Compliance beyond the invoice itself
Audit trail, VAT checklist and automatic VAT returns sit on plans where Zoho gates them higher.
Wafeq vs Zoho Books: which accounting software is right for your business?
Sticker prices look close. Price what a real business actually needs — a second warehouse, a second company, payroll — and Wafeq costs 2.5× less.
14 days free, no credit card needed
- 18,000+ companies
- 4.8 average rating
- 2M+ invoices a month
- Arabic-first support
Pricing
The comparison table
Every cell below names the tier and the price at which the feature unlocks, because that is the number that decides anything. A tick tells you a product has a feature; a price tells you what having it costs.
SAR, billed annually
| Feature | Wafeq | Zoho Books |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | 99/mo (Starter) | 60/mo (Standard) · free plan under SAR 200,000 revenue |
| ZATCA Phase 2 | Plus — 119/mo | Standard — 60/mo · 5,000-invoice annual cap, no cost centres |
| Invoice limit | None, any plan | 5,000/yr Standard · 10,000 Professional · 25,000 Premium · 100,000 Elite |
| Users included | 2 / 5 / 20 / unlimited | 3 / 5 / 10 / 10 / 15 · extra user 8/mo |
| Multi-currency | Every plan, from 99 | Professional — 90/mo |
| Cost centres | Plus — 119/mo | No cost-centre object at any price — reporting tags only |
| Multi-entity consolidation | Premium — 199/mo | Not available — each entity is a separate paid subscription |
| Consolidated financial statements | Premium — 199/mo | Not available |
| Inventory | Premium — 199/mo | Professional — 90/mo |
| Multiple warehouses | Premium — 199/mo, unlimited | Elite — 280/mo |
| Payroll | Included in Premium — 199/mo, no per-head charge | Separate product: 35–75/mo + 7–15 per employee/mo |
| Employee expense claims | Included in Premium | Add-on — 22/user/mo |
| AI OCR, Arabic | Every plan — 20/100/500/unlimited scans | 50–1,000 autoscans/mo · 30 per extra 50 |
| Manufacturing | Premium — 199/mo · assembly items, BoM, production orders, WIP accounting | None — no BoM, no production orders |
| Zapier | Yes | Yes |
| Bulk e-invoicing API | Premium — 199/mo | Via API, 2,000→10,000 calls/day (caps at Premium) |
| Bank feeds, KSA | SAB, Al Rajhi, D360 Bank, CIB — named | No bank named |
| Support | Arabic-first | English-first support |
| Free trial | 14 days, no card | 14 days + free plan (no Phase 2) |
Features
Feature deep-dive
No invoice cap, no currency gate
Zoho caps invoices by the year — 5,000 on Standard. Wafeq has no limit on any plan, and multi-currency starts on the entry plan.
The only vendor naming its banks
Wafeq names its Saudi banks: SAB, Al Rajhi, D360 and CIB. Zoho names none.
Unlimited warehouses and a real till
Zoho's SAR 90 tier buys one warehouse; the second means Elite at SAR 280. Wafeq gives unlimited at SAR 199, plus native Foodics.
Run several companies on one login
Multiple organisations, consolidated in any reporting currency. In Zoho each company is a separate subscription, and consolidation doesn't exist at any tier.
An API that doesn't meter growth
Open REST API, bulk and ERP e-invoicing, Zapier, native Salla — no metered ceiling. Zoho's Ultimate costs 5.5× more for the same 10,000 daily calls.
Fit
Which is right for you?
Freelancer or solo consultant
Wafeq Starter. Zoho's free plan has no ZATCA Phase 2 at all, so it stops working for you the day you come into scope, and its paid entry plan caps you at 5,000 invoices a year. In the UAE, Wafeq Starter at AED 57 undercuts Zoho and includes unlimited users, Corporate Tax and bank feeds.
Small retailer or F&B
Wafeq. Unlimited branches and unlimited warehouses at Premium, against Zoho's Elite at SAR 280 for a second warehouse plus SAR 44/month per extra location — and a native Foodics integration Zoho does not have at any price.
Accounting firm
Wafeq. Multi-client dashboard with centralised billing in the firm's name, free accountant invitations on every plan, and 60+ granular permissions against Zoho's 1–2 free accountant seats. The billing arrangement alone decides this at scale.
Multi-entity group
Wafeq, and this is not close. Zoho charges a full subscription per entity and cannot produce a consolidated statement at any price.
Enterprise finance team
Wafeq Enterprise: the ERP e-invoicing API, AP automation, the advanced reconciliation engine and a named account manager. Check Zoho's API ceiling before you compare tiers — it does not move above Premium, so Ultimate costs 5.5× more for the same 10,000 calls a day.
Migration
Moving from Zoho Books to Wafeq
- 1
Export from Zoho Books
Chart of accounts, customers and suppliers, items, open invoices and bills, and your opening trial balance. Zoho exports all of these as CSV; we tell you exactly which files and which date to cut at.
- 2
We map and upload it
Our team does this step, not you. Chart of accounts aligned, tax rates configured for your market, branches and cost centres set up, opening balances posted to your cut-off date.
- 3
Issue your first compliant invoice
Typically the same week. Phase 2 clearance is live from the moment your Plus plan is active.
Total cost
What it actually costs
Sticker price answers the wrong question. Here is one realistic business priced across both products.
A Riyadh retailer: 5 users, 3 branches, 2 warehouses, 20 employees on payroll, ~400 invoices a month, ZATCA Phase 2.
| Wafeq | Zoho Books | |
|---|---|---|
| Plan needed | Premium — SAR 199/mo | Elite — SAR 280/mo (multi-warehouse) |
| Base, annual | 2,390 | 3,360 |
| Users | Included (20) | Included (10) |
| Branches / locations | Included, unlimited | Included (8) |
| Payroll, 20 employees | Included | 2,640 — separate product |
| Total, SAR/year | 2,390 | 6,000 |
Zoho costs 2.5× more for this business, and the reason is not the accounting — it is that a second warehouse forces Elite and payroll is a second product with a per-head charge.
Prices exclude VAT. Add 15% (KSA) or 5% (UAE).
Pricing
All the essential tools for accounting and compliance
Need more? Enterprise plans add the ERP e-invoicing API, AP automation, the advanced reconciliation engine and a named account manager. Contact sales
Trust
Why trust Wafeq
Listed on the ZATCA Solution Providers Directory
And we describe it precisely: a non-binding guiding list, not an approval. The listing is what makes your business eligible to claim up to SAR 2,500 per establishment in reimbursement.
Your data stays yours
Export documents and reports on every plan, including Starter. No approval request, no retention hold, no exit fee.
No lock-in
Monthly billing is available on every plan. Annual billing is a discount, not a contract you cannot leave.
Arabic-first support
Not a translated queue — including Saturday, which Zoho's published Sun–Fri hours do not cover.
Built here
18,000+ companies, 2M+ invoices a month and a 4.8 average rating.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Wafeq ZATCA Phase 2 approved?
Wafeq is listed on the ZATCA Solution Providers Directory and supports Phase 2 integration on the Plus plan and above. ZATCA states that directory listing does not constitute approval by the Authority — no vendor in this market is "ZATCA approved," whatever their marketing says. Phase 2 covers XML generation, PDF/A-3, cryptographic stamping and Fatoora clearance, with an audit trail retained on every Wafeq plan.
Which is cheaper, Wafeq or Zoho Books?
Wafeq, for any business past its first warehouse. A 5-user, 3-branch, 20-employee retailer pays SAR 2,390/year with Wafeq against SAR 6,000 with Zoho Books — 2.5× more — because Zoho gates multi-warehouse to Elite at SAR 280/month and sells payroll as a separate product with a per-head charge. Zoho's SAR 60 entry plan looks cheaper on paper, but it caps you at 5,000 invoices a year and has no cost-centre object at any price.
Can I migrate my data from Zoho Books to Wafeq?
Yes. Chart of accounts, contacts, items, open and historical invoices and opening balances all transfer, and our team does the mapping and upload. Zoho reporting tags are remapped to Wafeq cost centres or projects. Zoho workflow rules do not transfer — Wafeq has no rule builder, so document what yours do before you move. Some map to approval flows on Premium; others can be rebuilt through our Zapier integration.
Does Wafeq support Arabic invoices?
Yes — Arabic is a first-class interface language, not a translation layer, and AI-powered OCR reads Arabic supplier bills on every plan including Starter. Zoho offers Arabic in Books but makes no RTL claim for it; notably, Zoho does claim full Arabic RTL for its separate POS product.
Does Wafeq work for a company operating in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE?
Yes. Multiple organisations run under one login from the Premium plan, with consolidated financial statements in any reporting currency, and both ZATCA and FTA requirements are handled in the same account. Zoho Books requires a separate paid subscription per organisation and does not offer consolidated statements at any tier.
Is Zoho Books FTA-compliant in the UAE?
Zoho Books handles UAE VAT, and Zoho Software Trading LLC is on the Ministry of Finance's accredited eInvoicing Service Provider list. Wafeq is accredited on that same list, accreditation no. 129932. On the product itself, ClearTax — an accredited provider — documents that Zoho does not natively generate PINT AE XML. Wafeq generates PINT AE natively, sends and receives over Peppol, handles self-billed invoices and credit notes, and produces UAE VAT returns in exact FTA format.
Where can I find the official list of FTA-accredited tax accounting software?
The Federal Tax Authority publishes its Tax Accounting Software Register at tax.gov.ae. This is a different register from the Ministry of Finance's list of accredited eInvoicing Service Providers under Article 16 of Ministerial Decision 64 of 2025 (Article 15 governs the separate pre-approved list) — software can be on one and not the other, and vendors frequently blur the two.
How long does migration take?
Most businesses issue their first compliant invoice from Wafeq within a week. The variable is not the upload, it is how clean your opening balances are. Groups with several entities usually cut over at a month end; if you are mid-VAT-period we cut at the period end instead so your return is not split across two systems.
Can my accountant manage multiple clients in Wafeq?
Yes — a multi-client dashboard with centralised billing in the firm's name, free accountant invitations on every plan, and 60+ granular permissions.
Can I automate approvals and connect Wafeq to my other tools?
Yes. Approval flows are included on Premium, Zapier covers cross-app automation, and there is a REST API, a bulk e-invoicing API on Premium and an ERP e-invoicing API on Enterprise. Unlike Zoho, none of it is metered by a call ceiling that stops rising as you move up tiers.
Switching
Questions before you switch
What about my Zoho contract overlap?
Run both for the overlap; you keep issuing from Zoho until opening balances are signed off. Talk to us and we will time the cutover to your renewal date.
Will I lose historical data?
No. Historical invoices import as historical records so your reporting history stays intact.
Is there a learning curve?
Fewer modules than Zoho, so less to learn. Sheet view works like Excel and keyboard shortcuts cover the common paths.
Will I have downtime?
No. Cut over on a date boundary; invoicing never stops.
What if we use Zoho CRM?
Wafeq connects to it through Zapier, and our migration team maps the flows you actually rely on as part of the move.
Start using Wafeq for free
14 days, no credit card. Already on Zoho Books? Our team does the migration mapping and upload for you.
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