If you run a business by yourself — freelancing, contracting, or working a trade — you have probably landed on both Stintly and Wave while hunting for a tool that tracks your work and money without draining your wallet. Both are genuinely free to start, which already puts them ahead of subscription-heavy competitors. But they solve the problem in very different ways. Wave is a full web-based accounting platform. Stintly is a lightweight, offline-first app built for people who want to log work, track income, and get on with their day. This comparison lays out where each one shines so you can pick the right fit — honestly, without the marketing gloss.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Stintly | Wave |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free (paid payroll & payments) |
| Works Offline | Yes, 100% | No, web-only |
| Account Required | No | Yes |
| Best For | Solo operators, tradespeople, freelancers | Small businesses wanting full accounting |
| Platform | iOS app | Web browser (limited mobile apps) |
| Key Features | Time tracking, income logging, simple reports | Invoicing, double-entry accounting, payroll |
| Data Privacy | Stays on your device | Stored on cloud servers |
Pricing
Let's be fair to Wave first: its core invoicing and accounting features really are free, and that is rare in this space. You can send unlimited invoices and track your books without paying a cent. Wave makes its money on add-ons — payment processing takes a per-transaction cut (roughly 2.9% + 30¢ for cards), and payroll runs a monthly fee that varies by state. For a small business that needs those services, that pricing is reasonable and transparent.
Stintly takes a simpler path: it is free, full stop. There is no paid tier waiting to upsell you, no per-transaction fee, and no payroll module because it is not trying to be your whole accounting department. You download it and use it. The trade-off is honest — Stintly does less than Wave, but everything it does is free forever.
| Cost Over Time | Stintly | Wave (core) |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $0 | $0 |
| 1 Year | $0 | $0 (core) + fees on payments/payroll |
| 3 Years | $0 | $0 (core) + accumulated add-on fees |
The honest takeaway: both win on core price. The difference is that Wave's free tier is supported by ads and by nudging you toward paid services, while Stintly has no upsell layer at all.
Save money. Try Stintly free today. Download Stintly for Free — no account needed, works 100% offline.
Features
Wave is the heavyweight here, and it deserves credit. It offers double-entry accounting, professional invoicing with online payment links, receipt scanning, bank connections that import transactions automatically, and payroll in supported regions. If you need a real set of books — balance sheets, profit-and-loss statements, tax-ready categorization — Wave delivers that at no cost. For a growing small business with an accountant, it is a legitimately strong option.
Stintly focuses on the daily reality of a solo operator: tracking the work you did and the money you earned. You log hours or jobs, record income, and pull simple reports that tell you where your time and cash actually went. There is no ledger to balance and no chart of accounts to maintain. That focus is the point. Most solo operators do not need double-entry accounting; they need to know who owes them, how many hours a project ate, and whether this month beat last month.
This is also where a family of purpose-built tools matters. If your work is specialized, a general accounting app often forces you to bend your workflow to fit it. A lawn care crew tracking routes and seasonal clients is better served by LawnBook, while a cleaning business juggling residential and commercial jobs fits naturally with ShineBook. Landlords managing rentals and tenant relations lean on KeyLoft, and contractors handling job costing and progress billing reach for TrestleBook. Stintly sits at the center of that lineup as the simple, offline tracker for anyone who just wants to log work and income without the overhead.
Want to try Stintly for free? Download Stintly for Free — no subscription required.
Offline & Privacy
This is where the two apps genuinely diverge. Wave is a cloud platform. It needs an internet connection, and your financial data lives on its servers. That model has real benefits — automatic backups, access from any browser, bank syncing — but it also means you cannot open your books on a job site with no signal, and your data sits with a third party. Worth noting: Wave was acquired by H&R Block, so your information is now part of a larger tax-services company's ecosystem.
Stintly works 100% offline. Every hour you log and every dollar you record stays on your device. No account, no sign-up, no server round-trip. Open the app in a basement, in a rural field, on a plane — it just works. For privacy-minded operators, this is the headline: your income and client data never leave your phone unless you choose to export it.
If you have ever tried to check an invoice or log hours in a spot with no cell service, you already understand why offline-first matters. A tool that only works when the internet does is a tool that fails exactly when you are out doing the work.
There is no ad layer in Stintly either. Wave's free tier surfaces ads and promotions for its paid services; Stintly has nothing to sell you, so there is nothing to advertise.
Who Should Use Wave
Wave is the better choice if you genuinely need full accounting. Choose it when:
- You want double-entry bookkeeping and formal financial statements at no cost.
- You send lots of invoices and want clients to pay online via card or bank transfer.
- You run payroll and want it integrated with your books.
- You work primarily at a desk with reliable internet.
- You have an accountant who wants to log in and see proper books.
For a small business ready to graduate from spreadsheets into real accounting software without paying QuickBooks prices, Wave is a strong, credible pick. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise.
Who Should Use Stintly
Stintly is built for the solo operator who wants simplicity, speed, and privacy. Choose it when:
- You want to track time and income without learning accounting software.
- You work in the field — on job sites, in vehicles, in places with spotty signal.
- You value your data staying on your own device.
- You do not want an account, a login, or a subscription hanging over you.
- You would rather spend 30 seconds logging a job than 30 minutes reconciling a ledger.
If you are a freelancer, tradesperson, or one-person operation and the phrase "chart of accounts" makes your eyes glaze over, Stintly is likely the better daily tool. It respects that your real job is the work, not the bookkeeping.
The Bottom Line
Both apps are free, and both are honest about it — that alone makes them better than most of the market. The choice comes down to what you actually need. If you want a full accounting system with invoicing, payroll, and formal books, and you work with steady internet, Wave is excellent and hard to beat on price. If you are a solo operator who wants to log work and income quickly, keep your data private, and use an app that works anywhere with zero internet, Stintly is the better fit. Many operators even use both: Stintly for fast daily tracking in the field, and a cloud accounting tool at tax time. There is no wrong answer — only the one that matches how you work.
Ready to switch? Download Stintly for Free — it takes 30 seconds and costs nothing.