// ACCOUNTING
Quickbooks vs Akaunting
QuickBooks Online rents you your own books by the month, then raises the price every renewal. Akaunting gives you full invoicing and accounting on a server you own — no subscription, no seat limits.
RENTED
QuickBooks
From ~$35/mo, billed forever
OWNED
Akaunting
Free + your hosting
// AT A GLANCE
How they compare
QuickBooks
Akaunting
Pricing model
Monthly subscription, rising yearly
Free, open-source license
Per-user fees
Higher tiers to add seats
Unlimited users included
Who owns the data
Hosted on Intuit's cloud
Your server, your database
Invoicing & estimates
Yes (tier-gated)
Yes, unlimited
Lock-in
Export limits, proprietary format
Open data, leave anytime
* Pricing is illustrative of published list rates and scales with seats/usage; open-source figures reflect license cost only.
// THE CATCH
Where QuickBooks starts to hurt
X
Price creep
Subscription tiers climb at renewal, and the features you need keep moving up a level.
X
Per-seat math
Adding a bookkeeper or partner means jumping plans, not just adding a login.
X
Your books, their cloud
Your financial history lives on Intuit's servers under their terms.
// THE ALTERNATIVE
Akaunting does the same job — and you own it
Akaunting is a full double-entry accounting platform — invoicing, bills, expenses, multi-currency, and reports — running on your own infrastructure with no recurring license fee.
Unlimited invoices, estimates & customers
Expense and bill tracking with reports
Multi-currency and multi-company
Client portal for online payments
Your data exportable in open formats, anytime
// THE MATH
What it costs over three years
QuickBooks · 3-YEAR LICENSE
$1,368+
Based on a single Essentials-tier plan; most businesses land on higher tiers with payroll and add-ons that push this far higher.
Akaunting · LICENSE FEES
$0
No per-seat or usage fees ever. You pay only for the hosting you already run — plus our flat build & maintenance.
// QUICKBOOKS SAVINGS CALCULATOR
Price your QuickBooks stack against Akaunting
Pick the QuickBooks plans you pay for and the Akaunting modules you'd actually use. The slider scales QuickBooks' per-employee payroll fees — Akaunting's modules stay flat no matter how big your team gets.
Team size
5 employees
Drives QuickBooks payroll's per-employee charge. Akaunting's payroll module is a flat fee.
WHAT YOU PAY QUICKBOOKS
Accounting plan
Payroll plan
WHAT YOU'D PAY WITH AKAUNTING
Akaunting core — invoicing, bills, banking, reportsFREE
Add the modules you need
YOU'D SAVE
Over three years
$0
QuickBooks / mo$0
Akaunting / mo$0
You save / mo$0
You save / yr$0
Akaunting's license is $0 and its modules are flat-rate — no per-employee payroll fees. You pay only for hosting you already run, plus our flat build & maintenance.
Get my exact savings →* QuickBooks figures use published list rates (payroll = base + per-employee); promotional discounts expire. Akaunting module prices as configured. Illustrative only.
// WHY BUILTSTEAD, NOT DIY
Open-source is only free if your time is.
Akaunting is free to download — but you still have to install it, secure it, migrate your QuickBooks history, and keep it backed up. We install it, secure it, move your data over, connect it to the rest of your tools, and keep it running — all set up in your name. You get the savings of open-source without becoming your own IT department.
01
We host it for you
Deployed on reliable infrastructure, configured, secured, and monitored — no servers for you to babysit.
02
We migrate your data
Your existing records, contacts, and history moved over cleanly, so nothing is lost in the switch.
03
We connect your stack
Wired into your other tools so data flows automatically instead of being re-entered by hand.
04
We maintain & update
Updates, backups, and security patches handled on an ongoing basis — it just keeps working.
05
Set up in your name
Everything is titled to your company on your domain. No lock-in, no markup — the keys are yours.
06
Real people to call
When something needs attention, you reach us directly — not a ticket queue in another time zone.
Ready to drop QuickBooks?
Get a free audit. We'll price out your switch to Akaunting, map the migration, and show you the three-year savings — no obligation.
// MORE COMPARISONS
// GROWTH
// FINANCE
// OPERATIONS