The main differences between Quicken vs QuickBooks Online are their purposes and target audiences. Quicken focuses on personal finance features, such as budgeting, investment tracking, and bill management. However, it does have features to track the income and expenses of rental houses and simple one-person businesses.
Meanwhile, QuickBooks Online is a double-entry accounting system A double-entry bookkeeping system tracks assets and liabilities as well as income and expenses. This enhances the reliability of income and expenses by ensuring that all changes in assets and liabilities are reflected in net income. that provides a broader set of features tailored to business needs, such as invoicing, payroll, vendor management, and financial reporting:
- Quicken: Best for tracking personal finances and rental property income
- QuickBooks Online: Best for small businesses seeking accounting software that will track income and expenses
We are driven by the Fit Small Business mission to provide you with the best answers to your small business questions—allowing you to choose the right accounting solution for your needs. Our meticulous evaluation process makes us a trustworthy source for accounting software insights. We don’t just scratch the surface; we immerse ourselves in every platform we review by exploring the features down to the finest nuances.
We have an extensive history of reviewing small business accounting software, and we stay up-to-date with the latest features and enhancements. Our first-hand experience, guided by our internal case study, helps us understand how the different products compare with each other and how they work in real-world scenarios.
 |  | |
|---|---|---|
Monthly Pricing | $4.49 to $9.99, billed annually | $35 to $235 |
Number of Users Included | 1 | 1 to 25 |
Double-entry Bookkeeping System | ✕ | ✓ |
Payroll Add-on Available | ✕ | ✓ |
Inventory Tracking | ✕ | ✓ |
Separate Business & Personal Expenses | ✓ | ✓ |
Schedule C & E Reports | ✓ | ✕ |
Print Income Statement & Balance Sheet | ✕ | ✓ |
Rental Property Center | ✓ | ✕ |
Grant Access to Accountant | ✕ | ✓ |
Ease of Setup & Use | Moderate | Easy |
Mobile App | iOS and Android | iOS and Android |
Average Rating on Third-party Sites |
Use Cases and Pros & Cons
- Individuals managing three or fewer rental properties: Technically, Quicken can manage 100 rental properties with 100 units per property, but we only recommend it for managing three or fewer rental properties because of its limited accounting capabilities, including the inability to keep financial records on an accrual basis. It works well for tracking tenants, rental rates, and lease terms of your rental properties—functions the more expensive QuickBooks Online doesn’t do.
- Individuals wanting to budget and track personal expenses: Quicken is primarily a personal finance software and has features like expense tracking, budgeting, and income tracking. It is better suited to individuals who are interested in budgeting and tracking their personal finances, compared to QuickBooks Online, which is more suited to small businesses,
- Individuals tracking retirement assets: As a personal finance software, Quicken is better than QuickBooks for monitoring your retirement investments and assets. It can provide monthly to yearly projections of your investment accounts, which can help you make decisions for a better investment outcome.
- Freelancers seeking a more affordable alternative to QuickBooks Online: Quicken is a simpler and more affordable alternative to QuickBooks Online for freelancers. If you don’t need the more advanced features offered by QuickBooks Online, Quicken can be a cost-effective solution for tracking income and expenses.
Pros
- Has a strong budgeting capability
- Offers a web and mobile companion app with every Quicken desktop application
- Can manage both rental properties and personal finances
Cons
- Is not a double-entry accounting system
- Requires users to sync Quicken web and desktop manually before and after using
- Has no monthly billing
- Only supports a single user
- Small business owners: QuickBooks Online offers flexible plans for small business owners. It’s also easy to find a QuickBooks ProAdvisor or independent bookkeeper to manage your books since many accounting professionals are more acquainted with QuickBooks than with Quicken. So, if you ever need assistance with bookkeeping so that you can focus on managing your small business, QuickBooks is your best choice.
- Businesses invoicing customers: In addition to its full-featured double-entry bookkeeping, it has an excellent invoice creation and management system. You can personalize your invoices, keep track of outstanding invoices, and record payments. While Quicken’s Business & Personal plan allows for invoicing, it is not as advanced as what is offered with QuickBooks Online. That’s why QuickBooks Online is our leading invoicing software.
- Businesses managing bills: QuickBooks Online, especially if you’re collecting sales tax, lets you manage billings from inventory purchases, keep track of vendor billings, and account for credit memos. You can also create recurring bills to streamline fixed yet repetitive payments. QuickBooks Online is one of our top recurring billing software, and it is a better choice for businesses managing bills because Quicken doesn’t offer these features.
- Churches or nonprofits: We recommend QuickBooks Online over Quicken for both churches and nonprofits. Proper fund accounting within Quicken would be extremely difficult because it lacks the tools necessary to track grants, donations, and funds. We selected QuickBooks Online as the best customizable accounting software for Form 990 reporting in our guide to the best nonprofit accounting software. It is also one of our best church accounting software because of its ease of use and that it can be customized to the needs of churches.
- Real estate businesses: QuickBooks Online’s class and location tracking features, something Quicken lacks, make it easy for real estate businesses, such as property management companies, to separate net profit by type of property and location. This is one reason why it is our top-recommended real estate accounting software.
- Farmers: We choose QuickBooks Online as our overall best farm accounting software because you can use class and location tracking to segregate activity by field and crop.
Pros
- Offers scalable plans priced based on number of users and features needed
- Provides robust inventory management features
- Has a vast network of QuickBooks Online ProAdvisors
Cons
- Can’t track value of investments automatically
- Has a mobile app, but it can’t record time worked
- Is unable to compare estimated to actual project costs
- Business owners who often work remotely: While both Quicken and QuickBooks Online offer accounting apps, we found that Zoho Books consistently ranks high because of its powerful mobile app that offers more features than similar software—including invoicing, accepting online payments, recording bills and bill payments, categorizing expenses, and viewing financial reports. It tops our list of the best mobile accounting apps, and our Zoho Books review provides detailed information.
- Businesses with multiple users: Unlike QuickBooks Online and Quicken, all of Xero’s plans include unlimited users. This is especially useful for businesses that want the flexibility of adding employees and other users without having to worry about exceeding the limit or upgrading to a more expensive plan that will accommodate additional users. Read our review of Xero to help you determine if it fits your needs.
- Businesses on a budget seeking free accounting software: Neither Quicken nor QuickBooks Online offer free plans, but Wave offers free basic accounting features, including invoicing and income and expense tracking for a single user. If your business has relatively simple accounting needs, Wave is a good option. You can find more details about the platform in our Wave Accounting review.
- After-the-fact bookkeeping for multiple businesses: If you’re a bookkeeper tracking income and expenses for multiple clients, QuickBooks Ledger is a new product available for QuickBooks ProAdvisors that allows basic income and expense tracking for just $10 per month, per client. Learn more about it through our review of QuickBooks Ledger.
Is Quicken or QuickBooks Best for You?
User Reviews: Tie
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Average Rating on Third-party Sites | ||
Users Like |
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Users Dislike |
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Although QuickBooks Online technically scored higher, the user reviews were too close to call one clear winner. We analyze the reviews for each below.
Quicken users said that they appreciate that the platform is inexpensive and offers an easy way to track personal expenses. Reviewers also praised its ability to track retirement assets. The software’s biggest drawback is its inability to perform basic bookkeeping tasks such as invoicing clients.
Quicken earned the following average scores on popular review sites:
Users who left QuickBooks Online reviews said that the software is easy to set up and use, adding that it has a simple and clean user interface and intuitive features. Some also praised all of the available integrations. However, some noted that it doesn’t allow for unlimited users.
These are its average scores on popular review sites:
Pricing: Quicken Wins
Quicken | QuickBooks Online | |
|---|---|---|
Monthly Pricing | $4.49 to $9.99, billed annually | $35 to $235 |
Numbers of Users | 1 | 1 to 25 |
Special Promo | 30-day money-back guarantee | 70% off for three months or a 30-day free trial |
When it comes to comparing Quicken vs QuickBooks for pricing, we declare Quicken as the winner because it offers great value—provided that all you need is to track income and expenses. QuickBooks Online is priced much higher than Quicken, with QuickBooks Simple Start costing three times as much as Quicken Home & Business. However, the cost of QuickBooks Online will be worth it if you need the features of a full bookkeeping system, such as tracking assets and liabilities and printing a balance sheet.
Features: QuickBooks Online Wins
Quicken | QuickBooks Online | |
|---|---|---|
Platform | Web browser and desktop | Web browser |
Print Complete Financial Statements | ✕ | ✓ |
Integrated Payroll | ✕ | ✓ |
Track Inventory & COGS | ✕ | ✓ |
Separate Activity by Class & Location | ✕ | ✓ |
Track Employee Time & Add to Customer Invoices | ✕ | ✓ |
Double-entry Bookkeeping | ✕ | ✓ |
Track & Categorize Spending | ✓ | ✓ |
Track Unpaid Bills | ✓ | ✓ |
Connect Bank Accounts | ✓ | ✓ |
Manage Lease Terms, Rental Rates & Security Deposits | ✓ | ✕ |
Investment Reporting Features | ✓ | ✕ |
Quicken and QuickBooks Online offer very different features. QuickBooks Online takes the lead in this category because it is a full-featured accounting software. It tracks the assets, liabilities, income, and expenses of a business accurately. It also includes features many businesses require, such as collecting and remitting sales tax, paying employees, and tracking the cost of inventory.
Meanwhile, Quicken’s features are geared mostly toward managing personal expenses and investments. However, the Home & Business edition adds some business income and expense tracking, along with a suite of rental management tools.
Ease of Use: QuickBooks Online Wins
Quicken | QuickBooks Online | |
|---|---|---|
Overall Ease of Use | Moderate | Easy |
Online Help Section | ✓ | ✓ |
Community Support | ✓ | ✓ |
Email Support | ✕ | ✕ |
Live Chat Support | Monday to Friday, 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT | ✓ |
Phone Support | Monday to Friday, 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT | QuickBooks Support will call you |
Third-party Support | Limited | Extensive |
QuickBooks Online is easier to set up than Quicken because it is purely web-based and can be accessed from any browser, so you have nothing to download or install. It is also easier to track business income and expenses because that’s its primary focus.
Meanwhile, Quicken—which has many personal finance features that can be confusing and unnecessary for tracking business income—offers Quicken for Web. This is a companion app to the desktop version; however, you still need to purchase Quicken for desktop to use its web version.
Quicken Dashboard
Quicken Dashboard
- Menu bar: Click on the top menu bar to navigate to the various areas of the program like Bills & Income, Rental Property, and Tips & Tutorials.
- Total spending: Keep tabs on where your money is going by reviewing the graph that shows the amount spent by category, such as Auto or Utilities.
- Bills to pay: Stay on top of monthly bills that you pay using the Bill Pay feature.
- Budget: Create a budget to help you find ways to decrease your spending and save more money.
QuickBooks Online Dashboard
QuickBooks Online dashboard
- Left menu bar: You can access just about any task from the left menu bar, including creating invoices, bank accounts, and reports.
- Money in: In this section, you can add products and services, manage customers, create estimates, send invoices, receive payments, and apply for funding.
- Money out: In this section, you can pay bills, track time, and manage employee payroll.
- Accounting and reports: View your bank accounts, review transactions, see reports and trends, and manage taxes (sales and payroll) in this section.
- Expert help: If you need assistance, you can either invite your accountant to view your file or request expert help through QuickBooks Online.
Mobile App: QuickBooks Online Wins
Quicken | QuickBooks Online | |
|---|---|---|
Availability | iOS and Android | iOS and Android |
Attach Receipts | ✓ | ✓ |
Create Invoices | ✕ | ✓ |
Enter Vendor Bills | ✕ | ✓ |
View Transactions & Account Balances | ✓ | ✕ |
See Budgets | ✓ | ✕ |
Add Customers & Vendors | ✕ | ✕ |
Both solutions allow you to access your data on the go with their mobile apps, but Quicken’s mobile app is limited in functionality, which is why QuickBooks wins this category. For example, Quicken’s mobile app doesn’t allow you to create invoices and enter vendors, two features that are available with QuickBooks Online’s app. However, neither app is as good as the web and desktop platforms.
Integrations: QuickBooks Online Wins
Quicken has limited integrations, while QuickBooks Online has more than 750, making QuickBooks the clear winner. It even has built-in integrations, like QuickBooks Payroll, QuickBooks Time, QuickBooks Payments, and Intuit Merchant Services. On top of these, you can add apps like Shopify and Square to manage your ecommerce business.
Meanwhile, Quicken integrates with PayPal for accepting online credit card payments from customers; Dropbox to store important documents, such as rental agreements and contracts, and Zillow Zestimate, a tool that you can use to calculate the value of your home. Similar to QuickBooks Online, it has a built-in bill payment tool, allowing you to pay bills online.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The main difference between Quicken and QuickBooks is that Quicken focuses on the finances of individuals, whereas QuickBooks focuses on accounting for small businesses. Although Quicken does have a version of its software for both rental property owners and small businesses, it is not double-entry accounting software and thus is not as advanced as QuickBooks.
Yes, Quicken has a mobile app for both iOS and Android users, but its functions are limited. You can view transaction and account balances, attach receipts, and view budgets, but not add customers and vendors, create invoices, or add vendor bills.
Yes, Quicken is less expensive than QuickBooks at prices that range from $4.49 to $9.99 per month, billed annually. QuickBooks charges $35 to $235 per month, depending on the features and number of users you need.
Yes, it can also be used to manage the finances of very small businesses or self-employed individuals with basic bookkeeping needs, though it is primarily designed for personal finance management.
QuickBooks Online offers a 30-day free trial, whereas Quicken offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Bottom Line
When we compare Quicken vs QuickBooks for small business bookkeeping, QuickBooks Online is the clear winner. However, Quicken is better for businesses with a maximum of three rental properties and solopreneurs whose business activities are integrated with their personal bank and credit card accounts. Most businesses need more than Quicken offers, but it is a good option if you’re also looking for a personal finance app.
User review references:
[1]G2.com | Quicken
[2]GetApp | Quicken
[3]G2.com | QuickBooks Online
[4]GetApp | QuickBooks Online
[5]TrustRadius | QuickBooks Online
