Avalara vs DAVO

QuickBooks Online

Bindo POS

TaxJar

Vertex

TaxCloud

Pazo

Compare Avalara and DAVO based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more on GetApp. Find out which software is best for your business in 2026.

QuickBooks Online is an all-in-one online business software designed to help manage business finances. The platform is built to scale businesses, unlocking insights and providing the functionality of a larger team, all on one integrated platform.

hellotax

hellotax is a cloud-based VAT management software, which offers tools for both registering VAT numbers and automating VAT filings and returns. The all-in-one VAT management platform is designed specifically for online retailers within Europe and offers VAT registration for various EU countries.

QuickBooks Online Advanced

QuickBooks Online Advanced is a web-based accounting & business management solution which enables small businesses to track sales, inventory, financial accounts & payroll from a single dashboard

Avalara offers automated tax compliance software that simplifies sales tax reporting and filing for businesses of all sizes. Its agentic AI handles tax calculations, returns preparation, and exemption certificate management across jurisdictions.

Accounting

Accounting Integration

Accounts Payable

Accounts Receivable

Address Validation

Alerts/Notifications

Audit Trail

Bank Reconciliation

Billing & Invoicing

Compliance Management

Consumer Use Tax

Corporate/Business

Data Import/Export

Document Management

Electronic Filing

Exemption Management

Financial Reporting

For eCommerce

General Ledger

K-1 Reporting

Multi-Currency

Process/Workflow Automation

Purchase Order Management

Reporting/Analytics

Sales Tax Management

Taxability Verification

Tax Calculation

Tax Compliance

Tax Filing

Tax Management

Third-Party Integrations

Transaction Tracking

Value Added Tax (VAT)

By industry, Avalara reviewers are most commonly professionals in retail (17%). The most frequent use case for Avalara cited by reviewers is sales tax (99% of reviewers).

Users and use cases

Some users report that Avalara offers good value for money and find it reasonably priced for their needs. However, many users say it is expensive, and reviewers indicate that the pricing structure is confusing and upgrades are costly.

Value for money

Avalara is a sales tax solution offering key features such as tax calculation and tax compliance, among others.

Avalara

Web-based

Basic

IT Manager

It saves time in that it is able to automatically identify customers who have tax exemption certificates on file and processes transactions based on valid Tax Exemption Certificates on file that are valid.  

Assuming you have no issues or questions, the functionality and automation of the sales tax calculation, tax filing and tracking of customer tax exemptions are fantastic, especially if you can integrate Avalara with your ERP system.

Founder

Their entire purpose is to file tax returns accurately and compliantly, yet our filings were submitted incorrectly and non-compliant. When I raised the issue, the team refused to take responsibility or offer a resolution.

Avalara requires you to use their AI support and knowledge base articles to solve problems, before you can speak to someone about your issue.  

In addition, it is not set up to configure locations of warehouses, so it calculates taxes according only to the location of the corporation, sending a warning to all clients outside of that country that they may have to pay duty charges upon receiving the goods.

Tax Expertise - questionable - they state they will ensure you will "Submit returns to the right places at the right times with an automated filing" and they literally have been filing our LA returns to the wrong tax entity for 3 years and when I brought it to their attention and asked how they would resolve this their reply is "it is [your company] responsibility to ensure that state registration aligns with the schedule return setup in Avalara Portal, [your company] will need to resolve this notice directly with the LA" or pay for additional services from Avalara.

Senior Tax Manager

Avalara is a powerful tax automation platform that offers many useful features designed to simplify and streamline tax compliance for businesses of all sizes.

It is super expensive too, and though I never ended up actually using it (we did not launch our store with it) and due to all this frustrating issues met with indifference, we decided to cancel our contract and ask for a report nbirsement for the software that was never used, ensuring I mentioned that as a business owner, I was willing to negotiate a fair market value for the time spent with their engineer in the one meeting we had with him to explain our issues and the one meeting with the implementation specialist at the beginning, who sent us the manual to read, and took us through a general walkthrough of their platform, as well as all the HS codes we had received vs the ones we actually paid for. But they were unwavering due to their 60 day policy, which I sure went well o er since I purchased the service way before we were ready for launch, and all though I explained everything I stated above.

Tried canceling my service and had a hard time finding how to go about that.   Once the fee went through for another annual use they refused to refund saying it was too late.

Accounting Administrator

Our data did not integrate correctly, and upon individual review of our account, we found many certificates had been duplicated by the automated system, and we were being charged for storage per item. When we brought this to our account manager's attention, she rolled her eyes and became, not only defensive but aggressive during the meeting.

Controller

There are often errors in the sales tax calculations on our sales, resulting in incorrect amounts being charged to our customers and further remitted to the government.

Director of Finance

There can be several false positives of sales tax nexus that you are alerted to that I haven't quite found a way to configure.

Director of Finance and HR

They just tell you what you already can see in the AvaTax dashboard and will not help you find meaningful answers. If your ticket gets escalated, be prepared to spend 4-5 hours showing Avalara how you QA'd their product and found their bug, and then once you've proven to them, multiple times, that the bug exists, they might just fix it.

It was great for 3 years as we assumed they were doing their job of tax assessment and tax returns well but the house of cards began to fall when we started getting notices from State entities that our taxes had been filed incorrectly for YEARS.

owner

The service didn’t work properly, and support was useless — they were supposed to help me seamlessly transition my Shopify orders into Avalara, but it never happened, and I ended up doing everything manually.

Then there were compatibility issues between avalara and our system, though they say they are compatible with WooCommerce, if your platform is using any other plugins or apps it will cause issues, such as long delays in the check out process.

Poor communication, lack of accountability, and overall not providing the true service you pay for.

They take your money and run (don't do their job) until they ask for more money to upgrade you to a higher tier to do more of a job they haven't done in the past.

ERP Administrator

I’ve had an open case for nearly a year, and their only repeated suggestion is to “upgrade the installed package,” which has never resolved the problem.

Tax Manager

The combination of their chaotic emailing, lack of support with our new account manager, and their high prices are definitely making us lean towards taking our business elsewhere.

However, at no point did it tell me clearly what were the things I needed to have in order before implementing Avalara, nor did he say at any point there was no reason to make the purchase until after the launch of the store since I had no sales and therefore no threshold would be surpassed.

They will charge exorbitant "Upgrade Fees".   Because their QBO integration is so bad, you end up having to use 3x the usage you expected, which then costs you 3x what you expected.  

President

From a software/technical standpoint the software was withdrawing money from my bank account for taxes in a state we were not collecting taxes in.  

They were deceptive upon onboarding, have billed me incorrectly, have errors and incomplete coverage in the ECM software, and customer service is non-existent.

I stopped receiving bills from Avalara and couldn’t log into my account anymore, so I thought it was the end of the story. But they kept charging me.

Finance Team

We then got in touch with them and organised the onboarding, which was a bit of a lenghty process, however once we launched it we never looked back.

Their state registration fees are massive and you basically have to provide them ALL the information they'll be using to file with the state anyway.

They don't make it clear that when you purchase the plan that the returns don't roll over, despite knowing what I needed (about 15 returns a year)

It is very low cost for the amount of value that is provided.

Member

Then they disconnected the App that integrated with eComm and then never fixed anything.

Extremely helpful in navigating the ins-and-outs of US sales tax.

I literally had to make a spreadsheet one time when we had multiple backfilings going on because it was incredibly chaotic and stressful.

Avalara provides information on tax situations throughout the 46 taxing states + District of Columbia.  

Their software that is used and intergrated into woocommerce to determine correct tax rate

Pushed to upgrade to costly Technical Account Manager with no added value

Their website seems to regularly go down or will just have 1 page that isn't working which is incredibly frustrating.

Senior Division Controller

Avalara AvaTax and Returns is a must have given the quantity of our transactions and returns required.

In addition, we have had a few large issues arise and it seems like their team never takes them seriously.

Owner

I am a Shopify Plus member and am held hostage by Avalara because Shopify doesn't offer any other choices. If you can avoid them, you must.

At no point in time were we asked what elements were we using as part of our platform to see potential compatibility issues.

You want to create an invoice, and then send it to your customer, right?  

Business Systems Manager

Automatically calculates tax rate for orders.

During that process I was told the registration was not complete so the task of registration fell on us.  

I have been trying since December to get resolution on several issues and no matter what avenue I take, I can't even get someone to respond to me.

We would have been open to paying for an hour or two, or whatever was necessary with some one that would actually takes us through the process to do it right from the get go.

Accountant

There are alot of reports that do about the same thing just maybe a little tweek so sometimes trying to find the right one is hard.

Their help desk is usually not very helpful unless it's a very basic question, like where is something located on the platform.

Our account manager changed multiple times in the first few months and has since stabilized.

Long-standing issues remain unresolved (case open for nearly a year)

Head

Even no proper action after escalated complaint one month ago!

Reviewers indicate Avalara's tax calculation capabilities are generally accurate and automated, which they find valuable for reducing manual effort and minimizing errors. Users report Avalara helps manage complex rates across all US jurisdictions and appreciate that it automatically applies tax to customers nationwide. They say Avalara simplifies submitting and automating taxes, but some users mention frequent calculation errors, recalculations after invoicing, and inconsistent support. Users feel Avalara's accuracy is strong when set up correctly, but setup and support challenges can impact reliability. Of the 23 Avalara users who gave detailed accounts of their use of Tax Calculation, 91% rated this feature as important or highly important.

Bugs and Issues

Billing and Charges

Implementation Process

Sales Process

Customer Support

Integrations

Account Management

Return Filing

Consistently poor user experiences

company owner 

100% of reviewers feel negative about their overall experiences with Avalara. Reviewers indicate they have faced significant frustration and disappointment, describing interactions as horrendous and unacceptable. Users think the company fails to resolve issues, leaving them with unresolved problems and a sense of being mistreated. Some reviewers feel their business suffered due to what they perceive as a lack of accountability and support. They repeatedly mention feeling ripped off and express regret over choosing the product, citing ongoing dissatisfaction with both the software and the company.

High and unpredictable costs

Senior Accountant

73% of reviewers feel negative about Avalara’s pricing. Users think the software is expensive, especially for small businesses and startups. Reviewers indicate the pricing structure is confusing, with unexpected increases and mandatory upgrades to more costly plans. Some users report paying high fees for services that did not meet their needs or failed to function as promised. They mention annual price hikes and express concern about the overall value received for the cost. Multiple reviewers feel misled about pricing during onboarding and dissatisfied with the return on investment.

Unreliable billing and refund practices

97% of reviewers feel negative about Avalara’s billing and charges. Users report frequent overcharging, unexpected fees, and difficulty canceling accounts. Reviewers indicate they have been billed for unused or non-functional services and face challenges obtaining refunds or credits. Some users say billing disputes are met with unhelpful responses, and resolving issues can take months. They express frustration with inflexible contracts, automatic renewals, and charges for development environments. Multiple reviewers feel the company does not take responsibility for billing errors, causing financial strain and wasted resources.

Persistent technical problems

If you ever encounter a problem (and we encountered MANY), do not count on anyone taking responsibility for the issues, or being able to fix them.

78% of reviewers feel negative about Avalara’s bugs and technical issues. Reviewers indicate they encounter frequent software errors, integration failures, and unresolved technical problems. Users think troubleshooting is difficult due to vague error messages and inconsistent support. Some reviewers report spending significant time documenting bugs and repeating information to support staff, often without resolution. They say recurring issues disrupt business operations, with some experiencing problems across multiple modules and integrations. Users express frustration with the lack of accountability and effective follow-up from the support team.

Slow and ineffective support

Lack of support, virtually no communication from key support staff that are critical for most anything in Avalara, software is NOT intuitive and figuring it out is a nightmare AND if you don't code everything properly it will do as much harm as good.

Business Resource Manager

Calling in takes forever and trouble tickets, it seems the biggest goal is to close as fast as possible which isn't always the best customer service.

67% of reviewers feel negative about Avalara’s customer support. Users report long wait times, unresponsive representatives, and frequent changes in support contacts. Reviewers indicate support often fails to resolve issues, sometimes making problems worse. Some users say communication is poor, with cases closed prematurely and inconsistent follow-up. They express frustration with the lack of knowledgeable assistance, especially during implementation or when dealing with complex problems. Multiple reviewers feel customer service has declined over time and does not meet their expectations for timely, effective help.

Comprehensive reporting tools

80% of reviewers feel positive about Avalara’s reporting capabilities. Users appreciate the seamless integration with ERP systems and the ability to generate detailed, logical reports for monthly reconciliations and compliance. Reviewers indicate the web portal is intuitive for accessing and reviewing reports, making it easy to file returns and track data. They find the reporting features transparent and flexible, allowing for manual adjustments when necessary. Some users say the variety of available reports helps them remain compliant and simplifies balancing and reconciliation processes.

Intuitive and accessible design

The ease of use and the versatility of the different programs they have that are available.  

83% of reviewers feel positive about Avalara’s ease of use. Reviewers indicate the software is intuitive and user-friendly, allowing users to quickly access various features and products in a single space. They appreciate that the system is easy to implement and navigate, with minimal effort required to find needed information. Users think the layout is straightforward and flexible, making it simple to adjust settings. Some reviewers find the learning curve manageable and value the abundance of training resources provided, which helps them and their teams become comfortable with the platform.

Small Business

Mid-size Business

Large Enterprises

Freelancers

Some users report that Avalara offers good value for money, describing it as affordable and reasonably priced for their needs. Some reviewers find it well worth the investment and appreciate its benefits. However, many users say Avalara is expensive, especially for small businesses and startups, and mention that costs can increase over time. Reviewers indicate that the pricing structure is confusing and that upgrades or additional services often come with higher fees. Some users feel misled about pricing or dissatisfied with the cost relative to the software’s functionality and benefits.

DAVO Sales Tax automatically sets your sales tax aside daily using sales data from your POS. DAVO then files and pays sales tax to the state, on time and in full. Try it free for 30 days.

Avalara vs DAVO Comparison (2026)

Avalara

DAVO

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives