Brex vs Wave

Brex is a US spend management company founded in 2017 by Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi and based in San Francisco. It combines corporate cards, expense management, reimbursements, bill pay, travel booking and business accounts in one platform, with the aim of replacing expense reports and manual card reconciliation.

Cards carry real-time controls: budgets per team, project or vendor, merchant restrictions and approval chains. AI matches receipts, flags policy issues and suggests accounting codes that sync to ERPs such as NetSuite, QuickBooks and Xero. The Essentials plan is free and covers cards, expenses and bill pay; Premium adds advanced policies, travel and approvals for a per-user fee; Enterprise supports multiple global entities, local cards in many countries and custom controls.

Brex fits venture-backed startups and mid-market or enterprise companies with US entities, especially those with employees or subsidiaries abroad. Eligibility rules apply, and in 2022 Brex stopped serving many small businesses without venture funding, so very small companies may not qualify. Ramp is the closest rival and is often preferred for its free automation and savings tools; Navan combines travel and expense; Airbase served mid-market finance teams before Paylocity bought it. In practice Brex and Ramp are close, and the decision often comes down to global needs, ERP integration and the offer you receive.

In January 2026 Capital One agreed to acquire Brex for about $5.15 billion, with Pedro Franceschi continuing to lead the business.

Wave is a small-business financial software company from Toronto that offers free invoicing and accounting, mainly for freelancers, sole proprietors and very small businesses in the United States and Canada. It was acquired by H&R Block in 2019 and makes money from payment processing, payroll and its paid Pro plan rather than charging for basic bookkeeping.

The free Starter plan includes unlimited invoices and estimates, double-entry accounting, connected bank accounts, income and expense tracking and standard reports such as profit and loss, balance sheet and sales tax. Pro adds automatic import and categorisation of bank transactions, receipt capture and automated payment reminders. Online card and bank payments on invoices are charged per transaction, and Wave Payroll is an add-on with automated tax filing in supported US states, priced per month plus a fee per employee. Most features are designed around US and Canadian banks, taxes and payment rails.

Wave fits North American freelancers and micro-businesses that want simple, free books and professional invoices. Outside the US and Canada, payments, payroll and bank connections are largely unavailable, integrations are few, inventory and multi-user workflows are basic, and fast support is a paid feature. QuickBooks Online and Xero are the standard upgrades as a business grows, FreshBooks is stronger for service-based invoicing, and Zoho Books is a good-value option with wider international support.