A sole trader turning over four hundred thousand rand a year does not need what a wholesaler with three warehouses needs, and the market does a poor job of saying so. Here is the honest version.
Start with the VAT question
Compulsory VAT registration applies above one million rand in taxable supplies over twelve months. Voluntary registration is possible from fifty thousand rand. Whether you are registered changes the software decision more than anything else about your business.
If you are not registered, you do not need a VAT201, and that removes the single biggest local compliance requirement. Your options widen considerably and your budget should narrow.
Not registered for VAT
Zoho Books Free is the strongest option. A thousand invoices a year, a client portal, bank reconciliation and an accountant seat, at no cost, with a real upgrade path when you grow.
If you bill by the hour, FreshBooks Lite is worth the dollar cost purely for the time tracking to invoice pipeline and the payment chasing, which measurably improves how quickly independents get paid. It is not a South African ledger and at this scale that does not matter yet.
Wave is free and functional if all you need is a legitimate set of books and a manual statement import once a month.
Registered for VAT
The free tier options stop being sensible. Sage Accounting Start at around R220 a month excluding VAT gives you a working VAT201 and every major bank feed. Zoho Books Standard at around R380 gives you more capability for more money.
The deciding factor at this size is usually your accountant. Ask them.
Things you do not need
Inventory, unless you actually hold stock. Multi currency, unless you actually invoice in another currency. Project costing, unless you actually cost projects. Vendors sell tiers by bundling these, and it is worth checking whether the tier above is genuinely giving you something you will use.
The one thing worth spending on
Receipt capture. Photographing a slip at the till and having it attach to the transaction is the difference between a clean set of books and a shoebox in February. QuickBooks has the best mobile capture in the category, and Sage, Xero and Zoho all have workable versions.
For a sole trader, the failure mode is not choosing the wrong software. It is not doing the bookkeeping at all until year end. Choose the thing you will actually open.