Xero vs QuickBooks Online Comparison Chart

Pros

More powerful than QuickBooks Online with a better user interface.

Cons

Less powerful than QuickBooks Desktop. There are a number of features missing that have been missing for years and despite numerous "up votes" for those features to be put into place, Xero has yet to develop them. Instead, they tend to expect you to use super expensive third-party add-on subscriptions to add in the missing functionality. Also, their connection to banks is a bit funky in that if you have multiple logins at a bank (i.e. such as at a credit union where each account has its own login), you need a separate user registered because each user can only connect to any given bank with one username and password set. This is not a problem with other online financial software we use, such as YNAB. Luckily, they have not implemented the wretched per-user pricing model that most software-as-a-service companies seem to be so drawn to these days.

Rating breakdown

Time used: 6-12 months

Frequency of use: Daily

Likelihood to recommend

Xero

Accounting Software for SMBs

Pros

This is a cloud based accounting software. It is extremely easy to use and the customer support and software updates are top notch. I have used this software in the past for a small business and I wouldn't recommend any other software.

Cons

The cost is comparable to quickbooks online and so can be a hard choice to make between the two

Rating breakdown

Time used: 1-2 years

Frequency of use: Other

Likelihood to recommend

Xero

Accounting Software for SMBs

Pros

The interface is cleaner and the various features are better integrated compared to Quickbooks Online.

Cons

So far, it is a bit buggy, which might make some hesitate to trust it with their company's finances.

Rating breakdown

Time used: Less than 6 months

Frequency of use: Daily

Likelihood to recommend

Xero

Accounting Software for SMBs

Pros

I recently explored Xero as an alternative for my clients who are dissatisfied with QuickBooks Online due to price increases and other issues.

Cons

For those that have been used to QuickBooks, switching to Xero requires a learning curve as the layout and terminology are different and not as intuitive. I wasn't able to just dive in and figure it out as I go, instead, I had to spend time on tutorials familiarizing myself with features that I needed no training to figure out on competitor's software.

Rating breakdown

Time used: Less than 6 months

Frequency of use: Weekly

Likelihood to recommend

Xero

Accounting Software for SMBs

Pros

I've used xero accounting software for a short while. I loved the idea of the simplicity of accounting.

Cons

If you are Quickbooks online user it is a bit to much of a headache switching over to xero, and did'nt want to mess with it

Rating breakdown

Time used: Less than 6 months

Frequency of use: Daily

Likelihood to recommend

Xero

Accounting Software for SMBs

Pros

XERO is very smart and intelligent online accounting and book keeping software. Below are the features and pros of the software. Overall design and user interface is excellent. It some very useful features like auto bank statement upload, automatic back reconciliation, automatic bill payments, create purchase orders, multi Currency support with hourly foreign exchange rates etc. Whether its small business or mid size business XERO is one of the best software

Cons

Software is somewhat overpriced. QuickBooks online has also several more features that makes XERO a less competitive product.

Rating breakdown

Time used: 2+ years

Frequency of use: Daily

Likelihood to recommend

Xero

Accounting Software for SMBs

Rating breakdown

Xero

Accounting Software for SMBs

Pros

- Ease of use: Understandable menus- navigation is a cinch - Cost: a fraction of the cost of Quickbooks Desktop + a server and on par with Quickbooks Online - SaaS integration- Have a software you need connected?

Cons

No job costing, in depth inventory without using a third party app Reporting is limited Both of these cons will be addressed this year, likely and there are SaaS add on solutions present.

Xero

Accounting Software for SMBs

Pros

I previously used quickbooks pro, but found their product too expensive and the support was also not very good. I switched to Xero, because of the price and the quality of the software

Cons

Support is only via email. They initially respond within the promised time frame, but 9/10 times the answer is not relevant to the question asked. It's like they don't read the question, or the initial techs are inexperienced. So after wait on average 4 hours for a response, you have to wait long for a reply to any subsequent answer, which is 9/10 times not relevant to the question. So, in my experience you have little if no support for the software. Then, mid year they suddenly drop their payroll feature off their software and announce you can run your payroll through this other company. Wonderful. Suddenly the total cost of accounting has now doubled because Xero didn't decrease their price and it now costs the same amount again to run payroll. A company that does this in my opinion does not show much integrity.

Rating breakdown

Time used: 1-2 years

Frequency of use: Daily

Likelihood to recommend

Xero

Accounting Software for SMBs

Pros

Sure you can make Quickbooks Online work with some apps, but integrating them isn't nearly as easy or smooth as it is with Xero.

Cons

The mobile app is currently very limited in what you can do. It would be nice if I could create and view invoices on the mobile app.

Rating breakdown

Time used: 2+ years

Frequency of use: Monthly

Likelihood to recommend

Xero

Accounting Software for SMBs

Pros

The entire interface is a little more friendly than Quickbooks Online, but takes some getting used to if you're a QB user.

Cons

The reporting options aren't as customizable as I'm used to in QB. For example, I would like to print out a P&L by month, showing Jan-Current Month to date. But I can only print a monthly report going backwards- showing the current month first and then going back each month. So instead of left to right: Jan-Feb-Mar-Apr etc. It will only give me Apr- Mar - Feb - Jan.

Rating breakdown

Time used: Less than 6 months

Frequency of use: Weekly

Likelihood to recommend

Xero

Accounting Software for SMBs

Pros

Great support, great functionality, intuitive interface.

Cons

I have zero complaints with xero.

Rating breakdown

Time used: 6-12 months

Xero

Accounting Software for SMBs

Pros

Xero offered a payroll option that was not expensive and easy to use. That combined with the ease of use and the cloud-based accounting is why Xero is my go to choice for small business accounting / bookkeeping. Being able to connect your bank account with Xero and import transactions makes it much easier to keep your books up to date. I used to wait all month before entering my transactions into my checking account and it became a big pain in the butt. This is so much easier!

Cons

The fact that you cannot have more than one business in your Xero account is a real bummer. I happen to have more than one business but I'm not willing to buy a subscription for each business. I use one for my most active business for now. Also, if you don't have payroll for awhile, you are no longer able to submit your tax forms as they are not generated, even though I still need to submit them to the taxing authority. There is also a headache when it comes to adding in credit card processing fees to invoices for accurate cash accounting. It's awesome that Stripe is integrated and payments are automatically marked to their appropriate invoice, but to get the fee out of the invoice I have to delete the payment, edit the invoice to include the fee amount, and then add the payment back in.

Rating breakdown

Time used: 2+ years

Frequency of use: Weekly

Likelihood to recommend

Xero

Accounting Software for SMBs

Pros

Easy to use, good looking.

Cons

Not developed for the Canadian or US market, no asset functionality, no payroll, no GST. Feeds break all the time.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend

Xero

Accounting Software for SMBs

Pros

For accountants, making journal entries and copying old entries is a breeze. QB does have good accounting controls as well and you can limit which sections of the website each employee can access.

Cons

It's the most used product in the industry which makes it difficult to find a replacement. The financial reporting export tool does not format financials and it just spits out a CSV file. I also find their UI/UX to be clumsy and difficult to navigate.

Rating breakdown

Time used: 2+ years

Frequency of use: Weekly

Likelihood to recommend

QuickBooks Online

Small business accounting software

Pros

Very easy to use and intuitive, well laid out and colourful!

Cons

Not many features, Xero seems to be a better option in terms of integrating to external softwares

Rating breakdown

Time used: 2+ years

Frequency of use: Weekly

Likelihood to recommend

QuickBooks Online

Small business accounting software

Pros

Easy to use Both online and desktop platforms Lots of options Cheaper than Xero Support has been good

Cons

Not all options are easy to find Customisation is not easy and could be better App is lacking No automated invoice reminders Have to pay more for classes tracking which was essential fo me

Rating breakdown

Time used: 2+ years

Frequency of use: Weekly

Likelihood to recommend

QuickBooks Online

Small business accounting software

Pros

The layout is sort-of ok but still not great. I'm lost. It's cheap, but then so are many of their competitors who offer far better products.

Cons

Slow: can't multi-tab, can't batch edit, can't Unpersonalisable: can't remove unnecessary accounts, can't change the 'direction' of + and - figures away from 'Increase/Decrease' to 'Debit/Credit' (what accountants use). Bank reconciliation screen is unclear: can't establish which transactions are system, and which are actual bank, or how to remove any incorrect 'system' transactions. It's just horrible.

Rating breakdown

Time used: Less than 6 months

Frequency of use: Weekly

QuickBooks Online

Small business accounting software

Pros

I like the price point. I really like how quickly I was able to connect and create balance sheets. You can start low and then expand.

Cons

Being familiar with Xero and Enterprise there were a few things I missed.

Rating breakdown

Time used: 1-2 years

Frequency of use: Monthly

Likelihood to recommend

QuickBooks Online

Small business accounting software

Pros

Quickbooks Online (for Australia) has great features. It has been around for a long time and has developed a really good platform. Features, such as inventory and payroll are well developed. The reporting available with QBO is excellent - very detailed and flexible.

Cons

When things go wrong...the service is very poor. I've had overseas staff who did not know the system, or how things work in Australia. I have had customer support staff not get back to me. And I've had them flat out tell me that they can't help. Quickbooks is trying to buy market share in Australia, so they are offering significant discounts. This makes the software really affordable...but there is no telling how long these discounts will last. The expiration of a 50% discount may be a nasty surprise for a small business when it does go away. Which it will...at some point. Don't get caught with the Self-Employed Sole Trader version of Quickbooks online. Your Accountant can't view your data, the reporting is poor and you can't migrate your data to other software. It is a very very basic accounting package...that is not very functional and provides no future proofing.

Rating breakdown

Time used: 2+ years

Frequency of use: Daily

Likelihood to recommend

QuickBooks Online

Small business accounting software

Rating breakdown

QuickBooks Online

Small business accounting software

Pros

I found it easier to use than Xero. It has various types of apps such as Shopify, PayPal etc. that work for it so that is a plus!

Cons

Not sure about the customer service. My credit card could not be automatically found and added so I requested the customer service team to work on it about four months ago and I've never heard from them so far. Sales tax setting is done but not updated well. Sometimes bank syncing is not working automatically.

Rating breakdown

Time used: Less than 6 months

Frequency of use: Daily

Likelihood to recommend

QuickBooks Online

Small business accounting software

Pros

It has some basic project costing ability, not great but better than Xero for example.

Cons

The BIG worry is the lack of backup of database, lack of long term file retention in the event of closure of the account. As far as backup of data, the ability to download excel spreadsheets is available for most areas. But this needs to be done manually and for at least 7 or more different areas in QBO. So a significant workload for a system that promotes itself as time-saving. Some areas cannot be downloaded in bulk, for example, attached receipts. They can be downloaded one by one but after a year there may be thousands. Why the need to download? Well often a business closes and the account is closed (70% of small businesses close within 12 months) files are only retained for 12 months then deleted by QuickBooks. But the law in most countries requires files to be retained for 7 years for audits etc. Effectively then all paperwork used to enter data into QBO needs to be held for 6 years after closing the QBO account. Isn't the purpose of QBO to go paperless? Other online cloud accounting competitors store the data indefinitely and they say they will reopen a file for you in the future. (probably for a fee) I won't state the particular competitor so it doesn't appear that I am promoting another accounting system. I hope QBO rectify this as it is the only serious issue I have with the product.

Rating breakdown

Time used: 1-2 years

Frequency of use: Daily

Likelihood to recommend

QuickBooks Online

Small business accounting software

Pros

A close alternative would be Xero, but Quickbooks does have a better Dashboard for quickly viewing your financial data.

Cons

Migrating from Quickbooks desktop was a little more time consuming than expected but not really too challenging.

Rating breakdown

Time used: Less than 6 months

Frequency of use: Daily

Likelihood to recommend

QuickBooks Online

Small business accounting software

Pros

Integration with third-party apps and mobile app is convenient, connecting to bank accounts is also easy.

Cons

Tech support is not as good as Xero. We tried it because it was recommended by our accountant but stopped using it after six months and switched to another app.

Rating breakdown

Time used: Less than 6 months

Frequency of use: Daily

Likelihood to recommend

QuickBooks Online

Small business accounting software

Pros

If you've never used QuickBooks before, then you might be okay with this version. It is a simplified version fo the desktop software, truly targeting the small business with the idea that software is more and more "in the cloud" rather than installed on a local PC. It has all the basics of invoicing, purchase orders, etc.

Cons

It's not strong enough or fully-featured enough for medium or larger sized businesses. The interface is constantly changing making it hard to find something you were used to being in one place. Often it seemed that these changes were not for the better. Support at Quickbooks (any version) has always seemed to be lacking; it's commonly outsourced to countries where English is not the first language and this creates communication barriers.

Rating breakdown

Time used: 2+ years

Frequency of use: Other

Likelihood to recommend

QuickBooks Online

Small business accounting software

Pros

I like how they have integrated greater ease in managing more than one company. The interface has been upgraded greatly since its earlier days. It's nice that they integrate with a range of third party apps that allow you a more broad experience for whatever you may need to do.

Cons

I feel like there is a lot of competition with them and Xero and these simple interface upgrades would give them more of an edge since Xero accomplishes some of these tasks with more ease.

Rating breakdown

Time used: 1-2 years

Likelihood to recommend

Recommendations to others considering QuickBooks Online

Determine what you need. If your company is too big there are too many limitations. However, it integrates with a lot of third party apps which can be a huge benefit to some.

QuickBooks Online

Small business accounting software

Pros

I made the switch several years ago from the QB 2014 Desktop app to QBO, with the intention of simplifying. It's a simple enough switch by importing your company file. I was also hoping switching to QBO would solve the Paypal connection issue, as I use Paypal for online billing extensively. Last year, I abandoned QBO because it still could not get Paypal connection right.

Cons

So I switched to XERO last year and haven't looked back.

Rating breakdown

Time used: 2+ years

Frequency of use: Other

Likelihood to recommend

QuickBooks Online

Small business accounting software

Pros

Quickbooks is the industry standard, this we certainly can't deny. Because of this it offers a ton of integrations and plays nice with quite a few apps, which can be very helpful.

Cons

The interface is also no where near as intuitive and user friendly as other bookkeeping/accounting apps I've used such as Xero. But that's what you get when you're dealing with the industry giant!

Rating breakdown

Time used: 1-2 years

Frequency of use: Daily

Likelihood to recommend

QuickBooks Online

Small business accounting software

Pros

It's accessibility from multiple locations and different platforms.

Cons

I feel like the online banking and matching with transactions never seems to work. We have also had issues with filing of our payroll taxes. The forms are automatically submitted but from time to time the numbers are incorrect and we end up overpaying or underpaying.

Rating breakdown

Time used: 2+ years

Frequency of use: Daily

Likelihood to recommend

Recommendations to others considering QuickBooks Online

Take time to read the online resources. Also understand that it's a web application so it is constantly evolving. One disappointment is that we'll have a feature (such as the recent transactions window) that we get comfortable using, and then they will move that feature (or remove it completely) in a later release.

QuickBooks Online

Small business accounting software