Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Xero
Score 8.3 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
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.
$0
Pricing
XeroZipBooks
Editions & Modules
Early
$13
per month
Growing
$37
per month
Established
$70
per month
ZipBooks Starter
$0
ZipBooks Smarter
$15
ZipBooks Sophisticated
$35
ZipBooks Accountant
Custom
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
XeroZipBooks
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
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
XeroZipBooks
Considered Both Products
Xero

No answer on this topic

ZipBooks
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
XeroZipBooks
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Xero
7.5
73 Ratings
0% above category average
ZipBooks
-
Ratings
Pay calculation8.065 Ratings00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration8.023 Ratings00 Ratings
Direct deposit files7.249 Ratings00 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management7.241 Ratings00 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.154 Ratings00 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Xero
8.1
151 Ratings
7% above category average
ZipBooks
9.1
2 Ratings
19% above category average
API for custom integration7.979 Ratings9.12 Ratings
Plug-ins8.2138 Ratings9.11 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Xero
7.3
189 Ratings
12% below category average
ZipBooks
9.5
5 Ratings
14% above category average
Single sign-on capability5.772 Ratings9.74 Ratings
Role-based user permissions8.8187 Ratings9.34 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Xero
8.4
213 Ratings
8% above category average
ZipBooks
10.0
6 Ratings
25% above category average
Dashboards8.3209 Ratings10.06 Ratings
Standard reports8.7211 Ratings10.06 Ratings
Custom reports8.3187 Ratings00 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
Xero
7.2
223 Ratings
6% below category average
ZipBooks
8.8
6 Ratings
14% above category average
Accounts payable8.6203 Ratings00 Ratings
Accounts receivable8.8209 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Cash management8.3191 Ratings00 Ratings
Bank reconciliation8.9216 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Expense management8.1197 Ratings10.05 Ratings
Time tracking8.073 Ratings9.06 Ratings
Fixed asset management8.4137 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-currency support7.8130 Ratings9.12 Ratings
Multi-division support8.1112 Ratings00 Ratings
Regulations compliance8.6112 Ratings00 Ratings
Electronic tax filing9.4116 Ratings00 Ratings
Self-service portal8.2130 Ratings00 Ratings
Global Financial Support6.767 Ratings00 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers8.465 Ratings00 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting4.540 Ratings00 Ratings
Localizations8.039 Ratings00 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations9.890 Ratings00 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting2.533 Ratings00 Ratings
Configurable Accounting3.059 Ratings00 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework3.433 Ratings00 Ratings
Standardized Processes3.859 Ratings00 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
Xero
6.4
101 Ratings
12% below category average
ZipBooks
-
Ratings
Inventory tracking7.497 Ratings00 Ratings
Automatic reordering6.224 Ratings00 Ratings
Location management6.229 Ratings00 Ratings
Manufacturing module6.016 Ratings00 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
Xero
6.2
89 Ratings
21% below category average
ZipBooks
9.2
6 Ratings
18% above category average
Pricing6.262 Ratings00 Ratings
Order entry6.256 Ratings00 Ratings
Credit card processing6.358 Ratings10.06 Ratings
Cost of goods sold6.366 Ratings8.52 Ratings
Order Orchestration6.121 Ratings00 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility6.124 Ratings00 Ratings
Order exception Resolution6.117 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
XeroZipBooks
Small Businesses
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Score 9.6 out of 10
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Score 9.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Accounting Seed
Accounting Seed
Score 7.4 out of 10
Accounting Seed
Accounting Seed
Score 7.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Score 6.8 out of 10
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Score 6.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
XeroZipBooks
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
(238 ratings)
9.0
(6 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.5
(35 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.5
(163 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(10 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.3
(36 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.3
(10 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.0
(122 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
XeroZipBooks
Likelihood to Recommend
Xero
In my opinion Xero is well suited for: 1) Standalone organisations, 2) Organisations where the accounting team bench strength is thin, 3) Organisations which are able to leverage on new technologies and apps 4) Organisations which get most of their tech infrastructure within the APAC region Xero may not be as suitable for: 1) Organisations with group structures (especially complex ones) 2) Organisations which are constrained in their use of startup technologies and apps by startups 3) Organisations which get most of their tech infrastructure from the US or EU
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
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
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
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.
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.
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Likelihood to Renew
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.
Read full review
ZipBooks
No answers on this topic
Usability
Xero
The dashboard is a simple design where all accounts can be seen from the same screen, unlike other softwares that makes you search for bank accounts that you want to work in. Our clients love that they can easily find their way around their books without having to call our firm to help them.
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ZipBooks
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
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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ZipBooks
No answers on this topic
Performance
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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ZipBooks
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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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ZipBooks
No answers on this topic
In-Person Training
Xero
The format was great; someone was there to ask questions or help if you were stuck.
Read full review
ZipBooks
No answers on this topic
Online Training
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.
Read full review
ZipBooks
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
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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ZipBooks
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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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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
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
Read full review
ZipBooks
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Xero
  • We have saved 1 hour per month on reporting on one of our not-for-profits, which is 12 hours a year at minimum from an investment of 30 minutes on initial setup.
  • On cleanup files, we are able to save at minimum half the time we would spend and be able to get them cleaned up and moved to a monthly file quicker
  • Using cash coding on one client as an example it would take us a week to do their bookkeeping last year it took me 8 hours from start to finish.
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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.
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ScreenShots

Xero Screenshots

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ZipBooks Screenshots

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