QuickBooks Online vs. ZipBooks

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
QuickBooks Online
Score 8.1 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.
$38
per month
ZipBooks
Score 7.0 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
ZipBooks is an accounting software solution for small business owners and accountants. Users can track expenses, manage their team, send recurring invoices and manage projects.
$15
per month
Pricing
QuickBooks OnlineZipBooks
Editions & Modules
Simple Start
$38
per month
Essentials
$75
per month
Plus
$115
per month
Advanced
$275
per month
ZipBooks Starter
$0
ZipBooks Smarter
$15
ZipBooks Sophisticated
$35
ZipBooks Accountant
Custom
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
QuickBooks OnlineZipBooks
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
QuickBooks OnlineZipBooks
Considered Both Products
QuickBooks Online
Chose QuickBooks Online
We liked the fresh approach and the clean aesthetics of Wave, Xero and ZipBooks. However they all lacked the ability to customize a invoice template, which is sad to say, but that was the #1 feature for us, since we had existing customers that we didn't want to disrupt; i.e., …
Chose QuickBooks Online
The only other service I have used that was similar to QuickBooks was Gusto. My experience with it was pretty limited. We did not use it for very long. We tried it because it was made for small businesses and we are a smaller department. QuickBooks was more scalable and worked …
ZipBooks
Chose ZipBooks
ZipBooks is a much cleaner, easier to use software.
Features
QuickBooks OnlineZipBooks
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
8.1
121 Ratings
7% above category average
ZipBooks
-
Ratings
Pay calculation8.4110 Ratings00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.260 Ratings00 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.5101 Ratings00 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.274 Ratings00 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.981 Ratings00 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
7.0
113 Ratings
8% below category average
ZipBooks
9.1
2 Ratings
18% above category average
API for custom integration7.194 Ratings9.12 Ratings
Plug-ins7.095 Ratings9.11 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
8.4
186 Ratings
2% above category average
ZipBooks
9.5
5 Ratings
15% above category average
Single sign-on capability8.5151 Ratings9.74 Ratings
Role-based user permissions8.3176 Ratings9.34 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
8.2
212 Ratings
5% above category average
ZipBooks
10.0
6 Ratings
24% above category average
Dashboards8.3199 Ratings10.06 Ratings
Standard reports8.4206 Ratings10.06 Ratings
Custom reports7.9190 Ratings00 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
8.0
229 Ratings
5% above category average
ZipBooks
8.8
6 Ratings
14% above category average
Accounts payable8.8195 Ratings00 Ratings
Accounts receivable8.8212 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Cash management8.1194 Ratings00 Ratings
Bank reconciliation9.0218 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Expense management8.4202 Ratings10.05 Ratings
Time tracking7.095 Ratings9.06 Ratings
Fixed asset management8.094 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-currency support7.548 Ratings9.12 Ratings
Multi-division support7.379 Ratings00 Ratings
Regulations compliance7.978 Ratings00 Ratings
Electronic tax filing8.1113 Ratings00 Ratings
Self-service portal7.4124 Ratings00 Ratings
Global Financial Support6.840 Ratings00 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers8.170 Ratings00 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting7.970 Ratings00 Ratings
Localizations7.954 Ratings00 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations8.5141 Ratings00 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting7.160 Ratings00 Ratings
Configurable Accounting7.986 Ratings00 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework7.757 Ratings00 Ratings
Standardized Processes8.8105 Ratings00 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
6.9
88 Ratings
6% below category average
ZipBooks
-
Ratings
Inventory tracking6.783 Ratings00 Ratings
Automatic reordering7.146 Ratings00 Ratings
Location management7.353 Ratings00 Ratings
Manufacturing module6.636 Ratings00 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
7.9
141 Ratings
5% above category average
ZipBooks
9.2
6 Ratings
21% above category average
Pricing8.090 Ratings00 Ratings
Order entry7.886 Ratings00 Ratings
Credit card processing8.4109 Ratings10.06 Ratings
Cost of goods sold8.3107 Ratings8.52 Ratings
Order Orchestration7.446 Ratings00 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility7.949 Ratings00 Ratings
Order exception Resolution7.542 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
QuickBooks OnlineZipBooks
Small Businesses
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
Score 5.9 out of 10
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
Score 5.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Zoho Books
Zoho Books
Score 9.1 out of 10
Zoho Books
Zoho Books
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
Score 7.5 out of 10
Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
Score 7.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
QuickBooks OnlineZipBooks
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
(230 ratings)
9.0
(6 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.5
(27 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.3
(146 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
1.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.8
(70 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.9
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
1.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
1.3
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
2.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
5.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
5.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
QuickBooks OnlineZipBooks
Likelihood to Recommend
Intuit
QBO is a great solution for small and midsize companies. If the goal is to record all transactions and pull reliable financial reports, QBO is a great option. QBO is also a great solution if most operations are run in a system like Ramp. It syncs well with systems like that and turns the data into something management can use to make decisions. QBO is great because so many people use it. It is easy to find training online, and many people have experience with it.
Read full review
ZipBooks
ZipBooks is really strong for small businesses (and non-profits like the ones I help manage). It may not yet be ready to handle medium or large businesses given the deep, niche functionality that is sometimes required in those cases.
Read full review
Pros
Intuit
  • Workflows for accounts payable invoice review are terrific.
  • Bill payment allows you to pay vendors online via ACH or check without having to write a physical check, which reduces admin time.
  • The cloud based login lends well to a remote or hybrid work environment for staff.
  • QuickBooks Online allows you to pre-configure vendors' general ledger expense accounts. This helps with general ledger coding accuracy and consistency.
  • QuickBooks Online integrates with Rippling HRIS, Coast, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, etc., which lends well to an efficient month-end closing and reduced administrative time.
Read full review
ZipBooks
  • Invoicing is particularly easy-to-use, quick, clean and beautiful. GREAT for branding.
  • The time tracker was unexpected, but very useful and integrates well with the invoicing. Leads to quick invoicing every time.
  • Customer support is phenomenal -- the support staff is friendly and helpful.
  • Although they are a new company, they are definitely on the right track!
  • I recommend this software to clients, colleagues, and friends alike, mostly for it quick and beautiful invoicing.
  • They do what they can to live up to their name! It doesn't take very long to get set up, or very long to create a complete invoice and send it to the right person.
Read full review
Cons
Intuit
  • I dislike that the online bill pay option through QuickBooks is required for their invoicing.
  • The auto-fill portion of the customer setup, specifically the company name, is listed, but it also auto-fills in the name portion, which is inconvenient and time-consuming to remove.
Read full review
ZipBooks
  • There is some difficulty with a need to learn the use of the menus, they are not open and click, at the moment, the user needs to open the menu then using the pad keys scroll down and use enter to select from the drop-down menu. A mouse does not work.
Read full review
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
ZipBooks
No answers on this topic
Usability
Intuit
Beyond being overkill for a small org's needs, QBO is constantly stealing screen real estate and attention by hammering users for account upgrades, connecting to one of their approved consultants or buying add-ons. The idea of using a simple configurable bookeeping and light accounting interface is completely missing. At the very least, we should be able to hide functions like inventory that we will never use.
Read full review
ZipBooks
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.
Read full review
ZipBooks
No answers on this topic
Performance
Intuit
Everything process has its bugs lately with the new interface. Nothing has worked smoothly since this all began last month.
Read full review
ZipBooks
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Intuit
In my experience, most representatives keep me on the phone for hours, literally, for a single issue and then usually cannot resolve it satisfactorily. I have 10 open cases that need resolution and, in my experience, there has been NO follow-up communication on any of them.
Read full review
ZipBooks
No answers on this topic
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
Read full review
ZipBooks
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Intuit
As a freelance bookkeeper, the Desktop version of QuickBooks Online doesn't allow for ease of access from any device. Having to be on a computer with the software downloaded creates additional work to gain access to all required filings etc. Also, I personally find the linking functionality on the Online version to be much more streamlined and user friendly.
Read full review
ZipBooks
I've primarily compared ZipBooks vs. Quickbooks because I've used Quickbooks at larger companies before. ZipBooks was the right fit for a smaller organization because it still had all the core features of Quickbooks but at a dramatically lower price that fits the budget.
Read full review
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
Read full review
ZipBooks
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Intuit
  • QuickBooks has given us a useful portal by which to get an overview of our financials.
  • QuickBooks has given us a relatively easy way to send out invoices quickly and efficiently.
  • Due to the customization limitations on QuickBooks, we've had to get creative in third-party implementations to better represent our brand and to track financials.
Read full review
ZipBooks
  • ZipBooks is entirely affordable, and with my current $15/mo payments, I get ROI pretty quickly.
  • Invoices are simple and easy to make, while staying beautiful and functional at the same time. This saves me TIME, which means that I don't need to spend 15-20 minutes fiddling with the software to make it do what I want it to do. It just works. And that means, I can spend more time doing client work, and managing projects and sales.
Read full review
ScreenShots

QuickBooks Online Screenshots

Screenshot of the accounting and bank transactions interfaceScreenshot of an overview of the accounting inventoryScreenshot of book marksScreenshot of the business tax overviewScreenshot of the customer hubScreenshot of the dashboard

ZipBooks Screenshots

Screenshot of ZipBooks DashboardScreenshot of ZipBooks TransactionsScreenshot of ZipBooks InvoicingScreenshot of ZipBooks Accountant Messaging