Fathom vs Syft vs Xero Analytics: UK Cost and Verdict

Fathom vs Syft vs Xero Analytics comes down to client mix and cost per client. As of 2 November 2026, Fathom is the strongest for written commentary and consolidation, Syft often costs nothing extra for Xero partners, and Xero Analytics suits short-term cash forecasts on Xero clients. Pick one by counting how many clients need more than a 30 to 180 day forecast.

TL;DR:

Fathom Pro is listed from £43 a month for one company and £350 for 25 (£14.00 each), excluding VAT; Portfolio is £50 for 100 companies.

Syft is owned by Xero and can be added at no extra cost for clients on eligible Xero business plans, so its real cost is the client's Xero plan.

Xero Analytics is included in every UK plan, but the cash flow forecast runs only 30 days on Ignite (£18) and 180 days on Ultimate (£70).

Moving 10 clients from Ignite to Ultimate for the longer forecast adds £520 a month, more than Fathom Pro for 25 companies.

Choose Fathom for AI commentary and consolidations, Syft for Xero-heavy books, and Xero Analytics as the free first step.

Which is better for a UK practice: Fathom, Syft or Xero Analytics?
What does each tool actually do?
How much does each cost at 25, 50 and 100 clients?
Where is client data hosted and does the vendor train on it?
Will these tools still exist next year?
Where does each tool fall short?
How should you choose and test in 14 days?
Why does independent evidence matter when choosing reporting software?
Realistic expectations: reporting tools save time, not judgement
Find your next reporting tool through The AI Ledger
Frequently asked questions

Which is better for a UK practice: Fathom, Syft or Xero Analytics?

There is no single winner, because the three tools sit at different points on the cost and depth scale. Fathom has an editor score of 4.5 out of 5, Syft Analytics 4.4 and Xero Analytics 4.2, all verified against vendor sites in October 2026.

Use this decision rule:

Choose Fathom if you write monthly commentary, run consolidations or serve clients on QuickBooks and Access Financials as well as Xero.
Choose Syft if most clients are on Xero, you are a Xero partner, and you want client-ready packs, benchmarking and multi-scenario forecasts at little or no extra cost.
Choose Xero Analytics if you only need a quick cash view and dashboards before paying for anything else.

Many practices end up with two: Xero Analytics for everyone, and Fathom or Syft for the clients who buy advisory.

Pro Tip: Count clients by the question they ask, not by size. A client who only asks "will I be overdrawn next month?" needs Xero Analytics. A client who asks "what if I hire two people?" needs scenarios.

Tool	Editor score	Best for	Entry price (excl. VAT)	Works with
Fathom	4.5	Commentary, consolidation, mixed ledgers	£43 a month for 1 company	Xero, QuickBooks, MYOB, Access Financials UK, Excel
Syft Analytics	4.4	Xero-heavy practices, benchmarking	No extra cost on eligible Xero plans	Xero, QuickBooks, Sage
Xero Analytics	4.2	Quick cash view inside Xero	Included from £18 a month (Ignite)	Xero only

What does each tool actually do?

All three turn ledger data into reports and forecasts, but they differ in depth. The descriptions below come from the vendors' pages and the directory records.

Fathom produces management reports and board packs, KPI dashboards, three-way cash flow forecasts (profit and loss, balance sheet and cash), multi-entity consolidations with eliminations, and group benchmarking. Its Commentary Writer drafts report narrative, and Fathom says every figure stays traceable to the underlying numbers. It is owned by The Access Group, which bought it in 2022.

Syft builds reports from templates, schedules them to clients, and offers live reports that adviser and client can review together. It adds consolidation across platforms and currencies, multi-scenario forecasts, custom KPIs, scorecards and peer benchmarking. Its AI produces summaries and suggestions.

Xero Analytics sits under the Reporting tab in Xero. It provides cash flow forecasting, business health indicators, customisable dashboards and, on the top tier, KPI and ratio analysis with industry benchmarking. Since early 2026 it has replaced the old Analytics Plus add-on, according to the directory record.

The practical difference is where the work happens. Xero Analytics needs no sync, mapping or extra login. Syft and Fathom are separate apps you connect, map and log in to, which costs setup time but gives you control of the report layout.

How much does each cost at 25, 50 and 100 clients?

Fathom is the only one with a fixed per-company price. Syft's standalone prices were not readable when checked, and Xero Analytics is bundled into the client's plan.

Fathom's pricing page, read on 2 November 2026, displayed US dollars: Pro is $450 a month for 25 companies plus $17 per extra company, and Portfolio is $67 for 100 companies. The directory record, verified on 23 October 2026, lists the sterling prices used below. Treat the sterling sums as estimates and confirm them on the pricing page with the currency switched to GBP.

Practice size	Fathom Pro	Syft	Xero Analytics
25 clients, all on advisory	£350 a month (25 x £14.00)	£0 extra if every client is on an eligible Xero plan	£0 extra, forecast length set by plan
50 clients, 25 on advisory	£350 for 25 Pro, plus Portfolio for the rest	£0 extra if eligible	£0 extra
100 clients, 25 on advisory	£350 + £50 Portfolio = £400, about £4.00 a client	£0 extra if eligible	£0 extra

The Fathom 50 and 100 client figures assume you buy Pro and Portfolio separately and that Portfolio companies are not double counted. Fathom's page says a Portfolio company can be upgraded to Pro, so check how the two plans bill together before you commit.

The hidden cost is the client's Xero plan. Xero's UK pricing page shows cash flow forecasts of 30 days on Ignite (£18), 60 days on Grow (£39), 90 days on Comprehensive (£55) and 180 days on Ultimate (£70), all excluding VAT.

Worked example: ten clients need a 180 day forecast.

Ignite to Ultimate costs £70 - £18 = £52 more per client per month.
Ten clients: 10 x £52 = £520 a month, or £6,240 a year.
Fathom Pro for 25 companies is £350 a month, or £4,200 a year, and covers a three-way forecast with scenarios.

On those numbers a plan upgrade for ten clients costs £170 a month more than Fathom for 25. The client usually pays Xero, though, so the real question is who funds the upgrade.

Pro Tip: Do not build a paid advisory service on a free Syft licence. The directory record notes that Xero can change or withdraw the offer, and moving a client to a non-qualifying plan ends the licence.

Where is client data hosted and does the vendor train on it?

Fathom says it hosts on Microsoft Azure, encrypts backups with 256-bit AES, and lets staff view customer data only for support and only with permission. These claims come from Fathom's security page, and they are the vendor's own statements.

The comparison below uses only what the pages we read say. "Not stated" means we did not find a statement, not that none exists.

Tool	Where data is hosted	Trains on client data?	Reads or writes to the ledger?
Fathom	Microsoft Azure, per Fathom	Not stated on the pages read	Imports ledger data for reporting; no write-back described
Syft Analytics	Not stated on the pages read	Not stated	Reporting layer; no write-back described
Xero Analytics	Inside Xero	Not stated on the pages read	Works on live Xero data

Ask each vendor for the data processing agreement, the hosting region and a written statement on AI training before you connect a client. Fathom also says that when you delete a company imported from a cloud ledger, it deletes the access token so it can no longer reach that data, while backups persist for a period.

Will these tools still exist next year?

All three have a large owner behind them, but the ownership changes are worth tracking. Xero announced the Syft purchase on 17 September 2024, for up to US$70 million, with an upfront payment of $40 million. CPA Practice Advisor reported that Xero planned to embed Syft's functionality in Xero over time while Syft remained available as a standalone offering.

The Access Group bought Fathom in 2022, in a deal Accounting Today covered as part of a push into small and mid-sized firms in Australia and New Zealand. The same article says the Reckon Accounting Group had been bought a few months earlier, in May.

The risk to watch is overlap. Xero now ships its own simpler analytics, so Syft's long-term positioning may narrow to firms on other platforms. That is an inference, not a vendor statement, so ask your Xero partner manager what the roadmap is before standardising a whole book on Syft. Related reading: our reporting software roundup and cash flow forecasting guide.

Where does each tool fall short?

Each tool has a limit that matters at a specific point in a practice's growth.

Fathom: cost climbs with Pro companies, and advanced features such as custom reports, three-way cash flow and consolidations need a Pro company, not Portfolio. Sage support is listed but not described in the directory, so test it first.
Syft: the AI is modest next to Fathom's drafted commentary. The free deal depends on the client's Xero plan and is at Xero's discretion. Standalone pricing is not published, so get a written quote.
Xero Analytics: forecast length is plan-gated, there is no scenario planning or consolidation, and the AI insights are generic. It works only on Xero data, so QuickBooks and Sage clients cannot use it. Xero's own pages still mix old Analytics Plus wording with the new product, which makes entitlements confusing.

If cash forecasting is your main need and the reporting tools above feel heavy, Float (editor score 4.6, from £99 a month) is stronger for scenarios, and Spotlight Reporting (4.2) targets advisory firms on Xero or QuickBooks. For group accounts, look at Joiin (4.1).

How should you choose and test in 14 days?

Both Fathom and Syft offer 14 day trials, so you can run a like-for-like test. Follow these steps with one real client for each tool:

Pick three clients: one simple, one with lumpy receivables, one with two entities.
Rebuild last month's pack in each tool and time it, including setup and account mapping.
Compare the forecast to what actually landed in the bank over the trial.
Ask a client to read the output and say which figure they would act on.
Check the cost at your real client count, using the sums above, and the cost of any Xero plan upgrades.
Request the data processing agreement and the AI training statement in writing.

Score each step out of five and keep the sheet. If Xero Analytics answers the client's question, stop there and save the licence cost.

Pro Tip: Time the setup, not only the output. A tool that takes 40 minutes to map accounts per client will cost more in staff time than its subscription at 25 clients.

Why does independent evidence matter when choosing reporting software?

Vendor pages describe what a tool can do at best, while independent scores and dates show what was checked and when. The AI Ledger gives each listing an editor score and a last-verified date, and we say plainly that the listing was checked against the vendor's site, not tested hands-on. Scores are never changed by commercial relationships.

That matters here because Xero's own pages mix old and new product names, and Fathom's pricing page changes currency by visitor. A dated record tells you which figures to re-check. Browse every listing in the full directory and compare tools side by side on the compare page.

Realistic expectations: reporting tools save time, not judgement

A reporting tool will cut the hours spent formatting a pack, but it will not decide what a client should do. Budget time for the adviser to read, correct and speak to every AI-drafted comment before it leaves the practice.

Find your next reporting tool through The AI Ledger

Browse the reporting and dashboards category to see every listed tool with its score, price summary and last-verified date. If you are unsure where to start, the finder narrows the list by practice size and ledger. For practice-wide context, see our guide to practice management software.

Frequently asked questions

Is Syft Analytics free for Xero partners?

Partly. Xero partners can add Syft at no extra cost for clients on eligible Xero business plans, and the Syft plan follows the client's Xero plan up or down. Moving a client to a non-qualifying plan ends that licence. Xero can change the offer, so confirm the current terms with your partner manager before relying on it.

How much does Fathom cost for an accounting firm?

Fathom Pro is listed from £43 a month for one company and £350 for 25 companies, excluding VAT. Portfolio is £50 a month for 100 companies. Fathom's US dollar page shows $450 for 25 companies plus $17 per extra company. Billing is monthly with no minimum term, and a 14 day trial is available.

Does Xero Analytics replace Syft?

No. Xero Analytics is a simpler version built into Xero business plans, while Syft remains a separate product with consolidation, benchmarking and multi-scenario forecasts. Xero said when it bought Syft in September 2024 that Syft would stay available as a standalone offering. Xero Analytics works only on Xero data, whereas Syft also connects to QuickBooks and Sage.

How long is the Xero Analytics cash flow forecast?

It depends on the client's plan. According to Xero's UK pricing page, the forecast runs 30 days on Ignite at £18 a month, 60 days on Grow at £39, 90 days on Comprehensive at £55 and 180 days on Ultimate at £70, all excluding VAT. Longer horizons therefore need a higher Xero plan.

Which has better AI commentary, Fathom or Syft?

Fathom is ahead on written commentary. Its Commentary Writer drafts report narrative, and Fathom says each figure is traceable to the underlying numbers so the preparer can check it. Syft's AI produces summaries and suggestions. In both cases a person should review the draft before it reaches a client.