Wave

Wave is the only credible free accounting software for very small businesses, and the caveat that matters is bank feeds.

What you get for nothing is more than the "free tier" label suggests: unlimited invoicing, unlimited expense tracking, real double-entry books with a chart of accounts, and the standard financial statements. For a sole trader, side business or freelancer with modest transaction volume, that is a complete accounting system at zero cost — something no competitor offers.

The business model explains the boundaries. Wave earns from payment processing (standard card rates), payroll (a monthly fee plus per-employee charge, with tax filing automated in a subset of US states) and now from Pro, a paid tier. The important change for buyers: automatic bank-feed imports moved to the paid Pro plan, so free users categorize transactions from manual imports. For a business doing thirty transactions a month that is a mild chore; at three hundred it is untenable.

Other limits follow from the audience. There is no inventory tracking, no project profitability, no multi-currency, and reporting is basic. Support on the free plan is community and documentation rather than a person. It fits very small businesses well and becomes frustrating once the business grows.

Our guidance: if you are a sole trader who invoices a few clients a month, Wave is genuinely the right answer and paying for accounting software would be waste. Plan to migrate to Xero or QuickBooks when you hire, hold stock, or start reconciling more than you care to do by hand.