Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Price, Features & What’s Best

The main difference between Zoho Books and QuickBooks Online is that Zoho Books has a free plan for companies with revenue of less than $50,000, making it better for freelancers and part-time businesses. QuickBooks Online is more expensive, but it stands out with its number of integrations and vast network of QuickBooks ProAdvisors, which lets you find a local bookkeeper easily if you need support.

Zoho Books vs QuickBooks At-a-Glance Comparison

	Zoho Books	QuickBooks Online
Monthly Pricing	$0 to $275	$30 to $200
Number of Users Included	1 to 15 ($3 per month per additional user)	1 to 25
Free Plan Limitations	Less than $50,000 in revenue and 1,000 invoices	30-day free trial
Mobile App	Exceptional; iOS and Android	Very good; iOS and Android
Support Network of Independent Bookkeepers	Very limited in the United States	Exceptional
Connect Bank & Credit Card Accounts	✓	✓
Reconcile Bank Accounts	✓	✓
Create & Send Invoices	✓	✓
Manage & Track Unpaid Bills	✓	✓
Manage Inventory	✓	✓
Track Project Profitability	✓	✓
Integrated Payroll	✕	✓
Track Activity by Class & Location	✓	✓
Enter Bills From the Mobile App	✓	✕
Client Portal	✓	✕
Invite an Accountant Without Adding to User Count	✕	✓
	Visit Zoho Books	Visit QuickBooks Online

When To Use Each

Freelancers and very small businesses with a few clients: Zoho Books is free for companies with less than $50,000 annual revenue and those that require fewer than 1,000 invoices per year. QuickBooks Online doesn’t offer a free plan.
Mobile accounting: The Zoho Books mobile app has more features than the QuickBooks Online app. For instance, it lets you record bills and bill payments, whereas QuickBooks can’t. This is one of the reasons why it makes Zoho Books our overall best QuickBooks alternative.
Businesses using other Zoho products: Zoho Books is just one of the apps within the Zoho suite. If you’re already using its other platforms, like Zoho Expense and Zoho CRM, choosing Zoho Books is more practical because it’s easier to work with interconnected apps.
Users needing a client portal: You can use the client portal to let customers view and manage their transactions. You can also see your accounts, accept or reject estimates, and pay invoices. QuickBooks doesn’t have a similar feature.
Manufacturers wanting to track high-value items: Manufacturing firms needing to monitor individual items rather than groups (e.g., consumer electronic manufacturers) can upgrade to Zoho Books’ Elite plan for serial inventory tracking.

For more information, read our Zoho Books review.

Visit Zoho Books

Businesses needing easy access to local bookkeepers: A remarkable feature of QuickBooks Online is that it has a vast network of QuickBooks ProAdvisors, making it easy to find a local bookkeeper in case you need one. This is one reason QuickBooks Online is our overall best small business accounting software.
Processing your own payroll: QuickBooks Online integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks Payroll, which lets you pay employees, compute and withhold payroll taxes, and account for employee benefits in any state. Zoho Payroll is only available in NY, CA, TX, and FL.
Integrating with third-party tools: QuickBooks integrates with over 650 business apps. This vast range makes QuickBooks easy to implement in businesses using software services like customer relationship management (CRM), ecommerce, and many more. Zoho Books focuses on Zoho One apps rather than third-party integrations.

Check out our QuickBooks Online review to see if it’s suitable for you.

Visit QuickBooks Online

When To Use an Alternative

Companies that require fixed asset accounting: Neither Zoho Books nor QuickBooks Online can monitor fixed assets. Xero has a fixed asset manager that allows you to track fixed assets, such as vehicles and equipment, and set up depreciation schedules.
Businesses that want desktop software: Zoho Books and QuickBooks Online are both cloud-based. If you prefer locally installed desktop software, you should consider QuickBooks Pro, Premier, or Enterprise—the desktop versions of QuickBooks.
Businesses that need to send unlimited invoices for free: Zoho Books’ free plan only lets you send up to 1,000 invoices a year. If you have many customers and need to send a high volume of invoices, sign up for Lendio Accounting (formerly Sunrise) to issue unlimited invoices for free.

Fit Small Business Case Study

To make it easier for you to choose between these two powerful accounting programs, we compared Zoho Books and QuickBooks Online in an internally developed case study. The results are summarized in the graph below.

Touch the graph above to interact Click on the graphs above to interact

QuickBooks Online: Starting at $30/month; $85 as tested
Zoho Books: Starting at $0 per month, $50 as tested

Zoho Books vs QuickBooks Online: Pricing

	Zoho Books	QuickBooks Online
Monthly Pricing	$0 $20 (Standard) $50 (Professional) $70 (Premium) $150 (Elite) $275 (Ultimate)	$30 (Simple Start) $55 (Essentials) $85 (Plus) $200 (Advanced)
Number of Users	1 (Free) 3 (Standard) 5 (Professional) 10 (Premium) 10 (Elite) 15 (Ultimate)	1 (Simple Start) 3 (Essentials) 5 (Plus) 25 (Advanced)
Cost per Additional User	$3 per month	N/A
Number of Invoices per Annum	1,000 (Free) 5,000 (Standard) Unlimited in all the higher plans	Unlimited in all plans
Free Trial	✓	✓
Free Plan	✓	✕
	Visit Zoho Books	Visit QuickBooks Online

Zoho Books released two new plans earlier this year, Elite and Ultimate, and they’re best for users needing advanced inventory management and analytics. Elite includes enhanced inventory management features, such as serial tracking, warehouse management, and batch tracking. Ultimate offers advanced analytics, including customized reports and dashboards and the ability to create reports collaboratively with other team members.

Zoho Books is more affordable than QuickBooks. If you have a small business with five users and need inventory management and project accounting, you can save with Zoho Books’ Professional plan at $50 per month, compared to QuickBooks Online’s Plus at $85 per month. Another important consideration is that Zoho Books has a low fee for adding extra users ($3 per user, per month). When we do the math, a total of 15 users in the Professional plan would cost $80 per month, compared to QuickBooks Plus with the same price but with only five users.

Tip:

If you’re unsure which version of QuickBooks Online is right for you, check out our comparison of QuickBooks Online plans to help you decide.

Zoho Books vs QuickBooks Online: Features

Banking & Cash Management

	Zoho Books	QuickBooks Online
Upload Bank Statements	✓	✓
Connect to Bank Account	✓	✓
Reconcile Bank Account With Bank Feeds	✓	✓
Reconcile Bank Accounts Without Bank Feeds	✓	✓
Print Checks	✓	✓
Issue a Refund Check	✕	✓
Enter Monthly Service Fee During Reconciliation	✕	✓
Group Multiple Checks Into a Single Deposit	✓	✓

Despite a few limitations of Zoho Books, we consider this section a tie. They’re both capable of importing bank transactions and reconciling bank accounts, which is what’s important for businesses.

Accounts Receivable

	Zoho Books	QuickBooks Online
Create & Issue Invoices	✓	✓
Customize Invoices	✓	✓
Email & Print Invoices	✓	✓
View Outstanding Invoices	✓	✓
Create Recurring Invoices	✓	✓
Accept Short Payments From Customers	✓	✓
Calculates Sales Tax Rate Based on Customer Address	✕	✓
View Balance by Customer	✓	✓
Issue a Refund Check	✕	✓

QuickBooks Online and Zoho Books are equally great in terms of accounts receivable (A/R) management. Both come with powerful invoicing features, which are far more commendable than other similar software programs.

However, QuickBooks Online is preferable when you collect taxable payments in different states, as it calculates sales tax automatically based on your customer’s address. It also allows you to refund a customer’s credit balance with a check, which is something you can’t do with Zoho Books.

Accounts Payable

	Zoho Books	QuickBooks Online
Manage & Track Unpaid Bills	✓	✓
Manage Vendor Information	✓	✓
Capture Expense Receipts	✓	✓
Set Up Recurring Expenses	✓	✓
Enter Purchase Orders (POs)	✓	✓
Enter a Vendor Credit	✓	✓
Apply a Vendor Credit When Paying a Bill	✕	✓
Track Payments to Independent Contractors	✓	✓
Short Pay an Invoice	✓	✓

QuickBooks Online is slightly better than Zoho Books as some of its accounts payable (A/P) features are easier to use. For instance, you can apply vendor credits when paying a bill instantly, unlike Zoho Books, which requires you to enter a vendor credit in a separate screen from paying the bill.

Inventory Management

	Zoho Books	QuickBooks Online
Create an Inventory Item	✓	✓
Track the Cost of Goods Available	✓	✓
View Inventory Available	✓	✓
Track Total Units & Costs	✓	✓
Adjust the Cost & Quantity of Inventory	✓	✓
View Inventory on PO	✓	✓
Record Inventory Returned Back Into Inventory	✓	✓
Inventory Management Feature Availability	Professional and higher plans	Plus and Advanced

Product-based businesses will find both Zoho Books and QuickBooks Online reliable for inventory management. Both let you create an inventory item and manage and track inventory and make any adjustments easily if needed.

Given that, your choice may boil down to pricing. If you have five users, for instance, then you might choose Zoho Books. Inventory management is available in QuickBooks Online’s Advanced at $85 per month, whereas in Zoho Books’ Professional plan at only $50 per month—both of which include up to five users.

Zoho Books vs QuickBooks Online: Ease of Use

	Zoho Books	QuickBooks Online
Accessibility	Cloud	Cloud
Shortcut Buttons	✓	✓
Ease of Setup	Easy	Moderate
Intuitive Dashboard	✓	✓
Customer Support	Fair	Extensive

Both are generally easy to use, but Zoho Books is a bit easier to set up. It involves several steps to set up a company in QuickBooks Online, while you can create a new company file in Zoho Books just in a few steps.

Zoho Books and QuickBooks Online: Integrations

Zoho Books and QuickBooks have ample integrations, which are useful for automating different business workflows, like time tracking and payment processing. The better choice depends on the kinds of integration you need—but overall, both are already functional, and the integrated apps are only a bonus.

Zoho Finance Plus: Invoice, Books, Inventory, Subscriptions, Expense, and Checkout
Zoho People Plus: People, Recruit, Expense, Collect, Cliq, Sign, Vault, Payroll (California and Texas 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

While most integrations for QuickBooks come from third parties, there are a couple of very important integrations directly from QuickBooks, including:

QuickBooks Payroll: Payroll functionality can be enabled from within QuickBooks Online with the click of a button.
QuickBooks Time: With the QuickBooks Time mobile app, users can track time that can be billed to customers and used for payroll within QuickBooks Online. Advanced features of QuickBooks Time include GPS tracking of employees, geofencing of worksites, and timeclock terminals with facial recognition.

With QuickBooks Online’s vast selection of third-party apps, you can:

Track time: TSheets, ClockShark, and eBillity
Monitor 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: Gusto, ADP, and Paychex

Zoho Books vs QuickBooks Online: Mobile App Functionality

	Zoho	QuickBooks Online
Accessibility	iOS and Android	iOS and Android
Create & Send Invoices	✓	✓
Accept Payments Online	✓	✓
Capture Expense Receipts	✓	✓
Categorize Expenses From Bank Feeds	✓	✓
View Reports	✓	✓
Enter Bills & Bill Payments	✓	✕
Record Time Worked	✓	✕
Assign Time Worked to a Customer or Project	✓	✕

Zoho Books beats QuickBooks Online easily in mobile accounting. Its mobile app is more functional, as it does other things that the QuickBooks app can’t, such as entering bills and bill payments, and recording time worked and then assigning it to a project or customer. If you often work on your smartphone, then Zoho Books is the better choice.

Zoho Books vs QuickBooks Online: Assisted Bookkeeping

QuickBooks Online has the upper hand, with its huge network of local bookkeepers compared to the 500 Zoho Books Advisors in the United States. This means it’s generally easier to find a QuickBooks ProAdvisor than a Zoho Books Advisor.

If you need a live bookkeeping service, you can activate the QuickBooks Live add-on within the QuickBooks Online software. Available for an additional fee, this feature gives you access to a dedicated bookkeeper who’ll own your books and manage them for you.

Another alternative is to find a local QuickBooks ProAdvisor. One of the biggest benefits of QuickBooks Online is that it’s popular and commonly used by many businesses and accountants. You won’t have any problem finding a local bookkeeper near you.

Prices for QuickBooks Live depend on your monthly expenses.

Low-volume bookkeeping: $200 per month—for businesses with $25,000 in monthly expenses
Medium-volume bookkeeping: $400 per month—for businesses with $25,001 to $150,000 in monthly expenses
High-volume bookkeeping: $600 per month—for businesses with $150,001 or more in monthly expenses

Meanwhile, Zoho Books users needing assisted bookkeeping can contact an independent Zoho Books Advisor. These advisors are professional accountants, bookkeepers, and tax professionals who have completed the certification requirements set by Zoho Books. To find one, you should check out Zoho Books’ online directory of independent accountants, bookkeepers, and financial advisors.

Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Customer Support

	Zoho Books	QuickBooks Online
Live Chat Support	✓	✓
Chatbot	✓	✓
Email Support	✓	✕
Self-help Resources	✓	✓
Call a Representative	✓	✕

The most notable advantage of Zoho Books is that you can initiate a call to a representative, unlike QuickBooks, where you need to send a ticket first and then wait for them to call you. Also, QuickBooks doesn’t let you send an email to seek support. However, both offer a wide variety of self-help resources—such as tutorial videos, blogs, webinars, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and user community forums.

Bottom Line

When comparing Zoho vs QuickBooks, Zoho Books offers many of the same features available in QuickBooks but with more affordable plans and an unbeatable mobile app. However, if price isn’t an issue and you want easy access to a local bookkeeper who can provide accounting support for your business, then QuickBooks Online may be the better option.