Comparison

Wave vs Orbit

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Wave

Manage your small business finances on the go. Send professional invoices, track expenses with receipt scanning, and monitor your business insights. Get paid faster with integrated online payment options.

Highlights
  • Send customized invoices and estimates
  • Scan receipts with OCR for expense tracking
  • Monitor business insights on a dashboard
  • Accept online credit card and bank payments
  • Automate late payment reminders
  • Syncs with desktop account
Currently charting
Read full description

Wave’s mobile app is an integrated, on-the-go solution for small business owners, creators, freelancers, consultants, and contractors in the US and Canada and the perfect companion to your desktop experience. Send customized, professional invoices and estimates and keep track of your business expenses in one place! Add optional online credit card and bank payment processing to get paid even faster. Plus, subscribe to our Pro Plan to access even more bookkeeping and invoicing features. Our receipts feature is included for free in the Pro Plan or easy to add-on to the Starter Plan. You can capture unlimited receipts with optical character recognition to track your business expenses. Bookkeep better with the Pro Plan Want to look more polished, save more time, and conquer cash flow? With our Pro Plan, you get access to the following features: Capture unlimited receipts and track expenses at no additional cost Option to accept online payments* at a discounted rate Auto-import bank transactions** Auto-merge and categorize bank transactions Add additional users to your account Automate late payment reminders Access live-person chat and email support And more! You’re in good company Wave’s software has helped more than 300K North American small business owners manage their money, so you know we’ve got your back. Dashboard Easily monitor what’s going on in your business with Wave’s intuitive dashboard, which includes: At-a-glance business insights, like profit and loss statements Quick access to invoicing metrics, like amounts overdue and upcoming payments Access to accounting reports for understanding your business, filing taxes, and more Mobile invoicing Create and send professional, customized invoices with your logo Receive notifications when you've been paid Check invoice status (sent, viewed, overdue, paid) Record payments Send invoice reminders and payment receipts Get paid even faster with Wave’s online payments feature to accept credit cards and bank payments Synchronize instantly with your Wave account on desktop Estimates Instantly create and send estimates and land that dream customer quicker Convert an estimate into an invoice in seconds Customize estimates with your brand colors and logo Access your estimates from anywhere, anytime Designed to get you paid faster Wave invoice templates and email messages are designed to help you get paid faster Sending professional easy-to-read invoices inspires confidence from your clients, encouraging prompt payment and repeat business Receipt scanning Organize and manage your receipts in one place with Wave’s subscription-based mobile receipts feature Don’t waste time manually managing your expenses—let our app capture receipt details in seconds using OCR technology Get peace of mind and breeze through tax season with updated books and reports, synced with our accounting feature Upload receipts from your desktop or via email Manage and categorize transactions on-the-go or on desktop—everything stays synced! Accept online payments in seconds Wave’s invoicing software works seamlessly to accept online payments via direct integration with our online payments feature: Getting started is as easy as a few clicks*. You’ll be able to select the invoices where you want to accept all major credit cards (Visa®, MasterCard®, American Express®, Discover®) for a competitive, per transaction fee. Most Wave invoices paid by credit card and bank payment get paid in 2 days or less! Create your Wave account right in the Wave mobile app, or visit waveapps.com. *Approval is subject to eligibility criteria, including identity verification and credit review. **Not all financial institutions are supported. Learn more here: https://support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005541303-Understanding-bank-connections Privacy: https://www.waveapps.com/legal/privacy-policy Terms of Use: https://www.waveapps.com/legal/terms-of-use Terms of Service: https://www.waveapps.com/legal/legal-disclosures

About

Orbit

Effortlessly track your time and generate invoices for clients and projects. This app simplifies managing work hours, project budgets, and creating custom invoices, allowing you to focus on your tasks.

Highlights
  • Time tracking across projects
  • Automatic invoice generation
  • Customizable invoices
  • Time entry rounding
  • Widgets for quick access
  • Crew plans for teams
  • Shortcuts support
Features
Read full description

Effortless time tracking & invoicing! Ranked as "the best time tracking & invoicing app" by its developers, Orbit makes keeping track of clients, projects, worked hours, and invoices simple. Orbit's goal is for you to focus on the tasks you want while the app takes care of the rest. Are you a designer? Welcome! A small team of developers? Cool, so are we. A consultant? Perfect! A project manager? We're not judging, welcome to you as well! Ever wondered how much time you worked last week? We've got you covered. Quickly needing to check on the budget of a project? We've got you covered. Dreading to manually create invoices for all those hours you've worked? Guess what, we've got that covered as well! Recent additions: • Shortcuts support • Extra-large widgets showing you useful details right on the home screen of your iPad • Quick Note support integrating with the system Notes app • Support for the always-on display on the Apple Watch Obligatory feature bulleted list: • Easy setup • Time tracking across projects & sync with iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and the Mac • Automatic invoice generation from all your logged time entries • Optional rounding of time entries and line items • Ability to create custom invoices for expenses or material cost • A nice overview of how you spend your time • Shortcuts support to allow for automation and integration with other apps • Time tracking widgets • Crew Plans for small teams to track time & invoice together • A strong focus on privacy. No ads, no tracking of metadata, and no selling of personal data. You can try Orbit using our tourist mode, before creating an account or subscribing to any of our premium plans (we also offer free trials for those). If you cancel your subscription, you'll still be able to see all of your data in our read-only mode (unless you ask us to remove it of course). Privacy policy: https://timeinorbit.com/privacy Terms of use: https://timeinorbit.com/terms

Screenshots

Wave4 screens
Orbit4 screens

Verdict

The call

Wave and Orbit both sit at 4.4 stars, but that hides the real split: 64% of Orbit's written reviews are positive against 29% of Wave's. Orbit also leads on device support (5 vs 1). Wave's advantage is ratings volume (6.7K vs 34) and chart position (#61 vs unranked). On price, rating, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Wave sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $8.00 per month and Orbit sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.4 for Wave against 4.5 for Orbit. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Wave has 6.7K ratings behind it against 34, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 29% of Wave's written reviews are positive against 64% of Orbit's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Wave ships an update every 3 weeks, Orbit monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Wave versus Orbit: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWaveOrbit
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (6.7K ratings)4.5 (34 ratings) — better
Positive reviews28.9% of reviews63.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings6.7K — better34
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#61 — better—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS16.415.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size128 MB13 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperWave Financial IncTriple Glazed Studios

Customer experience

Wave

All ratings6,652 ratings
Positive84.7%
Neutral3.3%
Negative12.0%
Written reviews380 reviews
Positive28.9%
Neutral9.7%
Negative61.3%

Orbit

All ratings34 ratings
Positive88.2%
Neutral0.0%
Negative11.8%
Written reviews33 reviews
Positive63.6%
Neutral12.1%
Negative24.2%

Bugs and requests

Wave

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • App crashes when trying to edit invoices
  • Inability to view past transactions in mobile app
  • Inconsistent behavior when connecting bank accounts
  • Incorrect tax calculations and reporting issues
  • Delayed or missing payments from customers

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add dark mode option
  • Improve mobile app functionality
  • Integrate with more third-party services
  • Provide better customer support channels
  • Add more customization options for invoices

Orbit

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Wave

Subscriptions4
  • Mobile receipts - Monthly$8.001 Month
  • Pro Plan - Monthly$19.001 Month
  • Mobile receipts - Annual$72.001 Year
Show 1 more
  • Pro Plan - Annual$190.001 Year
10 purchases

Orbit

Subscriptions10
  • Monthly Founders Subscription1 Month trial$7.991 Month
  • Monthly Crew Plan (2 Members)7 Days trial$15.991 Month
  • Monthly Crew Plan (3 Members)7 Days trial$23.991 Month
Show 7 more
  • Monthly Crew Plan (4 Members)7 Days trial$31.991 Month
  • Monthly Crew Plan (5 Members)7 Days trial$39.991 Month
  • Yearly Founders Subscription1 Month trial$79.991 Year
  • Yearly Crew Plan (2 Members)1 Month trial$159.991 Year
  • Yearly Crew Plan (3 Members)1 Month trial$239.991 Year
  • Yearly Crew Plan (4 Members)1 Month trial$329.991 Year
  • Yearly Crew Plan (5 Members)1 Month trial$399.991 Year

Questions

Is Wave free?
Wave is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Orbit free?
Orbit is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Wave or Orbit?
Orbit is rated higher. Wave averages 4.4 out of 5 from 6.7K ratings, while Orbit averages 4.5 from 34 ratings.
Do Wave or Orbit have ads?
Neither Wave nor Orbit shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Wave or Orbit?
Wave ships an update every 3 weeks, and Orbit monthly. Most recently, Wave was updated on October 29, 2026 and Orbit on October 24, 2026.

Other comparisons