ZipBooks and QuickBooks are two leading small business accounting software programs with different pricing, features, and customer support. QuickBooks is the most widely used, has the largest network of advisors, has more robust features, and is good for businesses of all sizes. By contrast, ZipBooks is ideal for startups and micro businesses with fewer transactions.
When to Use QuickBooks
QuickBooks is the number one business accounting software and should be used by most companies. QuickBooks has three business tiers that can help anyone, from a solopreneur to a mid- to large-size business with $1 million or more in annual revenue. While there are competitors like ZipBooks with lower monthly costs, QuickBooks has more features for the price. Take it for a test drive free for 30 days.
When to Use ZipBooks
If you are a freelancer or solopreneur just starting out and you can’t afford QuickBooks, we recommend ZipBooks. This is because ZipBooks is a much better alternative to using spreadsheets and is still more inexpensive than the more robust QuickBooks. For example, you can sign up for their Starter plan (which doesn’t cost a fee), although the plans with more functionality can go as high as $125 per month.
QuickBooks vs ZipBooks at a Glance
| Pricing | ||
| Number of Users Included | (except for Starter plan) | |
| Manage Accounts Payable | ||
| Statement of Cash Flows | ||
| Print Checks | ||
| Inventory Tracking | ||
| Budgeting and Forecasting | ||
| Manage Multiple Businesses with One Account | ||
| Business Health & Invoice Quality Score* | ||
| Automatic Payment Reminders to Customers | ||
| Accept Online Payments | ||
| Integration with Other Systems | Inventory - SOS Inventory, Stitch Lab E-commerce - Shopify, BigCommerce, Amazon by Cloud Cart Connector | |
| Ease of Use | ||
| Customer Service | ||
| More Information | ZipBooks |
How We Determined When to Use QuickBooks vs ZipBooks
Every accounting software is expected to adhere to a set of minimum requirements in order to be considered legit. We have identified seven criteria that we compared QuickBooks and ZipBooks against. QuickBooks meets all seven—which is why they are our recommended accounting software for small businesses—and ZipBooks met only five out of the seven.
Below is a list of seven criteria that an accounting software should include:
- Create Invoices
- Connect Bank/Credit Card Accounts
- Manage Accounts Receivable
- Manage Accounts Payable
- Accept Online Payments
- Produce Key Financial Reports (Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Statement of Cash Flows)
- Give Others Access to Data (e.g., bookkeeper, CPA, tax professional)
Out of the seven criteria, ZipBooks fell short in two areas. First, you cannot manage the money you owe to others (accounts payable) automatically in ZipBooks. The other area where ZipBooks fell short is in financial statements. While you can easily run an Income Statement and Balance Sheet report, you cannot produce a Statement of Cash Flows in ZipBooks. However, when it comes to cost, ZipBooks is more economical than QuickBooks, making it better for freelancers and solopreneurs on a budget.
Conversely, the maximum $50 monthly fee for the most robust version of QuickBooks is a small price to pay for the level of functionality it offers growing businesses. What’s more, their lowest tier business plan starts at only $15, and they even have a $10 version for the self-employed.
QuickBooks vs ZipBooks: Pricing & Features
| Monthly Cost | |||
| Number of Users Included | |||
| Manage Accounts Payable | |||
| Print Checks | |||
| Inventory Tracking | |||
| 1099 Reporting for Contractors | |||
| Budgeting and Forecasting | |||
| Project Tracking | |||
| Detailed Reports |
When it comes to pricing plans offered, ZipBooks offers four plans and QuickBooks has three. ZipBooks offers a free plan (Starter) while QuickBooks does not have a free plan. ZipBooks also offers a full-service bookkeeping plan that starts at $125 per month, whereas QuickBooks does not offer bookkeeping services.
When it comes to features included for the price, you get more bang for your buck with QuickBooks over ZipBooks. Two out of three QuickBooks plans allow you to manage your accounts payable and print checks. In contrast, none of the ZipBooks plans include these features. Read on to learn more about the pricing and features offered in QuickBooks and ZipBooks.
QuickBooks Pricing & Features
QuickBooks includes three pricing plans: Simple Start, Essentials and Plus. The price range for these plans is between $15 and $50 per month. While QuickBooks does not have a free plan like ZipBooks, their most economical plan (Simple Start) will run you $15 per month. Unfortunately, it is very limited in the number of features offered compared to Essentials and Plus.
QuickBooks also offers a self-employed version for freelancers, which starts at $10 per month. However, it even has more limited functionality than Simple Start, and if you’re looking for a self-employed version, we recommend going with ZipBooks. Check out our QuickBooks Self-Employed guide to learn more.
QuickBooks Tiered Pricing & Features
| Monthly Cost | |||
| Number of Users Included | |||
| Manage Accounts Payable | |||
| Print Checks | |||
| Inventory Tracking | |||
| 1099 Reporting for Contractors | |||
| Budgeting and Forecasting | |||
| Project Tracking | |||
| Detailed Reports |
QuickBooks Online Simple Start
As discussed, QuickBooks Online Simple Start is the lowest priced plan. It comes with access for one user. You can create invoices and track your accounts receivable, but you cannot track your unpaid bills (accounts payable) with Simple Start like you can with both the Essentials and Plus plans.
QuickBooks Simple Start is ideal for an independent contractor or solopreneur who pays their bills with a debit/credit card or via online banking. Since you cannot track inventory or do 1099 reporting for contractors with Simple Start, the ideal business would only sell services and not employ any contractors.
QuickBooks Online Essentials
QuickBooks Online Essentials is the mid-tier plan, priced at $35 per month. In addition to the features included in the Simple Start plan, it also comes with the ability to track unpaid bills (accounts payable), and you also can print checks directly from QuickBooks. Finally, you can give access to three users plus two accountants with this plan; this beats the one user access for Simple Start.
QuickBooks Online Essentials is ideal for small businesses that need to give more than two people access to their data. It is also ideal for a business that has heavy accounts payable and prefers to make payments via check as opposed to making electronic payments.
QuickBooks Online Plus
QuickBooks Online Plus is the third and the most expensive plan; it costs $50 per month, which is $35 per month higher than the least expensive plan. However, in addition to including all of the features that come with Essentials, QuickBooks Plus comes with five users plus two accountants. It also has tracking and reporting for 1099 contractors, budgeting/forecasting tools, and the newest feature: project tracking.
QuickBooks Online Plus is ideal for a small business that sells both products and services, hires 1099 contractors, and needs a plan that they won’t outgrow anytime soon. This is perfect for a large and growing business, typically with more than $1 million in revenue or a high number of customers or transactions.
ZipBooks Pricing & Features
Unlike QuickBooks, ZipBooks offers four pricing plans. These plans cost between $0 and $125 per month. The Starter plan is absolutely free, but limited when it comes to the number of features included. QuickBooks Online does not offer a free plan. The highest tier ZipBooks plan comes with a dedicated bookkeeper and a few other perks that we will discuss in the ZipBooks Services section. Currently, QuickBooks does not offer full-service bookkeeping.
Below are a couple of unique features included in all ZipBooks plans:
Business Health & Invoice Quality Score – ZipBooks provides tips and recommendations on how to improve your invoices so that they look professional and provide all of the information customers need so you get you paid faster.
Intelligence – In ZipBooks, intelligence consists of the business Health & Invoice Quality Score we discussed, plus machine learning through auto-categorizing your income and expense transactions as well as recommendations based on best practice, industry trends, and analysis of other key data points.
ZipBooks Tiered Pricing & Features
| Monthly Cost | ||||
| Number of Users Included | ||||
| Bank/Credit Card Connections | ||||
| Intelligence | ||||
| Business Health & Invoice Quality Score* | ||||
| Unlimited Recurring Invoices with auto- bill | ||||
| Auto import Time & Expenses into Invoices | ||||
| Time Tracking | ||||
| Smart Tagging to Track by Location, Project | ||||
| Secure Document Sharing | ||||
| Bank Reconciliation | ||||
| Advanced Reporting | ||||
| Assigned to a Personal Bookkeeper (ZipBooks Scholar) | ||||
| Tax Savings Analysis & Recommendations |
ZipBooks Starter
The ZipBooks Starter plan will fit any budget since it is absolutely free. This plan comes with access for one user, unlimited invoicing and unlimited tracking of customers and vendor contacts. However, you can only connect one bank/credit card account, and it doesn’t have a lot of the bells and whistles that the other three plans have.
ZipBooks Starter is ideal for freelancers and solopreneurs who want to upgrade from Excel spreadsheets to a more sophisticated bookkeeping system. However, you can quickly outgrow this tier and be required to pay a monthly fee for the next level plan.
ZipBooks Smarter
ZipBooks Smarter is the next level up from the Starter plan. It will run you $15 per month and unlike the Starter plan, it allows you to give an unlimited number of users access to your data. With the ZipBooks Smarter plan, you can create an unlimited number of recurring invoices and have them automatically sent out. You can also track hours worked by contractors and employees and easily transfer those hours to a customer invoice so that you can get paid.
ZipBooks Smarter is ideal for a small business that wants to automate their customer billing process and needs a good system to keep track of billable hours.
ZipBooks Sophisticated
ZipBooks Sophisticated is the third pricing plan, right after ZipBooks Smarter. It costs $35 per month and includes all of the features that the Smarter plan has and more. ZipBooks Sophisticated allows you to track income and expenses by location and project. You can also create bank reconciliations to ensure your books match your bank statements, and it includes advanced reporting and intelligence features.
ZipBooks Sophisticated is ideal for small businesses that need project tracking and/or have multiple locations for which they need detailed tracking and reporting of income and expenses.
ZipBooks Services
ZipBooks Services is the elite plan of the four. At a starting price of $125 per month, you get a dedicated bookkeeper who will categorize all transactions, reconcile all bank and credit card accounts, and prepare monthly financial statements. This is a service that QuickBooks does not currently offer and is right for a business that wants to outsource their bookkeeping.
ZipBooks vs QuickBooks: Ease of Use
Both ZipBooks and QuickBooks are very user-friendly. There are various ways to navigate within each of these products. Simple language is used in both of them, which means that you don’t have to have an accounting background to use them.
When you log in, the first page you see is a dashboard that provides you with key information about your business. Let’s take a look at each dashboard in more detail.
QuickBooks Ease of Use
Below is the dashboard in QuickBooks Online, along with a brief description of what you can expect to see here.
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 the amount your customers owe you (accounts receivable), as well as the total amount of payments collected that you have deposited vs undeposited funds.
3. Expenses – See the total expenses for a selected time period along with the top three categories (e.g., Maintenance & Repairs, Job Expenses, Cost of Goods Sold).
4. Profit and Loss – Keep tabs on your profit/loss without having to run a report!
5. Sales – Keep an eye on your sales throughout the month/year so that you can spot trends and make adjustments as needed.
ZipBooks Ease of Use
Below is the dashboard in ZipBooks along with a brief description of what you can expect to see here.
- Key to bar graph – This is the key for the bar graph that appears below. The blue bar indicates revenue, the gold bar represents expenses, and the green bar indicates profit. If expenses exceed revenue, then this bar would be red.
- Quick Stats – In this section, you will find the total revenue for the last 12 months and the net income for the previous month.
- Accounts Receivable – The most up-to-date accounts receivable balance will appear in this section. You can click on View Report to see the A/R Aging report.
- Business Health Score – In the above example, the overall business health score for this company is 14 out of 100. You can click on the score to see the recommendations ZipBooks has to improve your account setup, bookkeeping and billing.
ZipBooks vs QuickBooks: Customer Service
When it comes to the various support options available to get help when you need it, QuickBooks beats ZipBooks hands down in this comparison of Quickbooks vs Zipbooks. QuickBooks provides four customer support options and ZipBooks offers two.
QuickBooks Customer Service
Below are five free resources that you can utilize to get help with QuickBooks when you need it:
- Chat – You can chat with a support agent by logging into your account and clicking on the Help option. ZipBooks also offers a chat option.
- Phone – Customer service reps are available Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PST and Saturdays, 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. PST.
- Email – If you can’t find the answer to your question, you can also submit a detailed question to the support team via email; you can generally expect a response within 48 hours.
- Learn & Support – If you don’t mind doing a little research, you can check out the Learn & Support page. On this page, you can use keywords to locate the answers to your questions. The articles you will find provide step-by-step instructions.
- Fit Small Business QuickBooks Course – This free course was designed to help small businesses like you get up and running quickly. It includes video tutorials as well as written instructions on how to set up QuickBooks.
ZipBooks Customer Service
Below are a couple of free resources that you can utilize to get help with ZipBooks when you need it:
- Chat – Similar to QuickBooks, you can chat with a ZipBooks support agent. Just log into your account and click Start a Conversation in the lower right-hand corner of your screen.
- Help Database – Similar to the QuickBooks Learn & Support page, you can type in a keyword to locate answers to your questions. You will also find frequently asked questions and step-by-step instructions on how to get started with ZipBooks as well as a section on Accounting Basics.
ZipBooks vs QuickBooks: Customer Reviews
ZipBooks and QuickBooks Online have good reviews. Unfortunately, what they both have in common is poor customer service. Below, you will find a summary of the customer reviews for both ZipBooks and QuickBooks.
QuickBooks Customer Reviews
The QuickBooks app is very popular with small business owners. They like the ability to invoice, pay bills and scan receipts from their tablet or cellphone. While QuickBooks beats ZipBooks hands down when it comes to the number of customer service options, customers feel that the quality of the service could use significant improvement.
For more information, check out our QuickBooks review page.
ZipBooks Customer Reviews
Positive customer reviews centered around the number of features included free of charge. Many small businesses appreciate the fact that they can keep track of their income and expenses even if they can’t afford to purchase accounting software.
Similar to QuickBooks, ZipBooks’ customer service could use improvement. The fact that they don’t offer a live customer service rep (even for the paid plans) does not sit well with customers. In addition, the response time to emails when you do have a question is slow.
For more information, check out our ZipBooks review page.
Bottom Line
If you’re on a tight budget, don’t need to share your information with anyone else and you don’t sell any products in your business, then ZipBooks is going to be the most economical option for you. However, if you want accounting software that will grow with your business, QuickBooks is the clear choice.
If you decide to go with QuickBooks, you can take it for a test drive free for 30 days just to see how easy it is to use. You will have access to all the features, including invoicing customers, paying bills and connecting bank/credit card accounts.
Submit Your Comment
Disclaimer: Reviews on FitSmallBusiness.com are the product of independent research by our writers, researchers, and editorial team. User reviews and comments are contributions from independent users not affiliated with FitSmallBusiness.com's editorial team. Banks, issuers, credit card companies, and other product & service providers are not responsible for any content posted on FitSmallBusiness.com. As such, they do not endorse or guarantee any posted comments or reviews.
You must be logged in to comment. Click the "Log in With LinkedIn" button below to connect instantly and comment.