Wave wins when free accounting and invoicing are enough
Wave is the better choice when free accounting and invoicing are the whole job. looch is the better Wave alternative when you want to start the business, operate business accounts, issue Smartcards, accept payments, and keep the books in the same app.
These products start from different places. Wave starts with accounting software. looch starts with the company and the banking activity, then builds the ledger from transactions that begin at a bank.
Wave’s a software company owned by H&R Block. Its accounting and invoicing tools are software, and its payment and payroll features run on partner infrastructure. looch is operated by Simplicity Fintech Inc, a financial technology company, not a bank. Funds held in looch financial accounts are kept at Fifth Third Bank N.A., Member FDIC (source: looch.money).
If your business and bank account already exist, you send a manageable number of invoices, and you want capable free books, Wave has a clear advantage. If you’re assembling the company and its financial operations, free accounting software solves only one part of the job.
| Your priority | Better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Free standalone accounting and invoicing | Wave | Its Starter plan covers core books and unlimited invoicing without a monthly software charge. |
| Formation through day-to-day financial operations | looch | Formation, business accounts, Smartcards, payments, and accounting run in the same app. |
| Recording off-bank activity by hand | Wave | Manual transactions can capture cash, assets bought outside a bank account, and accountant-directed adjustments. |
Wave makes free accounting genuinely useful
Wave’s Starter plan gives freelancers and small businesses accounting and invoicing without a monthly software charge. It supports unlimited estimates, invoices, bills, and bookkeeping records, along with mobile access and financial reports (source: waveapps.com/pricing).
That’s a real advantage for a solo operator. A consultant, contractor, or early freelancer may need professional invoices, basic expense tracking, and reports that show how the business is doing. They may not need company formation, controlled cards, or an integrated financial platform. Wave answers that narrower need cleanly.
Wave also lets businesses accept payments without a monthly minimum on the free plan. Accepting bank payments on invoices costs 1% per transaction with a $1.00 minimum (source: waveapps.com/payments/bank-payments). Card payments are 2.9% + $0.60 per transaction, and 3.4% + $0.60 for American Express (source: waveapps.com/pricing).
Wave Pro adds automation when manual work starts costing more than the software. The paid plan is $19/month, or $190/year (source: waveapps.com/pricing). It adds automatic bank transaction import, auto-categorization, receipt capture, automated late payment reminders, and discounted card processing. Eligible card transactions are 2.9% + $0 before standard rates apply (source: waveapps.com/pricing).
That progression makes sense. Start free, then pay for automation when it becomes useful. If you want standalone accounting software and don’t mind connecting the rest of your financial tools separately, Wave remains a strong choice.
Wave keeps accounting separate from the operating stack
Wave doesn’t start a company, obtain an EIN, or provide registered agent service. You bring an existing business or create it through another provider before using Wave.
Wave also isn’t a business account. It doesn’t provide the account and routing numbers your business operates from or issue spending cards with controls. It records activity from business accounts and cards held elsewhere.
That separation shapes the free accounting experience. Automatic bank import and auto-categorization sit behind Wave Pro at $19/month (source: waveapps.com/pricing). Starter users can still keep books, but they bring in more of the activity and handle more of the process themselves.
Wave supports manually created transactions. Its help center explains how to create an expense transaction, which can then be reconciled against the bank statement or an imported bank feed. If that transaction never appears on the bank statement, it remains unreconciled.
That design is useful when the books need to record something that didn’t begin in a bank account. Cash received, an asset bought outside the business account, or an adjustment requested by an accountant may need a manual transaction. A business with those needs has a clear reason to choose Wave.
Wave doesn’t file 1099s for you. It can help track contractor payments, but filing remains a separate task.
Its paid add-ons can extend the product. Payroll is $40/month base plus $6 per active employee or contractor (source: support.waveapps.com). Receipt capture on Starter is $8/month or $72/year, while Pro includes it (source: waveapps.com/receipts). Wave Advisors starts at $149/month (source: waveapps.com/pricing).
Those boundaries don’t make Wave weak. They make its purpose clear. Wave is built for accounting and invoicing, not for starting the company, operating business accounts, controlling card spend, accepting payments, and entering the resulting activity into the books.
looch makes the bank transaction the source of truth
A founder who hasn’t incorporated usually faces a chain of separate decisions: Form the entity, get an EIN, choose business accounts, issue cards, set up payment acceptance, and select accounting software. Each tool may work on its own. The work sits in the handoffs between them.
looch Start removes those handoffs. It forms the entity and gives the founder a financially operational company. The all-in price is $249. After formation, business accounts, Smartcards, payments, and accounting live in the same app under the same profile.
The accounting model follows from that structure. looch has no manually entered transactions. There’s no screen for typing a transaction in.
In looch, a bank transaction is entered by giving it a category. Nothing is reconciled because there’s nothing to reconcile against. The traditional approach is “it happened, and the bank should confirm it.” looch’s approach is “bank transaction or it didn’t happen.”
This works because looch provides the no-fee business accounts itself and connects external accounts. Every transaction starts at a bank. An accounting app connected to someone else’s bank can import activity, but it can’t make the bank transaction the product’s starting point in the same way.
looch auto-suggests a category with SI. The profit and loss and balance sheet can be run two ways: With every transaction, including auto-suggested categories, for information, or with entered transactions only, for official and tax return use.
That approach isn’t right for every business. If you need to create transactions for off-bank activity, Wave’s manual transaction model is the better fit. If your operating record should begin with actual bank activity, looch removes the later reconciliation step entirely.
Smartcards make controlled spending part of the ledger
looch Smartcards are issued from the app with controls for spending limits, merchant categories, and more. Each card transaction starts as bank activity, receives a category, and enters the books as part of the same system.
The result is more than a connected feed. There’s no separate card provider creating a cleanup task for the accounting software. The spending control and accounting record are parts of the same product.
This matters most when a business has contractors, recurring operational purchases, several business accounts, or a growing payment flow. Many freelancers won’t need that structure, which is one reason Wave’s simpler scope can be a strength.
looch Pay makes accepted payments part of the same record
looch Pay accepts cards online and in person, along with instant pay by bank. With instant pay by bank, the contact approves the payment from their own bank. The money is pushed to the business, settles instantly, and is final on arrival. There are no disputes, chargebacks, or reserves.
Accepted payments feed the same accounting system as the business accounts and Smartcards. The payment isn’t accepted in one product and sent elsewhere for later cleanup. It begins inside the financial system that produces the books.
Real-time books reduce cleanup without replacing expertise
looch uses automatic transaction tagging to maintain CPA-quality books in real time. Instead of reconciling activity by hand or paying $19/month for bank import and auto-categorization, the activity starts at a bank and is categorized inside the same system.
That doesn’t mean every founder can avoid outside expertise. A business with complicated operations may still need a CPA or bookkeeper, especially for its tax return and estimates. The difference is that its baseline record doesn’t need to be rebuilt every month. For a practical division of responsibilities, read when you need a bookkeeper.
looch also includes SI-powered 1099 calculation and filing. looch SI scans transactions and payment methods to determine what belongs in the filing, and instant 1099 filing costs $2 per filing (source: looch.money/pricing). Wave tracks contractor payments but doesn’t file the 1099s for you.
The side-by-side comparison shows two different models
| Feature | looch | Wave |
|---|---|---|
| Core accounting | Real-time accounting with automatic tagging, CPA-quality books | Free on Starter; auto-import and auto-categorization require Pro at $19/month |
| Invoicing | Yes, tied to looch Pay and your books | Yes, free and unlimited (estimates, invoices, bills) |
| Monthly software fee | $0 for the business accounts | $0 free Starter plan; Pro is $19/month or $190/year |
| Company formation | Yes, included at $249 all-in | Not offered |
| EIN and registered agent | Yes, handled at formation | Not offered |
| No-fee business accounts | Yes, funds at Fifth Third Bank N.A., Member FDIC | Not offered (accounting and invoicing software, not a business account) |
| Smartcards with spend controls | Yes, issued from the app | Not offered |
| Card payment acceptance | Yes, online and in person | Yes: 2.9% + $0.60 per card; 3.4% + $0.60 Amex |
| Bank payment acceptance | Yes, instant pay by bank | Yes: ACH at 1% per transaction ($1.00 minimum) |
| Manually entered transactions | None. A bank transaction is entered with a category. | Yes, reconciled against the bank later |
| 1099 filing | Yes, SI-powered, $2 per filing | Not filed for you (tracks contractor payments only) |
| Payroll | See looch pricing | Add-on: $40/month base plus $6 per active employee or contractor |
| Bookkeeping service | Real-time books built in | Wave Advisors from $149/month |
| Receipt capture | Built into the platform | Add-on on Starter ($8/month or $72/year); included on Pro |
Wave wins several rows outright. Free unlimited invoicing and free core bookkeeping aren’t small benefits. They’re the reason Wave is the right answer for many freelancers and small businesses.
looch wins when accounting is only part of the decision. A founder who still needs to create and operate the business may get more value from one connected system than from free accounting software alone.
Choose Wave for free standalone software and manual flexibility
Wave is likely the right choice if you mainly need invoices and basic books. It’s especially compelling when your company and business accounts are already in place, your budget is tight, and you don’t need controlled cards or an integrated financial platform.
It’s also a strong fit when manual transactions are necessary. If cash, off-bank assets, or accountant-directed adjustments belong in your books, Wave gives you a direct way to enter them and reconcile them later.
You can stay with the free plan while the manual work remains manageable. You can pay $19/month for Pro when bank import, auto-categorization, receipt capture, and reminders become worth it.
Choose Wave if you want accounting software rather than a financial operating system. For the right business, that’s disciplined tool selection, not a compromise.
Choose looch when the business and books should start together
looch is the stronger choice if you haven’t incorporated and want formation, an EIN, business accounts, Smartcards, payments, and books to begin in the same app, at $249 all-in.
It also fits an existing business that’s tired of activity being scattered across a bank, a card provider, a payment processor, and accounting software. looch brings the activity together at its source, then enters each bank transaction when it receives a category.
Choose looch if you want to accept card payments and pay by bank, issue controlled Smartcards, and keep real-time books without treating accounting as an after-the-fact task. Choose it if 1099 filing should sit in the same financial workflow, at $2 per filing, instead of becoming another deadline to track.
For founders starting from zero, looch Start is the clearest distinction. Wave can help after the business exists. looch can help create it, then run what comes next.
The right answer depends on where the record should begin
If you need free invoicing and straightforward accounting, Wave is the better choice. It’s capable, clear about its scope, and difficult to beat on price. If you’re comfortable paying $19/month for Pro, it adds bank import and auto-categorization.
If you need to type transactions that never began at a bank, Wave also has the more flexible accounting model. That flexibility matters for cash activity, off-bank assets, and adjustments.
If the answer includes starting the company at $249 all-in, operating business accounts, controlling spend, accepting payments, filing 1099s at $2 per filing, and keeping the books current from bank activity, looch is built for the broader job. Explore looch’s connected financial platform or review looch pricing to decide whether that model fits your business.
The bottom line is direct: Wave offers free standalone accounting and invoicing. looch connects formation, business accounts, cards, payments, and bank-first accounting in the same app.
