8 Best Accounting Software of 2026

QuickBooks Online remains the default for US small businesses, and the new QuickBooks Free plan makes it easier to start. Free covers basic accounting and invoicing with no card required. Simple Start, at a regular $38 per month, adds automated bookkeeping, profit and loss reports, invoicing with card and bank payments, bill pay by ACH and Intuit Intelligence AI that categorizes expenses and looks for tax deductions. It allows one user plus two accountants. Essentials, at $85, raises that to three users and adds enhanced reports and time on invoices. Plus, at $140, adds budgets, project profitability, inventory and class tracking for five users. The price is the main drawback. Discounts cut the first three months in half, then the full rate applies, and it is higher than Xero or Zoho Books at each step. You pay for familiarity: your accountant almost certainly knows it.

Zoho Books offers the most accounting for the money on this list. The free plan is unusually complete: invoices, quotes, expenses and journals, receipt autoscans, mileage tracking, online payments, a customer portal, bank reconciliation, recurring invoices, W-9 management, 1099 tracking and more than 50 reports, for one user and one accountant. Standard costs $15 per organization per month on annual billing, or $20 monthly, and adds three users, progress invoicing, sales and use tax tracking, bank feeds, recurring expenses and 1099 e-filing. Professional, at $40, adds purchase and sales orders, multi-currency and inventory features. Pricing per organization rather than per user keeps costs flat as you add staff. The trade-offs are an interface that takes a little learning and fewer accountants who already know it. If your accountant is flexible, it is the smartest buy for a small company.

Xero is the main alternative to QuickBooks and the stronger choice for bank reconciliation and cash flow forecasting. Every plan includes reconciliation, Smart Document Capture, real-time reports, W-9 and 1099 management, sales tax, online invoice payments and free domestic ACH bill payments. Early costs $27 per month after a deep three-month discount and adds a 30-day cash flow forecast, but it caps you at 20 invoices and five bills, which many businesses will pass quickly. Growing, at $59, removes those limits and adds automated bill entry, performance dashboards, financial health scorecards and a 60-day forecast. Established, at $97, adds advanced tools and analytics. Payroll comes through Gusto. There is no free plan, and Xero's US accountant network is smaller than Intuit's. For a business that values clean reconciliation and forward-looking cash views, it is a strong pick.

Wave is the best free option for a very small business. The Starter plan costs nothing and allows unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, online payments and invoicing from the mobile app. Wave makes its money on payments: card transactions on Starter cost 2.9 percent plus $0.60. Pro, at $19 per month billed monthly or $190 a year, drops the fixed $0.60 card fee on the first 10 transactions each month, auto-imports and categorizes bank transactions, captures unlimited receipts and automates late payment reminders. For a freelancer billing a dozen clients, that is enough accounting. It is not built for growth. There are no inventory, project tracking or class features to match QuickBooks Plus or Zoho Books Professional, and without Pro you enter bank activity by hand. Start here if money is tight and switch when you hire or carry stock.

FreshBooks is built around getting paid, and it does that better than the general ledgers. Lite, at a regular $23 per month, sends invoices and estimates, tracks expenses, takes card, ACH, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Buy Now, Pay Later payments and produces tax-time reports. The catch is a five-client limit. Plus, at $43, raises that to 50 clients and adds proposals, client retainers, financial and accounting reports, receipt scanning and accountant access, which is where most freelancers should start. Premium, at $70, removes the client cap. Add-ons push the cost up: $11 per extra team member, $20 for advanced payments and $40 plus $6 per person for payroll. Accountants also find it less complete than QuickBooks or Xero for full bookkeeping. For a consultant, designer or agency that lives on invoices and retainers, it is the most pleasant tool to use.

Odoo is a business suite, and its accounting app makes the most sense as part of it. The One App Free plan lets you run a single app, such as Accounting, for unlimited users at no cost, which is generous. The paid Standard plan includes every app, including Sales, eCommerce, CRM, Inventory, HR, Project and POS, for one per-user fee with hosting, maintenance and unlimited support. The Custom plan adds Odoo Studio, multi-company, external API access and on-premise or Odoo.sh hosting. The learning curve is the cost. Odoo is closer to an ERP than to QuickBooks, and setup takes more time, often with a partner. For a business that already needs inventory and sales tools in one system, that trade is worth it. The pricing page showed euro prices from our location, so check the USD rate on Odoo's site before comparing.

Akaunting is a low-cost ledger with an unusual option: you can run it on Akaunting's cloud or install it on your own server under separate on-premise plans. Standard Cloud costs $12 per month billed monthly, or $8 per month on yearly billing, and covers one company, one user plus one accountant, 1,000 invoices and four included apps, with unlimited customers, vendors, reports and products and multiple currencies. Premium Cloud, at $36 per month or $24 yearly, raises the limits to ten companies, ten users and 10,000 invoices, and adds double-entry, bank feeds, expense claims, roles and a client portal. That split is the weakness: bank feeds and double-entry, standard on Zoho Books' paid tier, cost Premium money here. Extra apps are sold separately. For an owner on a tight budget who bills in several currencies or wants to self-host, it is a sensible choice.

Kashoo keeps the decision simple: one plan, every feature, listed at $30 per month, with a 14-day trial that needs no credit card. That plan includes unlimited invoices, online payments, expense and bill tracking, sales tax, bank feeds, project and item tracking, multi-currency, unlimited attachments, a double-entry ledger and two-factor authentication. Users are unlimited at no extra charge, which sets it apart from QuickBooks' per-tier user caps. Integrations are thin, with Square and PaymentEvolution for payroll named on the pricing page, and each extra business needs its own subscription. At $30 it costs more than Zoho Books Standard or Xero Early, so the case rests on simplicity and the unlimited users. For a small team that wants everyone in the books without counting seats, and no upsell tiers, it works. Growing companies will want the broader ecosystems of QuickBooks or Xero.