QuickBooks Online vs FreshBooks
QuickBooks Online or FreshBooks? Here is how they compare on price, free plan, platforms and the jobs each does best, from each vendor's own pages.
| Compared on | Visit | Visit |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Intuit's cloud accounting for US small businesses, from a free tier to plans with AI bookkeeping | Invoicing and accounting for freelancers and service businesses, priced by number of billable clients |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | $38/mo (Simple Start)QuickBooks Online pricing | $20.70/mo billed annually (Lite)FreshBooks pricing |
| What it covers | 1 user plus access for 2 accountants. Promotion: 50% off ($19/month) for the first 3 months. No annual contract; the pricing page shows no annual price. | Invoice up to 5 billable clients; extra team members $11/month each; $248.40 billed yearly. Promotion: 80% off ($4.60/month) for the first 4 months. |
| Free trial | 30-day free trial, shown alongside the 50%-off offer on the pricing page | 30-day free trial, no credit card required |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android | Web, iOS, Android |
| Integrations (vendor's figure) | 800+ integrations | 100+ apps in the FreshBooks AppStore |
| Open source | No | No |
| Made by | Intuit Inc. | 2NDSITE Inc. |
Choose QuickBooks Online if…
- You want a free plan: FreshBooks does not have one.
- The job is US small businesses that want accounting, invoicing and payroll from one vendor.
- The job is sole owners starting on a free plan with a few invoices a month.
Choose FreshBooks if…
- Price matters: its cheapest paid plan is $20.70/mo against $38/mo.
- The job is freelancers and consultants who bill a small number of clients.
- The job is service businesses that invoice for tracked time and project work.
Still weighing it up?
If neither is quite right, QuickBooks Online and FreshBooks are also compared with their other rivals: QuickBooks Online vs Xero, Xero vs FreshBooks and Wave vs QuickBooks Online.
What QuickBooks Online does
- Bank and credit card feeds that sync transactions and learn how you categorise them
- Invoices that customers pay by card or bank transfer through QuickBooks Payments, with status updates and reminders
- Bill pay by ACH, with 1099 e-filing and approval workflows on Advanced (Bill Pay Elite)
- Receipt photos matched to expenses and mileage tracking in the mobile app
- Intuit Intelligence AI by plan: Accounting AI, Payments AI, Business Tax AI, Sales Tax AI, Customer AI, Finance AI and Project Management AI
- AI Chat for questions about your business (beta, limited capacity) from Simple Start
Watch out for
- Free plan: 1 user, 2 invoices a month unless QuickBooks Payments is enabled, 1 bank connection, no mobile app or third-party integrations
- User caps: 1 on Simple Start, 3 on Essentials, 5 on Plus, 25 on Advanced
- Inventory, budgets and project profitability need Plus ($140/mo); workflow automation and custom permissions need Advanced ($340/mo)
What FreshBooks does
- Invoices that pull in tracked time and expenses, calculate taxes and send payment reminders
- Online payments, with Advanced Payments for card acceptance and recurring billing
- Estimates, proposals and client retainers (proposals and retainers from Plus)
- Expense tracking with bank imports, automatic categorisation and receipt data capture (Plus and above)
- Accounts payable with bill receipt scanning and line items (Premium)
- Double-entry accounting with profit and loss, balance sheet and trial balance reports
Watch out for
- Lite invoices only 5 clients and Plus 50; unlimited clients need Premium ($70/mo)
- Each team member costs $11 a month on top of the plan
- Bank reconciliation, receipt scanning and accountant access are not on Lite
Questions
Is QuickBooks Online or FreshBooks cheaper?
On published entry prices, FreshBooks is cheaper: $38/mo (Simple Start) for QuickBooks Online against $20.70/mo billed annually (Lite) for FreshBooks. What each plan includes differs, so compare the limits too.
Do QuickBooks Online and FreshBooks have free plans?
QuickBooks Online does; FreshBooks does not, though it offers a 30-day free trial, no credit card required.