Xero 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.
| Xero | QuickBooks | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $25/mo | $38/mo |
| Number of plans | 3 | 4 |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | ||
| Pricing model | flat-rate | per-seat |
Early
- Send quotes and 20 invoices†
- Accept online invoice payments^
- 5 bills
- Reconcile bank transactions
- Smart Document Capture
- View real-time reports
- W-9 + 1099 management
- Sales tax
- Visualize performance with basic graphs
- 30 day cash flow forecast
- Make online bill payments (Domestic - Free ACH)
- Make online bill payments (Cross Border)
Growing
- Send invoices and quotes
- Accept online invoice payments^
- Automate bill entry and track bills
- Auto-reconcile bank transactions (Beta)
- Smart Document Capture
- View real-time reports
- W-9 + 1099 management
- Sales tax
- Visualize performance with graphs
- 60 day cash flow forecast
- Make online bill payments (Domestic - Free ACH)
- Make online bill payments (Cross Border)
- Customize performance dashboards
- Tailored financial health scorecards
Established
Popular- Send invoices and quotes
- Accept online invoice payments^
- Automate bill entry and track bills
- Auto-reconcile bank transactions (Beta)
- Smart Document Capture
- View real-time reports
- W-9 + 1099 management
- Sales tax
- Visualize performance with graphs
- 180 day cash flow forecast
- Make online bill payments (Domestic - Free ACH)
- Make online bill payments (Cross Border)
- Customize performance dashboards
- Tailored financial health scorecards
- Analyze KPIs and ratios
- Use multiple currencies
- Track time and costs for projects
- Employee expense and mileage claims
- Benchmark against the industry
- Make online bill payments (International)
Simple Start
- Expert-guided setup and onboarding
- AI Chat for instant insights
- Categorizes expenses
- Maximizes tax deductions
- Run general business reports
- Automated bookkeeping
- Invoice and get paid
- Automate bill pay with free ACH
Essentials
- Expert-guided setup and onboarding
- AI Chat for instant insights
- Cleans up your books
- Gets you paid faster
- Run enhanced reports
- Add employee time to invoices
- Get customer referrals, feedback, and work requests
- Collect leads from a custom form on your website
- Link your calendar and let customers schedule meetings with you directly
Plus
Popular- Expert-guided setup and onboarding
- AI Chat for instant insights
- Reconciles your books
- Surfaces profit & loss insights
- Finds and fixes anomalies
- Catches discrepancies before filing
- Sources leads and helps with follow-up
- Run comprehensive reports
- Plan budgets
- Track project profitability
- Track and manage inventory
- Track classes and locations (40)
Advanced
- Expert-guided setup and onboarding
- AI Chat for instant insights
- Auto-creates projects and allocates costs
- Gives tailored financial insights
- Customize dashboards with personalized KPIs and metrics to measure what matters most
- Track performance with unlimited classes, locations, and custom KPIs
- Build custom management-ready reports
- Automate workflows
- Sync data with Excel
- Customize user permissions and access
- Forecast cash flow and profit
- Batch invoices and expenses
- Backup and restore your data
- Get priority support and training
- Track classes and locations (unlimited)
Xero vs QuickBooks FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- Xero starts lower at $25/mo, compared to $38/mo for QuickBooks.
- Can I use either one for free?
- Neither has a free plan. But Xero and QuickBooks offer a free trial.
- How do they charge?
- Different approach here. Xero 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. Xero: At $25–$90/mo, Xero sits in the same ballpark as QuickBooks Online but positions slightly more premium on the low end while staying competitive at the top. They're clearly targeting small-to-mid businesses that have outgrown spreadsheets and want a polished, accountant-friendly platform — not the budget-first crowd. QuickBooks: QuickBooks is the incumbent premium play in SMB accounting — they're not trying to be cheap, they're trading on brand trust and accountant familiarity. At $115-275/mo at full price, they're significantly more expensive than alternatives like Wave (free) or Zoho Books, and they know it.
Keep tabs on both.
We'll monitor pricing changes for Xero and QuickBooks and let you know when something moves.