Best Accounting and Bookkeeping Software

When it comes to small businesses, CRM, accounting, and bookkeeping are the big three. You need top-notch tools, and they shouldn’t break the bank.

Here are the top 15 accounting and bookkeeping software options for small businesses. These software programs are popular among brands worldwide and won’t break the bank. Some even offer free trials, while others provide perpetual licenses. Most of these are subscription-based, so you pay as your business grows.

Best Accounting and Bookkeeping Software in 2026

The motive behind this article is to help you choose the best accounting and bookkeeping software for your business, but what I like may or may not be exactly what you need. But no worries.

Most of these tools come with free trials or cheap first months — so for the maximum impact, give the trials a spin and decide on whether or not you want to continue with the software.

Some of these come with CRMs too but if you are looking for a dedicated CRM, see this list of best CRM apps.

Without further ado, here are the 15 best accounting and bookkeeping software for small businesses:

Let’s see these in detail.

FreshBooks

FreshBooks is a game-changer for anyone looking to simplify their accounting. It’s super user-friendly and made just for entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small business owners. It’s one of the best accounting tools out there!

Freshbooks claims that its software can help users secure 46 hours per year on filing for their taxes. It integrates with many other business applications and offers users one unified dashboard to keep track of their finances and accounts.

Why FreshBooks Works for Small Businesses

FreshBooks is all about making accounting a breeze. It tracks expenses and creates professional invoices with ease. Plus, it’s cloud-based, so you can access your financial data anytime, anywhere—a huge plus for busy entrepreneurs. And its intuitive dashboard is a game-changer for those who dread dealing with numbers.

One of its coolest features is automated invoicing. You can set up recurring invoices, accept online payments, and even send reminders—all without even getting up from your chair! Expense tracking is another awesome feature, letting you connect your bank account and categorize transactions in a snap.

Features That Shine

• Time Tracking: Ideal for freelancers or service-based businesses who bill clients based on hours worked.
• Project Management: Integrates accounting with client communication, making it easier to track project expenses.
• Tax Support: Helps generate reports for tax filing, saving you time and headaches during tax season.

FreshBooks Pricing

FreshBooks offers multiple plans starting at $17 per month, with a 30-day free trial to get started. It’s affordable for startups and growing businesses alike.

Why Choose FreshBooks?

The combination of automation, ease of use, and customer support makes FreshBooks a no-brainer for small businesses. If you’re tired of juggling spreadsheets or struggling with outdated tools, FreshBooks could be the solution you’ve been looking for.

Intuit Quickbooks

Intuit Quickbooks is the most popular accounting software loved by businesses.

It also tops this list for a whole lot of reasons.

Intuit Quickbooks is different from other software as it provides its users features like receipt capture and 24 / 7 chat support.

Popular Features:

• Inventory tracking
• Mobile app
• Super simple invoicing
• Time tracking

It also has incorporated PayPal, Shopify, and Square. All the plans offered by this software allow you to track income and expenditure, send invoices and receive payments, run reports, send estimates, monitor sales and taxes, and store and organize receipts.

You can also track inventory, monitor time, and even have full-service Payroll through advanced plans. The prices start at $ 12.50 / month.

Pabbly

Pabbly prices are much more reasonable at $9 / month. It is more of an all in one solution for small businesses. Pabbly also offers to automatize your business workflow, customer communication, and invoice creation to help you look out for other important things and not worry about these.

Pabbly is loved because of its simple and cheap subscription billing model.

mybooks

mybooks is one of the simple accounting and bookkeeping software for small businesses. If a small business owner is looking for affordable accounting software, this software suits their budget.

mybooks is available for iOS, Android, and Web users. So users can utilize the software without any hurdles. They provide a free plan with basic accounting features. mybooks holds features such as inventory management, invoicing and billing, accounts payable and receivable, industry-specific features, multi-currency, multi-business management with multi-user role access, journal entry, double-entry accounting, and more.

The standard and premium plan of the software is $4.99 and $9.99 /month respectively.

Wave

Wave is a top-quality and free accounting and bookkeeping software used for accounting by small businesses and individual freelancers. It is easy to use and synchronous. It allows you to link your bank accounts, balance your books and monitor your expenses.

Wave also provides users extra features such as a comprehensive solution if you choose to invest in its other products. In addition, wave offers many free features like invoice and transaction management. It is the perfect little software for small businesses and especially for individual contractors. 

Sage 50cloud

Sage 50cloud allows you to look more into expanding your business by managing all the accounting-related works. The software can send invoices, track expenses and payments, and calculates your taxes too. But Sage does not offer time-tracking and collaborating tool services. Also, Payroll comes separately with it.

Still, it is very efficient for small and medium-sized businesses. You can enjoy Sage 50clous’s services by paying a minimum of $ 340 / year. It is a little bit expensive compared to other software available, but the features are well worth the pricing. You will not be disappointed.

Zoho Books

Zoho Books is an excellent software to help you manage your finances regarding your small business. It allows you to automatize workflows and work collectively across departments. It also offers top-notch tools for inventory management, time-tracking, banking, and financial reporting with awesome and comfortable UX. It also has a good customer support service and an online payment accepting feature.

Popular Features:

• Automated workflows
• Budgeting
• Zoho Sign Integration
• Projects and timesheets

Zoho Books is free to start and offers its basic services starting from $ 15 / month.

AccountEdge Pro

AccountEdge Pro accounting and bookkeeping software is available at a starting one-time fee of $ 149. It offers its users double-entry accounting tools such as time billing and reporting to inventory. These features can even be customizable and optimized according to users. If you need software for long-time use, this is the best software for you because of its one-time fee service. Though it does not have an option for mobile tracking of business updates with the help of a cloud-collaboration option (purchasable), you can also get the feature on your phone.

Oracle NetSuite ERP

NetSuite ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) products assist small businesses with financial management and planning, supply chain management, order management, fulfillment, and procurement. This is the great accounting software available in the market for business which expects speedy growth.

Sunrise by Lendio 

Sunrise by Lendio is another small business accounting and bookkeeping software on our list. It is best if you want a dedicated bookkeeper for your business.

From automatic bank reconciliation, profit and loss reports to easy tax options and branded invoicing – Sunrise by Lendio has a lot to offer. Basic services are free, but Its dedicated bookkeeper service is included in a more thorough plan starting at $149 a month.

So if you are looking specifically for a bookkeeping service, this software is for you. It does cost a little extra, but the service is worth the money.

Zip Books

Zip Books is a very affordable Accounting and Bookkeeping Software tool made for small businesses. Through Zip Books, you get invoicing and billing services such as auto-billing and payment reminders to decrease the load of your shoulder. This way, you can focus on the growth of your business. You can also make use of their competitive intelligence to make data-driven choices regarding your finances.

Basic services of Zip Books are free, but users have to pay $ 15 / month to access more advanced features.

Bill.com 

Bill.com is best known for its AP and AR automation and new bill payment proficiency. Bill.com offers its users a cloud-based solution to automatic accounts for paying and accounts for receiving.

Bill.com offers amazing features like automatic data entry, detection of fake invoices, etc. In addition, it has new payment services like ACH, virtual cards, and international wire transfers and can log any payment-related work. It also offers services to establish approval workflows and custom roles.Bill.com offers four plans – Essentials ($39 / month), Team ($49 / month), Corporate ($69 / month), and Enterprise (Get a quote). It also has a free trial, so before committing, try it out.

GoDaddy Bookkeeping

GoDaddy Bookkeeping is a low-cost accounting and bookkeeping software tool loved by small businesses. It is one of the most affordable software, starting at only $4.99 / month. It incorporates data from Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and your bank accounts. And then, this data is used by making invoices and calculating quarterly tax estimates. If you make any sales through the sites listed above, you should use GoDaddy. Its drawbacks are that it does not offer project management, extensive reporting, and international billing. 

Free Agent

Free Agent accounting software is good if you need to make many estimates and invoices to monitor your cash flow, track receipts, and time. Free Agent also allows you to connect your bank account to it so that you can see your businesses’ view income performance and profitability. It is available for $ 12 / month for the first six months and then for $ 24 / month. But if you are unsure, then you can sign up for its 30-day free trial to determine if that this what you need or not.

GnuCash

GnuCash accounting and bookkeeping software is available free of charge. So, if you are slowly trying to get into these types of software, GnuCash is the perfect place to start. It is desktop software only, and you can simply go to the GnuCash site and download it for free. GnuCash can be used as personal accounting software along with small business accounting software. It is very easy to use and suitable for first-timers. In addition, it offers features such as vendor tracking, job costing, and invoicing. So, download the software and get to know the basic features it offers, as it is the same for almost all other accounting software out there.

A Comparison

Feature	FreshBooks	Zoho Books	Wave	QuickBooks	Bonsai	Pabbly	myBooks	FreeAgent	ZipBooks	GoDaddy Bookkeeping	Sunrise	Bill.com	Sage 50cloud	AccountEdge Pro	GnuCash	NetSuite ERP
Free Plan	No (30-day trial)	Yes (1 user, <50K revenue)	Yes (fully free)	No (30-day trial)	No (7-day trial)	No	Yes (limited)	No (30-day trial)	Yes (basic)	No (trial)	Yes (basic)	No	No (trial)	No (trial)	Yes (open source)	No
Starting Price	$8.50/mo	$15/mo	Free	$15/mo	$21/mo	$9/mo	$9.99/mo	$12/mo	$15/mo	$4.99/mo	Free	$39/mo	$340/year	$149 one-time	Free	Custom ($999+/mo)
Best Feature Standout	Beautiful invoices + time tracking	Full accounting suite	100% free accounting	Industry standard	Freelancer all-in-one	Subscription billing	Simple free tier	UK tax compliance	Clean minimal UI	Cheapest paid option	Generous free tier	AP/AR automation	Inventory + job costing	No subscription fees	Completely free forever	Enterprise scalability
Invoicing	Excellent	Good	Good	Good	Good	Good	Good	Good	Good	Basic	Good	Good	Good	Good	Basic	Good
Expense Tracking	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (receipt scan)	Yes	Limited	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Limited	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Tax Features Essential	Basic (tax reports)	GST/VAT compliant	Basic	Advanced (tax categories)	Tax prep + 1099s	Basic	Basic	UK MTD ready	Basic	Schedule C	Basic	Limited	Advanced	Good	Manual	Advanced
Time Tracking	Yes (built-in)	Yes	No	Yes (add-on)	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes (module)
Contracts/Proposals	Yes (proposals)	No	No	No	Yes (contracts, proposals)	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes (module)
Payment Gateways	Stripe, PayPal, cards	Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay	Stripe, PayPal	Cards, bank, PayPal	Stripe, PayPal	Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay	Stripe, PayPal	Stripe, GoCardless, PayPal	Stripe, PayPal, Square	PayPal	Stripe, PayPal	ACH, cards	Various	Limited	None (manual)	Various
Best For	Freelancers, service businesses	Small businesses (India-friendly)	Startups on zero budget	Growing businesses, accountants	Freelancers + consultants	Subscription businesses	Micro-businesses	UK freelancers, small teams	Simple invoicing needs	eBay/Etsy sellers	Basic bookkeeping	Payment workflow automation	Medium businesses	Desktop-preferring users	Tech-savvy users	Enterprise, scaling companies
Watch Out For	Limited advanced accounting	UI feels dated	North America only	Complex for beginners	Higher price point	Limited integrations	Restrictive free plan	Limited customization	Few integrations	Won't scale	Paid tier expensive	Not full accounting	Expensive + complex	No cloud sync	2005-era interface	Overkill for small biz
	Visit FreshBooks	Visit Zoho Books	Visit Wave	Visit QuickBooks	Visit Bonsai	Visit Pabbly	Visit myBooks	Visit FreeAgent	Visit ZipBooks	Visit GoDaddy	Visit Sunrise	Visit Bill.com	Visit Sage	Visit AccountEdge	Visit GnuCash	Visit NetSuite

So, this is it. These were the best accounting and bookkeeping software that are loved and used by small businesses all around the world. Which one are you going to use?

Best Hardware for Financial Workflow

Accounting software runs in the browser, but if you’re managing multiple clients, you’ll have QuickBooks, your bank, spreadsheets, and invoicing all open simultaneously. A big monitor or dual-monitor setup stops the constant window switching.

I use a 34″ ultrawide for financial work because I can see my books and bank side-by-side without alt-tabbing. The Samsung ViewFinity at $299 is perfect for this. For a complete workspace, check my home office setup guide.