Zoho Books vs QuickBooks: Which Is Best Rated In 2024?

Zoho Books and QuickBooks are both widely used accounting software programs catering to various businesses. QuickBooks offers versatility and customization options, making it suitable for small and medium-sized businesses seeking feature-rich solutions. 

On the other hand, Zoho Books stands out for its affordability and user-friendly bookkeeping features, making it a popular choice for small businesses. Our comparison aims to assist you in choosing the best fit for your needs.

Zoho Books: What Is It?

Zoho Books is a cloud-based accounting software empowering small businesses and individuals to efficiently manage their finances. It offers an array of features, such as expense tracking, invoicing, time tracking, payroll management, and insightful reports. With 579 reviews and an impressive rating of 4.38 / 5 stars, Zoho Books stands as a reliable choice for streamlined financial management.

Zoho Books: What Are Its Features?

Ideal for Freelancers and Small Businesses

Zoho Books offers a free plan tailored for companies with less than $50,000 annual revenue and fewer than 1,000 invoices per year. 

Comprehensive Mobile Accounting

Zoho Books’ mobile app outshines QuickBooks Online’s app with advanced features like bill and bill payment recording. This makes Zoho Books a superior QuickBooks alternative, particularly for users who prioritize mobile accounting.

Seamless Integration with Zoho Suite

For businesses already utilizing other Zoho products such as Zoho Expense and Zoho CRM, choosing Zoho Books becomes a practical choice due to seamless integration and ease of working with interconnected apps.

Client Portal for Enhanced Customer Management

With Zoho Books, users can leverage the client portal to allow customers to view and manage their transactions. The portal also enables users to review accounts, accept or reject estimates, and pay invoices.

Elite Plan for Manufacturers

Manufacturing firms, especially those dealing with high-value individual items like consumer electronics manufacturers, can opt for Zoho Books’ Elite plan. This plan provides serial inventory tracking capabilities, ideal for managing valuable inventory items.

QuickBooks: What Is It?

QuickBooks, a long-standing accounting software, aids small to medium-sized businesses in effectively managing finances, monitoring sales and expenses, and generating comprehensive financial reports. 

With a legacy that dates back to the early 1980s, QuickBooks presents various versions tailored to diverse business sizes, accompanied by a range of prices and features to cater to specific requirements. 

Apart from that, QuickBooks extends its services to include payroll facilities, as well as add-ons such as inventory management and CRM tools for enhanced business operations. 

QuickBooks garners significant praise with 6240 reviews and an impressive rating of 4.33 / 5 stars. Notably, the software received the FrontRunner 2023 award, adding to its recognition and credibility in the industry.

QuickBooks: What Are Its Features?

Easy Access to Local Bookkeepers

QuickBooks Online stands out with its extensive network of QuickBooks ProAdvisors, providing businesses easy access to local bookkeepers when needed. This valuable feature, along with the convenience of credit memo handling, contributes to QuickBooks Online being our top choice for small business.

Efficient Payroll Processing

Seamless integration with QuickBooks Payroll empowers users of QuickBooks Online to handle payroll tasks efficiently. From paying employees and calculating payroll taxes to managing employee benefits, this feature caters to businesses across various states.

Versatile Third-Party Integrations

With over 650 integrations, QuickBooks seamlessly connects with numerous business apps. This extensive range ensures easy implementation for businesses utilizing software services like CRM, ecommerce, and more. 

Zoho Books vs. QuickBooks: A Quick Comparative Analysis

Zoho Books Vs QuickBooks: Detailed Comparison

Zoho Books Vs QuickBooks: Invoicing Feature 

Zoho Books provides 16 pre-built templates, fully customizable to match company branding, facilitating the creation of impeccable invoices. The platform automates recurring invoice delivery, saving time and effort. 

Enhanced security measures include PDF invoice encryption to prevent information breaches. With the free plan, Zoho Books allows up to 1,000 free invoices annually, catering to small businesses.

Similarly, Quickbooks offers diverse features for efficient invoicing. It enables the creation of professional-looking invoices sent through various channels like emails and SMS. 

Quickbooks offers six customizable invoice templates. Notably, clients can conveniently make payments through bank transfer and payment gateway links embedded directly in the invoices, enhancing the client experience.

Zoho Books Vs QuickBooks: Payroll Management

Zoho Books does not offer an integrated payroll management solution out of the box. However, it supports various integrations like Zoho Payroll and SurePayroll, enabling companies to efficiently manage their employees. 

For Zoho Payroll, a 14-day trial period is available for users to explore the platform’s functionalities before committing.

In contrast, Quickbooks provides comprehensive payroll management features, available at an additional cost beyond subscriptions. This feature empowers organizations to calculate employee earnings, deductions, taxes, and more.

Zoho Books Vs QuickBooks: Ease Of Use

Zoho Books and Quickbooks are among the top business accounting apps and boast highly user-friendly interfaces, making them both easily navigable accounting applications. Each platform features a robust dashboard presenting critical data, including cash flow, profit loss, and expenses.

With a similar interface design and left-side menu for accessing modules, Zoho Books and Quickbooks are on equal footing in terms of ease of use. However, Quickbooks excels in the simplicity and presentation of data on its dashboard, making it the preferred choice for many users.

Zoho Books Vs QuickBooks: Customer Support 

Prompt and reliable customer support is a vital aspect of any application. Both Zoho Books and Quickbooks excel in this area, offering top-notch assistance through voice calls, chat, and email. 

Additionally, both platforms provide FAQ pages to empower customers in resolving their queries independently. However, Quickbooks gains an edge by offering 24/7 live support, a feature not available in Zoho Books’ customer service.

Zoho Books Vs QuickBooks: Operating Training

Ensuring proper customer training post-purchase is essential for companies. Zoho Books and Quickbooks excel in this aspect, offering training through diverse channels to enhance user proficiency. 

Both platforms provide video tutorials, webinars, live online lessons, and textual materials for comprehensive learning. Notably, Zoho Books goes a step further, offering in-person training opportunities, a feature not available in Quickbooks’ training offerings.

In terms of integration, Quickbooks excels by offering support for a wide range of self-developed and third-party applications available in the Quickbooks app store, allowing users to integrate with over 650 applications. 

On the other hand, Zoho Books provides support for a limited number of integrations. For companies already using Zoho products, opting for Zoho Books proves advantageous due to its seamless integration with other Zoho platforms, including Zoho Workplace, Zoho CRM Plus, Zoho People Plus, and more.

Zoho Books Vs QuickBooks: Mobile App

Smartphone applications play a vital role in enhancing software accessibility. Both Zoho Books and Quickbooks offer their dedicated smartphone applications. Notably, Zoho Books surpasses Quickbooks by providing additional support for Windows tablets and Kindle devices, in addition to Android and iOS, broadening its compatibility and accessibility.

Zoho Books Vs QuickBooks: Pricing Model

Zoho Books provides both monthly and yearly options, with the latter offering cost savings. The platform features three subscriptions—Standard, Professional, and Premium—with essential features like client portal, recurring invoices, and automated payment reminders available across all plans. 

Pricing ranges from $20 to $70 per month, and a free plan with limited capabilities is also available. Users can explore the application through a 14-day trial period.

Similarly, Quickbooks presents three monthly subscription plans—EasyStart, Essential, and Plus—with pricing starting from $20 and reaching $60 per month. The top-tier plan includes additional features like inventory tracking and project profitability tracking. 

Standard features such as multiple bank account support and automatic transaction categorization are included across all plans. Users can evaluate Quickbooks through a 30-day trial period before committing to a purchase.

Zoho Books Vs QuickBooks: Inventory Management

For product-based businesses seeking reliable inventory management solutions, both Zoho Books and QuickBooks Online offer efficient features. Both platforms enable easy creation, tracking, and adjustments of inventory items.

In Zoho Books’ Professional plan at $24 per month, inventory management is included, along with support for up to five users. In contrast, QuickBooks Online’s Advanced plan offers inventory management at $85 per month, also accommodating up to five users. 

In the context of importing bank transactions and reconciling accounts, Zoho Books and QuickBooks, including their expertise in reconciling In QuickBooks, are evenly matched, making this aspect a tie. Both platforms demonstrate the capability to perform these essential functions, which is crucial for businesses.

Zoho Books Vs QuickBooks: Assisted Bookkeeping

QuickBooks Online outshines Zoho Books in terms of its vast network of local bookkeepers, making it easier to find QuickBooks ProAdvisors. 

For live bookkeeping services, QuickBooks Live add-on offers a dedicated bookkeeper to manage your books, available at varying prices based on monthly expenses

• Low-volume bookkeeping: $200 per month (for businesses with $25,000 in monthly expenses)
• Medium-volume bookkeeping: $400 per month (for businesses with $25,001 to $150,000 in monthly expenses)
• High-volume bookkeeping: $600 per month (for businesses with $150,001 or more in monthly expenses)

 On the other hand, Zoho Books users can seek assistance from independent Zoho Books Advisors, certified accountants, bookkeepers, and tax professionals, listed in the platform’s online directory. QuickBooks Online also integrates with multiple bookkeeping providers, providing diverse options for users.

Zoho Books vs QuickBooks Online: User Reviews

Zoho Books earns praise for its user-friendly setup and accessibility, accommodating users of all accounting experience levels. 

The availability of direct customer support for complex issues adds to its appeal. 

Nevertheless, negative reviews highlight limitations in the reporting feature, hindering complex management report generation.

QuickBooks Online impresses users with its higher subscriptions supporting multiple users and offering self-service payroll, including the convenience of print checks. The platform’s bank account connectivity aids in efficient transaction management.

However, some users have faced challenges in obtaining prompt assistance from customer service representatives, leading to negative reviews.

Winding Up

Both Zoho Books and QuickBooks cater well to small and medium-sized businesses. Zoho Books emerges as an excellent option for small businesses and freelancers seeking simple, user-friendly accounting and invoicing software on a limited budget. It suits businesses that prioritize basic accounting functionality and have fewer than ten employees.

On the other hand, QuickBooks stands out for businesses requiring comprehensive accounting solutions and extensive features. It offers more functionality than Zoho Books but comes with a price tag. If businesses prioritize robust accounting management and are willing to invest, QuickBooks proves to be a better choice.