Free Accounting Software for Small Business: Every Free Plan and Its Limits

Free accounting software is real, and for a small business with simple books it can last for years. The catch is always a limit: a revenue ceiling, a cap on invoices, one user, or the one feature you will want first, which is usually an automatic bank feed. Below are the free plans and free programs that exist today, what each one leaves out, and what the first paid step costs. Every figure comes from the vendor's own page, in US dollars.

This guide is for a business that keeps books: sales, bills, a bank account to reconcile, maybe sales tax and a contractor or two. If you work alone and mainly need Schedule C categories, mileage and tax estimates, see bookkeeping software for freelancers; if getting paid is the main job, see invoicing software for small business.

Free accounting plans: the limits compared

The chart prices one user on each vendor's first paid plan for a year. Akaunting's self-hosted Premium is the cheapest because you run the server yourself; among hosted plans, Zoho Books Standard, ZipBooks Smarter and Wave Pro all land between $180 and $190. Manager Cloud costs the most for one person, but its $59 a month is a flat price for unlimited users, so it gets cheaper per head as a team grows.

Zoho Books: the fullest free plan

Zoho Books' Free plan costs $0 for as long as your revenue for the financial year does not exceed $50K. It covers invoices, quotes, expenses, sales receipts, vendors, mileage tracking, online payments, a customer portal, payment reminders, recurring invoices, bank reconciliation, W-9 management and 1099 contractor tracking and preparation, and the profit and loss statement, balance sheet and 50-plus other reports. Receipt and document autoscans are included, 50 a month.

What to watch:

• Volume limits. Up to 1,000 invoices and 1,000 expenses a year, one user plus your accountant, and email support only.
• No bank feeds. Connecting bank feeds starts on Standard; on Free you enter or import transactions yourself.
• No sales tax tracking. Tracking sales and use tax is a Standard feature, which matters if you sell taxable goods.
• No add-ons on Free except extra document autoscans, so you can't buy an extra user without upgrading.

First paid step: Standard costs $15 a month billed annually, or $20 month to month, for the whole organization. It adds bank feeds, sales and use tax tracking, 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC e-filing, recurring expenses, period locking, custom fields and API access, with 3 users, 5,000 invoices a year and 200 autoscans a month. That is $180 a year.

Choose it if your revenue is under $50K and you want the most bookkeeping for nothing, and you don't mind typing in or importing bank transactions until you upgrade.

Wave: unlimited invoices and bills on the free plan

Wave's Starter plan is free, with unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, invoicing from the mobile app and a cash flow dashboard; Wave lists profit and loss among the reports available in every plan. Wave has no revenue cap and no invoice limit on Starter.

What to watch:

• Bank transactions by hand. On Starter you add transactions manually; automatic import and categorizing (through Plaid, where your bank supports it) start on Pro.
• Receipts cost extra. Unlimited receipt capture is a separate add-on at $8 a month or $72 a year, included in Pro.
• Users. Starter lets you add a payroll manager or a Block Advisors tax pro for free; admin, editor and viewer users are a Pro feature.
• Card fees. Online card payments on Starter cost 2.9% + $0.60 (3.4% + $0.60 for Amex).

First paid step: Pro is $19 a month or $190 a year, per business. It adds bank auto-import, unlimited receipts, automated late-payment reminders, more user roles and no $0.60 fee on your first 10 card transactions each month. Payroll is an add-on on either plan, with a $40 USD base fee plus $6 per active employee and $6 per contractor paid each month.

Choose it if you send a lot of invoices and bills, are happy to enter bank transactions yourself, and want no cap to grow into.

QuickBooks: a free plan that is a sample

Intuit now lists a QuickBooks Free plan on its pricing page, the same Free plan shown with its QuickBooks Solopreneur plans. It is for one user and allows 2 invoices, 2 receipt uploads and 5 mileage trips a month (unlimited invoices if you qualify for and turn on QuickBooks Payments), 1 contractor, one connected bank account and the top three reports: profit and loss, balance sheet and an account quick report. No credit card is needed.

What to watch:

• No accountant access, on Free or on Lite.
• No mobile app or app integrations on Free.
• Built for one-person businesses. Intuit describes Solopreneur as for "self-employed individuals running a one-person business".

First paid step: Lite is $20 a month, with unlimited invoices, receipts and mileage, automated sales tax, the mobile app, up to 3 contractors and TurboTax-powered tax filing you pay for when you file. Simple Start, at $38 a month, is the first plan that lets accountants in and adds unlimited contractors and the option to attach payroll. Intuit is currently taking 50% off Lite and Simple Start for the first three months. If you already know you will run payroll in QuickBooks, see QuickBooks Payroll pricing.

Choose it if you expect to end up on QuickBooks anyway and want to set up your accounts before paying.

Odoo: unlimited users on the Accounting app

Odoo's One App Free plan gives you one app, hosted on Odoo Online, and Odoo guarantees its use is free "for unlimited users, forever". Pick Accounting (or Invoicing) as the app and your whole team can use it. Apps that your chosen app depends on come free too.

What to watch:

• One app only. Install a second one, such as Payroll, Inventory or a website, and you move to the paid Standard plan, which covers every app for all your users.
• Credits cost extra. Odoo lists the AI that scans vendor bills and expenses among in-app purchases not included in its plans.
• A bigger system to learn than a small-business app; Odoo sells implementation packs for a reason.

First paid step: Standard is $24.90 a user a month billed annually for the first 12 months, then $31.10; month to month it is $31.10, then $38.90. One user pays about $299 in the first year.

Choose it if several people need to log in to the books, or you expect to want inventory, payroll and a website in the same system later.

Akaunting: free if you host it yourself

Akaunting's free option is its Standard On-Premise edition, which you download and run on your own server. It covers 1 company, 1 user plus an accountant and 1,000 invoices, with unlimited customers, vendors and reports, sales tax calculation, multiple bank accounts and importing bank transactions from a file. Akaunting says it does not collect your financial data.

What to watch:

• You need a server, and to keep it updated and backed up.
• The useful parts are apps. Akaunting says no app is included in any on-premise plan; double-entry, bank feeds, payroll and receipt scanning are apps bought separately from its App Store.
• Support is the community forum on the free edition.
• The hosted version is not free. Standard Cloud is $12 a month, or $8 a month paid yearly.

First paid step: Premium On-Premise is $72 a year (or $756 once), with 10 companies, 10 users, 10,000 invoices and ticket support. Apps are still extra.

Choose it if you or someone on your team is comfortable running a web application, and you want your books on your own machine.

GnuCash: free desktop accounting with no plans

GnuCash is free, open-source accounting software licensed under the GNU GPL, for Windows, macOS and Linux, and maintained entirely by volunteers. It uses double-entry with a checkbook-style register, and its small-business features include customer and vendor tracking, jobs, invoicing, bill payment, tax and billing terms, budgets, statement reconciliation, check printing and reports such as the balance sheet and profit and loss. It imports QIF and OFX files from your bank.

What to watch:

• Payroll is do-it-yourself. GnuCash says you can manage payroll for employees using accounts receivable and payable accounts; it does not calculate payroll taxes for you.
• No company to call. Help comes from mailing lists, the wiki and the documentation.
• Desktop only. GnuCash runs on your own computer, so backups are your job.

Choose it if you understand debits and credits, want no subscription at all, and work from one computer.

Manager: a free desktop edition with no usage limits

Manager's desktop edition is "fully-featured and free forever" for Windows, Mac and Linux. Manager says you can use all the features and enter as much data as you need, with "no time limits, no usage limits, no ads".

What to watch:

• Single user. Manager says businesses that need several users or remote access use the cloud edition, which is not free.
• Your data stays on your computer. No internet connection is needed; to move your books to another computer, you make a backup and restore it there.

First paid step: Manager Cloud is $59 a month for unlimited users and unlimited businesses, with a 14-day free trial and no discounts. One user pays $708 a year; ten users pay the same.

Choose it if you want full accounting on one computer for free, with a clear path to a team version later.

ZipBooks: free invoicing and books with one bank account

ZipBooks' Starter plan is free, with unlimited invoices, unlimited vendors and customers, card payments through Square or PayPal, basic reports, receipt storage, taxes on invoices and one connected bank account.

What to watch:

• One bank account. Connecting more starts on Smarter.
• No team. Smarter adds 5 team members; Sophisticated, at $35 a month, adds unlimited users and account reconciliation.

First paid step: Smarter is $15 a month, adding multiple bank accounts, recurring invoices with auto-bill, automated reminders, time tracking and 5 team members: $180 a year.

Choose it if you want a free plan with a live bank connection and mostly need to invoice and categorize transactions.

Free invoicing apps and free trials

Some tools that show up in searches for free accounting software are not free accounting software:

• Zoho Invoice is free, but it only does invoicing: up to 2 users, 3 projects and 500 invoices a year, with "Powered by Zoho Invoice" branding. It is covered in our invoicing software guide.
• FreshBooks has a 30-day free trial, no credit card required, and then a paid plan.
• Xero has no free plan. Its cheapest plan, Early, lists at $27 a month.

FreshBooks and Xero are compared as full accounting software in our QuickBooks alternatives.

What free plans leave out

• Bank feeds. QuickBooks Free and ZipBooks Starter each connect one bank account on their free plans. On Zoho Books and Wave, automatic bank import is the main reason to upgrade.
• Users. Most free plans are for one person, sometimes plus an accountant. Odoo is the exception, with unlimited users on one app.
• Sales tax. Zoho Books tracks sales and use tax from Standard and QuickBooks automates it from Lite. If you sell taxable goods in more than one state, budget for a paid plan.
• Payroll. No free plan here runs payroll. Wave's add-on starts at a $40 base fee a month; for full-service payroll compared on price, see payroll software for small business.
• Support. Free plans get email or community support at most.

How to choose

1. Revenue under $50K and one person? Zoho Books Free, moving to Standard at $180 a year when you want bank feeds or sales tax.
2. Lots of invoices and bills, no revenue cap? Wave Starter, adding Pro at $190 a year when typing in bank transactions gets old.
3. Several people need to log in? Odoo with Accounting as your one free app.
4. Want no subscription ever? GnuCash or Manager's desktop edition, if you work from one computer and back up your own data.
5. Comfortable running a server? Akaunting's self-hosted edition, buying only the apps you need.
6. Need one live bank connection on a free plan? ZipBooks Starter or QuickBooks Free, as long as QuickBooks' 2 invoices a month will do.

If you are also tracking prospects before they become customers, a free CRM pairs well with any of these.