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Based on our testing, the best free accounting software is Wave. It includes support for unlimited users and invoices, which is something many businesses need and where rival solutions typically come up short. Other options may be right for your organization, however, such as ZipBooks and its wealth of features, or Akaunting and its support for a whopping 45 languages.
In this guide, you can learn about the best free accounting software choices with an easy-to-follow breakdown of each. At the same time, you can consider the benefits of making a small financial commitment to get even more from your accounting software. If you're willing to pay just a few dollars a month, we have a guide to the best accounting software worth paying for.
To make sure you get the most bang for your buck, you can also check out the latest accounting software deals and discounts.
If you're committed to a free accounting software plan, we recommend prioritizing three factors: Ease of use, features, and ability to scale up to a paid plan down the road. For a comprehensive breakdown of the various software to choose between, read on.
The Best Free Accounting Software in 2023
You can trust our research for both free and paid accounting software, as it's done by industry experts with years of experience. Like you, they're looking at not only which solutions have the most features on paper, but which ones have the best real world benefits for businesses and are easiest to use.
You also want to be sure you're getting good value from your accounting software, should you choose to upgrade, so this guide also considers the pricing of advanced tiers. With this information in mind, here are the best free accounting software options for small businesses in 2023:
- Wave – Best overall
- ZipBooks – Best for large feature catalog
- Akaunting – Best for language support
- GnuCash – Best for simple, standard service
- NCH Express – Best for rare free features
| Best for | Best free features | Limitations to free plan | Paid plans: | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  | |
| Wave Financial | ZipBooks | Akaunting | GnuCash | NCH Express | |
| Best free option | Large Feature Catalog | Language Support | Simple, Standard Service | Rare Free Features | |
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| Only 1 user with 1 bank account | Only 1 user and 1 accountant | None | Must have fewer than 5 employees | |
| | Starts at $15/month | Starts at $36/month for 10 users | | Starts at $5.50/month |
1. Wave – Best Overall
Who Can Use Wave for Free? Everyone, but online payment processing will charge a fee.
Wave is a comprehensive service, covering all core accounting bases. You'll get unlimited expensing, income tracking, users, and customizable invoices. You also make unlimited bank and credit card connections, and can set up automated follow-up messages for unpaid invoices. You'll also get access to reports on topics from overdue invoices and bills to profit and loss summaries. Finally, the dynamic dashboard will ensure that you can spot any new trends quickly.
Our research found that Wave is ideal for freelancers and accountants alike. The only cited downsides were the lack of support (there’s no phone or chat support) and the fact that learning the software can take a bit of time.
Check out our full Wave review for more information
Pros
- Vast accounting functionality
- Ideal for freelancers and accountants
- Excellent accounts receivable features
Cons
- Limited support options
- Complicated interface for beginners
Free features
- Unlimited invoices: Don’t worry about any quotas or limits, you can send as many invoices as you like, with Wave sending automatic follow-ups.
- Receipt scanning: Keep track of your expenses in one place, by keeping all your receipts logged by scanning them with your phone.
- Unlimited bank/card connections: Sync up as many bank cards or accounts as you’d like.
- Multiple businesses: You can connect multiple businesses to one Wave account.
- Unlimited user accounts: Allow as many people as you’d like to view your books.
- Comprehensive reports: See plenty of numbers and figures on your business that allow you to know where your business stands financially.
Scalability
Wave's fully free software includes accounting, invoicing, and US-only banking software. However, the company also offers paid options, which you may also be interested in using. Here's the list of paid options to consider:
- Online payment processing: 2.9% + $0.60 per credit card transaction; 3.4% + $0.60 per AMEX transaction; 1% with a $1 minimum per bank payment.
- Payroll software: $40 per month plus $6 per month per employee/contractor for tax service states; $20 per month plus $6 per month per employee/contractor for self service states.
- Wave Advisors
- Personalized bookkeeping services: $149 per month
- Coaching: $379 one-time fee
Our researchers found that the paid version of Wave stands out in two areas: Software attributes and accounts receivable features. For both categories, we rated it 10/10 stars, matching other top paid software including Quickbooks and Xero.
Check out our Wave vs Quickbooks guide for more information
2. ZipBooks – Best for Large Feature Catalog
Who Can Use ZipBooks for Free? One user, with one bank account.
ZipBooks is one of the larger scale software on this list. There's a lot on offer when you open the ZipBooks platform for the first time, and our research found that its sheer number of features means it's likely to provide what most users need from free accounting software. You'll get unlimited invoices, and can manage unlimited vendors and customers. Supported digital payments include Square and PayPal, and you'll get basic reports and one bank account.
The platform is easy to use, with customer service provided by the company.
Pros
- Massive feature catalog
- Easy to use interface
- Excellent customer support options
Cons
- Lots of features can be intimidating
- A bit expensive
Free features
- Unlimited invoices: This matches Wave, although the free Zipbooks plan doesn't automate reminders.
- Management of unlimited vendors and customers: If you have a larger business, you’ll be able to keep track of them all in one spot.
- Digital payments from PayPal and Square
- Estimates and quotes: Craft custom estimates and quotes for each client.
- Viewing basic reports, including their “business health score,” which looks at various aspects of your business and tabulates an estimated grade of how well it's faring overall.
Scalability
As far as optional payment goes, ZipBooks offers two paid plans beyond the free one.
- Smarter: For $15 per month, you get extra features including five users, auto-bill for recurring invoices, auto-reminders, multiple bank accounts, notifications, and time-tracking.
- Sophisticated: For $35 per month, you'll get unlimited users, smart tagging (by location, project, and custom), custom categories, ability to lock completed books, and secure document sharing.
3. Akaunting – Best for Language Support
Who Can Use Akaunting for Free? One user and one accountant.
Akaunting is one of the more popular free accounting software options, due to it being available in 45 languages. The free plan is capped at one user, with one additional accountant allowed access to the data.
Akaunting has its own app store, allowing you to download or buy add-ons or widgets that might suit your niche, like shipping trackers or inventory management. You'll be able to connect up to four apps for free, although you'll have to pay for more apps beyond those four.
Features include unlimited invoices, bills, customers, and vendors (but no estimates), as well as support for multiple currencies to go with all those languages. However, our research team didn't find Akaunting to be the most intuitive platform. We didn’t find it particularly user-friendly, and the customer support isn’t too helpful either. Still, it performs its primary functions well and offers good language capabilities, both of which still make it a fair pick.
Pros
- Available in 45 languages
- Excellent paid plans
Cons
- Not easy to use
- Poor customer support options
Free features
- App store/dashboard and widgets: Limit of four.
- Recurring everything: If you’ve got invoices, revenue, bills, or payments that need to happen repeatedly over time, you can set these up to happen automatically.
- Multi-currency: Allow buyers to pay in whatever currency they prefer.
- Client portals and summaries: Give your clients their own space to contact you and view their own records, and allow yourself to refresh on who’s who amongst your clients.
- Tax rates: Keep track of which tax costs you what amount.
- Email templates: Look nice and official when creating emails to your clients or customers.
- Fine-grained permissions: Make sure you control who can see what by giving individual users specific permissions.
Scalability
Akaunting used to only offer the free plan, but has recently expanded. As of September 2023, it now includes three paid plans, all with extra capabilities.
- Premium Cloud: For $36 per month, you'll get 10 users and 10 free apps, ticket support, expense claims, role-based permissions, and a client portal.
- Elite Cloud: For $84 per month, you'll get 30 users and 30 free apps, estimates, payroll, projects, inventory, CRM, receipts, and integration with Shopify and Stripe.
- Ultimate Cloud: For $218 per month, you'll get unlimited users and apps, budgeting, sales & purchase orders, Point of Sale (POS), custom fields, and auto-scheduled reports.
Akaunting may offers deals that drop those prices as much as 60%. Still, if you're interested in paid accounting software and still want to cut down on costs, FreshBooks' 50% off deal from $7.50 per month may be your best bet.
4. GnuCash – Best for Simple, Standard Service
Who Can Use GnuCash for Free? Everyone.
GnuCash is one of the older accounting software options on our list, but that doesn’t mean it’s outdated, at least when it comes to its features, which received generally favorable reviews from our research team. These features include invoicing, billing, double entry (ensuring a debited account matches a credited account to the cent), automatic recurring transactions, cash flow categories, statement reconciliation, and multiple currencies.
However, GnuCash is probably the most antiquated-looking software on this list. In comparison to Wave and Zipbooks, GnuCash was one of least intuitive platforms tested — the mobile support isn’t great, and the interface was pretty hard to navigate.
Pros
- Solid feature selection
- Completely free across the board
Cons
- Very outdated interface
- Poor mobile support
- No paid plan options
Free features
- Scheduled transactions: Arrange a time for money to clear while you’re away from the computer.
- Double entry: A transaction can only clear once an account has been debited, meaning no money can get lost or stuck in limbo.
- Comprehensive reports: See your business’s important figures in one easy-to-digest place.
- Multi-currency: Allow transactions to clear in any currency worldwide.
- Online stock and mutual funds: Update your investment portfolio automatically with quotes from recognized sites.
Scalability
There are no paid add-ons for GnuCash. It’s all one free software, with nothing locked behind paywalls.
5. NCH Express – Best for Rare Free Features
Who Can Use NCH Express for Free? Small businesses with less than five employees.
NCH makes many different kinds of software, one of which is their free accounting software, NCH Express. Our research found that NCH Express fares pretty well as a free accounting software, although you'll have to install it yourself and it's only free for businesses with fewer than five employees.
Features include quotes and estimates, automatic recurring orders and invoices, 20 different reports, sales tracking, income statements, and purchase orders. The software lacks in the customer service field, and we found the interface to be a bit abrasive when compared to other systems like Wave, but overall, we found the features to be respectable for a cost-free option.
Pros
- Good features for free option
- Simple paid options
Cons
- Limited customer support
- Abrasive interface
Free features
- Generate quotes and estimates: Craft estimates and quotes specifically for each client you’re sending to.
- Recurring orders and invoices: If you have clients who regularly buy from you, have these orders and invoices appear automatically.
- Create an income statement: If you’re ever going to seek out investors, use an income statement to show off about your company’s revenue.
- View a balance sheet: Get a dense rundown of what your company currently owns and how it’s faring on a larger scale.
- Inventory management: A rare feature in free accounting software, this allows you to stay on top of your company’s stock.
Scalability
If you’re looking to expand your NCH software, you can upgrade to a more feature-rich version, the Express Accounts Plus Quarterly Plan, for $16.50 per quarter (which works out to $5.50 per month).
NCH used to charge a one-time fee of $99 for a Basic account or $129 for a Plus account, but as of September 2023, this plan has been replaced with the quarterly-charged plan.
Accounting Software Free Trials – the Middle Ground
If you don’t love the look of any of the free accounting software we’ve listed, but you’re also not thrilled about the idea of paying for something without knowing what you’re committing to, a free trial might be just what you need.
A free trial can give you a good sense of what you’ll be getting out of accounting software, without you needing to commit to a full subscription or purchase. Here are some paid accounting software that offer free trials.
| Price from | Free trial | Core Benefit | Deal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FEATURED DEAL  |  |  |  |  | |  |  |  |
| FreshBooks | Zoho Books | QuickBooks | Xero | Sage | Wave Financial | Kashoo | GoDaddy Online Bookkeeping | OneUp |
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| $4.99/month | $9/month | ||||
| | | | | | It's free, no trial needed | | | |
| Great features; a simple, slick interface; and a competitively low price | Strong automation features | A broad range of accounting features, professional look and feel, helpful and free trial period | Online integrations | Very user-friendly | Tracks money owed at a low cost | Easiest setup | Very cheap | Strong CRM features |
| 60% off for six months on all plans | No active deals | Save 50% for three months | No active deals | Save 70% for six months | No active deals | No active deals | No active deals | No active deals |
QuickBooks
QuickBooks Online pricing offers a free trial for all of their main plans. These plans are the Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced plans, as well as the limited Self Employed plan. You can sign up for any of them using their free 30-day trial. These plans offer the following:
| Price | Users | Bookkeeping Does it include bookkeeping functions? | Accounts payable Does it include a range of accounts payable functions? | Accounts receivable Does it include a range of accounts receivable functions? | Project accounting Does it offers tools to track different projects? | Financial reporting Does it offer financial reporting tools? | Budget & forecasting Does it offer budgeting and forecasting tools? | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Self Employed | Simple Start | Essentials | Plus | Advanced | |||||
| 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 25 | |||||
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While these plans are obviously tiered, you’re able to try any one of them for 30 days, so you can spring for Advanced and see everything it has to offer. Keep in mind though, you’ll obviously need to pay the highest rates to keep any features you get used to, so if you know you’re only looking for lower end functionality, maybe try the Simple Start or Self Employed trial.
Compare QuickBooks vs FreshBooks in more detail
FreshBooks
FreshBooks is another paid accounting software. Like QuickBooks, they offer three tiers of service. These tiers are Lite, Plus, and Premium. There is a fourth option, the Select option, where you can customize your plan based on what you want and don’t want, but you aren’t able to get a free trial of a Select plan.
| Price | Price (Billed yearly) | Users | Clients | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHEAPEST PLAN  | | | | ||
| Lite | Plus | Premium | Select | ||
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 5 | 50 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
While none of their tiers are free beyond the trial, FreshBooks first tier is very cheap at only $17 a month (currently on offer for $8.50). In fact, even Plus, the second tier, is only a little more than a lot of the paid tiers found in free software, so if you’re looking to avoid spending a lot of money, both of these systems would offer you great features without breaking the bank.
There are a lot of features that are only available through a custom plan, like data migration services or secure card storage, but again, you won’t be able to try a free trial of a custom plan. We recommend getting a free trial, and seeing if you like the features offered by FreshBooks. Only then should you look into a Select plan.
Xero
Our final stop on our free trial quest is Xero. Like our other two options, Xero offers three tiers, all with an option for a free 30-day trial. These tiers are:
| Price | Users | Clients | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | | | ||
| Early | Growing | Established | ||
| $13 per month | $37 per month | $70 per month | ||
| Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | ||
| 20 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
You can see that Xero offers a smaller array of features than QuickBooks and FreshBooks. However, one of their biggest benefits is the fact that even the simplest plan can allow you to add unlimited users to your account, meaning you won’t have to pick and choose who in your company has access to your books.
Keen to learn more? Compare QuickBooks vs Xero
Is It Worth Paying for Accounting Software?
Free services offer a great opportunity to test out new software or provide much-needed features for a small business or self-employed individual in the short term, but ultimately, you get what you pay for. If you're considering a paid option, you can always test them with a free trial, a service offered by many paid accounting software, like Zoho Books, FreshBooks or Xero.
Businesses that switch to cloud-based accounting software see, on average, a 15% revenue bump – but can you do it at zero cost? If you’re looking for any of the following services, you might have to want to take advantage of paid accounting software.
Here are some of the benefits of paying for accounting software.
1. Payroll and Tax Capabilities
If you’re looking for software that can automatically take the money you owe out of your pot and give it to the correct recipients, you might have to pay for that. If you elect for a software like QuickBooks, that can handle payroll and taxes, your taxes and wages will be automatically distributed to the deserving parties, giving you one less thing to worry about.
2. Sophisticated Reports
“Sophisticated reports” is a bit of a broad term, but mainly refers to the nitty gritty details of your income and outcome. If you decide to fork out for a paid accounting software, they will be able to offer you more comprehensive information, like data visualization, customizable invoices, or a number of other details that can help you get a more accurate grip on your business.
3. Forecasting
If you want to know not just where your business has been, but where it’s going, forecasting can help you out. It will take the numbers and data of the past and use that to project possible trajectories, allowing you to prepare for drier sales periods, or get excited about an upcoming influx of customers. And considering 95% of organizations with effective forecasting make quotas, compared to only 55% without, it's safe to say this kind of tool can make a big difference.
4. Inventory and Order Tracking
If you’re selling physical products, you might want to have some software to stay on top of your inventory. Some paid accounting software can keep tabs on your stock, as well as tracking any orders as they’re sent, both of which are crucial if you’re hoping to run a smooth business.
5. User and Invoicing Count
It’s common among free accounting software that they can limit the amount of users per account (typically capped at five users). Some software will also cap the amount of customers you can invoice or the amount of invoices you can send per month. If your small business is growing fast, you might want to look at a paid service that allows you to handle higher numbers.
See our guide to the Best Invoicing Software for Small Business
How Did We Research the Best Accounting Software?
We take our impartial research and analysis seriously, so you can have complete confidence that we're giving you the clearest, most useful recommendations.
After conducting an initial exploration to identify the most relevant, popular, and established tools in the market, we put them through their paces with hands-on testing to see their real strengths and weaknesses. In this case, we put eight accounting software products to the test across 111 areas of investigation.
Based on years of market and user needs research, we've established an accounting software testing methodology that scores each product in four main categories of investigation and 24 subcategories; this covers everything from the features and functionality to pricing, and much more.
Our main testing categories for accounting software are:
Help and Support: the assistance and resources available to users when they encounter issues or need guidance while using the accounting software. This can include documentation, tutorials, knowledge bases, email or chat support, phone assistance, and training resources.
Pricing: the cost associated with using the accounting software. It includes factors such as licensing fees, subscription plans, any additional charges, account limits, and payment fees.
Main Functions: the key areas of accounting that the software focuses on. This includes functionalities such as financial statements preparation, income and expense tracking, managing vendor and customer accounts, generating invoices and receipts, handling payroll and tax calculations, and providing reports for financial analysis.
Software Functionality: the software capabilities such as integrations, mobile capability, as well as any additional features outside of accounting-focused ones.
When it comes to calculating a product's final score, not all testing areas are weighted evenly, as we know some aspects matter more to our readers than others, which are merely "nice to have." After hundreds of hours, our process is complete, and the results should ensure you can find the best solution for your needs.
At Tech.co, we have a number of full time in-house researchers, who re-run this testing process regularly, to ensure our results remain reflective of the present day.
Verdict: What Is the Best Free Accounting Software?
However, free software can only take you so far. If you’re looking for free software as a way to save money, keep in mind that FreshBooks’ cheapest plan, currently on offer for $7.50 per month is one of the cheapest. It offers many more options than standard free software, while also being a lot easier on the wallet than its contemporaries. They also offer a free trial, so you can try before you commit.
The best thing about these software being free (other than the fact that you don’t have to spend money) is that you’re free to experiment with what you decide on. However, if you’re looking to shop around to find the best software for your company, we do recommend free trials of paid software, from FreshBooks to Zoho Books. These free trials can give you a good grasp on how the software works, and if you enjoy your experience, you can always continue by paying for the lowest tier, never higher than $10 a month.
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