Zoho Books is the best small business accounting software. The platform combines robust bookkeeping features with inventory management tools, such as tracking, and an easy-to-use mobile app.
Other options include Xero, which offers strong accounting features and website builder integrations, such as Shopify and Squarespace. For this reason, it is well-suited to ecommerce businesses.
We’ve conducted hours of research, across 1,512 areas of investigation, to evaluate the best small business accounting software. Read on to find out the best solutions on the market.
What Are the Best Small Business Accounting Platforms?
Below, you’ll find our list of the best small business accounting platforms. Use the links to navigate to your desired section, or check out the table below to see how these providers compare head to head.
- Zoho Books — Best overall small business accounting software
- QuickBooks Online — Easiest accounting software to use
- Xero — Best online business accounting software
- Wave Financial — Best free accounting software
- FreshBooks — Best accounting software for hospitality businesses
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1. Zoho Books: Best Overall Small Business Accounting Software
- Price from: Free
Zoho Books is the best overall accounting platform for small businesses. During the testing process, our team was particularly enamored with its ease of use, which made it simple to navigate the platform.
One researcher commented: “It was really intuitive. I was instantly able to find everything I needed — everything was signposted well.”
Additionally, Zoho Books has a robust set of core accounting features, including invoice customization, a dedicated customer portal, and ability to process online payments, available on all plans, meaning that you can get basic bookkeeping functions without spending a dime.
Pros
- Extensive data import/export features built in
- Time tracking tools with billable hours conversion for invoicing
- Highly effective transaction documentation
Cons
- No customer support outside business hours (no weekends)
- Limited third party integrations outside of Zoho
- Shorter free trial than most other accounting platforms
- Free: $0/month
- Standard: $15/month
- Professional: $40/month
- Premium: $60/month
- Elite: $120/month
- Ultimate: $240/month
What do we like about Zoho Books?
Out of all the providers that we tested, Zoho Books has the most robust set of core accounting features, with standouts including advanced invoicing and quoting tools.
For example, with retainer invoices, users can request down payments for future services, which is a great tool for businesses that work with external parties, such as consultancies.
In addition, because of the platform’s generous invoice limits on its lower plans (1,000 per year on the Free plan), it’s a great option for professional services businesses.
Unlike QuickBooks, Zoho Books has time tracking built into its core feature set, so you won’t have to pay for a designated add-on. You’ll have to opt for the Professional plan ($40 per month) or higher for the privilege.
You can schedule payment reminders on all plans, and even create a series of messages, so that your end customers are repeatedly prompted, if necessary.
Does Zoho Books have any limitations?
Compared with other providers on this list, most notably Xero, Zoho Books has quite a limited range of available third-party integrations.
How much does Zoho Books cost?
Zoho Books has six pricing plans, which you can learn about below.
- Free – Free
- Standard – $15 per month
- Professional – $40 per month
- Premium – $60 per month
- Elite – $120 per month
- Ultimate – $240 per month
For more information, read our Zoho Books pricing review.
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| 1 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 15 |
2. QuickBooks Online: Easiest Accounting Software to Use
- Price from: $19 per month for first three months (then $38 per month)
QuickBooks is the easiest accounting platform to use. Out of all the providers that we tested, our research team concluded that QuickBooks was the most intuitive, with one commenting: “The platform is laid out in a way that makes sense.”
Alongside this, QuickBooks has an excellent feature set, with key attributes including bookkeeping, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and financial reporting.
Pros
- Extensive analytics template customization
- Automatic alerts for mismatched balances
- Built in cash flow projection tools
Cons
- Steep learning curve for advanced functionality
- Limited customer support resources for self-help
- No time tracking features
- Simple Start: $38/month
- Essentials: $75/month
- Plus: $115/month
- Advanced: $275/month
- 50% off for first 3 months on all plans
What do we like about QuickBooks?
Not only is QuickBooks the most usable platform on the market, but it has the widest array of advanced features out of all the providers that we tested.
Highlights include multi-user collaboration, which allows teams to collaborate in real-time on the same documents, boosting productivity and eliminating bottlenecks. You can administer different levels of permission to avoid complications.
What’s more, with customizable reporting options, users can tailor formats to meet their specific business needs.
QuickBooks also integrates with more than 200 third-party programs, including leading options like Shopify. While this is not as many as Xero, it beats Zoho Books hands-down.
QuickBooks Online offers a library of integrations, so users can connect with useful third-party tools. Source: Tech.co testing
QuickBooks is a great tool for expenses tracking. It sorts all your transactions into tax categories, and links photos of receipts to their corresponding transactions.
Furthermore, it integrates with users’ accounts across platforms including bank accounts, credit cards, PayPal, Square, and more.
Users can even create custom categories to suit your business needs, and the QuickBooks app will let users track mileage, so you can track business trip expenses on the go.
Check out our guide to the best expense management software to learn more.
QuickBooks made it simple for us to track expenses right in the platform. Source: Tech.co testing
Does QuickBooks have any limitations?
QuickBooks has strict user limits on all plans. The Advanced plan ($275 per month), has a user limit of 25.
How much does QuickBooks cost?
QuickBooks has four pricing plans, which you can learn about below.
- Simple Start – $38 per month
- Essentials – $75 per month
- Plus – $115 per month
- Advanced – $275 per month
New customers can get 50% off all plans for the first three months of a year-long contract. Check out our guide to QuickBooks pricing for more information.
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| 1 | 3 | 5 | 25 |
3. Xero: Best Online Business Accounting Software
- Price from: $1.25 per month for first six months (then $25 per month)
Xero is the best accounting software for online businesses. With its advanced inventory tracking tools, and integrations with Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, and more, it’s a great fit for online retail businesses.
Pros
- Over 1,000 third-party integrations available
- Useful client portal for clients to access financial information
- Robust fixed asset tracking functionality with depreciation values
Cons
- Steep learning curve for advanced features like work flows
- Outdated, poorly designed interface with difficult navigation
- Must give one-month notice before cancellation
- Early: $25/month
- Growing: $55/month
- Established: $90/month
- 90% off all plans for the first 6 months with Tech.co deal
What do we like about Xero?
Our research team agreed that Xero has all the features you’d expect from one of the world’s biggest accounting platforms. For example, it has robust bookkeeping, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and financial reporting tools.
Unlike QuickBooks and Zoho Books, Xero doesn’t have user limits on any of its plans, so even large businesses might find that the entry-level plan is sufficient.
Xero is a standout choice for online businesses. For $39 per month, users can sign up for Xero Inventory Plus, a dedicated suite of tools for managing inventory, fulfilling orders, and understanding your financial performance.
What’s more, the platform integrates with over 1,000 apps, more than any other provider on this list, including several leading ecommerce and website builder tools. These will appeal to B2C retail businesses that rely on a strong online presence.
The Xero App Store has over 1,000 integrations for you to choose from, including tools for monitoring cash flow, invoicing, and ecommerce. Source: Tech.co testing
Does Xero have any limitations?
Xero is not an easy platform to use. According to one of our researchers: “I didn’t like the dashboard. It was hard to keep track of where everything was. It was quite overwhelming.”
How much does Xero cost?
Xero has three pricing plans. Find out more below.
- Early – $25 per month
- Growing – $55 per month
- Established – $90 per month
New customers can get 90% off all plans for the first six months of a one-year contact. Learn more about Xero pricing here, or see how its plans compare at a glance below.
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| Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
4. Wave Financial: Best Free Accounting Software
- Price from: Free
Wave Financial is the best free accounting platform on the market. It offers competitive bookkeeping functionality, expenses tracking, and great accounts receivable features — all at no cost.
In fact, you don’t even need a credit card to sign up to its accounting, receipt-scanning, and invoicing add-ons.
Pros
- Completely free tier available
- Offers affordable add-ons
- Does the basics well
Cons
- Lacks advanced features
- Struggles to scale with growing businesses
- Starter plan: Free
- Pro plan: $15.83 per month
- Transaction fee: 2.9% + 60¢ for credit card, 3.4% + 60¢ for Amex
What do we like about Wave Financial?
Wave has a generous selection of accounts receivable features on its free plan. You can create and send unlimited invoices, track the status of payments, and easily issue reminders. You can even invoice in any currency, as well as send quick estimates before turning them into full invoices.
Wave’s bookkeeping functionality is surprisingly competitive, too. The software uses a double-entry accounting system to improve compliance, and it can be used to track expenses, monitor profits through financial reports, and calculate sales tax.
Wave has a payroll add-on to round out its service. You can get started for free, or pay a $40 base fee, plus an additional $6 per active employee and $6 per independent contractor paid.
Wave’s software is simple, yet it helps you manage payroll processes, payment activity, and much more. Source: Wave
Does Wave Financial have any limitations?
Wave Financial lacks basic stock management and budgeting features, meaning that it is unsuitable for businesses with those specific requirements.
How much does Wave Financial cost?
Wave Financial has two pricing plans, which you can learn about below.
- Starter – Free
- Pro – $15.83 per month
Learn more in our Wave accounting review.
5. FreshBooks: Best Accounting Software for Hospitality Businesses
- Price from: $9.20 per month for first three months (then $23 per month)
FreshBooks is the best accounting platform for hospitality businesses. With built-in tracking tools, you can keep on top of how many hours your employees have worked. What’s more, users can track inventory costs, enabling you to stay on top of costs, eliminate food waste, and ultimately operate efficiently.
Pros
- Intuitive, easy to use interface for beginners
- Time tracking features with invoice compatibility
- 24/7 customer support options for platform help
- Automated reminders are included on all plans
Cons
- Limited functionality in mobile app
- No forecasting or budgeting features for future analysis
- No multi-currency invoicing available for users
- Few custom reporting options
- Lite: $23/month
- Plus: $43/month
- Premium: $70/month
- 60% off all plans for the first 3 months
What do we like about FreshBooks?
FreshBooks has one of the cleanest interfaces we reviewed, making it ideal for businesses new to accounting software, due to its low learning curve.
It also matches QuickBooks and Xero in terms of accounts receivable features, with standout features including automatic late payment reminders, recurring billing, and online payment processing. For this reason, it’s a good option for freelancers and contractors who rely on invoices.
It’s easy to categorize transactions with FreshBooks, with distinct sections for equity, transfers, or refunds. And the platform generates invoices, with custom templates and email integration.
FreshBooks’s software is based around a “Double-Entry Accounting” feature, which tracks revenue items against their related expenses, and it makes it easy to understand your profit and loss figures.
FreshBooks makes managing invoices straightforward. Source: Tech.co user testing
Does FreshBooks have any limitations?
FreshBooks doesn’t offer 24/7 support. Instead, if you run into difficulties, you can reach out to a member of its customer services team from 8am to 8pm ET, Monday through Friday.
How much does FreshBooks cost?
FreshBooks has four pricing plans available, which you can learn about below.
- Lite – $23 per month
- Plus – $43 per month
- Premium – $70 per month
- Select – Custom pricing
Users can get 60% off all plans for the first three months of a one-year contract.
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What Is the Easiest Small Business Accounting Software to Use?
QuickBooks is the easiest accounting software to use, as it is very easy to upload invoices, and track payments and sales.
QuickBooks is very intuitive, and all of its features are clearly signposted, reducing the time it would take you to manually search for functions.
Its dashboard highlights important business details, including a clear financial overview that offers a visual snapshot of your business’s health. Thanks to the platform’s automatic bank feed, you won’t need to spend too much time manually entering data, or managing transactions.
QuickBooks is a cloud-based system. This means your records are available everywhere, on every device, all the time. Not only does this make it easier for users to manage important processes on the go, but it also ensures that company data is protected by multiple layers of security.
Top Considerations To Make When Buying Accounting Software
To help you find an accounting solution that fits your needs, we’ve distilled the most important factors to consider below:
- Relevant accounting features: To make sure your chosen solution includes everything you need, you should carefully identify your preferred features.
- Useful integrations: Integrated accounting software helps you streamline your operations by letting you centralize your business’s financial data across platforms.
- Scalability: Your accounting needs will evolve over time. So, to ensure your accounting software is future-proof, we’d prioritize scalable solutions that offer modular packages and can handle escalating transaction volumes.
- Security features: To ensure company, client, or customer data is secure, you need to invest in accounting software with a strong security profile. Key safeguards to look out for include data encryption, multi-factor authentication, and regular software backups.
- Real-time insights: If you’re interested in using the tool to monitor and improve your financial health, we recommend finding one that offers real-time performance insights.
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.
Verdict: Zoho Books Is the Best Small Business Accounting Software Provider
Zoho Books is the best accounting system overall. The platform balances advanced bookkeeping features with an intuitive interface that will lend itself well to users with little accounting experience.
Xero is another excellent option, however, with strong accounting and bookkeeping features and competitive pricing.
We understand that your business has specific needs. That’s why we’ve put together a quick and easy accounting software comparison page. It’s completely free to use and can help you work out which service is the best for your business.
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