--- title: Wave Payroll Reviews meta_title: 'Wave Payroll Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 31 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Wave Payroll works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.1 review_count: 31 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-07-13' parent_category: name: HR url: https://www.g2.com/categories/hr --- # Wave Payroll Reviews **Vendor:** Wave **Category:** [Payroll Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/payroll) **Average Rating:** 4.1/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 31 ## About Wave Payroll Wave delivers innovative financial services and award-winning free software to small- and micro-businesses around the world. ## Wave Payroll Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users appreciate the **flexibility** of Wave Payroll, making it ideal for freelancers and solo business owners. (2 reviews) - Users appreciate the **comprehensive features** of Wave Payroll, finding it essential for managing invoicing and financial tasks. (1 reviews) - Users find Wave Payroll to be **user-friendly** , making invoicing and financial management straightforward and less stressful. (1 reviews) - Users value the **flexibility** of Wave Payroll, allowing them to efficiently manage payroll even as solo entrepreneurs. (1 reviews) - Users find Wave Payroll to be an **amazing affordable tool** that simplifies invoicing and managing small business finances. (1 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users find the absence of a **calendar feature** limiting for managing shipping and e-commerce tasks effectively. (1 reviews) - Users find Wave Payroll **not intuitive** , especially when managing complex client interactions and alerts that don't fit all scenarios. (1 reviews) ## Wave Payroll Reviews ### 1. From waves to paypal **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** LaTaurus C. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 11, 2023 **What do you like best about Wave Payroll?** So, with waves, I initially signed up thinking that I would have employees to pay but I ended up running my business alone. But the flexibility to run payroll is what I liked about waves. **What do you dislike about Wave Payroll?** What I dislike about waves is that it didn't have a calendar feature. I wanted to create a commerce site around it that involves automatic shipping. You know, like take down addresses and create shipping labels. **What problems is Wave Payroll solving and how is that benefiting you?** The length and time that it was taking for direct deposits to hit contractor's account. It changed to 2 days now. Also some of the transactions features were hard to navigate. ### 2. A great tool for aspiring freelancers and professionals **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Beth R. | Instructional Designer & Virtual Facilitator, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 22, 2023 **What do you like best about Wave Payroll?** When I was starting out as a freelancer and wanted to look professional when dealing with clients, Wave was an amazing affordable tool. It introduced me to the financial side of running a small business. It's a great tool for those wanting to send invoices, keep track of their invoices, and make getting money less stressful. **What do you dislike about Wave Payroll?** It can be hard to use sometimes. Dealing with clients can be very complex, so the money alerts and reminders don't always fit every situation. **What problems is Wave Payroll solving and how is that benefiting you?** It allowed me to understand where my money was going and getting. I was forced to reconsider how I paid myself and the other freelancers on my remote team. Paying people was quite easy. ### 3. Customer service takes weeks to respond **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ed I. | Co-founder, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 08, 2022 **What do you like best about Wave Payroll?** It's so simple that it's almost not worth using. Need to pay overtime? Not well supported. Need to resolve an issue? Be prepared to wait a week or more to hear back. I have no idea why someone would rely on a payroll service that you can't get in contact with and receive a prompt response. If you ever have an issue with an employee getting paid, you know that you can't a wait a week to get a response from your payroll company. But look, it's cheap! You get what you pay for. **What do you dislike about Wave Payroll?** Customer service is abysmal. The software interface is overly simplistic and doesn't support very basic payroll use cases. You are charged higher rates if you are in certain states for their "tax services", even if Wave doesn't support your tax situation. So you are paying for a service that they can't even provide you. **What problems is Wave Payroll solving and how is that benefiting you?** They competently calculated payroll twice for me. Then we ran into several issues that took nearly 6 weeks to resolve, at which point I just cancelled. (But of course, they continued to charge me after canceling!) ### 4. Best Budget Enterprise Accounting Software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mrinmai S. | Consultant II, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 12, 2022 **What do you like best about Wave Payroll?** Wave payroll is one of the best payroll and finance management software that I have used so far. It has a great user interface and it is very easy to use. It has almost all the features that any small to mid-sized company might need to manage its payroll and finances. The feature that I like the most is the automation and third-party integrations it offers. **What do you dislike about Wave Payroll?** Overall the software is great and I like using it. My company is based out of India because of which there are some parameters that need to be customized according to the country's financial laws and regulations, which becomes a little tricky because Wave apps and Wapyroll are designed keeping the US and Canada regions in mind because of which it doesn't meet all the requirements for India. But otherwise, it is perfect. **What problems is Wave Payroll solving and how is that benefiting you?** Way payroll is an accounting SaaS application which offers a lot of freemium features. We were using the complete Wave apps along with Wave Payroll to manage employee payrolls and company expenses. ### 5. I really enjoy the simplicity and how easily o can fond everything I am looking for. **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kojenwa M. | CEO, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 29, 2022 **What do you like best about Wave Payroll?** The upsides include not having to purchase an extra software like fresh books or quick books to manage payroll. Wave feels like an all in one solution. Square also offers payroll and this is also seem less but I don't believe there are other competitors that can receive and accept payments as well as to pay employees. **What do you dislike about Wave Payroll?** It takes several days to initiate patrol so it would be nice if we could submit payroll based on future invoices because sometimes cash flows are not synonymous with payroll issue dates. **What problems is Wave Payroll solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am able to see cash flows at a glance thanks to the dashboard feature. I think the bar graph is more compelling than the point graph. I like that I can integrate all of the data from my employees into the system and never have to think about it again. The system can issue W2s and W9s. ### 6. Easy to use, fast payment and low commission **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Christopher S. | Gerente Financiero, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 19, 2022 **What do you like best about Wave Payroll?** the low commission is significant because it promotes the investment **What do you dislike about Wave Payroll?** All about of concept are good, but at my country now is not disponible get a card and this dificult my transactions and operation. Please acelerate your expantion. **What problems is Wave Payroll solving and how is that benefiting you?** My problem is transfer and receive money from USA and Canada, with Wave Payroll is more eficient and cheap ### 7. Wave Review **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Hospital & Health Care | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 10, 2019 **What do you like best about Wave Payroll?** I love being able to keep track of everything with my business finances in one place, including income and expenses. I also like being able to create invoices and link my wave account to my business bank account. **What do you dislike about Wave Payroll?** My main dislike of wave is with the app. The app is challenging and confusing to use and has limited uses. I wish it had all the features and capabilities the website had. **Recommendations to others considering Wave Payroll:** I do not have any recommendations **What problems is Wave Payroll solving and how is that benefiting you?** Wave has made it easy to keep track of my business’ financial transactions, keeping them all in one place. ### 8. Loved them for 6 years, Until... **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jacquelyn T. | Art Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 24, 2021 **What do you like best about Wave Payroll?** The UX and all the features are everything I need as a business owner. They've also added so many more features as my team grew! I had no intentions of ever not using Wave...ever. **What do you dislike about Wave Payroll?** Out of nowhere, Wave said they would not be able to keep me as a client and I no longer had access to the app. The only thing I can think of is that the last payment a client made to their invoice was larger and their website talks about cannabis in some areas. But they weren't a cannabis business so it shouldn't have violated any credit card processing policies. They would not give me a reason for not allowing me on the app anymore. It was such a bummer after 6 years of use to not have any customer support give me an answer and then just have to use another app for all my accounting, banking, invoicing, and payroll... **Recommendations to others considering Wave Payroll:** I loved it, but do your research on other apps as they might be the better option over Wave for your business. **What problems is Wave Payroll solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's great for accounting data as your send and receive payments from invoices. It makes doing taxes so much easier since it's already doing so much tracking for you. The invoices also look great and you can customize them more than any other invoicing system. The new Payroll features it great and easy to use. ### 9. If you are not a payroll expert Wave is your ally. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Marketing and Advertising | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 26, 2022 **What do you like best about Wave Payroll?** How you can set up invoices to go out on a particular day and not worry about having to remember them later. Also, I love the recurring invoices. **What do you dislike about Wave Payroll?** Sometimes I feel that it gets hard to do a refund. It could be more specific. **Recommendations to others considering Wave Payroll:** When setting up accounts and invoices try to do it all in one sitting to not forget anyone. **What problems is Wave Payroll solving and how is that benefiting you?** Invoicing my clients without worrying about dates or deadlines as it does it automatically. ### 10. Great software for tracking expenses and such **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nasiyah I. | Founder and CEO, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 23, 2021 **What do you like best about Wave Payroll?** Better and cheaper than QuickBooks. Easy to use, fun, and simple design. Great for beginners and non-accountants trying to track business expenses and payroll. **What do you dislike about Wave Payroll?** Nothing about Wave is a dislike! Its free, easy, and works great. I would not ask for anything more or anything less than Wave Accounting and PayRoll!!!!!!!!!!!! **What problems is Wave Payroll solving and how is that benefiting you?** Our nonprofit needs expense tracking and budgeting software to track expenditures and it has helped us be twice as productive and increase donations, sales, and balance our books. ## Wave Payroll Discussions - [Can you print checks from Wave?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/can-you-print-checks-from-wave) - 1 comment - [View Wave Payroll pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/wave-payroll/reviews/wave-payroll-review-1375210?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-07-13+18%3A29%3A00+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=1e6035eb-f443-4c66-aaae-ce660e3da577&secure%5Btoken%5D=e45a6c97fa051dbdfd1cdd84c4cbfaaa71c2f690458cd54ebc61b085b22a85bf&format=llm_user) ## Wave Payroll Features **Employee Self Service** - Web Portal - Benefits Manager **Administration** - Payroll Entry - Time Off Accrual - Direct Deposit - Expense Reimbursement - Pre-tax Deductions - Wage Garnishment - Approvals - Check/W-2 Printing - Check/W-2 Delivery **Taxes** - Tax Calculation - Tax Filing - Automatic Tax Payment **Integration** - API / Integration - Time Tracking Integration - Accounting Integration - Core HR Integration **Platform** - Reporting and Dashboards - User, Role, and Access Management - Performance and Reliability - Scalability ## Top Wave Payroll Alternatives - [SurePayroll](https://www.g2.com/products/surepayroll/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (523 reviews) - [Gusto](https://www.g2.com/products/gusto/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (11,626 reviews) - [Dayforce](https://www.g2.com/products/dayforce/reviews) - 4.2/5.0 (943 reviews)