{"id":21505,"date":"2026-08-13T10:05:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T04:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/blog\/?p=21505"},"modified":"2026-08-13T10:05:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T04:35:33","slug":"quickbooks-pricing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saasworthy.com\/blog\/quickbooks-pricing","title":{"rendered":"QuickBooks Pricing: Plans, Features & Which Version Is Right for You? (2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"

QuickBooks remains the most widely used accounting platform for small and mid-sized businesses, but its pricing has gotten more complicated and more expensive over the past few years. Intuit pushed through another round of price increases in August 2026, with some QuickBooks Online plans jumping by more than 40%. If you’re evaluating QuickBooks for the first time, or wondering whether to upgrade, downgrade, or jump ship after a renewal notice landed in your inbox, this guide breaks down exactly what you’ll pay in 2026, what each plan includes, and how to decide which version actually fits your business.<\/p>\n

We’ll cover QuickBooks Online (Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced), QuickBooks Solopreneur, QuickBooks Desktop’s shrinking role in 2026, QuickBooks Enterprise, and the add-ons, Payroll and Payments, that quietly add to your bill every month.<\/p>\n

QuickBooks Pricing at a Glance (2026)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Plan<\/b><\/th>\nMonthly Price<\/b><\/th>\nPromo Price<\/b><\/th>\nUsers<\/b><\/th>\nBest For<\/b><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Simple Start<\/td>\n$38\/mo<\/td>\n$3.80\/mo for 3 months<\/td>\n1 user + 2 accountants<\/td>\nFreelancers and single-owner businesses<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Essentials<\/td>\n$85\/mo<\/td>\n$8.50\/mo for 3 months<\/td>\n3 users + 2 accountants<\/td>\nSmall businesses with a few employees<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Plus<\/td>\n$140\/mo<\/td>\n$14\/mo for 3 months<\/td>\n5 users + 2 accountants<\/td>\nBusinesses with inventory or projects<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Advanced<\/td>\n$340\/mo<\/td>\n$34\/mo for 3 months<\/td>\n25 users + 3 accountants<\/td>\nGrowing companies needing automation and reporting<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Solopreneur<\/td>\n$20\/mo<\/td>\nOften discounted at signup<\/td>\n1 user<\/td>\nFreelancers filing Schedule C<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Intuit regularly runs a “90% off for three months” introductory promotion (currently set to expire August 27, 2026, though these offers tend to be renewed or replaced), so most new subscribers pay a fraction of the list price for their first quarter. Worth noting: if you sign up during a promotional window, the standard price increase doesn’t apply until your seventh invoice, so early adopters get roughly six months of protection from mid-cycle rate hikes.<\/p>\n

QuickBooks Online Plans, Explained<\/h2>\n

QuickBooks Online (QBO) is the cloud-based version Intuit now pushes almost exclusively, and it’s what most people mean when they say “QuickBooks” in 2026. It comes in four tiers.<\/p>\n

Simple Start ($38\/month)<\/h3>\n

Simple Start is built for solo business owners and very small operations that need one login. It covers the basics: invoicing with online payments, automated bank feeds, income and expense tracking, basic financial reporting, and free ACH bill pay. It’s a reasonable starting point if you’re a sole proprietor or a two-person operation that just needs to stay organized for tax season and send professional invoices.<\/p>\n

What it doesn’t do is support multiple users beyond the primary account (you get two free accountant seats, but no additional staff logins), and it has no inventory tracking or project profitability tools. If you outgrow those limitations, you’ll need to upgrade rather than add users piecemeal.<\/p>\n

Essentials ($85\/month)<\/h3>\n

Essentials adds two more user seats (three total) plus features aimed at businesses that bill by the hour or manage bills from vendors: employee time tracking on invoices, bill management, multi-currency support, and enhanced reporting. This tier suits small teams, a handful of employees or contractors, that need more than one person touching the books, but don’t yet need inventory or project-level profitability data.<\/p>\n

The August 2026 price increase hit this plan hardest in percentage terms, rising from $60 to $85 a month (a 42% jump), so it’s worth confirming the extra features actually match how your team works before renewing.<\/p>\n

Plus ($140\/month)<\/h3>\n

Plus is Intuit’s “Customer Favorite” label, and for good reason: it’s the first tier that includes inventory tracking, project profitability tracking, and budgeting tools, alongside five user seats. If you sell physical products, run job-costed projects, or need to track profitability by location or class, Plus is typically the minimum viable plan. It’s also the plan most commonly recommended for retailers, small manufacturers, and service businesses managing multiple concurrent projects.<\/p>\n

Advanced ($340\/month)<\/h3>\n

Advanced is aimed at businesses that have outgrown basic bookkeeping and need real operational reporting: custom dashboards with KPIs, cash flow and profit forecasting, batch invoicing and batch expense entry, Excel-based reporting sync, and priority (24\/7) support for up to 25 users. The August 2026 price hike was steepest here, up 70% from $200 to $340 a month, but Intuit bundled in previously separate paid features, including Workforce Elite payroll, AI-driven “Continuously Clean Books” transaction categorization, automated invoicing tools, and a natural-language business intelligence assistant. Whether that bundle is worth the increase depends heavily on whether your team will actually use the AI and automation features, since the core accounting functionality hasn’t fundamentally changed.<\/p>\n

For a full side-by-side breakdown of exact features included in each QBO tier, SaaSworthy’s QuickBooks pricing and plans page<\/a> tracks changes as Intuit updates them.<\/p>\n

QuickBooks Solopreneur ($20\/month)<\/h2>\n

Solopreneur (the rebranded, expanded successor to QuickBooks Self-Employed) is a stripped-down plan built specifically for freelancers, gig workers, and independent contractors who need to separate business and personal expenses and prepare a Schedule C at tax time. For $20 a month, you get bank feed connections, invoicing, mileage tracking, receipt capture, basic cash flow and profit\/loss views, and guided Schedule C preparation.<\/p>\n

It is not double-entry accounting software, and it lacks bill management, payroll, and contractor payment features. If your freelance business is growing (you’re hiring subcontractors, need to send purchase orders, or want proper balance sheet reporting), you’ll need to graduate to Simple Start or Essentials rather than trying to stretch Solopreneur further.<\/p>\n

What Happened to QuickBooks Desktop in 2026?<\/h2>\n

This is one of the most common points of confusion for existing QuickBooks users. Intuit stopped selling new QuickBooks Desktop Plus subscriptions back in 2024, and the company has been openly steering customers toward QuickBooks Online ever since. That said, Desktop hasn’t disappeared: existing Pro Plus, Premier Plus, Mac Plus, and Enhanced Payroll subscribers can continue renewing, and Intuit has confirmed continued support through 2026 and beyond for current subscribers.<\/p>\n

The catch is pricing. Effective February 1, 2026 (or at your next renewal, whichever comes first), Desktop renewal pricing rose sharply:<\/p>\n