Wave vs Pilot

Two accounting tools side by side. Prices are the starting plan a small business would pick, in USD.

Compare	WaveH&R Block	PilotPilot
In one line	Free double-entry accounting and invoicing	Done-for-you bookkeeping and tax for startups
Starting price	Free	From $99/mo
Six-person team	$0/mo	$99/mo
Plans	Free (bank transactions entered by hand); Pro $19/mo or $190/yr adds automatic bank imports and receipt capture; cards 2.9% + 60¢	Bookkeeping Essentials from $99/mo billed yearly (up to $100K monthly expenses); tax filing from $750/yr for newly formed companies, $2,000+ for partnerships and S-corps, $2,450+ for C-corps
Pricing model	Free tier	Paid
Free trial	—	—
Users	1 on free plan	n/a
Both connect to	No shared connections on record.
Also connects to	Helcim, Shoeboxed, Wave Payroll, Wise Business15+ listed by the vendor	Ramp10,000+ listed by the vendor
Team size	Just me · 2–10 people	2–10 people · 11–50 people
Available in	US · CA	US
Phone support	None listed	Core and up
Live chat	Plans not stated	Every plan
Support hours	Live chat: Monday to Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM Eastern, Monday to Friday from 9 AM to 4:45 PM Eastern	Not published
Incidents posted	5 incidents posted on H&R Block's status page, which covers all H&R Block products and regions, in the 90 days to Oct 27, 2026; 1 marked major or critical by H&R Block. Status page	We found no public status page for Pilot.
Capterra score	4.4 / 5 from 1,731 reviews	4.9 / 5 from 29 reviews
Trustpilot score	3.1 / 5 from 558 reviews	2.9 / 5 from 20 reviews
Fit: Retail shop	71	35
Fit: Restaurant or café	60	30
Fit: Service business	85	65
Fit: Agency or studio	70	78
Fit: Trades or contractor	75	40
Fit: Online store	55	75
Why people pick it	Free core product Simple invoicing	A team does the books Tax filing from the same people
Where it falls short	No inventory or job costing Bank connections now behind Pro	Costs more than software Built around startups
	Visit Wave ↗	Visit Pilot ↗

Six-person prices are what a team of six would pay on the published plans; "Not listed" means those plans don't cover six. How we calculate prices