10 Best QuickBooks Alternatives 2019 [Free & Paid]

The best QuickBooks alternatives have all the core bookkeeping capabilities that small businesses need but are often easier to use and more affordable. Whether you’re looking to switch from QuickBooks, looking for your business’ first accounting software, or looking for a free QuickBooks alternative, you’ll find a full review of the right accounting software here.

FreshBooks: Best QuickBooks Alternative for Self-employed & Freelancers

FreshBooks is the best QuickBooks alternative for the self-employed and freelancers. Not only is it easy to set up and use, but it pairs a robust time and expense tracker with great invoicing capabilities. You create and send customized invoices, send payment reminders, and even charge late fees automatically. Plans start at $15 per month.

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Best QuickBooks Alternatives 2019

When to Use QuickBooks Online

Before I go any further, it’s important to note that there is one major reason so many small business owners use QuickBooks Online (QBO). It’s because many accountants and bookkeepers are much more familiar with QuickBooks than any other accounting software (over 50,000 accountants and bookkeepers are certified QB ProAdvisors). It’s also the system that we use and love at Fit Small Business. Sign up now to receive up to 50% off your paid subscription.

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How We Evaluated QuickBooks Alternatives

A number of small businesses look for an accounting software alternative to QuickBooks because they cost a lot less, they have unique business requirements that QuickBooks does not meet, and in some cases, these products may perform better than QuickBooks. We based our research on a set of seven main criteria.

We took 10 products for a test run to see whether they met the following criteria:

• Manage accounts receivable: Tracks open customer invoices that are coming due or past due.
• Manage accounts payable: Tracks unpaid vendor bills that are coming due or past due.
• Accept online payments: Allow customers to pay their invoices directly online with a debit or credit card.
• Multi-user access: Invite other users, such as a bookkeeper or CPA, to access the data.
• Produce key financial statements: Produce a profit and loss, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows.
• Ease of use: It’s easy enough to learn and use the accounting software without being a pro.
• Price: It’s an affordable (or free) alternative to QuickBooks that small businesses can actually afford.

Out of the 10 QuickBooks competitors that we considered, Xero is our top pick for the best QuickBooks alternative. Xero includes all of the features that QuickBooks Online has to offer. In addition, Xero takes it one step further by including unlimited users for all pricing plans at no additional charge.

Xero: Best Overall QuickBooks Alternative

Xero is ideal for a business that needs to give several users access to their data. Unlike the other providers on our list, Xero does not charge based on the number of users. This means you can give access to as many people as you need to without having to worry about your bill going up. While the Early plan is less expensive than its competitors at $9 per month, Xero has the priciest top-tier, self-service plan at $60 per month versus $50 per month for FreshBooks.

Xero Pricing & Features

Xero has three pricing plans between $9 and $60 per month. Each plan includes an unlimited number of users, the ability to track income and expenses, connect bank and credit card accounts, and manage accounts receivable and accounts payable.

Xero Tiered Pricing & Features Table

Listed below is a breakdown of all three Xero pricing plans:

Xero Early

Xero Early plan is ideal for a micro business that does not have many expenses to keep track of. While it is able to do most bookkeeping tasks, such as accounts receivable and income and expense tracking, it is limited when it comes to accounts payable. If you have more than five bills to pay or 20 bank and credit card transactions to download, you will have to upgrade to Xero Standard.

Xero Growing

Xero Growing is ideal for any small business that sells products or services and needs the ability to share their data with a bookkeeper or tax preparer. Unlike Xero Early, Xero Growing includes unlimited accounts payable and bank and credit card transactions. Once your business becomes global, you will need to upgrade to the Xero Established plan, which includes multicurrency accounting.

Xero Established

Xero Established is ideal for a business that buys and sells products and services in multiple countries. Xero supports more than 160 currencies, which means you can manage your foreign bank and credit card accounts with Xero Established. In addition, you can bill customers in their native currency and accept payments in a foreign currency as well.

Based on our list of criteria, here is how Xero stacks up against its competition:

Cost

When it comes to cost, Xero is the most expensive of the products on our list. While the Xero Early plan starts at $9 per month, like the Zoho Books Basic plan, the top-tier plan is $60 per month compared to the Zoho Books top-tier plan, which runs $29 per month. However, when you compare Xero’s top-tier plan (Established) to QuickBooks top-tier plan (Plus), they are both $60 per month.

Number of Users Included

Similar to Wave, Billy, and ZipBooks, Xero includes unlimited users in all three of their pricing plans. This is a feature that not even QuickBooks offers at this time. As you add new users, you can be confident that your monthly bill will not go up.

Connect Bank & Credit Card Accounts

Similar to its competitors, connecting your bank and credit card accounts is very easy in Xero. All you need is your user ID and password for each account that you want to connect to Xero. Follow the instructions in our how to set up bank feeds tutorial to set up your accounts.

Manage Accounts Payable

Like Spendwise and Zoho Books, you can manage your unpaid bills in Xero. While the Early plan is limited to five bills per month, the Growing and Established plans allow you to process unlimited bills, including printing checks and access to the accounts payable aging report to stay on top of your accounts payable balances.

Track Income & Expenses

Xero can track all of your income and expenses like the other products on our list. In addition to connecting your bank and credit card accounts to Xero, there are three ways you can keep track of your expenses:

• Use the Xero app to scan receipts and attach them to transactions
• Drag and drop PDF receipts from your computer into Xero
• Email PDF receipts to your Xero inbox

To see how this works, check out our video tutorial on how to create bills in Xero.

Manage Accounts Receivable

Xero can help you to streamline your accounts receivable process, like many of its competitors. The following tasks can be completed in Xero so that you can stay on top of your open customer invoices:

• Create customized invoices with your company logo and brand
• Email invoices to customers
• Track the status of an invoice to see when it has been viewed or paid
• Run an accounts receivable aging report to see what invoices are coming due or past due

Reports

Like the other products on our list, there are a number of detailed reports you can run in Xero to gain insight into your sales, expenses, and overall business health. To see how easy it is to run reports in Xero, click on any of the links below for the three primary reports you will need (profit and loss, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows):

• Profit and loss statement
• Balance sheet report
• Cash flow statement

Track Inventory

Similar to Spendwise Enterprise, you can keep track of all purchases and sales of products if you sign up for the Xero Growing or Established plans. Xero will automatically update your on-hand quantities each time you purchase inventory or sell something to a customer. Detailed inventory reports are also available for you to review and stay on top of your product costs.

Multicurrency

The Xero Established plan is the only plan that allows you to do business on a global level. With this plan, you can perform the following tasks, and Xero will keep track of all exchange rates and ensure your financial statements are updated accordingly:

• Create invoices in multiple currencies
• Pay vendors and suppliers in multiple currencies
• Manage bank accounts in multiple currencies
• Manage credit card accounts in multiple currencies

Payroll Processing

Xero does not include payroll processing in its plans. However, you can sign up for Gusto, which integrates with Xero. Pricing plans start at $39 per month plus $6 per person, per month.

You can perform the following tasks in Gusto:

• Unlimited payrolls
• Multiple pay schedules and pay rates
• Direct deposit or check payments
• W-2s and 1099s
• Calculation of federal and state payroll taxes
• Automated payroll filings and tax payments

What Xero Is Missing

When it comes to features, Xero is about as close as you can get to a complete replacement for QuickBooks. However, one of the disadvantages of Xero is its ecosystem is not as large as the QuickBooks ecosystem. Unfortunately, there are not as many accountants or bookkeepers who are familiar with Xero, which has over 10,000 certified accountants versus 50,000 QuickBooks certified accountants. This makes it challenging to find a local Xero expert to help you.

What Users Think About Xero

Xero customers like how user-friendly the program is and the number of features it includes, like unlimited users at no additional cost. However, customers are not satisfied that there is no live telephone support and they have to wait for an email response from the support team when they run into an issue. For more information, check out our Xero reviews page.

Where to Find Xero

You can take Xero for a free, 30-day test drive to see if it’s right for your business before you buy it. Similar to its competitors, there is no credit card required; simply provide some basic contact information and you get access to all of the great features we have discussed.

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Wave: Best Free QuickBooks Alternative

If you’re looking for a free QuickBooks alternative that has about 85% of the features available in QuickBooks for small business, Wave is the best solution. Wave offers many features that are not included in most paid plans for its competitors, like unlimited users and unlimited businesses. It’s much better than Excel spreadsheets and it does the calculations for you. Best of all, you can use Wave for free.

Wave Pricing

There is only one edition of Wave, and it is completely free. When it comes to price, none of its competitors can beat it. While ZipBooks offers a free edition, it does not offer as many features as Wave does. Wave does not charge you to add multiple users and you can track income and expenses for all your businesses under the same account—free of charge.

Wave Features

Wave is the most feature-rich accounting software for the cost—free. On top of being able to track income and expenses and your accounts receivable, you can add as many users as you like—free of charge. If you have more than one business that you need to manage, you can create an unlimited number of businesses under the same account. Again, this is free of charge, and the best part is you can access them all with just one Wave account.

Based on our minimum criteria, here is how Wave stacks up against the competition:

Number of Users Included

Wave allows you to invite an unlimited number of users to view and edit your data. This varies drastically with all of the competitors that we looked at. The only plans that allow you to add an unlimited number of users at no additional cost is the ZipBooks Starter plan and all Xero plans; all other products charge a fee for each additional user you add over what is included in the pricing plan.

Connect Bank & Credit Card Accounts

Similar to Xero, QuickBooks, and other competitors, Wave allows you to connect all of your bank and credit card accounts so that you can easily download transactions into your Wave account. The one drawback of this feature is that only the administrative user has access to the bank account details, which means that your bookkeeper would not be able to reconcile the bank and credit card accounts.

Manage Accounts Payable

Wave allows you to enter your bills and run reports to manage your due dates. However, you cannot print checks from Wave like you can with QuickBooks and Xero. Instead, you must manually write a check and then enter the details of the payment into Wave to mark the bill as paid. As a result, your outstanding accounts payable balances will not always be up to date.

Manage Accounts Receivable

Like its competitors, Wave allows you to manage full cycle accounts receivable, which means that you can create professional invoices, email invoices to customers, and accept online payments. Stay on top of your open invoices by running an accounts receivable aging report.

Reports

Like Xero, Wave has a number of reports that you can run to track your income and expenses and stay on top of your business finances. You can run a profit and loss report, a balance sheet report, and a statement of cash flows in Wave.

Manage Multiple Businesses With One Account

Unlike Xero, Wave allows you to manage multiple businesses under the same account. This means that you just have to sign into Wave once and then toggle between businesses as you need to. Best of all, you can set up multiple businesses for the same price as the first one—absolutely free.

What Wave Is Missing

One area where Wave fell short is the inability to print checks and pay bills. While it would be great to have this feature, this does not take away from the fact that it is the best free QuickBooks alternative. Wave offers many more features at the best price ever: zero.

What Users Think About Wave

Wave customers like the fact that they can use an accounting software to manage their income and expenses without having to pay for it. They also like how user-friendly the system is for non-accountants. On the negative side, customers do not like the fact that there is no live telephone support. In addition, when they do email the support team for help, response time is slow. For more information, check out our Wave review page.

Where to Find Wave

Unlike its competitors, Wave does not put a limit on how long you can use the product before you have to buy it. Since it costs nothing to use, you can visit the website to sign up by entering basic contact information and start using every feature we have discussed at no cost to you. If you decide it’s not for you, there’s no subscription to cancel.

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FreshBooks: Best QuickBooks Alternative for Self-employed & Freelancers

FreshBooks is the best QuickBooks alternative for freelancers. FreshBooks has a user-friendly interface with a robust time tracking tool to keep track of hours worked by you and your team. With just a few clicks, you can transfer billable hours to an invoice and email it with a payment link so customers can make online payments; pricing plans are between $15 and $50 per month, which is more expensive than most of its competitors with the exception of Xero.

FreshBooks Pricing & Features

Similar to most of its competitors, FreshBooks offers three pricing levels between $15 and $50 per month. Each plan includes one user, and additional users can be added for $10 per user, per month. The primary difference between FreshBooks and its competitors is FreshBooks limits the number of customers you can invoice in all three of their plans, whereas there is no limit in most competitor plans.

The other key difference in the plans is the Plus and Premium plans include features like automatic payment reminders and an auto-late charge fee for past due invoices; the Lite plan does not include these features. Check out our article on freelancer time tracking and billing to learn more about the features FreshBooks has to offer.

FreshBooks Tiered Pricing & Features Table

The pricing plans for FreshBooks are:

FreshBooks Lite

FreshBooks Lite is ideal for a startup business that doesn’t need to keep track of sales by customer or has fewer than five clients for which they need to send invoices.

At $15 per month, this plan is the most budget-friendly FreshBooks plan. It includes a robust time and expense tracking feature, which allows you to easily track time for every team member by project.

FreshBooks Plus

FreshBooks Plus is ideal for businesses that do a lot of invoicing and need a way to automate the accounts receivable process. At $25 per month, this plan is $10 per month more than the Lite plan. For this additional cost, you can track 50 customers versus only five customers with the Lite plan. In addition, you can easily set up automatic late charge fees on overdue invoices and recurring invoices.

FreshBooks Premium

FreshBooks Premium is ideal if you have more than 50 customers and need to automate your accounts receivable process so that you can automatically send payment reminders, apply late fees to overdue invoices, and send out recurring invoices. At $50 per month, this plan is double the cost of the Plus plan ($25 per month). However, you are able to track 500 customers versus 50 customers with the Plus plan.

FreshBooks Select

FreshBooks Select is ideal for users who have more than 500 clients or bill over $150,000/year. This plan comes with customized pricing. Select is not different from a feature perspective – the benefit of it is lower payment processing fees (making it better for high volume clients) and dedicated customer support.

Based on our minimum criteria, here is how FreshBooks stacks up against the competition:

Cost

The FreshBooks pricing plans are pretty reasonable at $15 per month to $50 per month. However, each plan only includes one user, and you must pay an additional $10 per user, per month to add more. In addition, each plan limits the number of customers that you can have; plans start at five customers and go up to 500. Xero does not limit the number of users or the number of customers you can manage.

Number of Users Included

Unlike Xero, which includes unlimited users in all three of its plans, FreshBooks plans include only one user. To add additional users, you will pay an additional fee of $10 per user, per month.

Connect Bank & Credit Card Accounts

Like all of the competitors on our list, you can connect all of your bank and credit card accounts to FreshBooks. However, if you want to reconcile these accounts, you will need to manually create the bank and credit card reconciliation, whereas with Xero you can complete the reconciliation within the software. Check out our bank reconciliation guide to learn more about how bank reconciliations work.

Manage Accounts Payable

Like Wave, FreshBooks does not have accounts payable functionality. This means you will need to pay your bills outside of FreshBooks. However, these expenses can still be tracked as long as you connect your bank account or credit card account that you paid them from to FreshBooks.

Track Income & Expenses

As mentioned, while you can track income and expenses in FreshBooks, you can only track expenses after they have been paid and not before, since it does not have an accounts payable function. However, you can track all income and expenses through the bank and credit card integration like you can with all of the competitors on our list.

Manage Accounts Receivable

Out of all the competitors that we listed, FreshBooks knocks it out of the park when it comes to managing your accounts receivable process. You can design your customer’s invoice by choosing from a number of invoice templates. The time and expense tracking allows you to easily bill clients for hours worked by your team.

The FreshBooks Plus and Premium plans allow you to:

• Send automatic payment reminders to customers
• Charge late fees for overdue invoices
• Create recurring invoices for customers who pay monthly, quarterly, or annually

Reports

While FreshBooks includes the three primary reports on our list (profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow statement), it does not include a bank reconciliation or accounts payable aging report like Xero.

As mentioned previously, you will need to create the bank reconciliation report manually and you will also have to use an Excel spreadsheet or manually create an accounts payable aging report. To learn how to manage unpaid bills manually, check out our accounts payable guide.

Track Inventory

Unlike Xero, which includes inventory tracking in two out of their three plans, FreshBooks does not have the capability to track inventory. Therefore, if you sell products, you should choose Xero Growing or Enterprise plans.

Multicurrency

Similar to Xero, you can track your income and expenses in multiple currencies with FreshBooks. This includes creating customer invoices, managing foreign bank and credit card accounts, and accepting payment in multiple currencies.

What FreshBooks Is Missing

There are a couple of downsides to FreshBooks. First, you cannot manage your unpaid bills (accounts payable) in FreshBooks, which means you cannot enter bills or pay bills through it. However, you can download payment information directly from your bank or credit card accounts. If you sell products, then FreshBooks is not ideal because it does not have the ability to track inventory costs and quantities.

Check out our FreshBooks versus QuickBooks comparison to see how FreshBooks stacks up against QuickBooks for small business.

What Users Think About FreshBooks

Customers who use FreshBooks like the automated invoicing features, such as recurring bills and the automatic payment reminders. On the flip side, customers don’t like the fact that FreshBooks is not able to manage accounts payable or reconcile bank and credit card accounts like most accounting software systems can. If you need to track unpaid bills, go with Xero. For more information, check out our FreshBooks review page.

Where to Find FreshBooks

Similar to its competitors, you can try FreshBooks before you buy it. Sign up for a free, 30-day trial, no credit card required. At the end of the trial, you will need to convert to a paid subscription in order to continue using the product.

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Billy: Best QuickBooks Alternative With a Monthly Bookkeeping Consultation

Billy works great for businesses that want access to a professional bookkeeper but can’t afford to hire one. With the exception of ZipBooks, Billy is the only product that has a pricing tier that includes monthly access to a professional bookkeeper for only $39 per month versus $125 per month with ZipBooks. Unlike ZipBooks, you do your own bookkeeping with the Billy plan and meet monthly with a bookkeeper.

Billy Pricing & Features

Billy has three pricing plans that run between $15 and $39 per month. All plans include unlimited users, unlimited invoices, and unlimited customers, plus a mobile app to import receipts into your account. Unlike its competitors that include online payments in all of their plans, the Billy Silver plan does not allow customers to pay their invoices online.

Billy Tiered Pricing & Features Table

Listed below is a breakdown of the three Billy pricing plans:

Billy Silver

Billy Silver is ideal for self-employed and sole proprietors looking for an affordable accounting solution. It will work best for service-based businesses, since inventory tracking is manual. The Silver plan is the most budget-friendly out of the three plans, at $15 per month. Like all Billy plans, it comes with unlimited users, invoices, and customers, and you can connect all of your bank and credit card accounts.

Billy Gold

Billy Gold is ideal for any business owner who provides services and would like to give customers the option to pay their invoices online with a debit card or credit card. Unlike the Silver plan, the Gold plan allows you to add a payment link to all customer invoices. Credit card processing is provided by Stripe and additional fees will apply.

Billy Platinum

The Billy Platinum plan is the top-tier plan at $39 per month. This is a whopping $20 per month more than the Gold plan ($19 per month) and more than twice the cost of the Silver plan ($15 per month). For the steep cost, you do get additional perks. Each month, you can schedule a 30-minute call with a bookkeeper, who will answer any questions that you have and discuss your books with you (this is worth far more than the additional $20 per month).

Based on our minimum criteria, here is how Billy stacks up against the competition:

Cost

When you compare Billy to Xero, Billy’s starter plan (Silver) is $15 per month versus Xero’s starter plan (Early) at $9 per month. However, the Xero mid- and top-tier plans are pricier than the Billy Gold and Platinum plans. On the other hand, Billy is not able to automatically track inventory and you cannot produce a cash flow statement in Billy like you can in all of the Xero plans.

Number of Users Included

Like Xero, Billy includes unlimited users in all three of their pricing plans. This means that you don’t have to worry about your bill going up as your business grows and you need to add more users.

Connect Bank & Credit Card Accounts

You are not limited to the number of bank and credit card accounts that you can connect to Billy. Unlike the Xero Early plan, which limits you to 20 transactions per month, the Billy Silver plan allows you to download an unlimited number of transactions.

Manage Accounts Payable

You can track and pay your bills with Billy like you can in Xero. This includes paying bills via check and reviewing an accounts payable aging report to stay on top of bills that are coming due or are past due.

Track Income & Expenses

Similar to its competitors, Billy is able to keep track of all income and expenses for your business. There are a variety of ways to track this information in Billy:

• Scan receipts using the Billy mobile app
• Connect all bank and credit card accounts to Billy
• Pay bills via check, ACH, debit card, or credit card

Manage Accounts Receivable

With Billy, you can put your invoicing on autopilot by setting up recurring billing, and you can create and send quotes directly to your customers and receive a notification when the quote has been approved. In just a couple of clicks, you can turn that quote into an invoice and bill your customer right away.

Reports

Like many of the products on our list (except Xero and FreshBooks), Billy does not have the ability to produce a cash flow statement. However, you can run a profit and loss report and a balance sheet report in Billy.

Track Inventory

Similar to FreshBooks, Wave, Zoho Books, and ZipBooks, you cannot track inventory quantities and costs in Billy. Therefore, if you sell products, you need to go with the Xero Growing or Enterprise plans or choose QuickBooks Online Plus.

Multicurrency

When it comes to being able to manage your business globally, Billy has similar functionality to its competitors. You can create invoices, accept payments, and pay vendor bills and supplier bills in multiple currencies.

What Billy Is Missing

Similar to most of the products we have discussed (except for Xero), Billy does not have the ability to produce a statement of cash flows. In addition, the inventory management is manual and tedious. It’s really no better than using an Excel spreadsheet, which will at least do the calculations for you. Therefore, if you sell products, I would not recommend Billy as your accounting solution—go with Xero instead.

What Users Think About Billy

Customers who use Billy like how user-friendly the program is and how easy it is to customize. They also like how affordable it is for all of the features included. The one area customers feel needs improvement is it can be a challenge to connect bank accounts to Billy. They also said that adding PayPal as a payment option for customers would be nice. For more information, check out our Billy review page.

Where to Find Billy

Like most of its competitors, you can take Billy for a test drive before you buy it. To learn more about this software, I signed up for a 14-day free trial by simply entering my name, email address, and company name; there is no credit card required. At the end of the 14-day trial, you must sign up for a paid subscription to continue using the product.

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Zoho Books: Best QuickBooks Alternative for Existing Zoho Users

If you currently use one or more products in the Zoho suite, then Zoho Books is a great solution because it will integrate with other Zoho apps such as Zoho CRM and Zoho Expense. Having a group of products that work together is an ideal solution that none of its competitors (including QuickBooks) offers. Pricing plans are between $9 per month and $29 per month, which is more economical than the mid- and top-tier Xero and QuickBooks plans.

Zoho Books Pricing & Features

Zoho Books offers three pricing plans between $9 per month and $29 per month. The primary difference between the plans is the number of users and the number of clients included. The Basic plan does not include the ability to manage accounts payable, whereas it’s included with both the Standard and Professional plans.

Zoho Books Tiered Pricing & Features Table

Listed below is a breakdown of all three Zoho Books pricing plans:

Zoho Books Basic

Zoho Books Basic is ideal for a service-based business that pays all of its bills directly through online banking or with a credit card. Keep in mind that you can only invite one other user to access your data and you are limited to 50 clients. In addition, you cannot track unpaid bills (accounts payable), create purchase orders or sales orders, or track inventory with this plan.

Zoho Books Standard

Zoho Books Standard is ideal for a service-based business that has more than 50 clients and needs to give more than one user access to their data. On top of the features included in the Basic plan, Zoho Books Standard includes limited accounts payable functionality, which means you can enter bills into Zoho Books but you will have to manually enter the bill payments.

Zoho Books Professional

Zoho Books Professional is ideal for a product-based business that needs to keep track of inventory quantities and cost. Unlike Wave and Billy, which involve manual tracking of inventory quantities and cost, Zoho Books Professional automatically keeps track of all inventory movement. In addition to the features included in the Zoho Books Standard plan, Zoho Books Professional includes the ability to track customer orders from start to finish.

Based on our minimum criteria, here is how Zoho Books stacks up against the competition:

Cost

As mentioned previously, Zoho Books is identical in price when it comes to their starter plan compared to the Xero starter plans, both of which cost $9 per month. However, Zoho Books has the most affordable top-tier plan out of all the companies we have listed ($29 per month). Unlike Xero, you have to manually pay your vendor bills and then mark them paid in Zoho Books.

Number of Users Included

Unlike Xero, which gives you unlimited users in all three of their pricing plans, Zoho Books limits the number of users in each of their plans. The Basic plan includes two users and the Professional plan includes ten.

Connect Bank & Credit Card Accounts

Like Xero, you can connect all of your bank and credit card accounts to Zoho Books. This will allow you to download an unlimited number of transactions so that you can later reconcile them to your bank statements.

Manage Accounts Payable

Similar to Wave and FreshBooks, Zoho Books has limited accounts payable functionality. You can enter bills into Zoho Books, but you will have to manually mark them as paid. In addition, there is no way to run an accounts payable aging report to stay on top of unpaid bills.

Track Income & Expenses

In addition to connecting your bank and credit card accounts to Zoho Books to keep track of income and expenses, you can also use the Zoho Expense app. The Zoho Expense app allows you to use your mobile phone to take a picture of your receipts, which will automatically sync with Zoho Books. To learn more about the Zoho Expense app (which we rated number one), check out our article on the top business expense tracker apps.

Manage Accounts Receivable

When it comes to managing accounts receivable, Zoho Books is no different than the competitors included on our list. You can create custom invoices and track customer payments. However, Zoho Books does not allow customers to make online payments. Instead, you should go with FreshBooks, which does allow customers to make online payments.

Reports

Similar to Xero, Zoho Books includes a number of detailed reports about the overall health of your business. This includes, but is not limited to, a profit and loss statement, balance sheet report, and cash flow statement.

Track Inventory

Out all the products that made our final cut, Zoho Books, Xero, and Spendwise are the only products that offer automatic inventory tracking. Zoho Books will automatically keep track of your product purchases and sales. In addition, you can run detailed reports to review your inventory quantities and costs.

Multicurrency

Like most of the competitors on our list (except Spendwise), you can create invoices, pay bills, and manage bank and credit card accounts in a foreign currency. If you sign up for a payment app that integrates with Zoho Books, your overseas customers can also make payments in their preferred currency.

What Zoho Books Is Missing

Zoho Books does not have the ability to print checks to pay bills. However, the Standard and Professional plans allow you to enter your bills and manually mark them as paid. Unlike QuickBooks, Zoho Books does not have the ability to accept online payments from customers. However, you can take a look at their app store to see if you can find a payment app that integrates with Zoho Books. Keep in mind that additional fees may apply.

What Users Think About Zoho Books

Zoho Books has mixed reviews. What customers like about Zoho Books is how much time they save with integrations to other Zoho apps like Zoho CRM, Zoho Inventory, and Zoho Reports. In addition, Zoho Books is one of the few products we’ve looked at that offers live customer support. For more information, check out our Zoho Books review page.

Where to Find Zoho Books

Like most of its competitors, Zoho Books comes with a 14-day free trial. There is no need to provide a credit card—just your name, email address, and company name are required to get started. At the end of the trial period, you will have to upgrade to a paid plan to continue to use the product.

Visit Zoho Books

ZipBooks: Best QuickBooks Alternative for Outsourcing Bookkeeping

ZipBooks is the best QuickBooks alternative for businesses that prefer to outsource their bookkeeping duties. While ZipBooks Starter is a free QuickBooks alternative, their virtual bookkeeping via ZipBooks Services starts at $125 per month. It’s ideal for a business that does not want to manage its books but can’t afford to hire a full-time bookkeeper.

ZipBooks Pricing & Features

ZipBooks has four pricing plans starting between $0 and $125 per month. The Smarter and Sophisticated plans are priced about the same as their competitors. All plans include unlimited users at no additional cost, a business health and invoice quality score, and the ability to connect bank and credit card accounts. The top-tier plan, Services, includes a dedicated bookkeeper who will manage your books for you. This is a feature not included in QuickBooks for small business or any other competitor.

ZipBooks Tiered Pricing & Features

Listed below is a breakdown of all four ZipBooks pricing plans:

ZipBooks Starter

The ZipBooks Starter plan is ideal for freelancers and solopreneurs who want to upgrade from Excel spreadsheets to a more sophisticated bookkeeping system. It will fit any budget since it is absolutely free. This plan comes with access for one user, unlimited tracking of customer and vendor contacts, and unlimited invoicing. However, you can only connect one bank and credit card account.

ZipBooks Smarter

ZipBooks Smarter is ideal for a small business with heavy invoicing that wants to automate its customer billing process and needs a good system to keep track of billable hours. Unlike the Starter plan, you can give unlimited users access to your data, create recurring invoices, track hours worked by your staff, and easily transfer those hours to a customer invoice so that you can get paid.

ZipBooks Sophisticated

ZipBooks Sophisticated is ideal for small businesses that need project tracking or have multiple locations for which they need comprehensive tracking and reporting of income and expenses. This plan allows you to track income and expenses by location and project. You can also create bank reconciliations to ensure your books match your bank statements, and it includes advanced reporting and intelligence features that you won’t find in the ZipBooks Smarter and Starter plans.

ZipBooks Services

ZipBooks Services is ideal for a business looking for an affordable way to outsource their bookkeeping. At a starting price of $125 per month, you get a dedicated bookkeeper who will categorize all transactions, reconcile all bank and credit card accounts, and prepare monthly financial statements. This is a service that none of the other competitors offer and is right for a business that wants to outsource their bookkeeping.

Based on our minimum criteria, here is how ZipBooks stacks up against the competition:

Cost

ZipBooks offers a free plan and three paid plans that run between $15 per month and $125 per month. They also have the highest top-tier plan at $125 per month, which is outsourced bookkeeping. Out of all the competitors on our list, ZipBooks is the only company that offers bookkeeping services. A dedicated bookkeeper will meet with you on a monthly basis to review your books and answer questions.

Number of Users Included

With the exception of the ZipBooks Starter plan, all three paid plans included unlimited users. Similar to Xero, Wave, and Billy, you don’t have to worry about your bill going up when you give additional users access to your data.

Connect Bank & Credit Card Accounts

Similar to the Xero Early plan, the ZipBooks Free plan is limited to one bank or credit card account. If you have more than one account to connect, you will need to sign up for the ZipBooks Smarter plan, which allows you to connect an unlimited number of bank and credit card accounts.

Manage Accounts Payable

Similar to Wave and FreshBooks, ZipBooks does not have the ability to keep track of unpaid bills. While you can enter bills manually in ZipBooks, you cannot create checks from ZipBooks. This means you need to pay bills via checks written outside the system, debit cards, or credit cards, and then manually mark them as paid.

Track Income & Expenses

You can easily track income and expenses in ZipBooks. Similar to Xero and QuickBooks, the software also has artificial intelligence that will automate how expenses are categorized. While the Starter plan does not have artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the Smarter, Sophisticated, and Services plans include AI.

Manage Accounts Receivable

ZipBooks allows you to create invoices, mark them as paid, and allow customers to make online payments. You can also run an accounts receivable aging report to stay on top of unpaid customer invoices. This is similar to all of the companies that we looked at.

Reports

ZipBooks includes two out of the three primary financial statements on our list. You can run a profit and loss report and a balance sheet report in ZipBooks. However, you cannot run a cash flow statement in ZipBooks. If you need a cash flow statement, choose Xero. The ZipBooks Services plan includes advanced reports plus a tax savings analysis.

Track Inventory

Like Wave, FreshBooks, Zoho Books, and Billy, ZipBooks does not have the ability to keep track of inventory. Therefore, if you sell products, you need to choose the Xero Growing or Enterprise plan, or go with QuickBooks Plus.

Multicurrency

Like many of the competitors on our list, you can create invoices, accept payments, and manage bank and credit card accounts in multiple currencies. However, the support representative with whom I spoke said there is no currency exchange mechanism in ZipBooks. This means that you will have to run reports separately for each currency (as opposed to having consolidated reports). If you need multicurrency, go with Xero, which includes consolidated reporting in your home currency.

What ZipBooks Is Missing

Unfortunately, ZipBooks fell short in four areas: It does not allow tracking of the outstanding balances owed to suppliers (accounts payable), you cannot generate a statement of cash flows, you cannot track inventory, and the reporting for multicurrency transactions can be difficult. Instead, we recommend you choose Xero or QuickBooks for small business, which includes all of these features.

What Users Think About ZipBooks

ZipBooks customers like the ability to track their income and expenses at no cost with the ZipBooks Starter plan. However, customers are not pleased that there is no live customer support available and that the response time to email support is not very good.

For more information, check out our ZipBooks review page.

Where to Find ZipBooks

If you want to take ZipBooks for a test drive, you can sign up for the free plan, which you can use to manage your books. However, if you need something with more functionality, you can sign up for a free, 30-day trial of the ZipBooks Smarter or Sophisticated plans. There is no credit card required—just provide your name and email address to get started.

Visit ZipBooks

Spendwise: Best QuickBooks Alternative for Inventory Management

Spendwise (formerly known as Officewise) is ideal for any size business that sells products. Similar to Xero, Spendwise allows you to manage inventory by automatically tracking product purchases. The paid plans start at $9 per user, per month, which is a lot pricier than Xero, which starts at $9 per month for unlimited users.

Spendwise Pricing & Features

The downside to Spendwise is the Basic and Pro plans do not include basic accounting features like invoicing customers, tracking customer payments, and recording journal entries. Unlike Xero, which includes all the accounting and inventory features, you have to upgrade to Spendwise Enterprise to get full accounting and inventory management features. They don’t publish the cost of the top-tier plan on their website, but we know it is much more than their Pro plan ($19 per user).

Spendwise Tiered Pricing & Features Table

Listed below is a breakdown of the Spendwise pricing plans:

Spendwise Basic

Unfortunately, I would not recommend Spendwise Basic to any small business. It is limited to creating 10 purchase orders per month and receiving items against purchase orders. You cannot track or manage your bills, invoice customers, or run financial reports with this plan. Instead, we recommend Xero Starter for $9 per month. You can manage all of your income and expenses and add unlimited users at no additional cost.

Spendwise Pro

Similar to Spendwise Basic, I would not recommend Spendwise Pro. While it has the ability to manage bills (unlike the Basic plan) and you can create unlimited purchase orders, you can’t track anything else. Instead, you should go with Xero Growing plan, which is a lot more economical at $35 per month versus $19 per user, per month for Spendwise Pro. Plus, you can track all of your business sales and purchases and run key financial reports.

Spendwise Enterprise

Spendwise Enterprise is the only plan I would recommend if you have complicated inventory needs. Of all the competitors we looked at, Spendwise Enterprise has the most robust inventory management system. Unfortunately, you will have to add it for an additional cost. You can easily track quantity and cost of purchases and sales. However, if you want the ability to invoice customers and run financial reports, you will have to add the accounting module for an additional cost.

Based on our minimum criteria, here is how Spendwise stacks up against the competition:

Cost

Spendwise is the priciest QuickBooks alternative on our list. They don’t offer a free option like Wave and ZipBooks. The paid plans start at $9 per user, per month compared to Xero, which starts at $9 per month for unlimited users. Not only is the cost more than all of its competitors, but you get a lot less features than what most of its competitors offer.

Number of Users Included

Similar to FreshBooks, which includes one user, you will pay an additional cost for adding users. The Pro plan allows a maximum of five users at a cost of $9 per user, per month versus FreshBooks Lite, which allows you to add unlimited users at a cost of $10 per user, per month. However, you get a lot more features with FreshBooks—project and time tracking, invoicing customers, tracking payments, and the ability to connect your bank and credit card accounts.

Connect Bank & Credit Card Accounts

Spendwise is the only company on our list that does not currently offer integration with financial institutions. This means that you cannot connect your bank or credit card accounts to Spendwise, and this information must be manually entered.

Manage Accounts Payable

Like Xero, you can keep track of all unpaid bills in Spendwise. This includes entering bills with their due dates and printing checks to pay them on time. You can also stay on top of open accounts payable balances by running an accounts payable aging report.

Track Income & Expenses

As of the writing of this article, Spendwise decided to focus their software on tracking expenses and purchases. If you want to track the sales side of your business (e.g., invoicing customers, accepting payments, creating sales orders), you will need to sign up for the Enterprise plan and add on accounting and inventory management, for an additional cost. Instead, we recommend Xero, which does not charge additional fees for basic accounting and inventory functionality.

Manage Accounts Receivable

Unlike the other competitors on our list that include billing, you can’t manage your billing process with Spendwise Basic and Pro plans. If you need to manage accounts receivable, you will need to sign up for the Spendwise Enterprise plan and then add accounting for an additional cost.

Reports

Spendwise Basic and Pro plans include reports to help you manage your bills, purchases, and overall expenses. If you are looking to see your overall business profit and other financial reports such as the balance sheet, you will need to sign up for the Enterprise plan and add the accounting module for an additional fee. Spendwise is the only product on our list that does not automatically include a balance sheet report.

Track Inventory

Inventory is the “secret sauce” of Spendwise. The robust inventory tracking features included in Spendwise is the best out of all of the companies on our list because it has the most inventory features. The downside is that these features are only available in the top-tier plan, Spendwise Enterprise, as an add-on. With the Enterprise plan, you can easily manage the entire process from the initial sale through product delivery in Spendwise.

Below is a summary of the detailed process flow in Spendwise:

• Create and email quotes to customers and Spendwise will notify you when the quote has been approved.
• Create a sales order for customer orders and send purchase orders to suppliers to order products.
• Receive inventory items against purchase orders and Spendwise will automatically update your inventory quantities and costs.

Multicurrency

Unlike Xero, Spendwise does not have multicurrency accounting functionality. This means you cannot create invoices, pay bills, or manage bank and credit card accounts in a currency other than U.S. dollars.

What Spendwise Is Missing

Unfortunately, Spendwise is missing most of the features you would expect to find in a QuickBooks alternative. In order to track income and access detailed profitability reports, you must sign up for the top-tier pricing plan, and you have to call to get a pricing quote. In addition, accounting and inventory management must be added to the top-tier plan; they are not automatically included like they are in Xero and QuickBooks.

What Users Think About Spendwise

Currently, the only online reviews we could find are about the former products offered under the old company name, Officewise. When we published this article last year, Spendwise offered a lot more features at a lower cost, and as a result the user reviews were very good.

In my opinion, the significant reduction in the features included, along with the significant price increase, are going to diminish the number of good reviews about this product. If you have experienced the new Spendwise, please head over to our Spendwise review page and post a review.

Where to Find Spendwise

While Spendwise is not a free QuickBooks alternative, they do allow you to try their product, free of charge, for 30 days—risk free. To get familiar with the product, I signed up for a free trial and I did not have to enter a credit card. At the end of the free trial, you will need to convert to a paid plan to continue to use the product.

Visit Spendwise

Other Paid & Free QuickBooks Alternatives

If our top seven QuickBooks alternatives didn’t meet your needs, we have three additional options to share with you. If you’re looking for a free alternative to Wave, SlickPie might work for you. OneUp knocks it out of the park when it comes to the robust inventory features that go beyond what Xero and QuickBooks offer. At $24 per month, FreeAgent is the most economical product that includes accounts payable functionality.

Below are three additional paid and free QuickBooks alternatives:

SlickPie: Best QuickBooks Alternative for Freelancers & Startups

SlickPie is a free accounting software you can use to track all of your income and expenses for your business. Unlike many of its competitors, you can track income and expenses for more than one business, at no additional charge. SlickPie is ideal for freelancers and startups that are looking to upgrade from a spreadsheet.

OneUp: Best QuickBooks Alternative for Product-based Businesses

OneUp goes beyond accounting to include CRM, invoicing, and inventory tracking. OneUp’s inventory tracking is more sophisticated than its competitors. It includes multiple units of measure, multiple inventory methods, and stock locations. At $69 per month and $169 per month, the mid- and top-tier plans are pricier than Xero and QuickBooks with more features.

FreeAgent: Most Economical QuickBooks Alternative With A/P

FreeAgent allows you to manage all of your business finances for only $24 per month. This includes unlimited bank and credit card accounts, unlimited users, and unlimited customers and vendors. Unlike Wave and SlickPie, FreeAgent allows you to track and pay bills. FreeAgent is ideal for any small business that has heavy accounts payable.

Bottom Line

Before you read this article, you probably didn’t realize how many QuickBooks alternatives there are to choose from. If you are looking for an accounting software that has all the features included in QuickBooks, Xero is the best QuickBooks alternative.

However, if you are a freelancer who doesn’t need all of the bells and whistles that Xero has to offer, we recommend that you try FreshBooks. FreshBooks will allow you to automate your customer billing process, which will save you time and allow you to get back to what you enjoy doing most. Visit their website to sign up for a free, 30-day trial.

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