The cheapest UK accounting software over 24 months
Not the cheapest advertised price — the cheapest total. Every entry plan below is carried out to month twenty-four, with the year-one figure printed beside it so you can see exactly how much of the saving evaporates on bill seven. Two options are genuinely £0. Of the rest, QuickBooks wins on raw price, and we say so despite earning nothing for the free routes and no more for QuickBooks than anyone else.
Last verified 31 July 2026. Promotions change roughly monthly — confirm before you subscribe.
The short answer
The cheapest UK accounting software is £0, twice over — FreeAgent through a NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle account, and Sage Sole Trader Free. The cheapest paid plan over 24 months is Sage Sole Trader at £147 ex VAT, then QuickBooks Sole Trader at £186.
Those three all share one limitation: none of them can file a VAT return. Among plans that can, the cheapest is QuickBooks Simple Start at £297.60, £9.60 below Xero Ignite. Here is the full ranking, cheapest first, ex VAT, over 24 months.
Every entry plan, ranked by 24-month cost
Year one is shown beside the 24-month total. The distance between the two columns is the discount illusion, in pounds.
| # | Plan | Advertised | List | Year one | 24 months | Files VAT? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1= | FreeAgent via NatWest / RBS / Ulster / Mettle £0 | — | £0 | £0 | £0 | Yes |
| 1= | Sage Sole Trader Free £0 | — | £0 | £0 | £0 | No |
| 3 | Sage Sole Trader +VAT quoted | 3 months free | £7+VAT | £63 | £147 | No |
| 4 | QuickBooks Sole Trader | £1 × 6 | £10 | £66 | £186 | No |
| 5 | FreeAgent Landlord Landlords only | £5 × 6 | £10 | £90 | £210 | Yes |
| 6 | QuickBooks Simple Start Cheapest with VAT | £1.60 × 6 | £16 | £105.60 | £297.60 | Yes |
| 7 | Xero Ignite | £3.20 × 6 | £16 | £115.20 | £307.20 | Yes |
| 8 | Sage Accounting Start +VAT quoted | 3 months free | £18+VAT | £162 | £378 | Yes |
| 9 | FreeAgent Sole Trader | £9.50 × 6 | £19 | £171 | £399 | Yes |
Ex VAT. Sage quotes +VAT: Sage Sole Trader is £176.40 inc VAT and Sage Accounting Start £453.60 inc VAT over 24 months. FreeAgent Landlord is included because it is a genuine entry plan, but only for landlords — see best software for landlords. Arithmetic: Sage plans get 3 free months then 21 paid; Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent get 6 discounted months then 18 at list.
Why year one is not the price
Judging accounting software on year one understates its two-year cost by between 55% and 63%, because the discount is front-loaded into the first six months and never returns.
Take the two loudest offers in the market. Xero advertises £3.20 a month — 80% off Ignite’s £16 list price, for six months. QuickBooks advertises £1 — 90% off £10, also for six months. Both are real offers and both are honestly labelled on the vendors’ own pages. Neither is a price.
Split the 24 months into two years and the shape is obvious:
- Xero Ignite: £115.20 in year one, £192 in year two. Year two is 67% more expensive than year one.
- QuickBooks Sole Trader: £66, then £120. Up 82%.
- FreeAgent Sole Trader: £171, then £228. Up 33%.
- Sage Accounting Start: £162, then £216 ex VAT. Up 33%.
By the time the real price arrives, your bank feeds are connected, your invoice templates are built and two quarters of records live in that product. The discount is not a discount on the software. It is a discount on the decision, and the decision is where the cost is.
Plot your own 24-month cost
Pick a plan. The chart shows cumulative spend for every month from one to twenty-four, ex VAT, with the discount cliff marked — the month the promotion ends and the real price starts.
Which plan are you pricing?
Pick a plan above to plot it. Showing QuickBooks Sole Trader by default.
- Discount ends after
- month 6£1 a month until then
- First full-price bill
- month 7£10 a month from here
- Total after 12 months
- £66the number the advert implies
- Total after 24 months
- £186the number you actually pay
Ex VAT, monthly billing, list prices and promotions as published on 31 July 2026. Sage figures are normalised from Sage’s +VAT quoting. No price rises are modelled, because we cannot know them. Vertical axis is fixed at £400 for every plan so the charts are directly comparable.
The two options that are genuinely £0
Two products are free permanently rather than free for a trial period, and we are paid nothing when you choose either — which is precisely why they are at the top of the ranking rather than in a footnote.
FreeAgent, free with NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle
Hold a business account with any of those four and FreeAgent is included at £0 for as long as the account is open. It is the full product, not a cut-down tier: VAT, Self Assessment filing, unlimited invoices. Mettle asks for at least one transaction a month to keep it active. Against buying FreeAgent directly at £399 over 24 months, that is the largest single saving on this page.
Sage Sole Trader Free, £0 permanently
A real product with no card required, capped at five invoices a month and unable to handle VAT. That makes it right for a genuinely small non-VAT sole trader and wrong for everyone else — but for the people it fits, it is £0 against £186 for the nearest paid equivalent.
Free trials are a separate and lesser category: Xero offers 30 days plus a month free, QuickBooks 30 days, Sage three months free on paid tiers. They reduce year one and change nothing about year two. The full free guide, including when free is not enough.
QuickBooks wins on raw price — and here is where that stops being true
Among paid plans that a general small business would actually buy, QuickBooks is the cheapest: £186 over 24 months against £307.20 for Xero, a difference of £121.20. We would rather you knew that than found out later.
Three things end that win:
- VAT registration. QuickBooks Sole Trader at £10 cannot file a VAT return. Registering pushes you to Simple Start at £16, £297.60 over 24 months, and the gap to Xero Ignite falls to £9.60 — 40p a month, which is not a reason to choose anything.
- A second user. Simple Start allows one. Every Xero plan allows unlimited users, so if you need to hand an accountant their own login, Xero’s £9.60 premium buys something real.
- The free routes. If you bank with NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle, QuickBooks’ £186 is competing with £0 and loses.
Equally, Xero’s Ignite plan has its own ceiling: 20 invoices a month. Cross it and you are on Grow at £710.40 — at which point Sage Accounting Start at £378 with no invoice cap is £332.40 cheaper. Cheapest is a moving target and it moves with your invoice count.
Cheapest is not always right
The three cheapest paid options on this page cannot file a VAT return, and buying one of them and migrating a year later usually costs more in your own time than the saving was worth.
Before you take the top of the ranking, check four things:
- Will you register for VAT within two years? If yes, price from a VAT-capable plan now. The cheapest is QuickBooks Simple Start at £297.60.
- How many invoices do you send in your busiest month? Not your average month. Sage’s free tier caps at five and Xero Ignite at twenty.
- Do you need payroll? None of the entry plans include it. FreeAgent Limited Company at £693 over 24 months does; the nearest Xero equivalent, Comprehensive, is £960.
- Do you want the software to file your Self Assessment return? FreeAgent does. Xero does not. That can be worth more than the whole price difference.
And none of it is a Making Tax Digital question. All of these products are on HMRC’s recognised list, so MTD compatibility should not cost you a penny extra. What MTD actually requires.
Questions about price
Short answers, with the arithmetic linked.
What is the cheapest accounting software in the UK?
£0, two ways: FreeAgent with a NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle account, and Sage Sole Trader Free (five invoices a month, no VAT). The cheapest paid plan is Sage Sole Trader at £147 ex VAT over 24 months, then QuickBooks Sole Trader at £186. The free guide.
Is QuickBooks cheaper than Xero?
Yes — £186 against £307.20 on entry plans, so £121.20 cheaper over 24 months. Once you need VAT filing the gap is £9.60. The full comparison.
Why is the advertised price so much lower than yours?
Because it is a six-month new-customer rate. Xero’s £3.20 is 80% off £16; QuickBooks’ £1 is 90% off £10. You pay full list for eighteen of the first twenty-four months.
What does accounting software cost in year two?
More than year one, always. Xero Ignite: £115.20 then £192. QuickBooks Sole Trader: £66 then £120. FreeAgent Sole Trader: £171 then £228. Sage Accounting Start: £162 then £216 ex VAT.
Should I just buy the cheapest?
Only if it does the job. The three cheapest paid plans cannot file VAT, and Xero Ignite caps invoices at twenty a month. Migrating later costs more time than the saving is worth. Split by VAT status.
Keep reading
Up to the pillar, across to the siblings, or into a single-product review.
Pillar
Best UK accounting software
The hub: all four platforms over 24 months, plus a router that gives a verdict by business type.
Sibling
Best for sole traders
The same money, split by VAT status — the fork that actually decides it.
Sibling
Genuinely free software
The two £0 routes in detail, and a blunt section on when free is not enough.
Three things on this page that cost us money. QuickBooks is £121.20 cheaper than Xero over 24 months on entry plans. FreeAgent is free forever with NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle. Sage has a genuinely free tier. We earn nothing from the £0 routes and they still top the ranking.