The Wave alternative for South Africa

In November 2020, Wave announced it was refocusing exclusively on the United States and Canada. Product support and customer support for users outside those two countries were discontinued, and the features that depend on Wave's North American infrastructure went with them.

The practical effect for a South African user is severe. Users outside the US and Canada can no longer send invoices or reminders through Wave. You can still produce a document and share it as a PDF or a link, but the actual invoicing workflow — emailing the invoice from the platform, automated payment reminders — is gone. That's most of the reason you'd choose invoicing software in the first place.

Wave's payments infrastructure is also built entirely on North American banking rails. There's no South African EFT support and no local bank integration, so Wave Payments cannot collect money from your clients in rand. If you find an old blog post recommending Wave for South African freelancers, check its date — a lot of that advice predates 2020 and is simply stale.

Once you've ruled Wave out, it's worth being clear about what "works in South Africa" actually means. Plenty of invoicing tools will happily let you sign up from Johannesburg and then fall over on the things that matter locally.

The first is rand. Not just displaying a R symbol — the ability to invoice in ZAR and be paid in ZAR without your client eating a currency conversion. The second is a local payment gateway. A tool that only integrates with Stripe is a problem, because you need something that settles into a South African bank account. The third is VAT at 15%, presented the way SARS requires on a tax invoice.

And then the ordinary things: emailing the invoice from the software, chasing it automatically when it goes overdue, and having the payment reconcile itself against the right invoice when it lands.

There are a few genuine alternatives, and the right one depends on whether you need accounting or just invoicing.

Zoho Invoice is the closest thing to Wave's "free forever" promise that still works internationally. It's free with no time limit, with caps as of 2026 stated at up to 500 invoices a year and 2 users, and it carries "Powered by Zoho Invoice" branding on the free tier. If your needs are simple and cost is the priority, it's a strong option.

Sage and Xero are both well established in South Africa, with local accountant support and full double-entry books. They're proper accounting platforms, priced accordingly. If you need a balance sheet and a bookkeeper who already knows the software, that's the trade you're making.

QuickBooks Online is available in South Africa — despite what you may have read, Intuit did not exit the SA market. It's full accounting software with local pricing; check their site for current rand figures.

Platybooks is the option built around the South African invoicing wedge specifically: ZAR pricing, Paystack card payments settling to your own bank account, 15% VAT, and automated reminders — without full accounting. Our Free plan is free forever with no credit card, and unlike Wave, everything on it works from South Africa.

Platybooks does one job: quotes and invoices, and getting them paid. It deliberately doesn't do double-entry bookkeeping — if you need a general ledger and a trial balance, a full accounting platform is the honest recommendation and you should use one.

What you get instead is the invoicing workflow done properly for South Africa. Prices are shown in rand — R0 on Free, then R199, R499 and R1,199 a month. You connect your own Paystack account so clients pay by card in rand and the money settles into your bank account. Invoices carry your VAT number and show net, VAT and total separately. Numbering is gapless and generated server-side, which matters for the SARS serial-number requirement. Overdue reminders go out on their own at +3, +7 and +14 days, quotes convert to invoices in a click, and receipts send themselves when a payment lands.

The Free plan covers 1 user, 3 clients and 5 documents a month with PDF and manual payments — enough to run real work before you pay anything. Card payment links and branding start on Starter; full automation is on Pro.