QuickBooks vs FreshBooks: Which Accounting Software Is Best?

QuickBooks and FreshBooks are two of the biggest accounting software names. They’re both long-time providers of accounting software to small and medium-sized businesses, and on the surface of things, come with similar features at comparable price points.

Both are extremely popular options, both for SMEs and the self-employed, but on close inspection, we found that each platform has its own strengths and weaknesses. During our strenuous testing process, we can reveal that QuickBooks emerged as the victor. 

We felt that QuickBooks pricing had superior financial planning ability and provided more sophisticated tools to increase day-to-day efficiency, which just gave it the edge over FreshBooks. That’s not to say there aren’t areas where FreshBooks outpaces its adversary though, so read on to find out which is the better fit for your business’s needs.

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QuickBooks	FreshBooks
Price From £10 per month (excl. VAT) £1 per month (excl. VAT) for the first six months	Price From £15 per month
Rating 4.5	Rating 4.1
BEST FOR Best if you need sophisticated financial insights and advanced customisation	BEST FOR Best for new businesses who need affordable software with the reassurance of all-hours support
Key Benefits Free trial available Cash flow projection tools Create and modify reports and templates	Key Benefits Free trial available Precise Time Tracking for billable hours User-friendly interface
Visit Quickbooks	Compare Deals

Our methodology: how we put QuickBooks and FreshBooks to the test

We took the two platforms through a round-by-round breakdown to determine which of the two performed the strongest in each category.

Our categories were developed and determined by our own in-house research department. They were devised based on data-lead research that helped to determine the factors that are most critical for a small business accounting software.

These six categories were:

Round one: core features – these are the most important, commonly used accounting software features, and will form the backbone of the platform. They include invoicing, quoting, and tax preparation.

Round two: financial planning – these are the tools and features that should give you clear visibility of your company’s financial health, and assist you in building long-term sustainability.

Round three: efficiency – essentially, we looked at how well each platform supports your day-to-day operations and overall productivity.

Round four: help and support – the avenues of support the platform offers to assist you, as well as the security measures that are in place to protect your sensitive financial information.

Round five: price – how much does it cost? What range of pricing options are available, and are you getting a good deal? Are there any hidden fees?

Round six: usability – we assessed each platform on how easy it is to use.

Our research team has done the leg work in rigorously testing the two platforms. Now, we pit them head-to-head to see which one performs better in each round.

Round one: core features

Winner: QuickBooks!

It was neck-and-neck in the first round, but QuickBooks has come out the gate with an early lead thanks to its slightly larger suite of core accounting features.

In terms of the key accounting software functions, it’s hardly surprising that both platforms can comfortably handle the basics – invoicing, bookkeeping, mileage tracking, receipt scanning, estimates, and more. But let’s dig a little deeper and see where the important differences come in:

Invoicing and quotes

• Both platforms can support recurring invoices and the automated sending of invoices and quotes, but QuickBooks just edges out FreshBooks by offering multi-currency invoicing. This will be crucial for businesses that sell overseas.

We found the process of creating invoices pretty seamless in QuickBooks. Source: Startups.co.uk

Tax preparation

• While both platforms can successfully calculate, add, and deduct tax, it’s important to know that, with QuickBooks, this is a slightly more complicated process. You need to set up VAT first, then manually assign tax categories to your products, which is a bit laborious.
• On the other hand, while QuickBooks can natively support VAT and Income Tax, with FreshBooks you will need FreshBooks Making Tax Digital Hub (this is included in your plan, you won’t need to pay extra). This requires a separate login to your standard FreshBooks account, which is a bit of a pain.

Journal entry

• QuickBooks offers a couple more options than FreshBooks when it comes to importing and exporting data and files. FreshBooks can import old records via CSV and export via Excel, while QuickBooks supports both of these, as well as XLS for importing and PDF and Google for exporting.

Time tracking

• This is a rare area where QuickBooks really stumbles, as it has no built-in time tracking functionality. In order to use time tracking with QuickBooks, you need to add on QuickBooks Time, which starts from an additional £6 per user, per month . In comparison, FreshBooks has a built-in time tracker that keeps perfect time.

FreshBooks provides precise time tracking for converting billable hours into invoices. Source: Startups.co.uk

Arguably, the time tracking functionality might be a dealbreaker for some, but overall, QuickBooks offers slightly more tools and features than FreshBooks, so it emerges victorious in the first round.

Round two: financial planning

Winner: QuickBooks!

The previous round might have been a close call, but this is a category in which QuickBooks comfortably beats out FreshBooks with its cash flow projection tools.

FreshBooks offers little in the way of budgeting and forecasting. QuickBooks, on the other hand, can:

• Help you track upcoming monthly bills and expenses
• Provide cash flow projection tools for both incoming and outgoing costs
• Set budgets, but only on the Plus and Advanced plans

You can still view reports in FreshBooks, you just can’t create new ones from scratch. Source: Startups.co.uk

QuickBooks also lets you create custom reports that are tailored to your specific requirements, as well as create new ones from scratch – something FreshBooks can’t do. On the other hand, FreshBooks lets you track fixed assets on all of its plans, whereas on QuickBooks, this is locked behind the Advanced plan.

QuickBooks provides tools to help plan your cash flow. Source: Startups.co.uk

Despite FreshBooks having the edge when it comes to tracking fixed assets, in almost every other aspect, QuickBooks dominates this round. If you’re looking for tools to help you track, budget, and forecast for your financial health, QuickBooks is the way to go.

Round three: efficiency

Winner: QuickBooks!

This was another close one. But when it comes to tools and support for boosting your efficiency and resulting in the smooth running of your day-to-day finances, QuickBooks just comes out on top.

Integrations

• To start with, both platforms have a designated marketplace of third-party integrations that you can plug into your accounting software. But, whereas FreshBooks has just over 100 integrations, QuickBooks has over 750.

Customisation

• Both software platforms can support customisable logos and branding on your documents, as well as different permissions settings for different departments. However, only QuickBooks can support customisable reporting.

QuickBooks can assist you with extensive and customisable reporting. Source: Startups.co.uk

User limits

• FreshBooks technically supports unlimited team members, while QuickBooks’ user limit depends on your plan. However, it’s important to note that it costs £8 per month for each additional user you want to give access to FreshBooks. So, while you can add as many users as you wish, it will get very expensive very quickly. Meanwhile, QuickBooks’ Sole Trader and Simple Start plans only support one user, and even the highest paid tier, Advanced, allows 25 users rather than letting you add an unlimited number.

Error detection

• This is an area where there’s almost no difference between the two platforms. Both can flag when invoice numbers are the same to prevent duplicate entries, and both can automatically flag mismatched balances.

Round four: help and support

Here’s a breakdown of the types of support othered by both platforms:

We put both platforms’ knowledge centres to the test to gauge how fast and accurate the responses were. This was an area where FreshBooks slightly pulled ahead, as we found the responses were a bit more helpful and accurate, but not by a country mile.

In terms of the range, availability, and accuracy of the support options, there really isn’t too much between the two platforms. You won’t be getting a drastically different experience with either, so we’re willing to call this one even-stevens.

Round five: pricing

Winner: QuickBooks!

This was yet another comparison that was extremely close. However, while FreshBooks’ plans are technically marginally cheaper, QuickBooks has a wider range of options with more sophisticated features.

QuickBooks’ plans are, on paper, more expensive than FreshBooks’, but QuickBooks also offers a more varied range of plans. The plans offered by QuickBooks are:

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Plan Sole Trader	Plan Simple Start	Plan Essentials	Plan Plus	Plan Advanced
Cost Monthly: £10 per month (excl. VAT) £1 per month for seven months (excl. VAT) Annually: £108 per year (excl. VAT) £10.80 for the first year	Cost Monthly: £16 per month (excl. VAT) £1.60 per month for seven months (excl. VAT) Annually: £172 per year (excl. VAT) £17.20 for the first year	Cost Monthly: £33 per month (excl. VAT) £3.30 per month for seven months (excl. VAT) Annually: £356 per year (excl. VAT) £35.60 for the first year	Cost Monthly: £47 per month (excl. VAT) £4.70 per month for seven months (excl. VAT) Annually: £507 per year (excl. VAT) £50.70 for the first year	Cost Monthly: £115 per month (excl. VAT) £11.50 per month for seven months (excl. VAT) Annually: £1242 per year (excl. VAT) £11.50 for the first year
Best suited for: Sole traders and single property owners are who registered for VAT	Best suited for: Sole traders and small business owners who are managing income tax and VAT	Best suited for: Small businesses that are working with suppliers	Best suited for: Small businesses that are managing projects and inventories of stock	Best suited for: Businesses that need more sophisticated support like custom permissions and tailored insights
Features Helps you prepare your Self Assessment tax return Receive income tax estimates  Send out invoices	Features MTD compliant – submit your VAT return directly to HMRC Checks your VAT return for errors Gives you VAT deadline reminders	Features Bill management Multi-currency support (over 145 currencies) Employee time tracking so you can invoice your clients accurately	Features Track your products, and see what’s selling the most See the profitability of each of your projects Smart budgeting	Features Automatic data backup Automate workflows Custom charts and customised dashboards

By comparison, FreshBooks is limited to only three basic plan types, and one bespoke plan:

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Plan Lite	Plan Plus	Plan Premium	Plan Select
Cost £15 per month Or £162 per year	Cost £25 per month Or £270 yearly	Cost £35 per month Or £378 per year	Cost Bespoke cost
Best suited for: Freelancers	Best suited for: Freelancers, self-employed people, sole traders, and small business owners	Best suited for: Self-employed people, small business owners, and businesses that have contractors or employees	Best suited for: Businesses with employees
Features Unlimited invoices for up to five clients Unlimited quotes  MTD-compliant, submit VAT returns directly to HMRC	Features Unlimited invoices to up to 50 clients   Automatically capture data from your receipts  Collaborate with an accountant  Run financial reports	Features Send invoices to an unlimited number of clients Track the profitability of your projects Customisable email templates	Features Advanced Payments add-on included (usually £15 per month) Exclusive support number   FreshBooks branding will be removed from your client emails

So, while FreshBooks might be cheaper, QuickBooks offers a more scalable solution for your business as it grows. That said, neither platform asks you to sign a contract, and neither charges any setup fees or exit fees.

While neither QuickBooks nor FreshBooks offers a free plan, you can find our roundup of the best free accounting software here.

Additional costs

Neither platform charges any hidden costs or fees for usage limits or individual features, but there are some optional add-ons.

With QuickBooks, you can choose to add payroll functionality if your business needs to pay employees, and you want to manage this through your accounting software. This add-on costs:

• Core payroll: £5 per month, plus £1.30 per paid employee, per month
• Advanced payroll: £10 per month, plus £1.30 per paid employee, per month

With FreshBooks, you’ll need to integrate with a third-party software in order to add payroll capabilities.

With FreshBooks you have the option of including Advanced Payments, which will be an extra £15 per month on top of your regular bill.

Advanced Payments functions similarly to a virtual terminal, and it allows you to enter your clients’ credit card details and save them for future use, supporting functions like subscription-based billing. With QuickBooks however, we found the only way of doing this was through third-party software.

So, if we’re viewing this purely in terms of the bottom line, yes, FreshBooks plans tend to be cheaper. But you have to factor in that QuickBooks has a more nuanced range of tiers, which support scalability and provide more sophisticated features than FreshBooks.

It’s also worth noting that QuickBooks often has special offers – for example, right now you can get your first seven months of a monthly plan for less than half price.

Read more: you can find out more about how much QuickBooks costs in our dedicated article.

Round six: usability

Winner: FreshBooks!

So we enter the final round. Last but by no means least – how easy is each platform to use? This may be our final round, but it’s a crucial one. You’re going to be using this software potentially every working day, so you’re going to need it to be a pleasant experience.

Well, during our own in-depth user testing, we found that FreshBooks was the more user-friendly software. We found its interface to be simple and straightforward to use, with everything well signposted, meaning that we could easily access any tool we were searching for.

What it’s like using FreshBooks

The bottom line on FreshBooks is that it’s intuitive and user-friendly. In particular, we appreciated the vertical navigation bar on the left-hand side of the screen, which was very handy when trying to navigate around. We also liked the client dashboard, which clearly displayed outstanding payments; really useful for sole traders and small business owners who need to stay on top of their billing.

FreshBooks’ vertical navigation bar makes navigating the interface really simple. Source: Startups.co.uk

It has a nice, clear, visually appealing interface. However, we were occasionally flummoxed by some odd terminology – for example, FreshBooks refers to quotes as “estimates”. The currency settings also caused some annoyance, as even after we’d changed them in the main settings, we still found it would sometimes revert back to USD on quotes and invoices.

We found the simplicity of FreshBooks was one of its strengths. Source: Startups.co.uk

Overall, though, if there’s one specific element of QuickBooks that needs improvement, it’s the client messaging function. Using the messaging feature felt cumbersome and unintuitive. The main issue with this is that it relies on your clients also using it for it to work, and if it’s a frustrating experience, they won’t be inclined to engage with it.

What it’s like using QuickBooks

What stood out to us as a major positive when using QuickBooks is how well organised the layout of the interface is. All the key categories are logically placed, so we didn’t find ourselves wasting time digging around for anything. We also really liked how seamless it was to change quotes into invoices and get them sent out.

It might take some time to fully master QuickBooks complexities. Source: Startups.co.uk

There were also some slick touches, like the ability to send out payment reminders directly from the Overdue section. The dashboard was also well designed and helpful, highlighting important points like which clients have overdue payments.

What QuickBooks really excels at is reducing manual effort – provided you have the time and technical ability to invest in mastering its complexities. If you have experience in setting up workflows, QuickBooks can really streamline your operations. While QuickBooks is intuitive once you know your way around, we will flag there is a steep learning curve, which FreshBooks doesn’t have.

Verdict

So QuickBooks emerged victorious over FreshBooks in the battle of these two accounting software titans. That’s not to say it was a one-horse race, though, and many of the categories were fought cheek by jowl. FreshBooks is still an extremely solid option for sole traders and the self-employed, as well as small business owners.

The only category in which QuickBooks comfortably dominated its rival was in financial planning tools and long-term sustainability. If you want advanced insights into your business and clear, detailed visibility over your company’s finances, QuickBooks will be the better option of the two.

However, it’s important to remember that we did think FreshBooks was the more novice-friendly software. QuickBooks will demand time and attention to really master and get the most out of. So, if you just want a simple, easy-to-use software for helping with your self-assessment and VAT, FreshBooks might make more sense.

So in conclusion, QuickBooks was the winner, but both are good options for SMEs. Essentially, you should choose:

QuickBooks: if you’re in the market for sophisticated features, financial insights, and custom workflows. It’s best suited for advanced businesses and professionals working in accountancy.

If you have any lingering questions, you can most likely find the answers in our full QuickBooks review.

FreshBooks: if you’re time poor, and just need a friendly, simple-to-use software that’s good for beginners. This is the better choice for sole traders and new business owners who need a simple, easy option.

You can find out more about whether it’s the right option for you in our complete review of FreshBooks.