GoDaddy Bookkeeping and FreshBooks are both easy-to-use accounting programs that target freelancers and contractors, but GoDaddy Bookkeeping is ideal for online merchants that use eBay, Amazon, and Etsy while FreshBooks is the better choice for freelancers who bill by the hour. While both have many desirable features, the best option depends on your accounting needs.
When to Use GoDaddy Bookkeeping
GoDaddy Bookkeeping is good for self-employed individuals who sell products on eBay, Etsy, and Amazon. It offers built-in features that allow you to calculate what you owe in estimated taxes every quarter. It has grown through the years to include strong invoicing tools, and its integration with eBay, Etsy, Amazon, and PayPal makes it easy for small businesses and part-time merchants to link their sales on those sites to GoDaddy Bookkeeping. Its unlimited invoicing feature makes it a good choice for businesses that send out large quantities of invoices.
GoDaddy Bookkeeping is not right for corporations, partnerships, and limited liability companies (LLCs) because it is not a double-entry accounting system, so you won’t be able to track assets and liabilities or generate a balance sheet. Also, businesses that have a need to track time won’t have this option with GoDaddy Bookkeeping. It also lacks a bill-pay feature.
When to Use FreshBooks
FreshBooks is best for companies that track and invoice hours and that are interested in receiving online assistance with their bookkeeping. We include FreshBooks in our list of best small business accounting software and award it the best overall invoicing software because of its great-looking customizable invoices. Accountants, general contractors, self-employed consultants, and other bill-by-the-hour service providers can track their hours directly in FreshBooks and easily add them to invoices. Finally, Bench, an online bookkeeping firm, offers assisted bookkeeping services to FreshBooks users. You can learn more in our review of FreshBooks.
FreshBooks is not the best choice for businesses that deal heavily in inventory. Businesses involved in ecommerce will find support with FreshBooks integrations, including Squarespace, Shopify, and Selz, but it doesn’t compare to GoDaddy Bookkeeping in this category because of its lack of direct connections with Amazon and Etsy, which allows you to view sales data right from the dashboard. Brick-and-mortar retailers should probably avoid both FreshBooks and GoDaddy Bookkeeping and opt for a software that can track the cost of inventory and cost of goods sold (COGS), such as QuickBooks Online.
GoDaddy Bookkeeping vs FreshBooks at a Glance
GoDaddy Bookkeeping | FreshBooks | |
|---|---|---|
Who It’s Best For | Sole proprietors and freelancers selling goods on Amazon, eBay, and Etsy | Freelancers and small businesses with an emphasis on invoicing |
Monthly Pricing Plans | $4.99 to $14.99 for one user | $15 to $50 for one user |
Billable Clients | Unlimited invoicing | From 5 to more than 500, based on plan |
Maximum Users | 1 | 1 (additional users available at $10 per month) |
Send Estimates | ✔ | ✔ |
Track Costs by Project | ✔ | ✔ |
Send Invoices & Track Collections | ✔ | ✔ |
Tracks Assets & Liabilities for a Balance Sheet | N/A | ✔ |
Accounting Method for Reports | Cash | Accrual |
Import Data From Bank & Credit Card Accounts | ✔ | ✔ |
Import Data From Amazon, PayPal, eBay & Etsy | ✔ | N/A |
Bank Reconciliation | N/A | ✔ |
Track Sales Tax Collections & Payments | ✔ | ✔ |
Track Mileage & Time | ✔ | ✔ |
Manage Unpaid Bills | N/A | ✔ |
Multiple Currencies | N/A | ✔ |
Capture & Organize Receipts | Requires Integration | ✔ |
GoDaddy Bookkeeping vs FreshBooks: Pricing
GoDaddy Bookkeeping and FreshBooks both offer pricing plans based on your needs. However, while FreshBooks allows you to add users for an additional $10 per month, GoDaddy Bookkeeping is only intended for one user. GoDaddy Bookkeeping also features unlimited customers as compared to FreshBooks, which factors in the number of customers for its pricing levels. Freshbooks’ Select plan allows for unlimited billable clients but requires custom pricing.
GoDaddy Bookkeeping Pricing
There are three different pricing levels available for GoDaddy Bookkeeping. Payments are made monthly, and your plan can be canceled at any time. You can choose to pay annually, but there isn’t a discount compared to the monthly rate. There is no free trial of the software, but GoDaddy Bookkeeping offers an interactive tour on its website.
- Get Paid: $4.99 per month for one user
- Essentials: $9.99 per month for one user
- Premium: $14.99 per month for one user
If you want to accept payments online for your invoices, you will need to work with either Stripe or PayPal, which charges 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.
GoDaddy Bookkeeping Pricing and Tiered Features
Get Paid | Essentials | Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|
Users Included | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Connect & Reconcile Bank Accounts | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Accept Payment From Mobile Device | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Estimate Quarterly Income Taxes | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Create Schedule C Worksheet | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Create, Send & Track Invoices & Estimates | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Track Mileage & Time | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Unlimited Business Reports | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Automatically Transfer Sales Data From Amazon, PayPal, eBay & Etsy | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Automated Recurring Invoices | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
FreshBooks Pricing
FreshBooks’ pricing plans are based on the number of billable clients. If your invoicing is limited to a small number of clients, then Lite would be best for you. Other plans, such as Premium, allow for up to 500 billable clients. The Select plan is recommended for any more than that, which is available at a custom price.
- Lite: $15 per month for up to five billable clients
- Plus: $25 per month for up to 50 billable clients
- Premium: $50 per month for up to 500 billable clients
- Select: Custom pricing for more than 500 clients
FreshBooks Pricing and Tiered Features
Lite | Plus | Premium | Select | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Users Included | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Connect & Reconcile Bank Accounts | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Expense Tracking With Tax Categories | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Customize, Create & Send Invoices | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Time Tracking by Client or Project | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Multicurrency Capabilities | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Double-entry Accounting | N/A | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Automated Late Payment Reminders | N/A | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Track Project Profitability | N/A | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Automated Recurring Invoices | N/A | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Track Unpaid Bills | N/A | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Customize Email Templates & Signatures | N/A | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Dedicated Account Manager | N/A | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
Takeaway: GoDaddy Bookkeeping is significantly less expensive than FreshBooks but also offers fewer features in comparison.
GoDaddy Bookkeeping vs FreshBooks: Features
GoDaddy Bookkeeping offers many appealing features for freelancers, such as the ability to estimate quarterly income taxes and generate a Schedule C worksheet with tax line assignments. For this reason, it is best for sole proprietors or single-member LLCs who file a Schedule C. You’ll also have access to one of its most developed features, Tax Support, which automatically categorizes transactions into IRS categories to make tax time go smoothly. It supports Schedule Cs, helps independent contractors calculate their estimated quarterly taxes, and calculates how much sales tax you owe.
GoDaddy’s invoicing tools are also impressive as it allows you to track your invoices, including when it is viewed by a customer and when it’s paid online. Its Premium level allows you to schedule invoices automatically, a trait not commonly found in entry-level accounting programs. GoDaddy allows you to connect directly to Amazon, eBay, and Etsy, to import sales data, which is a big advantage if they provide a good percentage of your income. While FreshBooks doesn’t offer a direct connection to these platforms within the software, it does integrate with Zapier, which is an online platform that helps you to automate workflows by connecting your apps and the services you use. This may take a few extra steps to set up, but it can be equally as efficient.
However, while GoDaddy Bookkeeping excels at providing tools for freelancers, it lacks more advanced features than FreshBooks. For example, FreshBooks allows you to reconcile bank accounts, track time and assign it to clients and projects, and offers team collaboration tools. FreshBooks’ Premium and Select plans use double-entry accounting and allow you to create a chart of accounts and run reports, including a balance sheet. GoDaddy Bookkeeping doesn’t track assets and liabilities and, therefore, can’t print a balance sheet.
Takeaway: If you’re a freelancer or online retailer looking for basic accounting software that provides ecommerce integrations and tax support, including the ability to estimate quarterly taxes, GoDaddy Bookkeeping is an excellent choice. However, if you’re looking for more advanced features and the ability to perform tasks, such as account reconciliation and more robust time tracking tools, FreshBooks is a better option.
GoDaddy Bookkeeping vs FreshBooks: Ease of Use
Equipped with intuitive dashboards, GoDaddy Bookkeeping and FreshBooks make it simple for the bookkeeping novice to hit the ground running. The user interfaces are easy to navigate and provide key financial reports, although GoDaddy’s dashboard is a bit more extensive.
GoDaddy Bookkeeping Ease of Use
GoDaddy Bookkeeping clearly was designed with the self-employed worker in mind. It uses simple language and understandable procedures, making it quite easy for the bookkeeping novice to learn. Its home page displays enough information that a glance tells you whether you have work to do and, from there, you can navigate to the relevant pages. You can also see charts illustrating your annual profit and loss to date, the current month’s expenses, and open invoices. Account balances are listed as are your current estimated and sales taxes due and mileage deductions.
GoDaddy Bookkeeping makes it simple to get up and running and requires very little work upfront. It displays a Get Started checklist on its home page that includes suggestions like Link a Bank or Credit Card, Customize Your Reporting Categories, and Start Accepting Payments. Once you enter your login credentials for your financial institutions, GoDaddy will connect to them and download your most recent transactions. It pulls transactions on a daily basis, so your accounts stay current.
GoDaddy Bookkeeping Dashboard (Source: GoDaddy Bookkeeping)
The GoDaddy Bookkeeping Dashboard is laid out well and gives you a quick overview of your financial data. The dashboard shows you what’s new this week, such as invoice activity, the money you have, the money you owe, and taxes as well as graphs for profit and loss, the current month’s timesheet, current month’s expenses, and open invoices. Here’s a breakdown of each section:
- GoDaddy Bookkeeping navigation bar: You can access information related to income, expenses, invoices, time, reports, and taxes here. The Overview tab lets you view the summaries as described below.
- New this week: Information from your linked accounts is summarized here, which highlights new sales and uncategorized transactions. You also have the option to link a new account or categorize income and expenses that were flagged.
- Invoice Activity: All open invoices are listed in this section. You can create a new invoice from here as well.
- Money I have: View a summary of balances for each account in this section.
- Money I owe: This field is a bit confusing since GoDaddy doesn’t allow you to enter bills prior to paying them. We contacted GoDaddy support via chat and telephone support, and they were unable to explain why this field is on the dashboard.
- Taxes: One of GoDaddy Bookkeeping’s most valuable features, this section keeps a running tally of estimated taxes for the current quarter, along with the due date. It also lists mileage deductions and the amount of sales tax that is currently owed.
- YTD Profit and Loss: A graph of the current year’s profit and loss (P&L) statement can be viewed here. You can also link your bank, credit cards, and seller accounts to obtain your most up-to-date P&L here.
- Monthly Hours: Once you track your time, you will be able to view the accumulated hours by each client. There is also an option to start tracking your time here.
- Open Invoices: Similar to #3, this section allows you to view open invoices and also add a new one.
- Monthly Expenses: View all of your expenses by category here, with an option to add a new expense.
FreshBooks Ease of Use
Setting up an account with FreshBooks is a quick process with minimal steps. There’s no credit card required to establish a trial account, and the software is organized well, with everything labeled clearly. One of the perks of FreshBooks is that its user interface provides simple and intuitive navigation, with all of its most commonly used features easily found on the left navigation bar. The reports that appear here will help you to manage your business and make wise decisions.
FreshBooks Dashboard
Here’s a breakdown of the FreshBooks Dashboard:
- Left navigation bar: Click on the Dashboard tab, and you’ll be able to view the five reports described below. Below the Dashboard tab are sections, such as clients, invoices, payments, expenses, estimates, time tracking, and payments.
- Outstanding Revenue: With this report, you can view past due invoices with aging dates.
- Total Profit: View the total profit generated for the current year-to-date
- Revenue Streams: A report that details income earned by customers can be viewed here, allowing you to see exactly who your money is coming from.
- Spending: Your business expenses separated by category is available with this report.
- Unbilled Time: If you’ve ever wondered exactly how much time has been tracked but not yet billed for a client, you can access this information here. This can also serve as a timely reminder to invoice clients.
Creating a new transaction in FreshBooks.
The quickest way to create a new transaction in FreshBooks is by clicking on the green Create New button at the top right corner of the screen.
Takeaway: Both GoDaddy Bookkeeping and FreshBooks are easy to use and provide helpful reports and summaries, allowing you to view a snapshot of your business. Between the two, GoDaddy Bookkeeping’s Dashboard is more detailed, with more reports available.
GoDaddy Bookkeeping vs FreshBooks: Integrations
While both GoDaddy Bookkeeping and FreshBooks offer integrations, FreshBooks has quite a few more. GoDaddy Bookkeeping’s integrations are mainly focused on ecommerce whereas FreshBooks has integrations available not only for ecommerce but also for accounts receivable (A/R), expenses, inventory management, payroll, and time tracking.
GoDaddy Bookkeeping Integrations
GoDaddy Bookkeeping has a total of nine automatic integration partners that you can set up to import your sales and other income data easily. It integrates with most major credit cards and several ecommerce companies, including eBay, Harvest, FreshBooks, PayPal, Etsy, Amazon, and Shoeboxed, an expense tracker.
FreshBooks Integrations
FreshBooks has more than 70 apps and integrations that are useful for both accounting software novices and expert users. These include the following:
- A/R: Fundbox, Roger, and CollBox
- Ecommerce: Squarespace, Shopify, Square, Selz, and Magento
- Expenses: Everlance, Expensify, and MMC Receipt
- Inventory management: 2Ship and BarCloud
- Payroll: Gusto, PaymentEvolution, and KeyPay
- Time tracking: Boomr, Asana, Basecamp, and Everhour
Takeaway: While FreshBooks offers a variety of integrations to assist with A/R, expenses, and inventory management, GoDaddy Bookkeeping is limited to a handful of ecommerce apps and an expense tracker.
GoDaddy Bookkeeping vs FreshBooks: Mobile App
The mobile apps for both GoDaddy Bookkeeping and FreshBooks have a variety of features, allowing you to perform many of the same functions that are available on the website, such as creating and sending invoices and tracking mileage. Both apps also allow you to create and view customer records, but FreshBooks goes a step further by making client contact information available.
GoDaddy Bookkeeping Mobile App
GoDaddy Bookkeeping has a mobile app available for both Androids and iPhones, and both versions offer a dashboard that lists balances for your accounts and other key numbers like profit and loss, estimates, and time. They support a lot of the functionality found on the browser-based version. You can create and view customer records, review and use categories, and connect to payment processors, enabling you to process payments on the go. Invoices and estimates you’ve already created are available for viewing, and you can create new ones as well. You can also use the app to track your mileage manually.
FreshBooks Mobile App
Also available for both Androids and iPhones, the FreshBooks mobile app has many of the same capabilities as GoDaddy Bookkeeping, which include creating and sending invoices and tracking your mileage. It also allows you to respond to client questions and feedback directly from the app but doesn’t let you work with projects and reports. FreshBooks’ mileage tracking feature is more sophisticated than GoDaddy Bookkeeping as it allows you to log each trip and also save your travel history automatically. You can classify each trip as business or personal and generate a mileage report which summarizes this information.
Takeaway: Both GoDaddy Bookkeeping and FreshBooks offer robust mobile apps that are free with your subscription. While many of the features are the same, FreshBooks also has an option to communicate with clients directly through the app. Also, while both apps allow you to enter your mileage manually, only FreshBooks allows you to track mileage automatically with your phone’s GPS.
GoDaddy Bookkeeping vs FreshBooks: Assisted Bookkeeping Services
GoDaddy Bookkeeping Assisted Bookkeeping Services
GoDaddy Bookkeeping currently doesn’t integrate with any assisted bookkeeping services. However, because of its intuitive system and limited features, you may not need a virtual bookkeeper.
FreshBooks Assisted Bookkeeping Services
FreshBooks integrates with Bench, an online bookkeeping service that is like a “one-stop-shop” for small businesses. Each month, your bookkeeper will organize your business transactions and prepare financial statements. Bench’s team of bookkeeping professionals also offers unlimited bookkeeping support and will file your taxes, which is included in the price. They also provide catch-up bookkeeping services for an additional fee.
Takeaway: FreshBooks has a seamless integration with Bench, which provides virtual bookkeeping services on a monthly basis and unlimited support. Unfortunately, GoDaddy Bookkeeping doesn’t work with any assisted bookkeeping services.
GoDaddy Bookkeeping vs FreshBooks: Customer Support
Access to customer support is a crucial feature for small businesses that may not be familiar with all of the aspects of their chosen accounting software. Fortunately, both GoDaddy Bookkeeping and FreshBooks have strong support options. Both offer phone support and a contact form on the website and, while GoDaddy allows contact via live chat, FreshBooks has email support. A knowledge base of how-to articles and frequently asked questions (FAQs) is also available.
GoDaddy Bookkeeping Customer Support
GoDaddy phone support is available 24/7, which includes a line for Spanish-speaking users. You also have the option of filling out a support form on the website, and response times are generally quick. Other resources include a live chat feature and community forum where you can request solutions from other GoDaddy Bookkeeping users. The Bookkeeping Help Center has how-to articles and answers to frequently asked questions. Visit the GoDaddy Blog for advice geared toward small businesses.
Unfortunately, GoDaddy doesn’t have support dedicated specifically to their bookkeeping program. In the course of writing this article, we contacted GoDaddy support via chat to ask the very basic question of whether you can enter bills prior to paying them. The agent was unable to help and only provided links to information on its website and eventually a phone number to call. The telephone support rep was a generalist that covered many different GoDaddy products but was able to confirm that bills can’t be entered until paid. However, he couldn’t explain what the “Money I Owe” on the dashboard is supposed to track.
FreshBooks Customer Support
One of FreshBooks’ most appealing features is its unlimited customer support. Customers are encouraged to contact FreshBooks via phone, even during the free trial. The toll-free number gives you access to a live support agent who is available during extended business hours with minimal wait times. Other support options include email, a contact form on the website, and support from within the application. The website also offers a virtual tour and a searchable FAQs page.
Takeaway: FreshBooks is the clear winner when it comes to customer support. While both GoDaddy and FreshBooks offer various ways of receiving customer support, FreshBooks has unlimited customer support from agents dedicated to bookkeeping. While GoDaddy reps are easy to contact, their bookkeeping knowledge may be marginal as they are expected to cover many GoDaddy products.
Bottom Line
Freelancers who don’t need the advanced features of fully developed accounting software may appreciate the simplicity of GoDaddy Bookkeeping. Amazon, eBay, and Etsy integrations also make the software ideal for online sellers as it helps them to keep their businesses organized. One of its most valuable features, freelance tax support, is a bonus for those who want to stay on top of their taxes.
FreshBooks allows multiple users and provides a much more complete bookkeeping system. FreshBooks can manage your unpaid bills, track and add time to great-looking invoices, and has integrations for features it lacks within the program like payroll and inventory management.
