Given their overall popularity, each program makes a strong case as the place to start your consideration of QuickBooks alternatives. Then again, your company isn't just any company. That's why we've provided additional data on the most popular QuickBooks replacement products by industry, brief product profiles, and insight into the typical total project costs for buyers who have reviewed these software options.
While the products vary in terms of pricepoint, deployment (cloud/onpremise), and feature support, each owns a well-established history as a popular accounting software choice for the SMB market.
So why do companies decide to replace QuickBooks?
QuickBooks after all is used by millions of companies, offers a wide range of functionality, and many versions cost less than a year of cable television to run.
When it comes to switching software, everyone has their reasons. But these are the common reasons buyers tell us they're looking to upgrade from QuickBooks.
To sum it up, when companies want to replace QuickBooks, it's usually because they've simply outgrown it in some critical way.
None of this means QuickBooks is a bad product. In fact, other than the operating systems and office productivity tools offered by Microsoft and Apple, perhaps no other business software has offered as much value to so many small businesses at so low a price as QuickBooks has.
Intuit, the developer responsible for QuickBooks, has simply decided to focus on developing a product for the smaller side of the small business market. With nearly 23 million non-employer firms and another 3 millions businesses with fewer than 5 employees in the U.S., it's not a bad strategy. Moreover, the nearly uninterrupted rise in Intuit's stock price since its initial public offering in 1993, suggests they're doing a pretty successful job of meeting the needs of this market base.
There are a handful of other fantastic low-cost programs on the market that can be licensed at costs in the QuickBooks range (under $1000 a year). But for growing companies looking to upgrade beyond QuickBooks, programs like Xero, Sage 50, Wave, Freshbooks, and other entry-level accounting usually aren't the most relevant choices. Overall, they provide a similar level of functionality as QuickBooks.
But there are hundreds of programs that do provide a functional upgrade from QuickBooks for companies looking to support business expansion, seeking improved efficiency, or simply looking for broader feature support. Let's take a closer look at the most popular among them.
Dynamics GP is traditionally offered as an on-premise solution with upfront licensing fees and annual support/update fees. It can also be provisioned as a hosted solution on the Microsoft Azure platform. Subscription pricing is available.
Figures quoted are for the expected maximum price buyers reviewing Dynamics GP said they'd be willing to consider, not their final purchase cost.
Intacct was founded in 1999 and was one of the first web-based, cloud accounting products available for the SMB market.
Intacct includes support for core accounting, financial reporting, billing, purchasing, sales and use tax, inventory management, and project accounting.
The Intacct solution is particularly popular with professional services companies based on extensive support of time-based billing, ease of use for remote professionals, and strong project accounting features.
As a developer-hosted cloud option, licensing for Intacct is offered on a subscription basis.
Figures quoted are for the expected maximum price buyers reviewing Intacct said they'd be willing to consider, not the specific final purchase cost.
Sage 300 ERP is an accounting and business management solution with a long history. It was initially developed in 1976 and has had a number of name changes over the years. Many people still refer to it by the name Accpac, which Sage officially dropped from the product title in 2012.
Along with core accounting, billing, human resources/payroll, inventory control, and purchasing, Sage 300 ERP also offers support for document management, customer relationship management (CRM), and project management.
Because of the breadth of its functionality, Sage 300 ERP is popular across a wide variety of business types.
Sage 300 ERP is available for both client/server and web-based, cloud deployments.
Figures quoted are for the expected maximum price buyers reviewing Sage 300 ERP said they'd be willing to consider, not the final purchase cost.
SAP is a name that many business management software buyers associate with the enterprise market. However, since 1996 SAP has offered SAP Business One as an ERP solution targeted specifically for the SMB market.
SAP Business One offers functionality for accounting and financial management, customer relationship management (CRM), operations and distribution, and human resources management.
Because of a focus on operations processes such as supply chain management, warehouse management, and production planning, SAP Business One is popular with distributors and manufacturers.
SAP is traditionally licensed as a purchase option for client/server deployments. However, the SAP Business One Cloud option presents the product as an authorized vendor-hosted option available on a subscription (SaaS) basis.
Figures quoted are for the expected maximum price buyers reviewing SAP Business One said they'd be willing to consider, not the specific final purchase cost.
Like the similarly named Sage 300 ERP program, Sage 100 ERP is another accounting and business management solution with a long history spanning a series of name changes.
Sage 100 ERP provides accounting, inventory, order entry & billing, job cost, and manufacturing (work orders, bill of materials, and material requirements planning) functionality.
Sage 100 ERP is typically purchased as an on-premise solution. However, in recent years Sage has made an online version accessible. The online version is not natively web-based (as Sage 300 ERP is), but hosted in a Sage data-center and made available via the use of Citrix remote access software. The online version is available via subscription (SaaS) pricing.
Figures quoted are for the expected maximum price buyers reviewing Sage 100 ERP said they'd be willing to consider, not the specific final purchase cost.
NetSuite also offers a development platform for 3rd party software developers enabling a robust market of add-on products.
As a web-based, cloud software product, NetSuite is licensed on a subscription (SaaS) basis.
Dynamics NAV provides core financial management, purchasing, order management, inventory control, customer relationship management, and human resources management.
Built on a different code base from Dynamics GP, many buyers nevertheless will find themselves reviewing both solutions. Dynamics NAV is particularly well suited for companies doing international business or manufacturers who need more in depth functional support for operational processes such as bill of materials management, requirements planning, and production management.
Dynamics NAV is most commonly provisioned as an on-premise, server-based solution. However, a Dynamics NAV client is available and users can deploy the product as a hosted service via Subscription (SaaS) licensing.
Figures quoted are for the expected maximum price buyers reviewing Dynamics NAV said they'd have interest in considering, not the specific final purchase cost.
The Sage 100 Contractor–formerly known as Master Builder–includes support for core financial management, billing, purchasing, inventory control, and budgeting. Additionally, Sage 100 Contractor provides features for typical construction and contracting processes like estimating, job costing, progress billing, and subcontract management.
Sage 100 Contractor is extremely popular with small-to-mid-sized construction firms. It is infrequently review by companies in other industries.
Sage 100 Contractor is available for purchase as an on-premise offering. Contractors interested in having Sage 100 Contractor remotely hosted have the option to do so via the Sage Construction Anywhere Connector. Subscription (SaaS) pricing is available.
Figures quoted are for the expected maximum price buyers reviewing Sage 100 Contractor said they'd have interest in considering, not the specific final purchase cost.
Cougar Mountain Software has been producing accounting software solutions since the 1980's and the Denali Business + Accounting program is their flagship offering.
Denali Business & Accounting includes core accounting, inventory management, job costing, order entry, payroll, purchasing, and point of sale functionality.
The Denali Business + Accounting product is available as both an on-premise and hosted, SaaS offering. Pricing for Denali Business + Accounting is the lowest of the top 10 most popular QuickBooks replacement options.
Figures quoted are for the expected maximum price buyers reviewing Denali Business + Accounting said they'd have interest in considering, rather than final purchase cost.
Acumatica is another cloud-based ERP solution for the SMB market–but with a twist. Acumatica ERP is not only available as a developer hosted SaaS option, but also as an on-premise solution hosted from an internal web-server.
Acumatica ERP includes functionality for core financial management, inventory control, customer relationship management (CRM), manufacturing, order management, purchasing, service management, and non-profit accounting.
Acumatica ERP is available as a purchased option or on a subscription basis.
Figures quoted are for the expected maximum price buyers reviewing Acumatica ERP said they'd have interest in considering, not the specific final purchase cost.
Because of differences in accounting processes, individual accounting software products may be more or less appropriate for companies in different industries.
The table provides ranks for the overall most popular QuickBooks replacement options by industry.
The orientation toward project work among professional services firms creates a unique set of accounting and business management processes.
Generating revenue primarily via the delivery of services rather than product sales, requires focused attention on time and project management. Accounting solutions focused on these tasks are particularly appropriate for professional services firms.
Similar to professional services firms, construction and contracting businesses generate revenue via project work.
However, builders and contractors also require software with features for managing equipment, supplies, bids, and subcontractors.
For distribution companies, requirements related to product and vendor management take on elevated importance. As margins are often low in the distribution vertical, strong automation features are especially important in order to optimize efficiency and cut costs.
Manufacturers not only face distribution related challenges, but also require software to support production management, engineering, requirements planning, and equipment maintenance tasks.
Integrating the back-office with the production floor can create major efficiencies for manufacturers seeking an edge on competitors.
One of the financial management challenges faced by non-profits is the need to track expenditures back to specific fund sources.
Even small non-profit organizations can reduce the time it takes to manage key accounting tasks by targeting software designed to support fund accounting and other non-profit specific financial tasks.
One of the most common requirements for government organizations is the ability to track expenditures back to specific fund sources and budget allocations.
Additionally, because of the tendency towards hierarchical organizational structures in government entities, processes related to requisitions and approvals take on increased importance.
Monthly recurring billing, property/tenant based reporting, and maintenance tracking are just some of the unique management tasks faced by property management businesses.
Software adapted for property management can help address administrative challenges in a more cost effective manner.
The data presented in this report comes from 4,143 organizations who actively reviewed QuickBooks replacements in the last five years.
In order to identify the most popular replacement programs for companies using QuickBooks, we tallied the individual programs that these companies considered purchasing. Each product included in the count was either: a) one that was referred to the buyer via our free matching service, or b) one that the contact reported independently reviewing.
Only reviews including requirements for general ledger and least two other main modules were examined, so as to eliminate instances where buyers were looking to augment QuickBooks, rather than replace it. In collecting the data sample, no distinction was made between current users of the various QuickBooks product versions (Pro, Premier, Enterprise).
Statistics, of course, are only ever as meaningful as the sample from which they are derived. To our knowledge, no larger or more relevant data set has ever been considered in pursuit of the answer to the question of which programs are the most popular among companies looking to move on from QuickBooks.