Wave gives you a real double-entry ledger for nothing. People leave when a second currency appears, when the books need to survive scrutiny, or when free stopped being the deciding factor.
Wave is genuinely free and genuinely a double-entry ledger. That combination is rare enough that the question is not whether it is good, but when it stops fitting.
Three moments do it.
Wave handles foreign-currency invoices, but an invoice with online payments enabled has to be in your business currency. Billing across borders and collecting online do not fully overlap, and the workaround is manual.
If this is why you are leaving, note that most paid alternatives gate multi-currency too — Xero on Established, Sage on the C$72 plan, Zoho on Professional. Check the tier, not the product.
Free ledgers record what you tell them. That is fine while the only reader is you.
It changes when a lender, an investor, an auditor, or the CRA asks why a number is what it is. The answer lives in evidence — which document supports which posting — and that is the part free tools leave to your folder structure and your memory.
If the business is working, the software line is no longer where the savings are, and the cost of a wrong set of books has gone up.
Worth knowing that free has not disappeared as an option. Odoo’s accounting app is CAD $0 for unlimited users, hosted and supported, and it is open source. Kick is free to 250 transactions a year with real automation on top. Leaving Wave does not have to mean starting to pay — it can just mean picking a better free thing.
Best for: Staying free. The accounting app is CAD $0 for unlimited users, hosted, with support — the most generous free tier in this category.
Watch out: Adding a second Odoo app flips you to CAD 35.20 per user per month across the whole team.
Best for: Free with automation attached — auto categorisation and receipt matching up to 250 transactions a year, then $40 a month unlimited.
Watch out: The accrual ledger is on the $100 Plus plan, and no tier files your taxes.
Best for: One user and up to 1,000 invoices a year, free, as long as revenue stays under C$50K.
Watch out: The ceiling is revenue, so the event that ends the free plan is the business working.
Best for: Canadian businesses that need GST/HST calculation for CRA and a bilingual interface, from C$23 a month.
Watch out: Multi-currency is on the C$72 Plus plan.
Best for: Handing a clean file to an accountant, with a genuine pre-commit state on invoices and bills.
Watch out: Multi-currency means the Established plan.
Best for: The specific moment Wave stops fitting — receipts in USD against CAD card lines, input tax credits that need documentary evidence, a year-end someone will review.
Watch out: Ours, and not free. If your books are genuinely simple and single-currency, we are more product than you need.
Nothing, for what it is. It is a real double-entry ledger with bank connections and invoicing at no cost, which is remarkable. The limits show up at the edges — an invoice with online payments enabled has to be in your business currency, so foreign-currency billing and getting paid do not fully overlap.
Odoo's accounting app, which is CAD $0 for unlimited users with hosting and support included. It is more product than Wave and it is open source. The catch is that it is one app of a suite, and the second app moves you to per-user pricing.
When a second currency appears, or when someone outside the company is going to read the books — a lender, an investor, an auditor, the CRA. Free ledgers record correctly. They do not help you show why an entry is what it is, and that is what scrutiny asks for.
Claims about other products last verified August 25, 2026