Sunrise vs ZipBooks: Key Differences and What’s Best for 2022

Sunrise and ZipBooks both offer an attractive set of accounting features for free. Sunrise has far better options for businesses that need mobile access while ZipBooks is better for users who want to track time and manage projects.

In this article, we compare Sunrise and ZipBooks to see which of these two free accounting software programs is best for your business. We incorporate the results of our internally developed case study throughout this article to provide you with a more detailed comparison of these two free software programs.

When to Use Sunrise

In our case study, Sunrise ranked high in accounts payable (A/P) and accounts receivable (A/R), tax, and reporting, especially considering that the software is free. These strong features make Sunrise a great option for freelancers and small businesses who need to manage billing and expenses, track invoices, and create financial reports. Its robust mobile app also has many useful features for business owners. Sunrise is also among our choices for the best free accounting software and best QuickBooks alternatives, where we ranked it as the best for assisted bookkeeping.

Sunrise is better for:

• Users that want access to a mobile app: Sunrise is cloud-based and has a powerful mobile app that makes it ideal for businesses that work remotely.
• Companies with multiple entities: With a paid plan, Sunrise will allow you to manage the books for multiple companies.
• Businesses that need reliable customer service: Even though telephone support isn’t offered by Sunrise, the live chat feature more than makes up for it. You can talk to a real agent for instant support.

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When to Use ZipBooks

ZipBooks is an ideal solution for small businesses that are looking for user-friendly and affordable accounting software that will automate their bookkeeping tasks and allow them to send unlimited invoices to customers. Its time tracking and project management features make it a great option for contractors and project-based businesses. Its invoicing capabilities are also impressive, especially with the paid plans.

ZipBooks is better for:

• Users looking for easy invoicing: One of ZipBooks’ most appealing features is the readily available templates that you can customize, download, and send to your customers. Its invoicing features are so stellar that we selected it as one of our choices for best free accounting software. It also made our list of the best invoicing software programs for small business and the best free invoice generators because it’s easy to use for basic invoice creation.
• Users that want a time tracking solution: Contractors and consultants that track their time on a regular basis will appreciate this capability, which includes an in-app time tracker.
• Project-based businesses: ZipBooks’ project management features enable construction companies and other project-based businesses to track an unlimited number of clients and projects and also manage team members.

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When to Use an Alternative

Sunrise and ZipBooks are both excellent free accounting software programs, but they lack some important features. You’ll need an alternative if you fit into any of the below categories:

• Ecommerce companies: Many of the features designed to support ecommerce companies, such as point-of-sale (POS) functions and Shopify integration, are lacking in both Sunrise and ZipBooks. We recommend QuickBooks Online as our pick for the best overall ecommerce accounting software because of its powerful integrations with the major ecommerce platforms.
• Companies that need to track inventory: Neither Sunrise nor ZipBooks allows you to track inventory. If you need this feature, Zoho Books is an excellent option. It integrates with Zoho Inventory, an inventory and order management application that lets you automate your company’s order-to-cash process and centralize your inventory system.
• Desktop users: Both Sunrise and ZipBooks are cloud-based accounting software, so if you’re looking for a desktop alternative, you may want to consider NCH Express Accounts, which we ranked as the best free desktop accounting software.

If you would like to learn more about other accounting software packages, check out our article on the best small business accounting software.

Sunrise vs ZipBooks at a Glance

Fit Small Business Case Study

Our case study evaluates Sunrise and GnuCash across 11 categories. The results show Sunrise’s dominance in almost every category (with the exception of Project Accounting, in which ZipBooks excels). In a couple of categories, such as A/P and Reporting, they ranked essentially the same. You can see the detailed results of our case study in our Sunrise review and ZipBooks review.

See the graph below for a summary of our case study.

Sunrise vs ZipBooks: Pricing

Both Sunrise and ZipBooks offer a free plan, but it’s limited to one user. If you want additional users to access the software, you’ll need to enroll in a paid plan. Sunrise Plus is $19.99 per month and allows for unlimited users, and ZipBooks offers a plan for five users at $15 per month or unlimited users for $35 per month.

Sunrise Pricing

Sunrise offers both a free basic plan and Sunrise Plus, a paid plan for $19.99 per month. The basic plan includes most of the same features as the paid plan, but Sunrise Plus includes automatic expense categorization in your bank feed and additional payment integrations. Sunrise has its own integrated payment gateway, Sunrise Pay, and Sunrise Plus users also receive a 1% savings on their Sunrise Pay transactions.

• Free Self-Service: Free forever, but limited to one user
• Sunrise Plus: $19.99 per month for unlimited users and unlimited companies

ZipBooks Pricing

ZipBooks has three plans for business use and one plan for accountants. The Accountant plan has everything in the Sophisticated plan but is intended for accountants with multiple clients. All of ZipBooks’ paid plans allow for time tracking and the ability to connect multiple bank accounts.

• Starter: Free, but limited to one user
• Smarter: $15 per month for five users
• Sophisticated: $35 per month for unlimited users
• Accountant: Custom pricing

Takeaway: The free plans that Sunrise and ZipBooks offer have limited features, but if you’re willing to pay a bit more, you’ll have access to features like Sunrise’s integrated payment gateway or ZipBooks’ time tracking features. If you need to accommodate unlimited users, then Sunrise is the less expensive option.

Sunrise vs ZipBooks: Features

We looked at each of the different plans that Sunrise and ZipBooks offer and have summarized the available features below:

Sunrise Tiered Features

ZipBooks Tiered Features

Based on our case study, we’ll discuss in detail three key features of Sunrise and ZipBooks that are significantly different.

Sunrise vs ZipBooks: General Features

Sunrise has many features that are useful for small business owners and freelancers, such as the ability to send invoices and quotes, manage your income and expenses, and generate basic reports like a profit and loss (P&L) statement. We ranked Sunrise as one of the best accounting software programs for freelancers, due in part to its free features. The Sunrise Plus paid plan adds more features, such as the ability to auto-categorize expenses. Sunrise also received high marks in our evaluation of the best A/P software. However, there’s no option to track inventory and costs by project.

ZipBooks allows you to send unlimited invoices and manage unlimited customers and vendors, whether you have enrolled in a free or paid plan. While you’re limited to one connected bank account with the free plan, you can connect multiple bank accounts and track time starting with the Smarter plan. With the Sophisticated plan, you can use smart tagging by location or project. But the company setup process cannot record a fiscal year-end, set an entity type, and import beginning account balances.

Sunrise vs ZipBooks: Banking

The major difference between Sunrise and ZipBooks with regard to banking is that you cannot reconcile bank accounts to bank statements in Sunrise. You can still do a bank reconciliation in Sunrise, but it only compares your bank transactions to your imported transactions. It doesn’t allow you to reconcile a period where you have outstanding checks, because these are book entries that haven’t shown up yet in your bank account.

You can reconcile your bank account in ZipBooks as long as you turn on “Reconciliation” in account settings. However, it’ll look different from what you would usually see in accounting software. You won’t see the typical line items like deposits in transit and outstanding checks. It’ll only show the difference between the book and bank balance.

One downside of ZipBooks’ bank features is that you aren’t able to produce a reconciliation report or print checks. Sunrise also doesn’t allow you to print checks. While Sunrise’s free plan allows you to connect more than one bank account, this isn’t an option with ZipBooks. Also, with ZipBooks, you aren’t able to import transactions from CSV or spreadsheet files.

Sunrise vs ZipBooks: A/R

As revealed by our case study, Sunrise’s strongest feature is A/R. It allows you to accept short payment on invoices, view outstanding invoices, issue credit memos, and view your balance by customer. Its invoicing capabilities are also impressive, although ZipBooks offers more customization options with its paid plans.

Sunrise does have outstanding features for a free software program, such as the ability to create recurring invoices and collect and track sales tax by jurisdiction. We selected Sunrise as the best free recurring billing software in a bookkeeping system. It was also chosen as one of the best free invoice generators because of its free bookkeeping software that includes invoicing.

Although we selected ZipBooks as the best software to create simple invoices in our article about the best free accounting software, it isn’t without its flaws. Since the simple invoice interface in the free version doesn’t use predefined products or services, you’ll need to type the product or service description for every invoice. However, this feature is available with the paid plans. The ZipBooks Sophisticated plan also allows users to add unbilled expenses to customer invoices, a feature that’s usually reserved for higher-priced plans.

Takeaway: Sunrise and ZipBooks each have features that are a bonus for free software, such as Sunrise’s outstanding A/R capabilities. However, they also lack certain features in the free plans that would be useful to have, such as Sunrise’s inability to reconcile bank statements.

Sunrise vs ZipBooks: Ease of Use

Both Sunrise and ZipBooks have a clean interface that’s easily navigable and doesn’t require a lot of bookkeeping experience to understand. You can set up your account quickly and view your financial data on your main dashboard.

Sunrise Ease of Use

Sunrise is extremely easy to use, even if you have little or no bookkeeping experience. The user interface is uncluttered and highly intuitive, and all features are marked on the dashboard. Setting up your account takes just a few minutes, and you’ll be walked through each step. Upon logging in, your dashboard will show an overview of your financial health as well as links to connect your bank accounts and customize your invoices. You can also invite your accountant or team members to access your account.

ZipBooks Ease of Use

Although not as intuitive as Sunrise, ZipBooks is also very user-friendly. Once you log in, ZipBooks displays a financial performance dashboard that shows a summary of all recent expense and invoicing activity. Navigation is easy, with the vertical menu on the left providing quick access to all system functions. Setting up your company is also simple because the settings aren’t too technical and can be easily adjusted.

Takeaway: While Sunrise and ZipBooks are extremely easy to use, Sunrise’s display is a bit more visually appealing. They both have clean interfaces and offer an easy setup process, which are appealing features for business owners that don’t want to spend a lot of time figuring out how to navigate the software.

Sunrise vs ZipBooks: Integrations

Sunrise and ZipBooks are limited in their integration options, with Zapier providing the most access to third-party apps.

Sunrise Integrations

Sunrise has limited integrations compared to its competitors like QuickBooks Online and Xero. Major integrations include Google Sheets, Gmail, Slack, PayPal, Stripe, and Gusto for payroll. It also integrates with over 3,000 apps through Zapier.

ZipBooks Integrations

ZipBooks currently integrates with Google Suite, Square, PayPal, Slack, Pepperi, Zoho Flow, and Gusto for payroll. You can also subscribe to Zapier for more integration opportunities with third-party apps.

Takeaway: If you’re looking for free accounting software that offers a wider range of integrations than Sunrise or ZipBooks, consider Wave. It connects with several third-party apps and tools, such as HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Mailchimp.

Sunrise vs ZipBooks: Mobile App

Sunrise’s mobile app is available for both iOS and Android and allows you to perform many of the same functions as the program itself, such as sending invoices, entering bill payments, categorizing bank expenses, and viewing reports. It’s for this reason that we selected it as among the best mobile accounting apps. ZipBooks doesn’t currently have a mobile app.

Sunrise vs ZipBooks: Assisted Bookkeeping

ZipBooks offers assisted bookkeeping services for an additional fee between $125 and $175 per month. Sunrise has stopped offering assisted bookkeeping services to new customers as of May 12, 2022.

ZipBooks Assisted Bookkeeping

If you need assistance with your books, ZipBooks offers bookkeeping and tax support services. It can also build a customized plan if you have complex bookkeeping needs.

• Simple Bookkeeping: $125 per month—includes a personal bookkeeper, a ZipBooks plan, monthly bookkeeping assistance and financial statements, up to five bank or credit card accounts, expert bookkeeping advice, and online bookkeeping support
• Multi-classifications Bookkeeping: $145 per month—includes all services in Simple Bookkeeping, tagging and tracking multiple locations, business units or classes, individual and consolidated financial statements, and comparison of financial statements across all classes
• Vendor and 1099 preparation: $175 per month—includes all services in Simple Bookkeeping plus tagging or tracking of vendor payments and 1099 reporting and preparation

Takeaway: If you need basic bookkeeping assistance, then ZipBooks is a better option. It not only offers simple and multi-classifications bookkeeping but will also assist with vendor and 1099 preparation.

Sunrise vs ZipBooks: Customer Support

Neither Sunrise nor ZipBooks allows you to contact customer support over the phone, but Sunrise is helpful with its quick response to live chat or email. You can also contact customer support via live chat with ZipBooks, but you may have to wait some time for a response.

Sunrise Customer Support

Although Sunrise doesn’t provide customer support via telephone, you can contact a live person directly via live chat or email. Response time is extremely quick, and communication is efficient.

When communicating via live chat, you’ll first be connected to “Sunny,” an automated assistant who can offer answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) and other resources. You will be connected to a live representative if your issue is more complex.

You can also use the contact form on the website, and Sunrise has a blog that provides information on small business, bookkeeping, accounting, and tax topics.

ZipBooks Customer Support

ZipBooks is limited in its customer support options—you cannot speak with someone over the phone and are restricted instead to the chatbot or chatting with a live representative. When you access live chat at the bottom right corner of your screen, ZipBooks will let you know approximately how long it’ll take to address your inquiry. However, while the live chat process is essentially the same, Sunrise’s quick response time makes it a better option.

You can also browse through the ZipBooks Help Center for articles about different features of the software.

Takeaway: Depending on the urgency of your issue, either Sunrise or ZipBooks can assist you. If you require a quick response, then consider Sunrise.

Bottom Line

There are a few key differences between Sunrise and ZipBooks in terms of their features. Both are great options for businesses looking for a low-cost accounting solution, but your final choice will be influenced by whether you need time tracking or a mobile app. If you perform a lot of your work on the road, then you’ll appreciate Sunrise for its powerful mobile app. If you need to track time or manage projects, go with ZipBooks.