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Planful vs Wave: Which is a better fit?

Updated on February 6th, 2025
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What's your intended use case?
Summary
Key features rated by users
Features selected based on 6,107 reviews from Accounting users.
% Fit
Missing features
Not enough reviews
Feature ratings
Chart of Accounts
NA
Income & Balance Sheet
4.3
Document Management
NA
Financial Reporting
2.7
Financial Management
4.7
% Fit
Missing features
Feature ratings
Chart of Accounts
NA
Income & Balance Sheet
4.5
Document Management
NA
Financial Reporting
4.5
Financial Management
4.0
User satisfaction
4.3
User reviews51
Ease of use
4.2
Functionality
4.2
Value for money
4.2
Customer support
4.3
4.4
User reviews1,662
Ease of use
4.5
Functionality
4.2
Value for money
4.6
Customer support
4.0
Price starts from
--
Not provided by vendor
Free version
Free trial
Monthly subscription
Free version
Free trial
Best for

Planful brings financial performance management —budgeting, planning, forecasting, modeling, reporting, and more — to the entire organization.

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
No video reviews yet
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.

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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
--%
Access Controls/Permissions
207
Important
Accounts Payable
388
Important

Planful

12/43
  • Access Controls/Permissions
  • Accounts Payable
  • Accounts Receivable
  • Activity Tracking
  • API
  • Approval Process Control
  • Audit Management
  • Bank Reconciliation
  • Billing & Invoicing
  • Chart of Accounts
  • Compliance Management
  • Currency Conversion
  • Data Security
  • Document Management
  • Encryption
  • Fixed Asset Management
  • Fund Accounting
  • Mobile Access
  • Multi-Location
  • Payment Processing
  • Payroll Management
  • Purchase Order Management
  • Quotes/Estimates
  • Receipt Management
  • Recurring/Subscription Billing
  • Reminders
  • Sales Tax Management
  • Status Tracking
  • Tax Management
  • Third-Party Integrations
  • Workflow Management
  • Activity Dashboard
  • Audit Trail
  • Budgeting/Forecasting
  • Cash Flow Management
  • Expense Tracking
  • Financial Consolidation & Close Management
  • Financial Management
  • Financial Reporting
  • General Ledger
  • Income & Balance Sheet
  • Multi-Currency
  • Project Accounting
See All features
Hide Accounting Software Features -

Wave

Top Features
29/43
Show Accounting Software Features +
Planful
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
Planful
  • By Planful
  • Located in United States
  • Founded in 2000
Wave
  • By Wave
  • Located in Canada
  • Founded in 2009
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