---
title: "Accounting Software: ranked reviews and comparisons"
description: "Accounting software compared on what it costs once the introductory discount ends, whether HMRC recognises it for Making Tax Digital, whether your accountant will work in it, how well bank feeds and payment collection work, and what it plugs into: payroll, receipt capture, an API and an MCP server."
canonical: "https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software"
last-updated: "2026-09-08"
---

# Accounting Software: ranked reviews and comparisons

> Accounting software compared on what it costs once the introductory discount ends, whether HMRC recognises it for Making Tax Digital, whether your accountant will work in it, how well bank feeds and payment collection work, and what it plugs into: payroll, receipt capture, an API and an MCP server.

- Last updated: 2026-09-08

## Ranking

Ranked by Saaskly's editorial score (0–5). Ties share a rank. Method: https://saaskly.com/editorial-policy.md

1. **1. [Xero](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/xero.md)**: 4.4/5. The accounting software Saaskly's own company runs on, and the one most UK accountants will happily work in: unlimited users on every plan, HMRC-recognised for VAT and for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, a large app marketplace and an official MCP server. Grow is £39 a month once the 90 per cent introductory discount ends. What to know: no inbound phone line, the entry plan caps invoices at twenty a month, payroll and expenses are priced per person, and UK prices have risen every year.
2. **2. [QuickBooks Online](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/quickbooks-online.md)**: 4.1/5. The other giant, and the one with a phone line: UK support seven days a week, a free accountant seat on every plan, CIS at no extra cost, the most itemised AI feature set in the category and an official MCP server with 145 tools. Essentials is £38 a month after the 90 per cent introductory discount, for three users. What to know: the two cheaper plans are single-user, payroll is a paid add-on whose price only appears at checkout, Intuit says your data may be stored in the US, and Trustpilot is 3.7.
3. **3. [FreeAgent](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/freeagent.md)**: 4.0/5. Free for as long as you bank with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle, and £33 a month otherwise, with payroll, Self Assessment, Corporation Tax and Companies House filing all inside the product and UK-based support accountants on the phone. Owned by NatWest Group, on both HMRC lists, Trustpilot 4.6. What to know: it is built for the owner-managed company rather than the growing one, the receipt tool is capped at ten a month unless you pay £5, and there is no official MCP server.
4. **4. [Sage Accounting](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/sage-accounting.md)**: 3.8/5. The UK incumbent, listed in London, with payroll bundled into every plan, Sage Copilot on every plan and telephone support on every plan. Standard is £43 a month for three users once the 90 per cent introductory discount ends. What to know: Start is single-user, receipt capture is metered, multi-currency and stock need Plus at £59, there is no official MCP server, and Sage's pages block automated reading so several facts here rest on the pricing page alone.
5. **5. [Zoho Books](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/zoho-books.md)**: 3.7/5. The cheapest full ledger here: a real free plan with an accountant seat, Standard at £12 a month (£10 on annual billing) for three users, Corporation Tax and Companies House filing for £5 a year, a UK phone line, and Zoho's suite-wide MCP server. On both HMRC lists. What to know: MTD for Income Tax is "available on request", receipt scanning is a paid add-on, UK payroll pricing is not published, data sits in the EU or US, and Trustpilot is for zoho.com as a whole.
6. **6. [Clear Books](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/clear-books.md)**: 3.6/5. UK-built and UK-supported since 2008, with phone support on every company plan, CIS reporting, a free Making Tax Digital for Income Tax plan for sole traders and landlords, and a partner programme it says a thousand practices use. Medium, the first plan with VAT submissions, is £34 a month. What to know: VAT is not on the £16 Small plan, multi-currency and expense claims need Large at £44, the ecosystem is small, the API is on request and there is no MCP server.
7. **7. [Pandle](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/pandle.md)**: 3.5/5. Free forever, and the free plan is the real product: unlimited users, bank feeds, VAT returns to HMRC, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax submissions, multi-currency, Stripe feeds, quotes, projects and cashflow, all for nothing, with data on UK servers and a Trustpilot 4.3. Pro is £5 a month for live chat, stock, PayPal feeds and multi-company. What to know: no payroll, no CIS yet, no GoCardless, no phone line, and the company that makes it is an accountancy practice.
8. **8. [QuickFile](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/quickfile.md)**: 3.4/5. Free up to a thousand ledger entries a year and £60 a year above that, with unlimited users, multi-currency, Stripe and GoCardless, MTD VAT returns and a Trustpilot 4.8 on more than three thousand reviews. On both HMRC lists. What to know: pricing is by ledger size not by plan, bank feeds are a £15-a-year add-on, MTD bridging and the advanced features need the paid Power User subscription, there is no payroll, and support is a forum and a contact form.
9. **9. [FreshBooks](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/freshbooks.md)**: 3.1/5. The invoicing-first choice for a service business or freelancer: time tracking, projects, estimates and card and direct debit payments through Stripe, with UK pricing from £16 a month and a 10 per cent annual discount. What to know: every staff login is £8 a month on top, the two cheaper plans cap billable clients, it is on HMRC's VAT list but not the Making Tax Digital for Income Tax list, there is no UK payroll or Corporation Tax filing, prices rose in 2026, and support hours are US Eastern.
10. **10. [Crunch](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/crunch.md)**: 2.9/5. An accountancy practice with its own software: Pro for a limited company is £94 a month and includes a dedicated accountant, VAT, director payroll, Corporation Tax and year-end accounts, which is a different product from everything else on this page. What to know: the software alone is £4 a month and thin, there is no Stripe, GoCardless or PayPal integration on Crunch's own integrations page, it is not on HMRC's Making Tax Digital for Income Tax list, and our own experience of the bank matching and the service was poor.
11. **11. [KashFlow](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/kashflow.md)**: 2.6/5. A UK product from 2005 that IRIS Software Group bought in 2013 and is now winding down: the public changelog stops in October 2022, KashFlow Payroll is being migrated to IRIS Staffology, and Trustpilot is 1.3 on 167 reviews. Business is £27.50 a month after the introductory discount, with unlimited invoices, multi-currency and payroll for five bundled. On both HMRC lists. We would not start a new set of books here.

## Comparison table

| Provider | Rating | Scored plan* | Entry plan | Intro offer | Sole trader plan | Free tier | Users | Entry invoice cap | MTD VAT | MTD Income Tax | Self Assessment | Corporation Tax | CIS | Bank feeds | Stripe | GoCardless | Multi-currency | Payroll | Receipt capture | Projects | Inventory | App marketplace | Accountant console | API | MCP server | Owned in** | Phone support | Trustpilot (reviews) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Xero](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/xero.md) | 4.4/5 | £39/mo (Grow) | £18/mo (Ignite) | 90% off for 6 months, or one month free | None | None | Unlimited | 20/mo | Yes | HMRC recognised | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Add-on / higher tier | Built in | Built in | Yes | Yes | — | Yes | Yes | Yes | NZ-owned | No | 4.1 (11,320) |
| [QuickBooks Online](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/quickbooks-online.md) | 4.1/5 | £38/mo (Essentials) | £16/mo (Simple Start) | 90% off for 6 months | £10/mo (Sole Trader Plus) | None | 3 included | No cap | Yes | HMRC recognised | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Included | Vendor add-on | Built in | Yes | Yes | — | Yes | Yes | Yes | US-owned | Yes | 3.7 (16,902) |
| [FreeAgent](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/freeagent.md) | 4.0/5 | £33/mo · £27.50 annual (Limited Company) | £19/mo (Sole Trader) | 50% off for 6 months (or the first year on annual billing) | £19/mo (Sole Trader) | Full-featured | — | No cap | Yes | HMRC recognised | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Included | Built in | Built in | Yes | Yes | — | Yes | Yes | No | UK-owned | Yes | 4.6 (3,006) |
| [Sage Accounting](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/sage-accounting.md) | 3.8/5 | £43/mo (Standard) | £20/mo (Start) | 90% off for 6 months, or one month free | None | None | 3 included | No cap | Yes | HMRC recognised | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Add-on / higher tier | Built in | Built in | No | Yes | — | Yes | Yes | No | UK-owned | Yes | 4.0 (20,065) |
| [Zoho Books](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/zoho-books.md) | 3.7/5 | £12/mo · £10 annual (Standard) | £12/mo (Standard) | — | Free | Limited | 3 included · +£2.50 each | No cap | Yes | HMRC recognised | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | Vendor add-on | Paid add-on | Yes | Yes | — | Yes | Yes | Yes | Other | Yes | 3.9 (6,116) |
| [Clear Books](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/clear-books.md) | 3.6/5 | £34/mo · £30.60 annual (Medium) | £16/mo (Small) | 50% off the first 3 months; 10% off yearly, 20% off two-yearly | £5/mo (Sole Trader) | Limited | — | No cap | Yes | HMRC recognised | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Add-on / higher tier | Vendor add-on | Built in | Yes | No | — | Yes | Yes | No | UK-owned | Yes | 3.9 (382) |
| [Pandle](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/pandle.md) | 3.5/5 | Free | Free | — | Free | Full-featured | Unlimited | No cap | Yes | HMRC recognised | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Included | None | Built in | Yes | Yes | — | Yes | Yes | No | UK-owned | No | 4.3 (1,357) |
| [QuickFile](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/quickfile.md) | 3.4/5 | £5/mo annual only (L and XL, £60 a year) | Free (XS to M) | — | None | Limited | Unlimited | No cap | Yes | HMRC recognised | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Included | None | Built in | No | No | — | Yes | Yes | No | UK-owned | No | 4.8 (3,127) |
| [FreshBooks](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/freshbooks.md) | 3.1/5 | £30/mo · £27 annual (Plus) | £16/mo (Lite) | 50% off for 3 months (90% off in a timed offer on 8 Sep 2026) | £16/mo (Lite) | None | 1 included · +£8 each | No cap | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Included | None | Built in | Yes | No | — | No | Yes | No | Canada-owned | Yes | 3.7 (1,038) |
| [Crunch](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/crunch.md) | 2.9/5 | £94/mo · £84.60 annual (Pro (limited company)) | £4/mo (Lite) | — | £27/mo (Pro (sole trader)) | None | — | No cap | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | — | Built in | Bundled tool | No | No | — | No | Yes | No | UK-owned | Yes | 3.9 (1,628) |
| [KashFlow](https://saaskly.com/category/accounting-software/kashflow.md) | 2.6/5 | £27.50/mo · £14.83 annual (Business) | £13.50/mo (Starter) | 90% off for 6 months | None | None | — | 10/mo | Yes | HMRC recognised | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Included | Built in | Built in | No | Yes | — | Yes | Yes | No | UK-owned | No | 1.3 (167) |

*Scored plan: the limited-company tier the score is set on (the cheapest plan a VAT-registered company with a few staff can run on), per month at the renewal price once any introductory discount ends, in the currency the vendor shows a UK visitor on the research date; see each profile for the VAT basis, the introductory offer and what the tier above adds.

**Owned in: where the company that owns the provider answers to. A US-owned provider is subject to US law (including the CLOUD Act) wherever the data centre is; a UK data centre is not the same thing as UK jurisdiction. "Data location" records where the ledger is stored.

## Articles

- [Best Accounting Software for UK Small Business in 2026: Xero Wins, QuickBooks Has the Phone Line, and the Making Tax Digital List Sorts the Rest](https://saaskly.com/comparisons/best-accounting-software-2026.md): Comparison. We compared eleven accounting products on what a UK limited company really pays once the 90 per cent introductory discount ends, on whether HMRC lists them for VAT and for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, on whether your accountant will work in them, on bank feeds and payment collection, and on the 2026 essentials: Corporation Tax filing, receipt capture, an API and an MCP server. Xero wins on the accountant network, unlimited users and the ecosystem; QuickBooks is the one with a phone line; FreeAgent is free with a NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle account. Pandle and QuickFile are the free and near-free ledgers. Crunch is marked down on our own experience and KashFlow is being wound down by its owner.

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Researched and drafted with AI assistance; reviewed and approved by Tim Meredith. See https://saaskly.com/ai-transparency.md and https://saaskly.com/editorial-policy.md.

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