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Accounting software · October 2026 Edition

Wave vs Xero

Zero of fourteen models named Wave first on the direct prompt; zero named Xero. Both were named by all fourteen models and Wave carries 30 labels and Xero 41, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Wave

accepted challenger

Named in seventeen categories this edition.

Xero

accepted challenger

Named in twenty-one categories this edition.

First-choice share19%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate17%20%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#3#5A position in a field of 10; printed, not drawn.
Labels3041A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Wave reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Sage Intacct was named alongside these two in thirteen of the fourteen direct answers. Sage Intacct vs Wave · Sage Intacct vs Xero · Oracle NetSuite vs Wave

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the accounting software page.

By framing

How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
WaveFirst choices, of fourteen modelsXero
Direct002 against Xero
Paraphrase003 against Xero
Comparative03
Budget-constrained111
Scale-constrained002 against Xero
Negative035 against Wave · 1 against Xero
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.

Across every category in the October 2026 Edition, Wave and Xero were named in the same answer 213 times, of the 349 answers naming Wave and the 795 naming Xero. In those answers Xero took the first choice forty-three times and Wave fifty-six.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Wave and Xero stood in it.
ModelDirectParaphraseComparativeBudget-constrainedScale-constrainedNegative
Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-5.4 mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Perplexity Sonar
Grok 4.1 Fast
Mistral Small
DeepSeek V4 Flash
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen 3.7 Flash
Kimi K2
GLM 4.7 FlashX
MiniMax M2.5
GPT-6 Luna
Muse Glimmer 30B
Wave Xero first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Wave on the left and Xero on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Wave and Xero stood in it.

Neither was the first choice, one was named

1 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
Claude Haiku 4.5Sage Intacct alternatives: DualEntry, Oracle NetSuite, Xero

Neither was named

13 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
GPT-5.4 miniSage Intacct alternatives: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Oracle NetSuite
Gemini 3.5 FlashSage Intacct alternatives: Acumatica, Intuit Enterprise Suite, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Oracle NetSuite
Perplexity SonarSage Intacct alternatives: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
Grok 4.1 FastOracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct alternatives: Acumatica, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
Mistral SmallSage Intacct alternatives: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Oracle NetSuite, QuickBooks
DeepSeek V4 FlashOracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct alternatives: Acumatica, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice
Qwen 3.7 FlashOracle NetSuite alternatives: Acumatica, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Sage Intacct
Kimi K2Sage Intacct alternatives: Oracle NetSuite
GLM 4.7 FlashXOracle NetSuite alternatives: Acumatica, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Sage Intacct
MiniMax M2.5Oracle NetSuite alternatives: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Sage Intacct
GPT-6 LunaSage Intacct alternatives: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Oracle NetSuite
Muse Glimmer 30BOracle NetSuite alternatives: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Sage Intacct

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Wave leads by two points.
Wave20%#2 of 8
Xero18%#3 of 8
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
Wave leads by eighteen points.
Wave19%#3 of 10
Xero2%#5 of 10
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
The order flips: Xero leads at enterprise.
Xero2%#8 of 10
Wave0%#– of 10
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Wave

No label in this category carried a quote.

What the models said about Xero

No label in this category carried a quote.

Also compared
Sage Intacct vs WaveSage Intacct vs XeroOracle NetSuite vs WaveOracle NetSuite vs XeroWave vs Zoho BooksWave vs FreshBooksZoho Books vs XeroXero vs FreshBooksAll fifteen head-to-head pages and the full accounting software standing

Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.