Quicken vs QuickBooks: Differences & What’s Best

As a business owner, deciding which small business accounting software to use for your business can be overwhelming. There are several good products on the market, including Quicken and QuickBooks. In this article, we compare the pricing and features of Quicken vs QuickBooks so that you can decide which is best for you.

Difference Between Quicken and QuickBooks

Quicken is a personal finance program while QuickBooks is a double-entry bookkeeping program designed to support small businesses by tracking business income and expense and producing financial statements. Quicken is useful for tracking personal items, such as monthly bills, investments, and retirement assets.

When to Use QuickBooks

QuickBooks is almost always a better option than Quicken for tracking your business’s income and expenses. The sole purpose of QuickBooks is small business accounting. Quicken is more focused on personal finances but can track income and expenses for rental houses and very simple businesses.

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When to Use Quicken

Quicken works well for rental property owners. While it is predominantly a personal finance tool that tracks personal expenses, investments, and retirement accounts, Quicken Home & Business works well to keep track of tenants, rental rates, and lease terms for rental properties you own. That is something the more expensive QuickBooks Online does not do.

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Quicken vs QuickBooks at a Glance

Is Quicken or QuickBooks Best for You?

Quicken vs QuickBooks: Pricing

Quicken and QuickBooks Online are both purchased as a subscription. QuickBooks Online has a monthly subscription that will continue until you cancel it. Quicken is purchased by the year, and the subscription will auto-renew each year unless you cancel.

Quicken Pricing

What it costs: Quicken has four pricing plans:

• Starter: $34.99 per year
• Deluxe: $49.99 per year
• Premier: $74.99 per year
• Home & Business: $99.99 per year

Quicken is currently offering 20% off for the first year on Deluxe and higher subscriptions. Only the Home and Business plan provides the functionality of tracking business income and expenses and the Quicken rental property features.

QuickBooks Pricing

What it costs: QuickBooks Online has five pricing plans:

• Self-Employed: $15 per month
• Simple Start: $25 per month
• Essentials: $40 per month
• Plus: $70 per month
• Advanced: $150 per month

Currently, QuickBooks Online is offering your choice of either 50% off for three months or a 30-day free trial. Each plan comes with different features, and you should make a comparison of features to find the QuickBooks Online version that is right for you.

Takeaway: QuickBooks is priced much higher than Quicken, with QuickBooks Simple Start costing three times as much as Quicken Home & Business. Quicken is a great value provided that all you need is to track income and expenses. However, the extra cost of QuickBooks will be worth it if you need the features of a full bookkeeping system like tracking assets and liabilities and printing a balance sheet.

Quicken vs QuickBooks: Features

Quicken Tiered Features Table

QuickBooks Tiered Features Table

I recommend reading our QuickBooks Online Comparison for a more in-depth comparison of the editions available with QuickBooks Online.

Takeaway: Quicken and QuickBooks Online offer very different features. Quicken features are geared mostly toward managing personal expenses and investments, but the Home & Business edition adds some business income and expense tracking along with a suite of rental management tools. QuickBooks features are designed to track assets, liabilities, income, and expense of a business accurately, plus include features many businesses require like collecting and remitting sales tax, paying employees, and tracking the cost of inventory.

Quicken vs QuickBooks: Ease of Use

QuickBooks Online has a purely web-based interface while Quicken is a desktop program. Quicken requires the user to download and install a program while QuickBooks is ready to go as soon as the subscription is purchased.

Quicken Ease of Use

Quicken is more difficult to use than QuickBooks Online when conducting business activities because the program is designed to do so much more than business accounting. The dashboard, shown below, includes all business and personal transactions. Business activity can be recorded by clicking on the “Business” menu and then selecting “Business Tools.”

A snapshot of the dashboard in Quicken is below:

The primary information you will find on the Quicken dashboard is:

1. 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.
2. Total spending: Keep tabs on where your money is going by reviewing the graph that shows the amount spent by category like Auto or Utilities.
3. Bills to pay: Stay on top of monthly bills that you pay using the Bill Pay feature in Quicken.
4. Budget: Create a budget to keep track of spending to help you find ways to decrease your spending and save more money.

QuickBooks Online Ease of Use

QuickBooks Online is much easier to navigate than Quicken. Tasks are grouped by workflow, making it much easier to find the desired task. The QuickBooks Online dashboard has a left menu bar that allows you to navigate the program easily. The dashboard shows a summary of the total paid and unpaid customer invoices, total expenses, profit and loss, and sales for the time period you choose.

A snapshot of the dashboard in QuickBooks Online is below:

The five primary sections found on the QuickBooks Online dashboard are:

1. Left menu bar: You can access just about any task from the left menu bar, including creating invoices, bank accounts, and reports.
2. Invoice: In this section, you can see what your customers owe you (accounts receivable), as well as the total amount of payments collected that you have deposited versus undeposited funds.
3. Expenses: In this section, you will see the total expenses for a selected time period along with the top three categories like Maintenance & Repairs, Job Expenses, and Cost of Goods Sold.
4. Profit and Loss: Stay on top of your profit and loss without having to run a report.
5. Sales: Keep an eye on your sales throughout the year so that you can recognize trends and make any necessary adjustments.

Takeaway: QuickBooks Online is easier to set up than Quicken because it is purely web-based with nothing to download or install. QuickBooks Online is also easier for tracking business income and expenses because that is its primary focus, whereas Quicken has many other personal finance features that can be confusing and unnecessary for tracking business income.

Quicken vs QuickBooks: Mobile App

Both Quicken and QuickBooks Online allow you to access your data on the go with their mobile app. The app for both products is available for both iOS and Android devices. Read on to learn what you can do with each mobile app.

Quicken Mobile App

With the Quicken mobile app, you can perform some useful tasks, including viewing your bank account transactions. Unfortunately, you cannot create customer invoices or enter unpaid bills in the mobile app. Any transactions that are entered on the mobile device will be synced automatically with the file on your desktop computer.

A few of the tasks that you can perform with the Quicken mobile app are:

• View account balances and transactions
• Input account transactions and attach receipts
• View your budget created with the desktop program

QuickBooks Online Mobile App

The QuickBooks mobile app will do just about everything that you can do by logging in to your account on a computer. This includes adding new customers and vendors, creating invoices, and entering bills.

Some of the tasks that you can complete with the QuickBooks Online mobile app include:

• Add new customers and vendors
• Track automobile mileage with smartphone GPS
• Create customer invoices
• Take a picture and attach receipts to transactions
• Enter vendor bills

Takeaway: QuickBooks Online’s mobile app is the clear winner. You can manage your entire business from the app and rarely have to log in to your account through your computer. Quicken’s mobile app has some useful features, but the majority of your work with Quicken will need to be completed in the desktop program installed on your computer.

Quicken vs QuickBooks: Integrations

Quicken offers a handful of integrations to receive online payments, make online payments, and store documents. QuickBooks has the same integrations, plus hundreds more.

Quicken Integrations

Quicken has a very limited number of integrations. 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, which is 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 that allows you to pay your bills online.

Check out the Service Center for more information.

QuickBooks Online Integrations

In addition to integrating with more than 600 third-party apps, QuickBooks Online includes built-in integrations like Intuit Online Payroll to manage and pay employees, Intuit Merchant Services to accept online credit card payments, and Bill.com so that you can make online bill payments. On top of these, you can add apps to manage your ecommerce business like Shopify and Square.

Check out the Intuit Apps Center to see the full list of apps available.

Takeaway: There is no comparison between Quicken and QuickBooks Online when it comes to integrations. Quicken only integrates with a handful of products while QuickBooks online integrates with more than 600 programs.

Quicken vs QuickBooks: Customer Reviews

Quicken Reviews

Most customers rate Quicken very highly. Reading through the recent reviews, most users are very happy with the ease with which information can be organized and reports printed. On the downside, users reported glitches and quirks in the program, especially when connecting to banks. One user notes that customer support can’t even find the source of some glitches. Check out our customer Quicken reviews for more information.

QuickBooks Online Reviews

On the positive side, QuickBooks customers like the mobile app. They like that they can perform almost any task using the mobile device, and everything is synced automatically across all platforms since the data is stored permanently in the cloud. Unfortunately, customers are not impressed with the customer service (or lack thereof). Customers say they have to spend a lot of time on the phone talking to someone who may or may not be able to resolve their issue.

I have had the same experience with contacting customer support. My recommendation is that you try using the chat feature to get help. By using the chat support, you can continue to work while you are waiting for someone to locate the answer to your question.

Alternatives to Quicken and QuickBooks

Quicken is generally not a good business bookkeeping choice except for rental houses and very simple one-person businesses, but QuickBooks might be a bit expensive for very small, new companies. There are many good bookkeeping alternatives to QuickBooks online, and some are even free.

Bottom Line

Now that you know the difference between Quicken and QuickBooks, it’s time to make your decision. If you own rental properties, go with Quicken. However, if you’re looking for robust accounting software for your small business, QuickBooks Online is the way to go.