ZipBooks and QuickBooks Online are popular accounting programs that cater to different customer needs. QuickBooks Online, our pick for overall best small business accounting software, features robust accounting functions in inventory, accounts payable (A/P), and accounts receivable (A/R). Except for inventory, ZipBooks shares the same features, but its features aren’t as robust as QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks Online is our choice if you need inventory or other advanced features, but ZipBooks is enough for income and expense tracking.
Plans for QuickBooks Online start at $25 per month, but we recommend the QuickBooks Online Plus version at $80 per month. ZipBooks has a free plan but scales up to $35 per month for ZipBooks Sophisticated.
ZipBooks is cloud-based accounting software best suited to very small businesses, sole proprietors, freelancers, and consultants. ZipBooks offers excellent time tracking capability, making it well suited to service and consulting businesses. It’s also a good choice for businesses with very tight budgets because of its free plan. However, it lacks inventory tracking, which is one of QuickBooks Online’s best selling points.
ZipBooks
Companies looking for free accounting software: ZipBooks’ Starter plan is free for one user and one bank account connection. This plan is ideal for solopreneurs and freelancers who need to keep track of invoices and bills. With the free plan, you get unlimited invoicing and billing for your business.
Multi-company accounting: QuickBooks Online only offers a single-entity plan. You can’t manage multiple organizations under one plan. But with ZipBooks Sophisticated, you can track the bookkeeping for multiple organizations.
Accountants who have clients using ZipBooks: ZipBooks offers a plan for CPAs and bookkeepers to help assist their clients. The Accountant plan is custom-priced and includes unlimited users and bank account connections. It also has co-branding features to help distinguish your bookkeeping company from your competitors.
QuickBooks is a famous name in accounting software programs. Its cloud-based product, QuickBooks Online, is the go-to accounting software service for most small businesses because of its flexibility for different industries. Because of its cost, it’s not an automatic choice for business owners on a limited budget, making ZipBooks a practical choice because of its free plan and its other affordably priced plans.
QuickBooks
Ecommerce businesses: As our overall choice for best ecommerce accounting software, QuickBooks Online can integrate with your ecommerce platform to record changes in inventory and sales automatically from the platform to QuickBooks. QuickBooks Online can integrate with popular ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Square, Squarespace, Wix, and Zapier. ZipBooks doesn’t have ecommerce integrations.QuickBooks Online offer easy setup, intuitive navigation, and easily access QuickBooks server remotely . QuickBooks Online is our choice if you need inventory or other advanced features, but ZipBooks is enough for income and expense tracking.
Inventory tracking: ZipBooks doesn’t have an inventory module to track inventory stock levels, COGS, and cost of ending inventory. QuickBooks Online can do all of those things, and it incorporates inventory costs when creating invoices and purchase orders (POs).
Banking and cash management: QuickBooks Online makes it easy to manage multiple bank accounts and cards in one place. If you’re not comfortable connecting your bank to QuickBooks, you can still use its cash accounting features, such as bank reconciliation. Also, if you don’t have a bank feed, you can import your bank statement via a CSV file. We chose Quickbooks online as our overall pick for best bank reconciliation software.
Let's find out which Software Is Right for Your Business in 2021 by doing QuickBooks vs ZipBooks comparison.
ZipBooks vs QuickBooks Online: Pricing
In comparing ZipBooks and QuickBooks Online, we tested ZipBooks Sophisticated and QuickBooks Online Plus. There’s a significant price difference, with the advantage going to ZipBooks.
ZipBooks Pricing
If you opt for the ZipBooks Starter plan, it’s free forever. The cost of the other programs increases as additional features and users are added.
-Starter: $0 for one user
-Smarter: $15 for five users
-Sophisticated: $35 for unlimited users
-Accountant: Custom-priced for unlimited users—includes all of the Sophisticated features for both the accountant and their clients, the ability to manage clients from one dashboard, export financial -packages, and edit transactions in bulk
QuickBooks Online Pricing
There are five monthly subscription plans available for QuickBooks Online, which are based on the number of users and features available. Here are the prices for each:
-Simple Start: $25 per month for one user
-Essentials: $50 per month for up to three users
-Plus: $80 per month for up to five users
-Advanced: $180 per month for up to 25 users
ZipBooks vs QuickBooks Online: Accounts Payable
Both ZipBooks’ and QuickBooks Online’s A/P features perform the important functions we want to see. You can create bills and process payments. However, unlike QuickBooks Online, ZipBooks lacks PO processing. In ZipBooks, creating an A/P entry for inventory purchases doesn’t allow you to input the number of goods purchased. Instead, you can only input the total amount due.
The possible issue here would be determining the cost of goods sold (COGS), the number of goods on hand, and the cost of ending inventory, so QuickBooks Online is a better choice if you sell merchandise inventory. However, ZipBooks is enough if you already have a third-party inventory tracking program or if you’re fine with manual inventory tracking using a spreadsheet.
ZipBooks vs QuickBooks Online: Accounts Receivable
Both ZipBooks and QuickBooks do well in A/R, except in invoicing. Unlike QuickBooks, invoicing in ZipBooks isn’t customizable. You can’t change invoice colors and templates. In terms of invoicing customization, QuickBooks is the clear winner.
With A/R functionality, both ZipBooks and QuickBooks Online offer similar features. You can add unbilled expenses to invoices, accept partial payments from customers, and view outstanding invoices. The only difference between the two is that ZipBooks doesn’t have features for credit memos. Users cannot issue credit memos to customers and issue checks for credit balance refunds.
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