Heard vs Wave
Side-by-side comparison — pricing, features, ratings, use cases. Find which Účetní software fits you best.
💰 Pricing
🔧 Features
📋 Assessment
💪 Strengths
- Heard's focus on mental health providers is its biggest strength. The platform understands therapy-specific deductions like licensing, clinical supervision, and virtual office expenses, automatically categorizing these transactions for tax season. This is a huge time-saver and ensures therapists don't miss out on significant tax deductions.
- The built-in payroll with S-corp support is a standout feature. Heard calculates a reasonable salary for therapist-owned S-corporations, ensures correct tax withholding, and handles payroll filings. This eliminates the need for a separate payroll service and is a major time-saving benefit.
- Automated bookkeeping with AI-driven transaction categorization and reconciliation reduces manual work and human error. Heard connects to bank accounts and credit cards, automatically categorizes transactions, and reconciles them, keeping books up to date daily.
- Heard provides real-time tax estimates and quarterly reminders, helping therapists set aside the right amounts and avoid underpayment penalties. This proactive approach demystifies tax planning.
- The free plan is a generous starting point, allowing therapists to use the core bookkeeping features at no cost. Users only pay when they need advanced features like payroll or tax filing.
⚠ Watch out for
- Heard is limited to mental health and wellness providers. If a therapist expands their practice to offer other services or opens a different business, they'll need to switch to a general accounting software, making Heard a less versatile long-term solution.
- Pricing can become expensive for solo practitioners on a tight budget. While the free plan exists, adding payroll and tax filing services quickly raises costs. For a new therapist just starting out, these fees might be prohibitive.
- Integration options are narrower than general tools like QuickBooks. Heard connects to major banks and some payment processors, but lacks support for some popular ancillary apps that therapists might use, limiting the ability to automate the full financial workflow.
- As a niche product, Heard's user base is smaller, resulting in fewer community resources, third-party tutorials, and integrations compared to established general accounting software. Users may find a more limited ecosystem.
🎯 Best for
Heard is best for mental health and wellness providers — especially solo therapists and small group practices — who want a hands-off, therapy-specific accounting platform that combines bookkeeping, tax prep, and payroll in one place.
🚫 Who should skip
You should skip Heard if you're a business outside the mental health field, or if you need a general-purpose accounting tool like QuickBooks with broad integrations and a simpler flat-rate pricing model.
📚 Learning curve
Minimal — Heard's user interface is clean and designed for non-accountants, with automated syncing and step-by-step prompts, though setting up payroll or S-corp specifics may require a short onboarding call.
🧑⚖️ Verdict
Heard is the best choice for mental health providers who want specialized bookkeeping and tax features, especially S-corp payroll automation. It saves time and money, making it worth the price for most therapists. General businesses or those needing broad integrations should look elsewhere.
💰 Pricing
🔧 Features
📋 Assessment
💪 Strengths
- Wave’s free plan is exceptionally generous: no monthly fee for unlimited invoicing, expense tracking, and financial reports. This is a game-changer for freelancers and small business owners who want professional bookkeeping without a subscription cost. The ability to send unlimited invoices, track payments, and generate profit and loss statements at zero cost makes it a standout choice in a market where competitors charge $15-$30/month for similar features.
- The user interface is clean, intuitive, and easy to navigate. Wave has invested in a modern design that simplifies financial tasks for non-accountants. The dashboard presents cash flow, invoice status, and recent transactions at a glance. Creating and sending invoices is a three-step process, and the built-in templates are professional-looking. This low learning curve is a major advantage for users who lack accounting expertise.
- Wave offers a solid set of accounting features for its size: double-entry bookkeeping, bank reconciliation (manual on free; automated on Pro), and multi-currency support—though limited to a single base currency for reporting. This is more than many competitors at its price point, providing a comprehensive financial foundation for a small business. The ability to generate financial statements like balance sheets and cash flow statements is particularly valuable for tax purposes.
- The optional Pro plan ($16/mo) adds meaningful time-savers: automatic bank imports, OCR receipt scanning, and automated payment reminders. These features eliminate manual data entry and follow-up emails, which can save several hours per month. For a business sending dozens of invoices, the automated reminders can significantly reduce late payments, improving cash flow.
- Wave’s payment processing is integrated directly into the invoicing workflow, allowing clients to pay online via credit card or bank transfer. Fees are transparent (2.9% + $0.30 for cards, 1% with $1 minimum for bank payments), and funds typically appear in your account within a few days. This convenience encourages faster payment from clients, and the ability to automatically reconcile these payments (with the Pro plan) further reduces manual work.
⚠ Watch out for
- Lack of SOC 2 compliance is a significant drawback for security-conscious businesses. Wave does not have a SOC 2 Type II report, which is often required by enterprises or those handling sensitive financial data. While reasonable security measures are in place, the absence of independent certification limits its suitability for larger organizations or those in regulated industries. Freelancers handling client financial data may also find this concerning.
- Customer support is limited compared to competitors. Wave primarily offers email and chat support, with no phone support and limited uptime hours. Response times are not guaranteed and can lag, especially on weekends. For business-critical issues, such as payment processing problems or account access, this can be frustrating. Premium support plans are available at an extra cost, but the free tier's lack of priority support is a notable weakness.
- Advanced features are missing: Wave does not offer inventory management, job costing, project profitability tracking, or budgeting tools. Businesses that need to track stock levels or analyze project-specific profitability will need to use separate software or consider alternatives like QuickBooks Online or Xero, which include these features in their higher tiers. This makes Wave less suitable for product-based businesses or service providers with complex project tracking needs.
- The free plan requires manual bank reconciliation: you must upload bank statements (CSV or direct feed via Plaid) and match transactions manually. While this is acceptable for low volumes, it becomes tedious for high-transaction businesses. Even with the Pro plan's automatic imports, you still need to review and categorize transactions. This manual overhead can be a dealbreaker for businesses with many daily transactions, who may prefer the full automation offered by other tools at similar subscription fees.
🎯 Best for
Small to medium-sized businesses and individual professionals who need to automate repetitive cross-app workflows with a user-friendly interface and an affordable starting price.
🚫 Who should skip
Large enterprises with strict SOC 2 requirements or teams needing white-label solutions, as well as power users who require unlimited task volumes without paying for additional users.
📚 Learning curve
Moderate — the drag-and-drop builder is easy to pick up, but creating complex, multi-step automations with conditional logic and error handling requires some experimentation and understanding of the tool's triggers and actions.
🧑⚖️ Verdict
Wave is an excellent choice for freelancers, sole proprietors, and small businesses that need reliable, zero-cost accounting and invoicing. It's perfect for those just starting out or with simple finances. However, if you require advanced features like inventory management, payroll tax filing, or fu
📊 Use Case Suitability
Higher score = better fit. Scores from editorial review.
🧭 Which One Should You Pick?
Choose Heard if...
- You are: Heard is best for mental health and wellness providers — especially solo therapists and small group practices — who want
- 👍 Niche focus on mental health providers means the platform understands therapy-specific deductions li
- 👍 Built-in payroll with S-corp support, including reasonable salary calculations and tax withholding —
- 👍 Automated bookkeeping with AI-driven transaction categorization and reconciliation, reducing manual
- 💰 From $299/mo
- ⚠ Trade-off: Limited to mental health and wellness providers — not usable for other types of
Choose Wave if...
- You are: Small to medium-sized businesses and individual professionals who need to automate repetitive cross-app workflows with a
- 👍 Generous free tier with 5 workflows and 1000 tasks per month, suitable for individuals or small side
- 👍 User-friendly visual interface that lowers the barrier to creating automated workflows without codin
- 👍 Broad integration ecosystem with common business tools and API access for custom connections.
- 💰 From $30/mo
- ⚠ Trade-off: No SOC 2 compliance may limit adoption in security-sensitive enterprises.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Is Heard really free, and what does the free plan include?
Heard offers a free version with basic bookkeeping features for solo therapists, but advanced tax preparation and payroll require a paid subscription. You'll need to check current pricing tiers for full details on what's included at each level.
Does Heard replace my CPA or accountant?
Heard handles bookkeeping, tax prep, and payroll for mental health providers, but it may not replace a licensed CPA for complex tax situations. Many users still consult a CPA for strategic tax planning, especially for S-corp tax optimization or multi-state practices.
Which practice structures and business types does Heard support?
Heard is built for solo practitioners and group practices in mental health, including sole proprietors, LLCs, and S-corps. It includes S-corp support for payroll and owner salary calculations, which is common for therapists.
Does Heard integrate with other tools like SimplePractice or Headway?
Heard integrates seamlessly with SimplePractice and other popular EHR systems for mental health providers, syncing revenue and expense data automatically. It also integrates with Stripe and bank accounts for real-time transaction tracking.
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