Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Price, Features & What’s Best

Cody Cromwell
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When to Use QuickBooks

As a new business owner, you need a tablet or a laptop that can serve as the host for your small business. As a working business owner, you will need an accounting software package that will help you manage your business effectively and efficiently. When you are just starting your business, QuickBooks will do just fine.

However, later on, you will need to upgrade to a cloud accounting software (cloud accounting software is a suite of software applications including accounting software and other applications). When you are already using cloud accounting software, it will be virtually impossible for your business to continue on smoothly with QuickBooks as the sole accounting software on your tablet or laptop.

Why Cloud Accounting Software?

Cloud accounting software has emerged as the preferred choice for small businesses. Cloud accounting software is secure, easy to use and cost effective, making it the ideal choice for many small business owners.

When to Use Zoho Books

Or QuickBooks?

Drawing a comparison between Zoho Books and QuickBooks may seem silly, but it’s actually a good exercise. In the accounting world, QuickBooks is the dinosaur and Zoho Books is the newbie.

Every year as things continue to change and upgrade, you must make a decision whether you want to stay with your novel or stick with your dinosaur and get left behind. And both programs are awesome!

The fact is that Zoho Books is a newer program. Let’s see, up until October 2015, Zoho Books was called Quickbooks Online.

And because of this, Zoho Books still gets better features because Quickbooks is now used by more than 100,000 small business and has climbed to the top.

And because of this, Zoho also gets more external updates and a way of enhancing the program. In fact, the new Flashback feature has recently become available in Quickbooks Online and Zoho Books.

This is a proven fact that you get more updates when you are new, especially with technological advantages.

But Quickbooks has one downside. Quickbooks has always been used by bigger businesses. If you are a small business who is just starting out then Quickbooks is always a possibility for you to consider.

Zoho Books vs QuickBooks at a Glance

We all have our favorite software. And as any software owner knows, some of these programs come with more features and functions than you’re actually going to want or need. When you’re starting out business…

You don’t know what you don’t know!

When you’re assessing which software you might need, you don’t want to make a purchase right off the bat that’s going to collect dust on your shelf. You want something that’s flexible and easy to use; something you can customize to fit your company needs; something that’s going to grow with your small business. Zoho Books and QuickBooks can be the part of your team’s ecosystem. There are pros and cons to each software. But with careful investigation and comparison, you’ll find Zoho Books win for many business owners.

Zoho Books

  • Easy to use and learn. Zoho’s intuitive user interface makes it easy and inviting for first timers to use the software.
  • Built on a flexible, scalable platform. As your business grows, you can scale up this software without having to replace it again.

Is Zoho Books or QuickBooks Best for You?

Choosing the right accounting software is a big decision, and many people are inclined to believe that they have to choose between Zoho Books and QuickBooks.

But we believe that you can get the best of both worlds, and that’s what we believe is the best thing about Zoho.

What makes it easy to think about choosing between QuickBooks or Zoho Books is the fact that they’re almost identical. They both have an easy learning curve, they both have easy to use interfaces and they both have low costs, along with many other things in common.

But no accounting software is perfect and we’ll go over the pros and cons of each specific accounting software to see where they might differ.

Question 1

What is the Difference Between Zoho Book and QuickBooks?

The first thing you’ll notice when comparing QuickBooks vs Zoho Books is the price.

QuickBooks is the most expensive of the three options, and it’s a good idea to explore other solutions before you devote the funds needed for QuickBooks.

Zoho Books and Remitly both offer online accounting software with payroll functionality. They’re meant for small businesses and don’t have the payroll tools that QuickBooks has. But you can always upgrade if you decide that payroll needs are very important to you.

QuickBooks has a lot more features than Zoho Books. It’s a more robust and complete solution for accounting and payroll. If you’re looking for a complete accounting and payroll solution with a lot of features, Quickbooks for Mac and QuickBooks for Windows are good options.

QuickBooks is also a good choice if you need to integrate your payroll with your existing business software.

Do you currently use any other Zoho products or apps?

If so, what is your experience with them?

Yes, I am happy to share my experience. In fact, I’m currently using Zoho Books as the only bookkeeping software provider for my small business, which I started in 2007.

I am happy to share the following with you: The integration between Zoho Books and QuickBooks is amazing. We’ve been using QuickBooks for the past few years and I completely trust their integration and know how reliable it is.

They’ve spoken at length about connecting them together at this conference (see below) so it’s my hope that this will be a reality for all users of QuickBooks in the very near future.

If they make the QuickBooks app available on all mobile devices and platforms that is Zoho Books will be my bookkeeper for life. I have Zoho Project and Files as part of my tools for collaboration and communication and it’s these apps, along with Zoho Books, that will give me the platform for my business to grow.

Question 2

Are you interested in using a mobile application version?

Question 3

Should I Buy zoho Books or QuickBooks? Which is the better accounting program?

When it comes to accounting software, there is no one size fits all. According to G2 Crowd, QuickBooks Pro comes in 3rd place on average while Zoho Books hold the top position.

If you want to stand out from your competitors, you’ll need to make some choices on the kind of accounting software program that you need. You might imagine that a popular name like Zoho Books really is the best option for you. But with an average rating over 4.7 stars, it can be tricky to know which system is best for your needs. In its place, G2 Crowd from Google and Termiantor were in the top 5, despite being slightly off the list if you look at the average ratings.

Have you used accounting software in the past?

Do you want to try Zoho Books or QuickBooks again this year? Do you want to take advantage of cloud computing?

Do you prefer a simple-to-use interface or do you prefer advanced features?

If you want to manage your upcoming books, you’ll need one of the following accounting software programs:

For the past 40 years, QuickBooks has been one of the most popular bookkeeping software programs available. In fact, during the past decade, QuickBooks has been especially popular because of its feature rich ability to manage your books.

Zoho Books is one of the newest and most popular accounting software programs out there.

Both software programs come with a free 30-day trial. However, QuickBooks is an on-premise program that requires the purchase of a yearly license, while Zoho Books is hosted by the cloud.

Let’s take a closer look at each accounting software program to help you help decide which one is right for you.

Zoho Books Zoho Books

Zoho Books is a cloud-based accounting system that takes just a few minutes to set up. The system itself is fee based, and features real-time access so you can track your financial data while also getting an overview of your bookkeeping.

Question 4

How easy is QuickBooks vs Zoho Books?

QuickBooks users complain about the confusing UI, number of features it lacks and the glitches. But for someone who does not have much accounting experience, QuickBooks is a breeze.

>The company has a demo account that you can test it for yourself – you can access the demo account and use QuickBooks for 30 days.

>The chart below gives you an idea of the features you get with Zoho Books:

>Zoho Books Pros: Intuitive UI, simple to use, free trial, integration with QuickBooks and virtually no glitches.

>Zoho Books Cons: No right-click menu, lack of invoice templates and feature overload.

> Zoho Books vs Quickbooks

> QuickBooks Pros: Easy to use, extensive set of financial reports, many built in features (support for inventory, loan, etc.), great customer support, QuickBooks payroll integration, QuickBooks class-room training, etc.

> QuickBooks Cons: Poor Mobile app, limitations on mobile sync in Zoho Books vs Quickbooks, lack of PayPal payment integration, trouble with Quickbooks connect, poor customer support from Quickbooks.

> Zoho Books Pros: Features are very limited (free version only), slightly better user interface, QuickBooks payroll integration, QuickBooks class-room training.

Do you need to create invoices?

When starting up, the online invoicing feature alone is enough to be worth the money, as you need to send out invoices to all your clients anyway. However, if you’re planning to become a regular freelancer or run a business, you should definitely look at other payment gateways.

With Zoho Books, you can easily create invoices and send them to clients online. Then your clients can click a link in your email and pay the invoice directly from their online bank account.

With QuickBooks, you have to email all your clients your invoices and ask them to click the link to pay. Later, reports can be created to figure out your overall earnings and income.

However, reports need to be exported from Quickbooks and imported into Excel, which means the time needed to create such reports would be comparable to doing it manually.

For invoices and sending them, Quickbooks is better. For reports, Zoho Books is faster and easier to export.

But QuickBooks’s revenue plans are great, as it allows you to send a certain number of invoices per month before charging you. Zoho Books does not have such plans.

None-the-less, the ability to create invoices online is the most important feature and the one that’s worth paying for.

Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Pricing

You should put a high value on your budget and careful cost calculations before committing to either accounting service. Some of the different services mentioned above like PeopleDoc are free to use, although there are some other additional charges that you may have to manage, such as data transfer costs to a different system. Using the features from your regular accounting software will need a different cost calculation than the services mentioned above.

Zoho Books Pricing

So, what is Zoho Books and why do you prefer to use it instead of QuickBooks?

Well, Zoho Books is a cloud-based business management software solution that lets you manage your entire accounting work cycle from your tablet or smartphone. It can be installed onto a PC, Mac or Linux machine.

It’s free, easy to use and does almost everything you would do on QuickBooks.

Here’s a quick and easy comparison:

> Expenses in QuickBooks:

Budgeting and setting up a budget for your monthly expenses is a crucial part of any business management routine. This is the primary purpose of setting up an expense budget in QuickBooks.

Here’s how it works.

You can add up a number of expense accounts that you are likely to incur and run a specific report to see how much each of these accounts cost you. You will be able to understand at a glance whether you have allowed enough funds to cover your monthly expenses or not.

But what if you make an unexpected expense? In QuickBooks, you can’t add a charge for this in the normal way. You have to track it separately as a transaction and amend your expense budget later.

This is where Zoho Books saves the day.

QuickBooks Pricing

QuickBooks has a reputation for being more expensive than competitors. In the software industry, few people can compete with Zoho Books when it comes to price. But the question is this: is QuickBooks’s lower price tag worth it?

If you’re an entrepreneur or a small business owner, you’re probably not paying for QuickBooks’s services every month. So if you have a choice, would you rather save money or gain features? Let’s see what QuickBooks offers up front, then we’ll talk about where QuickBooks comes up lacking a bit in the features department and why you might decide that it’s not worth the price.

Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Features

Pricing and Similarity.

Both Zoho Books and QuickBooks are multi-platform accounting software that help you organize and manage your finances, month by months and year by years.

Both products also simplify things for businesses and freelancers.

QuickBooks and Zoho Books let you manage your accounts, check transactions, track expenses and more on multiple devices.

Both are user-friendly and have extensive online support.

But which one is the best?

Are Zoho Books and QuickBooks the same or are they both different, comparable apps?

QuickBooks or Zoho Books reviews comprehensively compare the two accounting software to help you make the best decision.

Here are the most important advantages and disadvantages of Zoho Books vs QuickBooks:

  • QuickBooks vs Zoho Books …
  • Advantages of QuickBooks

There are features that prove QuickBooks is the best for professionals:

  • Access to your accounts and transactions from laptops, tablets and mobile devices
  • Integrated online banking
  • Unlimited sub-accounts
  • Integrated tax preparation
  • Company file consolidation
  • Bill payment
  • Payroll solutions
  • Professional email templates
  • QuickBooks Online version if you don’t need desktop apps or integrated reporting
  • Guaranteed 3-day reply for online support and email queries
  • Continuous backup of data

Zoho Books Tiered Features Table

Zoho Books is one of the newer entrants in the cloud accounting market. It’s important to note that Zoho Books was founded specifically as a cloud accounting service. It’s designed to work well across multiple devices and there are enough features to make it a viable alternative to QuickBooks Online.

Zoho Books is the go to accounting software for small to medium sized businesses and sole proprietor businesses. It features a full accounting system and support for Quickbooks file compatibility. Zoho Books offers a web based application that is compatible with over 300 devices including iPhones, iPads, Android phones, Windows 8 tablets, Windows/Mac laptops and desktops. Hence you need not worry about unsupported devices.

In addition to the web based application, there is also a desktop based application which can be used for your Windows/Mac devices. You can also access Zoho Books from your browser installed in your computer.

To plan your expenses and keep a track of your expenses, you have two options. You can either use the built in calendars and tasks for your time and expenses, or you can use the downloadable excel sheets.

Zoho Books will generate a complete financial statement for enterprises and sole proprietors automatically. It will then present the same to you in the printable format.

QuickBooks Tiered Features Table

QuickBooks is an accounting software that is popular for small businesses, consultants and freelancers. QuickBooks offers a free trial version for the small businessman.

QuickBooks has a tiered pricing structure where additional features can be added at small or larger cost. High-end features as well as basics such as invoicing and quotations.

Below is a list of features.

No Quickbooks Available in the Cloud

  • In the cloud version, you have to have a lot of storage space as well as a fast internet connection to be able to use it. Otherwise, file conversion can be a problem.
  • No E-Mail templates
  • Can't have a monthly data backup

10 Versions

  • For a small business shifting between versions can be a hassle.
  • May require additional cost per version
  • Can't use a desktop version

3 Vehicles

  • Moving between vehicles can be difficult.
  • 2 smaller versions and one larger version
  • Can't use a desktop version
  • Desktop versions have more features

Staffing Grid

  • More flexibility than time sheet system
  • Smaller versions for uncertain organizations
  • If you decide to upgrade to a larger version, you will have to add new employees again.

Job Costing

Job costing is the most important feature of most accounting software.

Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Ease of Use

Once upon a time, I was a loyal QuickBooks user. But even then, I was always wondering why so many people were using QuickBooks to manage their business when there was only a slightly cheaper alternative available.

The free suite of Zoho note taking applications put QuickBooks to shame many years ago in terms of supporting notes. But still, one had to pay dearly to that using QuickBooks as it was a fully fledged accounting software. It was my first question when I started using Zoho Books on a laptop instead of a desktop and I’ve had to pay for only my phone bill.

I’m not against QuickBooks trying to earn money for the guys churning out updates and improvements. It has been in their DNA since the very beginning, so they are entitled to do that. I always just wondered why don’t they do that from the profit they make from the many other large companies they serve besides small and medium-sized businesses.

Zoho Books, on the other hand, has always been and continues to be the –light” version of QuickBooks and that’s why folks like me adore its native-like simplicity and functionality. It’s the best tool for managing and tracking your finances and it’s free.

QuickBooks Online Ease of Use

To be a successful bookkeeper or to manage your accounting, you need to have up to date records of your financial transactions. QuickBooks Online was designed to fulfill precisely that need, and it performs this task well whether you need to create invoices, manage expense reports, create estimates, maintain your client files, or maintain accounts receivable. With QuickBooks Online setup in under an hour and access to your account information anywhere, anytime, its QuickBooks will keep you at peace while making sure your books are properly in order.

Zoho Books Ease of Use

Like QuickBooks, Zoho Books is a cloud-based accounting solution. That means that all your accounting records are stored in the cloud, so you can access them no matter where you are – at home, in the office, or on the go.

Unlike QuickBooks though, Zoho Books is a web-based solution that works with any device, including your computer, tablet, and phone. This also means that all your data and information is encrypted, so none of your data can be intercepted.

With a web-based solution like Zoho Books, you can easily keep track of all your accounting records. However, if you’re happy using a desktop solution, then QuickBooks might be a better choice.

Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Integrations

QuickBooks Integrations

Which Is Best?

Zoho Books and QuickBooks Integration offers a range of options including manual integration through API, live integration, and the Direct Connect feature.

QuickBooks Custom Connections to Zoho Books lets you connect QuickBooks to your Zoho Books account to provide easy access to your company’s accounts in Zoho Books.

Zoho Books Smart-Link lets you automatically transfer data between QuickBooks and Zoho Books. Automated data transfer ensures that you have the most up-to-date information in QuickBooks and also ensures that your data is updated in Zoho Books.

There are a number of QuickBooks integration options available with Zoho Books, and the features and prices vary.

These are the QuickBooks Connects for Zoho Books:

Zoho Books Convert to Quicken : ‘ Automatically transfer your bank balance, transactions, disbursements, and payroll information into your Quicken account.

‘ Automatically transfer your bank balance, transactions, disbursements, and payroll information into your Quicken account. Zoho Books Convert to Excel: ‘ Export your Zoho Books data into excel files and respective excel sheets.

Zoho Books Integrations

Zoho Books makes accounting more efficient with integrations with popular services. These integrations provide you with all the information and tools that you need to take care of your business at a moment’s notice. You can use these integrations to take care of most aspects of your business such as making recurring payments, automatically exporting data to popular platforms like QuickBooks and Freshbooks, and managing payments in the Zoho Books payments dashboard.

Additionally, you can also jump on our social media integration to automatically publish your content to Facebook and Twitter, and then easily send your leads a personalized email copy of your post.

There are many keystone features offered by Zoho Books that have helped power some of the largest businesses in the world and can help your business grow too. The following sections provide an overview of the key features that you can take advantage of to increase the functionality of your business.

Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Mobile App

When it comes to using your mobile phone to access your accounts, you can’t beat QuickBooks.

The latest mobile version works seamlessly with the desktop and offers all of the features you’ll need to manage your business. It’s compatible with all tablet devices, and it’s good to see that the mobile version of the QuickBooks app offers traditional menus and screens so that you don’t have to bounce between devices in order to perform various tasks. You can also store your transaction data in the cloud and back it up when you need to.

If you need a totally cloud-based accounting package, then Zoho Books is also a great option.

Unlike QuickBooks, Zoho Books can only be used online. It offers all of the features you’d expect from a robust cloud-based accounting package, and it also offers the broadest possible package of business organization features as well.

The price tag may be slightly on the higher end, but it’s a small price to pay for the best of both worlds when it comes to accounting.

Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Customer support

If you have a question or problem you need help with you most likely would and can contact support either from their website or apps, Customer service options is available to all users.

QuickBooks has the oldest and longest experience in accounting while Zoho Books is relatively younger albeit with a wide range of features.

QuickBooks also have the Advantage not only in Accounting where it has been dominating for close to decade but also in Bookkeeping, Tax preparation, Inventory, Sales and other more features.

Smaller Learning Curves for Beginners

QuickBooks also has some disadvantages like.

Requires Larger Amount of Storage Space

Does not have as many special reports, graphs and other useful tools as QuickBooks Online.

Verdict:Both QuickBooks Pro and QuickBooks Pro Plus are the same when it comes to price and features and even have the same user interface.

QuickBooks Customer Support

Live Chat & Phone Number?

QuickBooks is a popular accounting solution that many accounting firms, small businesses and self-employed professionals use. So the question is why? .

One reason is because QuickBooks is very powerful. QuickBooks’ reports can be very detailed and can help a business owner better monitor and pay their bills. Customers and partners can track their sales and inventory in QuickBooks, and all of these transactions can be exported or used to begin importing into QuickBooks. Plus QuickBooks is tailored to the needs of the business owner and not an accountant.

Another reason that many people choose QuickBooks is because it’s very easy to use. QuickBooks has many features that allow business owners to focus on running their business instead of having to learn complicated accounting software. QuickBooks has a graphic interface with a numbering system that allows users to understand all of the accounting behind a business immediately. QuickBooks also has several tools that can help you manage your business, including online billing and invoicing, purchasing, online bank and credit card transactions, time sheets, mileage tracking, mileage reports, reports, time tracking, time reports, project planning, spending plans, social media management, customer relationship management, messaging, and contact management.

Zoho Books Customer Support

Give your time and efforts to your business, creating and growing it. And then you get to hear from your clients that you can make it better, easier, with new features available on a new software.

Zoho Books and QuickBooks are two such software solutions you can integrate into your accounting process to help make your business a success.

They both serve different purposes, have diverse group of users, and provide a varied set of features.

Let’s take a look at the similarities and differences, the package of the two software solutions, and which one you should choose.

Similarities between Zoho Books and QuickBooks

Both Zoho Books and QuickBooks have a flexible, user friendly interface.

Both are designed considering their types of users – QuickBooks has been specially designed for business users, whereas Zoho Books is suitable for your personal accounting need.

Here’re some of the sample pictures of each interface.

Zoho Books

Both have a simple step by step purchase workflow.

Both have different types of accounting reports available to you.

QuickBooks has a different report types for a variety of businesses.

Both have apps available for both Android and iOS.

Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Reviews

Zoho Books is a cloud-based bookkeeping software that helps businesses organize their finances and generate reports easily. It comes with built-in accounting features like check printing and invoicing. The company provides a free trial for its hosted service, so you can try it for yourself to see how it works and how useful it is.

Zoho Books offers a free bookkeeping trial for a period of 30 days that lets you prepare the company’s statements for incoming and outgoing transactions. This means you can test the software’s features and see if it meets your requirements. At the end of the 30 days, you can either convert your account to a paid plan or choose to cancel the bookkeeping service.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks is a popular accounting software that has been sold since 1994. QuickBooks is known for its versatility and ease of use. The software can handle both small and medium-sized businesses. It is priced quite attractively, and the online and desktop versions are easy to work with. The company supports real-time payments and is also available on multiple platforms like Android, iOS, and Windows.

QuickBooks Online Reviews

QuickBooks is one of the most popular accounting software programs today. Whether you are a small business owner, an entrepreneur or a freelancer, you need a reliable accounting software to help you manage your finances.

You can easily choose QuickBooks as your accounting software because of its 24/7 on-call customer support team, its user-friendly interface and its free downloadable trial version. Plus there is a huge community of QuickBooks users, like you, who can help you figure out how to do all kinds of business tasks quickly and easily with the help of QuickBooks.

It has advanced features that make accounting easy, especially if you are new to managing a business. But when you work with QuickBooks, you can be pretty sure that you’ll also be able to get all the help and support you need. Whether you want to start a new business, repair a problem, or just have questions, QuickBooks Online has a huge community of users who can provide help whenever you need it.

QuickBooks is easy to use; it is anything but complicated, even if you are not that computer savvy. It’s because of its intuitive interface that makes it so easy to use. You can easily set up your company’s online financial accounts within 10 minutes, and you’ll be ready to manage all your business finances right away.

Zoho Books Reviews

Zoho Books is an online accounting software with a focus on ease-of-use, security and customer service.

This service is ideal if you’re still learning how to use an accounting software. Zoho Books has a fairly simple user interface that allows you to quickly create invoices and bank transactions on the go.

If you’re a professional working with multiple clients, you can use this service to consolidate all your purchase order and credit card information. You can also integrate Zoho Books with your existing online accounting software to create professional invoices and invoicing templates.

As a plus, all your reports give you a high-level initial financial status. You can also view real-time account balances and check out what’s been spent.

Zoho Books also has mobile apps for both iOS and Android.

QuickBooks is more powerful software to buy if you’re building a business.

QuickBooks can handle all the features of a proper accounting software, but it is designed to account for the needs of contractors and small business. This service can be used for both personal and professional finances and comes with a generous free trial.

Bottom Line

QuickBooks Online is the leading cloud accounting solution across all major operating platforms and provides a comprehensive set of financial reports and tools. QuickBooks Online is a preferred choice for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and is also the only accounting software on this list that is compatible with the Mac operating platform. However, QuickBooks Online has a less feature-rich out-of-the-box set of accounting tools than Zoho Books as well as a higher price point. Given the greater separation between Zoho Books’ subscription price and price to the end user, it also has a higher recurring revenue model. As such, QuickBooks Online offers the best price-per-wholesale value for most small business users, but is best avoided by business owners who prefer greater complexity and functionality. Zoho books is not for the smaller of businesses and has lots of robust features for any size of business.