Free accounting software: 5 options that stay free

Plenty of accounting software is advertised as free. Far fewer tools stay free after the first month. The five below have a $0 option with no end date, and each gives something up to get there: bank feeds, users, invoice volume or cloud access. This page shows which trade-off you can live with.

Short answer

Wave's Starter plan is the best free accounting software for most freelancers and sole proprietors: unlimited invoices, bills and bookkeeping records at no cost. Zoho Books Free is better if your revenue is under $50,000 and you want your accountant to have a login. Manager and GnuCash are free desktop programs for people who don't need the cloud. QuickBooks Free is too limited to run a business on.

Written by Rajat GuptaFact-checked by Chandrasmita

Prices and plan limits checked on each vendor's own website on September 25, 2026. Vendors change pricing often, so confirm on their site before you buy.

Sources we used

We rely on vendor documentation, pricing pages and other primary sources. We do not use G2 or Capterra ratings as ranking inputs.

Primary sources

Official vendor documentation, pricing pages, help centers, and release notes
Public analyst reports, market commentary, and relevant public filings
Practitioner discussions in communities such as Reddit

What we exclude

G2 and Capterra ratings as ranking inputs
Vendor-submitted claims that cannot be corroborated publicly
Anonymous summary statements presented as proof without a primary source behind them

Review standard

Material corrections can be submitted through the contact page. We update pages when a claim can be verified against a stronger source.

Read the full review methodology and sponsored disclosure.

Evidence used on this page

Accounting Software buyer's guide: The full category overview, evaluation criteria and tool list.
Best Accounting Software: Our ranked shortlist for the category.

Top pick for each situation

1. Freelancers and sole proprietors
Wave Starter
2. Businesses under $50K revenue that want an accountant login
Zoho Books Free
3. Full-featured books on one computer, offline
Manager (desktop edition)
4. Open-source, double-entry books
GnuCash
5. Trying QuickBooks before you pay
QuickBooks Free

Free accounting plans compared

Price shows the free option first, then the first paid step if you outgrow it. All figures in USD from each vendor's own site.

Tool	Price	Free plan or trial	Best for	Key limitation
Wave Starter	$0; Pro is $19/mo	Unlimited invoices, estimates, bills and bookkeeping records. No time limit.	One-person service businesses that invoice clients	No automatic bank import, receipt scanning or extra users; card payments cost 2.9% + $0.60
Zoho Books Free	$0 under $50K annual revenue; Standard is $15/mo billed annually	1 user + 1 accountant, up to 1,000 invoices a year, bank reconciliation, 1099 contractor tracking	New companies that want a clean path to a paid plan	No bank feeds or sales tax tracking; the plan ends once revenue passes $50K
Manager (desktop edition)	$0 desktop edition; paid Cloud Edition available	All features, no time limits, no usage limits, no ads	Owners comfortable with accounting terms who don't need cloud access	Desktop program: backups and sending files to your accountant are your job
GnuCash	$0 (open source, GNU GPL)	The full program, free with no end date	Technically comfortable owners who want to own their data	Desktop software: you install updates, run backups and share files yourself
QuickBooks Free	$0; Simple Start is $38/mo	1 user, 2 invoices a month (unlimited with QuickBooks Payments), 1 bank connection, P&L report	Owners who expect to move onto QuickBooks with their accountant	No accountant access, chat support only, and too few invoices for most businesses

The shortlist, ranked

Top pick for: Freelancers and sole proprietors

1. Wave Starter

Wave Starter is free with no expiry date. It covers the whole cycle for a service business: estimates, invoices, bills, bookkeeping records, a cash flow dashboard and invoicing from the mobile app.

You pay for it in time and fees. Bank transactions don't import automatically on Starter, so you upload statements or key them in; auto-import, auto-categorizing, receipt capture and extra users are Pro features at $19 a month. Card payments you collect through Wave cost 2.9% + $0.60 each (3.4% + $0.60 for Amex).

Wave's payroll isn't free: in the US it's $40 a month plus $6 per employee and $6 per contractor paid, with a 30-day trial after your first payroll run.

Read our Wave Starter profile

Top pick for: Businesses under $50K revenue that want an accountant login

2. Zoho Books Free

Zoho Books Free stays available as long as your revenue for the financial year is under $50,000. It includes invoices, quotes, expenses, journals, bank reconciliation, vendor management, recurring invoices, W-9 management and 1099 contractor tracking, with one user plus one accountant.

The accountant seat is the reason to choose it over Wave: your CPA can log in and post adjustments instead of asking for exports. The gaps are bank feeds and sales tax tracking, which start on Standard at $15 a month billed annually.

Plan the exit. Once revenue crosses $50,000 you'll move to a paid plan, so set up the [chart of accounts](/glossary/chart-of-accounts) properly from the first day.

Read our Zoho Books Free profile

Top pick for: Full-featured books on one computer, offline

3. Manager (desktop edition)

Manager's desktop edition is free for as long as you use it, with all features and no limits on the data you enter. It runs on Windows, Mac and Linux and works offline.

It suits an owner who knows debits from credits and wants more than Wave's free plan without a monthly bill. The trade-off is that it lives on one computer, so backups and getting the file to your accountant fall to you. Manager sells a Cloud Edition if you later want browser access.

Top pick for: Open-source, double-entry books

4. GnuCash

GnuCash is free, open-source accounting software for personal and small-business use, licensed under the GNU GPL. It uses double-entry bookkeeping and runs on Linux, BSD, macOS and Windows. The current release is 5.16.

It's a sound choice if you want your books in a file you control and don't mind a desktop interface. Before committing, ask your accountant whether they'll work from GnuCash reports or want the data in a cloud tool.

Top pick for: Trying QuickBooks before you pay

5. QuickBooks Free

Intuit now offers a QuickBooks Free plan: one user, income and expense tracking, two invoices a month (unlimited if you qualify for and turn on QuickBooks Payments), a profit and loss report and one connected bank. Support is by chat and there's no accountant access.

That's enough to test the product with real transactions. It isn't enough to hand to a CPA at year-end. If your accountant works in QuickBooks, plan on Simple Start ($38 a month) or Essentials ($85).

Read our QuickBooks Free profile

Free plan, free trial or intro price: know which one you're getting

Three different offers get called free. A free plan has no end date, like Wave Starter or Zoho Books Free. A free trial ends after a set period: FreshBooks gives 30 days with no credit card required, and QuickBooks gives 30 days on its paid plans. An introductory price is a discount on a paid plan, like QuickBooks' 50% off for three months or Xero's six-month offers for new customers.

Trials and intro prices are fine for testing. Put a reminder in your calendar a few days before the discount ends, because the next bill is at full price.

What free plans leave out

Bank feeds are the big one. Wave Starter doesn't auto-import bank transactions and Zoho Books Free has no bank feeds, so you upload statements or type transactions in. QuickBooks Free connects one bank. Once you have more than a few dozen transactions a month, that manual step is where free stops being free.

Users and accountant access come next. Wave Starter has no additional users, Zoho Books Free includes one accountant seat, and QuickBooks Free has no accountant access at all.

Sales tax is the third. Zoho Books tracks sales and use tax from Standard up. On any free plan, work out how you'll produce the numbers for your sales tax return before you rely on it. Our [sales tax compliance](/glossary/sales-tax-compliance) entry explains what has to be tracked.

Filing 1099s without paying for software

If you pay contractors, the IRS's IRIS Taxpayer Portal lets you e-file 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC forms free, up to 100 returns at a time. Pair it with any free tool that tracks what you paid each contractor. Our [W-2 and 1099 filing](/glossary/w2-1099-filing) entry covers the deadlines.

When to move to a paid plan

Upgrade when any of these happens: you spend more than an hour a month keying bank transactions, a second person needs to log in, you hire your first W-2 employee, you start holding inventory, or your accountant asks for access. Each of those costs more in time or cleanup than the $15 to $40 a month the entry-level paid plans charge.

Our [small business accounting software guide](/categories/accounting-software/for-small-business) compares the paid tiers, and the [bank reconciliation guide](/blog/bank-reconciliation-guide) shows the monthly routine any free tool should support.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free accounting software?

Wave is the best free accounting software for most freelancers and sole proprietors, because its Starter plan has no time limit and no cap on invoices, bills or bookkeeping records. Zoho Books Free is the better choice if your revenue is under $50,000 and you want your accountant to have a login.

Is QuickBooks free?

QuickBooks has a Free plan, but it's limited to one user, two invoices a month (unlimited if you use QuickBooks Payments), one bank connection and a profit and loss report, with no accountant access. Paid plans start at $38 a month for Simple Start and come with a 30-day free trial.

Is Wave really free?

Yes. Wave's Starter plan is free with no time limit. Wave charges for card payments (2.9% + $0.60 per transaction), for the Pro plan at $19 a month, which adds automatic bank imports and receipt capture, and for payroll.

Can free accounting software run payroll?

No. None of the free plans on this page include payroll. Wave Payroll costs $40 a month plus $6 per employee and per contractor paid, and QuickBooks sells payroll bundled with its paid plans. Our free payroll software guide covers the few ways to run payroll at no cost.

Is there free open-source accounting software?

Yes. GnuCash is free and open source under the GNU GPL and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. Manager's desktop edition is also free, with no time or usage limits, on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Do Xero or FreshBooks have a free plan?

No. Xero has no free plan; its cheapest plan, Early, lists at $25 a month. FreshBooks offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required, and its plans start at $23 a month.