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Home › Categories › Accounting Software

Small Business Accounting Software, Compared: Verified 2026 Pricing

Bill BelcaminoBy Bill Belcamino · Last updated September 18, 2026 · Our methodologyResearched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team

Side-by-side pricing for QuickBooks, Xero and FreshBooks: entry price, free plan, how each vendor bills for AI, and the date we last checked each figure against the vendor’s own pricing page.

Small Business Accounting Software, ComparedVerified Sep 18, 2026

Quick answer

  • Lowest published entry price: FreshBooks — $23/mo (Lite, 5 billable clients).
  • Free plans: QuickBooks (Yes — 1 user, 2 invoices/month, 1 bank connection).

Accounting Software pricing at a glance

Every row links to the comparison where the figure was verified and to the vendor’s pricing page.

ToolEntry priceFree planAI billingG2 ratingVerifiedSource
QuickBooksFrom $38/moYes — 1 user, 2 invoices/month, 1 bank connection—4.0 / 53,878 reviewsSeptember 12, 2026in QuickBooks vs XeroVendor pricing ↗
XeroFrom $25/moNo permanent free plan — free trial available—4.4 / 51,832 reviewsSeptember 18, 2026in Xero vs FreshBooksVendor pricing ↗
FreshBooks$23/mo (Lite, 5 billable clients)No free plan — 30-day free trial, no card required—4.5 / 5981 reviewsSeptember 18, 2026in Xero vs FreshBooksVendor pricing ↗

Head-to-head comparisons

QuickBooks vs FreshBooksUpdated September 12, 2026QuickBooks vs XeroUpdated July 22, 2026Xero vs FreshBooksUpdated September 18, 2026

Switching guides

FreshBooks to QuickBooksSwitching guideFreshBooks to XeroSwitching guideQuickBooks to FreshBooksSwitching guideQuickBooks to XeroSwitching guideXero to FreshBooksSwitching guideXero to QuickBooksSwitching guide

Frequently asked questions

Which accounting tool is cheapest?

Of the 3 accounting tools HelpCompare tracks, the lowest published entry price belongs to FreshBooks ($23/mo (Lite, 5 billable clients), verified September 18, 2026). Entry prices are the cheapest paid tier each vendor publishes; the right answer at your team size depends on seat minimums and add-ons, which each head-to-head comparison breaks down.

Which accounting tools have a free plan?

Free plans: QuickBooks (Yes — 1 user, 2 invoices/month, 1 bank connection).

Where does this pricing data come from?

Every figure was recorded from the vendor's own pricing page during research for a HelpCompare comparison, and is dated. The most recent check in this category was September 18, 2026. Nothing is estimated: where a vendor publishes no price, we say so. The full dataset is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 at helpcompare.com/data/.

Sources

Figures come from each vendor’s pricing page, recorded on the date shown. Download the full dataset from Open Data (JSON and CSV, CC BY 4.0).

Bill Belcamino, founder of HelpCompare
About the author

Bill Belcamino

Founder and author, HelpCompare

Bill has worked in software and digital marketing for more than 20 years. He spent nine years as an engineer at HP, served as COO scaling a platform past 200,000 users, and ran Google’s $70M/year search syndication partnership at Alot.com. He has bought, trialled, integrated and cancelled more SaaS tools than he can count, and started HelpCompare because the real cost of switching tools is the part nobody covers.

“I’ve sat on both sides of the table: the agency recommending the tool and the client paying for it.”

Researched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team. Pricing on this page was last verified on September 18, 2026. No paid sponsorships, no affiliate commissions.

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