Wave vs QuickBooks Desktop
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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
QuickBooks Desktop
Streamline expense tracking by capturing receipts and bills directly from your mobile device. Automate entries, attach documents for audit trails, and track business mileage with ease. Designed for existing QuickBooks Desktop users to save time and stay organized.
- Scan receipts and automate expense entries
- Upload bills and automate bill entries
- Attach documents to transactions
- Track business mileage with auto-calculated distance
- Organize digital audit trails
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Are you a QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus, Premier Plus or Enterprise customer? Save time with receipt and bill capture to automate entries. No more lost receipts or time consuming expense reports! Easily attach documents to transactions. Scan receipts - Save time by automatically creating categorized receipt expense entries. Just photograph, import and review. - Stay organized by attaching digital receipt images to expense transactions for audit trails. - Accurately categorize, modify or record multiple receipt transactions at once. Upload bills - Save time by automating bill entries. Just photograph, import, and review. - Stay organized by attaching files to bill transactions for simplified audit trails. Attach documents to your transactions - Attach documents to transactions faster by directly uploading them. - Save time by directly attaching multiple documents to transactions at once. - Stay organized by eliminating the need to store physical documents. Track your business mileage - Add your business miles on your mobile and manage it all in QuickBooks Desktop. - Distance will be auto-calculated using starting and ending locations. - QuickBooks automatically fetches the IRS standard mileage rate to calculate mileage expenses.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Wave at 4.4 against QuickBooks Desktop's 1.9. Wave also leads on review sentiment (29% vs 5%) and ratings volume (6.7K vs 120). QuickBooks Desktop's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4). On price, ads, monetization model and device support 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
Both are free to download. Wave sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $8.00 per month. QuickBooks Desktop asks for nothing beyond the download.
Wave holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 1.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Wave has 6.7K ratings behind it against 120, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 29% of Wave's written reviews are positive against 5% of QuickBooks Desktop's.
Wave ships an update every 3 weeks, QuickBooks Desktop every 6 weeks. Both last shipped on October 20, 2026.
| Parameter | Wave | QuickBooks Desktop |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (6.7K ratings) — better | 1.9 (120 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 28.9% of reviews — better | 4.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 6.7K — better | 120 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #58 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 128 MB | 206 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Wave Financial Inc | Intuit Inc. |
Customer experience
Wave
QuickBooks Desktop
User reviews
Wave
From 6.7K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Easy to use
- 🚀 Professional invoicing
- 🚀 Great for small businesses
- 👍 Convenient mobile app
- 🚀 Seamless integration between devices
Room to improve
- 🐛 Buggy app with crashes
- 🔒 Poor customer service and support
- 💰 Expensive payment processing fees
- 🔒 Unreliable payouts and fund holds
- 🐛 Missing key features in mobile app
QuickBooks Desktop
From 120 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Amazing mobile application
- 🚀 Ease and speed of recording transactions
- 💡 AI and OCR capabilities
- ✅ Automatically codes entries
- 🔗 Links to receipts/invoices
Room to improve
- 🐛 App freezes at logo
- 🐛 Takes hours for receipts to show
- 🐛 Doesn't work with desktop version
- 🐛 Zero help on the road
- 🐛 Broken after working
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
QuickBooks Desktop
Reported bugs
45 issues- App freezes at logo screen
- Receipts take hours to show on desktop
- Doesn't work with desktop version
- Broken after working
- Receipt management doesn't work
Show 40 moreShow fewer
- Transaction creation failed
- Not flexible to change business name
- New app not out yet, but discontinued app still charging
- App won't work with subscription
- Scanning is a joke, takes too long
- Seldom works correctly
- Mimics phone screen, can't link or find company
- Can't recognize QuickBooks invoice
- Only allows 1 page documents
- Mileage app is somewhat pointless
- Developers focus on logos, not fixes
- Can only select bank account for credit card receipts
- Have to scroll through all accounts to find the right one
- Shows no company
- Duplicate company names
- Scan tool stopped working
- Can't add multiple employees/users per account
- Doesn't support JPEG upload to bills
- Doesn't sync with desktop
- Freezes on upload
- Companies don't show up
- App crashes every time
- Camera recognition is horrible
- Nightmare to attach receipts
- No receipts travel to desktop
- Company shows up many times
- Deleted companies still show on mobile app
- No camera access after update
- Camera doesn't recognize edges of receipts
- Scan only captures partial receipt
- Limited functionality, can't update file names or delete receipts
- Can't login despite being administrator
- Subscription confusing, keeps asking to pay more
- Doesn't connect with QuickBooks
- ID or password invalid
- Company duplicated with different IDs
- Hard to attach receipts
- Have to scroll through expense accounts
- Semi-functional mileage app
- Save button is behind the keyboard
Requested features
16 requests- See sales orders or purchase orders on sign-on
- Ability to see documents (sales orders/purchase orders)
- PDF conversion for scans
- Ability to type expense account description
- Get receipt recognition back
Show 11 moreShow fewer
- Allow PO's to be made from the app
- Scan directly into QB again
- Support going straight to bills
- Fix bug where credit card is not recognized as a card
- Allow users to hide or delete deleted companies from the mobile app
- Allow camera and photo access
- Improve scanning to capture entire receipt
- Allow switching between companies
- Allow attaching multiple pages
- Improve mileage tracking functionality
- Allow direct upload of receipts to bills
In-app purchases
Wave
- Mobile receipts - Monthly$8.001 Month
- Pro Plan - Monthly$19.001 Month
- Mobile receipts - Annual$72.001 Year
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Pro Plan - Annual$190.001 Year
QuickBooks Desktop
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Wave free?
Is QuickBooks Desktop free?
Which has better reviews, Wave or QuickBooks Desktop?
Do Wave or QuickBooks Desktop have ads?
Which is updated more often, Wave or QuickBooks Desktop?
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