Xero - the new QBO?
Updated December 12, 2025

Xero - the new QBO?

Lisa A Lewis | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Xero

I had been using Xero for my business however, similar to QuickBooks, it has been declining in the recent past. There have been outages, errors and other issues. It seems like the more the companies try to improve their software, the more the products go downhill. The old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." should apply to all software products.

Pros

  • user friendly
  • easy reporting
  • very customizable

Cons

  • errors
  • outages
  • slowness
  • None. I have since moved all businesses out of Xero into other software.
  • n/a
  • n/a
I find it is user friendly however it has several issues that need to be addressed including recent pricing increases. Xero needs to re-evaluate their users and lower pricing. They need more accountability overall and do not need to continue reinventing the wheel. Listen to the users and proceed accordingly.
It has not.
They used to be better but recently have gone downhill.

Do you think Xero delivers good value for the price?

No

Are you happy with Xero's feature set?

Yes

Did Xero live up to sales and marketing promises?

No

Did implementation of Xero go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Xero again?

No

It's not the worst but it's certainly not the best. I'd be hard pressed to chose it over QuickBooks (which they too have serious issues). Pricing in Xero has just increased for many as well. I find these companies are worrying more about pricing increases than they are about the product they are putting out into the market.

Xero Feature Ratings

7.0
Accounts payable
7
Accounts receivable
7
Cash management
8
Bank reconciliation
8
Expense management
7
Time tracking
7
Fixed asset management
6
Multi-currency support
7
Multi-division support
6
Regulations compliance
7
Global Financial Support
7
Primary and Secondary Ledgers
7
Inventory Management ()
Not Rated
Order Management ()
Not Rated
Payroll Management ()
Not Rated
8.7
Dashboards
8
Standard reports
9
Custom reports
9
9.0
Plug-ins
9
7.0
Role-based user permissions
7

Using Xero

1 - Owner of firm
1 - Xero certified so I understand how to use the program to is fullest. Up until last year I have maintained my certification for the past 5 years. I let it go as Xero has changed and in my opinion not for the best. I have moved all clients back to QBO and will use them instead.
  • nonprofit bookkeeping
  • nonprofit reporting
  • For profit bookkeeping
  • For profit bookkeeping
  • Budgeting
  • Sales Tax
  • none
  • I'm not sure that we will revert back.
I do not find the changes that Xero has been making to "improve" things have really improved things. I find that the software is slow, freezes often and just doesn't hold up for large-scale clients. It has definitely gotten both good and bad over the past few years. Although there is no perfect accounting software, Xero has a long way to go.

Evaluating Xero and Competitors

Yes - QuickBooks Online however, after having difficulties with Xero upon changing over, I changed back to QuickBooks Online again. It is the lesser of the evils so to speak.
  • Other
I was trained on Xero initially prior to QBO and truly liked the software. When QuickBooks began having issues I thought it best to revert back to Xero and found that this was not the case. I have since changed back to QuickBooks.
I don't know if I would do it again. I feel that even though all software packages have issues, it is more of a pain to change. I will bite the bullet and remain with Intuit at this point.

Xero Implementation

None. Everything was fine at first. As previously noted, it is after upgrades that things usually begin to decline.
  • Implemented in-house
Not sure - N/A
  • None during implementation but several ongoing thereafter.
  • Upgrades leave major issues with freezing, scrolling issues and general usage issues.

Xero Training

  • Online Training
Training was wonderful and let to certification.

Configuring Xero

Just right for the product. Easy to upload CoA's, easy to add/remove vendors and customers. No issues to configure.
None.
No - we have not done any customization to the interface
No - we have not done any custom code
n/a

Xero Support

Have not had the need to contact support.
ProsCons
None
None
No. I would not. I feel that support should be appropriate and premium no matter the user. A product should have full functionality and the company that created it should stand by it at no extra cost.
N/A

Using Xero

ProsCons
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
Do not like to use
  • posting transactions
  • rules
  • reconciliations
  • none
Yes, but I don't use it - Did not use due to security issues.

Xero Reliability

Can scale it as needed.
Sub-par overall. Too many widespread issues as noted on social media.
On a good day, things worked but after upgrades, things began to slow and or not work at all at times. I coined the moving circle while I waited as the "Xero Wheel of Death". Sometimes it never stopped and force quitting was necessary.

Integrating Xero

Relationship with Xero

Easy at first but became cumbersome as product was scaling world-wide.
not bad, not great.
n/a - basic subscriptions

Upgrading Xero

Comments

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