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Clear Books costs between £0 and £44 per month (approx. $0 to $59/month), offering six tiers with unlimited users on all multi-user business plans and a 30-day free trial.
There are three main billing options to choose from with Clear Books. You can either pay monthly or get 10% off for an annual subscription or 20% off with a two-year subscription.
It should also be noted that the prices given on this page are listed in pounds sterling rather than dollars. This is because Clear Books is a UK-based company. However, the platform does offer multi-currency functionality, so if you’re keen to use it outside the United Kingdom, you will still be able to. I’ll provide approximate figures for the pricing equivalent in dollars, which are accurate at the time of writing.
This guide will share everything you need to know about Clear Books pricing, including plans, add-ons, hidden fees, and whether or not the accounting software is worth your time and money.
- Clear Books pricing ranges from £0 per month for its Sole Trader plan up to £44 (approx $59) per month on the Large plan.
- Every business tier includes unlimited user seats at no additional charge, making it scalable for growing teams without extra per-seat fees.
- If you want expense management and regular expense claims with Clear Books, these are only available on the Large plan.
- All paid plans include a 30-day free trial as well as a 30-day free trial of the dedicated Payroll add-on, which later starts from £3.24 per month.
- Clear Books ranks as one of the lowest-cost options on the market, though competitors like FreeAgent offer cheaper introductory promotional discounts.
Clear Books Pricing Plans: At a Glance
Below are the Clear Books plans in detail, including pricing, features, and any additional fees. For a quick overview of each plan, check out the table below.
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Price
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Users
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Sole Trader Free |
Sole Trader |
Sole Trader Plus |
Small |
Medium |
Large |
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£0/month |
£5/month + VAT |
£15/month + VAT |
£16/month |
£34/month |
£44/month |
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One (plus one accountant) |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
Clear Books has three plans for sole traders and three for businesses.
As their names suggest, the plans are geared towards businesses of different sizes.
Customers can also get a 30-day free trial when they register with Clear Books. On top of this, all paid plans come with a 30-day free trial of Payroll, the company’s dedicated payroll add-on. Below, you’ll find a breakdown of each of the plans.
- Sole Trader: £5 (approx $6.70) + VAT per month (billed monthly)
- Sole Trader Plus: £15 (approx $20) + VAT per month (billed monthly)
- Small plan: £16 (approx $21) + VAT per month billed monthly, £14.40 (approx $19) + VAT per month billed yearly and £12.80 (approx $17) + VAT per month billed every two years
- Medium plan: £34 (approx $45) + VAT per month billed monthly, £30.60 (approx $40.99) billed yearly and £27.20 (approx $36) + VAT billed every two years
- Large plan: £44 (approx $58.90) + VAT per month billed monthly, £39.60 (approx $53) + VAT billed yearly and £35.20 (approx $47) + VAT billed every two years
Clear Books Small plan
The Clear Books Small plan costs £16 per month + VAT (approx. $21) and includes unlimited users alongside core accounting tools. Its key features include an invoice creator, bill and receipt tracking, bank feeds and uploads, a tool for dividends, and account reconciliation.
Another key feature that is omitted from this plan is the ability to create and manage expenses. In fact, this is only offered on the Large plan, so if you have employees who regularly file expense claims, neither of the first two tiers will be suitable for you.
Clear Books has a “quick add” button for fast sales invoice creation. Source: Tech.co testing
Clear Books Medium plan
This plan unlocks a handful of additional features, particularly for businesses with more advanced accounting and reporting needs.
These include enhanced VAT reporting capabilities, alongside the ability to create and issue purchase orders and create, monitor, and adjust budgets. This makes it a suitable option for businesses looking to gain greater control over their finances, streamline purchasing processes, and keep a closer eye on spending.
Clear Books Large plan
The final Clear Books plan offers expense management tools, the opportunity to categorize income and expenditure into projects or departments, insights into your business’s “cash health,” and multi-currency functionality.
You’ll also be able to track the cost and depreciation of your assets, time tracking, and the ability to apply for over 100 lenders through a scheme known as Capitalize.
Major features, including asset depreciation and multi-currency, can be toggled on or off through the Clear Books interface. Source: Tech.co testing
What are Clear Books’ Add-Ons and Hidden Costs?
Alongside its main plans, Clear Books offers a number of paid add-ons that you can bolt on to your accounting plan of choice. In this section, I’ll take you through the available options in question.
Clear Books Payroll
Payroll is Clear Books’ designated solution for processing employee payroll. It’s available as an optional extra with two pricing points – for up to two employees and for three or more employees. The former costs £3.24 (approx $4.33, including VAT) for the first three months, and then £6.48 (approx $8.67, including VAT) per month going forward.
For three or more employees, meanwhile, the add-on costs are £2.16 (approx $2.89, including VAT) per month, per employee, for the first three months, before reverting to £3.24 (approx $4.30, including VAT) per month, per employee, going forward.
Payroll is an attractive option for businesses that want to streamline their financial processes. What’s more, it can save your business money in the long run by helping you to monitor labor costs and stay compliant with any relevant regulations. For this reason, it will be particularly useful for companies that employ a lot of contractors and don’t want to use either an employer of record (EOR) or a professional employer organization (PEO).
Instant Bank Payments
Instant Bank Payments is another optional add-on that you may want to consider. It’s available at no extra cost; however, you will be charged a small fee per transaction – totalling 1.3% + 20p (+VAT) – which is collected at the end of the billing month.
With this feature, users can get paid by their end customers directly via bank transfer. This makes it easier for your customers to pay you, and also means that you get your money more quickly.
Auto Bills
Auto Bills is an optional add-on that won’t cost you a dime, but you do need to specifically register for it. It allows you to take pictures of your receipts and bills and upload them, rather than having to manually input them into the platform. In this way, it saves time and cuts down on the margin for human error.
Clear Books has a bills inbox for tracking all bills in a central location. Source: Tech.co testing
Clear Books Pricing vs Competitor Pricing
While FreeAgent offers a cheaper introductory discount at $13.50 per month, Clear Books offers lower long-term base rates with unlimited user access.
FreeAgent offers one plan, which can either be billed on a monthly or yearly basis. What’s more, you can currently get 50% off for the first six months or for the first year, meaning that it costs either $13.50 per month or $135 per year. After this period, the price will increase to $28 per month or $270 per year.
Other options on the market simply don’t provide the same value for money. However, your business needs are your own, so it’s important to look at what features are essential to your operations and long-term goals, rather than just pricing alone.
And if you’d rather not spend a dime, there are some free accounting software options out there.
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Starting price
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Free trial
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Best for
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Pros
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Cons
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Try now
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Clear Books |
Zoho Books |
Xero |
QuickBooks |
FreeAgent |
FreshBooks |
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Free |
Free |
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30 days |
14 days |
30 days |
30 days |
30 days |
30 days |
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Professionals requiring comprehensive tax preparation tools |
Integrations |
Experienced accountants and established businesses with complex financial needs |
Businesses needing advanced financial insights and customization |
Budget-conscious businesses |
New businesses |
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| Get Quotes | Try Zoho Books | Try Xero now | Try QuickBooks | Get Quotes | Try FreshBooks |
How We Evaluate Accounting Software
At Tech.co, we take our impartial research and analysis seriously, so you can have complete confidence that we’re giving you the clearest, most useful recommendations.
After conducting an initial investigation to identify the most relevant, popular, and established accounting tools in the market, we conducted further research, including testing six major accounting software platforms.
Based on years of market and user needs research, we’ve established an accounting software testing methodology that scores these platforms against six main categories, and 25 subcategories — with a total of 1,512 areas of investigation being considered overall.
We also put the platforms through their paces with hands-on testing to gain a deeper grasp of their average user experience. We dedicated 57 hours to carrying out 37 user tests, with a total of 555 tasks being completed in total.
Our main testing categories for accounting software are:
- Core accounting features: We check how adept a platform will be at managing accounting tasks, focusing on key bookkeeping features like invoicing, tax preparation, journal entry, time tracking, financial transactions, and payment support.
- Operational efficiency: We determine how capable a system is at ensuring day-to-day processes run seamlessly, paying close attention to third-party integrations, collaboration tools, AI automation, and customization options.
- Financial planning: We assess how capable a system will be at measuring income, profits, and losses. Specifically, we check for the presence and quality of forecasting and budgeting, inventory management, reporting, and compliance tools.
- Help and support: We assess how useful and reliable a platform’s support system is, focusing on support options, whether it’s 24/7 support or knowledge center accuracy, as well as cloud backup, and security safeguards.
- Pricing: We compare the overall cost of each platform, taking factors like monthly costs, set-up fees, hidden fees, and free plans into account. We also measure how strict contracts are, and how much it would cost for a business to terminate them early.
- User experience: An overall judgment of how easily users can interact with the platform. We tested each accounting platform and got our team to report how easy they were to use, how they felt when they were using them, and how likely they were to recommend the platform to another business.
When it comes to calculating a product’s final score, not all testing areas are weighted evenly, with factors like “core accounting features” and “operational efficiency” being prioritized for small businesses, while sector-specific features are valued more highly for businesses across different industries.
We understand that accounting software is always evolving. That’s why at Tech.co, we have full-time product researchers to re-run this testing process regularly. It’s the only way to ensure our results remain reflective of the present day.
Learn more about our research.
Clear Books is a very good value for money. If you go for a two-year subscription, plans start at just £12.80 per month + VAT.
There are three plans to choose from, and you can pay for them in three possible ways – monthly, yearly, or biannually. This grants you a good level of flexibility, which is perfect for businesses of different shapes, sizes, and situations. What’s more, you can upgrade any time, so if your circumstances change, so can your Clear Books plan.
To find the right accounting solution for you, make sure to use our free accounting comparison page.
FAQs
Yes. While the Sole Trader Free tier explicitly says “one user plus one accountant,” Clear Books allows invite-only accountant access across its plans without taking up paid operational seats.
Yes. While all business plans support unlimited users, administrators can configure role-based permissions (such as view-only access, invoice-only creation, or full management) so team members only see the financial data relevant to their role.
Unlike competitors that mandate long notice periods (such as Xero’s 30-day cancellation requirement), monthly Clear Books plans can be cancelled before the next renewal cycle. You can export your data—including ledger records, contacts, and invoices—in standard CSV format before closing the account.
No. The 10% annual and 20% two-year billing discounts apply exclusively to the base accounting software subscriptions. Add-on services like Clear Books Payroll follow their standard monthly rate structures.
While Instant Bank Payments handles direct bank transfers, Clear Books also integrates with third-party payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal, allowing customers to pay invoices via debit or credit card.
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