How much does Sage Accounting software cost in 2026?

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Sage Accounting: 90% off for 10 months

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Sage 50 Accounts: 90% off for 10 months

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Sage Intacct: For Over 50 Employees

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Sage Accounting costs between £18 and £59 per month across three main plans: Start (£18 plus VAT), Standard (£39 plus VAT), and Plus (£59 plus VAT).

We spent a total of 57 hours testing seven top accounting platforms, and found that Sage delivers a fast, MTD-ready bookeeping experience, with a competitive range of features across its three plans.

Based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, Sage has done an impressive job of giving its US-based competitors a run for their money as one of the best accounting software platforms for small businesses.

How much does Sage Accounting cost in 2026?

Sage Accounting has three plans to choose from:

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	Plan	Cost	Included users	Suitable for	Key features	Sage Copilot included?	Snap and scan receipts/invoices	Payroll
Accounting Start	Accounting Standard	Accounting Plus
£18/month (+ VAT) First three months FREE	£39/month (+ VAT) First three months FREE	£59/month (+ VAT) First three months FREE
One user	Three users	Unlimited users
Sole traders and micro-businesses who are registered for VAT	Limited companies that work with suppliers or with CIS	For small businesses up to 49 employees, who work in different currencies, or need to manage an inventory
AI-powered Sage Copilot included  Making Tax Digital ready Carbon footprint tracking Create, send, and customise unlimited sales invoices	Automatic CIS deductions and calculations Run custom reports Send and track quotes Create cash flow forecasts Track what you owe to suppliers	Advanced budgeting with ready-to-use reporting Bank in multiple currencies Live exchange rates Manage stock and inventory
Not included	30 included (+ £0.20 per additional approved capture)	100 included (+ £0.20 per additional approved capture)
One employee included (+ £1.50 per employee per month)	One employee included (+ £1.50 per employee per month)	Five employees included (+ £1.50 per employee per month)

With Sage there’s no contract to sign and you’re free to cancel at any time, with your account remaining active until the next billing date. There’s also frequently deals and discounts: right now you can get the first three months of Sage for free.

Sage Accounting Start: £18 + VAT per month

Current special offer: First three months FREE
Number of billable users: One
Sage Copilot users included: One
Suitable for: Solopreneurs and micro-businesses
Key feature: Prepare, track, and submit tax for Making Tax Digital Income Self Assessment

Sage Accounting Start is best for sole traders and solopreneurs registered for VAT, as my testing showed that it offers a seamless process for managing sales invoices.

With Accounting Start, you can:

• Send unlimited sales invoices each year
• Connect to 108 apps in the Sage app marketplace
• Track your invoices so you can see when they were created, sent, viewed, or paid
• Get automated bank reconciliations to help simplify your records
• All Sage plans also include Sage Carbon Accounting, which can help your business track its carbon footprint

The clear design of the summary dashboard allowed me to quickly access essential financial data, like outstanding payments. I also liked how easy it was to customise an invoice template.

The customisability of Sage’s external documents is one of its biggest strengths. Source: Startups.co.uk

Each Sage plan also comes with one user for its AI-powered productivity assistant, which you can read more about in our section on Sage Copilot.

Payroll features

Payroll functionality is included for free on all plans levels, with is a standout feature for Sage.

You can complete a four-step pay run for your business, and your employees will have access to self-service payslips both online or via an app.

You’ll also get access to pension auto enrolment, which includes built-in compliance checks.

Which UK banks are compatible with Sage’s automated bank feed?

Sage can connect to up to nearly 100 banks, including top options like:

• HSBC
• Lloyd’s
• Monzo
• Natwest
• Barclays
• Tide
• TSB
• Royal Bank of Scotland

Sage Accounting Standard: £39 + VAT per month

Current special offer: First three months FREE
Number of billable users: Three
Sage Copilot users included: One (three users maximum)
Suitable for: The majority of growing small businesses
Key feature: Input “bills”, and keep track of who you owe what to

Sage Accounting Standard is the best plan for limited companies, as you can use accrual mode accounting (as opposed to on a cash basis).

You’ll get everything included in Accounting Start, but Accounting Standard also lets you:

• Send out quotes to customers and convert quotes to invoices with a single click
• Get customisable profit and loss statements, giving you clarity and control over your finances with analysis types and tags
• Automatically capture, manage and classify invoices and receipts with AI
• You can submit CIS tax directly to HMRC, with automatic CIS deductions and calculations.

Sage Accounting Standard is also the best choice if you’re working with suppliers, as you can keep a record of who you owe what to with purchase invoice management. Plus, the AI can assist with more efficient uploading.

With Accounting Standard you get more advanced reporting tools, including a cash flow projection widget that factors in your expected outgoings and income to predict your bank balance.

Useful to know! Profit and Loss reports with Sage

I found the profit and loss statements to be really clear and easy to read when I tested Sage. You can view reports on the basic plan, but you’ll get deeper customisation with Standard, which will be needed by most small businesses. For example, on Standard you can use analysis tags to see which is the most profitable area of your business. Just be aware, you’ll need to pay for the most expensive Plus plan to get budgeting tools.

Eddie Harris Senior Reviews Writer

Sage Accounting Plus: £59 + VAT per month

Current special offer: First three months FREE
Number of billable users: Unlimited
Sage Copilot users included: One (unlimited maximum users)
Suitable for: SMEs who need to manage an inventory of products, as well as for those operating internationally
Key feature: Multi-currency invoicing

Sage Accounting Plus is best for established businesses who need deeper reporting tools, as it lets you create a budget with your financial year data and track budget performance with the “Profit and loss – actual vs budget report” tool.

You’ll get everything in the previous plans, as well as key features like:

• Inventory and stock management: tailor prices to your business, including purchase, sales, trade, or wholesale
• Multi-currency invoicing and automatically updated exchange rates: receive payments in a range of currencies
• Out-of-stock warnings and stock limits: get a warning when you’re running low and set stock re-order levels
• Exchange rate reports: track gains and losses made from currency exchange rates

Does Sage Accounting have a free plan?

Sage offers a ‘Sole Trader Free’ plan for non-VAT registered businesses, which sits outside the main range of Sage Accounting software products.

Sage Sole Trader Free

Sage Sole Trader Free is a no-cost plan aimed at non-VAT registered sole traders, who want to see a self-employed tax summary, and also allows you to:

• Create and send five sales invoices per month
• Manage income and expenses
• Manually record cash expenses

There is also the option to upgrade to the paid version of Sage Sole Trader which costs £7 per month + VAT. This tier unlocks:

• Unlimited sales invoices
• AI-powered expense categorisation
• Snap and scan for receipts
• Connect up to 10 bank accounts

Just know that you can’t upgrade directly from Sage Sole Trader to Sage Accounting. You’ll need to cancel your subscription, and then purchase a new license.

You can also jump over to our breakdown of the best free accounting software for small businesses for our recommendations on no-cost plans.

Does Sage have a free trial?

You can try any of the three plans free for three months (until June 30th).

What is Sage Copilot?

Sage Copilot is Sage’s AI-powered accounting assistant. It can help you improve your workflow by:

• Providing actionable insights
• Flagging potential risks
• Automating tasks for you

Sage Copilot also includes a VAT assistant that can flag upcoming deadlines and calculate what you owe to HMRC.

Is Sage worth the money?

Sage is worth the money, as you’ll receive a fast and reliable AI-powered bookkeeping software without usage or transaction caps, that has payroll functionality already built-in.

My experience using Sage...

I was especially impressed with the processing of invoices and quotes during my hands on testing of Sage Accounting. I really liked the progress bar showing the different stages from creating it, to sending to the client, to being able to see when they viewed it.

Eddie Harris Senior Reviews Writer

Sage’s clean and clear design was a standout element in my testing, which made it easy to navigate around. Sage’s quoting and invoicing worked seamlessly.

When I tested Sage, I found the interface helped with navigation thanks to its clean design which reduced administrative friction. Source: Startups.co.uk

My hands-on testing identified client list uploads as a key usability misstep though, with the majority of our expert testers unable to successfully complete the process. Locating certain functions and features was also occasionally more frustrating than I would have liked

What features are included in the Sage Accounting mobile app?

Sage provides a mobile app that is optimised for both iOS and Android, which includes features like:

• Create, manage, and send invoices
• Recording transactions
• Viewing your financial performance by week, month, or year
• Compare your performance month to month
• Search by transactions
• Import contacts from your device

How expensive is Sage compared with its rivals?

Sage’s mid-tier plan is similarly priced to competitors, but its more advanced tiers are expensive:

• If you’re a microbusiness with very basic needs: you’d be better off going with Zoho Books’s free plan.
• For businesses with high transaction numbers: Xero’s Ultimate plan, while more expensive than Sage’s Accounting Plus at £65 + VAT per month, is better suited to fast-growing businesses with complex financial needs.

You can use our helpful comparison table below to see how Sage stacks up against competitors:

The key point is that Sage Accounting Plus allows unlimited users, exceeding the limits of QuickBooks Advanced (25 users at £123 + VAT) and Zoho Books Ultimate (15 users at £199 + VAT).

Are there any hidden costs?

There are no hidden costs or fees associated with Sage. However, there are some limitations to bear in mind.

Sage has a limit on receipt captures that you won’t want to be caught out by. With the Standard plan, you get 30 approved captures, and 100 with the Plus plan. After this you’ll need to pay 20p per capture.

What did we feel was missing?

• There’s no built-in time tracking functionality on any of the plans. It can be somewhat rare for a small business to need this feature though, so it’s not what we’d call a dealbreaker.
• Employees cannot submit expense claims directly through the software with Sage – you will need to integrate a separate HR module for this. 

What’s Sage Accounting’s help and support like?

I was impressed with the range of Sage’s help and support, including:

• Phone: Available from 8am to 8pm on weekdays.
• Live chat with a real person: available 8am to 6pm on weekdays and 9am to 5pm on weekends
• Live chat with a bot 24/7
• Community forum
• Knowledge centre
• Online materials, such as video tutorials and webinars

Our methodology

Sage was one of seven different accounting software platforms that we tested: Zoho Books, QuickBooks, FreeAgent, Xero, Sage, FreshBooks and Clear Books.

Our testing process was comprised of industry-based insights and actual, hands-on user testing spread across 1,512 total areas of investigation, with a total of 57 hours of testing.

To ensure you’re getting your money’s worth, we determined the six criterion that are essential to a small business owner shopping for accounting software:

• What features am I getting with this software? Core accounting tools (20%): We conducted analysis of critical operations like invoicing and quoting, tax preparation, payment processing, reconciliation, and journal entry.
• How well does the software let me plan financially for the future? (17.5%): We reviewed the tools that allow for good financial decision making, like forecasting and budgeting, reporting, inventory management, and compliance support.
• How efficiently will the software help me run my businesses? (17.5%): we explored the capability to integrate with other apps, the extent of customisation, AI features, and if it allows for collaboration.
• How much does the software cost? (15%): We conducted an analysis of exit fees, contracts, set-up fees, one-time charges, hidden costs, and any free trials or plans, to ensure the software is providing you with good for value for money.
• What options for support are there? (15%): we looked at the range of support types available, including their accessibility, as well testing the accuracy of the knowledge centres.
• Is the software easy to use? (15%): I conducted hands-on testing of the platform to test the intuitiveness and accessibility of the software.

We also worked with our expert external accountant, Dan Heelan, who has 19+ years of actual accounting experience, to ensure our findings are correct and helpful.

Verdict: who should buy Sage Accounting?

Sage Accounting is the best choice for service-based businesses like contractors and builders who require customisable invoicing and built-in payroll functionality.

Sage gives you a summary of all your key metrics. Source: Startups.co.uk

You can more information about why we think Sage is one of the strongest options for sole traders in our guide to the best accounting software for the self-employed.