Expensify vs Keeper Comparison 2026
Expensify photographs a receipt and files it into an expense report all year, with scanning and payments free and no cap, then $5 a member a month for categorisation and approvals. Keeper works at tax time specifically: it connects to the accounts you spend from, proposes deductions transaction by transaction, then a tax professional files the return, priced once a year at $199 for a Standard filing. One is a habit kept through the year. The other is the filing itself.
At a glance
- Expensify starts cheaper, at $5.
- Only Expensify has a free tier.
Side by side
Expensify | Keeper | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $5 | From $199 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | One-time purchase |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing (they differ) | Monthly or annual | One-time purchase |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated |
Expensify
Receipt scanning and expense reports
Expensify photographs a receipt and reads the merchant, date and amount off it, then files the result into a report that somebody can approve. Scanning receipts and sending money stay free, and paying is about what happens after the scan: categorisation, approval rules and the accounting handoff. It pushes to QuickBooks and Xero, which is usually why a bookkeeper asks for it.
Our note
The free tier is the honest recommendation for one person, and it is unusually good. Pay for Collect at the point where somebody other than you needs to see the expenses, which in practice means a bookkeeper or a second person on the card.
Keeper
Tax filing that hunts for freelance write-offs
Keeper connects to the accounts a freelancer actually spends from and proposes deductions transaction by transaction, then files the return at the end of it. A tax professional reviews and signs what gets sent. The pricing is per filing rather than per month, so it is bought once a year and the deduction hunting is what you are paying for in between.
Why people weigh these two
- Keeper instead of Expensify
- Keeper hunts freelance write-offs and files the return at $199, taking the receipts through to the tax outcome.
- Expensify instead of Keeper
- Expensify scans receipts and builds expense reports year-round rather than filing once a year, with a free tier and plans from $5, the tool that feeds records into whatever files the return.
Which one should you pick
Pick Expensify for ongoing receipt capture, especially once somebody else, a bookkeeper or a second person on a card, needs to see the expenses. Scanning and payments stay free indefinitely for one person, and Collect at $5 a member a month adds the approval flow.
Pick Keeper if you are a US freelancer filing a Schedule C who would rather pay once a year for deduction hunting and a professional's review than manage books yourself. Standard is $199 once a year. It is poor value for a straightforward W-2 filer, and it is not a bookkeeping tool for keeping records in between filings, which is a different purchase.
Common questions
- Which is cheaper?
- They price completely differently. Expensify's Collect plan is $5 a member a month, roughly $60 a year for one person. Keeper is $199 once a year for a Standard filing. Expensify is a running expense tool; Keeper is a once-a-year tax filing with deduction hunting built in.
- Does Expensify file a tax return?
- No. It scans and categorises receipts and pushes them to QuickBooks or Xero, but filing is not what it does. Keeper is built specifically to find deductions in your transactions and file the return, reviewed by a tax professional.
- Is Keeper worth it if I already use Expensify all year?
- It can be, since they cover different halves of the same problem. Expensify captures receipts as they happen; Keeper turns a year of transactions, wherever they are recorded, into a filed return once a year.
- Who is Keeper the wrong purchase for?
- Somebody filing a straightforward W-2 return, per its own guidance, since $199 or more is priced for a freelancer's Schedule C. It is also poor value for somebody who needs books kept in between filings, which is a different purchase, closer to what Expensify does.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.