Avalara 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
TaxJar
Score8 out of 10
N/A
TaxJar 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
Avalara
TaxJar
Editions & Modules
Core Compliance + SST
$69
per month per state
Core Compliance
$79
per month per state
Custom
Custom
per year
Starter
$19
for up to 200 orders/month
Professional
$99
for up to 200 orders/month
Premium
Custom
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Avalara
TaxJar
Free Trial
No
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
Optional
Optional
Additional Details
Core 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.
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.
Senior Accountant in Finance and Accounting at Fran's Chocolates (Food Production, 51-200 employees)
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Controller in Finance and Accounting at Sunset Technologies (Computer Networking, 51-200 employees)
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 …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
Verified User
Chose Avalara
Avalara is much more comprehensive than TaxJar. For some reason, TaxJar doesn't offer filing in specific locations which is very frustrating.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
Verified User
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 …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
Verified User
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
Verified User
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
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 …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
Verified User
Chose Avalara
TaxJar seems does not seem to be as broad in their service offerings yet.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
Verified User
Chose Avalara
Avalara offers more in terms of liability reports and integrating with our ERP system
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
Verified User
Chose Avalara
I was not involved in the decision making process for Avalara.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
CFO (Chief Financial Officer) in Finance and Accounting at The Lab Depot Inc (Consumer Goods, 11-50 employees)
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 …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose Avalara
We believe that Avalara better supports franchise model.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
Online Sales Manager in Sales at DNW Outdoors (Retail, 51-200 employees)
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 …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Chief Financial Officer in Finance and Accounting at The Lifetime Value Co. (Consumer Services, 51-200 employees)
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, …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Owner in Corporate at Tax Man To You, LLC (Accounting, 1-10 employees)
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Founder in Corporate at Raw Athletics (Sports, 1-10 employees)
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 …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Founder in Sales at Kat's Boutique (Retail, 1-10 employees)
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 …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose TaxJar
I thought taxjar had a much easier intergration and UI
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Vice President of Ecommerce in Marketing at MyBinding.com (Retail, 51-200 employees)
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 …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Avalara and TaxJar are popular tax compliance software products. Using these tools, businesses can automate tax compliance while also ensuring taxes are filed correctly and on time.
Avalara is often used by medium to large businesses to handle tax filing and reporting. These businesses appreciate Avalara’s flexible pricing that allows organizations to pay for the number of transactions and features they need. Businesses with many other technologies can also make good use of Avalara’s many integrations.
TaxJar is more popular with smaller businesses that utilize TaxJar’s simple API and interface. These companies benefit from TaxJar’s strong automation tools with popular ecommerce products like Shopify and Amazon. Using TaxJar makes it easy for non-technical staff to set up and manage tax compliance.
Features
Avalara and TaxJar both offer all the expected features of tax compliance software, but they also have a few features that set them apart.
Avalara has many integrations that allow it to seamlessly fit into almost any business without interrupting the existing software infrastructure. Avalara also offers flexible pricing options, so businesses can purchase the plan that matches the number of transactions they make. This makes Avalara an affordable choice for businesses that make a small number of transactions but still want to automate tax compliance.
TaxJar has fewer integrations compared to Avalara, but the integrations that exist contain powerful automation tools. Businesses using popular ecommerce products like Shopify can export data directly to TaxJar without downloading any CSV files. This makes TaxJar usable for businesses without in house technical staff.
Limitations
Though Avalara and TaxJar provide strong features for tax compliance software, each one also has some limitations that are important to consider.
Avalara requires users to manually import tax data in CSV files, which may need reformatting depending on the integration. This can be a problem for companies that are looking for closer to total automation of tax compliance. Many users have reported slow customer support response time from Avalara as well.
TaxJar requires the manual input of tax rates for most countries outside of the United States and the European Union. This can be a major downside to companies that engage in international business. TaxJar only provides email support at the basic pricing, and many users have reported that customer support at the basic price point can be slow or otherwise not useful.
Pricing
Avalara offers three pricing tiers for small businesses, differentiated primarily by the number of yearly transactions they cover. $50 per year covers 250 transactions, $95 per year covers 500 transactions, and $200 per year covers 1500 transactions. Avalara also offers plans for large businesses, but these are priced individually depending on the business in question.
TaxJar offers 2 pricing tiers. The basic pricing tier costs $17.00 per month and includes basic tax compliance features and email support. TaxJar Plus is priced depending on the business and includes extensive support features, advanced integrations, and user management features. TaxJar also provides a 30 day free trial for users who want to try the software before purchasing.
Features
Avalara
TaxJar
Type of tax
Comparison of Type of tax features of Avalara and TaxJar
Feature
Avalara
8.2
386 Ratings
7% above category average
TaxJar
9.3
6 Ratings
20% above category average
Sales and Use Taxes
9.1381 Ratings
9.76 Ratings
Cross-border Taxes
7.888 Ratings
9.01 Ratings
VAT / GST Taxes
7.674 Ratings
00 Ratings
Energy and Fuel Taxes
8.331 Ratings
00 Ratings
Tax Reporting & Compliance
Comparison of Tax Reporting & Compliance features of Avalara and TaxJar
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.
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
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
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
