For a small company, the three packages price very differently: QuickBooks Online charges by plan tier and caps users, Xero charges a flat price per plan with no per-user fee, and Zoho Books combines a free plan with tiers that limit users and invoices per year. At regular prices, as listed on each vendor's US page on 25 October 2026, the entry-level paid plans are Zoho Books Standard at 20 dollars a month, Xero Early at 27 dollars and QuickBooks Simple Start at 38 dollars.
This comparison is for owners and office managers choosing accounting software, and for accountants advising them. By the end you will have a table of plans, a view of which limits matter, and a short list of questions to settle before you commit. It covers prices and limits only as published; it does not rank the products on features such as reconciliation quality or reporting, which you should test in each vendor's trial. All figures are US dollar prices from the US pages. Vendors change them often, so confirm on the pages linked in the references.
QuickBooks Online plans
QuickBooks lists four plans. Each is shown with a promotional price of 50 percent off for 3 months and a higher regular price.
| Plan | Promo price per month | Regular price per month | Users | Accountant access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple Start | 19 dollars | 38 dollars | 1 | 2 accountants |
| Essentials | 42.50 dollars | 85 dollars | 3 | 2 accountants |
| Plus | 70 dollars | 140 dollars | 5 | 2 accountants |
| Advanced | 170 dollars | 340 dollars | 25 | 3 accountants |
What each tier adds, as listed on the page:
- Simple Start: general business reports including profit and loss, automated bookkeeping, invoicing and getting paid, and bill pay with free ACH (0.50 dollars per standard ACH transaction over the monthly allotment).
- Essentials: enhanced reports, employee time added to invoices, custom lead-capture form, and bulk invoice creation (listed as beta).
- Plus: budget planning, project profitability tracking, inventory management, and classes and locations up to 40.
- Advanced: unlimited classes, locations and custom KPIs, customisable dashboards, custom user permissions, workflow automation, Excel sync, batch invoices and expenses, and priority support.
Two caveats. Check the offer terms at checkout for when the regular price starts. The page also ties unlimited invoices to qualifying for and enabling QuickBooks Payments, so confirm what invoice limit applies to your account. QuickBooks may also show a free tier or trial; this article covers the four paid plans.
Xero plans
Xero's US page lists three plans, with an introductory price for the first 6 months and a regular price after.
| Plan | Intro price per month | Regular price per month | Invoices and quotes | Bills |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Early | 2.70 dollars | 27 dollars | 20 | 5 |
| Growing | 5.90 dollars | 59 dollars | No cap listed | No cap listed |
| Established | 9.70 dollars | 97 dollars | No cap listed | No cap listed |
Points to note:
- Xero's pricing is per plan, with no per-user fee and no user limit listed in the plan table; confirm on the page.
- Early includes bank reconciliation, with auto-reconcile available as an optional add-on at 5 dollars a month. Growing and Established include reconciliation and auto-reconcile.
- Early adds a 30-day cash flow forecast and basic reports; Growing a 60-day forecast, customisable dashboards and 3 budgets; Established a 180-day forecast, multiple currencies, project time and cost tracking, expense claims and international bill payments.
- Payroll (powered by Gusto) is an add-on on all plans at 36 dollars a month plus 6 dollars per employee or contractor. Inventory Plus is optional on Growing and Established and not available on Early.
- The page says new US customers get 90 percent off the first 6 months, with the offer ending 2 November 2026.
Zoho Books plans
Zoho Books lists a Free plan and five paid plans. Prices are per organisation per month, and the page shows a lower price for annual billing.
| Plan | Monthly billing | Annual billing | Users | Invoices per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 dollars | 0 dollars | 1 user plus 1 accountant | 1,000 |
| Standard | 20 dollars | 15 dollars | 3 | 5,000 |
| Professional | 50 dollars | 40 dollars | 5 | 10,000 |
| Premium | 70 dollars | 60 dollars | 10 | 25,000 |
| Elite | 150 dollars | 120 dollars | 10 | 100,000 |
| Ultimate | 275 dollars | 240 dollars | 15 | 100,000 |
Each plan builds on the one before it:
- Free: invoices, quotes, expenses, journals, online payments, bank reconciliation, recurring invoices and 1099 tracking.
- Standard: progress invoicing, sales tax tracking, bank feeds, recurring expenses, period locking, custom fields and API access.
- Professional: purchase and sales orders, multi-currency, timesheet billing, project profitability, inventory tracking and approval workflows.
- Premium: basic revenue recognition, fixed asset management, budgets, cash flow forecasting and a vendor portal.
- Elite: advanced inventory control, warehouses, serial and batch tracking and marketplace connections.
- Ultimate: advanced analytics and KPI tracking.
Extra users are an add-on (listed at 2.50 to 3 dollars per user per month), and add-ons are not supported on the Free plan except document autoscans. Zoho's newer pages in search results may show different plan names or prices, so verify the live page before you buy.
Comparing the limits that matter
| Question | QuickBooks Online | Xero | Zoho Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Not covered here; check the page for any free tier | No | Yes, 1,000 invoices a year |
| Users | 1, 3, 5 or 25 by plan | No per-user fee, no limit listed | 1 plus accountant up to 15 by plan; extra users as add-on |
| Invoice cap | Unlimited with QuickBooks Payments enabled; check terms | 20 a month on Early only | Annual cap from 1,000 to 100,000 |
| Inventory | Plus and above | Inventory Plus add-on on Growing and Established | Professional and above |
| Multi-currency | Not stated on the page | Established | Professional and above |
| Payroll | Not covered in this article | Add-on, 36 dollars plus 6 dollars per person | Not covered in this article |
| Promotional pricing | 50% off for 3 months | 90% off for 6 months (offer ends 2 Nov 2026) | None listed |
The table shows why a headline price rarely settles the decision. A company with five staff who all need to enter expenses will hit QuickBooks Plus or Zoho Professional before Xero's per-user model matters. A business that sends 30 invoices a month rules out Xero Early. A very small business with a few hundred invoices a year can start on Zoho's Free plan and stay there until it needs bank feeds or sales tax tracking.
How to choose
- Count users who need to log in, and any accountants who need access.
- Estimate monthly invoices and bills, and check them against the caps above.
- List must-have features: inventory, multi-currency, projects, budgets, payroll.
- Compare regular prices, not promotional ones, over a 12-month period.
- Check the tax features for your country. Sales tax and VAT or GST handling differ by region and edition, and the US pages here may not apply.
- Run a trial with a month of real transactions and a bank feed, and export your data once to confirm you can leave.
If you are weighing similar decisions on the CRM side, HubSpot vs Zoho CRM vs Salesforce pricing uses the same approach.
Before you buy: a checklist
- Confirm the price on the vendor's page for your country and currency.
- Note when any promotion ends and what the regular price is.
- Confirm the user, invoice and bill limits for the plan.
- Check which features need an add-on, such as payroll or inventory.
- Check how your bank connects, and whether bank feeds are included in your plan.
- Confirm you can export your data.
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