The Best Low-Cost Accounting Software

For years, the standard advice for small businesses choosing accounting software has been simple: just use Intuit QuickBooks.

But if you’re a sole proprietor, a freelancer, or a small business, robust accounting products like QuickBooks are probably overkill. Not to pick on QuickBooks, but its cheapest plan is $30 monthly – nearly twice the cost of other starting plans! And, if you’re running a small business with simple expenses and revenue streams, you won’t be using most of the fancy functionality you’re paying for.

Luckily, we’re living in the golden age of the stripped-down accounting software. Read on to hear our take on three popular low-cost options for small businesses: Zoho Books, FreshBooks, and ZipBooks.

Best for the sole proprietor, side-gig, or freelancer: ZipBooks

If you’re a very small business (or just one with simple accounting needs), ZipBooks is an excellent choice. Unlike the other choices in this list, it’s got a solid free plan (the ZipBooks Starter plan) that includes most of the functionality a small business will need. That includes:

• Sending unlimited invoices
• Managing unlimited vendors and customers
• Accepting digital payments through Square or PayPal
• Viewing basic reports

It also integrates with Slack, Gusto, and other popular small-business software. 

If you’re a freelancer or a sole proprietor, this should easily cover your needs. When you’re ready to move up the ladder, they have a very affordable Smarter plan at $15/month that lets you add team members, connect multiple bank accounts, and track time.

Best for contractors and other service providers: FreshBooks

Let’s see if this describes you:

• Most of your income comes from a few projects at a time
• You’re constantly sending estimates, contracts, and invoices

Enter FreshBooks. Unlike other options on this list, it’s got a feature list that goes beyond the basics. With this software, you can send estimates (or proposals or even full customer conversations). You can customize your invoices. And the time tracking feature is among the most user-friendly we’ve seen.

It’s not the cheapest (see ZipBooks for that), but it’s still reasonably affordable – $19/month for the Lite plan and $33/month for the Plus plan, with an additional 70% off for the first four months.

The bottom line is that FreshBooks might be a good fit if you spend a lot of time reviewing estimates, proposals, and invoices.

Best for the small business with big ambitions: Zoho Books

Sure, you’re a small business – but you don’t plan on staying that way. For all you baby Bezos out there, Zoho Books provides a solid (but still extremely affordable) path to scale.

Let’s start with their free plan. Unlike ZipBooks, it’s capped at 50k annual revenue. If you fit this criteria, it lets you add your accountant and provides all the basic accounting features you’d expect. 

At $15/month, the revenue cap is removed. You’ll also be able to program recurring expenses and manage up to 5000 invoices. Beyond that, the sky’s the limit. There’s an honestly mind-numbing number of paid plans, each with more robust functionality than the last – standard, professional, premium, elite, ultimate – phew. Once you reach the most exalted plans, you’ll have truly sophisticated functionality like advanced analytics or inventory management.

Add to this the rest of the Zoho enterprise software suite – People, Projects, Inventory, CRM, Commerce, Billing (the list goes on) – and you can create a fully integrated enterprise software suite for any size business.

So, if your needs are modest right now but won’t stay that way, Zoho Books provides a compelling launchpad.

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