Is It Time to Break Up with QuickBooks? There’s alternatives out there.

If you’ve ever wanted to throw your laptop across the room after a QuickBooks update changed something that was working perfectly fine — I see you.

Look, I’m not here to bash QuickBooks. I’ve built my business around it, and it’s been the industry standard for a reason. Millions of small businesses use it, most bookkeepers know it inside and out, and it genuinely does a lot of things well. But over the last few years, I’ve noticed something shift. Business owners are frustrated. Bookkeepers are frustrated. And more and more people are asking the same question: Is there something better out there?

The honest answer? It depends — but yes, there are some really solid options worth knowing about.

Why People Are Getting Restless

The complaints I hear most often aren’t really about what QuickBooks can’t do. It’s more about the experience of using it. Pricing has crept up significantly — the Plus plan alone has climbed more than 60% since 2020, and that trend hasn’t slowed down. Plans currently run anywhere from $35/month on the low end to well over $100/month for the features most growing businesses actually need. Add in the fact that desktop subscriptions are no longer available for new users, and some long-time customers have felt like the rug got pulled out from under them. Toss in a support experience that leaves a lot to be desired, and it makes sense that people are starting to look around.

A Quick Note on AI — Because It’s Everywhere Right Now

Before I get into the alternatives, I want to address something: pretty much every accounting platform is using AI right now. It’s becoming table stakes. The real question isn’t who has AI — it’s how well does it actually work, and who’s in control of it.

I know, I know — we’ve all heard the headlines. AI is coming for your job. 🙄 Maybe that’s true, maybe it isn’t. I also know is that it’s changing the landscape right now, and I’d rather be paying attention today than wake up two years from now wondering when the ship sailed. So I’ve been doing my homework — sitting through demos, testing platforms with real clients, and asking hard questions about what these tools actually do versus what they promise.

That distinction — between what AI claims and what it delivers — matters more than most people realize. And it’s something I’ve been paying close attention to across every platform I work with.

Xero: The Established Alternative

If you’ve heard of any QuickBooks competitor, it’s probably Xero. And for good reason — it’s a mature, well-built platform that handles multiple currencies smoothly, offers a massive library of third-party integrations, and tends to feel more modern and less cluttered than QuickBooks Online.

Pricing starts around $20ish/month for the most basic plan, though most small businesses land in a mid-tier plan from there. It’s not dramatically cheaper than QuickBooks, but many users feel they get more for their money — and the support tends to be better.

On the AI front, Xero is genuinely ahead of QuickBooks in my experience. It started building out those capabilities a little later, so it’s still catching up in some areas — but it’s moving fast, and the gap is closing. If QuickBooks’s AI has frustrated you with miscategorizations and errors (you’re not alone), Xero is a noticeable step up.

The main caveat: migrating from QuickBooks takes planning. It’s not a same-day switch. But for businesses willing to put in that upfront work, a lot of them don’t look back.

Count: The New Kid Worth Watching

This one I’m genuinely excited about — and I don’t say that lightly, because I’ve sat through plenty of demos for AI-forward accounting software. A lot of them were impressive. Most of them were also priced in a way that puts them out of reach for the small businesses I work with. Count is different.

It’s a newer platform built around AI from the ground up — not AI bolted on as an afterthought. It can auto-categorize transactions with high accuracy right out of the gate, flag duplicates, catch unusual entries, and learn your patterns over time. The mobile app lets you snap receipts and automatically matches them to the right transaction. There’s built-in collaboration so bookkeepers and clients can communicate directly inside the platform, turning questions into tasks and keeping month-end close from turning into an email chain nightmare.

Pricing is also one of the things that caught my attention — plans run $15, $29, or $99/month depending on what you need. Compared to some of the other AI-forward platforms I’ve demoed, that’s genuinely reasonable.

But here’s what really sets it apart from everything else I’ve seen: you control the AI. Most platforms make decisions behind the scenes and you’re left cleaning up the results. Count lets you decide how much AI involvement you actually want — and if you want to go deeper, you can add custom prompts to train their proprietary AI on your specific transactions and how you want them handled. For a bookkeeper, that’s huge. It’s the difference between a tool that works for you and one you’re constantly fighting.

I’ll be honest — I’m still in the “trust but verify” stage. I’m trialing it with a few clients right now to see how it holds up in the real world, not just in a demo. But I’m paying close attention, and so far the signals are really promising.

So… Should You Switch?

Maybe. Maybe not yet. The right answer depends on your business — your transaction volume, how many people need access, what integrations matter to you, and honestly, how much friction you’re dealing with in your current software.

What I will say is this: the accounting software landscape is changing faster than it has in years, and you have more real options now than ever before. If QuickBooks is working for you, there’s no reason to fix what isn’t broken. But if you’ve been quietly wondering whether something better exists — it’s a fair question, and the answer is increasingly yes.

I’ll keep sharing what I’m learning as I get more hands-on time with Count and work through these platforms with real clients. Stay tuned.