The short answer is yes, and the useful answer is longer. Wave's free plan is intact. What left it, on 1 June 2026, were the three features most people meant when they said they used Wave.
In one paragraph. Wave Starter still costs nothing and still does genuine double-entry bookkeeping with unlimited invoices. Automatic bank feeds, adding a second person to your books, and receipt capture now require Wave Pro, at $19 a month or $190 a year — and that price covers one business profile.
The three things that moved
Wave wrote to affected free users at the end of April 2026 and made the change on 1 June. Nothing was switched off; it was moved onto the paid plan.
| Capability | Until 31 May 2026 | From 1 June 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic bank feeds | Included free | Pro only. On Starter you export from the bank and import it yourself |
| A second person on the books | Included free | Pro only. Your bookkeeper or partner needs the paid plan |
| Receipt capture | Included free | Pro only |
| Unlimited invoicing | Free | Unchanged — still free |
| Double-entry books, P&L, balance sheet, cash flow | Free | Unchanged — still free |
| Up to 15 business profiles | Free | Still free on Starter — but Pro is charged per business |
The bank feed is the one that changes daily life. Everything else on that list is an inconvenience; that one is the difference between books that largely keep themselves and a monthly session with a spreadsheet.
Why this happened, and why it will not be undone
Wave's accounting product has never been where Wave makes money. The revenue comes from card processing at 2.9% + $0.60 a transaction (3.4% + $0.60 for Amex), from payroll at $40 a month plus $6 per person paid, and from Wave Advisors, its own bookkeeping service starting at $149 a month and running to roughly $379 with an accountant attached. Wave has belonged to H&R Block since 2019, with tax preparation waiting at the end of that chain.
Bank feeds are the exception: they are bought in from a third-party banking data provider that charges for each connection. A free user who never takes a card payment and never runs payroll is therefore a customer Wave is paying to keep. Any free plan funded by attached services runs into that arithmetic eventually, and 1 June is what it looks like when it does.
Plan accordingly. This is a structural decision rather than a lapsed promotion. If a free automatic bank feed was central to how you work, it is worth deciding what to do now rather than waiting for it to return.
The pricing detail people miss
Wave Pro is $19 monthly, $190 annually. The line worth underlining is scope: one subscription, one business profile. Wave's own help centre is clear that a single account can hold fifteen businesses — free, on Starter — but that Pro is bought for each business individually.
So the moment you keep a second set of books, you are looking at a second subscription:
| Businesses | Wave Pro, billed yearly | Kantivo |
|---|---|---|
| One | $190 | $299 — Basic |
| Two | $380 | $299 — Basic covers both |
| Five | $950 | $540 — Professional covers five |
Those Wave figures assume annual billing. Paying monthly makes them $228, $456 and $1,140.
The case for doing nothing
We make competing software, so you should discount what follows accordingly — and then check it, because we mean it.
Stay on Wave Starter if…
- You have one business and nobody else needs access to the books.
- Your monthly transaction count is low enough that a manual import is ten minutes, not an evening.
- You want payroll inside the same product. Wave has it with 50-state tax filing included; Kantivo does not offer payroll at all.
- You already take card payments through Wave and value having invoicing and payments together.
Nothing we sell beats $0. If that describes you, stay put with our blessing.
The case for looking around
Once you are paying, the question changes from "free or not" to "what am I getting for this?" Four things worth weighing:
- How many companies you run. Per-business pricing compounds. One Kantivo Basic licence covers two companies for $299 and Professional covers five for $540, and the invoice does not change when the fifth one opens.
- What your accounting actually needs. Stock, billable time, foreign currency, depreciation schedules, revenue recognition, a GAAP or IFRS presentation switch, reporting dimensions you define. Wave does bookkeeping and invoicing well and deliberately stops there.
- Where the data sits. Kantivo installs on your own machine and keeps everything in a PostgreSQL database you control. It runs offline, and no plan change can reach into it.
- Whether the price will hold. Ours is fixed for twelve years. That is precisely the assurance a free plan is unable to give, as June demonstrated.
Whatever you decide, get your data out
Export your Wave records while the account is healthy — chart of accounts, customers, vendors and transaction history as CSV. It is worth having even if you stay, as a backup nobody else controls. Kantivo reads CSV and Excel directly and maps the columns for you, with no cut-off on how far back the history runs.
Look before the renewal notice arrives
Thirty days, the whole product, no card. Two companies, bank feeds on every plan, and your books on hardware you own. Worst case you have spent an afternoon and know more than you did.
Start your free trialWant the detail side by side? Read the full Kantivo vs Wave comparison or tell us how you are set up.
Common questions
Is Wave accounting still free?
The Starter plan is, and it remains one of the better free offers in this category: unlimited invoicing and proper double-entry bookkeeping for nothing. On 1 June 2026 three things left it — automatic bank feeds, collaborator access, and receipt capture. Free users were emailed about it at the end of April 2026.
What does Wave Pro cost per year?
$19 monthly or $190 billed annually, usually with a lower introductory rate for three months. One subscription covers one business profile; fifteen profiles can sit in a free Starter account, but Pro is bought per business, so two is $380 a year.
Can I carry on using Wave for free?
Yes. You import bank transactions manually instead of having them arrive, you cannot add a second person, and receipt capture is off. For a sole trader with modest volume that is entirely workable.
Will bank feeds become free again?
Unlikely. Wave buys bank connections from a third-party provider on a per-connection basis while earning its revenue from processing, payroll and bookkeeping services. A free user attached to none of those costs Wave money, which is the arithmetic behind the change.
What should I compare Wave Pro against?
Five-year total cost, and how many sets of books you keep — not the monthly figure. Per-business billing means the gap widens with every company you add. If payroll in the same product matters most, that point goes to Wave.