How Much Does QuickBooks Cost? Online, Desktop and Payroll Prices Compared

“How much does QuickBooks cost” has no single answer because QuickBooks is six products. Here they all are, with the add-on costs that usually surprise people. Prices are Intuit’s US list prices at the time of writing; promotions and reseller pricing can be lower.

QuickBooks Online (monthly)

Plan	Approx. price	Users	Headline features
Solopreneur	$20/mo	1	Income and expense tracking, tax estimates
Simple Start	$38/mo	1	Invoicing, expenses, bank feeds, reports
Essentials	$75/mo	3	Bill management, time tracking, multi-currency
Plus	$115/mo	5	Inventory, projects, budgets
Advanced	$275/mo	25	Automation, custom roles, advanced reporting

Intuit frequently offers 50% off the first three months. Budget for the full price from month four.

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise (annual)

Tier	Approx. price, 1 user	Users
Silver	from $1,900/yr	up to 40
Gold	from $2,500/yr	up to 40
Platinum	from $3,100/yr	up to 40
Diamond	from $390/mo	up to 40

Each added user increases the price. Full breakdown in our Desktop pricing guide.

Pro Plus, Premier Plus and Mac Plus are no longer sold to new US customers; existing subscriptions renew at roughly $650 to $1,000 a year depending on edition and users.

QuickBooks Online Payroll (monthly, plus per employee)

Plan	Base	Per employee
Core	$50/mo	$6
Premium	$85/mo	$9
Elite	$130/mo	$11

A ten-person business on Core pays about $110 a month. Payroll is bundled into Desktop Enterprise Gold and above.

QuickBooks Time (monthly, plus per user)

• Premium: about $20/mo plus $8 per user
• Elite: about $40/mo plus $10 per user

Time Premium is included with Payroll Premium, and Time Elite with Payroll Elite and Enterprise Diamond.

QuickBooks Payments (per transaction)

No monthly fee. Roughly 1% for ACH bank transfers, 2.99% for card payments on invoices, 3.5% for keyed-in cards, plus a small per-transaction charge. Instant deposit adds about 1.75%.

QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping

• Expert Assisted: about $50/mo for unlimited help with your own books
• Full-Service: from about $300/mo, a dedicated bookkeeper closes your books monthly

The costs people forget

1. Extra users on Online. You cannot buy one more seat; you move up a plan.
2. Employee count on payroll. The per-employee fee is where payroll gets expensive.
3. Apps. Online often needs a paid inventory or job-costing app to match Desktop. Add $30 to $200 a month.
4. Hosting Desktop in the cloud. $40 to $70 per user per month if you want remote access to Enterprise.
5. Setup and migration. Budget a few hundred dollars for a clean start, or a lot more to fix a bad one later.

Three typical bills

• Freelancer: Simple Start only, about $38 a month.
• Ten-person service company with payroll: Online Plus plus Payroll Core with 10 employees, about $225 a month.
• Wholesaler, five users, two warehouses: Enterprise Platinum 5-user, roughly $4,500 to $6,000 a year, payroll included.

Want an exact number for your situation? Send us your team size and what you need on WhatsApp and we will price it, including any current promotion.