Best accounting software in Canada: every plan, every price, six platforms compared

Xero for most: unlimited users, bank feeds and receipt capture included, a GST/HST workflow built for bookkeepers, plans at $25, $60 and $80 a month and 80% off for 6 months through a partner link. QuickBooks Online if your accountant works in it or you carry inventory (EasyStart $30, Essentials $70 with 3 users and multi-currency, Plus $110, Advanced $220). FreshBooks from $26 for invoicing-first freelancers. Zoho Books free under C$50,000 of revenue, Wave Pro at $25, Sage from $23.

Published Canadian prices run from $0 (Wave Starter without bank feeds, Zoho Books under C$50,000 of revenue) to $220 a month (QuickBooks Online Advanced). Typical small-business plans are Xero Standard $60, QuickBooks Essentials $70 (3 users, multi-currency) or Plus $110, FreshBooks Plus $42 plus $13 per extra user, Wave Pro $25, Zoho Books Standard C$20 and Sage from $23. A three-person service business pays $300 to $840 in year one at list ($1,320 if it needs QuickBooks Plus); Xero through our link is $432, and QuickBooks Essentials on the Intuit Buy Now offer is $462.

Between $0 and $220 a month at list price, and $25 to $60 a month for the plan a typical small business actually needs. List prices in CAD: Xero Starter $25, Standard $60 and Premium $80 with unlimited users on every plan; FreshBooks Lite $26, Plus $42 and Premium $72, plus $13 a month per extra team member; QuickBooks Online Lite $20, EasyStart $30, Essentials $70 (multi-currency), Plus $110 and Advanced $220, with users capped at 1, 1, 3, 5 and 25; Wave Starter $0 without bank feeds and Pro $25; Zoho Books free under C$50,000 of revenue, then C$20; Sage from $23. Two offers cut year one: Xero is 80% off for 6 months through our partner link (Standard $12 a month, $432 for the year against $720), and FreshBooks Lite is $1 a month for the first year through our link under FreshBooks's own September 2026 promotion ($12 for the year against $312). No code is needed for either. Payroll (Sage Payroll from $21, Wave Payroll from $25, Wagepoint alongside Xero) and payment processing fees are extra everywhere.

All six track sales tax on invoices and expenses and produce the figures for your return; none files it with the CRA for you. Xero's sales tax report and bank reconciliation are the cleanest for a bookkeeper preparing the return, and Xero prepares GST/HST, Quebec QST, BC and Saskatchewan PST and Manitoba RST returns that you then file yourself. One catch: Xero's default Nova Scotia HST rate still reads 15%, so a Nova Scotia business changes it to 14% by hand (the rate since April 1, 2025). QuickBooks Online adds a Sales Tax AI that flags coding errors and also carries QST, and FreshBooks applies GST, HST, PST and QST on invoices out of the box. Wave, Sage and Zoho report sales tax but with less depth.

Two real options. Wave Starter is $0 for unlimited invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, but bank feeds now need the $25 Pro plan. Zoho Books is free for one user plus an accountant while revenue stays under C$50,000, and bank feeds start at the C$20 Standard plan. Everything else on this page is paid from $23 to $30 a month.

Xero when the business is service-based, has a bookkeeper or CPA on the file, or expects to add users: unlimited users, $60 for Standard, and the better GST/HST workflow. QuickBooks Online when you carry inventory, your accountant standardises on it, or you want payroll inside the same login; Plus is $110 with five users. Our Xero vs QuickBooks comparison goes line by line.

QuickBooks Online (QuickBooks Payroll add-on, remits to the CRA and Revenu Quebec), Wave (Wave Payroll from $25, not in Quebec) and Sage (Sage Payroll from $21) sell payroll alongside the ledger. Xero has no Canadian payroll and pairs with Wagepoint, which syncs two-way. FreshBooks points to PaymentEvolution. Zoho Books has no Canadian payroll. Our payroll comparison prices every option.

Yes, with one subscription per company in both. Xero has no per-user fees, so a second organization is another $25 to $80 a month with everyone already invited. QuickBooks Online prices each company file separately and caps users per plan. Our guide on using Xero for multiple companies covers consolidation and the accountant view.

Both are real, and they are different offers. Xero's own pricing page runs a public promotion of 80% off for 3 months for customers in Canada buying their first organization on xero.com. Our partner link opens Xero's 80% off for 6 months page instead: no code, you sign up with the form on that page (the free-trial button there is a separate path). It covers Starter, Standard and Premium for organizations new to Xero and runs until March 31, 2027. Starter is $5, Standard $12 and Premium $16 a month for the first six months, then list price. Billing is monthly, and cancelling takes one month's notice. Our Xero deal page shows the claim steps.

Yes. It is built in Toronto, priced in CAD from $26, applies GST, HST, PST and QST on invoices, and has the best time tracking and invoicing of the six. Every plan is one user with team members at $13 each, so it suits a freelancer better than a team. Right now FreshBooks's own September 2026 promotion applies through our link with no code: Lite at $1 a month for the first year instead of $26, or 80% off Plus and Premium for 3 months, then regular price. FreshBooks has not published an end date; we re-verify it by Oct 15, 2026.

Xero and QuickBooks Online dominate practice work; both have accountant editions and free accountant access to client files. Xero's unlimited users make it cheaper for a firm-managed file, which is why most of our clients are on it; QuickBooks Online has the larger installed base, so many firms support both. Sage for Accountants offers Sage Accounting to firms at reduced client pricing. Wave and Zoho are rarely a firm's standard.

Xero for a service business or anyone who wants bank feeds, unlimited users and a browser; QuickBooks Online Plus if inventory and job costing were the reason you used Sage 50. Sage's own cloud product, Sage Accounting from $23, is the path of least resistance but a lighter ledger. Our Sage 50 to Xero migration guide covers the conversion.

Xero, for the same reasons it leads this page: unlimited users, $60 for Standard against $110 for QuickBooks Plus, bank feeds and receipt capture included, and 80% off for 6 months through our link. FreshBooks if invoicing is the whole job; Zoho Books if budget is the constraint and you do your own books.

Every cloud platform here (Xero, QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks, Wave, Sage Accounting, Zoho Books) runs in a browser on a Mac with iOS apps for receipts and invoicing. Sage 50 is Windows desktop software; Mac users on Sage 50 typically run it through a hosted desktop or migrate to a cloud ledger.

Xero. We run our own firm on it, most of our clients are on it, and the two reasons are unlimited users and a GST/HST and bank reconciliation workflow that keeps the books clean without heroics. We recommend QuickBooks Online when the accountant requires it or inventory matters, and FreshBooks for freelancers. That is the order this page uses, and it would be the same if none of them paid us.