QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) vs. Xero

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
A now discontinued accounting solution, QuickBooks Self-Employed featured tools to help the self-employed drive growth and financial stability. It is replaced by the more advanced QuickBooks Solopreneur.N/A
Xero
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Xero is an online accounting software product for small businesses and personal finance. Its features beyond general ledger and double-bookkeeping include quotable invoicing, bank reconciliation, purchase order and expense management, and tax management. Third party apps can extend its features further.
$13
per month
Pricing
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)Xero
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Early
$13
per month
Growing
$37
per month
Established
$70
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)Xero
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPrices in table are in USD and just apply to the US - other markets & prices are listed below: Canada - Starter $18 CAD/month, Standard $45 CAD/month, Premium 5 $58 CAD/month UK - Starter £14/month, Standard £28/month, Premium £36/month AU - Starter $29 AUD/month, Standard $59 AUD/month, Premium 5 $76 AUD/month NZ - Starter $31 NZD/month, Standard $66 NZD/month, Premium $84 NZD/month
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)Xero
Considered Both Products
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)

No answer on this topic

Xero
Chose Xero
I find Xero much more intuitive and easy to use.
Chose Xero
Xero has remained simple yet robust for years. They have a few items that make it difficult (what product doesn't), but I feel very confident in partnering with them. I have used (and still use) QuickBooks Online and I have witnessed Intuit continually pull the bait and …
Chose Xero
Xero and Quickbooks are very similar in that neither are perfect for law firm accounting. Both are extremely accurate and user-friendly, but lack the IOLTA account function.
Features
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)Xero
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
7.8
3 Ratings
4% above category average
Xero
7.5
73 Ratings
0% below category average
Pay calculation10.02 Ratings8.065 Ratings
Benefit plan administration5.02 Ratings8.023 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.03 Ratings7.249 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.02 Ratings7.141 Ratings
Reimbursement management8.03 Ratings7.154 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
10.0
5 Ratings
26% above category average
Xero
8.2
151 Ratings
6% above category average
API for custom integration10.04 Ratings7.979 Ratings
Plug-ins10.04 Ratings8.4138 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
10.0
8 Ratings
20% above category average
Xero
7.2
189 Ratings
13% below category average
Single sign-on capability10.08 Ratings5.672 Ratings
Role-based user permissions10.05 Ratings8.9187 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
10.0
14 Ratings
24% above category average
Xero
8.4
214 Ratings
7% above category average
Dashboards10.012 Ratings8.5210 Ratings
Standard reports10.014 Ratings8.8212 Ratings
Custom reports10.08 Ratings8.0187 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
10.0
15 Ratings
27% above category average
Xero
8.5
224 Ratings
11% above category average
Accounts payable10.09 Ratings8.7204 Ratings
Accounts receivable10.010 Ratings8.9209 Ratings
Cash management10.09 Ratings8.2192 Ratings
Bank reconciliation10.010 Ratings8.8217 Ratings
Expense management10.014 Ratings8.2198 Ratings
Time tracking10.07 Ratings8.173 Ratings
Fixed asset management10.04 Ratings8.4137 Ratings
Multi-currency support10.02 Ratings7.9130 Ratings
Multi-division support10.02 Ratings8.4112 Ratings
Regulations compliance10.03 Ratings8.4112 Ratings
Electronic tax filing10.013 Ratings9.5117 Ratings
Self-service portal10.08 Ratings7.9131 Ratings
Global Financial Support10.02 Ratings6.867 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers10.02 Ratings8.865 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting10.03 Ratings9.640 Ratings
Localizations10.03 Ratings10.039 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations10.06 Ratings10.090 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting10.02 Ratings9.533 Ratings
Configurable Accounting10.04 Ratings9.559 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework10.03 Ratings5.833 Ratings
Standardized Processes10.05 Ratings7.759 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
10.0
3 Ratings
29% above category average
Xero
6.4
101 Ratings
16% below category average
Inventory tracking10.03 Ratings7.897 Ratings
Automatic reordering10.03 Ratings6.224 Ratings
Location management10.03 Ratings6.229 Ratings
Manufacturing module10.02 Ratings6.016 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
10.0
5 Ratings
27% above category average
Xero
7.2
89 Ratings
6% below category average
Pricing10.04 Ratings9.762 Ratings
Order entry10.04 Ratings9.756 Ratings
Credit card processing10.05 Ratings6.358 Ratings
Cost of goods sold10.03 Ratings6.366 Ratings
Order Orchestration10.02 Ratings6.121 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility10.03 Ratings6.124 Ratings
Order exception Resolution10.02 Ratings6.117 Ratings
Best Alternatives
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)Xero
Small Businesses
Patriot Software
Patriot Software
Score 10.0 out of 10
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Zoho Books
Zoho Books
Score 9.0 out of 10
Zoho Books
Zoho Books
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
BlackLine
BlackLine
Score 8.6 out of 10
BlackLine
BlackLine
Score 8.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)Xero
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(15 ratings)
8.1
(239 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
5.7
(35 ratings)
Usability
9.4
(2 ratings)
8.3
(165 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(10 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(8 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(2 ratings)
1.7
(37 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(5 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(10 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
6.9
(124 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(6 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)Xero
Likelihood to Recommend
Intuit
QuickBooks is a great tool for new SoleTraders that need basic accounting software and require digital invoicing for their clients to send via email and access key features via a mobile app on the go. QuickBooks is a straightforward tool to use with a simple design and learning curve for business owners that are not very tech-savvy. For businesses that operate on a larger scale and need to provide access to other users on their team, QuickBooks is limited. This type of business may also require more insights into the business outside of accounting, and QuickBooks won't be able to supply insights outside of that.
Read full review
Xero
I am a massage and physical therapist. We are not a fancy business but business admin can take a lot of time and effort. Xero came recommended to me by colleagues in the sector. You raise invoices, you get paid. and you pay your bills. These are all daily scenarios for most businesses and Xero does this particularly well. Since my accountant can query my records directly, this greatly saves on bookkeeping time when it is time to do the company returns.
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Pros
Intuit
  • QuickBooks Self-Employed does keep a running total of your income and estimated taxes. Of course, this requires that your entries are accurate.
  • The mileage feature is particularly helpful. One just needs to either use the phone app in conjunction with QuickBooks Self-Employed, or keep a log of all mileage.
  • When tax time comes around, it's easy to use TurboTax software and import your data from QuickBooks.
Read full review
Xero
  • Repeating invoices (most of my business is monthly recurring invoices) - it does these very well.
  • Reporting - particularly being able to dig into the different lines of the P&L statement.
  • Tracking categories - I assign a category to every line of every invoice so it's easy to see how much has been sold of each type of service every month and year, and compare them to previous periods.
Read full review
Cons
Intuit
  • Doesn't integrate with Mint, which I use for my home expenses. I think this would be a nice addition to the program, so I could keep track of my whole financial situation.
  • A Windows 10 app would be a nice addition to the program, so I could access it securely from my desktop.
Read full review
Xero
  • Having different email addresses for different parts of a customer's business (eg invoices and statements to different places)
  • Easily seeing the text of emails that have been sent through Xero
  • More easily archiving old pay items. Our HR software updates rates when awards are updated which means a lot of old pay rates are in the system and they have multiple clicks to archive each one. Clicking the ones to archive in bulk and then just click archive for all would be much more efficient.
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Likelihood to Renew
Intuit
No answers on this topic
Xero
In addition to the matters covered in this review, my reason for renewing this product is that Xero's functionality and the constant updates that the company provides, makes the software even more business friendly. The software therefore builds a brand loyalty among customers.
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Usability
Intuit
I have been using this software for several years now and it has always put out my data in beautiful generated reports that I can use for verification purposes with my financial institute and the IRS. It has all the tools I need to run my business without loosing track of anything
Read full review
Xero
As a standalone software, it allows users to fulfill most of the basic functions (e.g. transaction input and report generation) simply and conveniently. It also allows for multiple APIs to help augment various tasks that accounting-adjacent (e.g. claims processing). The cloud based model and portability to mobile devices allows tasks to be carried out in a more convenient way.
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Reliability and Availability
Intuit
No answers on this topic
Xero
We have been actively using and 100% Xero based for our ecommerce accounting practice for over 4 years. There has on been one real outage for more than 5 minutes. Xero was open and transparent about the outage, what they were doing to resolve the issue, and provided 15 minute updates. Showing how they care about their customers and partners. Plus, showing that their customers care too, were understanding, and went surfing or in our case took a nap. Couldn't run our business without Xero as a partner.
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Performance
Intuit
No answers on this topic
Xero
Pages generally load quickly, but it's a fairly common occurrence to have pages taking a bit longer than I'd like to load (as in, 4+ seconds). Occasionally I have to refresh a page to get it to work. Bank feed and integrations tend to be slow in general, but that could easily be due to API latency on the side of the other parties. Most of the time, though, the bank feeds refresh before I login so it's not a huge problem. Not necessarily good performance compared to a local app like QuickBooks desktop, but definitely good performance for a cloud application. Room for growth? yes.
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Support Rating
Intuit
I have never faced any difficulties that required me to contact QuickBooks customer service. QuickBooks has plenty of online tutorials, blog posts, and helpful tips and advice for almost any issues you may face using the desktop or app version of the software. Even if you can not find the right answer on the QuickBooks webpages, there are loads of YouTube videos from experts.
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Xero
Always respond and keep issues open until you are satisfied with the result. Generally good responses, in the past, I had some support responses that were really basic and really annoying. They type where "have your tried restarting your computer" style of answers. Well, of course, I went through all the basics before contacting them. Duh, but I suppose not everyone does. Otherwise, it would be a 10. The last year has shown a marked improvement in the support responses however.
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In-Person Training
Intuit
No answers on this topic
Xero
The format was great; someone was there to ask questions or help if you were stuck.
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Online Training
Intuit
No answers on this topic
Xero
All of Xero's training is online and available for anyone (business owner or accountants) to learn and become experts in their system. There is a range of content from product training to real world webinars from their partners. Xero is beautiful accounting software and their training is the same.
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Implementation Rating
Intuit
No answers on this topic
Xero
If it can be done, time the implementation near a new fiscal year so you can start clean. Otherwise, you have to go back and do historical data from the beginning of the fiscal year, which can be brain draining.
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Alternatives Considered
Intuit
FreshBooks limited my ability to categorize transactions, specifically removing duplicates or excluding them. I selected QuickBooks Self-Employed because it allowed me to be in control of items. Sometimes accounting is just making sure things are organized the way YOU think, and FreshBooks wasn't doing that for me.
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Xero
Each of the products I listed had their own list of drawbacks, but the one thing they all had in common, which was right on top of that list of drawbacks, was ease of use. I struggled to get myself accustomed to each system and struggled, but when it came to getting a client to even try and use it was when the true struggle started. Just found it easier to make use of Xero from the very beginning.
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Scalability
Intuit
No answers on this topic
Xero
I have yet to fully stress test the product given the size of the company where I am using it. I am sure as we scale to more customers, more vendors and more reporting requirements, I will have a better understanding of what it is capable of in terms of bandwidth and processing
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Return on Investment
Intuit
  • Overall, tagging expenses and mileage has saved me thousands in taxes, for a relatively low cost of around $8/mo.
  • QuickBooks allows me to get invoices to clients quickly and accept online payments, which helps with cashflow.
  • The app has stopped tracking mileage automatically on my device, so I worry that sometimes I am not tracking business miles effectively, which could end up costing me at the EOY.
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Xero
  • Xero is a basic accounting system that performs basic accounting tasks easily and accurately. For that, it provides a positive impact on our day to day accounting operations.
  • Because of Xero's basic structure, I feel it lacks some of the sophistication that some users want and need. The ability to create unique custom reports would enhance the impact Xero would have on meeting business objectives by providing current and useful accounting information.
  • In my opinion, Xero's lack of focus on their customers - their users - is a real issue with me. In my opinion, those of us that are in the trenches that work with the system on a daily basis have to deal with the shortcomings of the system with the knowledge that Xero support refuses to address the operational issues that make their user's lives difficult. I feel if Xero would focus on truly making their software better from a users point of view, it has the potential to be a great system.
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ScreenShots

Xero Screenshots

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