Puzzle vs QuickBooks Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
| Puzzle pricing | QuickBooks pricing | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $30/mo | $38/mo |
| Number of plans | 4 | 4 |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | ||
| Pricing model | flat-rate | per-seat |
Price is one row. To weigh the features too, use our feature comparison template →
Starter
- AI Suite Included
- 25 lifetime AI credits
- Up to 98% auto-categorization
- Auto-drafted financial statements
- Cash & accrual books
- Unlimited connections
- 1-click tax report
- CPA-approved Chart of Accounts templates
Core
- AI Suite Included
- 25 lifetime AI credits
- Insights: Cash, Burn, Runway, Margin & more
- Spend tracking and insights
- Revenue tracking and insights
- Variance analysis
- Multi-entity (via Integration)
- Advanced reporting
- Custom chart of accounts
Complete
Popular- AI Suite Included
- 100 AI credits / month
- AI-powered accuracy review
- AI-powered reconciliations
- AI insights and analysis
- Enhanced categorization
- Categorize from your inbox
- Classes, departments and projects
- Revenue recognition
- Priority support
- Integrates with Stripe, Ramp, Mercury, Brex & more
Scale
- AI Suite Included
- 300 AI credits / month
- Higher-volume accounting
- Subledgers
- No transaction limits
- No integration limits
- Backup and restore
- Priority support
- Dedicated onboarding and support
Simple Start
Popular- Intelligent onboarding with expert-guided setup (NEW)
- AI Chat for instant insights (BETA)
- Categorizes expenses
- Maximizes tax deductions (NEW)
- Handles the busywork (BETA)
- Run general business reports
- Automated bookkeeping
- Invoice and get paid
- Automate bill pay with free ACH
Essentials
- Annual books check-in with action plan (NEW)
- Cleans up your books, fast
- Creates invoices in bulk, automatically (BETA)
- Gets you paid faster
- Estimates quarterly payments
- Run enhanced reports
- Add employee time to invoices
- Integrate third-party data into KPIs and dashboards (NEW)
- Collect leads from a custom form on your website
Plus
- Reconciles your books
- Transactions auto-categorized and verified (NEW)
- Surfaces profit & loss insights
- Chat to plan scenarios and save as budgets (BETA)
- Finds and fixes anomalies
- Catch discrepancies pre-filing
- Sources leads and follows up
- Run comprehensive reports
- Plan budgets
- Track project profitability
- Track and manage inventory
- Track classes and locations (40)
Advanced
- Auto-creates projects and allocates costs
- Continuous books quality checks, with quarterly insights (NEW)
- Gives financial insights tailored to your business
- Customize dashboards with personalized KPIs and metrics to measure what matters most
- Track performance with unlimited classes, locations, and custom KPIs
- Free 1099 e-filing and approval workflows with Bill Pay Elite** (NEW)
- Construction financials solution (NEW)
- Advanced project financials (NEW)
- Customize user permissions and access
- Automate workflows
- Sync data with Excel
- Batch invoices and expenses
- Get priority support and training
Puzzle vs QuickBooks FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- Puzzle starts lower at $30/mo, compared to $38/mo for QuickBooks.
- Can I use either one for free?
- Neither has a free plan. But Puzzle and QuickBooks offer a free trial.
- How do they charge?
- Different approach here. Puzzle uses flat-rate pricing, while QuickBooks goes with per-seat. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. Puzzle: At $30-$360/mo flat, Puzzle sits mid-market — pricier than DIY tools like Wave or QuickBooks self-serve, but way cheaper than hiring a bookkeeping firm or an outsourced controller. They're clearly courting VC-backed startups that need investor-grade books without the cost of a full finance team. QuickBooks: QuickBooks sits mid-to-premium in small biz accounting — pricier than Wave (free) or newer entrants like Xero's lower tiers, but it trades on being the default choice accountants already know. The jump from Simple Start to Advanced (a nearly 9x spread) shows they're not competing on being cheap, they're betting on lock-in and ecosystem familiarity.
Still deciding? See the best Puzzle alternatives or the best QuickBooks alternatives, ranked with verified pricing.
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