14 categories · RankedWave
333Judge labels
81First choices
76Negative labels
12 of 12Models named it
14Categories
September 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table vv2026-09.2, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
21% in Accounting software for mid-market buyers
Rank 2 of 56 in the mid-market standingaccepted challenger
0 of 12 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 19% of its 27 labels there were negative.
By buyer segmentStrongest at mid-market.
Small business3 of 37
18%36 labels
criticized challenger
Mid-market2 of 56
21%27 labels
accepted challenger
Enterprise51 of 53
0%5 labels
under the label threshold
In accounting software · each standing computed within its segment · bars are 0 to 100 · the accent bar is the product's own best reading
Standing by category
Every category where a model named Wave for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.
| Category | Function | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accounting software | Accounting and close | 21% | 2 of 56 | 19% | 27 | accepted challenger |
| Invoicing software | Receivables and billing | 19% | 1 of 86 | 23% | 35 | accepted challenger |
| Financial reporting and dashboards | Planning and analysis | 12% | 3 of 133 | 11% | 9 | under 10 labels · led by Sage Intacct at 27% |
| AI accounting assistants | Accounting and close | 7% | 7 of 79 | 14% | 7 | under 10 labels · led by Sage Intacct at 25% |
| Cash application | Receivables and billing | 7% | 7 of 83 | 0% | 6 | under 10 labels · led by HighRadius at 16% |
| Expense management | Spend and procurement | 4% | 8 of 46 | 0% | 6 | under 10 labels · led by Ramp at 34% |
| Accounts receivable automation | Receivables and billing | 4% | 9 of 77 | 0% | 7 | under 10 labels · led by Zoho Books at 15% |
| Account reconciliation | Accounting and close | 4% | 8 of 72 | 14% | 7 | under 10 labels · led by FloQast at 33% |
| Corporate performance management | Planning and analysis | 2% | 15 of 95 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Planful at 29% |
| Global e-invoicing compliance | Tax and compliance | 2% | 19 of 108 | 71% | 7 | under 10 labels · led by Avalara at 28% |
| Cash flow forecasting | Treasury and cash | 0% | 52 of 86 | 33% | 3 | under 10 labels · led by Agicap at 18% |
| Financial modeling and scenario planning | Planning and analysis | 0% | 59 of 114 | 0% | 2 | under 10 labels · led by Datarails at 19% |
| Business bill pay | Treasury and cash | 0% | 37 of 69 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by BILL at 35% |
| Revenue recognition | Accounting and close | 0% | 67 of 77 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Maxio at 15% |
Movement
This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for Wave yet. From the next edition this section shows, per buyer segment, whether its share moved by more than the measured noise floor.
By model
How each model treated Wave across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Twelve models, six prompts per category.
| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 11 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 2 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 13 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 2 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 12 |
| Grok 4.1 Fast | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 12 |
| Mistral Small | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 |
| Kimi K2 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 13 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 5 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 13 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 11 |
By framing
Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.
FramingLabels by classFirst choices
Direct22 labelsNone
Paraphrase22 labels1
Comparative64 labels3not counted in share
Budget-constrained162 labels80
Scale-constrained4 labelsNone
Negative59 labels2not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative333 labels in all, every segment counted; 81 of the 86 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.
What the models said for it
Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.
“For most companies with a truly limited budget, Wave (free) or Zoho Books/Patriot (low-cost) tend to offer the best balance of price and reliability.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · Accounting software · budget prompt · first choice
“Wave, which is a free cloud-based software ... making it ideal for freelancers and startups looking to track income and expenses without monthly fees.” Claude Haiku 4.5 · Cash application · budget prompt · first choice
“Wave - Completely free accounting software with invoicing, expense tracking, and financial reports. Good for startups and small businesses.” Claude Haiku 4.5 · Accounting software · budget prompt · first choice
“Wave offers a permanently free version with no monthly subscription, and its invoicing features are intuitive to navigate” Claude Haiku 4.5 · Invoicing software · budget prompt · first choice
And against it
Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.
“the main ones to be cautious about are QuickBooks Self-Employed, Wave for growing or inventory-heavy businesses” Perplexity Sonar · Accounting software · negative prompt · hard negative
“Invoicemonk says to avoid US/Canada-only tools like Wave if you need multi-currency/global compliance” Perplexity Sonar · Invoicing software · negative prompt · hard negative
“The Option to Avoid (Unless in US/Canada) Wave ... Wave cannot send compliant invoices or process payments.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · Global e-invoicing compl · budget prompt · hard negative
“Avoid free tools like Wave—they lack automation depth growing businesses need” Kimi K2 · Invoicing software · paraphrase prompt · hard negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Wave, over the 331 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Wave was named but was not.
ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head
A head-to-head page exists where both products are in a category's top three. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.
What carried it into the answer
The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Wave. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, four of the twelve in this edition, so these counts come from 283 of the 331 answers that named Wave and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
forbes.com83
nerdwallet.com77
cnbc.com60
fitsmallbusiness.com59
softwareadvice.com58
worldmetrics.org55
pcmag.com53
learn.g2.com51
toolradar.com51
geekflare.com49
596 of the 596 domain citations in answers naming Wave came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Names read as Wave
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Wave; a claim can dispute any of them.
Wave Accounting 16Wave Invoicing 2Wave Pro 1Wave Starter 1
Is this your product?
Claim this page
Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when Wave's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as Wave, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.
It does not get any change to labels, shares or verdicts, any preview, or any say over which quotes appear. A verification link goes to your work email; an address at wave.video is approved on the spot, any other address is reviewed by hand.
Your name and company appear on the claimed page, or the company alone if you ask below. A title and a LinkedIn address appear there too if you give them, and are left off if you do not. Your email address is never published.