Akaunting
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Choose Akaunting if you are a freelancer or micro-business wanting free, self-hostable invoicing and can patch security updates yourself.
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Comparison
Akaunting vs Wave: Small Business Software - Wave Financial
Akaunting lands on Depends, and Wave: Small Business Software - Wave Financial lands on Worth it.
Wave: Small Business Software - Wave Financial
Worth it
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you're a freelancer or micro-business wanting genuinely free accounting and invoicing in one place.
| Compare | ||
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Worth it |
| Best for | Freelancers sending invoices | Freelancers and solopreneurs |
| Who it's not for | Companies needing payroll or audited, compliant books | Anyone needing fast, reliable customer support |
| Privacy | Recurring CVEs, including a published RCE exploit and an auth bypass; self-hosters must patch fast.10 | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed. |
| Support quality | Community forum; paid experience called disappointing | Users report unanswered requests |
| Public sentiment | Users find basic bookkeeping easy but frequently report disappointment and question how free it really is.⁴ | Users praise Wave's free accounting and reporting but frequently complain that support does not respond. |
| Biggest gotcha | RCE affects versions below 3.1.3; patch immediately if self-hosting10 | Support reportedly goes unanswered . plan to self-serve or hire a bookkeeper |
Pick Akaunting when
- Freelancers sending invoices
- Self-hosting enthusiasts
- Micro-businesses tracking expenses
- Privacy-conscious users avoiding lock-in
When Akaunting is not a fit
- Companies needing payroll or audited, compliant books
- Teams unwilling to self-host or patch security updates
- Buyers who want guaranteed vendor support
- Growing firms needing multi-entity accounting
Pick Wave: Small Business Software - Wave Financial when
- Freelancers and solopreneurs
- Micro-businesses wanting free bookkeeping
- QuickBooks escapees on a budget
When Wave: Small Business Software - Wave Financial is not a fit
- Anyone needing fast, reliable customer support
- Guess: companies with multi-entity or complex accounting needs
- Guess: teams wanting deep reporting, inventory, or payroll depth
Sources
- Akaunting homepageakaunting.comofficial
- Akaunting Plansakaunting.comofficial
- Why Akaunting Cloudakaunting.comofficial
- G2 reviews (12 reviews)g2.comreview
- Capterra review: disappointing experiencecapterra.co.zareview
- Software Advice reviewssoftwareadvice.comreview
- Reddit: self-hosted, features unusablereddit.comreview
review
- LinkedIn: disappointing payroll reviewlinkedin.comreview
- Exploit-DB: Akaunting < 3.1.3 RCEexploit-db.comsecurity
- GitHub advisory GHSA-m69m-hm22-9xmxgithub.comsecurity
- SentinelOne CVE-2026-71251 auth bypasssentinelone.comsecurity
- Akaunting raises $500Kakaunting.comnews
- Wave: Small Business Software - Wave Financialwaveapps.comofficial
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