The short answer: $0 to about $40 a month covers most small businesses; growing businesses with payroll and a team land at $70–$140 a month; and only complex operations go past $200. But the sticker price is the least interesting part. Accounting software pricing is built from three pieces — the subscription, the payroll add-on, and payment processing fees — and vendors advertise only the first.
We pulled current pricing from six popular platforms (researched September 2026 — verify on vendor sites before you buy; prices change often, and QuickBooks just raised theirs).
How accounting software pricing actually works
Email marketing software charges by how many contacts you have. Accounting software works differently: you’re paying for complexity, not volume. Every platform’s pricing page is a ladder of feature gates, and the rungs are almost always the same:
- User seats — how many people can log in. Xero includes unlimited users on every plan; FreshBooks includes one and charges $11/month for each extra.
- Transaction caps — cheap plans limit invoices or bills per month (Xero’s Starter plan famously caps at 20 invoices and 5 bills a month).
- Capability gates — multi-currency, inventory, payroll, and project profitability sit on higher tiers. The features that matter to you are scattered up the ladder, and which rung they’re on is how vendors push you to a pricier plan.
- Add-ons priced separately — payroll and payment processing are nearly always separate line items. This is where the real cost lives, and it’s why “starts at $19/month” can end up meaning $80/month in practice.
The mechanism matters because it tells you how to shop: find the cheapest plan that includes your specific gate features, then add the cost of payroll and payments on top. Two businesses both paying “$38/month” can have completely different total costs.
What 6 popular platforms actually charge
Prices below are monthly, US list prices, researched September 2026. Promo discounts are excluded — assume you’ll pay list price within a few months.
| Platform | Free plan | Entry paid | Main small-business plans | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wave | Yes — free forever | $19/mo (Pro) | Starter $0 / Pro $19 | Free covers unlimited invoices + bookkeeping; Pro adds bank feeds, receipt scanning, multi-user |
| Zoho Books | Yes — revenue-gated | $20/mo (Standard) | $20 / $50 / $70 / $150 | Free for businesses under a revenue threshold; 1 user + 1 accountant |
| Xero | No (30-day trial) | $25/mo (Early) | $25 / $55 / $90 | Unlimited users on all plans; Early plan has invoice/bill caps; price increase to $27/$59/$97 from Oct 1, 2026 |
| QuickBooks Online | Limited free tier | $20/mo (Solopreneur) | $38 / $85 / $140 / $340 | Prices raised Aug 2026 on Essentials, Plus, Advanced |
| FreshBooks | No (30-day trial) | $23/mo (Lite) | $23 / $43 / $70 | 1 user included; +$11/mo per extra team member |
| Sage | No | $10/mo (Start, US) | $10 / $25 (US) | Higher tiers bundle payroll in some regions |
A few things worth noting before you compare:
- QuickBooks raised prices in August 2026 — the sixth straight year of increases. Essentials went $75 → $85, Plus $115 → $140, Advanced $275 → $340. Simple Start stayed at $38. If an old blog says QuickBooks costs “$25/month,” it’s quoting a dead price.
- Xero’s Early plan caps are the famously misunderstood constraint. 20 invoices and 5 bills per month is a hard cap — hit 21 invoices in a month and the 21st is blocked. Most active businesses need the Growing plan at $55/month; that’s the real entry price.
- FreshBooks prices by billable clients, not by features alone: Lite caps at 5 billable clients ($23), Plus at 50 ($43), Premium unlimited ($70). If you invoice more than 5 clients a month, Lite was never for you.
- Xero is raising prices on October 1, 2026 — Early $25→$27, Growing $55→$59, Established $90→$97, for new and existing subscribers. If you’re comparing quotes, use the October figures for any decision that lands past that date.
- Wave was almost entirely free until January 2024, when it split into free Starter and paid Pro. The free tier is still the most generous in the market — unlimited invoices, estimates, bills, and double-entry bookkeeping at $0.
The costs nobody puts on the pricing page
Three line items routinely double the advertised price. Budget for them before you pick a platform.
Payroll: ≈$40–$50/month base + ≈$6 per employee. This is the standard shape across the market — Wave ($40 base + $6 per employee), FreshBooks via Gusto ($40 + $6 per user), Xero via Gusto ($49 + $6 per person), QuickBooks similar. The moment you hire your first employee, your “accounting software” budget jumps by $40–$55 a month regardless of which platform you’re on.
Payment processing: ≈2.9% + $0.30–$0.60 per transaction. Every “get paid faster with online payments” feature takes a cut. Wave charges 2.9% + $0.60 per card transaction (3.4% + $0.60 for Amex); other platforms are in the same band. This isn’t billed by the accounting vendor — it goes to the payment processor — but it comes out of the same revenue, so it belongs in your accounting software budget.
Seats and depth features. FreshBooks’ $11/month per extra team member, Xero’s unlimited-users inclusion, and features like multi-currency and inventory that only exist on higher tiers — these are the structural costs. A 4-person business on FreshBooks pays $23 + $33 in seat fees before payroll or payments. On Xero, the same team pays one flat $55 on the Growing plan.
What it actually costs by business profile
Forgetting vendors for a moment — here’s what the math looks like for typical small businesses, subscription + payroll + realistic add-ons:
| Business profile | Typical setup | Rough monthly total |
|---|---|---|
| Solo freelancer, <10 invoices/mo | Wave Starter or Zoho Books free | $0 |
| Solo freelancer, wants automation | Wave Pro ($19) or FreshBooks Lite ($23) | $19–$23 |
| 2–5 person service business | Xero Growing ($55) or QBO Simple Start ($38) + seats | $38–$55 |
| Same, with 1–3 employees on payroll | Above + payroll ($40–$49 base + $6/head) | $85–$135 |
| Growing business, inventory/multi-currency | QBO Plus ($140) or Xero Established ($90) + payroll | $120–$200+ |
The step function is payroll. Below your first employee, decent accounting software costs less than a streaming subscription. The first hire roughly triples the number — not because the software got more expensive, but because payroll is a separate product bundled into your mental accounting of “accounting software.”
Bottom line
For the smallest businesses, accounting software is effectively free — Wave and Zoho Books both offer permanent free plans that handle real bookkeeping. The typical small business with a few people lands around $40–$60 a month for the subscription. Payroll, not the software, is the expense that changes the math — add roughly $40/month plus $6 per employee to any figure above once you hire.
The trap to avoid: comparing advertised entry prices instead of total costs. A “$23/month” plan with $33 in seat fees and a $46 payroll add-on is a $102/month product. Work out your three numbers — subscription at the plan with your features, payroll, payment processing — and pick on the total.
Prices researched September 2026 from multiple independent sources. Vendors change pricing frequently — QuickBooks alone has raised prices six straight years — so confirm current figures on each vendor’s pricing page before deciding.