QuickBooks review: cheap, until you register for VAT
QuickBooks Sole Trader advertises £1 a month. That is a 90% discount lasting six months, after which you pay £10 — £186 over 24 months. It is the cheapest well-known option in the UK, and the single most important thing to know about it is that the Sole Trader plan cannot file a VAT return. We are in no affiliate programme and earn nothing from this page.
Last verified 31 July 2026. Promotions change roughly monthly — confirm before you subscribe.
Should you buy QuickBooks?
Buy QuickBooks Sole Trader if you are confident you will stay under the VAT registration threshold for the next two years, because £186 over 24 months is the cheapest well-known product in this market. Do not buy it if VAT is anywhere on your horizon, because the Sole Trader plan cannot file a VAT return and registering means changing plan to Simple Start at £297.60, at which point most of the saving is gone.
That VAT limitation is the most important buying fact about QuickBooks and it is the thing the £1 headline is designed to make you skip. Everything below is the arithmetic and the consequences.
That link goes to QuickBooks’s own UK pricing page and earns us nothing — we are not in their affiliate programme, or anyone else’s. Check the price yourself; promotions change roughly monthly.
Who QuickBooks is for
- Sole traders comfortably below the VAT threshold. £186 over two years, with no monthly invoice ceiling. Nothing else with this feature set is cheaper.
- VAT-registered one-person businesses. Simple Start at £297.60 is the cheapest VAT-capable plan of the four platforms we price.
- People who want a phone number. If being able to call support is decisive for you, QuickBooks is the answer on this list.
- Businesses that expect to grow through several tiers. The ladder runs from £10 to £115, so you are unlikely to outgrow the platform itself.
Who QuickBooks is not for
- Anyone who will register for VAT within two years. Price it from Simple Start’s £297.60, not the £186 headline, and then compare again.
- Anyone banking with NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle. FreeAgent is £0. £186 is cheap; £0 is cheaper.
- Businesses where several people need logins. Simple Start is a single user. A second person means Essentials at £33 — £613.80 over 24 months.
- Very small non-VAT sole traders. Sage Sole Trader is £147 ex VAT and its free tier is £0.
What every QuickBooks plan costs over 24 months
QuickBooks’ UK prices are ex VAT. The introductory rate is 90% off for six months — the deepest headline discount in this market — after which you pay list price. The VAT column is the one to read first.
| QuickBooks plan | Intro price (6 months) | List price | Year one | 24 months | Files VAT? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sole Trader Cheapest here | £1 × 6 | £10/mo | £66 | £186 | No — cannot file VAT |
| Simple Start VAT starts here | £1.60 × 6 | £16/mo | £105.60 | £297.60 | Yes |
| Essentials | £3.30 × 6 | £33/mo | £217.80 | £613.80 | Yes |
| Plus | £4.70 × 6 | £47/mo | £310.20 | £874.20 | Yes |
| Advanced | £11.50 × 6 | £115/mo | £759 | £2,139 | Yes |
All figures ex VAT, monthly billing, no annual prepayment discount applied. The 90% six-month discount is verified on the entry plans and applied at the same percentage to the higher tiers for illustration — confirm the offer on the tier you actually want. QuickBooks’ 30-day trial is excluded from every total.
Plan limits change more often than prices. We warrant the money on this page, verified 31 July 2026. Feature limits — user counts, invoice caps, what each tier includes — should be confirmed on the vendor’s own plan comparison before you subscribe, because vendors revise them quietly.
The price you will actually pay
QuickBooks charges you £1 a month for six months and £10 a month for the next eighteen. That is a tenfold increase arriving in month seven, and it is the steepest cliff of the four platforms we price.
£1 — promotional months 1–6£10 — list price, months 7–24
The three numbers that matter
- (£1 × 6) + (£10 × 18) = £186. QuickBooks Sole Trader over two years, ex VAT.
- £6 against £180. The six discounted months against the eighteen that follow. The £1 you were advertised is 3% of what you pay — the smallest share of any promotion in this market, which makes it the most misleading headline in it.
- £297.60 − £186 = £111.60. What registering for VAT costs you, because it moves you off Sole Trader and onto Simple Start.
Why this section exists. A 90% discount produces a spectacular headline and a modest saving: £54 across two years. The number that governs your decision is the £10, not the £1, and the number that governs it even more is which plan you will be on in month thirteen. See the same cliff plotted for all four platforms on the cheapest-over-24-months guide.
What QuickBooks does well
Four genuine strengths, stated without the marketing.
QuickBooks’ strengths are price at both ends of the VAT question, no invoice ceiling, and a support model that includes actually speaking to someone — which matters more to more people than feature comparisons suggest.
Cheapest VAT-capable plan of the four
This is the strength that survives scrutiny. Simple Start at £16 is £297.60 over 24 months, against Xero Ignite’s £307.20, Sage Accounting Start’s £378 ex VAT and FreeAgent Sole Trader’s £399. If you are VAT-registered, need one login and want the lowest total, this is it. The margin over Xero is only £9.60, so do not pretend it is decisive — but if nothing else separates them, take the cheaper one.
No monthly invoice cap
Xero Ignite caps invoices at twenty a month at the same £16 price point. QuickBooks does not impose an equivalent ceiling on Simple Start. For a tradesperson or consultant billing weekly, that difference is worth more than the £9.60 price gap, because breaching Xero’s cap costs you £403.20 more over two years in forced plan upgrade.
You can telephone them
Xero’s support model is not built around inbound calls. QuickBooks offers phone support. If you are the kind of person who needs to talk to a human when the bank feed breaks in the week your return is due, this is a real and underrated advantage, and it is worth paying something for. Confirm the current hours and channels on QuickBooks’ own support page — support arrangements change and we do not warrant them.
£186 is a genuinely low number for a full product
For a sole trader who will stay under the VAT threshold, £186 across two years — about £7.75 a month averaged — buys a complete, HMRC-recognised bookkeeping product with no invoice limit. That is a good deal on its own terms, and it beats Xero by £121.20 for that specific reader.
What is wrong with QuickBooks
Longer than the section above, as it should be. The first item is the most important sentence on this page.
QuickBooks’ cheapest plan is cheap because of what it cannot do, and the advertised price is the least representative in the market.
- The Sole Trader plan cannot file a VAT return. This is the single most important buying fact about QuickBooks. At £10 a month it is the cheapest well-known plan in the UK, and it is cheap because VAT filing is not in it. If you register for VAT — voluntarily, or because you cross the threshold — you must move to Simple Start at £16, mid-year, mid-books. Anyone who quotes you “QuickBooks from £1” without saying this is not reviewing the product, they are repeating the ad.
- The £1 becomes £10 in month seven. That is a 900% increase. The six discounted months cost you £6; the next eighteen cost you £180. The advertised price accounts for 3% of your two-year bill — the smallest share of any promotion we price, which makes the £1 the most misleading number in UK accounting software advertising.
- It is not even the cheapest paid plan. Sage Sole Trader is £7+VAT — £147 over 24 months ex VAT → — £39 less than QuickBooks. Neither can file VAT, so they compete directly for exactly the same reader. If your only criterion is price and you are not VAT-registered, QuickBooks is second.
- Simple Start is one user. Bring in a bookkeeper, a business partner or a second director and you are on Essentials at £33 — £613.80 over 24 months against Xero Ignite’s £307.20 with unlimited users. Xero costs less than half as much for a two-person business, which reverses the headline comparison completely. Read the Xero review →
- The step from Simple Start to Essentials more than doubles your bill. £16 to £33 with nothing between. Whatever forces the move — a second user, most commonly — adds £316.20 over two years.
- Advanced at £115 a month is £2,139 over 24 months. Worth stating plainly because the £1 headline and the £2,139 ceiling belong to the same product, and only one of them appears in the advertising.
- The £186 figure only holds for a narrow reader. It requires you to stay under the VAT threshold, need only one login, and stay on monthly billing, for two full years. If any of those three change, price the plan you will actually be on instead — and QuickBooks’ advantage over Xero shrinks from £121.20 to £9.60 or disappears entirely.
- Two competitors can cost you £0. FreeAgent is free permanently with a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle business account — the full product, with VAT filing, which QuickBooks Sole Trader does not have at any price. Sage’s free tier is £0 for five invoices a month. The genuinely free options →
Who should buy QuickBooks, and who should buy something else
QuickBooks is the right answer for a specific reader and the wrong one for several others. Find yourself below.
Buy QuickBooks if you are a one-person business, either safely below the VAT threshold or newly registered and wanting the cheapest VAT-capable plan. Buy something else in every other case here — and we earn nothing either way, because we are not in any vendor’s affiliate programme.
Buy QuickBooks if…
- You are a sole trader who will not register for VAT in the next two years. £186, no invoice cap, and £121.20 less than Xero.
- You are VAT-registered, working alone, and want the lowest total. Simple Start at £297.60 is the cheapest VAT-capable plan of the four.
- Phone support is decisive for you. On this list, that points at QuickBooks.
Buy something else if…
- You bank with NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle. FreeAgent is £0 permanently and it files VAT, which QuickBooks Sole Trader cannot do at any price. Mettle asks for one transaction a month.
- Two or more people need logins. Xero Ignite is £307.20 with unlimited users, against £613.80 for QuickBooks Essentials. Xero is roughly half the price for a two-person business.
- You send five invoices a month or fewer and are not VAT-registered. Sage Sole Trader Free is £0. Check the cap against your busiest month.
- You want the cheapest paid plan and do not need VAT filing. Sage Sole Trader is £147 ex VAT — £176.40 inc VAT — against QuickBooks’ £186.
- You run a limited company and need payroll. FreeAgent Limited Company is £693 with payroll included. QuickBooks does not solve that problem at £10 a month.
Go and check the prices yourself
Every link below is the vendor’s own plain UK pricing page. None of them earns us a commission, because Fizoral is not a member of any accounting software affiliate programme — including QuickBooks’s. We would rather you verified our arithmetic against the source than took our word for it.
Does QuickBooks handle Making Tax Digital?
Yes for Making Tax Digital purposes — but do not confuse that with VAT filing, which is a separate question and the one that catches people out.
QuickBooks is on HMRC’s recognised list for Making Tax Digital, and so are Xero, FreeAgent and Sage, including the free routes. MTD compatibility is table stakes in 2026, not a differentiator. The QuickBooks-specific catch is different: the Sole Trader plan cannot file a VAT return, which is about VAT, not about MTD.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax has applied since 6 April 2026 to qualifying income over £50,000, and applies from 6 April 2027 to qualifying income over £30,000. Qualifying income is gross self-employment plus gross property income — turnover, not profit — and it is a different threshold from VAT registration entirely. Plenty of people in scope for MTD are not VAT-registered, and that is exactly the reader QuickBooks Sole Trader is priced for.
Read the Making Tax Digital pillar, or check whether you are in scope before you spend anything. Confirm your own position with HMRC or an accountant — this page is not tax advice.
The rest of our working
The other three reviews, every head-to-head that features QuickBooks, and the pillar that prices all four side by side.
Pillar
Best UK accounting software, priced over 24 months
All four platforms in one table: QuickBooks £186, Xero £307.20, Sage Accounting Start £378, FreeAgent £399 — or £0, two different ways.
Head to head
Xero vs QuickBooks
The £121.20 gap, and why it shrinks to £9.60 the moment you register for VAT.
Review
Xero review
£307.20 over 24 months, £121.20 more than QuickBooks — but unlimited users on every plan, including the £16 one.
Review
FreeAgent review
£0 forever with a NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle account. £399 if you pay for it, the dearest entry plan we price.
Review
Sage review
The cheapest paid plan of any platform at £147 ex VAT — and the only vendor here that quotes +VAT, so £18 bills at £21.60.
Our workings
How we research
The pricing rules, the sources, the conflicts of interest, and what would make us change a verdict.
How this review was researched
Our method · verified 31 July 2026
Every price on this page was read off QuickBooks’ own UK pricing pages — not a press release, not a review-site database, not another comparison article. Figures are ex VAT, cover the plans named in the table above, and were verified on 31 July 2026. Promotional rates in this category are revised roughly monthly and are almost always for new customers only, so we re-check every figure and move the verification date when we do.
The 24-month totals are arithmetic rather than opinion: six promotional months at the promotional rate, then full list price through to month twenty-four, with the multiplication printed beside each total so you can redo it on your phone.
We publish no scores and no star ratings. A number out of five cannot express “cheapest in the market, cannot file VAT”, and that sentence is the entire QuickBooks decision. We are not a member of QuickBooks’ affiliate programme, or anyone else’s, so nothing on this page is written to earn a commission.
We publish our method instead of a byline. A named author is easy to invent and impossible for you to check; a named source, a stated date and printed arithmetic are not. This review is written and maintained by Fizoral as a publication. Read how we research, or tell us about a figure that looks wrong.
Questions people actually ask about QuickBooks
Short answers, with the arithmetic where money is involved.
Can QuickBooks Sole Trader file a VAT return?
No. The QuickBooks Sole Trader plan at £10 a month cannot file a VAT return — this is the single most important fact about the cheapest plan in UK accounting software, and it is why it is the cheapest. VAT filing starts at Simple Start, £16 a month, which is £297.60 over 24 months against £186 for Sole Trader. If you are VAT-registered, or expect to register within two years, ignore the £186 figure entirely and price QuickBooks from £297.60. See all four platforms priced side by side.
How much does QuickBooks cost after the £1 offer ends?
£10 a month for Sole Trader, ex VAT. The advertised £1 is a 90% new-customer discount lasting six months, so the £1 becomes £10 in month seven — a tenfold increase. The full sum is (£1 × 6) + (£10 × 18) = £186 over 24 months, of which the discounted period is just £6, about 3% of what you pay. Simple Start works out at £297.60, Essentials £613.80, Plus £874.20 and Advanced £2,139 on the same basis. See the discount cliff for every platform.
Is QuickBooks cheaper than Xero?
Yes, by £121.20 over 24 months, if you never register for VAT: £186 for QuickBooks Sole Trader against £307.20 for Xero Ignite. That gap closes almost entirely the moment VAT enters the picture, because QuickBooks Sole Trader cannot file VAT and Simple Start at £297.60 is only £9.60 below Xero Ignite. It also reverses if two people need logins, because Xero allows unlimited users on every plan while QuickBooks Simple Start allows one — a second user puts you on Essentials at £613.80. Read the full Xero vs QuickBooks comparison.
Is QuickBooks the cheapest accounting software in the UK?
No. Sage Sole Trader at £7+VAT is £147 over 24 months ex VAT, which is £39 less than QuickBooks Sole Trader’s £186, and neither of them can file a VAT return. Both are beaten outright by two free routes: FreeAgent is £0 for as long as you hold a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle business account, and Sage Sole Trader Free is £0 permanently for five invoices a month or fewer. QuickBooks is the cheapest well-known paid option, which is not the same claim. The genuinely free options.
How many users do you get on QuickBooks Simple Start?
One. That is the structural weakness in QuickBooks’ pricing, because the moment a bookkeeper, business partner or second director needs access you move to Essentials at £33 a month — £613.80 over 24 months. Xero allows unlimited users on every plan including the £16 one, so a two-person business pays £307.20 with Xero against £613.80 with QuickBooks. Confirm current user allowances on QuickBooks’ own plan comparison before you subscribe, because vendors revise these limits more often than they revise prices. Read the Xero review.
Which QuickBooks plan do I need?
If you are a sole trader who will not register for VAT, Sole Trader at £10 a month — £186 over 24 months. If you are VAT-registered and working alone, Simple Start at £16, which is £297.60 and the cheapest VAT-capable plan of the four platforms we price. If more than one person needs a login you are into Essentials at £33, £613.80 over two years, and at that point you should price Xero Ignite at £307.20 with unlimited users before you commit. Read the Xero review.
Is QuickBooks compatible with Making Tax Digital?
Yes, and so are Xero, FreeAgent and Sage, including the free routes. All four are on HMRC’s recognised list, so MTD compatibility is table stakes in 2026 rather than a reason to pick one platform. Do not confuse it with VAT filing: QuickBooks Sole Trader is fine for Making Tax Digital purposes and still cannot file a VAT return. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies from 6 April 2026 to qualifying income over £50,000 and from 6 April 2027 to qualifying income over £30,000, counted as gross self-employment plus gross property income. Check whether you are affected.