QuickBooks Online offers five versions: Self-Employed, Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced. Pricing varies between $15 and $150 per month. Based on our QuickBooks Online comparison, your ideal plan depends on the number of users you need and whether your business requires features like accounts payable (A/P), inventory, or advanced reporting.
We rated QuickBooks Online among the best small business accounting software. To help narrow down the best plan for your business, answer 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 of the five QuickBooks products.
Answer a few questions about your business and we'll give you personalized product match
Which QuickBooks Online Is Right for You
- QuickBooks Online Self-Employed: Best for owners of small service businesses that report business income on Schedule C of their personal tax return and have no employees
- QuickBooks Online Simple Start: Best for small service businesses that want to track assets, liabilities, income, and expenses, and only need access for one user
- QuickBooks Online Essentials: Best for small businesses that need to assign billable hours to customers, track bills due, and provide access for up to three users
- QuickBooks Online Plus: Best for retailers, wholesalers, contractors, and other small businesses that require inventory tracking, job costing, budgeting, and access for up to five users
- QuickBooks Online Advanced: Best for small to midsize businesses that want more detailed reporting, custom user permissions, a dedicated support manager, and up to 25 users
QuickBooks Online Comparison: Features
All five versions of QuickBooks Online can:
- Track your income and expenses
- Invoice customers and receive payments
- Invite your accountant to access your data
- Download your bank and credit card transactions
- Track mileage via a mobile device
- Capture and organize receipts via a mobile device
- Access unlimited customer support
QuickBooks Online Comparison Chart of Features
Feature | Self- Employed | Simple Start | Essentials | Plus | Advanced |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
QuickBooks Online Monthly Price for First Three Months | $7 | $12 | $20 | $35 | $75 |
QuickBooks Online Standard Monthly Price | $15 | $25 | $40 | $70 | $150 |
Number of Users Included | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 25 |
Number of Reports Available | 3+ | 20+ | 40+ | 65+ | 100+ |
Estimate Quarterly Income Taxes | ✔ | ||||
Create Estimates and Convert to Invoices | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
Manage Sales Tax | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
Payroll Service (Additional Fee) | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
Online Payments (Additional Fee) | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
Print Checks Instead of Writing Them Manually | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
Prepare and Issue 1099s to Contractors | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
QuickBooks Live Online Bookkeeping Service (Additional Fee) | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
Input and Track Unpaid Bills | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
Record Multicurrency Transactions | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
Unlimited Time-tracking-only Users | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
Create Purchase Orders to Place Orders With Suppliers | ✔ | ✔ | |||
Track Inventory Using the First-in, First-out (FIFO) Method | ✔ | ✔ | |||
Create and Manage Budgets | ✔ | ✔ | |||
Track Profitability by Classes, Customer Types, and Locations | ✔ | ✔ | |||
Track Job Profitability | ✔ | ✔ | |||
Unlimited Reports-only Users | ✔ | ✔ | |||
Key Performance Indicators Dashboard | ✔ | ||||
Custom User Permissions | ✔ | ||||
Automated Workflows | ✔ | ||||
Dedicated Success Manager | ✔ | ||||
Training for Staff ($2,000 Value) | ✔ |
QuickBooks Self-Employed vs QuickBooks Simple Start
QuickBooks Online Self-Employed works very well for people who work for themselves in a service industry and don’t have any employees. However, if a self-employed person hires an employee, then they will need to issue paychecks and file payroll tax returns. An upgrade to QuickBooks Simple Start will allow integration of QuickBooks payroll.
QuickBooks Self-Employed vs Simple Start at a Glance
Feature | Self-Employed | Simple Start |
---|---|---|
Promotion Price per Month for Three Months | $7 | $12 |
Standard Price per Month | $15 | $25 |
Calculate Estimated Tax Payment | ✔ | |
Transfer Income and Deductions to Schedule C | ✔ | |
Print Balance Sheet Showing Assets and Liabilities | ✔ | |
Payroll Add-on Available | ✔ | |
Add Sales Tax to Invoices Automatically | ✔ | |
Takeaway: Schedule C businesses should go with the higher-priced Simple Start if they have employees, need to charge customers sales tax, or need a balance sheet showing assets and liabilities. If your Schedule C business has inventory, you will need to upgrade to QuickBooks Online Plus to calculate your cost of goods sold and ending inventory.
QuickBooks Simple Start vs QuickBooks Essentials
QuickBooks Essentials allows three users vs only one user allowed by QuickBooks Simple Start. The advantages of Essentials vs Simple Start are the ability to manage unpaid bills and assign hours worked to specific customers. In addition to helping you pay bills on time, recording unpaid bills is necessary if you need to produce accrual-based financial statements.
QuickBooks Simple Start vs Essentials at a Glance
Feature | Simple Start | Essentials |
---|---|---|
Promotion Price per Month for Three Months | $12 | $20 |
Standard Price per Month | $25 | $40 |
Number of Users Included With Monthly Subscription | 1 | 3 |
Manage Accounts Payable (Schedule and Pay Vendor Bills) | ✔ | |
Assign Hours to Specific Customers | ✔ | |
Number of Reports You Can Run in a Few Clicks | 20+ | 40+ |
Takeaway: Most companies that choose Essentials over Simple Start do so because they need more than one user. However, service-based businesses that charge customers by the hour should also choose Essentials to assign time to customers.
QuickBooks Essentials vs QuickBooks Plus
QuickBooks Plus is a substantial upgrade compared to QuickBooks Essentials. The most crucial improvements are that Plus allows your company to track inventory costs and calculate profit and loss by project. Other helpful features that are included in Plus but not available with Essentials are budgets, classes, customer types, locations, and unlimited report-only users.
QuickBooks Essentials vs Plus at a Glance
Feature | Essentials | Plus |
---|---|---|
Promotion Price per Month for Three Months | $20 | $35 |
Standard Price per Month | $40 | $70 |
Number of Users Included With Monthly Subscription | 3 | 5 |
Maximum Classes and Locations | 0 | 40 |
Track Inventory Costs | ✔ | |
Profit and Loss By Project | ✔ | |
Unlimited Reports-only Users | ✔ | |
Prepare Budgets | ✔ | |
Takeaway: Retailers and wholesalers should choose Plus so you can track the cost of inventory. Contractors should also choose plus to track the profitability of individual projects. Other businesses should consider whether tracking profit and loss by class and location is worth the extra $30 per month subscription price.
QuickBooks Plus vs QuickBooks Advanced
QuickBooks Advanced has many bells and whistles compared to QuickBooks Plus, but no additional features that are crucial to good bookkeeping. However, as your business grows from small to midsize, you will probably need to upgrade from Plus to Advanced. In addition to allowing up to 25 users, Advanced removes the limitations on the number of classes, locations, and accounts imposed by Plus.
QuickBooks Plus vs Advanced at a Glance
Feature | Plus | Advanced |
---|---|---|
Promotion Price per Month for Three Months | $35 | $75 |
Standard Price per Month | $70 | $150 |
Number of Users Included With Monthly Subscription | 5 | 25 |
Maximum Classes and Locations | 40 | Unlimited |
Maximum Chart of Accounts | 250 | Unlimited |
Key Performance Indicators Dashboard | ✔ | |
Dedicated Success Manager | ✔ | |
Training for Staff | ✔ | |
Takeaway: Upgrading from Plus to Advanced isn’t crucial unless you’re running up against the size limitations of Plus. The most likely limitation that will cause you to upgrade is requiring more than five full-access users.
QuickBooks Online Comparison: Self-Employed
QuickBooks Self-Employed is ideal for individuals who work for themselves and report their business income on Schedule C of their personal income tax return. Self-employed individuals may need to upgrade to one of the more advanced QuickBooks Online options if they have employees or inventory.
QuickBooks Online Self-Employed Pros | QuickBooks Online Self-Employed Cons |
---|---|
Most affordable plan | Doesn’t track assets and liabilities |
Export to Schedule C (with TurboTax Bundle) | No integrated payroll |
Calculate quarterly estimated income tax | No inventory accounting |
QuickBooks Online Self-Employed Pricing
- $7 per month for three months, then $15 per month for a maximum of one user
QuickBooks Online Self-Employed Features
- Connect bank accounts: Checking and credit card transactions automatically transfer and can be classified into business expenses or marked as personal.
- Generate invoices: Generate invoices and either print or email them to customers.
- Track mileage: The mobile app captures all trips (even if the app is closed) so that you can classify them as business or personal at your leisure. This can be disabled easily if you prefer to enter trips manually.
- Receipt capture: Take a picture of receipts with the mobile app and create new transactions or match existing transactions automatically.
QuickBooks Online Comparison: Simple Start
QuickBooks Simple Start is a great fit for your small business if you will be doing the bookkeeping yourself, don’t have inventory, and don’t require help tracking your unpaid bills. QuickBooks Online Simple Start is the most affordable double-entry bookkeeping system, which means it tracks your assets and liabilities as well as your income and expenses.
QuickBooks Online Simple Start Pros | QuickBooks Online Simple Start Cons |
---|---|
Tracks sales tax | Doesn’t track unpaid bills |
Tracks assets and liabilities | No inventory accounting |
Connects to bank accounts | Cannot track billable hours by customer |
QuickBooks Simple Start Pricing
- $12 per month for three months, then $25 per month for a maximum of one user
QuickBooks Online Simple Start Features
- Connect bank accounts: Checking and credit card transactions transfer automatically and can be classified into business expenses or marked as personal.
- Generate custom invoices: Software allows you to create a customized invoice template for your business and print or email invoices to customers.
- Track mileage: Use the mobile app to capture all trips automatically and then classify the mileage as business or personal.
- Receipt capture: You can capture receipts by using the mobile app, uploading from your computer, or emailing your QuickBooks Online account.
- Track sales tax: QuickBooks charges the correct amount of sales tax automatically based on the address you provide. You can track sales tax collected and paid to help file your sales tax return from within QuickBooks.
- Use QuickBooks Live: QuickBooks Live is an online bookkeeping service―for an additional charge―offered by QuickBooks for people who want the convenience of accessing their information anywhere with QuickBooks but prefer to have help with bookkeeping.
QuickBooks Online Comparison: Essentials
QuickBooks Essentials can be used to manage all aspects of A/P, including entering bills and paying them later. Essentials also allows your company to track billable hours by customer. Very small businesses that bill customers for hourly services usually find QuickBooks Essentials meets their needs.
QuickBooks Online Essentials Pros | QuickBooks Online Essentials Cons |
---|---|
Tracks unpaid bills | No profit and loss by class |
Assigns billable hours to customers | No inventory accounting |
Unlimited time-tracking-only users | No profit and loss by location |
QuickBooks Essentials Pricing
- $20 per month for three months, then $40 per month for a maximum of three users
QuickBooks Essentials Features
QuickBooks Essentials includes all features of QuickBooks Simple Start plus:
- Track unpaid bills: Enter bills as they are received and track until they are paid.
- Track employee time: An unlimited number of time-tracking-only users can input their hours via the mobile website and assign their time to specific customers.
- Create custom fields: You can create custom fields attached to either customer records or transactions that can then be used to filter or create custom reports.
QuickBooks Online Comparison: Plus
One of the key differences that makes QuickBooks Online Plus stand apart from Simple Start and Essentials is it allows you to track inventory quantities and cost. QuickBooks Online Plus is good for a business that sells products and needs to keep track of purchasing and selling products to customers. While Plus is the best QuickBooks Online option for retailers, wholesalers, and contractors, you should also consider QuickBooks Desktop vs QuickBooks Online as QuickBooks Desktop offers more features and flexibility for dealing with inventory and projects.
QuickBooks Online Plus Pros | QuickBooks Online Plus Cons |
---|---|
Track inventory costs | Ending inventory is always determined using FIFO, not average cost |
Create custom classes and locations | Classes and locations limited to 40 |
Track profit and loss by project | Actual vs estimated comparison of profit and loss by project is not available |
Unlimited reports-only users | Chart of accounts limited to 250 |
QuickBooks Online Plus Pricing
- $35 per month for three months, then $70 per month for a maximum of five users
QuickBooks Online Plus Features
QuickBooks Online Plus includes all features of QuickBooks Essentials plus:
- Create custom classes: Classes can be created to track profit and loss by anything you wish. A popular use of custom classes is to track profit and loss by product type.
- Create locations: Online Plus also lets users track profit and loss by location. Locations are separate from classes so that you can also track profit and loss by classes for specific locations. For example, you can view the profit and loss of a product line (class) for a particular store (location).
- Track inventory cost: Users can also use the software to track the cost of inventory items. Using the FIFO method of accounting, QuickBooks Online Plus determines the cost of inventory remaining at the end of each period.
- Set pricing rules: Special pricing rules can be assigned to customers or customer types. For instance, you can create a customer type for your most loyal customers and then assign a pricing rule that gives them a 10% discount automatically on certain purchases.
- Create projects: QuickBooks Online Plus also lets users create projects to track the profit and loss for individual jobs. Expenses and labor can be assigned to projects as incurred. Then, when labor is assigned to a job, the associated cost of payroll taxes and employee benefits is also assigned to the job.
- Budget expenses: Fiscal-year budgets can be created by inputting expected expense amounts for each account. The budget can be broken down by class, location, and project.
QuickBooks Online Comparison: Advanced
The primary feature setting QuickBooks Online 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 QuickBooks Online Plus is only five. QuickBooks Online Advanced is also the only product with a dedicated success manager and free training for your entire staff.
QuickBooks Online Advanced Pros | QuickBooks Online Advanced Cons |
---|---|
Includes 25 full-access users | Ending inventory is always determined using FIFO, not average cost |
Tracks 17 key performance indicators | Expensive for small businesses |
Unlimited classes and locations | Actual vs estimated comparison of profit and loss by project is not available |
Unlimited chart of accounts |
QuickBooks Online Advanced Pricing
- $75 per month for three months, then $150 per month for a maximum of 25 users
QuickBooks Online Advanced Features
- QuickBooks Online Plus features: QuickBooks Online Advanced includes all features of QuickBooks Online Plus.
- Create multiple transactions: Checks, expenses, and invoices can be created in large batches on a single screen, potentially saving hours of data input time.
- View key performance indicators: You can view 17 key performance indicators (KPIs) on a single “Smart Reporting” dashboard along with an optimal value for each KPI and the recent trend in your KPI. Clicking on a KPI creates a graph of the KPI automatically over a time period you can customize.
Bottom Line
QuickBooks Online Plus is the best option for most small businesses, especially those that deal with inventory or large projects. However, if you are self-employed with no employees, then QuickBooks Self-Employed is a good low-cost option. If your business is service-based, without any inventory, then QuickBooks Essentials should provide everything you need while saving you $30 per month compared to Plus.
Dede Erdman
Good morning..
We have a business with 3 locations. Which quickbooks would be the best to maintain 3 separate locations sales but have the ability to merge data from end of month into 1 file.
Tim Yoder
Good morning! You’ll need to QuickBooks Online Plus in order to track sales and/or expenses by location. Be sure to enable Location tracking in your advanced settings as a I demonstrate in this Free QuickBooks Tutorial. Once enabled, you can assign a location to every transaction and then print most financial statements either separated by locations or for your whole business.
I hope this helps!
Tim
Rudy Hugo
I am switching accountants. I used the quickbook desktop for the last 3 years. The new accountant wants Quickbooks online. My son and I are owners with 5 parttime workers. All payroll is done with Paycheck. I use a specialized database for customers , billing and payments. Which quickbooks on line is best for us and can you migrate the desktop to online?
Tim Yoder
Hi Rudy,
Thank you for your questions. You can migrate from QB Desktop to Online. You can find detailed instructions in How to Convert QuickBooks Desktop to Online in 9 Steps. You should also seriously consider handling customers, billing and payments within QuickBooks as it will make your bookkeeping much simpler and be less prone to errors. But, you might have a very good reason for using a specialized database. I don’t know much about your operations, so I recommend working with your new accountant for selecting the correct version of QBO. From the brief description you gave, you probably want Essentials unless you have inventory which requires Plus. You’re also want Plus if your interested in budgeting or tracking profit by class, location, customer, or job.
One last note, if you’re new to QBO you might want to look at our series of Free QuickBooks Online Tutorials. Since your familiar with the desktop program, you’ll catch on to QBO pretty quickly.
I hope this helps and best wishes for your business!
Tim
Maeghan Flynn
I am a business consultant that helps small business owners organize their business and optimize systems and processes. This info all in one place has been SO helpful and has helped me to provide better direction to my clients. Thank you for this clear and informative explanation!!
Tim Yoder
I’m glad we were able to help you provide the best answers to your clients! Thanks for reading! Tim
Joseph Nakashian
I have been using One Write Plus for many years, is it possible to convert and import the OWP data into Quick Books desktop platform .
I will appreciate your response.
Thank you.
Joseph
Amanda Norman
Hi Joseph,
Thanks for stopping by! I couldn’t find much information regarding converting One Write Plus to QuickBooks. One Write Plus was acquired by Sage, so you might be able to reach out to them for assistance. It looks like there may be some services that could also do this for you; however, you might be limited on what data you can bring over. Maybe some of our readers can offer some insight.
Best of luck,
Mandy, Moderator
Mohamed Farah
Does Quickbooks online include basic discrete manufacturing features, e.g. Bill of Materials?
Amanda Norman
Hi Mohamed,
Unfortunately, QuickBooks Online doesn’t have the ability to create a Bill of Material, but the QuickBooks Desktop Premier version has this feature.
You can find pricing information here.
Best wishes.
Mandy, Moderator