Drake Software: tax software platform

Drake Software publishes a full rate card, which in professional tax software is rare. Checked on 16 October 2026, Drake Tax Pro runs $2,495 to $3,295 and Drake Tax 1040 $1,995 to $2,445 per tax year, with Pay-Per-Return at $379.99 and Drake Tax Online at $299.99. Buy it if you want an annual licence you can budget.

Rajat GuptaEditorial LeadReviewed 16 October 2026Pricing checked 16 October 2026 against the Drake Software pricing page

Drake Software in brief

Drake Software publishes a full rate card, which in professional tax software is rare.

Price: $299.99 per tax year (Drake Tax Online) · Annual licence per tax year, no monthly option
Best for: Professional preparers who want a fixed, published seasonal cost
Watch out for: You give up monthly billing, and with it the ability to spread cost across the year.

The short answer

Buy Drake Software Buy Drake if you prepare returns for a living, you want the price in writing before a sales call, and unlimited support is worth paying for: every package includes unlimited US-based phone, email and chat support at no extra charge. Drake Tax Pro covers unlimited individual and business returns, so a high-volume firm can fix its software cost for the season at a number it chose.

Skip it if you want to pay monthly, because Drake says the software is an annual licence per tax year with no monthly subscription. Skip the desktop products too if you run several offices or EFINs without checking the licensing first, since desktop is licensed per physical site and EFIN. And if practice management rather than preparation is your problem, this is the wrong purchase.

Where Drake Software fits

Drake is tax return preparation software for professional preparers, sold as an annual licence for a tax year rather than a subscription. That single structural fact shapes everything else: you buy for tax year 2026, you get prior year editions for 2023 and 2024 included, and you renew each year. The product line splits by return types and return volume rather than by feature tier, which is why the pricing page reads as four products instead of three tiers, and why the first question in any Drake evaluation is how many returns of which type you filed last season.

Drake Tax Pro is the high-volume choice: unlimited individual and business returns, or a 250-return option that caps total returns across both types, in single-user and multi-user licences. Drake Tax 1040 is the 1040-focused version, with unlimited individual returns or a 150-return option, and business returns bought per return at $74.99 each. Pay-Per-Return includes 10 individual returns in the base price with more bought as you need them. Drake Tax Online is the cloud version, with the first user included and pay-per-return filing. Four products, one decision: fix your cost or pay as you file.

The compliance depth is where Drake earns its keep for a working preparer. Every product lists all states included, federal and state e-file, more than 4,300 federal and state forms and schedules, hundreds of return diagnostics, a tax planner, filing status optimisation, fixed asset reports, Form 114 FinCEN e-file, and Forms 5471, 4720, 3115 and 1118. There are city and local programs for Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania, and K-1 export from pass-through returns into individual returns. Those last two are the kind of thing that decides a switch, so check your own form list rather than the headline count.

The review features are the quiet reason firms stay. DoubleCheck is a review and verify system, LookBack compares entries to the prior-year form, and LinkBacks jump from a diagnostic to the source entry. Those three exist because a preparer's real cost is rework, not keystrokes, and a second-season firm will notice them more than a first-season one. Data conversion from most competitor software is included, as are getting-started resources, which matters because a conversion that goes wrong in January is a worse problem than any licence price.

Where Drake stops is practice management and accounting, both of which are sold separately. Drake Portals, Drake Workflow and Drake E-Sign come together in the Practice Essentials Bundle, while Drake Accounting and Payroll, Drake SmartExtract, Drake Audit Defense, Drake Pay, bank products and GruntWorx tax automation are separate purchases with no price published. A firm whose problem is client intake, document collection and status tracking rather than return preparation is comparing Canopy, not Drake, and may well need both.

Drake Software pricing

Drake publishes a full rate card for tax year 2026, which puts it in a small minority of professional tax vendors. Checked on 16 October 2026, Drake Tax Pro is listed from $2,495 to $3,295 and Drake Tax 1040 from $1,995 to $2,445 depending on the user and return-volume option, with Pay-Per-Return at $379.99 and Drake Tax Online at $299.99. Each product tile shows two figures, for example $3,295 and $3,145, because the starred retail price takes effect on 1 December and the lower one is the pre-season price. There is no monthly option.

What Drake publishes

Drake Tax Pro: $2,495 to $3,295 per tax year (Annual licence for tax year 2026)Unlimited individual and business returns, or a 250-return option. Single-user and multi-user licences, all states, federal and state e-file, more than 4,300 forms and schedules, prior year editions for 2023 and 2024, and unlimited US-based support.
Drake Tax 1040: $1,995 to $2,445 per tax year (Annual licence for tax year 2026)Unlimited individual returns, or a 150-return option. Business returns added per return at $74.99 each, single-user and multi-user licences, all states included, and data conversion from most competitor software.
Pay-Per-Return: $379.99 per tax year (Annual licence for tax year 2026)10 individual returns included, multi-user access, additional individual returns at $49.99 each and business returns at $74.99 each.
Drake Tax Online: $299.99 per tax year (Annual licence for tax year 2026, cloud-based)First user included and additional users at $99 each. Pay-per-return filing at $49.99 individual and $74.99 business with bulk discounts available, automatic updates and no installs, and a free trial.
Practice Essentials Bundle: From $599 (Added at checkout alongside a tax package)Drake Portals, Drake Workflow and Drake E-Sign together, listed as $1,000 reduced to $599 or $1,425 reduced to $849 depending on the tax package, a 40% saving. Requires Pro, 1040, or Drake Tax Online with 25 or more pre-purchased returns.

Prices as published on the Drake Software pricing page and checked on 16 October 2026. Drake labels the capped options Drake Tax Pro 250 and Drake Tax 1040 150 in its FAQ while the product tiles show them as return-count toggles, so confirm at checkout which figure maps to your exact combination of users and included returns.

Five things move what you pay, and only the first is the number on the tile.

Return volume and return type, which set the product. Pro covers unlimited individual and business returns, Pro 250 caps at 250 returns of any type, 1040 gives unlimited individual returns with business returns bought per return, and 1040 150 caps at 150 individual returns. Run last season's counts through each before you look at the prices, because the volume decision makes the price decision for you.
Preparer count, because single-user and multi-user licences are priced differently and the page shows them side by side. Drake Tax Pro is listed at $3,295, $2,845 and $2,495 and Drake Tax 1040 at $2,445, $2,195 and $1,995 across those combinations, so get written confirmation of the price for your own mix of users and included returns rather than reading the lowest or highest figure on the page.
Overflow returns, priced per return at $49.99 for an individual return and $74.99 for a business return. Drake's own guidance is to compare the cost of those extra returns against the price gap between Pro 250 and the unlimited version. A capped licence plus a busy extension season can pass the unlimited price, and that arithmetic is cheap to do in October and expensive to discover in April.
When you buy. Drake shows two prices per option, notes that the starred retail price is effective 1 December, and advertises early-season savings of up to $150 on Drake Tax before the end of November. Drake also says early renewal discounts may apply based on purchase date. If the decision is already made, the timing is free money.
Sites and EFINs. Drake licenses desktop software per physical site and EFIN, while Drake Tax Online is licensed per user. A firm with two offices or two EFINs may need more than one licence, and Drake says multi-location discounts are available to firms meeting certain requirements but only on request. Ask before you budget one licence for a two-office practice.

What costs extra

Additional returns: $49.99 per individual return and $74.99 per business return, with bulk discounts available on Drake Tax Online.
Extra Drake Tax Online users at $99 each beyond the first, which is included.
Practice Essentials Bundle of Drake Portals, Drake Workflow and Drake E-Sign: from $599, listed as $1,000 reduced to $599 or $1,425 reduced to $849 depending on the tax package, a 40% saving.
SOC 2 compliant cloud hosting through Rightworks at $114 per user per month, available on every tax product.
Sold separately with no price published: Drake Accounting and Payroll, Drake SmartExtract, Drake Audit Defense, Drake Pay, bank products and pay-with-refund options, TheTaxBook WebLibrary Plus and GruntWorx tax automation.

Implementation and commercial terms

The rows below are what Drake's own pricing page and its FAQ confirm as of 16 October 2026. Where a row says nothing is published, ask rather than assume, particularly on the separately sold products.

Published price: Yes, for all four tax products and the Practice Essentials Bundle.
Billing basis: Annual licence per tax year. Drake says there is no monthly subscription option.
Implementation fee: None published. Data conversion from most competitor software and getting-started resources are included.
Free trial: Yes. A free trial download for Drake Tax with sample clients and practice returns, and a trial for Drake Tax Online.
Support: Unlimited US-based phone, email and chat support included in every package at no extra charge.
Licensing: Desktop per physical site and EFIN; Drake Tax Online per user. Multi-location discounts on request.

Budget Drake as one number plus a correction. Take last season's return counts, pick the product that covers them, and confirm the exact figure for your user and return combination in writing, because the page shows several and the mapping is not obvious. Then add the overflow you expect at $49.99 and $74.99, the bundle at $599 or $849 if you want Portals, Workflow and E-Sign, and $114 per user per month if you want hosted desktop through Rightworks. Buy before 1 December if the decision is settled, since the retail price takes effect then and Drake advertises up to $150 of early-season saving. One thing you do not have to budget for is support, which is unlimited and included.

Source: the Drake Software pricing page, checked 16 October 2026. Confirm current prices with the vendor before you budget.

What Drake Software gives up

You give up monthly billing, and with it the ability to spread cost across the year. Drake says the software is an annual licence per tax year with no monthly subscription, so a new practice pays for a season up front. Pay-Per-Return at $379.99 and Drake Tax Online at $299.99 are the pay-as-you-go answers, charging $49.99 per individual return and $74.99 per business return as you file, which is the right shape for a part-time or growing preparer and a poor one at volume.

You give up simple multi-office licensing. Desktop software is licensed per physical site and EFIN, so a second office or a second EFIN can mean a second licence, and Drake only offers multi-location discounts on request to firms meeting certain requirements. Drake Tax Online is licensed per user instead, which is cleaner for a distributed team but moves you onto per-return filing. Price both structures against your real office and EFIN map before you decide, because this is the detail that most often makes a Drake quote bigger than expected.

You give up practice management unless you buy it. Portals, Workflow and E-Sign are a separate bundle from $599, and Drake Accounting and Payroll, SmartExtract, Audit Defense, Drake Pay, bank products and GruntWorx are separate purchases with no published price. The bundle is only available to firms on Pro, 1040 or Drake Tax Online with 25 or more pre-purchased returns, so the smallest buyers cannot add it at all. A firm consolidating client communication and workflow will end up with two vendors.

You give up the cloud unless you pay for it twice over. The desktop products are the full line, and the cloud option is either Drake Tax Online, which moves you to per-return pricing, or hosting the desktop software through Rightworks at $114 per user per month. For a four-preparer firm that second route is a recurring line alongside the licence, and it is the honest cost of remote access to the desktop product rather than an afterthought.

You give up pricing certainty on the extras that arrive at checkout. The tax products are published to the dollar, and then the separately sold items are not: Drake Accounting, SmartExtract, Audit Defense, Drake Pay, bank products and GruntWorx all carry additional fees that the page does not state. Bank products in particular are where fee structures get complicated, so ask for written figures on anything you intend to offer clients before you commit to offering it.

How Drake Software compares

Professional tax software divides sharply on transparency. Drake publishes every tax product to the dollar; Intuit says only that its tax products have flexible pricing, including pay-per-return and packages, and no ProConnect figure could be verified; CCH could not be read at all. Canopy sits beside rather than against Drake, because it is practice management, not preparation. Every price below is from that vendor's own pricing page, checked on 16 October 2026.

Tool	Best for	Price	Where it breaks
Drake Software	Preparers who want a published annual licence and unlimited support	$2,495 to $3,295 (Pro), $379.99 pay-per-return	No monthly billing, and desktop licensing is per physical site and EFIN
Intuit ProConnect	Cloud preparation tied to Intuit Accountant Suite and QuickBooks books	Not published, quote only	No ProConnect figure could be verified, so the per-return rate comes from sales
Canopy	Practice management around the return: intake, documents, workflow and billing	$74, $109 or $149 per user/month	Does not prepare returns, so it is an addition to a preparer rather than a replacement
Wolters Kluwer CCH	Firms already standardised on the CCH product family	Could not be accessed on 16 October 2026	The site returned HTTP 403 and a bot challenge, so nothing could be verified

What to test in a Drake Software trial

Drake publishes a free trial download with sample clients and practice returns for 1040 and business forms, and says a trial is available for Drake Tax Online too. Because the prices are published, model the cost before the trial and spend the trial on the three things a rate card cannot tell you: the conversion, your own forms, and the review workflow.

Convert a real client file, not a sample one. Data conversion from most competitor software is included, which makes it the single most valuable thing to test in October rather than in January. Take a messy prior-year return with carryforwards, depreciation and a state attachment, convert it, and reconcile the result line by line. A conversion problem found now is an afternoon; found in filing season it is a weekend.
Prepare your three hardest returns in the trial. Pick one with a Form 5471 or a Form 3115, one in a city or local program such as Ohio or Pennsylvania, and one pass-through whose K-1s export into an individual return. Drake lists more than 4,300 forms and schedules and hundreds of diagnostics, so the question is not coverage in general but coverage of the forms you file.
Use DoubleCheck, LookBack and LinkBacks on purpose. Introduce a deliberate error, then see how fast the review system surfaces it, how clearly LookBack flags the change against last year, and whether LinkBacks takes you from the diagnostic to the entry without hunting. Rework is the real cost in a preparer's season, so judge the product on how quickly it tells you that you are wrong.
Count returns and price both structures. Run last season's individual and business counts against unlimited Pro, Pro 250 plus overflow at $49.99 and $74.99, the 1040 products, and Pay-Per-Return at $379.99. Then map your offices and EFINs, because desktop is licensed per site and EFIN and Drake Tax Online is per user, and ask about multi-location discounts if you have more than one of either.
Settle the extras before 1 December. Decide whether you want the Practice Essentials Bundle at $599 or $849, whether you need hosted desktop at $114 per user per month, and what the separately sold items cost in writing, including Drake Accounting, Audit Defense, Drake Pay and bank products. The retail price takes effect on 1 December and Drake advertises up to $150 of saving before the end of November, so the paperwork is worth finishing early.

Frequently asked questions about Drake Software

How much does Drake tax software cost per year?

As of 16 October 2026 Drake publishes tax year 2026 prices of $2,495 to $3,295 for Drake Tax Pro and $1,995 to $2,445 for Drake Tax 1040, depending on users and included returns, plus Pay-Per-Return at $379.99 and Drake Tax Online at $299.99. Extra returns cost $49.99 or $74.99.

Can I pay monthly for Drake Tax?

No. Drake says the software is an annual licence per tax year with no monthly subscription. Pay-Per-Return at $379.99 and Drake Tax Online at $299.99 are the pay-as-you-go options, charging $49.99 per individual return and $74.99 per business return as you file, with bulk discounts available online.

Does Drake Software offer a free trial?

Yes. As of 16 October 2026 Drake publishes a free trial download for Drake Tax with sample clients and practice returns for 1040 and business forms, and states that a free trial is also available for Drake Tax Online. Use it to test data conversion on a real prior-year file.

What is the difference between Drake Pro 250 and unlimited?

Returns, not features. Drake says Pro 250 includes the same Drake Tax features as unlimited, capped at 250 total returns in any combination of individual and business. Beyond the cap, additional returns cost $49.99 individual and $74.99 business, so compare that overflow against the gap to the unlimited price.

What does Drake Tax include in the price?

Every product lists all states, federal and state e-file, more than 4,300 federal and state forms and schedules, hundreds of diagnostics, a tax planner, and prior year editions for 2023 and 2024. Data conversion from most competitor software and unlimited US-based phone, email and chat support are also included.

Does Drake license per office or per user?

Both, depending on the product. Drake licenses desktop software per physical site and Electronic Filing Identification Number, with single-user and multi-user versions, while Drake Tax Online is licensed per user with additional users at $99 each. Multi-location discounts exist but only on request, so ask before budgeting one licence.

What costs extra beyond the Drake Tax licence?

Additional returns at $49.99 and $74.99, extra Drake Tax Online users at $99, the Practice Essentials Bundle from $599, and Rightworks cloud hosting at $114 per user per month. Drake Accounting and Payroll, SmartExtract, Audit Defense, Drake Pay, bank products and GruntWorx are sold separately with no published price.

What is the Practice Essentials Bundle?

It bundles Drake Portals, Drake Workflow and Drake E-Sign, listed from $599: $1,000 reduced to $599 or $1,425 reduced to $849 depending on the tax package, a 40% saving against buying them separately. It requires Pro, 1040, or Drake Tax Online with 25 or more pre-purchased returns.

When is the best time to buy Drake Tax?

Before the retail price takes effect. Drake marks the higher figure on each tile as retail effective 1 December and advertises savings of up to $150 on Drake Tax before the end of November, and says early renewal discounts may apply based on purchase date. If the decision is settled, buying early costs nothing.

What are the main alternatives to Drake Software?

Intuit ProConnect is the closest cloud alternative, though no ProConnect price could be verified on 16 October 2026, and Wolters Kluwer CCH serves firms already on that product family. If your problem is client intake, documents and workflow rather than preparation, Canopy publishes per-user practice management rates instead.