QuickBooks Online pricing offers four versions: Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced. Pricing plans run between $20 and $150 per month. Based on our QuickBooks Online comparison, the ideal plan for your business will depend on the number of users you need and if your business requires features like A/P, inventory, or advanced reporting.
To help narrow down which plan is best for your business, answer just a few short questions below. This will offer you a customized recommendation based on the responses you give. Afterward, continue reading the article for a more detailed comparison and decide which version of QuickBooks is right for you.
When to Use QuickBooks Online Simple Start
QuickBooks Online Simple Start is best for solopreneurs who pay all of their bills online and only sell services (no products). In addition, Simple Start only includes a single user and one accountant. While it does not have all of the features included with the other three options, Simple Start allows you to track income and expenses, manage accounts receivable, and pay employees. Save up to 50% off the first three months of your paid QuickBooks Online Simple Start subscription.
QuickBooks Online Simple Start Pricing
QuickBooks Online Simple Start is $20 per month, which is $240 per year. You can save money on a paid QuickBooks subscription by paying for the year upfront instead of monthly. QuickBooks Simple Start is the most economical plan versus $40 per month for Essentials, which is the next plan, or the top-tier plan (QuickBooks Online Advanced), which is a whopping $150 per month.
QuickBooks Online Simple Start Features
You can manage all of your income and expenses with QuickBooks Online Simple Start. QuickBooks Online Simple Start allows you to invoice customers, connect your bank and credit card accounts, track sales tax, and run basic financial statements. In fact, you can generate income (profit and loss) and balance sheet statements in just a few minutes with QuickBooks Online Simple Start.
When to Use QuickBooks Online Essentials
QuickBooks Online Essentials is best for small businesses that not only need to track income and expenses and manage accounts receivable, but also need to track the money owed to suppliers (accounts payable). Essentials is also ideal if you need to give other people access to your data. Online Essentials is $40 per month versus $70 per month for Plus. You can save up to 50% on QuickBooks Online Essentials now.
When to Use QuickBooks Online Plus
QuickBooks Online Plus is ideal for a business that sells products and services. Unlike Simple Start and Essentials, you can track inventory costs and quantities, create purchase orders, and issue 1099s to contractors with Plus. For these additional features, you will pay $70 per month, which is almost double the cost of Online Essentials ($40 per month) and more than triple the cost of Simple Start ($20 per month).
Some additional features included with QuickBooks Online (QBO) Plus are budget versus actual reporting and more than 100 reports that you can run in under a few minutes. This tool helps match actuals to projected income and expenses. Save up to 50% on QuickBooks Online Plus now.
When to Use QuickBooks Online Advanced
QuickBooks Online Advanced is ideal for businesses with complex business needs that go beyond the capabilities of QBO Plus. It is the most expensive QuickBooks Online plan at $150 per month, but it is more robust and has more features than the other three plans.
For example, if you have between 10 and 100 employees, need to give access to more than five users, and are looking for detailed performance reporting, choose QBO Advanced. Advanced also includes free self-paced training for your entire staff and a dedicated success manager that will answer your questions and provide you with the resources you need. Save up to 60% on QuickBooks Online Advanced now.
QuickBooks Online Comparison Chart
| Feature | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks Online pricing monthly | ||||
| Track your income & expenses | ||||
| Manage accounts receivable (invoice customers & receive payments) | ||||
| Invite your accountant to access your data | ||||
| Download your bank & credit card transactions | ||||
| Add payroll service | ||||
| Add online payments service | ||||
| Print checks instead of manually writing them | ||||
| Manage accounts payable (schedule & pay vendor bills) | ||||
| # Users included with monthly subscription | ||||
| # Reports you can run in just a few clicks | ||||
| Create purchase orders to place orders with suppliers | ||||
| Track inventory using FIFO method | ||||
| Prepare & issue 1099s to contractors | ||||
| Track billable hours by customer | ||||
| Create & manage budgets | ||||
| Track profitability for multiple locations | ||||
| Smart reporting powered by Fathom | ||||
| Accelerated invoicing | ||||
| Custom user permissions | ||||
| Dedicated success manager | ||||
| Training for staff ($2,000 value) | ||||
| Get started |
QuickBooks Online Comparison: Simple Start
When doing a QuickBooks Online comparison, QuickBooks Simple Start is the most affordable option, but it does not offer the additional features that Essentials, Plus, and Advanced offer. Simple Start is generally right for businesses currently tracking income and expenses using one or more manual options, like the “shoebox” method or Excel spreadsheets.
QuickBooks Online Simple Start Pricing & Features
QuickBooks Online Simple Start costs $20 per month, which is $240 annually. While it includes fewer features than Essentials, Plus, and Advanced, you can manage your accounts receivable, give your accountant or tax professional access to your data, and run over 20 reports to help you determine the overall health of your business. Simple Start is very easy to set up. In fact, it’s simpler to use than the other three versions of QuickBooks Online.
What’s Missing in QBO Simple Start
If you need to track inventory cost and quantities, hire 1099 contractors, or manage accounts payable, QBO Simple Start will not work for you. Instead, you will need to go with one of the other QuickBooks online versions: Essentials, Plus, or Advanced.
Some of the features that are not included in a QBO Simple Start subscription are:
- Manage and pay bills from vendors
- Give anyone (other than your accountant) access to your data
- Create purchase orders
- Track inventory
- Prepare and issue 1099s
- Track billable hours by customer
- Create and manage budgets
- Track profitability for multiple locations
QuickBooks Online Simple Start Reviews
Customers who use QuickBooks Online Simple Start like how affordable the plan is ($20 per month) for the included features, such as accounts receivable, connect bank and credit card accounts, and the ability to use the mobile app to perform certain transactions. Negative user reviews mentioned that they would like more features such as accounts payable. Visit our customer QuickBooks Online reviews page to see individual reviews.
Where to Get QBO Simple Start
If you have never used a computerized program to manage your bookkeeping or if you are tired of using complicated Excel spreadsheets to keep track of everything, give QuickBooks Online Simple Start a try. If you’re still not sure whether QuickBooks Online Simple Start is right for you, why not take advantage of the free, 30-day trial and see if it makes managing your books easier?
QuickBooks Online Comparison: Essentials
One advantage QuickBooks Essentials has over QuickBooks Simple Start is the ability to manage all aspects of accounts payable, including entering bills and paying bills, and run an accounts payable (A/P) aging report to stay on top of bill due dates. Essentials is generally right for businesses using manual processes to manage their bookkeeping and accounting, such as Excel spreadsheets and Word documents.
QuickBooks Online Essentials Pricing & Features
Essentials is a bit pricier at $40 per month, which costs $240 more a year than Simple Start. However, with the heftier price tag, you get more users (three users and two accountants versus one user and one accountant with Simple Start).
In addition, you can manage all of your bills and get 40 prebuilt reports, which is twice the number of reports that are included in Simple Start. QuickBooks Online Essentials is right for a business that has heavy accounts payable and needs to give other users access to their data.
What’s Missing in QBO Essentials
If you need to hire 1099 contractors, sell products, or need to give more than three users access to your data, QBO Essentials will not work for you; you will need to go with QBO Plus.
Listed below are some of the features that are not included in QuickBooks Online Essentials:
- Track inventory
- Prepare and issue 1099s
- Track billable hours by customer
- Create and manage budgets
- Track profitability for multiple locations
QuickBooks Online Essentials Reviews
Customers who use QuickBooks Online Essentials like the ability to give more than one user access to their data. In addition, they like being able to take a picture of a receipt with the app and automatically sync the information with their QuickBooks. Having access to view reports using the mobile app is another popular feature. We did not find any negative reviews about QuickBooks Online Essentials. Visit our customer reviews page to see individual reviews.
Where to Get QBO Essentials
QBO Essentials makes it easier to organize payments to vendors by reminding you when bills are due and allowing you to pay vendors directly from QuickBooks. Sign up for a free, 30-day trial of QuickBooks Online Essentials to see how easy it is to keep track of your business finances.
QuickBooks Online Comparison: Plus
One of the key differences that makes QBO Plus stand apart from Simple Start and Essentials is it allows you to track inventory quantities and cost. Neither Simple Start nor Essentials has this capability. QBO Plus is ideal for a business that sells products and needs to keep track of every aspect of purchasing and receiving products into inventory, as well as the sale of those products to customers.
QuickBooks Online Plus Pricing & Features
At $70 per month, QBO Plus is more than triple the cost of Simple Start ($20 per month) and almost double the cost of Essentials ($40 per month). For the extra money, you get more users (five plus two accountants), the ability to track all inventory costs and quantities, and three times the reports that come with Simple Start (more than 65).
What’s Missing in QBO Plus
QBO Plus ideally has everything that most product and service-based businesses need to manage their books. However, the one area where QBO Plus falls short is the number of users. You can give up to five users and two accountants access to your data. If you need more than five users, you should upgrade to QBO Advanced. With QBO Advanced, you can give up to 25 users access to your data.
QuickBooks Online Plus Reviews
Customers who use QuickBooks Online Plus like how easy it is to track quantities and costs for products when they are purchased from suppliers and sold to customers. They also like how easy it is to run reports in just a few minutes so they can stay on top of how their business is doing. Negative reviews mentioned that the cost is quite steep, but admit it’s worth it because of the number of features included. You can check our customer reviews page for more details.
Where to Get QBO Plus
QBO Plus makes tracking the purchase and sale of products very easy. Hiring 1099 contractors and tracking their payments is another great reason to give QBO Plus a shot. Try QuickBooks Online Plus for just $35 per month for the first three months.
QuickBooks Online Comparison: Advanced
The primary feature setting QBO Advanced apart from Simple Start, Essentials, and Plus is the ability to give up to 25 users access to your data. This makes Advanced ideal for a business with a growing staff, especially considering the maximum number of users for QBO Plus is five. Plus, none of the other QBO products has a dedicated success manager, nor do they include free, self-paced training for your entire staff.
QuickBooks Online Advanced Pricing & Features
At $150 per month, QuickBooks Online Advanced is more than twice the cost of QuickBooks Online Plus ($70 per month). For the additional cost, you can add up to 25 users and customize permissions for sensitive areas like bank per credit card information.
QBO Advanced also includes a smart reporting tool called Fathom. This tool allows you to run detailed reports for key performance indicators (KPI). In addition, QBO Advanced is the only QBO product that includes a dedicated success manager and free, self-paced training for your staff!
What’s Missing in QBO Advanced
Similar to QBO Plus, QBO Advanced has more than what most small businesses require.
However, if I had to pick one thing that all four QuickBooks online versions are missing, it would be the functionality that a manufacturing business might need, such as the ability to create a bill of materials.
If you are a manufacturing business, QuickBooks Premier Manufacturing is going to be your best bet. Our QuickBooks Desktop Product comparison is a great resource to learn more about the cost and features of the desktop product line.
QuickBooks Online Advanced Reviews
Customers who use QBO Advanced like the ability to give more than five users access to their data. The granular user permissions for sensitive data like bank and credit card information is also a popular feature. Like Plus, negative reviews about Advanced mentioned that the price is steep for a small business. You can check our customer reviews page for more details.
Where to Get QBO Advanced
QBO Advanced allows you to give more than five users access to your data, and includes a dedicated success manager to answer questions and provide you with the resources that you need. Try QBO Advanced for just $60 per month for the first three months.
Visit QuickBooks Online Advanced
QuickBooks Simple Start vs QuickBooks Essentials
QuickBooks Essentials is going to be the top QBO choice for most small businesses because of the services offered, including the ability to manage accounts payable. The three primary differences between QBO Simple Start and QBO Essentials are the ability to schedule and pay vendor bills, the number of users included with the subscription, and the number of reports that are included.
QuickBooks Simple Start vs QuickBooks Essentials at a Glance
| Feature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Manage accounts payable (schedule & pay vendor bills) | ||
| Number of users included with monthly subscription | ||
| Number of reports you can run in just a few clicks |
When comparing QuickBooks Simple Start to Essentials, here are some more details on the three key differences:
1. Manage & Pay Vendor Bills
Unlike Simple Start, you can manage your entire accounts payable process with Essentials. This includes, but is not limited to, creating and managing vendor information such as the remittance address, due dates, and contact information. You can also enter bills from vendors, and QuickBooks will remind you when a bill is coming due. Finally, you can write checks directly from QuickBooks to pay bills.
2. Give Access to Multiple Users
All three versions of QuickBooks Online allow you to provide access to your accountant in addition to your user access. With Essentials, you can give two additional users access to your data. You can also specify which areas of QuickBooks these users have access to. For example, if your bookkeeper is only responsible for invoicing customers, you can give them access to just invoicing customers and nothing else. Learn more about the different kinds of QuickBooks user accounts.
3. Number of Prebuilt Reports
When you sign up for QuickBooks Online Essentials, you get access to more than 40 prebuilt reports. This is more than double the reports that come with the Simple Start version. The Company Snapshot, Customer Balance Detail, and Profit and Loss Detail are just a few of the additional reports available in Online Plus.
Below is a brief description of three additional reports available in QuickBooks Online Plus:
- Company Snapshot: The Company Snapshot report provides an overview of the money coming in and going out of your business, along with the ability to compare your business to others in your industry.
- Scorecard: With the Scorecard, you can compare your performance in net profit margin, sales growth, and cash flow with other businesses in your industry.
- Profit and Loss Detail: The Profit and Loss Detail report shows year-to-date transactions instead of just totals like the Profit and Loss Summary report.
QuickBooks Essentials vs QuickBooks Plus
When comparing QBO Essentials versus QBO Plus, there are three key differences: price, number of users included, and features. QBO Essentials is $40 per month versus $70 per month for QBO Plus. For the additional cost of QBO Plus, you get five users versus three with Essentials. QBO Plus includes more than 65 reports versus 40 in Essentials. Plus, you can track inventory, prepare 1099s, and create budgets with QBO Plus.
QuickBooks Essentials vs QuickBooks Plus at a Glance
| Feature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Number of users included with monthly subscription | ||
| Number of reports you can run in just a few clicks | ||
| Create purchase orders to place orders with suppliers | ||
| Track inventory using FIFO method | ||
| Prepare & issue 1099s to contractors | ||
| Track billable hours by customer | ||
| Create & manage budgets |
The features included in QuickBooks Online Essentials versus QuickBooks Online Plus are:
- Number of users who can access data: QuickBooks Online Essentials comes with five-user access and up to two accountant-user access.
- Number of prebuilt reports: With QuickBooks Online Plus, you get access to more than 65 prebuilt reports. That’s 25 more reports than what you get with Essentials.
- Profit and loss by class: This report shows revenue and expenses categorized by department or location.
- Transaction detail by account: This report lists individual transactions subtotaled by each account on your chart of accounts.
- Create purchase orders: QuickBooks Online Plus allows you to create purchase orders and email them to your suppliers to place your product orders.
- Track inventory: If you need to track inventory for the products that you sell, Plus allows you to track your inventory using the first in, first out (FIFO) method.
- Print and prepare 1099s: If you hire contractors who need a 1099, you can manage this process using QuickBooks Online Plus.
- Track billable hours by customer: There is a time tracking feature in QuickBooks Plus that allows you to track billable hours back to your customers.
- Create and manage budgets: QuickBooks Online Plus allows you to create monthly, quarterly, or annual budgets so that you can estimate future income and expenses.
- Track profitability for multiple locations: If you have multiple store locations, you can track sales, expenses, and overall profitability for each location in QuickBooks Online Plus.
Since accounts payable is an essential part of bookkeeping, we do not recommend QBO Simple Start, which is why we chose not to do a feature comparison chart to QBO Plus. We recommend that you go with QBO Essentials, Plus, or Advanced.
QuickBooks Plus vs QuickBooks Advanced
When comparing QBO Plus versus QBO Advanced, QBO Plus is much more affordable at $70 per month versus $150 per month for Advanced. For the steep cost, you get more users with Advanced (25 versus five in QBO Plus). You can also generate more reports plus accelerated invoicing, custom user permissions, and a dedicated success manager.
QuickBooks Plus vs QuickBooks Advanced at a Glance
| Features | ||
|---|---|---|
| Maximum number of users | ||
| Number of reports you can run in just a few clicks | ||
| Smart reporting powered by Fathom | ||
| Accelerated invoicing | ||
| Custom user permissions | ||
| Dedicated success manager | ||
| Training for staff ($2,000 value) |
The features included in QBO Plus versus QBO Advanced are:
- Maximum number of users: QBO Advanced allows you to add up to 25 users versus five maximum users with QBO Plus.
- Number of reports included: QBO Advanced includes more than 100 reports, which is over 35 more reports than QBO Plus.
- Smart reporting powered by Fathom: QBO Advanced includes a reporting tool called Fathom that allows you to run reports to gain insight into key performance indicators for cash flow, profitability, and other key aspects of your business. This feature is not available in QBO Simple Start, Essentials, or Plus.
- Accelerated invoicing: This feature allows you to import hundreds of customer invoices instead of manually creating them individually. Accelerated invoicing is not available in Simple Start, Essentials, or Plus.
- Custom user permissions: QBO Advanced includes a deeper level of user permissions that allows you to manage access to sensitive data such as bank and credit card accounts.
- Dedicated success manager: Unlike any other QBO product, QBO Advanced subscribers are assigned a dedicated point of contact who can assist you with getting your business up and running on QBO and provide key resources and other information when you need it.
- Training for staff: QBO Advanced includes self-paced training resources and materials to get your staff up to speed on how to use QuickBooks. No other QBO product has this feature.
Alternatives to QuickBooks Online
If you’re looking for an alternative to QuickBooks, we’ve got three great recommendations for you: Xero, FreshBooks, and Wave Accounting. Xero is our number one recommended alternative to QuickBooks, FreshBooks is ideal if you need to streamline your customer billing and payment process, and Wave Accounting is a full-featured accounting software that you can for free—no strings.
Our recommended alternatives to QuickBooks Online are:
Xero
Xero is the best alternative software to QuickBooks Online. Similar to QuickBooks Online, it has three subscription levels that run between $9 and $60 per month. When it comes to features, Xero includes the same features found in QuickBooks Online. However, they do not offer live telephone support, so you will have to email the support team and wait for a response. QuickBooks provides unlimited telephone and chat support.
Check out our Xero versus QuickBooks comparison to see how Xero stacks up against QuickBooks when it comes to price, features, and customer reviews.
FreshBooks
If you need to automate your accounts receivable process, FreshBooks does a great job by allowing you to schedule invoices so that they go out automatically via email. You can create custom, professional invoices, send invoices via email, accept online payments, and run a detailed accounts receivable (A/R) aging report from within FreshBooks. FreshBooks has three pricing plans between $15 and $50 per month.
Be sure to check out our FreshBooks versus QuickBooks comparison to see how FreshBooks stacks up against QuickBooks Online.
Wave
Strapped for cash and don’t have money in the budget for accounting software? If so, then Wave is ideal for you. Wave is a full accounting software program that goes beyond performing basic bookkeeping tasks. The best part is that Wave is absolutely free. Wave allows you to give access to an unlimited number of users and you can manage more than one business within the same account, free of charge.
Read our Wave versus QuickBooks Online comparison to see how Wave stacks up against QuickBooks Online.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About QuickBooks Online
We have included a list of frequently asked questions about QuickBooks Online. If you don’t see your question, head over to our Fit Small Business forum and post your question. We respond daily to questions posted in our forum by small business owners like you.
The most frequently asked questions about QuickBooks Online are:
How much is QuickBooks Online pricing a month?
QuickBooks Online pricing includes four plans: Simple Start is $20 per month, Essentials is $40 per month, Plus is $70 per month, and Advanced is $150 per month. As a Fit Small Business reader, you may qualify to save up to 50% off a paid subscription.
Is there an online version of QuickBooks?
Yes, you can choose from four pricing plans that cost between $20 and $150 per month. QuickBooks Online can manage all of your income and business expenses, like QuickBooks Desktop.
Does QuickBooks Online have payroll?
You can turn on the payroll feature in QuickBooks Online whenever you are ready to use it. The starting cost is $39 per month plus $4 per employee, per month. QuickBooks payroll will automatically calculate paychecks, allow you to pay with check or direct deposit, and file and pay taxes electronically.
Can I use both QuickBooks Online & QuickBooks Desktop?
Unfortunately, you cannot use both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop. The QuickBooks Online product is a cloud-based software and the desktop software must be installed on a computer. There is no way to use them both to manage your business bookkeeping because they are on two different platforms.
Bottom Line
By now, you should have a better understanding of what’s included in all four QBO pricing plans. Now it’s time for you to choose the plan that’s right for you. To get up and running quickly, check out our free QuickBooks course. We designed it for small business owners who are new to QuickBooks.
Sign up for a free trial of QuickBooks Online or get up to 50% off for the first three months so you can get your business set up on QuickBooks today. The most popular version of QBO is Essentials; however, if you need to track inventory quantities and cost, or want to try out the budgeting tool, go with QBO Plus.
Alan Thomas
August 31, 2019 at 8:13 amActually, if you ignore the qbo advertising and comparison charts from Intuit, and look inside Simple Start and Essentials you will find that they also track 1099s and have for over a year now, though Intuit doesn’t advertise it.
Amanda Norman
September 5, 2019 at 1:57 amHi Alan,
Thanks for sharing this information, and thanks for reading!
Mandy, Moderator
Frances
July 16, 2018 at 6:08 pmI would like to know can you run QB Desktop and QBO?
Crystalynn Shelton
July 18, 2018 at 11:19 pmHey Frances, unfortunately QuickBooks desktop and QuickBooks online are on two totally different platforms which means that you can’t run your business on both and expect them to be connected. If you are currently using QuickBooks Desktop and you are thinking about converting to Online, I do recommend that you run both systems at the same time for about 1 month before you completely let QuickBooks desktop go. I’ve also written an article on How To Convert from QuickBooks Desktop to Online.
Best wishes,
Crystalynn Shelton, CPA
Kim
March 14, 2018 at 8:07 amDo you have to pay/renew every year for online essentials?
Crystalynn Shelton
March 15, 2018 at 11:39 pmHey Kim! Yes, all of the QuickBooks Online subscriptions are billed on a monthly basis. I believe if you pay for the year upfront you are able to save a few bucks but yes you will have to renew it annually to continue to use the software.
Thanks for the great question and for reading our articles!
Best-
Crystalynn Shelton
Kevin Coffel
February 19, 2018 at 7:18 pmPlease remove the comments from your article that indicate that you cannot downgrade. You can indeed downgrade the Online version in the US. Go to –
http://qbo.intuit.com/app/changeplan
There is also a video regarding the process –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JFEqzT_MlI
Crystalynn Shelton
March 1, 2018 at 3:16 amHey Kevin, looks like this is a fairly new option. Thanks so much for bringing it to our attention.
Thanks,
Crystalynn Shelton