OysterThe Employer of Record powered by people who care as much as you do.
vs
WaveClear books. Confident decisions.
Comparison · Payroll · weekly run Nov 3
Oyster vs Wave
Which one do AI engines recommend, and how do they differ on price, fit and features?
The short answer
Wave is the stronger AI pick in Payroll: it has a visibility score of 2.3 versus 0.4 for Oyster.
Choose Oyster if…
- You need SOC 2 Type II or B Corp certification coverage
- You prefer a larger, established vendor (501–1,000 employees)
- Per seat pricing suits your budget better than flat tiers
Choose Wave if…
- You want the brand AI engines rank higher (2.3 vs 0.4)
- You want a lower entry price ($19 vs $29)
- Flat tiers pricing suits your budget better than per seat
- Free accounting and invoicing for micro-businesses
AI visibility side by side
Latest weekly run · Nov 3
| Metric | Oyster | Wave |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility score | 0.4% | 2.3% |
| Change vs last week | New | New |
| Rank in Payroll | #34 | #23 |
| Share of voice | 0.2% | 0.9% |
| Mentions this run | 1 | 4 |
| Positive in AI answers | — | 38% |
The stronger value in each row is marked with a ✓.
Visibility score trend
Weekly runs over the last 60 days
Oyster 0pp · Wave 0pp over 0 weekly runs.
Engine by engine
Wave leads on 3 of 3 engines
ChatGPT
AI Mode
Perplexity
OysterWave
Head to head in AI answers
0 engine answers name both brands
0Oyster ranked higher
0Wave ranked higher
Features, pricing & fit
| Dimension | Oyster | Wave |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per seat | Flat tiers |
| Entry price | Free; paid from $29 per seat / mo | Free; paid from $19 / mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Onboarding fee | Included | — |
| Deployment | Cloud-hosted platform on AWS | Cloud-based web application with a mobile app |
| Integrations | 500+ | — |
| Compliance | SOC 2 Type II, B Corp certification | — |
| Support | Dedicated point of contact who knows your business, In-house HR experts, Country-specific onboarding managers | Live chat and email support, Monday to Friday 9 AM to 4:45 PM Eastern, Wave Advisors bookkeeping and coaching (paid add-on) |
| Founded | 2020 | 2009 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, CA, United States | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Employees | 501–1,000 | 201–500 |
| Funding | Series D - II · $286M raised | Series D |
| Best for | Companies that want to hire and pay people in many countries without setting up local entities | Freelancers, solopreneurs, contractors and consultants who run small businesses and want simple books and invoicing without accounting expertise |
Plans side by side
Oyster
Employer of Record$699per employee/month
Global Contractors$29per contractor/month
People Services$300per hour
Wave
Starter$0month
Pro$19month per business (billed monthly); $190/year billed annually
Wave Advisors$149month (starting at)
Pros and cons
Themes from the AI answers that mention each brand
Oyster
Profile in progress.
Wave
- Free accounting and invoicing for micro-businesses
- Well suited to freelancers and very small businesses
- Ongoing free plan rather than a time-limited trial
- Affordable and reliable for small businesses
- Clear public pricing
- Free plan mainly suits a single user, not teams
- Free products offer fewer controls and growth features
Data collected ·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 100%·next run
Cite as: SlateIndex, “Oyster vs Wave”, https://slateindex.ai/compare/oyster-vs-wave, data of Nov 3, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.