026 · xero.com
quickbooks-online · Published entry price · Seats · 1 seat: Checked 2 times at the source, 21 Aug 2026 to 21 Aug 2026. A price trend needs at least 3 dated checks; this one has 2 so far.
Evidence coverage for quickbooks-online · Published entry price · Seats · 1 seat: 2 readings · latest read 21 Aug 2026 · quickbooks.intuit.com
The free tier charges 2.9% + $0.60 per card transaction. If you invoice regularly, processing fees cost more than any of the paid plans here. Checked against the Wave pricing page.
Publisher fact checked Aug 21, 2026View at Waveapps ↗Official sourceAdd-ons are not supported on the free plan, and several capabilities other tools include here are sold separately — expense claims at $7 per active user per month, bill pay at $59 a month. Checked against the Zoho Books pricing page.
Publisher fact checked Aug 21, 2026View at Zoho ↗Official sourceTeam members cost $11 per user per month on top, and payroll and advanced payments are separate again. The entry price is for one person. Checked against the FreshBooks pricing page. The advertised entry rate is a promotion: 90% off for the first 3 months, bringing the entry tier to $2.30/month — it applies to the first 3 months only.
Publisher fact checked Aug 21, 2026View at Freshbooks ↗Official sourceThe entry plan caps how much you can send and reconcile each month. Businesses outgrow it on volume rather than on features, which is harder to see coming. Checked against the Xero pricing page. The advertised entry rate is a promotion: $2.50/month for the first 6 months when bought before 30 September 2026 — it applies to the first 6 months only.
Publisher fact checked Aug 21, 2026View at Xero ↗Official sourceThe entry tier is one user with no accountant access. Bringing in the person who does your books means moving up a tier, and that tier costs more than twice as much. Checked against the QuickBooks pricing page. The advertised entry rate is a promotion: 90% off for the first 3 months, bringing the entry tier to $3.80/month — it applies to the first 3 months only.
Publisher fact checked Aug 21, 2026View at Intuit ↗Official sourceYou have not invoiced anyone yet. Bookkeeping software organises transactions that exist; before there are transactions it organises nothing, at a monthly cost.
You are buying it to avoid learning what the numbers mean. The tool records; it does not explain. That gap is where people discover, a year later, that the books were tidy and wrong.
Why is the price here higher than the one on the vendor's site?
Because we publish the price you pay once the introductory offer ends. Three of these five advertise a promotional rate — on one of them the difference is ten times. Comparing advertised rates would rank these tools by how aggressive their current discount is, not by what they cost.
What decides between two tools?
We name the criterion that decides, not a number. Saying a tool is ahead on entry price and on the cost of a second seat, and level on everything else, tells you whether the comparison applies to you. A single figure on a scale we invented does not — and we used to publish one.
● Official vendor and pricing pages checked 2026-08-21.
Visible claims keep their source and check date; Advisor calculations stay marked separately.
