Righto vs Wave: a Free Alternative for Mac

Righto, a free accounting app for Mac, next to Wave, the cloud accounting service with a free Starter plan and a $19 a month Pro plan.

Which is better, Righto or Wave?

For most freelancers and small businesses on a Mac, Righto is the better pick. Both are free to start, but in Righto every feature is free, your books stay in a file on your own computer, and it never needs your bank login. It imports bank statements, sorts them with rules, reconciles, tracks bills and hands your accountant clean cash-basis reports, and your own AI agent can help. Wave fits better if you want to send invoices and take card payments, or need payroll.

Why choose Righto over Wave

Easy to use. Righto is made for business owners, not bookkeepers. It uses plain words, puts a short answer behind a “?” next to each idea, and sets itself up from a year of bank statements. Most accounting apps assume you already know accounting.
Every feature is free. As of October 2026, Wave’s Starter plan is free, but automatic bank import, receipt capture and more user roles are part of Pro, at $19 a month or $190 a year. Payments and payroll cost extra. Righto has nothing to upgrade to.
Your books are a file on your Mac. No login, no account, no server in the middle. You can copy the file, back it up and open it years from now.
It works offline. Nothing about your books needs an internet connection.
Your own AI agent can help. Give Claude Code, Codex or another agent access to a business through the Righto command line or MCP, and choose what it may do. Every change it makes shows in Activity and can be undone.
It never needs your bank login. You import statement files, so Righto never holds a connection to your bank.
Your data is already yours. Wave lets you request an export of your data. Righto’s business file is one file you hold, so there is nothing to request.

Righto and Wave side by side

Facts about Wave are as of October 2026, from Wave’s pricing page.

	Righto	Wave
Price	Free, every feature	Starter free, Pro $19 a month
Where your books are kept	A file on your Mac	Wave’s servers
Platform	Mac	Web and apps
Account required	No	Yes
Works without internet	Yes	No
Import bank statement files	Yes	Yes
Automatic bank import	No	Pro plan
Rules that sort transactions	Yes	Pro plan
Bank reconciliation	Yes	Yes
Cash-basis reports	Yes	Yes
Bills	Yes	Yes
Send invoices	No	Yes
Card payments	No	Yes, per-payment fees
Payroll	No	Paid add-on
AI agent access (CLI and MCP)	Yes	No

Wave plans

As of October 2026, these are Wave’s US list prices.

Plan	Price	What it adds
Starter	$0	Invoices, estimates, bills and bookkeeping
Pro	$19 a month or $190 a year	Automatic bank import, receipt capture, payment reminders, user roles

Online card payments cost 2.9% plus $0.60 per payment on Starter, with lower fees on Pro for the first 10 payments a month. Payroll is a separate add-on.

When Wave is the better fit

Wave makes sense for a service business that sends a lot of invoices and wants customers to pay them online by card. It also offers payroll and a paid bookkeeping service.

Moving over from Wave

You can bring over your chart of accounts, contacts, balances and open items. Then import your bank statements. The switching guide has the steps, and your agent can help with them.

Sources

Wave: pricing, read October 19, 2026, and Download your account data.
Righto: the help center, what Righto does not do and the FAQ.

Wave is a trademark of Wave Financial, Inc. Righto is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Wave.