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Paystand vs Wave: Which is a better fit?

Updated on February 17th, 2025
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What's your intended use case?
Summary
Key features rated by users
Features selected based on 14,670 reviews from Payment Processing users.
% Fit
Missing features
Not enough reviews
Feature ratings
Expense Tracking
NA
Data Security
2.0
Payment Fraud Prevention
2.0
Online Payments
4.2
Payment Gateway Integration
--
% Fit
Missing features
Feature ratings
Expense Tracking
4.4
Data Security
4.9
Payment Fraud Prevention
NA
Online Payments
NA
Payment Gateway Integration
NA
User satisfaction
4.2
User reviews69
Ease of use
4.2
Functionality
4.2
Value for money
4.2
Customer support
4.1
4.4
User reviews1,664
Ease of use
4.5
Functionality
4.2
Value for money
4.6
Customer support
4.0
Price starts from
--
Monthly subscription
Free version
Free trial
Monthly subscription
Free version
Free trial
Best for

Medium to enterprise level organizations that want the ability to pay no transaction fees, to enable multiple payment methods, and to have a branded checkout experience to pass onto their customer

Wave helps small business owners, freelancers, solopreneurs, and consultants in the US and Canada manage accounting, payroll, invoicing, estimating and other processes.

User reviews
pros & cons
1 / 4
View Reviews
1 / 4
View Reviews
Video reviews
Mike J
Editor and Producer
4.0

Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Mike. I'm an editor and producer. I have a company of about 50 employees. And we tried Paystand, and we gave it about four out of five. Before Paystand, I tried many different alternatives. One of the ones PayPal and stuff like that. Obviously, one of the main reasons to try something new is because of all the transaction fees and all of the little hidden fees that happen with a lot of these different softwares. And that's why I tried Paystand, just to see what it was about and see if it would be effective for my company. We went with Paystand because we knew that there was no actual transaction fees. We wanted to see how feasible that would be for our company to sustain on a day-to-day, year-to-year basis. We tried it out and unfortunately it wasn't really sustainable for a small company like us. But I think for bigger businesses this is a really good tool. It's a really good software to have for those kinds of businesses. Small businesses might be on a case by case basis. Integrating Paystand into the business was pretty easy, relatively. A lot of similar techniques to a lot of the same other systems just like this. Now, the big thing is there is no mobile for this one, and so you have to learn how to maneuver without that sort of stuff. But for the most part, it's pretty much the same. I mean, once you get used to it, it runs just like all the other ones. Well, with Paystand, I would definitely recommend you try before you buy. Now, this is a per year model, which means you purchase it for a year and you don't actually pay transactions. But honestly, for small businesses, it really isn't always going to be effective. I know for my company it was only effective sometimes, and for the overall year it wasn't effective. Now, if you're a big business and you do a lot of bulk buying, especially because this is a business to business transaction software. Now, if you are doing a lot of big business, big purchases, this might be really ideal for you. Now, for me personally and our company, it didn't work. And that may change in the future, but right now it just didn't work to suit our needs. But I think, again, it's all about your business. So, if you have a big business or you do a lot of really bulk buying, you need a lot of product, you have to buy from businesses and you really need that, this is going to save you a ton on transaction fees. So, very helpful. Small businesses, probably not.

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Matthew C
CEO
5.0

Matthew: My name's Matthew. My title is CEO/Founder. Company of one, and for rating for Wave Accounting, I would give it five stars. I really like it. For Wave, it's specifically for accounting and invoices and payroll. I had tried to do all of that stuff manually, but I had never used any other software before. So that's the first and only one that I've used. Basically, it was a recommendation from a former coworker that he had used it for his consulting business in the past and basically said you should look at it because it's a good value, it's good for small businesses, it's good to keep track of payments and invoices, and it doesn't really cost of a lot, so it's something you should research. And based off that research, I went ahead and signed up and I've been using it ever since. For me, it was pretty easy. I don't think there was anything too complicated. I guess it really just depends on what you're looking to get out of it. Like I said, I use mine for invoices primarily and keeping track of payments from clients. So there's a few other different features that you can utilize on there, but because those are my two main priorities, it was really easy just to get everything set up with the account, play around with all the different features, and at least get a few invoices written up. So I would say pretty easy. I would say if you're a small, medium business, it's definitely something that you should look into. It might not make sense for large corporate clients because maybe you have a lot more users or something like that. But for small, medium business, it's definitely something to look into. I mean, I would say especially also, the other thing is if you're not necessarily very knowledgeable about accounting practices or managing your books or keeping track of the ledger and invoices and stuff like that, payroll, this is a good way to help with that because they are able to walk you through each step-by-step part of the process. So I found that part to be helpful as well. So yeah, I would say it doesn't hurt for a small and medium business size owner to look at that and just consider it. But I've really enjoyed using it so far and I don't anticipate changing anytime soon.

How Capterra sources reviews
View all video reviews
User interface
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1 Video
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1 Video
131733
5 screenshots
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4 screenshots
Do these products fit your needs?

Prioritize real-user-identified key features according to your needs to find your best fit.

Logo Img
--%
Logo Img
--%
ACH Payment Processing
207
Important
Activity Dashboard
388
Important

Paystand

Top Features
21/35
  • Cryptocurrency Processing
  • Data Import/Export
  • Digital Wallet Payments
  • eCommerce Integration
  • Electronic Signature
  • Expense Tracking
  • In-Person Payments
  • Loyalty Program
  • Payment Links
  • Payment Reconciliation
  • Point of Sale (POS) Integration
  • Real-Time Data
  • Search/Filter
  • Status Tracking
  • ACH Payment Processing
  • Activity Dashboard
  • Alerts/Notifications
  • API
  • Billing & Invoicing
  • Customizable Branding
  • Data Security
  • Debit/Credit Card Processing
  • Mobile Payments
  • Multi-Currency
  • Multiple Payment Options
  • Online Payments
  • Partial Payments
  • Payment Fraud Prevention
  • Payment Gateway Integration
  • PCI Compliance
  • Receipt Management
  • Recurring/Subscription Billing
  • Reporting/Analytics
  • Self Service Portal
  • Transaction Monitoring
See All features
Hide Payment Processing Software Features -

Wave

16/35
Show Payment Processing Software Features +
Paystand
Deployment
  • Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based
  • Desktop - Mac
  • Desktop - Windows
  • Desktop - Linux
  • Desktop - Chromebook
  • On-Premise - Windows
  • On-Premise - Linux
  • Mobile - Android
  • Mobile - iPhone
  • Mobile - iPad
Support
  • Email/Help Desk
  • FAQs/Forum
  • Knowledge Base
  • Phone Support
  • 24/7 (Live rep)
  • Chat
Training
  • In Person
  • Live Online
  • Webinars
  • Documentation
  • Videos
Wave
Deployment
  • Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based
  • Desktop - Mac
  • Desktop - Windows
  • Desktop - Linux
  • Desktop - Chromebook
  • On-Premise - Windows
  • On-Premise - Linux
  • Mobile - Android
  • Mobile - iPhone
  • Mobile - iPad
Support
  • Email/Help Desk
  • FAQs/Forum
  • Knowledge Base
  • Phone Support
  • 24/7 (Live rep)
  • Chat
Training
  • In Person
  • Live Online
  • Webinars
  • Documentation
  • Videos
Paystand
  • By Paystand
  • Located in United States
  • Founded in 2013
Wave
  • By Wave
  • Located in Canada
  • Founded in 2009
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