GoDaddy Bookkeeping vs FreshBooks: Prices & Features in 2019

We compared GoDaddy Bookkeeping vs FreshBooks on cost, features, customer support, and user reviews. GoDaddy Bookkeeping is ideal for ecommerce businesses, and FreshBooks is ideal for freelancers. GoDaddy Bookkeeping fits any budget with a starting price of $4.99 vs $14.99 for FreshBooks. However, FreshBooks offers more features for the additional cost.

When to Use FreshBooks

FreshBooks is the premier accounting software for freelancers. The ability to create custom invoice templates that fit your company brand, accept online payments, and track time are just a few reasons why you should choose FreshBooks. Plans start at $15 per month, and you can add users for an additional $10 per user per month.

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When to Use GoDaddy Bookkeeping

GoDaddy Bookkeeping is ideal for ecommerce businesses that sell products through Amazon, PayPal, eBay, or Etsy. GoDaddy integrates seamlessly with these platforms so sales data is automatically imported. You can track and calculate mileage, connect your bank and credit card accounts, and easily transfer your Schedule C data to TurboTax or H&R Block.

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When to Use an Alternative

Both FreshBooks and GoDaddy Bookkeeping are good QuickBooks alternatives. However, if you need to track inventory or supplier bills, we recommend you choose QuickBooks. QuickBooks allows you to manage bills so you can stay on top of your accounts payable (A/P) balances. Plus, you can track product purchases and sales to stay on top of your inventory costs. Pricing plans start at $20 per month.

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FreshBooks vs GoDaddy Bookkeeping at a Glance

Small business accounting software should allow you to track the money coming in and going out of your business every day. This includes having the ability to create invoices, track expenses, and connect your bank and credit card accounts. The software should be easy to use (no accounting degree required), and it should be affordable.

Based on the features most important to small business owners, we evaluated GoDaddy vs FreshBooks using the following criteria:

• Cost: The software offers pricing plans that are affordable for most small business owners.
• Ease of use: You don’t need an accounting or bookkeeping background to learn how to use the program.
• Ability to create custom invoices: The program has the ability to create custom invoices by selecting a template and adding a logo and colors to match your personal brand.
• Track expenses: You can keep track of all business expenses so you can run reports to see what you are spending your money on.
• Ability to track time: The software allows you to track hours worked by team member and by project.
• Accept online payments from customers: Your customers can pay invoices online with a debit card, credit card, or ACH transfer.
• Integrates with financial institutions: The software integrates with financial institutions so you can connect your bank and credit card accounts to automatically import transactions into the software.
• Give multiple users access: You have the ability to give other users access to your data, such as a bookkeeper or tax professional.
• Generates financial reports: You are able to stay on top of your business by running key reports to see how well your business is doing.

Based on the criteria above and the time we invested to learn how each software works, we recommend FreshBooks over GoDaddy Bookkeeping. While FreshBooks is more expensive than GoDaddy Bookkeeping, it includes more features that justify the additional cost. The mid and top tier FreshBooks plans allow you to automatically schedule late fees for past due invoices and automate late payment reminders. Plus, FreshBooks Select includes an account manager, training for your team, and integration from QuickBooks and Xero.

GoDaddy Bookkeeping vs FreshBooks: Pricing & Features

When it comes to price, GoDaddy Bookkeeping is more economical than FreshBooks. GoDaddy Bookkeeping has three tiers, and the most expensive one is $14.99 per month. Pricing for FreshBooks starts at $15 per month, but it has more features than GoDaddy Bookkeeping. For instance, GoDaddy Bookkeeping doesn’t give users a personal login. Instead, users share the same login credentials with access to all areas of the program.

FreshBooks Pricing & Features

FreshBooks has four pricing plans to choose from, starting at $15 per month. Each plan includes one user, but you can give additional users access for $10 per month, per user. The primary differences between the plans is the number of billable clients included and a few features that are only available in the mid and top tier plans. For example, recurring invoices, scheduling late fees, and automatic payment reminders are not included in the Lite plan.

FreshBooks Tiered Features

FreshBooks Lite

FreshBooks Lite is ideal for a solopreneur who doesn’t need to bill more than five clients per month. At $15 per month, it is the most budget-friendly plan, but it’s also limited in features. While you can create invoices, generate estimates, and track time, this plan does not include recurring invoices, automated late payment reminders, or the ability to schedule late fees. These features are included in the other three FreshBooks pricing plans.

FreshBooks Plus

FreshBooks Plus is ideal for a business that has no more than 50 billable clients. This is ten times the billable clients in the Lite plan, and you can create recurring invoices for customers who purchase from you on a regular basis. Plus, you can schedule late fees and automate late payment reminders, which are also not included in the Lite plan.

FreshBooks Premium

FreshBooks Premium is ideal for businesses with more than 50 billable clients but less than 500. This is the only feature that sets FreshBooks Premium apart from the Lite and Plus plans. If you have less than 50 clients, choose the Plus plan. FreshBooks Premium has all of the features found in the Lite and Plus plans.

FreshBooks Select

FreshBooks Select is ideal for a business that has a lot of online payment transactions and more than 500 billable clients. This plan includes several features that are not found in the other three plans. Additionally, opting for the Select plan gives you a dedicated personal account manager, customized training for your team, low credit card transaction rates, and assistance with integrating from QuickBooks or Xero.

Based on our minimum criteria, here is how FreshBooks stacks up against GoDaddy Bookkeeping on software features:

Billable Clients

Three out of the four FreshBooks plans limit the number of billable clients you can have. The Lite plan is capped at five, the Plus plan has a maximum of 50 and the maximum for the Premium plan is 500. In contrast, there is no limit to the number of billable clients in the GoDaddy Bookkeeping plans. Whether you are on the Get Paid or the Premium plan, you can bill any number of clients.

Give Other Users Access to Data

Each FreshBooks pricing plan includes one user. To add more users, you pay $10 per user, per month. Each user is assigned a user ID and password to access your data. You can set permissions for each user so they only have access to the information they need.

You don’t have to pay for additional users if you choose GoDaddy Bookkeeping and the program allows users to sign in at the same time. However, you don’t have the option to create a unique user id and password for each person you add. Instead, each user gets the same user ID and password that you created the account with. This means every user has access to all areas of the program which is not very secure.

Automatically Create and Send Invoices

FreshBooks is known for having a library of invoice templates that you can customize to meet your business needs. Like GoDaddy Bookkeeping, you can create customized invoices by adding a logo and adding or removing fields. You can also schedule invoices to go out on a certain day of the week or on a specific date so you no longer have to do this manually.

Create Estimates

Both FreshBooks and GoDaddy Bookkeeping allow you to create estimates. Similar to invoice templates you can customize the estimate template in FreshBooks with your logo and colors. Instead of mailing the estimate, you can email it directly to your customer from FreshBooks. Once the estimate is approved, you can easily turn it into an invoice with just a few clicks. There is no need to create the invoice from scratch.

Time Tracking

Another feature that FreshBooks excels in is time tracking. The robust time tracking tool allows you to invite team members to log the time spent on projects. You can run reports to see which projects are progressing and which ones are at a stand still. Once a project is complete, you can transfer the billable hours to an invoice and email your customer. Unlike FreshBooks which allows users to use a timer, GoDaddy Bookkeeping does not include a timer.

Accept Online Payments

FreshBooks allows you to accept online payments from customers. Customers can pay their invoices with a debit card, credit card, Apple Pay or ACH bank transfer. Credit card transactions will cost 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction. ACH bank transfers will cost you one percent of the total transaction amount. Unlike FreshBooks, GoDaddy Bookkeeping does not have its own credit card processor. However, you can connect PayPal, Stripe, or another payment service to your GoDaddy account.

Financial Reports

FreshBooks includes a variety of reports to help you stay on top of your income and expenses. The key financial reports included are: profit and loss statement (income statement), accounts receivable aging report, trial balance, and general ledger report. GoDaddy Bookkeeping also includes a profit and loss report and an accounts receivable aging report but no trial balance or general ledger report. Unfortunately, neither FreshBooks or GoDaddy Bookkeeping have an accounts payable aging report or a balance sheet report.

Track Sales Tax

FreshBooks tracks the sales tax you collect from your customers. When it’s time to make your sales tax payments, you can run the sales tax summary report which includes all of the information you need to file your sales tax return and make your payment. GoDaddy has a similar process for tracking and reporting sales tax collected.

Automatically Import Bank and Credit Card Transactions

The ability to automatically import bank and credit card transactions is going to save you a ton of time that you normally would have spent manually entering this information. Unlike GoDaddy Bookkeeping, FreshBooks includes this feature in all four of their pricing plans. However, this feature is not available in the Tier 1 GoDaddy pricing plan Get Paid.

Automated Recurring Invoices

Both FreshBooks and GoDaddy Bookkeeping offer recurring invoices. However, this feature is only included in three out of the four FreshBooks plans: Plus, Premium and Select, it is not available in FreshBooks Lite. Similarly, GoDaddy Bookkeeping only includes recurring invoices in its top tier plan, GoDaddy Premium.

Scheduled Late Fees

The mid and top tier FreshBooks plans allow you to bill late fees automatically once an invoice has been past due for a certain number of days. You can choose to charge a percentage of the total amount due or a flat fee. This feature is not available in any of the GoDaddy Bookkeeping plans.

Automated Late Payment Reminders

Like scheduled fees, the mid and top tier FreshBooks plans allow you to automate payment reminders. You can set up a payment reminder to go to your customer a certain number of days after an invoice is past due. This feature is not available in GoDaddy Bookkeeping.

Personal Account Manager

The top tier FreshBooks plan, Select, includes a personal account manager. This is something that is not offered in any of the GoDaddy Bookkeeping plans. The personal account manager is your primary point of contact and can help you get your business setup, schedule the custom training for your staff, and answer any questions you have.

Customized Training

Another benefit of the FreshBooks Select plan is access to customized training for you and your team. Contact your account manager to schedule a training session or multiple training sessions to get your team up to speed on how to use FreshBooks. Unfortunately, customized training is not included in any of the GoDaddy Bookkeeping pricing plans. However, they do have live telephone support and several resources you can tap into to learn how to use the software.

Low Credit Card Transaction Rates

The FreshBooks Select plan was specifically created for small businesses that have a high volume of online customer payments. One of the benefits of this plan is you can qualify for low credit card transaction rates that can save you from paying a lot in credit card processing fees. Your dedicated account manager will review your current credit card activity and provide you with a custom quote.

QuickBooks and Xero Integration

If you are an existing QuickBooks or Xero user, you can get assistance with converting your data to FreshBooks. Your account manager and the support team will assist you with getting your data into FreshBooks and provide you with the training resources to help get you and your team up to speed on how to use FreshBooks

Automatically Import Sales Data from eCommerce Websites

Like GoDaddy, FreshBooks integrates with several ecommerce websites so that you can import your sales data. The ecommerce websites FreshBooks is compatible with are Shopify, Square, WooCommerce, Selz, BigCommerce, Magento, and Podia. Visit the FreshBooks eCommerce integrations page to learn more.

GoDaddy Bookkeeping Pricing & Features

GoDaddy Bookkeeping has three pricing plans that run between $4.99 and $14.99 per month. The Get Paid plan is limited in the features included, whereas the Essentials and Premium plans are identical except for one feature, the ability to create recurring invoices. Recurring invoices are only available in the Premium plan. Unlike FreshBooks, all plans allow you to bill an unlimited number of clients.

GoDaddy Bookkeeping Tiered Features

GoDaddy Bookkeeping Get Paid

The GoDaddy Bookkeeping Get Paid plan is ideal for a brand new start-up business that does not have a lot of banking, credit card, or sales data. Because this tier does not have the ability to connect to your bank or ecommerce websites, you have to enter this data manually. While the price fits any budget at $4.99 per month, you will most likely outgrow this plan quickly.

GoDaddy Bookkeeping Essentials

The GoDaddy Bookkeeping Essentials plan is ideal for an ecommerce business that needs the ability to track sales tax and import sales data from multiple ecommerce platforms. Unlike the Get Paid plan, you can download sales data from Amazon, PayPal, eBay, and Etsy in the Essentials plan. If you have repeat customers, you should consider upgrading to the premium plan which allows you to create recurring invoices.

GoDaddy Bookkeeping Premium

The GoDaddy Bookkeeping Premium plan is ideal for an ecommerce business that has repeat customers. If you have customers that purchase from you on a regular basis (e.g., weekly, monthly, quarterly), the Premium plan is ideal for you. You can create recurring invoices and schedule them to go out on a specific date or day of the month. This will prevent you from having to create the same invoices each time the repeat customer makes a purchase.

Based on our minimum criteria, here is how GoDaddy Bookkeeping stacks up against FreshBooks:

Give Other Users Access to Data

Similar to FreshBooks, you can give other users access to your data. However, instead of having the ability to create unique credentials for each user, everyone will have to use the user ID and password you created when you set up the account. Unfortunately, there is no way to create separate user ids and set permissions for each user.

Therefore, if you do have other users who need to access your data, I recommend you go with FreshBooks. It has a much more secure process, and you get to determine what information users can access.

Automatically Create and Send Invoices

Like FreshBooks, you can create custom invoices that include your company logo and other information to personalize the templates for your business in GoDaddy Bookkeeping. Invoices can be scheduled to automatically go out to customers on the date you specify. This ensures that you get paid faster because invoices are sent to customers promptly.

Create Estimates

GoDaddy Bookkeeping has the ability to create estimates similar to FreshBooks. You can create a custom template that includes your company logo and select the information fields you would like to appear on the form. Once a customer approves an estimate, you can easily transfer that data over to an invoice form.

Track Mileage

One of the features that GoDaddy has that you won’t find in FreshBooks is the ability to track mileage. All you have to do is enter the date, a description, and the total round-trip miles, and GoDaddy automatically calculates your mileage using the current standard mileage rate issued by the IRS.

Time Tracking

Time tracking in GoDaddy Bookkeeping is very simple to do. On the time tracking dashboard, you can enter time using a calendar view or a single entry view. Unfortunately, GoDaddy does not have a built-in timer, so time will have to be logged manually. Similar to FreshBooks, you can run reports that show your billed, unbilled and billable hours.

However, you must share your user id and password with team members so they can access your account and log their time. Otherwise, you must log the time for them. This is not ideal if you have several team members, and we recommend you go with FreshBooks instead. You will pay an additional $10 per person per month but you can create a secure log in for each person and set user permissions.

Accept Online Payments

GoDaddy Bookkeeping allows customers to pay their invoices online like FreshBooks does. However, GoDaddy does not have an internal credit card payment processor. Instead, you will need to connect a payment service such as Stripe or PayPal to your GoDaddy Bookkeeping account in order to offer online payments to your customers. Fees vary based on the payment service that you choose.

Financial Reports

Both GoDaddy Bookkeeping and FreshBooks offer several reports that allow you to stay on top of your business’s health. Some of the reports included in GoDaddy Bookkeeping are profit and loss report, spending report, top selling items, sales by state, and several time tracking reports. Unfortunately, GoDaddy is missing the balance sheet report, and like FreshBooks, it does not include a cash flow statement.

Schedule C Tax Worksheets

The second feature that you will find in GoDaddy Bookkeeping that is not available in FreshBooks is Schedule C tax worksheets.These worksheet categorize all of your business income and expenses recorded into the appropriate line items on the Schedule C, profit and loss report that is filed by all sole proprietors each year. If you do your own taxes, you can easily export this data to TurboTax or H&R Block tax software which will make tax time a breeze.

Track Sales Tax

If you charge sales tax, GoDaddy Bookkeeping can keep track of the sales tax collected from customers. When you are ready to file and pay sales tax, you can run the sales tax summary report to see how much you owe. This process is very similar to FreshBooks.

Automatically Import Bank and Credit Card Transactions

GoDaddy Bookkeeping allows you to connect your bank and credit card accounts so that your data will automatically import into the program. However, this feature is only available in the Essentials and Premium GoDaddy plan, whereas it is included in all four FreshBooks pricing plans.

Automated Recurring Invoices

If you have repeat customers who purchase from you on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, you can create recurring invoices to automatically go out on the day you choose. Unfortunately, this feature is only available in the Premium GoDaddy plan. Similarly, FreshBooks limits recurring invoices to the mid and top tier plans only.

Automatically Import Sales Data from ecommerce Websites

Similar to FreshBooks, GoDaddy Bookkeeping integrates with several ecommerce websites so that you can import your sales data. The ecommerce websites GoDaddy Bookkeeping is compatible with are Amazon, PayPal, eBay, and Etsy. Visit the GoDaddy integrations page to learn more.

GoDaddy Bookkeeping vs FreshBooks: Ease of Use

GoDaddy Bookkeeping and FreshBooks are very easy to use. Both programs have a clean interface and clearly defined menus to help you navigate the programs. FreshBooks has a left menu bar and GoDaddy Bookkeeping’s menu is located at the very top of the homepage. Both programs also provide up-to-date profit and loss data and accounts receivable balances directly on the home page.

FreshBooks Ease of Use

FreshBooks has a very organized homepage. Instead of having menu options at the very top of the page like GoDaddy Bookkeeping, the menu bar is located on the left side of the screen. In the middle of the screen you can see your outstanding revenue (accounts receivable) and total profit.

A brief description of the information you will find on the FreshBooks Dashboard is below:

1. Left menu bar: Navigate to the different areas of the program such as invoices, clients, expenses, projects, and time tracking.
2. Create invoice: Create an invoice by clicking on the dropdown button.
3. Outstanding revenue: The outstanding revenue displays in this section numerically and in bar graph format. The red portion of the graph indicates invoices that are past due. In our example (above) there is a total of $5,274 in outstanding revenue.
4. Total profit: Total profit appears in this section in numeric form and as a graph. The red portion of the graph indicates the periods when there was a loss and the green sections represent profitable periods. In our example above, total profit is $16,250.

If you are currently using QuickBooks and looking to make a change, check out FreshBooks vs QuickBooks to see how FreshBooks stacks up against QuickBooks Online.

GoDaddy Bookkeeping Ease of Use

Similar to FreshBooks, the layout of the GoDaddy Bookkeeping program is very intuitive. At the top of the page are eight menu options to navigate between income, expenses, invoices, time tracking, reports, taxes, and account management.

On the homepage, you will find key business insights into key areas, as indicated in the screenshot below:

A brief description of the information you will find on the initial homepage of GoDaddy Bookkeeping is:

1. Navigation menus: Click on any one of the menu items to navigate to that section of the program. The options here include income, expenses, invoices, time tracking, reports, taxes, and manage account.
2. New this week: This section of the homepage shows a summary of activity that has taken place in the current week. In the example above, there are eight new sales and 161 uncategorized expenses.
3. Invoice activity: This section includes a summary of recent invoices that have been created. In our example, there is no invoice activity.
4. Money I have: This section summarizes recent payments received from customers. In our example, there is no recent payment activity.
5. Money I owe: A summary of the unpaid bills appears in this area. In our example, there is no recent bill activity.
6. Profit and loss: A colorful bar graph showing the profit and loss by month is also displayed on the homepage. You can change the year by clicking on the dropdown arrow and hover your mouse over each bar to see the total amounts. In our example, green bars represent total income and the orange bars represent total expenses.
7. Time logged: Hours that have been logged for you or your team members are summarized in this section. In our example, there is no time tracking activity.

GoDaddy Bookkeeping is one of the most affordable and user friendly accounting software programs on the market. At a starting price of $4.99, it is a great alternative to some of the free accounting software programs available.

GoDaddy Bookkeeping vs FreshBooks: Customer Service

Both FreshBooks and GoDaddy Bookkeeping offer several ways for you to get help when you run into an issue or have a question. Both companies offer live telephone support, give you access to an extensive database of support articles, and have email support for non-urgent questions. GoDaddy Bookkeeping goes a step further by giving you access to an account with sample data so you can see how it works.

FreshBooks Customer Service

FreshBooks provides its customers with a variety of resources for support. Similar to GoDaddy, you can call the support team to get your questions answered.They also have an extensive database that includes articles that answer the most frequently asked questions. Unfortunately, they don’t have a sample data that you can use to see how it works. However, they do offer a 30-day free trial which allows you to enter your own data.

GoDaddy Bookkeeping Customer Service

GoDaddy has a number of options when it comes to providing customer support.They offer 24/7 telephone support, or you can send an email to the support team for non-urgent matters. If you prefer to troubleshoot yourself, there are detailed support articles that answer the most frequently asked questions. My favorite option is the ability to access sample data. As part of my research for this guide, I used the sample data to learn everything I know about GoDaddy Bookkeeping.

GoDaddy Bookkeeping vs FreshBooks: Reviews

Overall, reviews for FreshBooks and GoDaddy Bookkeeping are good. Positive reviews center around how easy the programs are to use. FreshBooks customers like the payments integration tool that allows customers to pay invoices online, and GoDaddy Bookkeeping customers like the integration with the various ecommerce websites. Both software products had negative reviews that centered around not being able to process complex transactions once your business starts to grow.

FreshBooks Reviews

FreshBooks users like how easy it is to create professional-looking invoices. The ability to allow customers to pay online is another plus mentioned in the customer reviews. On the cons side, several users said that FreshBooks could not meet their needs once their businesses started to grow and expand. However, they said that the program is great for small businesses and start-ups. Visit our FreshBooks Reviews page to read all of the reviews.

GoDaddy Bookkeeping Reviews

GoDaddy Bookkeeping users like how easy and simple the program is to use. eCommerce business owners like the integration with websites like eBay, Etsy and PayPal. Users mentioned that GoDaddy Bookkeeping is ideal for simple bookkeeping, but if you have tedious and complicated transactions, reviewers suggested choosing a more robust software. Visit the GoDaddy Bookkeeping reviews page to learn more.

Pros and Cons of GoDaddy Bookkeeping vs FreshBooks

There are pros and cons of FreshBooks and GoDaddy Bookkeeping. On the pros side, GoDaddy Bookkeeping is a lot more affordable, it lets you track and calculate mileage, and it includes Schedule C tax worksheets. FreshBooks allows you to give other users secure access, create automatic late payment reminders, and generate a balance sheet and accounts receivable report which are not available in GoDaddy Bookkeeping.

The pros and cons of GoDaddy Bookkeeping vs FreshBooks are:

Pros of GoDaddy Bookkeeping vs FreshBooks

Cons of GoDaddy Bookkeeping vs FreshBooks

Bottom Line

Now that we have sized up GoDaddy vs FreshBooks, the ball is in your court to make a decision. If you have an ecommerce business and you don’t need to give other users access to your data, GoDaddy Bookkeeping is ideal for you. However, if you need to give other users access to your data or you want a software that will help you to streamline your accounts receivable process, FreshBooks is going to be the best software for you.

FreshBooks has a stellar reputation of providing the tools freelancers need to streamline the billing process. Having the ability to create and schedule invoices to automatically email to customers on the day you specify and allowing customers to pay their invoices online will help you to get paid faster. Plus, the automatic late payment reminders and automatic late fees will incentivize customers to pay their invoices on time.

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