The accounting software discount cliff: why month seven costs you
Xero £3.20 to £16. QuickBooks £1 to £10. FreeAgent £9.50 to £19. Every headline price in this market is a six-month price, and almost every comparison stops before the bill arrives.
Last verified 31 July 2026. Prices are ex VAT and taken from each vendor’s own UK pricing pages. Promotional offers change roughly monthly and are normally for new customers only — check the live price before you subscribe.
The discount cliff is the month your introductory offer expires and the price snaps back to the standard rate. On UK accounting software entry plans that is month seven: Xero goes from £3.20 to £16, QuickBooks from £1 to £10 and FreeAgent from £9.50 to £19. Over 24 months those become £307.20, £186 and £399.
None of that is hidden. All of it is on the vendors’ own pricing pages. It is simply that nobody compares software on month nineteen, and the entire market is priced in the knowledge that nobody does.
Every headline price in UK accounting software is a six-month price. The product you are actually buying is the one that starts in month seven.Fizoral
The three cliffs, in numbers
Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent all run six-month introductory offers on their entry plans, so all three step up in month seven. The size of the step is what differs — QuickBooks multiplies by ten, Xero by five, FreeAgent by two.
| Entry plan | Months 1–6 | Month 7 onwards | Monthly jump | Multiplier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks Sole Trader | £1.00 | £10.00 | +£9.00 | 10× |
| Xero Ignite | £3.20 | £16.00 | +£12.80 | 5× |
| FreeAgent Sole Trader | £9.50 | £19.00 | +£9.50 | 2× |
| Sage Accounting Start | £0 (months 1–3) | £18.00 from month 4 | +£18.00 | — |
All figures ex VAT, verified 31 July 2026. Sage quotes +VAT; £18 ex VAT is £21.60 inc VAT at the current standard rate. Promotions change roughly monthly and are normally for new customers only.
Note the FreeAgent line. It has the highest headline price and the smallest cliff, because its discount is 50% rather than 80% or 90%. If you hate surprises, that is worth something — though as we will get to, most FreeAgent users should not be paying for it at all.
And Sage does not fit the pattern at all: three months entirely free, then straight to £18. Its cliff is month four, not month seven, with no discounted step in between.
What 24 months actually costs
Over 24 months on entry plans, ex VAT, the totals are: QuickBooks £186, Xero £307.20, Sage Accounting Start £378 and FreeAgent £399.
Split across the two years, the shape of the cliff becomes obvious. Year two is not slightly more expensive than year one. It is dramatically more expensive, because year one was subsidised and year two is not.
| Entry plan | Year 1 | Year 2 | 24-month total | Year 2 vs Year 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks Sole Trader | £66 | £120 | £186 | +£54 |
| Xero Ignite | £115.20 | £192 | £307.20 | +£76.80 |
| Sage Accounting Start | £162 | £216 | £378 | +£54 |
| FreeAgent Sole Trader | £171 | £228 | £399 | +£57 |
| FreeAgent via NatWest / RBS / Ulster / Mettle | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 |
| Sage Sole Trader Free | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 |
Ex VAT, verified 31 July 2026. Sage normalised from +VAT. FreeAgent is free permanently while you hold a NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle account; Mettle requires at least one transaction a month. Sage’s free sole trader tier is capped at 5 invoices a month and cannot handle VAT. Full workings on our cheapest over 24 months page.
Three things in that table cost us money to publish, and we are publishing them anyway:
- QuickBooks is £121.20 cheaper than Xero over 24 months.
- FreeAgent is free forever with a NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle account.
- Sage has a genuinely free tier — five invoices a month, non-VAT only, but real.
Why month-one comparisons are worse than useless
A month-one comparison understates Xero’s real 24-month cost by four times and QuickBooks’ by nearly eight. It is not a rough guide with a margin of error — it is the wrong number by an order of magnitude.
Take the promotional price and multiply by 24, the way an instinctive shopper does:
| Entry plan | Promo price × 24 | Real 24-month cost | Understated by |
|---|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks Sole Trader | £24 | £186 | £162 |
| Xero Ignite | £76.80 | £307.20 | £230.40 |
| FreeAgent Sole Trader | £228 | £399 | £171 |
Ex VAT, verified 31 July 2026. The “promo price × 24” column is not a real offer — it is the mistake, shown so you can see its size.
There is a second, subtler distortion. Month-one pricing reverses the ranking. On day one, QuickBooks at £1 looks 9.5 times cheaper than FreeAgent at £9.50. Over 24 months the gap is £186 against £399 — a little over two times. And if your bank gives you FreeAgent free, the cheapest option on day one becomes the most expensive option over the term.
The honest version of “from £1 a month”
“From £1 a month” is true for six months. The accurate framing is: £1 a month for six months, then £10 a month indefinitely, £186 over two years. Every vendor could write it that way. None of them do, and there is no rule saying they have to.
How to shop around the cliff
Price the full term before you sign up, check whether your bank already gives you software free, and make sure the cheap plan can actually do what you will need it to do in eighteen months.
- Check your bank first. If you hold a NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle account, FreeAgent is free permanently. That is £399 saved over 24 months against paying for it directly. Read how to get FreeAgent free.
- Check the VAT restriction. QuickBooks Sole Trader is the cheapest plan here and it cannot file VAT. If VAT registration is plausible, the real comparison is Simple Start at £16 — see registering for VAT? Your software choice just changed.
- Multiply properly. Six months at the promo rate, eighteen at the standard rate. That is the number. Do it before you enter a card.
- Diarise month six. Put a reminder in for the month before the cliff. Not necessarily to leave — just so the increase is a decision you make rather than one that happens to you.
- Do not plan to hop annually. Introductory rates are for new customers. Migration costs you opening balances, bank feed reconnections and in-app history. Price for staying.
- Consider the free tiers honestly. Sage Sole Trader Free is genuinely £0, but five invoices a month and no VAT is a real ceiling. See genuinely free accounting software.
Check the current prices yourself: Xero UK pricing · QuickBooks UK pricing · FreeAgent pricing · Sage UK pricing.
Discount cliff questions, answered
What people ask once they see the month-seven number.
What is the accounting software discount cliff?
The discount cliff is the month your introductory offer expires and the price jumps to the standard rate. For Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent the entry-plan offers all run six months, so the cliff lands in month seven — Xero goes from £3.20 to £16, QuickBooks from £1 to £10 and FreeAgent from £9.50 to £19.
How much does accounting software really cost over 24 months?
On entry plans, ex VAT, after the discount expires: QuickBooks Sole Trader £186, Xero Ignite £307.20, Sage Accounting Start £378 and FreeAgent Sole Trader £399. FreeAgent is £0 if you bank with NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle, and Sage has a free sole trader tier capped at 5 invoices a month.
Why is comparing month-one prices misleading?
Because month one is the only month at the promotional rate you will remember. Multiplying Xero’s £3.20 promotional price by 24 gives £76.80, against a real 24-month cost of £307.20 — an understatement of four times. Doing the same with QuickBooks’ £1 gives £24 against a real £186.
Does everyone’s discount end in month seven?
No. Sage is the exception: its promotion is three months free on Accounting Start, so Sage’s cliff is month four, not month seven. It is a shorter runway but a smaller drop, because there is no discounted-rate step in between.
Which is cheapest over 24 months?
Ignoring the free routes, QuickBooks Sole Trader at £186 is the cheapest entry plan over 24 months — £121.20 less than Xero. But QuickBooks Sole Trader cannot file VAT, so if you are or will be VAT registered that ranking changes.
Can I just switch when the discount ends?
You can, but the switching cost is real: re-entering opening balances, re-training, re-connecting bank feeds and losing in-app history. Most new-customer discounts also apply only to new customers, so hopping annually is harder than it sounds. Price the whole term before you start.
Read next
Up to the software pillar, across to the two posts that change these numbers, down to the head-to-heads.
Up — pillar
Best UK accounting software, priced over 24 months
The hub: every entry plan, every promotion, every total, and a verdict by business type.
Across — sibling post
Registering for VAT? Your software choice just changed
QuickBooks Sole Trader cannot file VAT. Move to Simple Start and the £121.20 advantage over Xero collapses to £9.60.
Across — sibling post
How to get FreeAgent free with NatWest, RBS or Mettle
The route that turns the most expensive package here into the cheapest. We earn nothing from it.
Down — head to head
Xero vs QuickBooks
£307.20 against £186 over 24 months, and the one restriction that can erase the gap.
Down — what to buy
Cheapest UK accounting software over 24 months
The full workings behind every total on this page, including the two £0 routes.
Down — review
QuickBooks review: £186 over 24 months
The cheapest entry plan in the market, and the VAT limitation you need to understand before you take it.