Zoho Books
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.
How we testZoho Books is one product in Zoho Corporation's suite of fifty-plus, a privately held Indian company founded in 1996 with a UK edition, a UK support line and pounds pricing. It is on our CRM page too, and the same trade-off applies: you get a lot for very little money, and you pay for it in polish and in the way the whole suite is supported.
Prices in pounds, "exclusive of local taxes", read on 8 September 2026. Free is genuinely free: one user plus one accountant, a thousand invoices and a thousand bills a year, three projects, bank feeds and Self Assessment filing, marketed for sole traders. Standard at £12 a month (£10 a month on annual billing) is the plan we score: three users, five thousand invoices a year, VAT returns to HMRC and bank feeds. Professional is £24 (£20) for five users, Premium £30 (£25) for ten, Elite £99 with advanced inventory and Ultimate £199 with Zoho Analytics. Extra users are £2.50 a month, or £2 on annual billing. Add-ons: CT600 and Final Accounts for micro-entities at £5 a year, which is the cheapest Corporation Tax filing in this comparison by a distance; Document Autoscans (receipt OCR) at £6.50 a month per fifty scans; BillPay at £25. There is a 14-day trial and, unlike the big two, no time-limited introductory discount to expire.
HMRC lists "Zoho" on both Making Tax Digital lists, with a free version flagged on the Income Tax one. Zoho's own blog says the Income Tax feature is "currently available on request" through UK support rather than switched on for everyone, so ask before you rely on it. Stripe and GoCardless are integrated, the API is REST with OAuth 2.0, and Zoho's MCP server covers Books alongside CRM, Desk and the rest, which for a Zoho One shop is a real convenience. Support is a UK phone line, Monday to Friday 9am to 6pm, and email. Data centres are chosen at sign-up by domain, EU or US, and cannot be moved later; we found no UK data centre, and no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 statement specific to Books.
The Trustpilot page is for zoho.com as a whole: 3.9 on 6,116 invited reviews, 73 per cent five-star and 12 per cent one-star, with export limits, outsourced support and automated replies to banking problems the recent themes, most of them about other Zoho products. A community thread titled "all UK bank feeds broken" exists and we could not date it. As with CRM, the price is hard to argue with and the finish is what you give up.
Not yet tested by Saaskly: assessed on published pricing, HMRC's software lists, vendor documentation and third-party reviews.
Pros
- +Free plan with an accountant seat; Standard £12 a month for three users; Corporation Tax and Companies House filing for £5 a year
- +On both HMRC lists; Stripe and GoCardless; UK phone support; Zoho's suite-wide MCP server covers Books
- +Annual billing discount and no introductory offer that expires
Cons
- −MTD for Income Tax is "available on request" rather than switched on; receipt scanning is a paid add-on; UK payroll pricing not published
- −Data in the EU or US by sign-up domain, no UK data centre found; no Books-specific SOC 2 or ISO 27001 statement
- −Trustpilot 3.9 for zoho.com as a whole, with support quality the recurring theme
Pricing
Minimum commitment: Free (no licence cost). The least you can spend before walking away; excludes numbers, minutes and add-ons.
Free
£0/mo · annual commitment
Month-to-month: not published
- ✓Free: 1 user plus 1 accountant, 1,000 invoices and 1,000 bills a year, 3 projects, bank feeds, Self Assessment filing. CT600 and Final Accounts add-on £5 a year; Document Autoscans £6.50/mo per 50 scans.
Standard
£12/mo · month-to-month
£10/yr on an annual commitment
Month-to-month costs 20% more
- ✓£12/mo month to month or £10/mo on annual billing, ex VAT. 3 users, 5,000 invoices a year, MTD VAT, bank feeds. Professional £24 (£20) for 5 users; Premium £30 (£25) for 10; extra users £2.50 (£2). 14-day trial, no intro discount to expire.
Specifications
| Rating | 3.7 |
| Scored plan* | £12/mo · £10 annual (Standard) |
| Entry plan | £12/mo (Standard) |
| Sole trader plan | Free |
| Free tier | Limited |
| Users | 3 included · +£2.50 each |
| Entry invoice cap | No cap |
| MTD VAT | ✓ |
| MTD Income Tax | HMRC recognised |
| Self Assessment | ✓ |
| Corporation Tax | ✓ |
| CIS | No |
| Bank feeds | ✓ |
| Stripe | ✓ |
| GoCardless | ✓ |
| Payroll | Vendor add-on |
| Receipt capture | Paid add-on |
| Projects | ✓ |
| Inventory | ✓ |
| Accountant console | ✓ |
| API | ✓ |
| MCP server | ✓ |
| Owned in** | Other |
| Phone support | ✓ |
| Trustpilot (reviews) | 3.9 (6,116) |
| Scored tier | Standard |
| VAT basis | Excluding VAT |
| Top plan | £199/mo (Ultimate) |
| Free tier limits | 1 user plus 1 accountant, 1,000 invoices and 1,000 bills a year, 3 projects |
| Accountant seat free | ✓ |
| Payroll pricing | Zoho Payroll is a separate product; UK pricing not published |
| Free trial (days) | 14 |
| Companies House filing | ✓ |
| RTI payroll | No |
| Bank feed note | Via Plaid and TrueLayer (secondary source); an undated "all UK bank feeds broken" forum thread exists |
| Pay Now on invoices | ✓ |
| Expense claims | ✓ |
| Purchase orders | No |
| Quotes and estimates | ✓ |
| Recurring invoices | ✓ |
| Cashflow forecasting | No |
| Fixed assets | No |
| Accountant network | Zoho Books Advisor programme; no published UK count |
| Webhooks | No |
| Zapier / Make | No |
| Mobile apps | ✓ |
| HQ | India |
| Owner | Zoho Corporation (private) |
| Data location | EU or US data centre chosen at sign-up; no UK centre found |
| SOC 2 | No |
| ISO 27001 | No |
| Cyber Essentials | No |
| 2FA mandatory | No |
| Live chat | No |
| UK support hours | Phone and email Mon to Fri 9am to 6pm UK |
| Accountancy service bundled | No |
| Support channels | Phone (UK), Email, Community forum |
*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.
Researched and drafted with AI assistance; reviewed and approved by Tim Meredith. How we use AI
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