QuickBooks Online vs. Upwork

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
QuickBooks Online
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
QuickBooks Online is a SaaS version of the QuickBooks product. It contains all of the features found in the local version. Higher-priced plans include greater automation, payment management, inventory and time tracking, and analytics features.
$15
per month
Upwork
Score 7.2 out of 10
N/A
Upwork headquartered in Mountain View, California offers their eponymous freelance management system (FMS).
$49.99
per month
Pricing
QuickBooks OnlineUpwork
Editions & Modules
Self-Employed
$15
per month
Simple Start
$25
per month
Plus
$75
per month
Advanced
$150
per month
Plus
$49.99
per month
Basic
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
QuickBooks OnlineUpwork
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
QuickBooks OnlineUpwork
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
3.1
78 Ratings
83% below category average
Upwork
-
Ratings
Pay calculation4.369 Ratings00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration3.832 Ratings00 Ratings
Direct deposit files4.765 Ratings00 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management1.644 Ratings00 Ratings
Reimbursement management1.346 Ratings00 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
2.5
68 Ratings
95% below category average
Upwork
-
Ratings
API for custom integration1.354 Ratings00 Ratings
Plug-ins3.857 Ratings00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
3.7
108 Ratings
73% below category average
Upwork
-
Ratings
Single sign-on capability2.981 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based user permissions4.5102 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
5.3
132 Ratings
35% below category average
Upwork
-
Ratings
Dashboards4.7124 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports5.3128 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom reports5.9116 Ratings00 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
3.7
143 Ratings
67% below category average
Upwork
-
Ratings
Accounts payable5.4122 Ratings00 Ratings
Accounts receivable6.0131 Ratings00 Ratings
Cash management6.3120 Ratings00 Ratings
Bank reconciliation6.2137 Ratings00 Ratings
Expense management5.6123 Ratings00 Ratings
Time tracking1.756 Ratings00 Ratings
Fixed asset management5.353 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-currency support1.423 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-division support1.542 Ratings00 Ratings
Regulations compliance1.738 Ratings00 Ratings
Electronic tax filing5.266 Ratings00 Ratings
Self-service portal2.666 Ratings00 Ratings
Global Financial Support1.316 Ratings00 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers3.535 Ratings00 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting4.929 Ratings00 Ratings
Localizations4.121 Ratings00 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations5.274 Ratings00 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting1.825 Ratings00 Ratings
Configurable Accounting2.038 Ratings00 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework2.924 Ratings00 Ratings
Standardized Processes4.048 Ratings00 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
1.3
47 Ratings
138% below category average
Upwork
-
Ratings
Inventory tracking1.245 Ratings00 Ratings
Automatic reordering1.222 Ratings00 Ratings
Location management1.321 Ratings00 Ratings
Manufacturing module1.317 Ratings00 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
3.7
86 Ratings
67% below category average
Upwork
-
Ratings
Pricing4.855 Ratings00 Ratings
Order entry4.753 Ratings00 Ratings
Credit card processing2.363 Ratings00 Ratings
Cost of goods sold3.968 Ratings00 Ratings
Order Orchestration4.621 Ratings00 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility4.620 Ratings00 Ratings
Order exception Resolution1.218 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
QuickBooks OnlineUpwork
Small Businesses
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Score 9.1 out of 10
Contently
Contently
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Accounting Seed
Accounting Seed
Score 8.3 out of 10
Contently
Contently
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Score 8.1 out of 10
Contently
Contently
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
QuickBooks OnlineUpwork
Likelihood to Recommend
4.2
(161 ratings)
6.3
(23 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
2.5
(24 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
4.1
(76 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
2.1
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
1.1
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
2.2
(68 ratings)
9.1
(5 ratings)
Implementation Rating
3.0
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
1.4
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
1.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
1.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
1.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
QuickBooks OnlineUpwork
Likelihood to Recommend
Intuit
It seems Intuit is more interested in generating revenue than taking care of their customers. After only 28 (working) days using it, I've had to call for Help 23 times, and, in my experience, only spoken to 2 people who had an understanding of basic accounting practices and the ramifications of some of their suggested fixes on the General Ledger.
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Upwork
I would recommend Upwork to a colleague as a solution to workplace issues. Our company has utilized Upwork to vet out potential competitors as well as partners in a lengthy data analysis project, as well as given our engineering team extra hands when implementing new products, projects, and features. This has allowed our company to stay on track with projects without in-house manpower.
Read full review
Pros
Intuit
  • It enables me to do a P&L for each specific program as requested by the county for the grant money that they give us.
  • It enables me to do [an] organizational budget as well as a budget for each specific program
  • It enables the accountant and the auditor access at any time for transparency
Read full review
Upwork
  • Allows us to filter freelancers by location. This is especially important when working across time zones.
  • Upwork is one of the only freelancing websites that actually provides a filter for US based contractors; and they rigorously verify this.
  • Huge candidate pool. You're almost guaranteed to find a few individuals who specialize in whatever you're looking for.
  • Allows both fixed bid and hourly. Each one is useful for different kinds of projects.
Read full review
Cons
Intuit
  • The budgets feature leaves a lot be desired - difficult and clunky to populate and maintain.
  • Reporting for Budget vs Actual is available but the ability to reforecast based on updated data is not.
  • The rules function to default common types of expenses isn't perfect and will get confused if like amounts or a number of similar items present.
Read full review
Upwork
  • In my opinion the worst customer service. It is impossible to contact them via phone, and they are not transparent about their decisions.
  • I feel they don't have the freelance community's best interest in mind. Their focus is on the companies that pay. Freelancers are disposable.
  • They charge ridiculous fees to the freelancers that are the ones that need the money the most because they are the ones starting their businesses. It is like if your employer charges you for coming to work.
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Likelihood to Renew
Intuit
It like the product 'right out of the box' and I trust Intuit will continually improve it over the years based on my experience with their desktop products. The large providers of Apps makes customizing the entire package relatively easy and seamless for a wide variety of business types.
Read full review
Upwork
No answers on this topic
Usability
Intuit
While QuickBooks Online is generally easy to navigate, there are some features and functions that often require a Google search in order to find out where they are actually hidden. Additionally, there are some simple customization features that are surprisingly not available for an otherwise advanced program (e.g. only having a pool of 4 fonts to choose from, only having 4 very limited templates for invoicing, not color selection, etc). While I would say that about 75% of users shouldn't have a problem finding their way around with basic functions, there is a learning curve if you want to be able to dive into some of the more useful features, almost to the point that you need to have a dedicated account manager in order to use QuickBooks Online most effectively.
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Upwork
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
Intuit
We have rarely had outages in the last 10 years. I can only recall 2 times in the last 10 years where we were not able to access our client files.
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Upwork
No answers on this topic
Performance
Intuit
There are tab issues. When I tab the field doesn't highlight and I have to backspace or delete what is in the field. Happens on the memo field and sometimes other fields. Very time consuming.
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Upwork
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Intuit
Support is great, all incidents been resolved. Quickbooks Online forum is very well organized and helpful. I like the fact that they let the community contribute in resolving issues. Most or many of your answers can be found online. You can also get help on YouTube, but the easiest way to get assistance is through their chat system.
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Upwork
Support has been great. Rarely have I ever had an issue that has required support but when I have they have been great. I did have to interact with support to confirm my identity and the process was easy and quick and support was helpful to know what I needed to do to accomplish that task.
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Implementation Rating
Intuit
The person in charge of QB needs to be very accurate with record keeping and is recommended to stay on top of tasks. The biggest issue we have is reconciliation, and those issues occur only when too much time has occurred between reconciliations
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Upwork
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Intuit
I have used Wave Accounting for another business. I selected QuickBooks Online over Wave because of the features available from QuickBooks. Wave is great since it is free, but I feel that paying for QuickBooks Online is worth it for the features. In addition there is such a robust support network and training available for QuickBooks.
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Upwork
Upwork is better suited for finding contractors that you can have ongoing relationships. Compared to Fiverr, it's a much easier process to find qualified designers rather than one-time contractors to design simple things for you. The interface is easier to use as well and the billing management makes it so much cleaner and easier to know how much we're spending and how contractors are logging work hours.
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Scalability
Intuit
As we have grown along our professional path, we have also expanded our use of QB. The scalability is easy and features seem to be waiting for you until you need them. We have increased profits by over 10x from our first year in business to the current and have yet to find a reason to look elsewhere
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Upwork
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Intuit
  • It has created a lot of cost and in-efficiency whenever we need to talk to support.
  • I spent a lot of time setting up their automatic reminders for past due invoices and it worked for a couple of months and then it stopped. It's currently being worked on by their tech team but it has been months and it is still not working. It would have saved me a lot of time.
  • Their multi-currency saves time in sending invoices abroad but it's limiting when a customer wants an invoice in USD instead of a foreign currency so I have to set up different customer accounts for different currencies.
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Upwork
  • We have gotten close to 50% of all of our clients through the platform.
  • Upwork backs the work done through the platform, so no matter what the client or person you are working with does, you get paid for the work that you do. You aren't left hanging after doing hours of work for a client and then never getting paid for it.
  • Made it easy to communicate with clients from different parts of the world and set up partnerships and agreements in an easier fashion. I would highly recommend it to anyone with a unique skill set.
Read full review
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