QuickBooks alternatives for a one-person trade
We make one of the alternatives, so read this knowing that. What follows is still the honest version: why people leave QuickBooks, who shouldn't, and what the real options are with prices attached. If you finish it and stay put, the page 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.
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. Switching software costs you a weekend and a month of small annoyances, so it needs to buy you more than that.
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
- Export first, cancel second. Clients, invoice history, anything with a number on it. Do it while you still have an account.
- Keep six years of records. That's how long HMRC can ask you to produce them, and “it was in the old app” isn't an answer.
- Don't move mid-job. Finish and invoice what's open, then switch on the quiet week. Half a job in each system is how a quote goes missing.
- Carry your invoice numbering across. Start the new system at the next number in your sequence, not back at 1. Gaps and restarts are the first thing an HMRC enquiry picks at.
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.
- Will I lose my data if I move off QuickBooks?
- Export before you cancel, not after: clients, past invoices and anything you might need for HMRC. Most job software can export clients and invoices to CSV or PDF. Whatever you move to, keep a copy of your old records for at least six years: that's how long HMRC expects you to be able to produce them.
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.