Intuit QuickBooks Online

4.5/5 stars

A popular accounting software for small and medium-sized businesses that covers the basics of bookkeeping and financial management.

Pros

Commonly used, so your bookkeeper or accountant will have no issues
Bundles with payroll
Relatively comprehensive feature set

Cons

Expensive
Some simple things are difficult to do

The Bottom Line

Despite being more expensive than its competitors, Quickbooks Online is still the standard accounting software for small businesses for good reasons.

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Plans & Pricing

Simple Start

Sign on offer: 50% off for 3 months

$30/per month

1 user
Income & expense tracking
Receipt management
Mileage tracking
Cash flow management

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Plus

Sign on offer: 50% off for 3 months

$90/per month

5 users
All Simple Start features
Inventory management
Multi-currency transactions
Bill management & payment

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Advanced

Sign on offer: 50% off for 3 months

$200/per month

25 users
All Plus features
Workflow automation
Data restoration
Invoice batching

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Pricing information is retrieved from publicly accessible pricing materials. The actual cost may vary based on specific plans chosen. Always check directly with the seller for the final quote.

Pricing information last updated March 7, 2024.

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Product Review

Despite being more than 30 years old, QuickBooks remains the most popular accounting software in the world. QuickBooks Online is the cloud-based version of the venerable product, and it’s got all the features you’d expect from accounting software, along with a few extras.

The Good

The sheer popularity of QuickBooks gives it some important advantages over competitors. You’ll find that just about any accountant in the world can work with QuickBooks.

It’s got everything you’d expect from an accounting software in a relatively easy-to-use interface, including:

Expense and income tracking
Financial reporting tools
Invoicing and payment

In addition, you’ll find some less common services, such as live access to tax professionals and integrated banking.

As you’d expect, QuickBooks Online integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks Payroll and TurboTax, Intuit’s other monster applications. And, since it’s so ubiquitous, you’ll find that many ecommerce, HR, and payments products have built great integrations. There’s even a fairly robust app store.

The Bad

Here’s the catch: compared to many of its competitors, QuickBooks is pricey, particularly as you add users and ascend to the higher price tiers. Unlike Zoho or Zipbooks, there’s no free option. And, even the cheapest option – Simple Start – is considerably more expensive than many competitors.

For example, for $15 a month – half the normal price of QuickBooks Online’s Simple Start tier – you’ll qualify for the Standard plan on Zoho Books, the Smarter plan on Zipbooks or the Early plan on Xero.

Additionally, many customers aren’t happy about the lack of customer support for lower-tier plans, and we’ve heard complaints that some of the actions that should be simple – such as correcting entries – are confusing.

Why we love it:

Comprehensive Ecosystem: QuickBooks Online offers a wide array of features that cover nearly every aspect of financial management, including invoicing, expense tracking, payroll, and reporting. This comprehensive approach means businesses can manage most, if not all, of their financial processes within a single platform.

Scalability: The higher tiers of this product provide task automation, inventory management, and other advanced features.

User Interface: While it’s not flawless, the user interface of QuickBooks typically is preferred over many competitors.

Integration: Nearly every large HR or financial management tool on the market supports some kind of integration with QuickBooks Online.