Xero alternatives for a one-person trade
Xero's Ignite plan includes twenty invoices a month, and the twenty-first moves you to a plan costing more than double. That step is triggered by your workload rather than by any decision you made, which is why people go looking. Here are the options without a cap, with prices read off each vendor's own page, and the two reasons an accountant who already works in Xero is worth more than the saving.
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 Xero alternative
Usually the Ignite invoice cap, discovered at the wrong moment. Twenty invoices a month sounds generous until a fortnight of small domestic jobs uses it up, and the fix is Grow at more than double the price. The other trigger is the introductory discount ending: 80% off for six months makes the first half year cost almost nothing and the seventh month arrive as a surprise. Neither is a fault in the software. Both are people discovering they bought a tier, not a price.
What Xero costs one person
Ignite is £16 a month excluding VAT, which is £19.20 paid, and it includes twenty invoices a month. The invoice count is the number that decides this, not the price. Twenty is comfortable for someone doing a few large jobs and tight for anyone doing volume domestic work, and the step past it is Grow at £37 plus VAT, which is £44 paid. That is more than double, triggered by your twenty-first invoice rather than by any decision you made. An 80% discount for the first six months was running when we checked, so if Xero currently looks cheap, check which month you are in.
Xero UK pricing page, read August 2026. Every plan and the full side-by-side is on SoloDesks vs Xero.
Who should stay on Xero
Anyone whose accountant works in Xero, which is a genuinely good reason on its own and worth more than the difference in price. Anyone filing Making Tax Digital for Income Tax through it, because SoloDesks does no submissions of any kind. And anyone reconciling a business bank account properly, which we do not do at all. If you only ever send a handful of invoices and your accountant has no preference, the Ignite cap stops mattering and so does most of this page.
Xero is full accounting software, sold in tiers, with a hard invoice cap on the entry plan.
What you would be giving up
Real accounting: bank reconciliation, Making Tax Digital submissions, and the thing your accountant already knows how to open. That last one is not a feature but it is the strongest reason on this page to stay, because an accountant who works in Xero is quietly saving you hours you never see billed. SoloDesks files nothing with HMRC, so if Xero is your filing route then this is not a swap you can make, only something you could add beside 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.
QuickBooks
From £10/mo (plus VAT)
QuickBooks is accounting software built around bookkeeping and Self Assessment, with invoicing attached. 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 Xero, 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 Xero 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 Xero 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 Xero, what you need is another accounting package, not us: SoloDesks makes no submissions to HMRC at all.
- Is there a free Xero 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 Xero?
- Anyone whose accountant works in Xero, which is a genuinely good reason on its own and worth more than the difference in price. Anyone filing Making Tax Digital for Income Tax through it, because SoloDesks does no submissions of any kind. And anyone reconciling a business bank account properly, which we do not do at all. If you only ever send a handful of invoices and your accountant has no preference, the Ignite cap stops mattering and so does most of this page.
- How much is Xero for one person?
- Ignite is £16 a month excluding VAT, which is £19.20 paid, and it includes twenty invoices a month. The invoice count is the number that decides this, not the price. Twenty is comfortable for someone doing a few large jobs and tight for anyone doing volume domestic work, and the step past it is Grow at £37 plus VAT, which is £44 paid. That is more than double, triggered by your twenty-first invoice rather than by any decision you made. An 80% discount for the first six months was running when we checked, so if Xero currently looks cheap, check which month you are in. Figures from Xero 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 Xero 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.