Compare Accounting Software in the United States

How we compare accounting software

We list 5 cloud accounting platforms sold to US small businesses. Every figure on this page comes from the provider's own US pricing page, stored once and rendered here, so the prose cannot drift from the table above it.

The calculator asks for invoices a month, employees and users, because those are the numbers that move these providers between plans. It picks the plan that covers what you enter, adds the provider's own payroll for the employees you enter where it sells one, and sorts by the resulting monthly cost. Commission does not change the order.

QuickBooks Online or Xero: how the two accounting software ladders differ

Most US buyers arrive with this comparison in mind, so here is its shape rather than a verdict.

They price on different axes. Xero lists users included as Unlimited and gates its entry plan on invoice volume, listing invoicing as 20/mo (Early). QuickBooks Online does the reverse: invoicing reads Yes (unlimited) and users included reads 1 (Simple Start).

They also differ on payroll and inventory. QuickBooks Online lists payroll as Yes (add-on) and inventory as Yes (Plus). Xero lists payroll as Yes (add-on) and inventory as Limited.

Count your seats, your monthly invoices, the states you file in, and whether stock and payroll are in scope. Those four answers pick for you.

Seats, invoices and revenue: what moves an accounting software plan

The entry price is the bottom rung of a ladder. You climb it by hitting a cap, not by choosing to upgrade.

Read the Wave row closely: unlimited seats with restricted roles is a different product from unlimited seats with full access. FreshBooks caps billable clients rather than invoices, which does not look like a limit on a feature list.

The free plan row shows how each free rung ends, and the accountant access row shows who can work in the file without a paid seat.

A free plan that ends at a revenue cap expires by success. Every provider here lists Contract required as No, so a wrong first choice costs a month, not a year. Enter the headcount and invoice volume you expect in a year.

Sales tax across state lines in accounting software

US sales tax is set by states, and often by counties and cities underneath them, so the correct rate depends on where the customer is. Economic nexus means selling into a state where you have no office can create a registration and filing duty there once you pass that state's threshold, and each state sets its own.

Every provider here can put sales tax on an invoice. What separates them is whether the software tracks what you owe by state and whether it files the return.

A limited multi-state answer means you apply the rate yourself. Where filing reads yes, ask whether it is native or a partner product with its own bill. Three questions for any vendor: does it determine the rate by jurisdiction, does it track liability per state, and does it file, or hand you a report? Those are three different products and often three different bills.

Payroll, W-2s and 1099-NEC alongside accounting software

Payroll is a separate bill on every row here, sold as an add-on or handed to a partner product, and payroll is where the compliance work lives.

Your business structure decides whether payroll is optional. A sole proprietor or single-member LLC reports profit on Schedule C and takes owner draws, with no payroll at all. Elect S-corp treatment and the owner must be paid a reasonable salary through payroll, with withholding, a W-2 at year end, quarterly Form 941 filings and an annual Form 940. That election, not headcount, puts many one-person businesses into payroll.

Contractors are the other half. Pay an unincorporated contractor at or above the IRS reporting threshold in a year and you owe them and the IRS a 1099-NEC by the end of January. The 1099 / W-2 reporting row reads the same for every provider here, so ask instead whether the product tracks the total or files the form electronically.

None of this is tax advice, and state rules on unemployment insurance and workers' compensation vary.

Your accountant's vote on accounting software

In the US the person who closes your books is often not you. Firms standardize on a small set of platforms, and a client outside that set costs them time they will charge for or decline. Ask the firm you use, or expect to use, which platforms they work in before you shortlist. That answer often outweighs a price gap between two rows. Two more rows matter to whoever does the work.

Support hours decide how a problem lands mid-close. An open API decides whether your data can be pulled into anything else later.

The practical order: ask your accountant, count seats and invoices, check the sales tax rows, then look at the price column. Getting those in the wrong order is how a business ends up migrating a year of transactions in its second January.