Updated: October 06,2022
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Here you’ll find the top 10 accounting software on the market.
But that’s not all!
And most importantly – we reviewed each of the 10 solutions, so you can easily pick the right one for you.
I used a comprehensive data-driven methodology to compile the list below.
Here’s what I went through to rank the top accounting software:
What follows is the actual list that came to life. And here is the case study I crafted during the review process.
You are welcome!
Often we have difficulty deciding which pair of socks to wear in the morning. How, then, can we choose the software that will run the finances of our business?
Well:
There are a couple of key questions to ask yourself before you start.
In other words, if you need software advice, read on.
Option for customized pricing
Effortless organization of invoices
Award-winning support team
FreshBooks is high-tier accounting software. It’s intuitive and you can access it from every device. Your files are safely stored in the cloud, so you can join the millions of businesses already using cloud-based tech! It’s suitable for self-employed business owners, agencies, firms, and consultancies.
FreshBooks has been around since 2003. That said, you know you'll be in the hands of an established company.
Let's see what's under the hood.
The setup takes some time but once you are done, the process feels natural and easy to manage. You can white-label the interface, which is always nice. Finally, you should receive an email with a trial invoice to confirm you’re set.
The website is also user-friendly. Everything is just where you expect it. It is a great go-to solution and saves lots of time.
The support of FreshBooks is literally on an award-winning level. There is a great knowledge base, 24/7 phone support, and an email for contact. I sent a couple of queries and every time the response was almost immediate.
If you want to get live support, the toll-free phone line is always there for you. The Toronto-based customer support team will answer any questions until the issue is resolved.
FreshBooks fits well with a wide spectrum of users. From freelancers to large business owners. With a personalized payment plan, anyone can choose what features to include and get the best from the software.
However, FreshBooks is designed for small business owners. The software is well-organized and intuitive, and users can choose from a wide variety of features within the individual packages.
FreshBooks offers a small range of pricing plans. There is a one of a kind pricing plan, though. Users can choose a customizable one – an option few other accounting software companies offer.
If you wish to subscribe for a monthly payment plan, without any long-term commitment to the accounting software, this is the pricing list. If you opt for an annual subscription (which you can select from a toggle just above the pricing list) the price will be different and slightly lower:
For a monthly subscription: $15/mo
This is the cheapest plan and it is geared toward freelancers. With this plan, you can add up to 5 billable clients.
For a monthly subscription: $25/mo
This is the most popular option. Not necessarily because it’s the most powerful or great value – it’s just that small businesses sign up for it in spades. It includes all the features of the Lite package and several more. It is suitable for… you guessed it – small businesses.
For a monthly subscription: $50/mo
That plan builds upon the smaller ones and gives you the opportunity to add up to 500 billable clients.
FreshBooks is an excellent piece of software with some great features. It makes invoicing a breeze.
Creates a unique URL for every user
Pre-set profiles for different industries
Users can create their own invoice layout
Online Invoices has been around for almost 10 years now.
Small business owners can benefit from this free software the most. The platform is great for invoicing and accounting and is super easy to use. You can control your accounting from anywhere – and rely on the security of your data.
Online Invoices offers a good user experience. Combined with flexible prices, a very good dashboard that visualizes everything for you, and an awesome set of features, this accounting software is one of the leading tools on the market.
Among the features of Online Invoices, users enjoy the seamless invoicing and the option to personalize the invoices. Tax management is easy to set as well.
The support of Online Invoicing is somewhat limited. There is a US-based support team that offers phone support. Email support is also present and is divided into 2 categories – general questions and customer support.
Running a small business with Online Invoices is easy and smooth. It helps users keep their management in control, with a feature-rich invoicing and billing system.
Online Invoicing offers 4 payment plans. The first one is free.
Additional costs:
Online Invoices incorporates many of the most desirable features and combines them with affordable pricing plans. It's a winning formula.
Automated work process
Simplifies banking transaction
Team management
Founded in 1996, the Zoho Corporation is a leading software provider, based in India. 60% of Fortune 500 companies work with their accounting software, which speaks for itself. With its award-winning user experience, ZohoBooks is great for SME.
The software is effortlessly easy to manage. It offers a quick search box, which gives step-by-step solutions to most problems you can encounter. To top it off, it gives you additional information on how to improve other features.
Support
ZohoBooks offers a great knowledge base and a FAQ search directory. Users can also chat with customer support with any questions they might have – they answer within a minute!
For those who need more than that, there is a 24/5 toll-free phone support. And of course, there is email support – you can send your inquiry directly from the website.
With Zoho Books, your small and growing business will flourish quickly. It can scale up with your company – users can upgrade their bundle at any time.
With Zoho Books, users can get a 14-day fully-featured free trial. To top this off, if you sign up for a yearly plan, you get 2 months for free.
Annual subscription – $90/year
The entry-level accounting bundle. You can add up to 50 contacts, 1 user and 1 accountant can have access to the information. You also get 5 automated workflows. They help you automate things like sending notifications and email alerts. They can be triggered when an invoice is paid or overdue, or just based on the status of the invoice.
Annual subscription – $190/year
This is the most popular payment plan. It allows you to add up to 500 contacts, 3 users and 1 accountant that can have access to the information. You also get 10 automated workflows.
Annual subscription – $290/year
Unlimited contacts, 10 contacts, 10 users altogether can have access to the information. Again, you get 10 automated workflows.
Additional costs:
Zoho Books is a user-friendly software, perfect for small and medium-sized businesses. It offers great features, affordable prices, and modern design.
Manage your finances from any device simultaneously
The software allows you to manage up to 1099 contractors
Works on Windows, MacOS, and Linux
If you own a small business and wish to automate its accounting, QuickBooks is among the most-recommended tools for the job. It’s affordable for freelancers ($5/mo bundle for the first year!), and fairly easy to manage. QuickBooks Online is most widely used for small business.
The platform is extremely user-friendly. After you log in, they kindly ask you what kind of business you have, and what you’ll be using QuickBooks for. And you’re done.
QuickBooks is amazing at visualizing your data. For example, it can show your expenses as a percentage of your income. Or where your money is going so you can cut expenses in the future. Sure, it's not one of the best data visualization software on the market, but it's a great feature nonetheless.
Small, nifty features like that make a lot of difference as they give you key information about how well you’re managing your finances. (And what to do about it.)
QuickBooks is always there to help. You get 24/7 support on the phone.
QB has a great knowledge base where you can find answers to most questions. If that doesn’t help, there is a helpful QB community too. You can find a great resource for Q&A there. And if you need a deeper look into the matters – check out the self-help articles and find what you need.
There are pretty great video tutorials on the website, that can come as a great help at times too.
QuickBooks Online is good for practically any kind of business – from freelancers, through SMEs to large corporations. The platform offers a wide range of options that can fit every business’s needs.
The pricing model allows you to save money and get used to the program during the first 3 months. It offers a free mobile app that will save you lots of time, AND you don’t need to sign a contract if you want to use the software.
Alright, let’s see the prices:
QuickBooks offers a wide range of different platforms. You can always start with the basic package and upgrade as you go along and decide you need more features.
Additional prices and options:
QuickBooks Online is affordable for all kinds of business owners, it’s super easy to use, and it offers a flexible price list that you can upgrade at any moment.
A wide variety of products and pricing
Award-winning support team
Option for direct deposit
There are around 20 products of Sage Group accounting. The company was launched back in 1981 and currently has around 6.1 million customers worldwide. The assorted products are designed for every type of business and entrepreneur.
That said, Sage 50cloud is specifically designed for small businesses.
There is a steep learning curve when it comes to making the first steps with Sage 50cloud. Contrary to what the name suggests, it is a desktop-based platform, with access to the cloud, which combines the benefits of both worlds.
After you sign up for a free trial on the website, you will receive an email. You will need to install the software, insert the serial number, activation key number, and account number which you will find in the email they sent you, and have a little patience before all the updates are installed and everything is ready for you.
Sage 50cloud offers unlimited support on the phone – customers can contact the Help Center 24/7. Once you get there, you need to choose the topic of your question.
There's also an extensive knowledge base page. They will be there for you whenever the guys on the phone are not.
Sage 50cloud is an amazing platform for small businesses. As long as you can handle a longer setup process and old-fashioned design. Nevertheless, Sage 50cloud offers so many features that it easily makes up for its shortcomings.
Sage 50 cloud offers 3 pricing plans. As you will see, there is a difference in the pricing if you sign up for an annual or a monthly subscription.
For a monthly subscription: $46,83/ mo.
This is the cheapest package of Sage 50cloud. It includes a simple desktop accounting service. Only 1 single user may operate the system.
For a monthly subscription: $72,41/mo
In this package users enjoy services like job costing, advanced budgeting, serialized inventory, and audit trail. With Premium Accounting you can add up to 5 users. You need to state the number of users in advance (1, 3, or 5). In other words, up to 5 people may access information and add accounting data for your company. You can also add up to 10 different companies to your account.
For a monthly subscription: $182,91/mo
The third and most expensive option builds upon the cheaper ones and adds services like: faster processing, industry-specific features, support for up to 40 users, stock and reporting capabilities, workflow automation, personalized dashboards, and role-based security. That’s important as the vast majority of data breaches happen because of human error.
The minimum number of users is 5 and you can add up to 40 users. You can add as many companies as you want with this plan.
Additional fees:
Sage 50cloud is a great desktop platform connected to the cloud. The old-fashioned interface aside, it offers many great features that most of the other top 10 accounting software programs don’t, and it can be a great addition to your strategy.
Works with many currencies
Client portal where clients can view and pay their invoices online
Live assistants
Xero is one of the most popular solutions for medium and large businesses. Located in New Zealand, the company launched in 2006 and in 2008 it already had around 1.3 million users.
The design of the website is modern and it delivers a great user experience. The learning curve is moderate. There is a whole page on the website dedicated to the users who need to improve their skills with the platform.
Xero offers free video tutorials and assistants to help accountants along their way. And if reading is your thing, there is a great written guide as well.
Xero offers free unlimited 24/7 phone support. There is a relatively big knowledge base, which answers most questions users can think of. The company only offers email support during the sales process, though.
Users with medium and large businesses will benefit from the options for unlimited invoices and multiple users.
Xero is pretty straight forward about its additional costs. It offers 3 monthly payment plans.
Optional costs:
Xero is a secure cloud accounting software for medium and large businesses, perfect for users who dislike being bogged down by limitations.
Supports global accounting
Up to 90 bank payment formats
Excellent customer support
NetSuite ERP is one of the most trusted companies in the field. It works with a limited number of users, but every user is treated individually. NetSuite ERP is suited for any type of business. Among its clients are companies such as Siemens, Xerox, Fujitsu, and Cisco.
The software is fairly easy to use and you get a dedicated account manager to train your team. The financial management of Netsuite ERP services a multitude of global businesses that dominate their respective fields.
When you visit the website the first thing you notice is the live chat option in the right bottom corner. The support team is supposed to answer in 15 seconds. And they do. Then they start getting to know you and your business – which they need to do to provide you with a tailor-made solution.
You may transfer that conversation to a phone call with a live accountant. After they get the information they need, they make you an offer.
Any type of business can benefit greatly from a personal approach to managing its finances. Businesses can expand as much as they can and Netsuite ERP will be there along all the way.
If you need a more personal approach and to be a part of a relatively small community of users who get their money’s worth, Netsuite ERP is a great option.
With Netsuite ERP there are no fixed prices. Each client gets an individual plan and pays exactly for what they use.
Netsuite ERP is one of the leading accounting solutions for international companies. The individual payment plan and the sheer quantity of great features make it perfect for any type of business.
Reduction of payment error rates
Payment automation
Supports payment in 120 currencies in 190 countries
The accounting management software company Tipalti has been around since 2010. It is based in California and Israel. It specializes in cloud-based automated accounting services and keeping things simple for its clients.
Tipalti’s clients enjoy a wide variety of benefits geared mostly toward small business owners. That said, it also serves medium and large enterprises with great success. Tipalti is one of the most secure and reliable accounting software solutions out there.
Tipalti helps users pay hundreds of suppliers all over the world. The platform is accessible internationally and can ultimately alleviate more than 80% of users’ work – early payment automation, automation of taxes, effortless processing of invoices, and payments.
It is super easy to use – once you get started, the software automates the processes for you. After that, it will know your needs and preferences and will respond to them with ease.
To get started with Tipalti, users have to contact the support team. It’s part of their job to give you a tailor-made solution that works. You will need to provide them with a lot of information about your company from the very beginning.
Once you’re in, there is phone and email support you can count on. You can send them a message directly from the website or simply chat from the front page. They start responding immediately.
Companies with complex payment operations will appreciate Tipalti the most. It has a number of features that make it a top choice for this type of businesses.
You get to have your own custom plan, which is great because you’ll get (and pay for) exactly what you want.
Tipalti has a great list of VIP clients and a super intuitive interface. This makes it easy to get the most out of it and even automate the process. It’s a perfect small business accounting software, but basically, any business can benefit from the accounting features.
Free to use only the basic features
Cloud-based no downloads required
Works on Windows, MacOS, and Linux
Wave Accounting launched back in 2010. In 2019, more than 3.5 million entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small business owners use Wave Accounting. It’s one of the top free accounting software platforms, and offers no-nonsense features like accounting, invoicing, and receipts. Users can use the payroll and bookkeeping services for a price. That accounting software is designed for small businesses.
Wave Accounting is cloud-based. Users can count on a well-organized software that is easy to navigate. It is also very intuitive and does not require previous knowledge and accounting skills from users.
The Wave dashboard is easy to manage and gives users direct insight into invoices, payments, purchases, and customers.
There is ticketing support divided into sections – you email your question after you have selected the subject of your inquiry. That way your question gets handled by a staff member with the right expertise.
The email will get answered within a working week. It’s not super fast, but you will get what you need eventually. The email I received as an answer was detailed, personal, and eventually – helpful.
There is also ”community chat”, which can be pretty useful. It is also topic-based – you need to select what exactly you need help with before you can contact a member of the community. There are also articles that can be of help.
Wave Accounting is specifically oriented toward small businesses. It is tailor-made to equip small business owners with the tools to manage their receipts, invoicing, purchases, reports, and payroll.
When it comes to price, Wave Accounting has no rival.
It is free to use.
However, there are some additional products of Wave you might be interested in:
Wave Accounting is a great way to manage a small business. It’s one of the best bookkeeping accounting software. Wave Accounting is free and allows users the perfect amount of features so they can enjoy the benefits of an accounting software program.
Supports international transactions
Available in 50 languages
Big database for problem-solving
GnuCash is a great solution for small business owners. It was released in 1998, so they have been on the market for quite a while – and have had the chance to build a mature piece of software over the years. It is also free to use and open source.
There is a steep learning curve in the beginning, but eventually, you will find it’s worth it. The fact that the software is free to use and there are no hidden taxes more than makes up for the initial challenges.
If you need some help from the GnuCash customer support, you need to be very specific. The SQL support is great for handling structural data. There is a great knowledge base that will help you when you need it. But if you have a more specific question you need to do some research before you find your answer.
There is however an IRC channel where you can contact developers and ask your question.
It’s a great accounting system for small businesses. GnuCash is a professional accounting platform and a great way to start your business accounting. If you have previous experience with accounting software, it may come in handy with GnuCash. Otherwise, you will just have to spend a bit of time getting to know the interface better.
The software is free to use and without any hidden taxes. Users can take advantage of the Android mobile version, which is also free to download.
If you need free accounting software, which also happens to be open-source – GnuCash is a great solution. It may not have a fancy design, but it provides features for small business that more than make up for its shortcomings.
Let’s face it – accounting is tricky business. Nobody wants to deal with that.
That said… the government still wants you to.
Fortunately, plenty of good people have decided to make things easy for you – hence this list of accounting software.
If you’ve reached this part, you already know they’re not all made equal. Each has its own strengths and scenarios where it excels.
One or two of these products probably made a bigger impression on you than the rest. Scroll back, find them and take a closer look. One of those can be your ticket to an easier life as you finally get to have your accounting handled properly – with less work on your part than you imagined possible.
You may also be interested in:
Free accounting software platforms are great if you are just starting out and can’t spare money from your budget. Such platforms can provide users with insight on what the process looks like and also help them discover what features they actually need. (And which are less important for their business.)
On the other hand, free accounting software comes with way fewer features than its paid counterparts. To top it off, it also comes with poor customer support, which often makes it just a temporary solution.
If you wish to switch to a higher level of accounting software, there are a lot of good options to choose from. There are platforms like Netsuite ERP that already manage the accounting of medium-sized and large businesses, and can help you grow along with them. That comes at a price, but the benefits are numerous.
Yes.
One in particular, GnuCash, even made this top 10 list. The main benefit of an open source accounting software (apart from being free) is that users can customize it and come up with a version of the product that is entirely tailored to their needs. Watch out, though, because you might need a complete in-house IT department to pull this off!
Here's the list of our recommendations:
Still, the question is more like: which one is the right one for you? That depends on what you need as a business owner. I am sure one or two of our top choices have grabbed your attention. So, make sure to check them first.
It depends on your willingness to spare time and work on it. It also depends on the accounting software that you have chosen. Most programs on our list offer good customer support either way. If you’re prepared to finally make your life easier with accounting software, they’ll be there to help.
Managing your accounting is one of the most important elements of a business strategy. It’s a boring one – sure, but it’s still crucial.
When you have a vast amount of inventory, clients, and a big team of assistants, you need a system that will help you delegate your workload. Retail business owners need reliable accounting software that will automate the process for them, generate reports, and manage their expenses and time.
Darina Lynkova
Darina is a proud Ravenclaw and a fan of Stephen King. She enjoys being a part of an awesome team of tech writers who are having a ball writing techie articles. She also loves board games and a pint of lager. Currently, she is finishing her second master’s degree, at Vrije University, Brussels (Linguistics and Literature!) while headbanging on quality progressive metal…and banging her head with the intricacies of progressive technologies like AI and deep learning.
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