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

It depends on how many people log in and who keeps the books. For up to three people, QuickBooks Online is the cheaper full ledger in year one through our partner links: Essentials ($70 a month, 3 users plus your accountant, bills and multi-currency) is $392 for the first year at 80% off for 8 months, against $432 for Xero Standard; a two-person team that stays within Xero Starter's limits (20 invoices and quotes and 5 bills a month) pays $180 on Starter, or $240 with the $5 a month auto-reconcile add-on. For four or more people, pick Xero ($25, $60 or $80 a month, unlimited users on every plan, 80% off for 6 months through our link), which is also the cheaper of the two from year two. QuickBooks Online is the pick for inventory (Plus, $110) and payroll in the same login; FreshBooks (Lite $26, or $1 a month for the first year through our link under FreshBooks's own promotion) for freelancers who mostly invoice. Wave Pro is $25; Zoho Books is free under C$50,000 of revenue and $20 a month after; Sage starts at $23. None of the six files your GST/HST return for you, they give you the figures.

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 QuickBooks Essentials $70 (3 users, multi-currency) or Plus $110, Xero Standard $60, 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); through our links QuickBooks Essentials is $392 and Xero Standard $432, and from year two Xero is the cheaper of the two.

Between $0 and $220 a month at list price, and $25 to $70 a month for the plan a typical small business actually needs. List prices in CAD: 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; 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; Wave Starter $0 without bank feeds and Pro $25; Zoho Books free under C$50,000 of revenue, then C$20; Sage from $23. Partner offers cut year one: QuickBooks Online is 80% off for 8 months through our link for new Canadian customers (Essentials $14 a month, $392 for the year against $840), and 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 any of them. Payroll (QuickBooks 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 $20 to $30 a month.

QuickBooks Online for up to three people (Essentials, $70 a month for 3 users plus your accountant, $392 in year one through our link against $432 for Xero Standard), for inventory (Plus, $110, 5 users), for multi-currency on a small team, or for payroll in the same login. Xero for four or more people, a bookkeeper and a CPA both in the file, or the lower cost from year two against QuickBooks: unlimited users, and Standard at $60 a month against $70 for Essentials. 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. Intuit's own 90% off QuickBooks Online for 6 months also takes 90% off the QuickBooks Payroll base fee; the offer through our link covers the accounting plan only. 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. New QuickBooks customers get 80% off for 8 months through our partner link on EasyStart, Essentials, Plus or Advanced, for Canadian businesses, with no code: EasyStart is $6, Essentials $14, Plus $22 and Advanced $44 a month for the first 8 months, then $30, $70, $110 or $220. Lite and QuickBooks Payroll are not part of it. Intuit's own site runs 90% off for 6 months, which also covers Lite and the payroll base fee: it costs less if you cancel within 6 months, and usually when payroll runs from the first month, while our link costs less over a year on the plan alone. Buy through the link rather than after a free trial elsewhere; our QuickBooks deal page has the terms.

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, and Lite has no accountant access. 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's pricing page says the offer ends October 14, 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: unlimited users on every plan, $60 for Standard against $110 for QuickBooks Plus once a team passes three people, 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.

It depends on the business, so this page picks per situation rather than naming one winner. We run our own firm on Xero and most of our clients are on it, mainly for unlimited users and a GST/HST and bank reconciliation workflow that keeps the books clean, and we keep client books in QuickBooks Online when their accountant requires it. Through our links, QuickBooks Online is the cheaper full ledger in year one for up to three people and the pick for inventory and payroll in one login; Xero is the pick for four or more people and costs less from year two. FreshBooks suits freelancers who mostly invoice. Xero, QuickBooks and FreshBooks pay us when you sign up through our links; Wave, Sage and Zoho do not.