9 Best Accounting Software for Freelancers of 2026

QuickBooks Solopreneur is Intuit's answer to the one-person business, and Intuit says plainly that it trades team and inventory features for automated transaction sorting and tax readiness. That trade suits most freelancers. The software sorts expenses to help with Schedule C deductions, the mobile app logs miles with the phone's GPS and captures receipts, and invoices can be paid by card, ACH, Apple Pay, PayPal or Venmo. The Free plan is real but tight: 2 invoices, 2 receipt uploads and 5 mileage trips a month, plus the profit and loss and balance sheet reports. Lite at $20 per month at list price lifts those caps, adds automated sales tax, bill pay and 3 contractors, and connects to Expert Assisted Tax through TurboTax, which you pay for only when you file. The catch is that accountant access starts on Simple Start at $38, so freelancers who work with a bookkeeper should price that tier instead.

FreshBooks starts from the invoice and builds the books around it, which is how many freelancers think about money. Every plan lists real-time expense tracking, estimates and tax-time reports, and clients can pay by debit or credit card, ACH bank transfer, Apple Pay, Google Pay or buy now, pay later. The limit that shapes the choice is clients, not invoices: Lite at $23 per month covers 5 billable clients, Plus at $43 covers 50 and Premium at $70 removes the cap. Plus is also where receipt scanning, proposals, client retainers, financial and accounting reports and accountant access appear, so a freelancer who wants their accountant to log in is really looking at $43. The pricing page shows a deep discount for the first 4 months, but we quote the regular price. For a designer or consultant with a few steady retainer clients, Lite is enough and the invoicing is among the most complete on this list.

Zoho Books gives freelancers more for $0 than any other tool here. The free plan, aimed at solopreneurs and micro businesses, includes invoices, quotes, expenses, recurring invoices, receipt and document autoscans, mileage tracking, online payments, automated payment reminders, a customer portal, bank reconciliation, 1099 contractor tracking and more than 50 reports, with one user plus one accountant. Zoho's FAQ says the plan stays free as long as revenue for the financial year stays under $50K. Paying for Standard at $15 per month billed annually, or $20 monthly, adds connected bank feeds, sales and use tax tracking, 1099 e-filing, recurring expenses and custom reports. The trade-off is depth: Zoho Books is a general small business ledger with purchase orders, inventory and approvals waiting on higher tiers, so there is more interface than a freelancer strictly needs. If you can live without automatic bank feeds, the free plan covers a full tax year of bookkeeping.

Wave is the easiest free option for freelancers who mainly want to bill and keep a record. Starter costs nothing and lists unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, a cash flow dashboard and a mobile app for invoicing on the go. Card payments on Starter cost 2.9% plus $0.60, which adds up on small invoices. Pro at $19 per month, or $190 billed yearly, removes the fixed fee, imports and auto-categorizes bank transactions, captures unlimited receipts and automates late payment reminders. Those are the features that save time at tax time, so many freelancers will end up on Pro. Wave also sells Wave Advisors, a done-for-you bookkeeping service that prepares monthly statements, starting at $149 per month. Compared with Zoho Books, Wave is simpler but has fewer reports and no mileage tracking listed on its pricing page, so drivers should look elsewhere.

Keeper is not a general ledger; it is a deduction finder with a tax return attached, which is exactly what some freelancers want. It connects unlimited bank and card accounts, tracks expenses automatically, uses AI to find and categorize write-offs, scans receipts, applies rules to recurring merchants and splits mixed orders, such as an Amazon basket, into business and personal items. Bookkeeping Only costs $20 per month without filing. The Standard yearly plan at $199 adds a federal return and up to 2 state returns reviewed and signed by a tax pro, and Keeper notes that this costs less than 12 months of Bookkeeping Only. Premium at $399 adds quarterly tax payments, audit protection and consultations with a tax pro. What it lacks matters too: there is no invoicing, mileage tracking is listed as coming soon and you do not get a balance sheet. Pair it with a free invoicing tool if you bill clients directly.

Xero is a full small business ledger, and its Early plan already includes things freelancers often pay extra for: bank reconciliation, Smart Document Capture, W-9 and 1099 management, sales tax, real-time reports, a 30-day cash flow forecast and free domestic ACH bill payments. Xero also lists free expert setup help. The limit is volume: Early at $27 per month allows quotes plus 20 invoices and 5 bills, which works for a freelancer with a few monthly clients but not for someone billing dozens of small jobs. Growing at $59 removes the invoice cap and adds auto-reconcile and bill automation, and Established at $97 brings project time tracking, mileage claims and multiple currencies. Many accountants already work in Xero, so it makes the most sense for a freelancer who plans to hire or form a company and wants to avoid switching later. For a pure solo business it costs more than it needs to.

Bonsai earns a place here because many freelancers lose more time between the pitch and the invoice than in the books. Essentials, at $19 per user per month billed annually or $25 monthly, combines proposals, contracts, invoices and payments, forms and questionnaires, scheduling, a client portal and expense and income tracking, on top of the time tracking, task management and unlimited projects in Basic. That makes it a good fit for designers, developers and marketers who bill hourly or by project. It is not a ledger, though. Bonsai tracks income and expenses but does not list bank reconciliation or a balance sheet, so freelancers who want full books usually pair it with accounting software, and the QuickBooks and Xero integrations sit on Premium at $29. Basic at $9 does not include invoicing, so treat Essentials as the real starting point. The free trial runs 7 days.

Lili is a financial technology company whose business checking is provided by Sunrise Banks, and it builds bookkeeping on top of the account rather than syncing to one. Lili Core is free and covers banking only. Pro at $15 per month adds expense and tax management: transactions sorted into tax categories, receipts and notes on expenses, quarterly and annual expense reports and automatic set-asides for tax payments. The accounting software that matters for this list starts on Smart at $35 per month, with AI transaction categorization, profit and loss and cash flow statements, unlimited invoices with reminders, bill scanning and sync of outside bank and card accounts. Paid plans come with a 30-day free trial. The appeal is that one app holds the money and the records, so categorization happens where the spending happens. The downside is that you have to move your business banking to Lili, and Smart costs more than Zoho Books Standard or Wave Pro.

Kashoo keeps the decision simple: there is one plan, it costs $30 per month and everything is included. That plan lists unlimited invoices, online payments, expense and bill tracking, sales tax tracking, bank feed sync, project and item tracking, multi-currency, unlimited attachments, unlimited users, two-factor authentication and a double-entry ledger, plus integrations with Square and with PaymentEvolution for payroll. For a freelancer, the double-entry ledger means an accountant gets proper books, and unlimited users means you can add your bookkeeper at no cost. The pricing page shows a 14-day free trial with no credit card and a limited-time discount on the first 6 months. The weak spot is value for a solo business: $30 per month is more than Wave Pro or Zoho Books Standard, and the plan page does not mention mileage tracking or tax-specific reports. Kashoo also sells an add-on that auto-posts and categorizes transactions.