QuickBooks Online’s month-to-month subscription service starts at $30 a month (totaling $360 a year). Or, to save money, you can try QuickBooks’ typical offer of 50% off for three months (though choosing the discount waives your free trial). Let us know how well the content on this page solved your problem today. All feedback, positive or negative, helps us to improve the way we help small unique entity identifier update businesses. Both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop are capable programs with strong accounting features.

Which Is Best For My Business?

Run payroll on any device with taxes, compliance & reporting built-in. Both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Pro and Premier have notoriously poor customer support (QuickBooks Enterprise support has better priority support). The online version of QuickBooks is much easier to use than the desktop version. It’s hard to say which software is cheaper because there are so many variables.

For those customers that choose to stay on Desktop Plus subscriptions, we’ll continue to focus on product maintenance and security. QuickBooks Online made it to our Best Accounting Software for Small Business list because it is a comprehensive platform that checks all the boxes for accounting, invoicing and expense tracking. If you aren’t sure about the product, you can give it a 30-day test run with 100% capabilities of the Simple Start Plan to see if it meets your needs.

1. The first tier is the Simple Start Plan at $15 per month for the first three months, then is $30 per month.
2. QuickBooks Online gives small-to-mid-sized businesses the ability to host their accounting on a cloud-based system, allowing for access and collaboration across devices.
3. It brings most of the features of the online platform, plus it enables mileage tracking and receipt capture for quick and convenient recordkeeping.
4. But there are some general guidelines to know which version might be the one for your business (and your budget).

See why more businesses are choosing QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online is popular for businesses that want flexibility — both in terms of where and how they can access their finances as well as what plan they can choose as they grow. On the other hand, established businesses may get more out of QuickBooks Desktop with its advanced capabilities in a secure database. If QuickBooks Online and Desktop are on your list of potential accounting solutions, you may want to also consider some similar alternatives.

Existing QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Premier, Mac, or Enhanced Payroll users will not be impacted. Security updates and product updates will still be released for all users who purchase a QuickBooks Desktop Plus or QuickBooks Desktop Payroll subscription before the cutoff date. You can (almost) always trust your local access, and QuickBooks Desktop reinforces that by keeping your accounting data on your local drive or network. It’s designed to foster collaboration between multiple users, facilitating multi-user access to accounting data. Each user has their own login credentials, which can be customized to limit access to sensitive information. There’s also a feature that facilitates inviting your accountant to the platform, so they can have direct access to your data.

Which is better for small businesses?

In the past, customers could choose between annually renewing plans and single-purchase software with a license that stayed valid for three years. If you purchased a Desktop Pro plan in 2021, your examples of key journal entries software will still work until 2024—but new customers who bought the 2022 software version can only choose annual subscriptions. QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop operate on true double-entry accounting principles and have both accrual and cash-basis accounting. Each offers a detailed chart of accounts, journal entries, bank reconciliation, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and the basic reports needed to run a company.

The right fit for all kinds of businesses

In contrast, QuickBooks Desktop offers hardly any payment gateways, 2020 form 4868 extension of time to file making it difficult for the modern merchant to accept online invoice payments easily. We recommend crunching the numbers to decide whether the online or desktop versions of QuickBooks are right for your specific business. Unfortunately, pricing is no longer disclosed and you will need to contact QuickBooks Sales for more pricing details. At the time of our last review, pricing started at $349.99/year for a single user.