Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover accounting & tax. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Expensify | Zoho Books | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $5 | From $20 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | None |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web | Not stated |
| Covers | Accounting & Tax | Accounting & Tax, Creator Finance |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
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.
Free accounting for a one person business
Zoho Books gives a solo business a genuinely free plan with invoices, expenses, bank reconciliation and 1099 tracking on it, which is more than most vendors put behind their cheapest paid tier. It is worth the trade if you already use anything else Zoho makes. On its own it is a heavier, more form-driven thing to learn than the tools built for freelancers first.
Our note
This is the strongest free accounting product a solo creator can get, and the catch is not the features but the interface: it is built by a company that sells fifty products and it feels like it. If you already resent bookkeeping, Wave will annoy you less.
Only on this side
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.