The 7 best QuickBooks alternatives in 2026

Laying my cards on the table: I'm not an accountant. And I said goodbye to all the bookkeeping tasks associated with my freelance career many moons ago. So what qualifies me to write this article? When I was self-employed, I went through the nightmare of trying to find the right software to help me balance my books (I couldn't afford an accountant).

Being the juggernaut that it is, QuickBooks came as one of the top recommendations. But back then, the aesthetics of the platform alone scared me off, and the price point was far beyond what I could justify. 

Whether you're self-employed and looking for a less scary option or an accountant for a business that's looking for a specific feature QuickBooks doesn't have, here are the seven best QuickBooks alternatives. I've based my picks on thorough app testing done by the Zapier team, along with my own experiences.

The best alternatives to QuickBooks 

• Wave for free accounting software

• Xero for project tracking with your accounting 

• FreshBooks for an easy-to-use option for freelancers

• Zoho Books for an all-in-one solution

• QuickBooks Online for staying in the QuickBooks ecosystem

• Square for selling on social media

• Oracle NetSuite for enterprise resource management

The best QuickBooks alternatives at a glance 

The best QuickBooks alternative for free accounting software

Wave

Wave pros:

• Invoicing and accounting are completely free

• Native credit card payment processing

Wave cons:

• Available only in the U.S. and Canada

Wave tops the list as the best alternative to QuickBooks for two main reasons: (1) great features across the board and (2) a really attractive pricing model. The only snag? It's available only in the U.S. and Canada. (If you're on the other side of the ocean, skip ahead.) 

The whole app has a friendly vibe, with rounded fonts and simple icons. The dashboard shows you a cash flow graph, the balances on your bank accounts (you have to integrate them with Wave, but they'll pull only transaction data, never push data or orders to your bank account), a set of links to common actions, and a profit and loss graph.

With Wave Checkouts, you can accept payments from your website with a payment link. You can also attach your receipts to expenses, keeping everything in one place. And if you're on a paid plan, Wave uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology to extract receipt data and turn them into bookkeeping records. 

Now, let's talk about pricing. While QuickBooks will almost certainly meet all of your accounting needs, it's going to cost you. Wave, on the other hand, offers its core invoicing and accounting features for free. But we all know there's no such thing as a free lunch, so what's the catch? Wave takes a small percentage plus a fixed rate out of every online payment processed by the platform. Considering that most payment processors and accounting apps that accept payments will charge you a fee to process credit card and ACH payments, you really do get the accounting features for free.

If you're not sold on Wave by now, you might be once you connect Wave with Zapier to integrate it with the rest of the apps you use so you can automate all your accounting workflows and securely access your books directly from your AI assistant. Learn more about how to automate Wave.

Wave pricing: Free plan available and includes unlimited bookkeeping records; Pro plan for $19/month (or $190/year) includes no Wave branding and OCR data extraction for receipts. Online credit card payments charged at a percentage plus a fixed rate.

Read more: Wave vs. QuickBooks 

The best QuickBooks alternative for project tracking with your accounting 

Xero

Xero pros:

• Intuitive user interface

• Good range of reports

Xero cons:

• Adding project management features costs extra

Xero's mission is to help you "do beautiful business." And with all the features it offers, you can do that and much more—especially when tackling your projects. 

You can review projects in three stages: Draft, In progress, and Closed. Clicking on a project will take you to the project dashboard, with the estimate, the amount invoiced, time and expenses, and the deadline. A thorough approach, while at the same time helping you focus on all the relevant metrics.

Projects are the main course, but there's a lot more on offer. The bookkeeping features are top-notch. In addition to basic invoices and expenses, you can also create purchase orders, file expense claims, and print checks. All these features are peppered with reports and local dashboards to help you see what's going on with your business.

With Xero, you can add project tracking to any paid plan for $10/month for one user (and $7/additional user). On the highest paid tier, that means you're paying $90/month, which is considerably less than QuickBooks. 

Xero has its own app store, allowing you to integrate it with hundreds of apps across many categories—from the automotive industry to tourism. If you don't find what you need, you can connect to thousands more apps with Zapier's Xero integration and securely access your accounting data from your AI chat window. Discover more ways to automate Xero. 

Xero pricing: Paid plans start at $25/month with the option to add project tracking to any plan for $10/month for 1 user, plus $7/month for each additional user. 

Read more: The best accounting software for small business

The best QuickBooks alternative for an easy-to-use option for freelancers 

FreshBooks

FreshBooks pros:

• Extracts data from receipts with OCR 

• Ability to invite other users with multiple roles 

FreshBooks cons:

• A bit expensive considering the features offered

FreshBooks is a freelancer's dream, providing inexpensive access to simple invoicing for only $23 per month (for up to five clients). If invoicing clients is the main reason you need a QuickBooks alternative, FreshBooks is hands-down the way to go.

FreshBooks is also simpler to use. It's evident as soon as you enter the platform. The dashboard is full of bright colors, relatively few navigational options, and clear breakdowns of tools. And if you stumble, there are links to the knowledge base scattered throughout, so you always have in-depth information close at hand. For more advanced stuff, you can call FreshBooks, hop on a chat session, or send a support ticket.

If you love how easy FreshBooks is, you'll love how much easier it is when you connect FreshBooks to Zapier. You'll be able to do things like automatically subscribe new FreshBooks clients to your email list and receive notifications when new invoices are created, for example. Or access your FreshBooks data directly from your favorite AI assistant.

FreshBooks pricing: Free 30-day trial available; paid plans start at $23/month (or $191.27/year) and include unlimited invoices for up to 5 clients and online payments. Add team members for $11/user/month.

Read more:  FreshBooks vs. QuickBooks and FreshBooks vs. Xero

The best QuickBooks alternatives for an all-in-one solution 

Zoho Books

Zoho Books pros:

• Wide feature set

• Good platform and account customization

Zoho Books cons:

• Cluttered interface can be overwhelming and tricky to navigate

QuickBooks offers a handful of well-integrated accounting and invoicing products. But this pales in comparison to the approximately one zillion apps on offer from Zoho. With Zoho, there's an app for everything—a CRM, a project management tool, an accounting solution. You name it, Zoho's got it. 

But we're here to talk about QuickBooks alternatives, so let's focus on Zoho Books. 

All the core bookkeeping features are there, including projects, time, and inventory tracking. These are easy to use once you get used to the amount of information and input fields on each page. There's a budgeting feature where you can set limits for the accounts you choose, and even include asset, liability, and equity accounts in the mix. It's not the intuitive personal finance approach, but it makes sense for business budgets. The reports section has a lot of variety, and you can mark your favorites and even configure report layouts.

The accounting features are great, both for your accountant (who you can invite) and for you. There's a whole section dedicated to tracking tax payments and tax adjustments over time and a journal section to record all other accounting events.

Bigger picture: if you're looking for a robust software suite that goes beyond accounting and invoicing, go with Zoho.

Zoho also integrates with nine different payment portals to let your customers pay invoices online. If you use Stripe, it separates Stripe transaction costs as its own expense category, so you can see how much you're spending on fees. If Zoho doesn't natively integrate with your payment gateway, use Zapier's Zoho Books integration to connect it with other options—and thousands more apps—and get secure access to your books straight from your AI assistant. Learn more about how to automate Zoho Books.

Zoho Books pricing: Free plan includes 1 user, 1 accountant, and 1,000 invoices/year; paid plans start at $15/organization/month (3 users, 5,000 invoices/year, and no Zoho Books branding)

The best QuickBooks alternative for staying in the QuickBooks ecosystem

QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks pros:

• Plenty of help and setup support

• Lots of extras to scale your app, if you need them

QuickBooks cons:

• It becomes more difficult to use as you activate more features

If you're already using QuickBooks Desktop and want to stay in the QuickBooks ecosystem, QuickBooks Online is the most natural upgrade—it's faster, sleeker, and built for the way businesses operate today (read: collaborating remotely and accessing essential business data from anywhere).

Unlike Desktop, QuickBooks Online doesn't require a local install. As long as you've got an internet connection, you can log in from any device—laptop, tablet, phone—and pick up right where you left off. That makes it perfect for remote teams or businesses with multiple people managing finances. Everyone gets their own login, you can set custom permissions, and even invite your accountant. No saving files to share later, no waiting for someone else to log off—just real-time updates. QuickBooks Online also includes an AI assistant ("Intuit Intelligence") that helps you auto-generate invoices, payment reminders, and estimates.

Sure, QuickBooks Desktop still has its strengths, especially for businesses that want more control over data and don't need constant online access. But when it comes to speed, collaboration, and ease of use, QuickBooks Online is the clear winner. 

And if you ever need to connect your accounting with the rest of your workflow, QuickBooks Online integrates with over 650 apps—including Zapier, so you can automate tasks like adding customers, sending receipts, or tracking invoices across your other tools. Zapier also lets you access all your QuickBooks data directly from your AI chat window. Discover popular ways to automate QuickBooks Online.

QuickBooks Online pricing: Free plan available, which includes 1 user and 2 monthly invoice sends; paid plans start at $38/month and includes access for 2 accountants, Intuit Intelligence, and automated bookkeeping. 

Read more: QuickBooks Online vs. QuickBooks Desktop

The best QuickBooks alternative for selling online

Square

Square pros:

• Supports digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay

• Real-time inventory tracking available

Square cons:

• Not very customizable overall

Sure, Square isn't dedicated accounting software—but it's also more than the swiveling tablet you've used to pay at your local coffee shop. What started as a simple payment platform has evolved into a powerful multi-faceted tool for managing both in-person and online sales from a single dashboard (something QuickBooks doesn't do out of the box). 

If your product-based business does a lot of selling on social media, you can get away with swapping from QuickBooks to Square for your accounting. Square lets you build a free online store, sync your product catalog across channels, and manage inventory in real time so it stays accurate wherever a sale happens. You can even chat with customers through the built-in Facebook Messenger integration so you're not constantly hopping between apps to close a sale. The initial setup takes a bit of time and attention, but once it's in place, your workflow becomes much smoother.

Beyond social selling, Square offers a great invoicing experience. The interface is fast, intuitive, and doesn't bury features behind dropdown menus. You can set up one-time or recurring invoices, choose your payment methods, schedule when they go out, and tweak the design to match your brand.

And because it's built as a payment platform first and foremost, Square gives you plenty of extras: support for credit cards, bank transfers, gift cards, buy-now-pay-later options, contracts, tipping, and milestone-based payment schedules. You can even go in-person with Square's point-of-sale hardware if you want to expand into pop-ups or retail.

You can also connect Square with Zapier to automate all your admin tasks, like syncing sales data, triggering follow-up emails, or tracking invoices in your CRM. Here are popular ways to automate Square.

Square pricing: Free plan available (plus payment processing fees), which includes unlimited invoicing and automated payment reminders; paid plans from $49/month/location for lower processing fees and custom invoices.

The best QuickBooks alternative for enterprise resource planning

Oracle NetSuite ERP

Oracle NetSuite pros:

• Extensive resources, including user groups, forums, and support from Oracle

• Supports multi-currency, multi-language, and tax compliance features

Oracle NetSuite cons:

• Implementation can be resource-intensive

If your business has outgrown QuickBooks and you're looking for an all-in-one business management solution, you might be ready for an enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform. 

ERP software helps manage and connect multiple teams across an organization. NetSuite's features cover everything from finance and procurement to supply chain, HR, and beyond. Whether you're in tech, retail, healthcare, or even something niche like campus bookstores, NetSuite can adapt to your workflows.

The tool's sophisticated financial tools include multi-currency support, revenue recognition management, and comprehensive financial planning and analysis. And the custom dashboards strike a nice balance between being user-friendly and deeply powerful—which isn't easy to pull off.

NetSuite's pricing is custom, and you'll need resources to focus on implementation. If you don't have an internal IT team or you're working with a smaller budget, it could be too much. But for larger or fast-scaling businesses that need serious infrastructure, it's absolutely worth the investment.

Plus, you can plug NetSuite into the rest of your tech stack with Zapier, so you can automate routine tasks, sync data across platforms, and keep your team focused on high-impact work. Kick off workflows across your tech stack automatically or take action directly from your AI assistant. Learn more about how to automate NetSuite.

NetSuite pricing: By custom quote

Read more: The best ERP software systems

Other QuickBooks alternatives

If none of these options work for you, or you're looking for an app that's more in the neighborhood of accounting software, here are some ideas. 

• Before you can reconcile your books, you need to get paid. PayPal is a popular app that allows you to send invoices and process payments. For more options, check out our list of the best invoicing software and the best online payment processing services. 

• HR and payroll platforms like Deel handle payroll, benefits, and workforce management. Deel's especially strong if you're paying international contractors or remote employees across multiple countries. 

• Freelance-specific software like FreeAgent offers helpful features for solopreneurs, like tax prep help and contract signing. 

• If your business uses vehicles for service or delivery, LessAccounting has a user-friendly interface that prominently displays mileage and vehicle tracking on the dashboard.

QuickBooks alternatives FAQ

Is there a free alternative to QuickBooks?

If your budget is zero, I'd recommend Wave (it's what I used when I was freelancing). It has a solid free plan that covers the basics—invoicing, estimates, and bookkeeping records—for unlimited clients and products.

Is there a Google alternative to QuickBooks?

Google doesn't offer a dedicated accounting software product, but if you're a Google Sheets fan, you can track your expenses and budget in a spreadsheet. Go forth and create as many charts and pivot tables as your heart desires.

Is there a better alternative than QuickBooks?

QuickBooks is a juggernaut for a reason: what it does, it does well. But you might not have the budget for the software—in which case, more affordable options like Wave and Zoho Books are the way to go. 

Or, if you're not an accountant at heart and need a more user-friendly option, FreshBooks is a better alternative. For businesses that need more in-depth reporting or enterprise-level infrastructure, try Oracle NetSuite. And if you like QuickBooks but want a cloud-based solution, QuickBooks Online is what you're looking for.

Related reading: 

• The best finance automation software tools 

• Guide to accounting automation

• Free small business budget templates for future-proofing your finances 

This article was originally published in August 2024. The most recent update, with contributions from Jessica Lau, was in September 2026.