Wave vs Sage
Wave keeps core invoicing and bookkeeping permanently free, which is hard to beat for freelancers and very small teams. Sage brings paid plans with real inventory, deeper reporting and accounting heritage, plus a clear path up to Sage Intacct. Here is how they compare, and which one fits your books.
These are affiliate links marked rel=“sponsored”. We may earn a commission if you buy · it never affects our scores or who wins. Disclosure.
How they score
Scores are our editorial assessment against the VettedSaaS rubric · not vendor supplied.
Feature by feature
✓ full · ∼ partial · — noneFeature support verified as of June 2026 · check the vendor for current details.
Pricing, side by side
Per month, US list pricePricing as of June 2026 · check the vendor for current pricing. Wave keeps a free Starter plan; Pro is $19 a month, or about $16 a month billed annually; payroll runs from $40 a month plus $6 per active employee, and card payments cost 2.9 percent plus 60 cents per transaction. Sage Accounting cloud plans run about $20, $40 and $50 a month for Start, Standard and Plus, with a higher Plus tier near $80 for budgeting, multicurrency and inventory; Sage 50 and Sage Intacct are separate, higher priced product lines quoted on request.