The downsides are the lack of sales orders, lead management, and other complexities that loyal Desktop users may miss (such as customizable letter templates, a built-in calendar, and even spellcheck). While QuickBooks Online boasts many of the features you’ll find with Desktop, some of its features, such as inventory management, aren’t quite as advanced. Additionally, you won’t find the industry-specific features and reports that you’ll get if you sign up for Desktop. QuickBooks Online can be accessed anywhere you have an internet connection, and because it’s web-based, you can work with your accountant in real time.
Cons of QuickBooks Online vs Desktop
QuickBooks Online offers a variety of pricing plans, which range from $12 to $75 for the first three months. Support options are fairly similar for both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop, with the more expensive plans offering better support options. QuickBooks Online's month-to-month subscription service starts at $30 a month (totaling $360 a year).
Invoicing: QuickBooks Online Wins
While the Desktop version, the company data can only be accessed on the computer or network where the file is installed. For the purposes of this graph, we’re comparing a 5-user instance of QuickBooks Online Plus 1-5 Users + Payroll, vs. a 5-user instance of QuickBooks Enterprise Gold (which includes payroll) over a 4-year period. We’ve included the current best available promotional connect your wave to zoho invoice integration in 2 minutes price to illustrate how prices will change year-over-year. This means you download and install the product and can host it locally on your own servers. Many businesses, particularly those who deal with personally identifiable information (PII) prefer this extra layer of security. While QuickBooks Online is very popular among business owners, some have problems with the system.
QuickBooks Online vs. Desktop
Further, one user said that QuickBooks Desktop is more expensive than QuickBooks Online, especially if you need multiple users, which aligns with our evaluation. QuickBooks Desktop offers good integration options, integrating with more than 200 third party applications, making it one of the better integrated desktop application options. However, it doesn't compare https://www.online-accounting.net/ges-new-cfo-has-an-8-million-incentive-to-stay/ with the more than 500 options offered by QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks Online offers integration with more than 500 third party apps in categories such as Payments, CRM, Project Management, Payments, Payroll, Invoicing, Inventory, and Time Tracking. You can easily connect to any third-party app from within the application, saving you a ton of time in the process.
- The sellers receive customer payments in their designated merchant bank account.
- Meanwhile, if you or your accountant want to become a ProAdvisor to demonstrate expertise in QuickBooks, read our article on how to become a QuickBooks ProAdvisor.
- Four pricing plans for QuickBooks Online are available, ranging from $30 to $200/month (with an additional $45+/month for payroll).
- Intuit often offers discounts and incentives for purchasing it for set blocks of time, though for the purposes of this article, I’m only covering its full regular price.
QuickBooks Online is one of the preeminent cloud-based accounting software platforms on the market. With five plans available, including a plan specifically for self-employed individuals and independent contractors, there are several options from which to choose, depending on your needs. In this guide, we’ll break down QuickBooks Online pricing, including plans, key features, and alternative platform costs so you can decide which option is best for you. With four plans, robust features and a user-friendly interface, QuickBooks Online is the ideal choice for most small businesses.
QuickBooks Integrations
When subscribing to a QuickBooks Online plan, you can elect to purchase add-on services and enhancements to better suit your needs, found at Though QuickBooks Desktop is more expensive and can be more confusing to learn, it has its place with large businesses that need advanced https://www.simple-accounting.org/ accounting. It’s important to note that QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online are two separate products, and data in the two versions do not automatically sync. A company should work with either QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online to avoid data discrepancies.
Alternatively, you can hire a QuickBooks ProAdvisor to help with your bookkeeping needs. To help you get started, we prepared a guide on how to find a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. Meanwhile, if you or your accountant want to become a ProAdvisor to demonstrate expertise in QuickBooks, read our article on how to become a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. If you’re interested in QuickBooks Online, check out our comparison guide of QuickBooks Online plans to help you decide which is best for you.
We’ll also discuss the features of each product and guide you on how to choose the right QuickBooks Desktop edition for your business. They don’t sync automatically, so data transfer between them is manual. It’s best to choose one based on your needs, but some businesses use both for specific purposes or workflows. Cloud-hosted QuickBooks Desktop offers the best of both worlds, enabling businesses to leverage the full feature set of the Desktop version from anywhere, anytime. According to in-depth research reports from Gartner and Forrester, QuickBooks Desktop often scores higher points than QuickBooks Online when it comes to advanced features and industry-specific functionalities. QuickBooks Online is like the charismatic superhero who can do it all while looking cool.
Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships. While QuickBooks Desktop is great for users who prefer locally-installed software, users will have to pay additional fees for cloud hosting, adding to the already expensive cost. In contrast, QuickBooks Desktop tends to have a steeper learning curve, offers fewer integrations, and has had its previous versions discontinued by QuickBooks. QuickBooks Pro and Premiere will also discontinue sales to new users on July 31, 2024.
We went to user review websites to read first-hand reviews from actual software users. This user review score helps us give more credit to software products that deliver a consistent service to their customers. The software must have enough reports that can be generated with a few clicks. Moreover, we’d also like to see customization options to enable users to generate reports based on what they want to see. This section focuses more on first-time setup and software settings.
This is what makes software selection such a vital step in a company’s overall financial management journey. QuickBooks Online is cloud-based accounting software that covers all the accounting needs you may have. It’s a subscription-based service that is good for various industries and beneficial to those who regularly work with a bookkeeper or accountant because you can give them access to your files.
Access your account via the cloud for up to 25 users with the Online version, and pay an additional fee per user, up to 40 users, for cloud access with Desktop. What used to be a huge bulk of QuickBooks business is no longer so—it focuses mostly on its cloud version and actively encourages users to make the switch from Desktop to Online. This may signal future abandonment of its Desktop version as more people move to the cloud. If you make the switch from Desktop to Online, you can import your data and access your original company file at any time. Its advanced features enable users to track expenses and profitability and facilitate collaboration among team members, making it more expensive than the Pro version.
