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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Avalara

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/AAvalara AvaTax connects to the software that businesses already have and delivers sales tax decisions based on precise geo-location in more than 12,000 taxing jurisdictions in the U.S.

    $69

    per month per state

    Lappa

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/ALappa (formerly LOVAT) is tax software for VAT/sales tax filing. The platform collects all tax data across any sales channel and files VAT returns.

    $44

    per month

    TaxJar

    Score8 out of 10
    N/ATaxJar offers automated sales tax reporting and filing. According to the vendor, capabilities include: Accurate, Detailed Sales Tax Reports: TaxJar’s local jurisdiction reports show sales and sales tax collected not only for each state, but for local jurisdiction (counties, cities, special jurisdictions, etc). Users can also sort data by any date range. Estimated Sales Tax Reports: Users can see a comparison of what they actually collected versus what…

    $19

    for up to 200 orders/month

    Pricing
    AvalaraLappaTaxJar
    Editions & Modules
    Core Compliance + SST
    $69
    per month per state
    Core Compliance
    $79
    per month per state
    Custom
    Custom
    per year
    Start-Up
    $44
    per month
    Standard
    $87
    per month
    Premium
    $545
    per month
    Starter
    $19
    for up to 200 orders/month
    Professional
    $99
    for up to 200 orders/month
    Premium
    Custom
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    AvalaraLappaTaxJar
    Free Trial
    NoYesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup feeOptional
    Additional DetailsCore Compliance: $79/state/month - Avalara AvaTax with AvaTax Exemptions for exemption management - Avalara Managed Returns — filing, remittance, and notice management - Compliance support and audit readiness - Business system integrations (ERP, ecommerce, accounting) - Nexus monitoring across all 50 states *Annual revenue less than $50M; Limited integrations Core Compliance + SST Services: $69/state/month - Everything in Core Compliance package - SST program enrollment - State-sponsored registration in participating SST states - Tax calculation in SST states — state-funded for qualifying sellers - Returns filing and remittance in participating states — states cover the cost - Avalara-backed liability for calculation errors in participating SST states - Audit support — audit inquiries handled by Avalara on your behalf - Single registration ID across all participating SST states *Annual revenue less than $50M; Limited integrations Custom: - A solution configured to your specific business scope and compliance needs - Advanced compliance support for complex tax scenarios - Multi-entity management and consolidated reporting - Customized services and workflow configuration - Dedicated compliance guidance and support *Custom plans are flexible and include integration with the systems your business uses. Avalara has 1,400+ signed partner integrations.Discount available for annual billing.30 day free trial. No obligation, no activation fees. Upgrade, downgrade or cancel anytime. Pricing based on order volume. Transactions are equal to -Orders imported into TaxJar with one or more line items -SmartCalcs API pushed sales tax calculation If you go over your transaction limit during a single month, we will charge you the difference between the plan you’re on and the next highest plan. The next month you’ll start back on the original plan that you subscribed to, and the process will repeat itself again. This is all done automatically. Your plan will never be interrupted and you will not have to speak with a salesperson.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    AvalaraLappaTaxJar
    Considered Multiple Products
    Avalara
    Chose Avalara
    TaxJar's product was no as robust as Avalara and did not participate in the SST program. We were not comfortable with returns being handled by a third party located off-short, Hungary I believe. We could not find another provider that offered an all in one solution.
    Incentivized
    Chose Avalara
    TaxJar is integrated with Kaseya autotask, and this integration is very inefficient and was not easy to set up. Neither TaxJar nor Kaseya support was helpful at all, "rude" is the only word to describe that, whereas Avalara has always tried to be helpful and has been very …
    Incentivized
    Chose Avalara
    Avalara is much more comprehensive than TaxJar. For some reason, TaxJar doesn't offer filing in specific locations which is very frustrating.
    Incentivized
    Chose Avalara
    We briefly reviewed TaxJar, but went with Avalara when we did our evaluation. Avalara Provided everything that we needed.
    Incentivized
    Chose Avalara
    Avalara is a lot easier and more accurate compared to our previous sales tax plugins. The reporting and everything are much easier access and understand. Our website moves much more efficiently with Avalara than it ever did with TaxJar or TaxCloud. And we are able to use it on …
    Incentivized
    Chose Avalara
    TaxJar seems to have a better pricing model.
    Incentivized
    Chose Avalara
    Once we found that there was a connector between Avalara and our accounting ordering software, TaxJar was dismissed. The connectivity was a huge deciding factor.
    Incentivized
    Chose Avalara
    For our Amazon store, we used TaxJar, but they didn't seem to be able to keep up with the demand to add states.
    Incentivized
    Chose Avalara
    I am not a fan of Vertex. I prefer Avalara much more. TaxJar is great for small e-commerce businesses or e-commerce businesses with simple transactions that require little to no tax decision making. Avalara is great for medium or larger enterprises, and I would always recommend …
    Incentivized
    Chose Avalara
    TaxJar seems does not seem to be as broad in their service offerings yet.
    Incentivized
    Chose Avalara
    TaxJar is for smaller businesses. Our business and amount of transactions were not a fit.
    Incentivized
    Chose Avalara
    Weak or non-existent integration.
    Incentivized
    Chose Avalara
    Avalara offers more in terms of liability reports and integrating with our ERP system
    Incentivized
    Chose Avalara
    Avalara was more intuitive and integrated with our existing ERP.
    Incentivized
    Chose Avalara
    I was not involved in the decision making process for Avalara.
    Incentivized
    Chose Avalara
    We've looked at some other products but have been satisfied enough with Avalara that we've never had an interest in moving to another platform. It integrates well with our systems and does a great job for us. We have had some relationship management turnover and unmet …
    Incentivized
    Chose Avalara
    We looked at others, however with our older ERP system we already new that Avalara was what we needed.
    Incentivized
    Chose Avalara
    Ease of use
    Incentivized
    Chose Avalara
    We believe that Avalara better supports franchise model.
    Incentivized
    Lappa
    No answer on this topic
    Stripe
    Chose TaxJar
    At the time we made the switch, Avalara did not appear to do what we needed. They did not try to stop us from leaving or seem to care why we were leaving. About a year later I did reach out to Avalara after a mailer we got from them. They did clear up that they could do what …
    Incentivized
    Chose TaxJar
    TaxJar was a better price than Avalara, mostly because it was a streamlined version of Avalara. TaxJar offers a no-frills software that does exactly what you need it to do, calculate and collect sales tax. If you need something more robust then I would look elsewhere, …
    Incentivized
    Chose TaxJar
    I looked at Avalara in the beginning and the price point was way too high. I have been with TaxJar since shortly after they started and they are a great company. Watching them grow has been great. Just need to accommodate the accountant a little better.
    Incentivized
    Chose TaxJar
    TaxJar is SO much cheaper than Avalara and SO much easier to use. Not even close - TaxJar is better. The only reason I would choose Avalara is if it had better native integrations with whatever software stack my business ran on. For our business, TaxJar made so much more …
    Incentivized
    Chose TaxJar
    I believe TaxJar is better suited to smaller, especially Home-Based businesses with its good customer service focus and more reasonable pricing for small biz. Avalara, as far as I know, is not priced competitively for micro-sized businesses. TaxJar began in the small business …
    Incentivized
    Chose TaxJar
    I thought taxjar had a much easier intergration and UI
    Incentivized
    Chose TaxJar
    TaxJar is less expensive, simpler to integrate and their billing is straightforward so that you don't have to worry about huge surprises at the end of a month or quarter. They spend a lot less time on sales/marketing but their support is excellent and overall we have had a …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    93%
    Would buy again
    259 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    16 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    92%
    Delivers good value for the price
    231 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    16 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    271 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    16 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    87%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    176 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    14 Answers
    88%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    81%
    Implementation went as expected
    184 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    16 Answers
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    Features
    AvalaraLappaTaxJar
    Type of tax
    Comparison of Type of tax features of Avalara and Lappa and TaxJar
    Feature
    Avalara
    8.2
    386 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Lappa
    9.8
    16 Ratings
    25% above category average
    TaxJar
    9.3
    6 Ratings
    20% above category average
    Sales and Use Taxes9.1381 Ratings9.611 Ratings9.76 Ratings
    Cross-border Taxes7.888 Ratings00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    VAT / GST Taxes7.674 Ratings10.016 Ratings00 Ratings
    Energy and Fuel Taxes8.331 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Tax Reporting & Compliance
    Comparison of Tax Reporting & Compliance features of Avalara and Lappa and TaxJar
    Feature
    Avalara
    8.0
    405 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Lappa
    10.0
    16 Ratings
    25% above category average
    TaxJar
    9.6
    6 Ratings
    21% above category average
    Geolocation for Tax Assessment8.3227 Ratings10.015 Ratings10.03 Ratings
    3rd-Party Software Integrations8.3303 Ratings00 Ratings8.76 Ratings
    Tax Data Reporting8.1354 Ratings10.016 Ratings9.85 Ratings
    Compliance Administration Management7.9261 Ratings10.015 Ratings9.54 Ratings
    Tax Exemption Processing8.0267 Ratings00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
    Tax Document Management8.4283 Ratings10.016 Ratings9.54 Ratings
    Complex Tax Scenario Management6.7177 Ratings00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    AvalaraLappaTaxJar
    Small Businesses
    Intuit Lacerte
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Intuit Lacerte
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Intuit Lacerte
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Lappa
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Avalara
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Lappa
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Vertex
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Vertex
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Vertex
    Score8.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    AvalaraLappaTaxJar
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.4
    (568 ratings)
    8.8
    (16 ratings)
    9.3
    (13 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (37 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.7
    (560 ratings)
    8.7
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Availability
    8.3
    (11 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    8.3
    (11 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.2
    (25 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.5
    (2 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.4
    (199 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.1
    (8 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    8.1
    (14 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.4
    (10 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.0
    (11 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.5
    (11 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    AvalaraLappaTaxJar
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Avalara
    In my opinion, the worst customer service and fraudulent withdrawal from our bank account. We've used Avalara for 3 years. When our renewal came up, we were considering other options. They sent an email stating we had to request a new contract, I sent the request and followed up. There was no response from Avalara so our contract price was unknown. I waited to hear from them and ended up canceling within their window, via the appropriate channels. I followed up multiple times, requesting cancellation confirmation and removal of our bank info (you can't self serve, although you can self serve add it). In my experience, they ignored me for 2 months until I posted publicly about their poor service. I changed our login information and migrated to another platform. In my experience, they withdrew funds from our bank account, the new provider said our taxes weren't paid and the funds are nowhere to be found. Avalara should have never withdrew the funds or billed me after I canceled. Beware of this company, in my opinion, they are non-responsive and unpleasant to deal with.
    Read full review
    Lappa
    You need a way to calculate VAT on your remote sales and store tax documents electronically. As part of your evaluation, I would include LOVAT as an option. With LOVAT, we can also avoid asking clients to provide additional information at check out, which keeps our conversion rate higher. It's so easy to upload tax data, calculate VAT, and submit VAT forms
    Read full review
    Stripe
    If you aren't a tax professional, this is a must. Trying to manually calculate which county/city/state sales tax is owed will break your brain. Actually, even if you were a tax professional, why would you want to manually do it when you could just have a tool like this to calculate it for you. I wish it was also affordable to have it file for you and there are some crunchy bits, but its pros definitely outweigh the cons.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Avalara
    • Establishes the connection with the appropriate municipal entity,
    • Provides ample time for review of the sales and use tax liability,
    • Submits the returns in accordance with the requirements of the respective municipal entity.
    • Maintains historical record of each remittance.
    • Allows for easy retrieval of past returns.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lappa
    • Variety of subscription plans which are flexible thanks to possibilities of purchasing various add-ons.
    • Tax audit reports which are available for download is a great feature that allows us to have a deeper look to our transactions from different sales channels of ours.
    • The support team in always helped us with difficulties or questions that we had on different stages while working with LOVAT
    Read full review
    Stripe
    • The CSV upload for clients that do not have or want to connect directly is very good. It allows us to get a lot of the information done quickly.
    • The cost is very competitive.
    • According to our clients, the integration is relatively easy.
    • For the most part, the reports are accurate.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Avalara
    • Avalara's State Registrations option is pretty expensive and should be quicker and cheaper
    • Avalara's State Filing Setup is not coordinated with their State Registrations, so you still have to set up manually what they just registered for you.
    • Even if Avalara has all of your data, they won't set up a state filing if you miss a deadline of the 20th of the current month they won't file that month, even though they have all of the transactions. (This could happen when a new state is selected for tax calculation but the state registration hasn't been completed yet.) They should allow you to set up the returns by the first of the month it is filed in at the least.
    • Avalara's extractor is very base and limited; it can't extract multiple lines into Avalara, it takes an entire invoice and inputs it as one line. We were told after frequent calls that it works that way by design. Those out there who file returns on a regular basis can identify the problem with this scenario and why this won't work for tax filing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lappa
    • Some processes take extra time
    • It will take some time and preferably a demo call with the support team to learn how to use the software yourself
    • Unfortunately, consultation on really difficult questions can be obtained only for an additional fee
    Read full review
    Stripe
    • Continually increase its native integration features with BigCommerce, which recently just opened up more Checkout APIs and Sales Tax APIs.
    • The Amazon integration is confusing only because Amazon (sometimes?) calculates and collects sales tax on your behalf. It's not clear what's best-- to let Amazon do it for you or for TaxJar to handle it.
    • Onboarding could be a bit easier and guided.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Avalara
    Avalara is the best sales tax compliance product on the market. Avalara allows us to accurately comply with our sales and use tax obligations in an accurate and timely manner for a reasonable cost. Avatax is a versatile and helpful product. We also are looking forward to implementing the cross-border product.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lappa
    No answers on this topic
    Stripe
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Avalara
    Overall, Avalara has been an excellent resource for the company. We highly recommend it. Once you get familiar with the software it's not hard to navigate and use for your business' needs. There are reports for any type of tax detail you need from individual jurisdiction detail to a comprehensive summary of all states filing or not filing in.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lappa
    The functionality is very powerful, and everything works as promised. But the interface needs improvement in places - sometimes you have to search for something longer than you would like.
    Read full review
    Stripe
    No answers on this topic
    Reliability and Availability
    Avalara
    I have been using Avalara for years and do not remember ever having an outage during working hours. The service is accurate and dependable.
    Read full review
    Lappa
    No answers on this topic
    Stripe
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Avalara
    We do have trouble tying Avalara's reporting back to our POS, but we just got a new POS system and there are bugs we are still trying to work out within the POS system. I do not believe this is an Avalara issue
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lappa
    No answers on this topic
    Stripe
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Avalara
    It does not [matter] how much you pay in support packages for Avalara, [from my experience] you will never receive timely response times. Additionally, [it seems to me] their support techs are not experienced and/or do not understand the nature of your issues. I have resolved the majority of my issues before the support team is able to.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lappa
    No answers on this topic
    Stripe
    We had a few questions about integrations & onboarding, and support answered quickly and in-depth. They understood our questions - which were a bit technical in nature - and were able to provide an explanation in a timely and specific manner that allowed us to get the system up and running quickly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Avalara
    I wasn't here when they first started with Avalara.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lappa
    No answers on this topic
    Stripe
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Avalara
    The videos go too fast; I kept having to pause them and go back. They don't allow for any practice transactions or provide training materials.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lappa
    No answers on this topic
    Stripe
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Avalara
    The rating of a 6 was not because I was displeased with Avalara's service or implementation team. The implementation process and implementation team were great. The issue I had with implementation was finding the time of an implementation specialist to devote to our account. With the fast growth of Avalara, my specialist always felt rushed which made me feel I did not get adequate time or support.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lappa
    No answers on this topic
    Stripe
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Avalara
    When I started with the company, they were using a version of CCH. This was my first experience with that program and I found it very cumbersome. It was unable to calculate multiple tax rates (this may have changed in the last 10 years) and while it filled out some of the tax returns for us, we still had to manipulate many and file them ourselves. Now we just verify that what we show in our system matches Avalara and hit approve and we are done for another month.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lappa
    Lovat is a product which is favorable in terms of cost, unlike the many tax software which are expensive and not affordable.Also, Lovat has some flexibility, where different procedures based on the companies demands can be personalized to suit its needs. Lastly, Lovat works in hand with the many programs that are in the accounting area.
    Read full review
    Stripe
    TaxJar is less expensive, simpler to integrate and their billing is straightforward so that you don't have to worry about huge surprises at the end of a month or quarter. They spend a lot less time on sales/marketing but their support is excellent and overall we have had a much better experience with TaxJar.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Avalara
    It is usable across all departments
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lappa
    No answers on this topic
    Stripe
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Avalara
    • With Avalara, manual tax reporting and calculations have been reduced drastically, reducing manual effort and increasing efficiency.
    • Since it is integrated with Sage Intacct, reporting in both Sage Intacct and Avalara is well balanced, and reporting with tax authorities has been handled well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lappa
    • Good functionality and regular update of the services.
    • This software is a good value for money especially taking into account a not very high price.
    • The support team is professional but available only at weekdays.
    • For the moment the support language is only English that may cause some inconvenience.
    Read full review
    Stripe
    • With regards to ROI, it definitely saves time. And time, as they say, is money. It may be hard to put a particular dollar sign on this, but it definitely has provided a positive return.
    • It keeps me aware of where I have sales tax nexus that I might not know about otherwise. This is important. Even if I have to check it manually, at least I am made aware of where I need to file.
    • It allows me to track how much in sales tax we've paid year over year, which is a good indication of how our sales are doing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Avalara Screenshots

    Screenshot of the Avalara portal homepageScreenshot of returns, appearing in the Avalara portalScreenshot of transactionsScreenshot of reportsScreenshot of jurisdiction details

    Lappa Screenshots

    Screenshot of Transactions section

    TaxJar Screenshots

    Screenshot of TaxJar Reports dashboard showing you the states in which you have nexus, how much sales tax was collected, and your gross sales summary.Screenshot of TaxJar state report showing breakdown of sales tax by city, county, and local jurisdiction for easy sales tax filing.