Looking for the best Quickbooks software for small business? Setting up your own small business is an exciting time, but choosing the best accounting software can put you into a bit of a dilemma. You need to find an accounting software that offers great functionality, but is also easy to use.
So, here are the best quickbook alternatives that can make you more productive.
Xero: Best Overall QuickBooks Alternative
Xero is included in our list of best small business accounting software and has similar features to QuickBooks at a lower price with unlimited users, making it our best overall alternative to QuickBooks. If your primary complaint about QuickBooks is the price or the limited number of users, then Xero is likely your best choice for alternative software. You can try Xero free for 30 days with no credit card required.
- All plans include unlimited users
- Similar features to QuickBooks Online
- Good inventory accounting
- Not easier to use than QuickBooks Online
- No phone number to call for customer support
- Receipt capture requires the most expensive plan
Plans & Pricing
- Early: $11 per month for 20 invoices and 5 bills
- Growing: $32 per month for unlimited invoices and bills
- Established: $62 per month for unlimited invoices and bills, plus multicurrency, receipt capture, and project tracking
Xero frequently offers a 50% discount on all plans for the first three months.Read Xero Review
Features
Xero includes many of the same features you’ll find in QuickBooks, like solid invoicing capability, bank reconciliation, and expense management. Xero is as customizable as QuickBooks Online, but if you’re a startup or a small business, you might find Xero a more affordable option.
- Bank reconciliation: Xero automatically imports your bank statements, eliminating the need for manual data entry
- Expense tracking: Scan and track expenses receipts with the Xero mobile app
- Invoicing: Create, customize, and send invoices and estimates
- Integrated payroll: Xero integrates with Gusto to run your payroll duties
- Inventory management: Track simple and complex inventory items, and create reports on what products are trending
Our Expert Opinion
While Xero has comparable features to QuickBooks Online, it’s priced less and includes an unlimited number of users with any subscription. If your primary concern with QuickBooks is ease of use or customer service, I’m not sure you’ll be happier with Xero. I don’t find Xero any easier to use and, like QuickBooks, you can’t pick up the phone and call customer service. However, if you need more than five users, Xero is a great alternative as QuickBooks requires an upgrade to its expensive Advanced plan. If you’re still not sure if Xero is your best QuickBooks alternative, read Xero vs QuickBooks.
FreshBooks: Best QuickBooks Alternative for Invoicing and Ecommerce
FreshBooks is a complete bookkeeping system that emphasizes great-looking invoices. Like QuickBooks, FreshBooks allows you to track hours and expenses and add them to invoices automatically. For a complete comparison with QuickBooks, read FreshBooks vs Quickbooks. FreshBooks is good for ecommerce businesses with integrations for Squarespace, Shopify, eBay, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce. New subscribers have the choice between a 30-day free trial and 50% off for three months.
- All plans include unlimited invoices
- Toll-free number for customer support
- Integrates with many ecommerce platforms
- Additional user requires an additional fee
- Cannot track income or expenses by class
- Plans limit the number of clients you can bill
Plans & Pricing
- Lite: $15 per month for five billable clients
- Plus: $25 per month for 50 billable clients
- Premium: $50 per month for 500 billable clients
- Select: Custom pricing for more than 500 clients per month
All plans include one user and charge $10 per month for each additional user. FreshBooks is offering 50% off for the first three months for new users.Read FreshBooks Review
Features
While FreshBooks contains many typical accounting features, its biggest strength is its invoicing capability. Not only is it affordably priced, but it also has strong automation and customization features in terms of invoicing. If you need to send a lot of invoices, FreshBooks is a good QuickBooks Online alternative.
- Invoicing: Create professional invoices in seconds even on the go with its mobile app
- Expense billing: Assign expenses to customers and add to invoices
- Time Tracking: Track time spent on projects and record it in FreshBooks for invoicing
Our Expert Opinion
Unlike QuickBooks, FreshBooks’ customer support is available by calling its toll-free number. Beyond good customer service, FreshBooks is known for its terrific-looking invoices and has an impressive array of integrations with ecommerce platforms. If you need multiple users, FreshBooks isn’t a great choice since all users in excess of the one included with each plan are $10 per month. You can read our guide to the best invoicing software and the best ecommerce accounting software to find other good QuickBooks alternatives for your company.
Oracle NetSuite
Best for small to large businesses.
Oracle NetSuite offers a cloud financial management solution. This will give you complete real-time visibility into the financial performance of your business, from the consolidated level down to the individual transactions.
It has seamless integration with all NetSuite order management, inventory, CRM, and e-commerce functions hence your critical business processes will be streamlined.
Features:
- Oracle NetSuite has billing management capabilities that will integrate with your sales, finance, and fulfillment teams. This will improve accuracy and eliminate billing errors.
- It provides Revenue Recognition management features to comply with accounting standards and report financial results on time.
- It provides intuitive planning, budgeting, and forecasting solutions that will shorten cycle times, engage business users, and enrich your planning process.
- Oracle NetSuite has unprecedented “close to disclose” capabilities.
- It provides GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) solution.
Pricing: You can get a quote for pricing details. You can get Oracle NetSuite Free Product Tour.
Verdict: Oracle NetSuite provides a complete picture of your business on-demand and in real-time through reporting, analytics, insights, and decision making, etc.=> Get Oracle NetSuite Free Product Tour Here
Zoho Books
Best For Small organizations.
Zoho Books is online web-based accounting software that helps business owners to manage their finances, workflows, and thereby allows them to work collectively across different departments.
Zoho Books provides end-to-end accounting, tax compliance, and an integrated business platform that helps you to manage and run each and every aspect of your business from wherever you want.
Features
- Zoho Books keeps receivables within books, creates estimates for customers, converts them to invoices, and gets you paid online easily.
- It keeps your business stay Sales tax compliant with Tax-compliant transactions, Automatic tax calculations, Tax payments, and Reconciliation.
- Stay on top of your purchases by creating and sending Purchase Orders, uploading Expense Receipts, and keeping a track of the payments made.
- With Zoho Books, you can get all your contacts in one place for faster and smoother communication.
- Zoho Books offers more than 50 different business reports like Profit and Loss statements, Inventory summary, Sales Tax reports, etc. for the smooth running of your business.
Pricing
Zoho Books offers three paid pricing plans with a 14-day free trial:
- Basic: For Basic work ($9 per organization per month for 2 users).
- Standard: For Higher needs ($19 per organization per month for 3 users).
- Professional: For Advanced needs ($29 per organization per month for 10 users).
Zoho Books also offers some add-ons for higher requirements:
- Add a User: For $2 per month.
- Snail Mail Credits: For $2 per credit.
- Auto Scans: $5 per month for 50 scans.
Verdict: In terms of pricing as well as in terms of Reporting and Accounting, Zoho Books is a great alternative for QuickBooks.=> Visit Zoho Books Website
Sage 50Cloud: Best QuickBooks Alternative for Multicompany Accounting
Sage 50Cloud is great compared to QuickBooks Online if you need to keep the books for multiple companies. QuickBooks Online requires separate subscriptions for each company, which can become very expensive. Not only can Sage 50Cloud account for multiple companies, but it can consolidate the companies into a single entity and prepare consolidated financial statements. You can evaluate Sage 50Cloud by clicking “Take a test drive” from its website, which will allow you to access a hosted version of 50Cloud with sample data.
- Consolidate unlimited companies for one price
- Robust inventory management
- Track hours and expenses to assign to customer invoices
- Desktop-based requires installation and set-up
- Online payments require a third-party integration
- More difficult to use than QuickBooks Online
Plans & Pricing
- Pro: $56.08 per month or $567 per year, per user
- Premium: From $84.58 per month or $850 per year for one user
- Quantum: From $139.58 per month or $1,404 per year for one user
Sage offers a 40% discount for new customers for the first year.Read Sage 50Cloud Review
Features
QuickBooks Online users with multiple businesses need separate logins for each company. With Sage 50Cloud, you can manage all your businesses on a single platform. Its highest plan includes advanced budgeting tools and multicompany support that allows you to create consolidated financial statements for multiple entities.
- Domestic consolidation: Consolidate reports for subsidiaries that are in the same base currency
- Global consolidation: Manage multiple currencies for customer or supplier accounts across the globe
- Multidimensional consolidation: Use multiple dimensions, like customer, supplier, or project, to consolidate your reports
- ASC 830/FAS-52 compliance: This feature is useful for companies operating in foreign countries
Our Expert Opinion
Despite its name, Sage 50Cloud is desktop software that allows some functions to be performed online with a subsequent synchronization with the desktop file. While this introduces some complexity, it can perform some tasks on the go, which QuickBooks Desktop doesn’t offer. QuickBooks Desktop Premier Plus offers similar features to Sage 50Cloud Premium and costs $499.99 per year, per user. The big difference is that Sage 50Cloud Premium can consolidate parent and subsidiary companies while QuickBooks Desktop cannot. Like QuickBooks Desktop, 50Cloud is very sophisticated and powerful software that will take some time to learn. If Sage 50Cloud isn’t right for your needs, explore other software to account for multiple companies.
Quicken: Best QuickBooks Alternative for Individuals With Rental Property
Quicken allows you to manage and track tenants, which isn’t possible with QuickBooks Online. That’s why individuals owning rental properties might be served better with Quicken compared to QuickBooks, a full-fledged bookkeeping software. Unlike double-entry bookkeeping software, Quicken keeps things simple by focusing on only your income and expenses instead of tracking assets and liabilities. Quicken can also be used to track your personal finances, including your retirement accounts, which provide much value beyond simply accounting for rental income. You’ll need the Home & Business edition to manage your rental property, which costs $103.99 per year.
- Collect rental payments online
- Customer support available by telephone
- Manage personal finances in addition to rental property
- Cannot print a balance sheet for rental activity
- Requires installation on your computer
- Not appropriate for rental properties owned through corporations or partnerships
Plans & Pricing
- Starter: $35.99 per year
- Deluxe: $51.99 per year
- Premier: $77.99 per year
- Home & Business: $103.99 per year
(Required for rental property)Read Quicken Review
Features
While most of its Quickens features are for personal finance tracking, its most expensive edition, Quicken Home & Business, includes specialized features to manage rental properties. Quicken Home and Business includes the following features:
- Tenant management: Track tenants’ details, like personal information, rent collection, and lease terms
- Rental dashboard: Monitor the status of your properties, occupants, and rents in one place
- Market value tracker: Analyze your portfolio of mutual funds using its integrated Morningstar’s X-ray tool (Windows only)
- PayPal payment: Easily collect rental payment by adding a PayPal payment link to your email
Our Expert Opinion
Despite their similar names, Quicken and QuickBooks are entirely different products owned by different companies. Individuals needing to track income and expenses for a personally owned rental property will find that Quicken does a great job while also providing much value by tracking their personal finances. In addition, Quicken will help you manage your rental activity by creating invoices, accepting online payments, and managing lease terms, rental rates, and security deposits. The biggest downside of Quicken is that it cannot produce a balance sheet, so it’s not appropriate if your rental activity is required to file a business return like Form 1120, Form 1120S, or Form 1065.
Wave: Best Free QuickBooks Alternative
Wave is very good bookkeeping software that’s absolutely free for an unlimited number of users. While it doesn’t have many features compared to QuickBooks, it’s easier to use. Like QuickBooks, Wave has integrated credit card processing and payroll that can be added for an additional fee. The bookkeeping software is always free, so you can connect your bank account and explore Wave’s features to see if it’s right for you.
- Free cloud-based software
- Payroll and credit card processing can be added without a third-party integration
- Easier to use than QuickBooks Online
- No telephone number for customer support
- No inventory tracking
- No comprehensive mobile app
Plans & Pricing
- Free for unlimited users and companies
Features
Despite being free software, Wave has some of the features you’ll find in QuickBooks Online, including invoicing, reporting, and income and expense tracking. Wave’s biggest advantage over QuickBooks Online is the lack of limitations on the number of users.
- Invoicing: Create customizable invoices that you can send on a recurring basis
- Receipt scanning: Upload your receipt to Wave for mobile expense tracking
- Payroll: Wave includes a paid payroll service to help you with your payroll runs
- Wave advisors: Get professional bookkeeping assistance from a paid Wave advisor
Our Expert Opinion
Wave is easier to use than QuickBooks and absolutely free. On the downside, there are some QuickBooks Online features not available in Wave, including tracking inventory and assigning income and expenses to classes, locations, and projects. If you don’t need advanced features, Wave might be a great QuickBooks alternative for you. You can explore other free alternatives in our guide to the best free accounting software.
Conclusion
As a small business owner, one of the most influential technology tools you have at your disposal is accounting software. It keeps track of all of your records and keeps you ahead of any financial problems that arise. With so many options on the market, however, it can be a challenge deciding which small business accounting software is best for your company. Xero is a very good alternative to start with. Enjoy!