QuickBooks alternatives in 2026: eight options and what they cost

The alternatives at a glance

Several vendors discount the first months. QuickBooks takes 50 percent off for three months, Xero charges $5.40 a month for the first three months of its $27 plan, and FreshBooks takes 80 percent off for four months.^1,5,4 The table shows the regular prices.

What QuickBooks Online costs

QuickBooks Online's Simple Start plan costs $38 a month and covers one user, with access for two accountants. The next plan up costs $85 a month and covers three users. Its plans list AI features that categorize expenses and clean up the books.¹

So the question for most small businesses is whether an alternative does what they need for less than $38 a month. Seven of the eight below can.

Wave

Wave's Starter plan is free. It includes unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, and you pay only when a customer pays you by card, at 2.9 percent plus $0.60. The Pro plan costs $19 a month, or $190 a year, and adds automatic import and categorizing of bank transactions and unlimited receipt capture.²

Good for: a freelancer or a new business that sends invoices and wants the books kept without a monthly bill.

Zoho Books

Zoho Books has a free plan for one user and one accountant, with invoices, expenses, bank reconciliation, recurring invoices and more than 50 reports. Standard costs $20 a month, or $15 billed annually, for three users, and adds bank feeds, period locking, custom reports and API access. Professional costs $50 a month, or $40 billed annually.³

Good for: a small business that wants a free start and room to grow into paid plans.

FreshBooks

FreshBooks Lite costs $23 a month and sends invoices to five clients, with expense tracking, estimates and tax-time reports. Plus costs $43 a month and raises that to 50 clients. Extra team members cost $11 a month each.⁴

Good for: a service business with a handful of clients that bills by invoice. The limit on clients is the thing to check.

Xero

Xero's Early plan costs $27 a month and includes quotes, 20 invoices, 5 bills and bank reconciliation. Growing costs $59 and Established $97.⁵ Xero also publishes an MCP server on GitHub, so an AI agent can work in a Xero account.¹¹ The best MCP servers for small business covers it.

Good for: a business that wants a full accounting system and an accountant who already knows it.

Puzzle

On Puzzle you close the books and the AI does the categorizing, reconciling and drafting. The Starter plan costs $30 a month for one seat and lists 85 to 90 percent of transactions categorized automatically, with drafted financial statements and both cash and accrual books.⁶

Good for: a founder who keeps their own books and wants software to do the sorting.

Kick

Kick is free for up to 250 categorized transactions a year, with automatic categorizing, receipt matching, a profit and loss and a balance sheet. Basic costs $40 a month, shown as $480 billed annually, removes the limit and adds reconciliation, a statement importer and access for ChatGPT, Claude and Cursor through MCP.⁷

Good for: a sole proprietor with few transactions, or one who wants their own AI agent to read the books.

Digits

Digits starts at $65 a month for Essentials, which it describes as for solo owners and early-stage businesses. Core costs $100 a month and Pro $250.⁸

Good for: a growing company that wants more reporting. It is the one option here that costs more than QuickBooks to start.

Conecto

Conecto is our product, and it is a different kind of thing. It has no app for you to work in. It gives your AI agent, such as Claude or ChatGPT, double-entry books to keep: the agent imports a bank statement, matches each line, books expenses and pulls reports when you ask. Importing and reports are free, each booking costs $0.01 and each matched bank line $0.02.⁹ A month of 40 invoices and 300 bank lines comes to $10.40, with invoices at $0.01 to create and $0.10 to send.¹⁰

Two limits to know. Bank statements come in as files, in CSV, CAMT.053 or OFX, and there is no live bank feed.⁹ And Conecto files no tax return: your adviser gets an export.⁹ AI bookkeeping shows the tools, and our two-month test shows what the work looks like.

Good for: a business that already works with an AI agent every day. If you want to click through the books yourself, pick one of the seven apps above.

How to choose

• You want to pay nothing: Wave, or Zoho Books for one user.
• You bill a few clients by invoice: FreshBooks Lite, as long as five clients is enough.
• You want the system most accountants know after QuickBooks: Xero.
• You keep your own books and want AI to sort them: Puzzle or Kick.
• Your AI agent should keep the books: Kick's MCP access, Xero's MCP server, or Conecto.

Before you switch, ask your accountant which systems they work in, and check how each one imports your QuickBooks history.

How we compared them

We read each vendor's pricing page on November 10, 2026, in US dollars, at regular monthly prices with first-month discounts left out. The table lists each vendor's cheapest paid plan and what that page says it includes. We compared prices and listed features. We did not migrate a set of books into each one, so this guide doesn't judge how easy each is to use.

Questions

What is the best alternative to QuickBooks?

It depends on what you need. Wave and Zoho Books are the alternatives with a free plan, Xero is the closest full accounting system at $27 a month, and FreshBooks at $23 suits a business that mainly sends invoices.^2,3,5,4

Is there a free alternative to QuickBooks?

Yes. Wave's Starter plan is free with unlimited invoices and bookkeeping records, and Zoho Books has a free plan for one user.^2,3 Kick is free for up to 250 transactions a year.⁷

What is cheaper than QuickBooks Online?

QuickBooks Online starts at $38 a month.¹ Wave Pro at $19, Zoho Books Standard at $20, FreshBooks Lite at $23, Xero Early at $27 and Puzzle Starter at $30 all cost less.^2,3,4,5,6

Is Xero cheaper than QuickBooks?

At the entry level, yes. Xero Early costs $27 a month and QuickBooks Simple Start $38.^5,1 Xero Early limits you to 20 invoices and 5 bills.⁵

Which QuickBooks alternatives work with AI agents?

Kick lists MCP access with ChatGPT, Claude and Cursor on its Basic plan.⁷ Conecto is built for an agent to keep the books, priced per entry.⁹

This guide is general information, not accounting or tax advice for your business.

Sources

We read these pages on November 10, 2026. Each number in the guide links to the page behind that sentence.

1. QuickBooks Online pricing, Intuit
2. Pricing, Wave
3. Zoho Books pricing (US)
4. Pricing, FreshBooks
5. Xero pricing plans (US)
6. Puzzle pricing
7. Kick pricing
8. Digits pricing
9. Bookkeeping tools, Conecto
10. Invoice tools, Conecto
11. Xero MCP Server, Xero on GitHub

Conecto publishes this guide and sells business tools for AI agents. How we write our guides. To report a mistake, write to hello@conecto.chat.

Written by Vadim Dunaevskiy, Co-founder of Conecto. LinkedIn