Zoho Books is one of more than 40 integrated apps by Zoho designed to manage all aspects of your business, whereas QuickBooks Online is the industry-leading all-in-one bookkeeping software. However, there is plenty of overlap in comparing the abilities of Zoho Books to QuickBooks Online. Zoho Books alone will provide for most of your bookkeeping needs, and QuickBooks Online has hundreds of third-party integrations to help manage your business.
When to Use QuickBooks
One advantage of QuickBooks Online compared to Zoho Books is the immense support network due to QuickBooks’ dominance as the most popular small business accounting software in the United States. With this popularity comes a large selection of independent accountants who are certified by Intuit as QuickBooks ProAdvisors. Small businesses might choose QuickBooks over Zoho if they anticipate needing assistance from an outside bookkeeper or certified public accountant (CPA).
QuickBooks Online is also the choice for businesses that want to process their own payroll. Payroll can be added to QuickBooks Online―for an additional fee―and will process paychecks, help businesses make all the necessary tax deposits, and even file the necessary tax returns. Sign up today and choose a 30-day free trial or 50% off your QuickBooks Online subscription for three months.
When to Use Zoho Books
Zoho Books is a good alternative to QuickBooks Online for small businesses looking for a comprehensive business management solution that doesn’t rely on third-party integrations. Because all the necessary apps come directly from Zoho, you can receive bundle pricing, and one company is responsible for ensuring that all integrations work properly.
Small businesses that desire a bundle of Zoho Integrations targeted to their overall company needs should make Zoho Books a part of that bundle. You can evaluate Zoho Books with a 14-day free trial.
Zoho Books vs QuickBooks at a Glance
QuickBooks Online | Zoho Books | |
|---|---|---|
Who It’s Best For | Small businesses with payroll or working with an external accountant | Businesses that want an integrated suite of Zoho apps |
Pricing Plans | $15 to $150 per month | $9 to $29 per month |
Maximum Users | 1 to 25 | 2 to 10 |
Send Estimates | ✔ | ✔ |
Send Invoices and Track Collections | ✔ | ✔ |
Track Sales Tax Collections and Payments | ✔ | ✔ |
File Sales Tax Returns | ✔ | |
Manage Unpaid Bills | ✔ | ✔ |
Track Inventory | ✔ | ✔ |
Assign Time and Costs to Projects | ✔ | ✔ |
Capture and Organize Receipts | ✔ | ✔ |
Integrated Payroll | ✔ | |
GPS Mileage Tracker | ✔ | ✔ |
Track 1099 Payments | ✔ | ✔ |
Print 1099s | ✔ | |
Multiple Currencies | ✔ | ✔ |
Track Activity by Class and Location | ✔ | |
Create Sales Orders | ✔ | |
Client Portal | ✔ | |
Automated Workflows | ✔ | |
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Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Pricing
Zoho Books and QuickBooks Online both are purchased on a monthly subscription. The monthly price is per organization with each plan, including a set number of users.
Zoho Books Pricing
What it costs: Zoho Books offers three pricing plans. Each plan includes a different number of users, different features, and a different number of allowable customers and vendors.
- Zoho Books Basic: $9 per month includes two users
- Zoho Books Standard: $15 per month includes three users
- Zoho Books Professional: $29 per month includes 10 users
You can add additional users to any Zoho Books plan for $2 per month per user. Zoho Books is currently offering two months free when you purchase an annual subscription. For example, you can purchase an entire year of Zoho Books Professional for $290.
QuickBooks Pricing
What it costs: QuickBooks Online has five pricing plans that include a different number of users and significantly different features:
- Self-Employed: $15 per month includes one user
- Simple Start: $25 per month includes one user
- Essentials: $40 per month includes three users
- Plus: $70 per month includes five users
- Advanced: $150 per month includes 25 users
QuickBooks Online is currently offering your choice of a 30-day free trial or 50% off the monthly subscription for three months. Unlike Zoho Books, QuickBooks Online does not offer an annual subscription.
Takeaway: QuickBooks Online is substantially more expensive than Zoho Books. QuickBooks Online Plus, which is its most popular edition, is over twice the cost of Zoho Books Professional and only includes half as many users.
Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Features
Zoho Books Tiered Features Table
Basic | Standard | Professional | |
|---|---|---|---|
Users Included | 2 | 3 | 10 |
Maximum Number of Vendors and Customers | 50 | 500 | Unlimited |
Client Portal | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Connect and Reconcile Bank Accounts | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Scan and Upload Expense Receipts | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Create Invoices, Track Payments, and Send Automatic Reminders | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Assign Time and Expenses to Projects and Tasks | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Budgeting | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Manage Bills | ✔ | ✔ | |
Track and Apply Vendor Credits to Bills | ✔ | ✔ | |
Require Manager Approval for Purchases | ✔ | ✔ | |
Create Purchase Orders and Convert to Bills | ✔ | ||
Create Sales Orders to Update Available Inventory | ✔ | ||
Manage Inventory and Track Cost Using First-In, First-Out (FIFO) Accounting | ✔ |
QuickBooks Tiered Features Table
Self-Employed | Simple Start | Essentials | Plus | Advanced | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Users Included | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 25 |
Estimate Quarterly Income Taxes | ✔ | ||||
Separate Business and Personal Expenses | ✔ | ||||
Connect and Reconcile Bank Accounts | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Scan and Upload Expense Receipts | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Create Invoices, Track Payments, and Send Automatic Reminders | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Manage and File Sales Tax Returns | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
Integrated Payroll (Fee) | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
Prepare 1099s for Contractors | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
Track Unpaid Bills | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
Assign Time and Expenses to Jobs | ✔ | ✔ | |||
Manage Inventory and Track Costs Using FIFO Accounting | ✔ | ✔ | |||
Create Purchase Orders and Convert to Bills | ✔ | ✔ | |||
Track Profitability by Class and Location | ✔ | ✔ | |||
Dedicated Account Support Team | ✔ | ✔ | |||
Advanced Reports | ✔ | ✔ |
Takeaway: Zoho Books Professional and QuickBooks Online Plus have very similar features. The biggest difference is QuickBooks Online has integrated payroll available in all 50 states―for an additional fee―that will not only generate paychecks and track payroll taxes, but even file the payroll tax returns. There are also a few features included in QuickBooks Online, such as filing sales tax returns and generating 1099s, that are only available in Zoho Books by purchasing a third-party integration.
Zoho Payroll is currently available in India and is slowly being rolled out in the US. Currently, Zoho Payroll is only available in California and Texas.
Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Ease of Use
During our research, we created sample companies in both QuickBooks and Zoho Books to get a feel for how they work. Both Zoho Books and QuickBooks Online have a very user-friendly interface and extensive support tools to get help when you need it.
QuickBooks Online Ease of Use
Below you will find a snapshot of the QuickBooks Online Dashboard. In addition, we have provided some details of the information that you can expect to see on this page:
QuickBooks Online dashboard.
- Left menu bar: You can access most tasks from the left menu bar, including creating invoices, bank accounts, and reports.
- Income: You can see the amount your customers owe you―accounts receivable (A/R)―how much is overdue, and how much has been received in the last 30 days.
- Expenses: Total expenses for a selected time period, along with the top three categories, appear here.
- Profit & loss: Keep tabs on your profit & loss (P&L) for a selected time period from the dashboard without having to run a report.
- Sales: View the trend in your sales over a selected period of time.
- Bank accounts: Check the available balance in your bank accounts from your dashboard. Connected accounts show both the QuickBooks balance and the actual bank balance.
Most transactions in QuickBooks Online can be initiated in multiple ways. The fastest way is to click on the New button above the left menu bar as shown below:
Add new transactions in QuickBooks Online.
Zoho Books Ease of Use
Zoho Books is set up similar to QuickBooks Online with a left menu bar and a dashboard displaying helpful information at a glance. Below is a screenshot of the left menu bar and a portion of the dashboard. The information on the dashboard is presented in a large, easy-to-read format that requires scrolling:
Left menu bar in Zoho Books.
The left menu bar provides access to the various areas of the program. For instance, to view open invoices or create new invoices, you can click Sales in the menu bar. You can also create new transactions by clicking the plus sign in the top bar and selecting the transaction you wish to create:
Create new transactions in Zoho Books.
Takeaway: QuickBooks Online and Zoho Books have similar interfaces. Transactions can be initiated by either opening the appropriate section from the left menu bar or clicking a quick-add button. Zoho Books has the edge on ease of initial setup as they have integrated guides, including videos, when you open a new section.
Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Integrations
QuickBooks Online and Zoho Books differ significantly in how they incorporate integrations. QuickBooks Online has hundreds of third-party integrations while Zoho Books is one app in a collection of integrated Zoho apps designed to run your entire business.
QuickBooks Integrations
While most integrations for QuickBooks come from third parties, there are a couple very important integrations directly from QuickBooks including:
- QuickBooks Payroll: Payroll functionality can be enabled from within QuickBooks Online with the click of a button.
- TSheets by QuickBooks: Users track time with the TSheets mobile app that can be billed to customers and used for payroll within QuickBooks Online. Advanced features of TSheets include GPS tracking of employees, geofencing of worksites, and timeclock terminals with facial recognition.
While not as straightforward as Zoho’s approach to providing an integrated business management solution, QuickBooks Online can manage your whole business through the huge selection of third-party apps. Here is a sample of the integrations available for QuickBooks Online:
- Track time: TSheets, ClockShark, and eBillity
- Track inventory: eBay by OneSAAS, Shopify by OneSAAS, Amazon Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) & Seller Fulfilled Accounting by Entriwise, and Katana Inventory and Manufacturing
- Make and receive payments: Bill.com, Deluxe eChecks, Plooto, and Veem
- Manage customers: Method:CRM, Insightly CRM, WORKetc, and Capsule CRM
- Manage projects: BigTime, ServiceTrade, Jobber, Corecon, and Knowify for Contractors
- Perform analytics: Syft Analytics, Qvinci, Fathom, and LivePlan
- Run payroll: QuickBooks Payroll, Gusto, ADP, and Paychex
Zoho Books Integrations
Integrated Zoho apps can be purchased in various bundles geared towards particular functions:
- Zoho Finance Plus: Invoice, Books, Inventory, Subscriptions, Expense, and Checkout
- Zoho People Plus: People, Recruit, Expense, Collect, Cliq, Sign, Vault, Payroll (CA & TX only)
- Zoho CRM Plus: Sales, Marketing, Help Desk, Visitor Tracking, Social Media, Projects, Surveys, Analytics, and AI [Artificial Intelligence]
- Zoho Workplace: Mail, WorkDrive, OfficeSuite, Cliq, Meeting, Connect, and ShowTime
- Zoho One: 40-plus Zoho Apps
Each Zoho App also offers various third-party integrations. Zoho Books offers integrations from PayPal, Stripe, and Braintree, among others.
Takeaway: There are pros and cons to the different approaches taken by QuickBooks and Zoho. Zoho’s bundles are nice because you receive discounted prices and apps developed to cover all the needs of a particular business function. However, with QuickBooks, you can choose from multiple options to find the interface and functionality that works best for you.
Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Mobile App
Since both Zoho Books and QuickBooks Online are cloud accounting software, you can access your data not only from your computer, but also your tablet, cellphone, or any mobile device with an internet connection. You can perform most of your day-to-day transactions, such as adding customers and vendors and creating invoices and bills, using the mobile app. Zoho Books and QuickBooks Online mobile apps are available for no additional cost from Apple and Google Play.
Takeaway: Zoho Books and QuickBooks Online both allow you to manage your accounting from great mobile apps.
Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Customer support
When it comes to providing support to customers, both QuickBooks and Zoho Books have a variety of resources that you can tap into when you need help. For example, unlike many of their competitors, both QuickBooks and Zoho Books offer live telephone support.
QuickBooks Customer Support
QuickBooks offers a variety of ways for you to get assistance when you need it. Its Learn and Support page includes articles and videos on frequently asked questions (FAQs). If you can’t find the answer to your question, you can submit a detailed question to the support team. You should receive a response within 48 hours.
If you prefer to speak with a customer service representative, you can do so via chat directly within your QuickBooks Online account or give the software provider a call.
If you wish to hire an accountant to help you, there are more than 50,000 QuickBooks ProAdvisors in the US. ProAdvisors register with QuickBooks and pass an exam to certify they are proficient with QuickBooks.
Zoho Books Customer Support
Zoho Books has a help documentation section that allows you to search for the answer to your question by typing in a few keywords. There is also a list of FAQs to find answers to the most common questions. A video library shows you how to perform basic transactions within the software. If you prefer to speak with a customer service rep, you can access someone 24 hours a day Monday through Friday.
Similar to QuickBooks, the software provider has certified Zoho Books Advisors that can assist you with Zoho Books. However, as of July 2020, the Zoho Books website lists less than 100 advisors located in the US.
Takeaway: QuickBooks Online and Zoho Books both have good self-help sections on their websites and customer support available via chat and telephone. However, the QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor network is extensive, making it very easy for users to find a local accountant to assist them.
Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Reviews
Both Zoho Books and QuickBooks Online have overall good reviews, with about 75% of customers awarding them four or five out of five stars. While overall ratings are good, the weakest area for both software is customer service.
QuickBooks Online Reviews
Similar to Zoho Books, QuickBooks reviews are mixed when it comes to its customer service. Historically, QuickBooks customer service has received poor reviews with long wait times and service representatives that can’t answer difficult questions. However, from January through July of 2020, QuickBooks Online received 4.5 stars for customer service. QuickBooks customers often leave positive comments regarding the ease of use and mobile applications, but often comment that the price is too high.
Zoho Books Reviews
To summarize Zoho Books reviews, users feel like the product is very intuitive and easy to use. In addition, the ability to automate tasks like recurring invoices and invoicing is a big hit. However, when a customer did reach out via email or telephone to get help, the response was lackluster.
Takeaway: QuickBooks Online and Zoho Books both receive overall good customer reviews. Both companies should work on improving their customer service, but customers like the software and consider it easy to use.
Bottom Line
QuickBooks Online and Zoho Books are both outstanding small business accounting software. The best choice for you will depend on your budget, desire to work with an external accountant, and business needs.
QuickBooks Online is great for businesses that can afford it and want to work with an external accountant, such as for the preparation of their tax return. In addition to being easy to use with hundreds of integrations, QuickBooks Online has an enormous network of ProAdvisors that have been certified to be proficient with QuickBooks.
Zoho Books is best for businesses that want to purchase a bundle of Zoho apps that can do more than just bookkeeping. Zoho Books is considerably less expensive than QuickBooks Online, which may allow you to purchase an entire bundle of Zoho Apps for the price you would otherwise pay for QuickBooks Online.
Reema Adhikari
Hi,
Thanks for sharing a piece of information as well as it is really helpful for me. QuickBooks Online is most a popular small business accounting software. It has more advanced features or robust rather than Zoho books. I recommended choosing the QuickBooks Online.
Amanda Norman
Hi Reema,
Thanks for reading and sharing!
Best wishes,
Mandy, Moderator
Mike Westwood
Time to update this post. Intout is once again screwing customers with massive price increases. 5 years ago, QBO was 29$ a month, then it went to 39 and then 50 and 60. Now, they have introduced QBO advanced – which has a few more features that the Plus I had before – but here is the thing, they limit what you can do in the app and if you do not upgrade to advanced, you lose a ton of functionality. So – I either need to find a new accounting software or, I need to pay $150 a month to upgrade to advanced and not lose any features from Plus.
Additionally, you talk about ways to get support, but you do not discuss the quality of that support. I have spend 4 hours on the phone with Quickbook support this week trying to determine why all of the invoices from one of my customers disappeared. The support person was the worst I have worked with in any company in 20 years. Over and over she kept telling me that because the audit logs don’t show invoices, then these invoices were never created. I explained to her that I create an invoice for every transaction and that she was mistaken. She kept telling me the audit log is bullet proof and cannot be wrong. We then got advanced support involved, but they never came on the phone – she would have me walk through some things and then put me on hold for 15 minutes ans she relayed it to the Advanced team and awaited a response. So, I finally told her that I would call the customer in question and have him email me the invoices he was sent over the last 5 years so we could stop having a “blame the victim” conversation and I hung up on her.
A few years ago,m when banks added two factor authentication, I let them know that bank feeds were no longer coming in. They also blamed that on me and told me that I was the only one having the issue. After checking the forums, and seeing many many similar posts, I let them know this. Long story short, two months later they finally fixed it.
Sorry, but paying $150 a month I should have access to someone who knows their ass from a hole in the ground. Quickbooks support sucks in the worst way possible.
Crystalynn Shelton
Hi Mike, thank you for your feedback. Apologies on the late reply, I was on vacation when this first came through. I’m sorry to hear that your interactions with the Intuit support team have not been good. I reached out to Intuit to share your comments with a senior-level person and while they are not legally able to participate in community forums such as this one, they did provide me with some additional information they thought would be helpful to share with you. I’ve provided their comments below. Also, this article is on our list to update for the newly added QBO Advanced pricing plan.
The first is that while it is true that Intuit has rolled out Usage Limits for QBO, you are not being forced to upgrade to QBO Plus. The reason is that you can keep using your QBO even if you are over the limits now. Once the usage limits kick in (sometime in late April or early May) you won’t be able to “add” any additional new things to any list where you are exceeding a limit. But you can edit list items, and this may be a way forward for you if you want to stay using your current QBO version and not upgrade to Plus. (It is the act of “adding” that will trigger the usage limits.)
So I hope that helps.
Another clarification is on QuickBooks Online Advanced – there are actually a LOT of powerful new features added, and the team keeps adding more. You can learn more about QBO Advanced Features here, but here is a short list of the things that are included at the time of this writing:
Smart Reporting, powered by Fathom
1. Up to 25 Users
2. Custom User Permissions
3. Custom fields, that are part of the database and are usable in reports
4. Accelerated Invoicing (the ability to batch create hundreds of invoices all at once, or, import hundreds of invoices from a spreadsheet)
5. Training provided by Real World Training
6. Priority Circle Support (you go to the front of the line and get the top agents)
7. Dedicated Customer Success Manager (a person who tracks any issues you are having, to resolution, and helps you use the product to its best use)
And more features are coming.
And lastly – the banks are a tricky issue because they are constantly changing their security protocols. However there is a place you can bookmark, to learn if there are any known issues with bank feeds, etc etc – please go to this page and you will be able to tell if it’s a system issue, or, if the issue is just with your bank and your log-in setup.
Best of luck,
Crystalynn Shelton
Haider Bahrani
Hi what if you are a small business that manufactures. Does either of these allow for turning stock into a processed product? Then adding that as a stock item and accounting for parts used to do so? I noticed other offerings are at best vague on this.
Crystalynn Shelton
Hi Haider, great question. When it comes to manufacturing businesses, I recommend using QuickBooks Premier Manufacturing & Distribution. It is much more robust and capable of handling a bill of materials and turning that into a finished product. Check out our guide on QuickBooks Desktop product comparison to learn more about this product: https://fitsmallbusiness.com/quickbooks-pro-vs-premier-vs-enterprise-vs-accountant/.
Best of luck,
Crystalynn Shelton, CPA
@CrystalynnPens
Lunna Walker
Thanks for sharing such an informative post, it’s really an helpful data.
jack fenston
Thanks for menting best software comparision features and benefits and i loved to read it , and will continue, you can also write about accountant for hiring to manage and montior by following softwares, here is a link which mention details read it explain much more briefly as you can Thanks.
Crystalynn Shelton
Thanks for the positive feedback Jack!
All the Best-
Crystalynn Shelton