Baselane vs Wave Accounting

Banking, bookkeeping, and rent collection in one dashboard — Baselane is purpose-built for property investors who want to ditch the QuickBooks workaround.

Free — $25/mo

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Wave Accounting

Free double-entry accounting for solo agents — the $19/mo Pro tier adds automatic bank imports, branded invoices, and receipt capture.

Free / $19/mo (Pro)

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Baselane vs Wave Accounting: feature comparison

Feature	Baselane	Wave Accounting
1099 & Agent Tax Reporting	✗	✓
Bank / Credit Card Sync	✓	✓
Commission Calculation	✗	✗
CRM / TM Integrations	✗	✗
Financial Reporting Dashboard	✓	✓
Mileage Tracking	✗	✗
Real Estate-Specific Workflows	✓	✗
Trust / Escrow Accounting	✗	✗

Baselane — Pros & Cons

Pros

Free tier includes real FDIC-insured banking plus bookkeeping — no credit card or paid plan required
Property-specific sub-accounts partition funds by address without opening separate bank accounts
Auto-tags every transaction to IRS Schedule E categories, cutting tax prep time significantly at year-end
Built-in rent collection via ACH, card, and auto late fees eliminates the need for a separate payment tool

Cons

No native mobile app as of mid-2025 — landlords must manage via a mobile web browser
Customer support is notably slow — users report days for chat responses and weeks to schedule a call
Not a full property management platform: no maintenance ticketing, lease storage, or tenant screening
Transaction and withdrawal limits on the free tier can frustrate investors with larger or higher-volume portfolios

Wave Accounting — Pros & Cons

Pros

Starter plan is permanently free with no revenue cap or time limit — unlimited invoices and bookkeeping records at no cost.
Pro plan ($19/mo) undercuts QuickBooks Simple Start ($35/mo) and FreshBooks Lite ($22/mo) for comparable core features.
Full double-entry bookkeeping with P&L, balance sheet, and sales tax reporting built in on all plans.
Data export available at any time on any plan with no lock-in or export fees.

Cons

No commission calculation, trust/escrow accounting, or real estate-specific workflows — agents must manually construct RE-specific reports.
Automatic bank import requires the $19/mo Pro plan; Starter forces manual transaction entry, which is slow for active agents.
Free plan is limited to one user with email-only support and Wave branding printed on all client invoices.
No built-in mileage tracking — agents must pair Wave with a separate app like MileIQ or Everlance.

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