6 Top-Rated Free Accounting Software
Free accounting software solutions are a viable alternative for accounting teams on a budget or those that want to try out a product before purchasing it. In this article, we highlight the six best free accounting software, in alphabetical order, based on verified software reviews. Read more.
We’ve categorized these products into two categories: stand-alone accounting tools and business management solutions that offer accounting capabilities. Regardless of the type, common features across all products include invoice management, accounts payable and receivable management, bank reconciliation, and financial reporting.
1. Akaunting
Akaunting is a stand-alone online accounting solution that helps your business track its finances. Its free plan lets you manage unlimited invoices, bills, customers, and vendors. It keeps track of opening and current balances for your bank and cash accounts. It also allows you to set up transaction categories to classify income and expenses and get an organized overview of your financial activity.
Free features*:
Dynamic document notes: Automatically populate invoices, bills, and estimate notes with your bank account details, eliminating the need to manually add relevant information to financial documents.
Live currency rates: Automatically fetch live currency exchange rates from various services, such as Fixer and Open Exchange Rates, to save time on updating currencies manually.
Receivables and payables tracking: Get a summary of total overdue receivables and payables. The software also highlights the closest due payables and receivables to help you prioritize them and avoid late payments.
Customer support options: | Chat, email, and community forum |
Cost to upgrade: | $24 per month (billed annually) |
Who should consider Akaunting?
Akaunting’s free plan is worth considering for solo business owners. It covers one user and one accountant but doesn’t limit the number of bills, invoices, customers, and vendors that one can manage. Additionally, it supports multiple currencies, which is ideal for businesses that have a global clientele.
*Analysis accurate as of May 2023
2. Holded
Holded is business management software that offers invoicing and accounting capabilities with its free plan. It provides a dedicated client portal, daily backups, and two-factor authentication for your accounting records. It also lets you choose from more than 50 editable templates to customize your invoices.
Free features*:
Invoice management: Create and manage up to 30 invoices every financial year. You can also automate the process of sending invoices to your customers.
Payment integrations: Allow clients to pay for services by integrating the software with third-party payment platforms such as PayPal and Pleo.
Cash flow tracking: Use transaction data to track your income sources, business expenses, and overall cash flow to get insights into your company's profitability.
Customer support options: | Chat, email, and phone support |
Cost to upgrade: | $16.10* per month (doesn’t include promotions) *Converted from EUR to USD on May 22, 2023, using www.xe.com |
Who should consider Holded?
Holded's free plan, which supports one user and one accountant, could be a suitable option for freelancers and independent accountants. It enables cash flow management and automatic bank reconciliations. It also offers live chat support to help resolve user queries.
*Analysis accurate as of May 2023
Pro tip
Compare the number of invoices you can manage with the free version of different products, and make sure it meets your business’s invoicing requirements. Many free accounting tools often limit the number of invoices you can process—a factor that could force you to upgrade to a paid software version or look for another free software.
3. ProfitBooks
Like Akaunting, ProfitBooks is a stand-alone accounting tool but with a unique focus on bookkeeping. It lets you create invoices from scratch or choose from a library of predesigned templates. You can edit the templates and add custom line items and fields. Additionally, you can track your payables and receivables and generate payment reports showcasing the outstanding amounts.
Free features*:
Tax calculation: Automatically calculate taxes for your business and generate tax-ready reports for returns filing.
Product and service tracking: Track the products and services you offer, and create sales orders against each product you sell to maintain accurate bookkeeping.
Online payments: Accept credit card, debit card, netbanking, or even wallet payments from your customers. The payment link is sent with the customer invoice, and the payments are directly credited to your bank account.
Cost to upgrade: | $15 per month for unlimited users |
Who should consider ProfitBooks?
ProfitBooks’ free plan is worth considering for solo entrepreneurs that run retail businesses and want to track the products/services they sell and related finances. The free plan supports a single user and can create up to 25 invoices per month, manage up to 100 customers, and track up to 25 products or services.
*Analysis accurate as of May 2023
4. Request Finance
Request Finance is not a typical business management solution. It offers a suite of financial tools that include the most critical components of accounting but maintain a unique focus on cryptocurrencies. Its free plan supports more than 150 cryptocurrencies and offers a centralized dashboard to manage crypto invoices. The software automatically converts all crypto payments you receive into fiat prices issued by the government based on live exchange rates.
Free features*:
Batch invoicing: Process multiple invoice payments to different wallet addresses at the same time, and get automated on-chain payment status updates.
Financial reports: Track, manage, and automate your crypto invoices with a single centralized dashboard. You can also export paid invoices issued in PDF format as a downloadable receipt.
Multiparty payment approval flows: Set up a multiparty payment approval workflow, and add specific stakeholders to verify and account for payment amounts before the final approval.
Cost to upgrade: | $10 per user, per month for team permissions and management |
Who should consider Request Finance?
Businesses that deal in cryptocurrencies can leverage Request Finance’s crypto accounting and invoicing capabilities. The software enables business owners to create personalized invoices with their brand logo and send the invoices to customers—all for free. Users can receive payments in crypto, stablecoins, or fiat. They also get email notifications when customers clear their invoices and the funds are received in the business wallet.
*Analysis accurate as of May 2023
Pro tip
Check the type of product support or community support options the free software offers. Since most free accounting tools don’t provide customer support, it’s crucial to know what resources are available or how you can contact the vendor if you ever face trouble with the software.
5. Wave Accounting
Wave Accounting is a stand-alone accounting tool that enables your business to track income and expenses. It offers unlimited invoice and expense tracking at no cost. You can create invoices, send them to customers, set up recurring invoices and automatic credit card payments for repeat customers, and send overdue reminders to defaulting customers. Your customers have the option of paying using a credit card, bank transfer, or Apple Pay.
Free features*:
Unlimited bank and credit card connections: Connect multiple bank accounts and credit cards to automatically pull transactions in your bookkeeping and avoid manual entry of transaction details.
Automated bookkeeping: Sync all invoicing and payment-related information with the accounting dashboard to simplify the bookkeeping process for your accounting team.
Financial reports: Generate accounting reports such as profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement to track the financial performance of your business.
Cost to upgrade: | Accounting module is forever free. Upgrade plans are available for other modules. |
Who should consider Wave Accounting?
Wave Accounting’s free software offers a communication and payment tracking dashboard that’s ideal for businesses looking to centralize payment information and view their communication history with each customer. Additionally, the software has a built-in notification system that sends alerts when customers view the invoices sent to them via email or when invoice due dates are near.
*Analysis accurate as of May 2023
6. Zoho Books
Zoho Books is a stand-alone accounting tool similar to Wave Accounting, but it limits the number of invoices to 1,000 with its free plan. However, it offers a wider range of accounting capabilities such as a dedicated customer portal, multilingual invoicing, bank reconciliations, and automated tax compliance. It enables you to raise sales orders, generate invoices, check your sales liability, and prepare audit reports. You can also create credit notes from scratch or import them from your system in case you need to reissue invoices to adjust the initial price.
Free features*:
Multilingual invoicing: Create invoices in multiple languages. This feature can be helpful if you cater to non-English speaking customers. You can also use the feature to change the invoice date format and add custom fields to request specific financial information from clients.
Bank reconciliation: Reconcile multiple bank accounts by matching their transactions with the entries you have added in Zoho Books. You can also choose the period for which you would like to reconcile an account.
Expense tracking: Create recurring profiles for regular expenses, such as office supplies and rent, and create a quarterly or annual report to assess overall business profitability and expenses.
Cost to upgrade: | $15 per month for three users (billed annually) |
Who should consider Zoho Books?
Zoho Books is worth considering for new or small businesses with revenue less than $50K per annum. The free plan supports one user, one accountant, and 1,000 invoices per annum. Its dashboard offers a comprehensive overview of business expenses, receivables, payables, and sales. Users can also create a variety of business reports, such as profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements.
*Analysis accurate as of May 2023
Pro tip
Ensure the free business accounting tool you choose doesn’t have a limit on the number of customers you can manage. Having a customer limit can cause issues as your business scales and you acquire more customers.
What is the cost to upgrade from free accounting software to a paid one?
An accounting software upgrade can cost as low as $8.5 per user, per month, or go all the way up to $299+ per month, depending on various factors—features, number of users, number of invoices, number of bank integrations, training availability, and deployment options. Most accounting solutions typically include the following pricing plans:
Free trials: No-cost trial plans ranging from 15 to 30 days, giving users access to either all or limited features of the software. These are ideal for businesses who wish to try out a tool before purchasing it.
Free versions: Free software plans offer basic features and/or limited premium feature access. These are ideal for small businesses or individuals on a budget.
Entry-level plans: Start at $8.5 per month and offer limited accounting features such as general ledger, accounts payable, and accounts receivable. These are a good option for small businesses or teams with basic accounting and bookkeeping needs.
Mid-tier plans: Range from $16.25 to $25.25 per month and offer advanced features such as double-entry accounting reports and priority support. These are ideal for businesses that have outgrown basic accounting solutions but don’t require the full range of functionality and scalability offered by enterprise-level accounting tools.
High-end plans: May cost upward of $299 per month. In addition to basic and midrange features, these offer unlimited invoicing, project profitability tracking, business health reports, white-labeled accounting dashboards, and third-party integrations with multiple CRM, project management, and payroll software tools. They are ideal for large enterprises with cross-functional accounting teams.
Hidden costs associated with accounting software
Some accounting tools have hidden charges for bank and ACH transfers, payment processing for third-party payment platforms, and card transactions. It’s advisable to ask vendors about such transaction charges so your small business can budget for them when considering a new accounting tool.
Frequently asked questions when selecting free accounting software
It’s important to ask the right questions to determine if a free accounting platform fits the needs of your small business. Some common questions include:
What kind of limitations or restrictions does the free plan have?
Free accounting solutions often have a limit on the number of users, transaction records, and invoices you can process. Also, some tools may not offer third-party integrations with their free plan, while others may limit customer support to just email or chat. Check for all such limitations before finalizing any free product.
Do you allow invoice customization with your free plan?
A free accounting solution that offers invoice customization will allow you to add your business logo, branding, and specific payment terms to customer invoices. Additionally, verify if you can generate and send invoices directly from the software.
Does the free plan provide any reporting capabilities?
Reporting is essential for analyzing your accounting data, and a free business accounting tool should offer basic reporting features such as profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow reports to help you gain insights into your small business’s financial health.
Survey methodology
To be considered for this list, products had to:
Have at least 20 unique product reviews published on Software Advice within the past two years, with an average rating of 3.0 or higher. We selected the six products with the highest ratings to feature in this article.
Offer a free, stand-alone version of the software (not a trial version of the software where you must purchase a product after a limited amount of time).
Meet our accounting software definition: Accounting software enables accounting professionals in any type of organization to manage accounts and perform various accounting and financial operations such as record keeping, financial reporting, billing, and invoicing.
* Our research team identified these free features from vendor websites (as of May 22, 2023) based on their analysis of what users find valuable in or expect from accounting software. This list is not exhaustive. For additional free features, refer to the vendor's website.
We select and rank products based on an objective methodology developed by our research team. While some vendors may pay us when they receive web traffic or leads, this has no influence on our methodology.
Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from Software Advice’s accounting software directory. The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products.