Sage review: the £18 plan bills at £21.60
Sage is the only vendor in this market that quotes its UK prices plus VAT. Everyone else quotes ex VAT, so the numbers on Sage’s own site are not directly comparable to anyone else’s — and if you are not VAT-registered, the advertised £18 leaves your bank account as £21.60. Normalised to ex VAT, Accounting Start is £378 over 24 months. Sage also has the only genuinely free permanent tier here, capped at five invoices a month.
Last verified 31 July 2026. Promotions change roughly monthly — confirm before you subscribe.
Should you buy Sage?
Buy Sage if you are a very small non-VAT-registered sole trader, because Sage Sole Trader Free is £0 permanently for five invoices a month or fewer and the paid Sole Trader tier at £7+VAT is the cheapest paid plan of any platform we price. Do not buy Sage Accounting Start on the strength of its £18 headline, because Sage quotes +VAT — it bills at £21.60 — and at £378 over 24 months ex VAT it is dearer than both Xero and QuickBooks for the same job.
Read this before you compare anything
Sage quotes +VAT. Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent quote ex VAT. We normalise Sage to ex VAT throughout this page so the comparison is like for like, and print the inc-VAT figure alongside. If you are not VAT-registered you cannot reclaim that VAT, so the inc-VAT figure is the one that actually leaves your account — £21.60 a month, £453.60 over 24 months, on the plan Sage advertises at £18.
That link goes to Sage’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 Sage is for
- Sole traders sending five invoices a month or fewer, not VAT-registered. The free tier is £0 permanently. No card, no expiry.
- Non-VAT sole traders who want the cheapest paid plan anywhere. Sole Trader at £7+VAT is £147 over 24 months ex VAT, £176.40 inc VAT — below QuickBooks’ £186.
- People who dislike bait pricing. Three months free then full price is honest promotional structure. No £1 that becomes £10.
- Businesses that expect to scale within one vendor. The ladder runs to Plus at £59+VAT.
Who Sage is not for
- VAT-registered businesses shopping on price. QuickBooks Simple Start is £297.60 — £80.40 less than Sage Accounting Start.
- Anyone banking with NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle. FreeAgent is £0 with no invoice cap at all.
- Anyone who will exceed five invoices a month. The free tier’s cap is hard, and it is a monthly cap, not an average.
- Anyone who cannot reclaim VAT and reads the headline price. You will be billed 20% more than the number you compared.
What every Sage plan costs over 24 months
Sage advertises +VAT. We show both: the ex-VAT figure so you can compare Sage with Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent like for like, and the inc-VAT figure because that is what leaves your bank account if you are not VAT-registered. Sage’s promotion is three months free rather than a discounted rate, so the 24-month total is 21 paid months.
| Sage plan | Promotion | List price | Billed monthly (inc VAT) | Year one (ex VAT) | 24 months (ex VAT) | 24 months (inc VAT) | Files VAT? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sole Trader Free £0 | n/a | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 | No |
| Sole Trader Cheapest paid plan anywhere | 3 months free | £7+VAT | £8.40 | £63 | £147 | £176.40 | No |
| Accounting Start | 3 months free | £18+VAT | £21.60 | £162 | £378 | £453.60 | Yes |
| Standard | 3 months free | £39+VAT | £46.80 | £351 | £819 | £982.80 | Yes |
| Plus | 3 months free | £59+VAT | £70.80 | £531 | £1,239 | £1,486.80 | Yes |
Ex-VAT figures are the like-for-like comparison against Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent, which all quote ex VAT. Inc-VAT figures apply VAT at 20% and are what a non-VAT-registered business actually pays, because it cannot reclaim the VAT. Monthly billing, no annual prepayment discount applied. The three-months-free promotion means 21 paid months inside a 24-month window.
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
Sage’s cliff is a different shape from everyone else’s. There is no £1 headline that becomes £10 — you pay nothing for three months, then the full £18+VAT arrives in month four. That is more honest, and it is also the month people forget.
£0 — three months free£18+VAT (£21.60 billed) — months 4–24
The four numbers that matter
- £18 × 1.20 = £21.60. The advertised price against the billed price. If you are not VAT-registered you cannot reclaim the difference, so £21.60 is your real monthly cost.
- £18 × 21 = £378. Accounting Start over 24 months ex VAT, after the three free months. This is the number to compare with Xero and QuickBooks.
- £378 × 1.20 = £453.60. The same two years inc VAT — the amount that actually leaves a non-VAT-registered reader’s bank account.
- £378 − £297.60 = £80.40. What Sage Accounting Start costs you over QuickBooks Simple Start, ex VAT, for the same core job of filing VAT.
Why this section exists. The +VAT convention is not dishonest — it is normal in business software, and Sage states it. It is a problem because every competitor in this market quotes the other way, so a reader comparing Sage’s £18 against Xero’s £16 is comparing £21.60 against £16 without realising. Normalise before you decide. See all four platforms normalised on the cheapest-over-24-months guide.
What Sage does well
Three genuine strengths, and they all belong at the small end of the range.
Sage’s real advantages are a permanently free tier that is not a trial, the cheapest paid plan of any platform we price, and a promotional structure that does not pretend a £1 headline is a price.
A genuinely free tier, not a free trial
Sage Sole Trader Free is £0 permanently for a sole trader sending five invoices a month or fewer who is not VAT-registered. It is one of only two genuinely free routes in UK accounting software — the other is FreeAgent via a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle business account — and unlike that one it does not require you to move your banking. For a side business, a first year of self-employment or a very small trade, this is the correct starting point and it costs nothing to test.
The cheapest paid plan of any platform here
Sage Sole Trader at £7+VAT works out at £147 over 24 months ex VAT — £176.40 inc VAT — after three free months. That is £39 below QuickBooks Sole Trader at £186 and £160.20 below Xero Ignite. Neither Sage Sole Trader nor QuickBooks Sole Trader can file a VAT return, so they are competing for precisely the same reader, and on price Sage wins that fight.
The promotion does not lie to you
Three months free, then list price. There is no £1 that becomes £10 in month seven and no 80%-off banner that moves your two-year bill by 6%. Sage’s discount is worth £54 on Accounting Start and it looks like it is worth £54. Given how much of this site exists to unpick promotional pricing, that deserves saying — even though the same company presents its prices +VAT in a market where nobody else does.
What is wrong with Sage
Longer than the section above. The first item affects every price comparison you have made about Sage anywhere on the internet.
Sage’s central problem is that its advertised prices are not comparable with its competitors’ advertised prices, and once you normalise them it is expensive for the job.
- Sage quotes +VAT while every competitor quotes ex VAT, and the advertised £18 is not the bill. A non-VAT-registered sole trader pays £21.60 a month and cannot reclaim the difference. Over 24 months that is £453.60 leaving your account, not the £378 you would use to compare against Xero. Sage discloses the convention; the problem is that it is the only vendor here using it, so every side-by-side comparison a reader makes is wrong by 20% unless someone normalises it. That is what this page does.
- The free tier caps at five invoices a month, and it is a monthly cap. Not an annual allowance, not an average. One busy month puts you over it. Test the ceiling against your busiest month, not your typical one, before you build your bookkeeping on it.
- The free tier cannot handle VAT. Which is consistent with its intended user, but it means the free tier is not a route to Making Tax Digital for a VAT-registered business, and it is not a place to grow into.
- The £7+VAT Sole Trader tier also cannot file a VAT return. So Sage’s two cheapest paid options and its free option all stop at the same wall. Registering for VAT means moving to Accounting Start at £18+VAT, which is £378 ex VAT / £453.60 inc VAT — a jump of £231 ex VAT across two years. Confirm the current VAT capability of each tier on Sage’s own plan comparison; tier boundaries move.
- Accounting Start is the second most expensive VAT-capable entry plan we price. £378 ex VAT against £297.60 for QuickBooks Simple Start and £307.20 for Xero Ignite. You are paying £80.40 more than QuickBooks for the same core job, and that is before the VAT presentation problem. Read the QuickBooks review →
- The three free months mean your first real bill arrives in month four. It arrives at full price, with VAT on top, and by then you have migrated your records in. That is not a trick — it is straightforwardly disclosed — but it is the single most common way people end up surprised by a Sage invoice.
- Standard at £39+VAT is a steep second rung. £819 over 24 months ex VAT, £982.80 inc VAT. More than doubling from Accounting Start with nothing between.
- Two competitors can cost you £0 without an invoice cap. FreeAgent is free permanently with a NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle business account — the full product, VAT filing included, no five-invoice ceiling. If you are eligible for that, Sage’s free tier is the second-best free option. Read the FreeAgent review →
Who should buy Sage, and who should buy something else
Sage is right at the very small end and wrong in the middle. The dividing line is VAT.
Buy Sage if you are a small non-VAT-registered sole trader — free below five invoices a month, £147 ex VAT above it. Buy something else the moment VAT is involved — and we earn nothing either way, because we are not in any vendor’s affiliate programme.
Buy Sage if…
- You send five invoices a month or fewer and are not VAT-registered. Sole Trader Free is £0 permanently, without changing bank. See the free options.
- You are a non-VAT sole trader wanting the cheapest paid plan anywhere. £7+VAT is £147 over 24 months ex VAT, £176.40 inc VAT — below QuickBooks’ £186.
- You want a promotion you can read at face value. Three months free is exactly what it says.
Buy something else if…
- You are VAT-registered. QuickBooks Simple Start is £297.60 — £80.40 less than Sage Accounting Start — and Xero Ignite is £307.20, £70.80 less, with unlimited users.
- You bank with NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle. FreeAgent is £0 with VAT filing and no invoice cap — strictly better than Sage’s free tier for anyone eligible.
- You will exceed five invoices a month but stay under the VAT threshold. QuickBooks Sole Trader at £186 is a fuller product than Sage’s £147 tier for £39 more — and neither files VAT.
- Several people need logins. Xero allows unlimited users on every plan, including the £16 one.
- You want the numbers checked side by side. Xero vs Sage, with the +VAT normalised.
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 Sage’s. We would rather you verified our arithmetic against the source than took our word for it.
Does Sage handle Making Tax Digital?
Yes — and so do the other three, which is exactly why it should not affect your decision. What should affect it is that Sage’s cheapest tiers cannot file VAT.
Sage is on HMRC’s recognised list for Making Tax Digital, and so are Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent, including the free routes. MTD compatibility is table stakes in 2026, not a differentiator. The Sage-specific catch is VAT: the free tier and the £7+VAT Sole Trader tier do not file VAT returns, which is a separate question from Making Tax Digital compliance.
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. You can easily be in scope for MTD and not VAT-registered, which is exactly the reader Sage’s free tier is built for.
Read the Making Tax Digital pillar, or check whether you are in scope before spending 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 Sage, 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 Sage
£307.20 against £378 ex VAT, with Sage’s +VAT quoting normalised so the comparison is like for like.
Review
Xero review
£307.20 over 24 months ex VAT — £70.80 less than Sage Accounting Start — with unlimited users on every plan.
Review
QuickBooks review
£186 over 24 months, and Simple Start files VAT for £297.60 — £80.40 less than Sage Accounting Start.
Review
FreeAgent review
£0 forever with a NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle account, with no invoice cap on the free route.
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 Sage’s own UK pricing pages — not a press release, not a review-site database, not another comparison article. Sage quotes its UK prices +VAT while Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent quote ex VAT, so we normalise Sage to ex VAT for comparison and print the inc-VAT figure alongside, because that is what a non-VAT-registered business actually pays. Figures were verified on 31 July 2026 and VAT is applied at 20%.
The 24-month totals are arithmetic rather than opinion: three free promotional months, then full list price through to month twenty-four — 21 paid months — 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 “genuinely free at the bottom, expensive and mispresented in the middle”, which is the whole Sage decision. We are not a member of Sage’s 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 Sage
Short answers, with the arithmetic where money is involved.
Why is Sage’s advertised price different from what I get billed?
Because Sage quotes its UK prices plus VAT, and every competitor quotes ex VAT. Sage Accounting Start is advertised at £18 a month and bills at £21.60 with VAT at 20%. If you are VAT-registered you reclaim that VAT and the real cost is £18; if you are not VAT-registered you cannot reclaim it, so £21.60 is your actual monthly cost and £453.60 is what leaves your bank account over 24 months. We normalise Sage to ex VAT on this site so the comparison with Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent is like for like. See all four platforms normalised.
Is Sage accounting software really free?
Yes, one tier is. Sage Sole Trader Free is £0 permanently — not a trial — for a sole trader who sends five invoices a month or fewer and is not VAT-registered. The five-invoice cap is monthly and hard, so test it against your busiest month rather than your average one. It is one of only two genuinely free routes in UK accounting software; the other is FreeAgent, which is £0 for as long as you hold a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle business account and has no invoice cap. The genuinely free options.
How much does Sage cost over 24 months?
Sage Accounting Start is £378 over 24 months ex VAT, or £453.60 inc VAT, after three free months — that is £18 × 21 paid months. Sole Trader is £147 ex VAT (£176.40 inc VAT), Standard £819 ex VAT (£982.80 inc VAT) and Plus £1,239 ex VAT (£1,486.80 inc VAT). For comparison on the same ex-VAT basis, QuickBooks Simple Start is £297.60 and Xero Ignite is £307.20, so Sage Accounting Start is the dearest of the three VAT-capable entry plans. See the full comparison.
Can Sage’s cheap plans file a VAT return?
No. Neither Sage Sole Trader Free nor the £7+VAT Sole Trader tier files VAT returns. VAT filing starts at Accounting Start, £18+VAT, which is £378 over 24 months ex VAT — a jump of £231 ex VAT from the £147 Sole Trader plan. This is the same structural trap as QuickBooks, whose £10 Sole Trader plan also cannot file VAT. If VAT registration is anywhere in your next two years, price both platforms from their VAT-capable tier and ignore the cheap headline entirely. Read the QuickBooks review.
Is Sage cheaper than Xero?
No, once you normalise the VAT presentation. Sage Accounting Start is £378 over 24 months ex VAT against £307.20 for Xero Ignite — Sage is £70.80 more expensive — and £453.60 inc VAT if you cannot reclaim the VAT. Sage is cheaper only at the very bottom of its range, where Sole Trader at £147 ex VAT undercuts everything and the free tier undercuts everything by more. Neither of those two Sage tiers files a VAT return. Read Xero vs Sage in full.
What happens after Sage’s three free months?
You start paying full list price in month four, with VAT on top. There is no reduced intermediate rate — the bill goes from £0 to £21.60 a month on Accounting Start, and by then you have usually migrated your records in. That structure is more honest than a £1 headline that becomes £10, because the free period is obviously a free period. It is still the most common way people are surprised by a Sage invoice, so put month four in your calendar before you sign up. See the discount cliff for every platform.
Is Sage compatible with Making Tax Digital?
Yes, and so are Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent, 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 choose one platform. Do not confuse it with VAT filing — Sage’s free tier and its £7+VAT Sole Trader tier are 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.