QuickBooks alternatives for a one-person trade
Most people looking for a QuickBooks alternative are not unhappy with the software. They either stepped off the introductory discount and got a different bill from the one they budgeted for, or they realised they bought a bookkeeping engine to send invoices out of. Those are two different problems and only one of them has an answer that is not QuickBooks. Making Tax Digital decides which one you have, so start there.
We make one of the alternatives, so read this knowing that. If you finish the page and stay put, it did its job.
Why people look for a QuickBooks alternative
Two reasons, and only one of them is about money. The first is the step off the introductory discount: half price for six months reads as £10 and renews at the full figure plus VAT, and the bill people budgeted for is not the bill that arrives. The second is shape. A lot of sole traders bought QuickBooks to send invoices, use perhaps a fifth of it, and are paying for a bookkeeping engine because it was the thing everybody named. Neither is a complaint about the software working.
What QuickBooks costs one person
Sole Trader Plus is £10 a month excluding VAT, so £12 is what actually leaves your account. Simple Start is £16 before VAT and Essentials £38. The figure to be careful with is not any of those, it is the introductory discount: 50% off the first six months was running when we read the page, which means the price you signed up at and the price you are paying now may be different numbers and the change happens quietly. Look at an actual recent statement rather than the pricing page before you decide QuickBooks is expensive.
QuickBooks UK pricing page, read August 2026. Every plan and the full side-by-side is on SoloDesks vs QuickBooks.
Who should stay on QuickBooks
Anyone Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies to, which now reaches a long way down into sole trader turnover. QuickBooks is HMRC recognised and SoloDesks does no tax submissions at all, so for that job we are not a substitute at any price. Stay if you file through it, if your accountant works in it, or if bank feeds and receipt capture are doing real work for you. If you want the quoting side as well, run SoloDesks alongside rather than instead.
QuickBooks is accounting software built around bookkeeping and Self Assessment, with invoicing attached.
What you would be giving up
The books. Bank feeds, receipt capture, Self Assessment and Making Tax Digital submissions, none of which SoloDesks has or has ever had. If MTD for Income Tax applies to you, this is not a trade-off to weigh, it is a reason to stay, and finding that out in January is the version of this decision that costs real money. The sole traders this page is genuinely for are the ones who bought an accounting engine to email invoices out of and use about a fifth of it.
The options, with prices
The realistic options, including staying where you are. Prices as published by each company, read on the dates shown.
SoloDesks
£12/month, flat
If you're leaving over the price for one person. Priced per business rather than per seat or per job, with a free plan that has no card and no expiry. Quotes, invoices, payment chasing and a job calendar, and nothing else. That is the trade-off. No team seats, no dispatch, no timesheets.
Xero
From £16/mo (ex VAT, 20 invoices/mo)
Xero is full accounting software, sold in tiers, with a hard invoice cap on the entry plan. The nearest like-for-like swap, which is also the risk: check its pricing model is genuinely different before you move, because paying the same money through a new interface solves nothing.
FreeAgent
From £0 (while the account is open)
FreeAgent is accounting software for sole traders and small companies, free with some UK business bank accounts. The nearest like-for-like swap, which is also the risk: check its pricing model is genuinely different before you move, because paying the same money through a new interface solves nothing.
Zoho Invoice
From £0 (500 invoices/year, 2 users)
Zoho Invoice is a genuinely free invoicing tool, capped at 500 invoices a year, with Zoho branding on the documents. A different shape of tool from QuickBooks, so this is a change of approach rather than a swap. Worth it only if the product was the problem, not the price.
Stay where you are
If it works and the price doesn't hurt. Migrating costs you an evening of exporting, a week of muscle-memory, and the small risk of losing a client record you only notice needing in eight months. That's a real cost. If QuickBooks is doing the job and the bill isn't the thing that brought you here, the honest advice is to close the tab.
Before you switch anything
The order you do it in matters more than which one you pick, and getting it wrong costs more than any subscription you are leaving.
How to switch invoicing software without losing your records
Questions people ask
- What is the best QuickBooks alternative for a sole trader?
- It depends why you're leaving. If it's the price for one person, a flat-priced one-person tool like SoloDesks (£12/month, free plan below it) is the direct answer. If it's a missing feature, one of the other products listed above is likelier to have it than we are. And if you file Making Tax Digital for Income Tax through QuickBooks, what you need is another accounting package, not us: SoloDesks makes no submissions to HMRC at all.
- Is there a free QuickBooks alternative?
- Several, with different catches. Zoho Invoice is free for up to 500 invoices a year, though your documents carry a Powered by Zoho Invoice line. FreeAgent is free, and is full accounting software, if you bank with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle. ServiceM8's free tier covers 30 jobs a month. Our own free plan needs no card and never expires, covering 10 quotes, 10 invoices and 10 emailed PDFs a month with unlimited clients and jobs. Pick on whichever limit you'd hit first, and check your bank before you pay anyone: FreeAgent being free is worth more than any discount on this page.
- Who shouldn't switch away from QuickBooks?
- Anyone Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies to, which now reaches a long way down into sole trader turnover. QuickBooks is HMRC recognised and SoloDesks does no tax submissions at all, so for that job we are not a substitute at any price. Stay if you file through it, if your accountant works in it, or if bank feeds and receipt capture are doing real work for you. If you want the quoting side as well, run SoloDesks alongside rather than instead.
- How much is QuickBooks for one person?
- Sole Trader Plus is £10 a month excluding VAT, so £12 is what actually leaves your account. Simple Start is £16 before VAT and Essentials £38. The figure to be careful with is not any of those, it is the introductory discount: 50% off the first six months was running when we read the page, which means the price you signed up at and the price you are paying now may be different numbers and the change happens quietly. Look at an actual recent statement rather than the pricing page before you decide QuickBooks is expensive. Figures from QuickBooks UK pricing page, read August 2026.
Want the whole field rather than one swap? We keep a comparison of eight invoicing apps for UK tradespeople, with every price read off the vendor's own page and dated.
If the price for one person is the problem
That's the one we were built to solve. Start on the free plan, no card, and see whether a month of your own work fits.
Pricing shown for QuickBooks and other named products is as of August 2026, taken from each company's own published pricing page, linked above. Plans and prices change. Verify before you buy. All product names are trademarks of their owners; SoloDesks isn't affiliated with or endorsed by any of them, this comparison is our own, and we make one of the products listed.