The best QuickBooks alternatives in 2027 are Xero, Wave, Zoho Books, and Puzzle, and the right one depends on your team size and revenue, not the sticker price. QuickBooks raised Essentials to $85, Plus to $140, and Advanced to $340 a month on 1 August 2026. Each alternative has one catch, and the catch is what decides it.
What QuickBooks actually raised in 2026
Intuit raised renewal prices on three QuickBooks Online plans from 1 August 2026. Essentials went from $75 to $85 a month. Plus went from $115 to $140. Advanced went from $275 to $340. Simple Start stayed at $38 a month, and the limited free plan stayed free. If you pay monthly, that is $1,020 a year for Essentials, $1,680 for Plus, and $4,080 for Advanced, before payroll and add-ons.
The user caps are what force most upgrades. Simple Start covers 1 user, Essentials 3, Plus 5, and Advanced 25. A fourth user on Essentials means moving to Plus at $140, even if that person only sends one invoice a month. New customers get 50 percent off for three months, so do not work out your year from the intro price. Work it out from the list price, because that is what you pay for the other nine months.
| QuickBooks Online plan | List price a month | Users | Changed 1 Aug 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free (limited) | $0 | 1 user, 1 bank connection, 2 invoices a month | No |
| Simple Start | $38 | 1 | No |
| Essentials | $85 | 3 | Yes, from $75 |
| Plus | $140 | 5 | Yes, from $115 |
| Advanced | $340 | 25 | Yes, from $275 |
The decision in one table: who each alternative is really for
Do not pick from a price list alone. Pick from your numbers: how many people need access, how much you bill a year, whether you need payroll, and whether your accountant uses the tool. The table below sorts the four alternatives by the business they fit, and the sections after it explain the catch in each one.
| Alternative | From | Best for | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xero | $27 a month | Teams that want a like-for-like swap | Entry plan caps invoices at 20 a month |
| Wave | $0 | Solo owner who sends invoices | No bank feeds on the free plan, and no extra users |
| Zoho Books | $0 under $50,000 revenue | Small firms that want the cheapest paid tiers | Free plan has no bank feeds; limits end at $50,000 revenue |
| Puzzle | $30 a month | VC-backed startups only | US-only, no payroll of its own, not for general small business |
Xero: the closest like-for-like swap
Xero is the only one of the four that replaces QuickBooks for a team without changing how the firm works. Its US prices rose on 1 October 2026 to Early $27, Growing $59, and Established $97 a month. Every plan includes unlimited users, which is where the saving hides. A 3-person firm pays $59 a month on Xero Growing, against $85 on QuickBooks Essentials, which is $312 a year saved before anything else changes.
Early caps at 20 invoices and 5 bills a month, so a busy month can push you to Growing. Growing lifts those caps but has no multi-currency, which only arrives on Established at $97. Xero also had a 90 percent off for 6 months promo that ran to 30 September 2026, and it has expired, so do not plan your budget around it. If your accountant already works in Xero, this is the easy switch. If they only work in QuickBooks, ask them first.
For the wider software picture, read our guide to the best AI bookkeeping software for small business, and for the side-by-side costs see how much small business software costs in 2026.
Wave: genuinely free, and the bank-feed catch
Wave Starter costs $0 forever and covers unlimited invoices, estimates, and bills with proper double-entry bookkeeping and receipt scanning. For a solo owner who sends invoices and does their own books, that is hard to beat. Pro costs $19 a month, or $190 a year, and adds automatic bank feeds, recurring invoices, and removes Wave branding.
The catch arrived on 1 June 2026. Free legacy accounts that did not use Wave Payments or Payroll were moved to Starter and lost their bank connections, so the free plan no longer imports your bank feed. If you live on automatic feeds, Wave is $19 a month in practice, not $0. Starter is also owner-only, so a second person needs Pro, and Wave is single currency only with no inventory. Payroll is an add-on at $25 to $40 a month across the sources we checked, so treat that as a range and check the Wave pricing page. Card processing costs 2.9 percent plus 60 cents per transaction.
Zoho Books: free under $50,000, cheapest paid tiers, 1099 e-file
Zoho Books is free while your annual revenue is $50,000 or less. The free plan covers 1 user plus 1 accountant, with 1,000 invoices and 1,000 expenses a year and 50 receipt scans a month. Bank reconciliation is included, but automatic bank feeds start on Standard, which costs $15 a month billed annually, or $20 month to month. Paid tiers run from Standard $15 to Professional $40, Premium $60, Elite $120, and Ultimate $240 a month billed annually.
Two things set Zoho apart in this group. First, its paid tiers are the cheapest here, and Standard at $15 a month with feeds is the cheapest usable paid plan of the four. Second, native IRS e-filing for 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC was added in January 2026, which is a genuine QuickBooks parity point that most comparison lists miss. If you pay contractors and dread January, that matters more than a small price gap. The free plan ends when your revenue passes $50,000, so a growing firm should price the Standard plan from the start.
Puzzle: only if you are VC-backed
Puzzle is AI-native and built for VC-backed startups, not for general small business, so say that up front and skip it unless that is you. Its prices, as checked against third-party trackers in October 2026, are Starter $30 a month, or $25 billed annually; Core $72 a month, or $60 annually; Complete $120 a month, or $100 annually; and Scale $360 a month, or $300 annually. The free terms conflict across sources, with one saying $0 until $20,000 a month in transaction volume and another saying the first 2 months are free, so check the vendor page before you count on either.
What Puzzle sells is burn and runway shown live on one ledger, with cash and accrual accounting together and native links to Brex, Ramp, Mercury, and Stripe. Core is where burn and runway go live, and Complete is the most popular tier, with AI reconciliations and 100 AI credits a month. It has no payroll of its own and connects to Gusto, Rippling, or Deel instead. If you are not a funded startup, the cheaper tools above will serve you better.
What you could lose in the switch
A cheaper subscription is only half the bill. Migration commonly costs $2,000 to $10,000 when a bookkeeper or accountant moves and cleans your data, and the bill grows with the years of history you carry over and how messy your chart of accounts is. Payroll is the next gap: QuickBooks Payroll sits inside the product, while Xero and Zoho lean on add-ons, and Puzzle has none of its own. Check the payroll numbers in our Gusto vs OnPay payroll comparison for 2027 before you assume the new tool covers it.
Then there is the accountant question and the app question. QuickBooks has the biggest accountant install base in the US, and that is the real lock-in. Check whether your accountant works in Xero or Zoho before you switch, Xero has the largest app ecosystem of the four, with over 1,000 apps claimed against QuickBooks at over 750, but count the apps you actually use, not the total. If one of them has no match on the new tool, that is a cost too.
A 30-day switching checklist
Week one, export everything from QuickBooks: the chart of accounts, customer and vendor lists, open invoices and bills, and two years of transactions. Week two, ask your accountant which tool they will actually work in, and run a trial with real data, not a demo file. Week three, move one month of live books and reconcile it to the cent, then test invoicing, payments, payroll, and 1099s end to end. Week four, check the numbers against QuickBooks one last time, then cancel after the new books are proven.
Keep QuickBooks Desktop in mind too if you still run it. Desktop 2023 lost all connected services on 31 May 2026, so payroll tax tables froze, bank feeds stopped, and security patches ended. If you are on that version, the switch is not a choice any more, it is overdue. Check the current price on each vendor page on the day you buy, because this market moved twice in 2026 and it will move again.
The bottom line on QuickBooks alternatives
The best QuickBooks alternatives in 2027 are Xero at $27 to $97 a month for teams, Wave at $0 for a solo owner who can live without bank feeds, Zoho Books free under $50,000 revenue and $15 a month after that, and Puzzle only for VC-backed startups. The cheapest sticker price is not the cheapest switch. Ask your accountant first, price the migration, and test one real month of books before you cancel QuickBooks.